UK Hammers ETSU in Tourney Debut

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What a first day of the NCAA Tournament, huh? Lots of close games, lots of upsets, and a big ‘Cats victory.

It’s been a long time since UK had a laugher in a first round NCAA Tournament game. Even in 2005, when UK was a two seed, it was a tight one. I have to say, it’s nice to issue a round one beatdown again, and a beatdown it was. UK poured in threes from all directions and when Eric Bledsoe wasn’t breaking the all time UK tourney record for treys, the ‘Cats were tossing alley oops and dunking all over the badly overmatched Buccaneers.

Really the only hope ETSU had in this one was to keep it close by hitting deep balls and forcing UK into missing their threes. The complete opposite happened. Kentucky was 15-33 from deep (including 8-9 for Bledsoe) and ETSU was 4-17.

The Wildcat backcourt absolutely sliced and diced the defense all game, especially John Wall. Wall had 17 points and 11 assists, and while he didn’t have some of the highlight reel plays we have become accustomed to, he ran the team very effectively. Wall realized right away that the opponent was overmatched and that it was an opportunity to get his teammates very involved. Bledsoe and Patrick Patterson jumped at the chance, scoring 15 points apiece in the first half and 29 and 22 overall.

The Bucs set out to take DeMarcus Cousins out of the game, limiting his touches and doubling when he did get the ball. Cousins had a pretty quiet 5 point and 8 rebounds in just 24 minutes, but handled himself well and was a major defensive factor, blocking 5 shots. He also had a handful of dimes, notching 4 assists. UK has way too many weapons to be affected when an opponent takes one player away, especially when shots are falling like they did today.

There were a couple minor flies in the ointment, the first of which was UK’s performance at the foul line. UK was less than focused at the line, hitting just 23 of 34, and it seemed much worse than that. Also, late in the game, Daniel Orton went up to contest a shot, but had his legs taken out from under him. He went down HARD right on his backside and did not immediately get up. One of his teammates tried to pick him up, and with the CBS camera capturing the whole thing, Orton dropped possibly the most audible F-bomb in the history of live television. The good news was that Orton stayed on the bench when he was helped to the sideline and looked none the worse for the wear. Thankfully so, because UK is going to need him in a potentially tough second round matchup against a team with a beefy front court in Texas.

All in all, it was exactly the kind of performance you wanted to see out of the ‘Cats. It was focused and business-like. UK didn’t mess around and did not have to over exert themselves and tire themselves for Saturday. Now, they get to sit back, relax, watch, and find out who they will play next. Hmm, that sounds an awful lot like what I’m going to do.