The Pinkie Previews: Rider (2-1) at Kentucky (3-0)

Following the 102-92 victory over Sam Houston State on Thursday night, John Calipari addressed the media. After addressing their perimeter defensive struggles in their last two contests, he quickly turned the conversation towards Rider and Saturday afternoon.

“Eventually, if we continue to play defense like that it, is going to catch up with us. Heck, it could happen on Saturday against Rider,” said Calipari. “They are a better shooting team than the team (Sam Houston State) you saw tonight. They went into Mississippi State and beat them by 22 (well they were up 22, they eventually won by 14). And Mississippi State is a way better defensive team than we are at this point.”

Kentucky has found a way to escape with victories the last two times out, despite their tendency to treat three-point threats like they have been diagnosed with the ever-contagioius H1N1. Miami (OH) with 15 threes and then Sam Houston State with 18. Calipari then mentioned that at this rate Rider will knock down 22.

Now, Kentucky must find a way to beat a Rider team who has already upset one preseason Top-25 SEC team. They must find a way to win less than 48 hours after all of their starters played way too many minutes. They must find a way to defend better without the capability of being able to get into the gym and just practice perimter “D”.

On Saturday, head coach John Calipari expects his team to be in for a dog fight.

Head coach Tommy Dempsey has led the Rider Broncos to 58 wins over the last three seasons, which is a program best, along with appearances in the CBI and CollegeInsider postseason tournaments. Dempsey believes that this season is the year that they make the NCAA tournament.

Depth and experience are two of the reasons why Dempsey believes that this year’s team will make the jump to that next level.

“We’ve had good teams the past couple of years but this year’s team should be deeper than those,” said Dempsey. “There is a lot of competition for playing time and that should increase the intensity of practice on a daily basis.”

Rider entered this season with four returning starters, including preseason MAAC Player of the Year, Ryan Thompson.

Thompson, a 6’6″ senior point guard, will lead the way for the Broncos. Last season he ranked in the Top 11 of the MAAC in eight categories, including second in scoring (18.0ppg), seventh in assists (3.3apg) and 11th in rebounding (6.5rpg).

The other key returnees for the Broncs are the 6’7″ forward Mike Ringgold, 6’2″ guard Justin Robinson and 6’7″ forward Novar Gadson.

Ringgold was third on the team in scoring last season with 11.4 points per game. He shot an impressive 52-percent from the field, which was good for seventh in the conference. He also ranked ninth in the MAAC in rebounding with 6.8 per game.

Robinson, who started his career at Rider as a point guard, moved to shooting guard last season and led the conference in shooting percentage from deep with a near 44-percent clip. He was one of five scorers to average double figures last season with 10.4 points per game. He spent his offseason playing with the Great Britain National Team.

Gadson was the final returning member to average double digits for the Broncs a year ago with 10.8 points. He also averaged 6.0 rebounds per game and was named to the all-freshman team in many publications.

All four of those guys are averaging double figures through the first three games this season (Thompson 14.7, Gadson 14.7, Ringgold 11.7, Robinson 11.3) and the Broncos are shooting 49-percent from behind the arc as a team.

A scary proposition for the Wildcats.

During the last two games, Kentucky has had to deal with one primary shooter. Rider will throw four legitimate three-point threats at them. Thompson is 10-of-19 from deep on the year, Gadson is 6-of-7, Robinson is 7-of-11 and Patrick Mansell is 6-of-11.

If you can’t focus on one hot shooter, how can you be expected to defend the perimeter with multiple threats?

Now you see why Calipari is so concerned.

In their win over Mississippi State, they shot 10-of-16 (62.5%) from beyond the arc and held the Bulldogs to 42-percent shooting. Perimeter shooting and defense. Ringgold and Gadson led the way with 21 points each and Gadson was 2-of-2 from deep. Thompson finished with 16 and was 4-of-6 from three.

Again, you see reason for concern.

But, then you look at their last game and they lost by 33 at Virginia. And once again you get complacent.

Simply put, if the newcomers do not get a sense of urgency on defense and they defend the perimeter on Saturday like they did on Thursday, they could walk off of the Rupp Arena floor with their first loss of the season.