UK Takes Care of Business, Clinches Share of SEC Title

AP Photo/Tricia Spaulding

UK’s trip to Athens to play Georgia started a bit inauspiciously in the first half. The ‘Cats were missing just a bit of intensity and DeMarcus Cousins picked up a couple quick fouls. Georgia was getting it done on the boards and UK was not. It was nip and tuck for the first eight minutes, thanks to a couple made threes by John Wall, but a Georgia spurt gave the Bulldogsa 26-20 advantage.

UK responded, grabbing a six point lead of its own at 38-32 with two and half minutes left in the half and ended the half up 40-36. Even so, it looked like the ‘Cats were in store for another SEC road battle if the ‘Cats didn’t lock down on D and hit the boards significantly harder.

UK, though, came out with a vengeance to start the second and it was all about defense. The perimeter players applied better ball pressure than I have seen all year and the bigs hedged on screens very effectively. They forced long passes in the half court and jumped passing lanes like it was their job. Those turnovers were quickly turned in transition baskets and when Georgia did get a shot up, UK got the rebounds. Before the Bulldogs knew what happened, UK was on an 11-0 run and had a 15 point lead.

For the next eight minutes, UK kept its foot on the Bulldogs throat pretty well. They had a 68-49 lead with just under nine minutes left, but they just couldn’t resist toying with Georgia a bit. Ricky McPhee hit a couple deep ones and the lead was right back down to nine. Even though the outcome was never really in doubt once Patrick Patterson answered with a nice post up deuce, it was still frustrating to see another let down.

With that said, I am pretty pleased with UK’s play in the second half tonight. We’ve been pointing to poor outside shooting as the reason why UK has played so many close games recently, but UK shot decently well from the outside in the first half, but held just a four point advantage. It was the lockdown defense that created separation, and I think that’s an excellent March lesson. UK is going to shoot poorly at times, but if they bring it defensively like they did for most of the second half, they can weather most any shooting slump.

By no means was it a good outside shooting night for UK (8-25), but it sure was nice to see a few go down. Darius Miller was throwing up bricks, but John Wall and Darnell Dodson were a combined 6-12 and created enough space for John Wall to wreak havoc in the seams of the defense. Wall was a perfect 5-5 from inside the arc, finishing with 24 points and a few Top 10 worthy plays, including one incredible left handed slam over Travis Leslie that avenged Leslie’s posterization of DeMarcus Cousins earlier this season. Wall also added six assists.

With Cousins limited to just 21 minutes due to foul trouble, there were opportunities aplenty for other UK bigs. Daniel Orton played some good minutes while Perry Stevenson and Josh Harrellson got some time. In Cousins absence, Patterson continued his strong play, scoring 17 points to go with 10 boards.

UK’s bigs were also excellent all game long in contesting shots around the basket. In fact, the ‘Cats had over half as many blocks (14) as Georgia had made field goals (25). Cousins and Patterson led the way with 6 and 4 respectively.

One thing I was very curious about entering the game was the way that John Calipari would handle the three position tonight. Darius Miller made his fourth straight start, but struggled from the outside and played just 15 minutes. Even though the shot wasn’t falling, he kept putting it up and he kept playing defense. He harrassed Travis Leslie badly every second he was on the floor. Darnell Dodson actually played the most minutes of the group, scoring 11 points in 21 minutes in one of his better recent performances. He was serviceable on defense and hit from the outside, which is all Cal needs out of him.

DeAndre Liggins saw plenty of time too, playing 16 minutes and scoring 5 points. He was aggressive taking it to the basket when it was there and made a couple nice dishes. I liked the way he played. Ramon Harris also played double digit minutes for the first time in a month and gave about what you would expect.

The reason why there were so many minutes to go around tonight was the fact that Eric Bledsoe played just 20 minutes, his fewest since the Drexel game in December. He was careless with the ball and bad on defense and didn’t deserve to play more than he did. Hopefully he will realize that his minutes aren’t a given, because UK needs him focused and playing smart.

Based on my praise for the ‘Cats second half play, you wouldn’t think it would have been UK’s worst rebounding performance of the season tonight. Georgia has more size than pretty much any other team in the SEC and they outrebounded the ‘Cats 35-26. UK also grabbed just seven offensive boards, a number DeMarcus Cousins often matches on his own. This was partially because UK shot over 54% tonight.

In summary, it sure was nice to see some shots fall, but it was even nicer to see UK get after it so hard on defense. Athens has been a graveyard for SEC East opponents this year (UGA beat Vandy, UT, USC, and Florida at home), so this is a solid win. If UK can duplicate its 8 steal, 14 block performance, they won’t lose many games the rest of the way. UK clinches a share of its 44th SEC title tonight and has a chance to win it all by themselves Sunday on Senior Day against Florida.