Learning and Winning at the same time

Unlike the last two years under Billy Gillispie, the Cats are learning while winning at the same time in November. The 3-0 start is their best since the 2006-2007 season. Their schedule is considerably tougher as well. Last year the Cats appeared to actually be heading towards a good season when they found themselves at 16-4 overall, and 5-0 in the SEC last January. Those 16 wins, however, came in meaningless blowout wins over the likes of Delaware State, Longwood, Lamar, and Mississippi Valley State. They were defeating helpless teams ranked in the bottom 300's of the RPI rankings. After losing the opener to VMI, they followed up with forty and fifty point wins against the worst of the very worst teams in the nation, and obviously they did not improve and it showed in February as the Cats fell apart and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in 18 years.

This year, they opened up with a solid win over Morehead State, an NCAA Tournament team that returns everyone from a year ago. Then, they squeaked past the Miami Redhawks who were 15 of 26 behind the 3 point line. Miami is a team that could win the MAC, but more than likely won't have too many shooting performances anywhere close to the one they had Monday night. And then tonight, we saw almost the same story, as the Cats struggled again with perimeter defense giving up 18 threes. This time the overall defense was a little better and actually did do some good things. The Bearkats of SHSU did make 18 three's, but they made them in 38 attempts. They were outscored 48-18 in the paint and only made 11 shots inside the 3 point line the entire game. Their shots inside were blocked by Wildcat defenders 12 times. These teams knew that they have no shot against the Cats inside with Patterson, Cousins, and Orton holding down the fort down low. Both teams' (Miami and SHSU) knew their only chance was to jack up a bunch of three's, and they made a lot of them. Some of them were contested, and some not at all.

It doesn't get any easier on Saturday against Rider, another mid-major team expected to win their conference and go to the NCAA Tournament. According to Calipari, they are a better shooting team than both Miami and Sam Houston State. They lost to Virginia tonight, but defeated #18 Mississippi State in their opener. Then, the Cats travel to Cancun, Mexico to face a Cleveland State team that beat Syracuse and Wake Forest a year ago. Calipari schedules these teams for a couple of reasons. One reason is they end up winning 2o games in their respective conferences, and improve UK's overall schedule and RPI rating, which helps seeding in the NCAA Tournament. This is how Memphis ended up still having top 10 ranked schedules while playing in Conference USA. They did not play any really bad teams outside the conference at all. These teams also help a young team like UK get better, while still being able to win early on while preparing for the big games against UNC, UConn, Louisville, and of course SEC play.

Bottom line is: the Cats need to get much better at perimeter defense if they want to be a Championship team playing in April. It obviously needs a lot of work, but UMass played good defense, Memphis played good defense, and I have no doubts that this young Kentucky team will play very good all-around defense come March. In fact, their athletic ability alone should make them one of the better defensive teams in the country once they get focused and disciplined enough on both sides of the ball. The main issue is communication on the defensive side. Individually, a number of Cats' have solid numbers in steals, blocks, and defensive rebounds. They're just not playing good TEAM defense together and they're not communicating, which makes sense for a bunch of Freshman in November. They're still learning and adjusting to the college game (mainly on the defensive side), but take a look at these individual offensive (and defensive) numbers tonight.

John Wall: 21 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2-4 from 3-pt.
Eric Bledsoe: 19 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 5-7 from 3-pt.

(good to see those two play well together tonight)

Darius Miller: 15 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 1 block, 3-6 from 3-pt.
Patrick Paterson: 20 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block

And the MVP for probably the second straight game with another double double....

DeMarcus Cousins: 27 points, 18 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.


One thing is certain: this team is very, very fun to watch individually. Once they put it all together collectively, they'll be very hard to beat.

I'll also predict this: UNC, UConn, and Louisville will certainly match up better with us inside....but none of these three teams will make 15 or more three pointers against us. It's just not going to happen. Even if our perimeter defense doesn't improve (I'm sure it will), at some point, teams (even the best ones on our schedule) are going to miss some shots and we will win 25 plus games, easily. The difference between a good 25 win season, and what we all expect and want (number 8) depends on how this team learns to play defense together.

Wall's Shot, Dance Moves, Charlie's comment's, and Tonight's Picks

Here's a video of John Wall's heroics last night in the final seconds of action in his first college game.



Here's just a sweet video of Wall's dance moves.




Last night we gave you Coach Cal's comments on audio after the game, here is an entertaining video of Miami coach Charlie Coles.



Tonight's 24 hours of college basketball on ESPN concludes with two big games.

Louisville vs. Arkansas and Memphis vs. Kansas

My picks: Arkansas and Kansas.

