Post UK-Ole Miss Thoughts

One of the words we’ve heard the most out of Billy Gillispie since he took the UK head coaching job almost 2 years ago now is “toughness”. Coach Gillispie admires toughness, demands toughness out of his players, and insists toughness be a hallmark of his teams. There have been times where I balked at the notion of toughness being anything more than a coaching buzzword, but I have to say, UK’s 85-80 loss on the road Mississippi came down to Ole Miss consistently playing tougher than Kentucky.

Yeah, that's about right

Toughness (or lack of toughness) can manifest itself in a lot of ways, and tonight, I think it was most apparent in the way UK failed to close out possessions with a defensive rebound, get quality shots on key possessions, and contest three point shooters.

I mention defensive rebounding first because I can’t count how many times UK forced a missed shot that was rebounded by Malcolm White or DeAundre Cranston that was immediately put back in for a basket. You know how I feel about an offensive rebound: it’s just like a turnover. With that said, it’s one thing to give up a long rebound, but it’s a different thing entirely to be utterly unable to defend the paint with block outs and sound positioning. I’ll address this more in my grades, but Patrick Patterson and Perry Stevenson have allowed UK to own the defensive paint with their shot blocking and rebounding many times this season, and tonight they were outclassed.

Now to my point about toughness in getting quality shots in key situations. UK was pretty good with turnovers tonight (10), but it seemed like all but a few came at crucial junctures where Kentucky had a real chance to either build momentum or stem the momentum that Ole Miss had built. Also, what would you have thought if I had told you that DeAndre Liggins would take more shots than Patrick Patterson or Jodie Meeks? DeAndre played all but 6 minutes tonight (while Porter was on the bench for 34), and there were numerous times where Liggins put up very poor shots when UK needed a score badly, no matter the kind of defense Ole Miss was playing on Jodie Meeks.

Lastly, Terrico White, Zach Graham, and David Huertas had way too many poorly contested looks at the basket from 3. This is not the first time this problem has popped up either. Louisville benefited from open look after open look, VMI and Auburn hit bunches of bombs, and Miami shot well from 3. UK has a lot of size at every position, but lacks a bit of quickness to navigate screens and get on shooters like they need to. This issue will continue to reappear, and UK needs to get better.

During UK’s last two wins against Alabama and Auburn, it felt like the ‘Cats were walking a tightrope with the way they were able to ride Jodie Meeks’ stellar play. Everyone said he had to come down eventually, but the way he was playing, it honestly didn’t feel like he would. Tonight, a combination of some very good defense and an off shooting night for Jodie brought him back to earth. Thanks to his ability to get to the free throw line and some late, insignificant 3’s that made the game look closer than it was, Jodie still managed to get 21, but this was the best job any team had done on him since UK’s loss to Miami December 6. He was bound to have a game like this at some point, unfortunately UK was not tough enough tonight to overcome it.

While the story of the night is obviously UK’s first conference loss and Jodie proving to be human after all, perhaps the most intriguing development of the game is Coach Gillispie’s sudden willingness to not only play talented freshmen Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins, but to play them significantly more than Ramon Harris and Michael Porter. Kentucky fans’ distaste for the shortcomings of Porter and Harris have been apparent in the constant whining and gnashing of teeth over the distribution of playing time among these four. Those that were displeased should have no more reason to feel that way after tonight: Harris and Porter played 15 minutes between them, Liggins and Miller played 65.

I think it’s pretty much unanimous that UK’s ceiling is highest with Liggins and Miller playing at a high level with an understanding of the way Coach Gillispie wants them to play, but I honestly never thought that Porter and Harris would have such small roles in any game. I am very pleased to see the faith of Coach Gillispie in the two freshmen, but I would not expect to see this kind of distribution of playing time (especially between Liggins and Porter) duplicated the rest of the season.

Darius Miller, in my opinion, played very, very well tonight. He joined Meeks and Patrick Patterson in double figures with 12 points while leading UK in rebounds and assists with 9 and 5. Darius was really the only player that I think Gillispie will be pleased with in terms of his defensive rebounding effort.
DeAndre also played relatively well, at least defensively. His rebounding effort was solid enough and he pressured the ball in the back court pretty well. Michael Porter was incapable of guarding Huertas (his assignment when he was on the floor), and Liggins size and athleticism allowed him to move over to guard the extremely athletic freshman, Terrico White. Amazingly, the reason DeAndre got the lion’s share of the playing time tonight was defense, which is a credit to him.

In a SEC that is being perceived nationally as VERY weak, no matter how accurate the perception is, UK’s NCAA profile cannot withstand many more losses like this one (if any) and still be expected to earn Kentucky a seed that will put the ‘Cats in position to advance in March. This is the first SEC game in Gillispie’s tenure that I expected UK to win that they ended up losing, so it’s going to be interesting to see how the team reacts. The next few days are not going to be much fun for the players, but I think Gillispie is a good enough coach and that Patrick and Jodie are good enough leaders to make the reaction a positive one. Even so, it’ll be a while before UK is considered for the top 25 again.

It’s not as much fun to write about a loss, so I’ll just go to the grades:

Turnovers/Point guard play: C

Like I said, UK did not turn the ball over that much, but the turnovers that they did commit were untimely. Also, DeAndre Liggins’ poor shot selection completely took UK out of it’s offense.

Rebounding: F

This is the first F of the season, and hopefully the last. Ole Miss outrebounded UK 42-32, but more than just numbers UK could not close possessions with rebounds, and it’s one of the biggest reasons they lost. Perry Stevenson and Patrick Patterson had 5 defensive rebounds between them, and I just don’t know how that happened. Maybe it’s partially due to some bad bounces, but I point to bad positioning, poor blocking out, and looking for the blocked shot a bit too much. Darius Miller’s rebounding was impressive (7 defensive, 9 total), but there it’s inexcusable that he outrebound Perry and Patrick on the defensive end.

Getting the ball to Patterson: C+

Patterson did score 24 on 8-12 shooting and 8-9 from the line, but with Meeks so far off track for most of the game and Ole Miss’s focus on him, he needed to take some of the 16 shots that Liggins took.

Secondary scoring: B-

Liggins and Miller scored 20 points between them, but just as soon as Perry Stevenson is anointed by some (yeah, I’m included) as the third scorer, he took a significant step backward tonight, scoring 7 points.

P.S. Thanks for the kiss of death Foxworthy, how about you never pick UK again?