Addressing John Wall’s Frustration and UK by the Numbers – 1/31

Before I delve into the numbers today, I’ve been thinking a lot about the way the ‘Cats have been playing, particularly with the way that DeMarcus Cousins has stepped up his game of late. Big Cuz has been good all year, but since the beginning of SEC play, he has played like the most dominant big man in the country. He has four consecutive double-doubles, and eight in his last ten games dating back to the Drexel game. Over that ten game stretch, he’s leading the ‘Cats in scoring (17.9 points) and rebounding (11.2 boards).

So, what is there to think a lot about? Cousins is playing really well, that’s a good thing, right?

Cousins stellar play is obviously a positive, but it is also changing the complexion of this UK team. Patrick Patterson is obviously most affected. There are fewer rebounds and post touches to go around. However, Patrick Patterson is not the only one who has been affected.

Typically, an excellent big man is a guard’s best friend. The focus on the outside opens things up on the perimeter. John Wall, though, has not been helped individually by Cousins’ play, at least not yet. With the way that Wall took college basketball by storm, he forced SEC defenses to gameplan around him. He has seen packed in zones and opponents completely unwilling to allow a sliver of open court in transition, and that’s why he’s been frustrated of late, as reported by Alan Cutler.

Now, with DeMarcus Cousins playing more minutes and taking more shots (34.4% of UK’s shots when he’s on the floor, ninth highest in the country), Cuz is dropping anchor in the middle pretty much every time down the floor, further reducing the space in which Wall can do his thing.

See, this UK team is much, much different than any team John Calipari has had at the college level. First of all, Patrick Patterson is not the traditional four man in Cal’s offense. Second, Cal has not had a big man who absolutely MUST get post touches like Cousins since Marcus Camby at UMass, and even he scored many of his points in other ways. What I am saying is that Cal has not yet figured this team out.

This team was already running much less of the DDM than Cal’s teams normally do. We’ve seen a lot of pick and roll, we’ve seen two bigs posting up, and we’ve seen bigs posting up on the strong side of the floor (something you NEVER see in the DDM).

We talk a lot about how this team has a long way to go before they are positioned to make a March run, but just the same, Cal has a long way to go before he arrives at a gameplan that fully maximizes the talents of this UK team. Let’s not cloud the fact that UK just picked up a convincing win over the top RPI rated team on UK’s schedule.

Individual Stats

John Wall – 6.8 assists per game (2nd nationally)
2.0 steals per game (t-55th nationally)

Patrick Patterson – 60.8% field goal shooting (20th nationally)

DeMarcus Cousins – 9.7 rebounds per game (t-33rd nationally)
1.8 blocks per game (79th nationally)

RPI

In spite of the loss to South Carolina, UK moved up two spots in the RPI rankings to sixth, definitely high enough to make UK’s case for a number one seed. The win over Vanderbilt yesterday was the ‘Cats best RPI win of the season, as the Commodores are ranked 19th.

Ken Pomeroy

With a very poor offensive performance against South Carolina, UK dipped in offensive efficiency, falling to 14th in the country. However, UK played pretty good defense in defeat and good defense against Vandy as well. UK moved up from 30th to 25th on defense. Turnovers remain the biggest area for improvement on both offense (190th in the country) and defense (189th in the country). Overall, UK is tenth in the nation according to Ken Pomeroy.