Post UK-Lamar Thoughts

I guess this year’s edition of the Kentucky Wildcats are going to find a way to make every game this season nerve-wracking. Even a 103-61 shellacking of the Lamar Cardinals that was in doubt for approximately 24 seconds (until Jodie Meeks nailed a three from the top of the key to go up 3-0) had it’s fair share of very nervous moments. Most of these moments came from a startling collision between Michael Porter and Ramon Harris that resulted in 10 stitches for Porter, and a ride off the court on a stretcher and a trip to the hospital for Ramon Harris. (UPDATE: Harris stayed overnight in the hospital, has full movement in all extremities and has passed all tests thus far. http://www.kentucky.com/818/story/615403.html)

They don’t happen nearly as much in basketball as it does in football, but head/neck injuries are always scary, especially when the injured player has to be carried off on a stretcher. My thoughts were obviously with Michael Porter and Ramon Harris, but the game had to go on. I was worried for a just a little bit about how the team would react to seeing one of its veteran leaders taken from the court immobilized after staying down for a number of minutes (the injuries caused a 20 minute delay in the action with 13:42 left in the first half), but 11 seconds after the injury, DeAndre Liggins laced a pass to Patrick Patterson the length of the court for a layup, and the rout was back on.

The silver lining of the scary incident was a bunch of extra playing time for guys who had not always gotten consistent playing time before this game. DeAndre Liggins continued his good play from the second half of the West Virginia game, having his best statistical performance as a Wildcat. In 27 minutes, Liggins did not miss a shot, scoring 16 points, nabbing 7 defensive rebounds (he looked great on the boards), dishing out 4 assists, and throwing in a steal and a block. Best of all, he did not make more than one or two bad decisions, and only turned the ball over twice.
Also taking advantage of his opportunity to play was Darius Miller, who always seems to play better than his numbers suggest (6 points, 3 rebounds last night). Miller had a thunderous dunk that was probably the highlight of this early season for UK, and showed the kind of explosiveness he possesses (if he would just unleash it all the time).

We all expected Liggins and Miller to play a lot last night, even before the injuries, but I did not expect to see as much of Kevin Galloway and AJ Stewart as we did. Galloway played for 19 minutes, scored 2 points from the line, notched 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He was on the floor for a decent amount of time with Liggins, and I liked the improved ball handling that this look gave the team. Hopefully Galloway can get his act together so we get to see this. I did see some of the reasons why Coach Gillispie is hesitant to give Galloway much playing time. Galloway seems to get lost on defense when his man does not have the ball, and he is almost always out of position when his man gets the ball. On a couple occasions, his poor positioning led to buckets or fouls on big men.

AJ Stewart also showed flashes last night in his 11 minutes. He scored 6 points on some nice short jumpers, but did not get a rebound, which is not going to net him much playing time in the future. There were plenty of boards to go around, with Patterson only grabbing 3, but Stewart did not do what he needed to. With his athleticism, he needs to be a guy who comes on floor and snatches boards over people if he wants to play consistently.

Aside from Patterson’s lack of rebounding, Jodie and Patrick were Jodie and Patrick, combining for 40 points, including a career high 31 from 2Pat. Jodie also nearly doubled his assist total on the season with 6, and had only 1 turnover, his lowest total of the season (previous low was 3). Also, there were two particular set plays drawn up for Jodie that were particularly good to see. One was a backdoor lob pass that Ramon Harris threw from the top of the key and Jodie jammed home. The other was a beautiful screen and curl from about 18 feet out on the left wing of the court which showcased Jodie’s ability to elevate and get his shot off very quickly. With the way that teams are going to key in on Meeks, he’s going to have to find a bunch of different ways to score, and these plays are just the kind of thing he needs.

Over the past couple days, I have gone back and reread my postgame thoughts, and I noticed that I talk about three areas that this team needs to focus on: turnovers, rebounding, and getting the ball to Patterson. From now on, I am going to grade out the Cats in each one of these areas at the end of my thoughts. Without further ado:

Turnovers: B
Before the game, we heard some comparisons between Lamar and VMI as a way for UK fans to pre-justify a bad performance, but those comparisons were thrown out the window when Lamar opened in a 2-3 zone, which UK promptly shredded. I’m sure the thought process was to shut down Patterson and the interior game, but any coach that does not pressure UK in the half court until they show they can handle it is a fool. Lamar did not pressure the ball as much as previous opponents, and when they did, it was apparent that they did not have the athletes to do it properly. UK turned the ball over 16 times, which by any normal standards, is above average, but for this team, it’s pretty good.

Rebounding: C
UK won the battle on the boards 38-33, but it was against a team with no starter over 6’7 and whose best rebounder was a floppy haired white kid named Coy Custer (what a dumb name). Coy definitely got the award for most detestable Lamar player he was the kind of kid who commits the kind of fouls that never get called all the time. For example, any time he would be posted up and the ball was thrown to him, he immediately pushed back with all his weight as the ball was in the air. Some call this “smart” or “gritty”, I just call it annoying. Anyway, I don’t imagine UK getting much higher than a C from me in rebounding when Patterson only gets three boards.

Getting the ball to Patterson: A
Clearly they were committed to getting him the ball, and Patterson got good position and a ton of open layups. 11-12 from the field in only 22 minutes is about all you need to know.