Second Half Surge Carries UK Past Long Beach State, 86-73

At halftime, you just kind of had a feeling how the second half was going to play out. UK had to play without John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and Patrick Patterson for the last eight minutes of the second half, but were still tied 37-37.

Not only that, but Long Beach State had also played its starters for 87 of a potential 100 first half minutes. That’s a bit of a recipe for disaster when you are facing a deep and extremely talented team like UK, especially when UK’s three leading scorers played only 23 first half minutes between them.

Lo and behold, UK came out of the break playing much more inspired basketball behind DeMarcus Cousins. However, Long Beach didn’t immediately back down, tying the game at 51 with just 13:42 left. Then, fatigue began to set in, which resulted in a bunch of 49er fouls, which resulted in a bunch of UK free throws (18 in the second half), and ‘Cats quickly nabbed a double digit lead, eventually winning 86-73.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the foul trouble of Wall, Patterson, and Cousins to blame for the nip and tuck first half. This was pretty much the definition of a ‘trap game’. Right before Christmas and in the midst of the post 2,000th win hangover. It was UK (and the Rupp crowd), not Long Beach State, that played like they were on Pacific time.

The 49ers used a balanced attack to take the fight right to UK, even outrebounding the ‘Cats with quickness until very late in the half. UK’s bench did what they could, including good efforts from Josh Harrellson, but Long Beach stayed with the ‘Cats every step of the way, not allowing the crowd to ever really get involved.

Dan Monson’s team deserves a lot of credit for the way they stayed close. Long Beach State forced UK into playing half court offense and hitting outside shots. UK has been hitting outside shots pretty consistently to this point in the season, but it didn’t happen so much today (2-9 first half threes).

In the second half, there would be no settling for outside shots. UK made a point to pound it inside to Patterson and Cousins early and often, and they never did stop. Each big guy had a near double-double in the second half, and I particularly liked the change that John Calipari made to get him the ball. Cal had Eric Bledsoe play much more of a point guard role, while John Wall went to the wing in the half court. This allowed Wall to cleanly get in entry passes and allow Cousins and Patterson to go to town against a smaller front line.

With the defense focused on the big dudes, the outside shots were just a bit more open, and they started to fall a bit more.

All in all, it may not have been the prettiest, but this was a good win for UK. Long Beach is one of the better non-conference opponents UK will face (52 in the RPI as of last night), and they are the likely favorite to earn their conference’s NCAA bid. By no means do I want UK to get it into their heads that they can beat a quality team by playing one half of basketball, but that’s pretty much what they did today.

Also, Strait Pinkie was in attendance on press row today, so here are a quick few notes from the post game:

-Dan Monson was very complimentary of UK, calling the ‘Cats “deep, physical, big, and strong”. He commented that it’s toughest to recruit a really good post presence and a good point guard, and went on to say that UK has both, which will take them a long way.

Long Beach is a team that has gone through one of, if not THE toughest non-conference schedule in the country. That schedule will serve them well as the season progresses.

-When Calipari addressed the media, his session started with a bit of a stand-off/awkward silence before the first question was asked. Calipari wouldn’t talk and no one would ask a question. Finally, someone relented and asked the requisite “trap game” question.

-Alan Cutler asked John Calipari what he wanted for Christmas, Calipari responded “I just don’t want to be chased down a hallway”.

-Calipari talked at length about the learning experience for Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins. He said that Bledsoe didn’t play the way he wanted to in the first and his body language showed it. Calipari benched him to start the second half. He also talked about Cousins technical foul, saying that he just can’t respond in that situation, it hurts his team. He also talked about consistency with Cousins, saying that he’s never been in a basketball environment where every action by Cousins gets the same reaction by Calipari. That’s a big change.