Wall, Wildcats “Frustrate” Ole Miss, UK Wins 85-75

Ed Reinke - AP

With ESPN and Jimmy Dykes in town for UK’s Super Tuesday matchup with Ole Miss, you just knew we were going to have to hear about John Wall and his supposed “lashing out” at John Calipari. ESPN did not disappoint, starting off their coverage by talking about the comments and the newest Dykes-ism: “John Wall is struggling with struggling.”

Tonight, against one of the tougher teams the SEC has to offer and probably the best back court outside of the Bluegrass State, Wall put an end to his struggles. He came out firing in the first half, scoring 12 points and notching 4 assists to go along with a couple highlight reel open floor dunks, prompting the tongue-in-cheek title of this post.

On a quick side note, I think that much of Wall’s frustration can be traced to his lack of dunks (and I’m only partially joking). You can tell by the smile on his face after he throws down that he loves getting up above the rim and finishing. I really think it’s a release for him on the basketball court. He just hasn’t had many opportunities to do so in the past couple weeks and he’s not used to having dunks taken away from him. He got the chance to dunk three times today, which was good to see.

Anyway, that’s enough John Wall Pscyh 101.

Wall was a bit more passive in the second half, but made plays when he needed to, finishing with 17 points, 7 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal. He had a few turnovers (four total) that you would like to see him cut out, but all in all, it was a good performance for the 21 NBA teams in attendance.

Those 21 NBA teams got a pretty good glimpse into the UK team as a whole as well. UK, when completely interested, was dominant. They raced out to an 18 point first half lead and up to a 17 point lead in the second. However, seemingly every time UK got any kind of a lead, Ole Miss found a way to slither back into the game. UK got just a little lazy on defense, Wall and Eric Bledsoe made careless turnovers, and rebounds started to bounce the wrong way. Ole Miss closed to within three a couple times, but I honestly never batted an eye, because it never really felt like a game.

Then, UK would reengage and jump back out to a double digit lead. This has clearly become a pattern. When I see UK doing this, I think about one of those nature shows where you see a not quite fully grown lion or tiger (or a wildcat) take down a gazelle or some other prey, but not kill it right away because it wants to play a little bit. It’s never like the animal (Ole Miss) is any danger of getting away, but it’s still frustrating to watch. Hopefully UK is hungry enough come March to just go ahead and make the kill early.

Outside of UK’s 11 first half turnovers (and 17 overall), most of which were committed during those lulls between dominant play, UK was tremendous on offense. They managed to escape into the open court more than they had in recent games, getting some highlight reel fast break buckets. They got the ball into the post and scored the majority of the time with nice post moves by DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson (who had more post touches than in recent games), and even DeMarcus Cousins. They also hit shots from the outside with excellent efficiency (9-19).

The three point attack was led by Darnell Dodson, who got his second consecutive start. Dodson played just 16 minutes, but scored 14 points on 4-5 shooting from deep. He honestly wasn’t very good on defense (he really lacks lateral quickness), but provided an excellent spark.

Dodson was the headliner, but all in all, UK got better contributions from the three position tonight than in really any game I can remember. DeAndre Liggins brought his typical energy on defense, but also made things happen on offense in his 17 minutes. Darius Miller played just 9 minutes, but did some good things even though he still has a long way to go.

In 42 minutes, Dodson, Liggins, and Miller scored 24 points on 8-15 shooting, hit 6 threes, and grabbed 9 rebounds. If that kind of contribution becomes the norm, UK is that much better. Most of the time, the position by committee thing seems to work poorly, but in this case, I think playing these three guys at different times will continue to be effective.

As I mentioned in passing earlier, Patrick Patterson is beginning to reemerge on the offensive end. He scored 12 tonight and had a couple shots that just barely missed going down. He had a couple great rebounds as well and just looks a bit better out there. Patterson also continued his stellar defense. The guy is really just a machine on defense. He uses his strength so effectively without fouling, he’s always in the right spot, and he constantly makes up for mistakes made by his teammates.

Unfortunately, there were way too many mistakes to be cleaned up tonight. UK stuggled at times on defense, allowing a lot of open shots to a pretty good shooting team. The ‘Cats looked confused at times when navigating screens, a discouraging reversion to past bad habits. Pretty much anytime Eric Bledsoe or Darnell Dodson was screened, he wasn’t quite sure where to go. Bledsoe can be excellent at defending the ball, but he gets lost so often when guarding off the ball, something he must improve upon.

The one thing I take away from this game was that UK once again felt like John Wall’s team. Even in victories over the past couple weeks, UK felt like a team that has revolved around DeMarcus Cousins, but tonight, John Wall was the guy. It’s not that Cousins stopped getting the ball, because he still scored 18 points to go with 13 rebounds and led UK in shots attempted at 14, but I thought John Calipari did some good things to open up the floor for Wall.

For example, Cousins or Orton played much more often on the weak side of the basket, allowing much clearer driving lines for Wall or Bledsoe. The two missed a couple chippies, but luckily Cousins is the best offensive rebounder in the country, so they ended up just being passes to the big guy.

Up next, the ‘Cats travel to Baton Rouge on Saturday to face the sputtering LSU Tigers.