Post UK-Mississippi State Thoughts

I’m glad I got Wink to cover me last night for the UK wrap-up, because I’m not sure if I would have been able to stomach writing a recap of that game immediately afterward. There was not much positive to take from that loss, other than the fact that UK has plenty of room for improvement.  Tomorrow morning I will be posting a summary of everything I saw in my behind the scenes look at UK basketball with UK’s media relations department.

I really can say I have never seen a sparser UK crowd with time left on the clock in my years going to Rupp. Normally at Rupp Arena, fans leave early with UK up big. In those cases, I get on the crowd for not being able to sit in their seats and deal with a few minutes extra traffic. Last night, though, I really cannot blame any UK fan that left early, because that was one of the more discouraging UK games I have watched.

Most of the time, I bemoan UK’s week breaks between SEC games whenever they happen once or twice a year because I can’t stand to go more than a few days without watching the ‘Cats. This time, I’m actually glad UK has a week to prepare for Florida. Also, who would have thought Football Signing Day would bring a welcome distraction from basketball season and a chance for some much needed optimism?

Update: DeQuin Evans’ decision between UK and UofL has gone in the favor of the Big Blue…I think we have another welcome addition to an already good looking UK defense! This is really the cap to a banner day for UK football.

Last night proved that the book on how to beat UK is out, and UK is not making the adjustments necessary, and won’t win many games until they do. UK has but two confident and skilled players with a full grasp of what to do offensively in Coach Gillispie’s system, and we all know who they are. If you stop those two guys, it’s going to go a long way to stopping UK as a team.

Jodie Meeks is officially being guarded (as Pat Summit suggested) a “no-touch” player. Teams are face guarding him the entire game as soon as he crosses half court, no matter what. Mississippi State was in man most of last night, but they did go box and one on a few occasions to switch things up. No surprise: Jodie Meeks was guarded by the “one”.

This may seem strange to say (and I’m stealing this notion from a fellow UK fan), but Jodie Meeks 54 point explosion may be the simultaneously the best and worst thing that’s happened to UK all year. Instead of SEC teams slowly finding out how good Jodie is when they played him, they all found out in one instant a few weeks ago when he torched Tennessee. Jodie is getting the superstar treatment from every opponent UK plays from here on out because of the focus he has drawn to himself. I wouldn’t trade that memorable Tuesday evening for anything, but would UK be going through these doldrums if not for that game?

Patrick Patterson is getting the kitchen sink treatment, as in team’s are going to throw everybody and everything at him. You might think that one of the elite defensive players in the country (Jarvis Varnado) would get the chance to play Patrick straight up, but that’s not what happened last night. Instead, State doubled him and tripled him. Guards swooped in from the backside to knock the ball out and big guys collapsed down on him when MSU played with two big guys. Rick Stansbury did this not because he lacked faith in Varnado (he had 7 blocks), but because he could afford to help of the other guys UK was playing because they wouldn’t shoot most of the time, and when they would, they couldn’t.

I don’t think I’m being particularly insightful with this evaluation because I think it’s fairly evident to anybody, especially to a fan base as intelligent as UK’s. If that’s the case, how do you fix it?

First up, Jodie cannot get frustrated. Jodie cannot allow anything to affect how hard he works on the offensive and defensive ends (he also needs to improve on his 0 rebound performance of last night). He needs to find a way to get open every few possessions and create a shot; the offense simply stagnates too much if he doesn’t find a way to get the ball. Also, Jodie needs his teammates to set better screens off the ball. Jodie’s man (usually Barry Stewart) was able to navigate screens too easily.

Hard screens are a key to not only getting a guy open when a team is so committed to defending him, but also to creating a sort of fear factor in the opponent in doing so. I don’t want UK to turn into Detroit’s Bad Boys or anything, but a little physicality would be nice. I think Patrick Patterson needs to be setting more off the ball screens for Jodie as well. He’s the strongest guy on the team and the best screener, and I also think it may free up Patterson from his man once or twice a game, which would be nice with the way Patterson is being played.

Regarding Patterson, UK has to keep throwing the ball inside to force the defense to collapse on him. Perry Stevenson or whoever else is playing in the front court needs to find open space for easy buckets, and perimeter guys need to just take the shot, and if they miss, let’s chase down an offensive rebound: Patterson, Stevenson, and Darius Miller are all excellent at that.

Coach Gillispie said before the game that the two previous losses did not necessarily qualify as “adversity”, but I’m pretty sure losing three in a row in the Bluegrass does, especially considering the reports of some seriously vociferous debate among the players in the locker room after the game. Coach Gillispie and his team need to view this week off and the Florida game as an opportunity. UK may not be playing well and the dirty words “on the bubble” may be swirling, but they are not in terrible shape based on their record and position in the SEC. The ship can be righted, but it’s going to take everybody.

Let’s talk grades and stats:

Turnovers/Point guard play: C- (last game C-)

Not a disastrous night in terms of turnovers (15), but the offense looked worse than it has all season, and that falls under the “point guard play” umbrella. Guys weren’t getting the ball in comfortable spots and to call the offense “choppy” or “disrupted” would be an understatement. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

Key Stat-Assist to turnover ratio: 9:15 (2:2 for Porter/Liggins) (last game 16:21 and 6:7)

Rebounding: C (last game C-)

Offensive rebounds by opponents have killed UK the past two games, but they weren’t what killed UK last night (bad offense plus 14-27 three point shooting for State…wow). They gave up only 8 and overall, outrebounded a poor rebounding Mississippi State team 38-33 for the game. I guess that’s an upgrade from the South Carolina game though. Mississippi State and South Carolina were the only two teams being outrebounded on the season in the SEC.

Key Stat-Defensive rebounding percentage (defensive rebounds/opponent FG missed + opponent FT missed x100): 23/(29+4)x100=69.7% (last game 59.6%)

Getting the ball to Patterson: C (last game A)

Patterson got the ball a decent amount last night, but it seemed like all of his touches came when the defense was best positioned to defend him. Patterson had 6 turnovers on the night, but at least a couple came on plays where a guard knocked the ball out from behind him as soon as he caught it, and there’s nothing he can do about that. Also, it’s amazing that Patterson only got to the line 3 times last night with the way he was being harassed.

Key Stat-FGA+FTA-offensive rebounds by Patterson: 12+3-4=11 (last
game 23)

Secondary scoring: D- (last game B)

I nearly gave UK its second F of the season (the first was for rebounding against Mississippi), but Darius Miller’s start to the game saved them (and yes, my grades are the forefront of their mind right now). No one on the entire team outside of Meeks or Patterson showed any confidence whatsoever. Whenever any of the guys were open, they just looked paralyzed with the ball. Anytime the “other guys” scored, it seemed like an accident, except for Darius Miller stepping up for a very short time. Meeks and Patterson scored a lower percentage of the team’s points today, but the offense was totally ineffective and it was a function of the lack of confidence and capacity of the purported secondary scorers.

Key Stat-Percentage of points scored by Meeks and Patterson: 15+15/57=52.3% (last game 62.3%)

Game photos courtesy of the Louisville Courier-Journal