UK By the Numbers – 12/7

It was a good weekend to be a ‘Cats fans. By holding on against North Carolina, UK kept its standing among the ranks of the unbeaten. After Saturday, there are only 17 unbeaten teams left in Division I. By the way, the UK women’s basketball team is still unbeaten as well, making UK the only D-I school in the country with an unbeaten men’s and women’s program.

The UK-UNC game was also CBS’s first broadcast of the season. Even though yesterday was all about football, this was John Wall’s chance to say “Hello, world”, and that’s exactly what he did with those two first half plays where he streaked down the court for a dunk, then a lefty reverse layup.

During the game on Saturday, “John Wall” was a trending topic on Twitter, a true sign of just how buzzworthy Wall is. One of the people mentioning him was ESPN’s Sports Guy, Bill Simmons. When it comes to people who write about the NBA, specifically the Draft, there is no one I enjoy more than Bill Simmons. I’ve been waiting since John Wall committed for Simmons to start talking about the John Wall sweepstakes among the worst NBA teams this season. Yesterday, Simmons finally weighed in about him:

John Wall = sure thing. Wade crossed with Rose. Also, I like that he didn’t go with Johnny. “John Wall” sounds like a CEO.

Also, after the UNC game, John Calipari took the opportunity to stop by the Marshall County Hoopfest, where UK 2010 target Doron Lamb was playing. This was a good opportunity for Cal to see one his remaining targets, hopefully he was able to make some headway.

That’s enough rambling from me, let’s get to the numbers:

The Race to 2,000

With two victories this week, UK closed to within four wins of 2,000, also keeping UNC at 1,991 in the process. UK now looks like a shoo-in to win the race to 2,000. Here’s the upcoming schedule:

UConn (NYC) – Toss-up
@Indiana – Likely win
Austin Peay – Likely win
Drexel – Likely win
Long Beach State – Likely win
Hartford – Likely win

If UK wins the next four, they will reach 2,000 on December 21 against Drexel. If they drop one game, they will win number 2,000 December 23 against Long Beach State.

Individual Stats

John Wall – 18.1 points per game (t-48th nationally)
6.6 assists per game (t-12th nationally)
2.6 steals per game (t-29th nationally)

Patrick Patterson – 16.6 points per game (79th nationally)
10.1 rebounds per game (t-29th nationally)
68.8 field goal % (1st nationally)

DeMarcus Cousins – 2.4 blocks per game (t-42nd nationally)

Daniel Orton – 1.8 blocks per game (t-84th nationally)

RPI

UK is up six spots in the RPI this week to 35th in the country. Every week the RPI becomes a little bit more relevant as teams play more and more games (and teams like Coastal Carolina and Loyola (IL) fall).

The ‘Cats are currently the fourth rated team in the SEC according to the RPI, behind fast rising Vanderbilt (#6), Ole Miss (#18), and Tennessee (#34). In my opinion, these three teams are UK’s top competition in conference.

Ken Pomeroy

With UK’s two wins this week, UK moved up to 58th from 77th in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings.  Unlike the RPI, UK was actually helped much more by the UNC-Asheville win since it was such a good statistical performance.

UK improved on offense, boosting its points per 100 possessions average by 2.3 points, moving up to 87th in the nation from 119th. UK moved up on the strength of improving its Effective Field Goal % to 14th in the nation. UK also moved up to 304th in the nation in Turnover %, believe it or not, that’s an improvement.

Defensively, UK improved from 79th nationally to 59th, mostly due to moving up 70 spots in Turnover %.

UK still has a lot of improving to do in the realm of turnovers on both ends of the floor to get to where they need to be, but they are making small steps.

This week, UK will face two new tests, as they travel to play Connecticut in Madison Square Garden and then head to Bloomington to play their first road game of the year.