Why: Because Arkansas returns everyone from a team that knocked off Texas and Oklahoma around this time last year (top 5 teams). Also, because former UK unforgettable and current Arkansas head coach, John Pelphrey, wants this game against his old coach and old rival, very badly. Louisville is a whole different team trying to find their identity, kind of like Kentucky last night. Memphis, is trying to find an identity even more without John Calipari and new coach Josh Pastner. They have the incredibly difficult challenge of facing the #1 team in the country, Kansas, in a rematch of the National Title game a few years ago. I think the Tigers will keep it closer than people think, but Kansas is just too much for them right now.

Wall to the Rescue!

(Photo courtesy of Kentucky.com)

Was tonight's game what we expected? Absolutely not. But relax Kentucky fans. Ask yourself this: "What team in the country would win substantially over a team that shot 15 of 26 from behind the 3 point line?" 15 of 26. That's incredible. Heck, how many teams could win a game period with that kind of performance against them? Miami's Nick Winbush knocked down 8 of 10 all by himself. Kansas, North Carolina, or anyone else would have had their hands full against that type of shooting by the Redhawks tonight. There's not much you can do about a guy having a night like that, especially when it is not expected and you have only had three days to prepare and scout this team since Friday evening's opener. Miami, on the other hand, has had this game circled on their calendar all summer long. Miami shot the lights out and would have played with anyone tonight, and hats off to Charlie Coles, Nick Winbush, and the Redhawks. It was Miami's Superbowl. They hear it all up in Southwest Ohio about Wildcat basketball and take it from a Northern Kentuckian...they hate our guts. For the Cats, it was just another game, only three days after their opener against Morehead State.

If you can't see the talent out there and see what Calipari is going to do with it, than you just don't have a very high basketball IQ. The turnovers need to be cut down and Wall and Bledsoe need to learn to play together, but this was their very first time in game action on the court at the same time. Bledsoe looked like an All-American as he led the Cats with 24 points a few nights ago. Tonight, he was only 1 of 5 from the field for 2 points. Currently, the Cats' offense probably works better with only one of the two in the lineup at the same time. With them in together, the offense was actually a little too fast and uncontrolled at times tonight. But, keep in mind, this was their first time ever playing in a game situation together, including exhibition play. In the long run, these two are going to be unstoppable together come March.

The more I think and reflect on tonight's game, however, I can find more positives from this one than negatives. A freshman led team learning a new offense and a new coach found themselves down by eighteen points. Demarcus Cousins was on the bench early and in foul trouble and wouldn't see significant action until the second half. Then, Daniel Orton had to leave the game to get seven stitches after being head-butted near his eye and nearly smacked around by a blatant elbow. Orton would return and finish with six points and two steals in 12 minutes of play. All of a sudden, with Cousins and Orton out in the first half, this was once again Patrick Patterson's team in the post. Patrick as well as the sharp shooting of Darnell Dodson and Darius Miller helped the Cats claw back in the 1st half. In the second half, after a talk with Coach Cal, Cousins got back into the game and dominated with 10 points and 10 rebounds, earning himself a double-double entirely in the second half alone as Cousins and the heroics of John Wall took over in the second half, in his highly anticipated first game as a Wildcat. Wall would eventually lead the way with 19 points and hit the game winning shot.

This team refused to lose, they have heart, they're tough, and they found out a lot about themselves tonight. Calipari stated that he was "ecstatic" when he saw that they were down 18. He wanted to see what they had in them. You could see it in their eyes. They refused to lose. They matured and gained invaluable experience playing from behind that will help these young freshman down the road this season. They learned their flaws that need to be corrected and they learned what it is like to play in a high intensity game at Rupp with 24,000 fans screaming their heads off. They also found out that John Wall is their "go-to guy" in a last second situation. They found out all these things, while still winning. Keep in mind folks, these kids are 18 years old. They passed this early test presented to them tonight with flying colors. Could they have learned and improved as much as they did tonight with a 30 point win? I don't think so. They were also a bit humbled tonight. Maybe, just maybe, this was the best thing that could have possibly happened to them.

"They kept telling themselves", Calipari said, "We are not losing this, we are
not losing this game."

You know what else was refreshing? Watching Calipari coach his guts off tonight. Remember when Gillispie would just sit there with that sarcastic little smirk on his face down 15 by Gardner Webb? It was also refreshing to hear Coach Cal give a fantastic postgame interview with Tom Leach. He had a whole lot to say and was overall very pleased with being able to win against that kind of a shooting performance and that big of a deficit with such a young team. Remember Gillispie's post game interviews? "We got whipped," was just about the only phrase that would ever come out of his mouth.

Going into this season, I wasn't sure if these guys would play with the passion that they played with tonight. For a group of potentially one-and-done players, they love being here and are loving this experience. They know that this experience at Kentucky is one that they'll treasure, and they all want to leave a legacy here. Most importantly, they're having fun and they love their coach and want to play hard for him. Having fun, along with the positive attitude that Calipari has brought in and given these players, is the difference in winning and losing games like this under the previous and current regime.