Post UK-Miami Thoughts

We are seeing a trend developing with this UK team.  It started in the first game against VMI.  They looked awful in the first half, but managed to put things together and nearly overcome a twenty plus point deficit.  UK looked similarly awful in the first half against UNC, but kept up with the early prohibitive favorites for the national title in the second half.  In Vegas, they changed things up a bit, playing well in the first half, but terribly in the second versus Kansas State.  Their awful play carried over into the first half of the next game against West Virginia, but they overcame a 10 point halftime deficit in their best half of the season. 

In case you haven’t picked up on the trend I am pointing out, I’m saying these Cats have a tendency in games to look like a totally different team than the one that played the first half.  This was particularly true as the Cats spotted the Miami Hurricanes a 20 point lead only to nearly overcome it before succumbing 73-67 in Rupp Arena on Saturday.

That first half was truly awful.  Patrick Patterson was almost entirely ignored, and the Canes had their pick of open threes and long range twos.  Jack “What did the five fingers say to the face?” McClinton showed why there was so much talk about his potential suspension in his stellar play.  The kid’s a baller, and he scored 17 points in the first half alone, most while guarded by Jodie Meeks.  Meeks did a much better job on him in the second half, but Jodie had his weakest offensive performance of this early season, totaling only 10 points on 4-17 shooting, including 2-12 from three point range.  Miami runs McClinton off of screen after moving screen all over the court on offense, and Jodie had to do everything he could to keep up, and I think his offense suffered as a result.  Jodie still put up his normal volume of shots, but he did not get as many quality looks as he normally does because his legs weren’t all there.  How many times did Jodie take it to the basket?  Once?  Twice maybe?  Jodie also did not take one foul shot tonight, which was a first this season. It would have been really nice to have Ramon Harris out there today to shadow McClinton to preserve Jodie.

The most encouraging part of today’s game was the play of DeAndre Liggins.  He saw the team needed him to step and be more aggressive offensively with Jodie not himself.  The result was an 18 point, 7 rebound, 4 assist performance.  In the future, I would like to see him focus his aggression on driving to the hoop rather than jacking up 8 threes (he made none), because he’s a really good slasher and pushes the ball nicely in transition, and he finishes well (especially that little runner he banks in from the right side).  Regardless of shot selection, we’ve got a player in DeAndre. 

I knew UK played poorly in the first half, but listening to Coach Gillispie in his post game radio interview really made me realize exactly how poorly.  Gillispie was clearly fuming, and he said that he was this was as upset he had been after a loss in a long time.  He realized UK had thrown away a chance at a win against a very good team with its selfish first half play.  Tom Leach tried to get Gillispie to talk about some of the positives of the team’s second half play, but Gillispie would have none of it.

As I just referenced, UK did lose to a very good Miami team today.  Despite a bit of a lack of clutchness by the Canes shooting free throws down the stretch, the Canes are going to win a lot of games this year.  I also came away fairly impressed with Miami’s coach, Frank Haith.  His team seemed to respond to him well and execute the game plan effectively (though hot first half shooting and marginal officiating didn’t hurt).  Miami also preyed on UK’s lack of an experience point guard in the way it regularly switched defenses.  They started in a sort of ¾ 1-2-2 press that collapsed into a 2-3 zone in half court, but used man to man just as much.  It seemed like it took UK a few positions to readjust to the new look when they switched, and Miami switched so often than they never could settle in offensively.  When you don’t have a point guard who recognize defenses quickly and direct teammates to the correct spot, that kind of regular switching is going to do quite a bit to disrupt the offense.  As gifted as Liggins is, he still is a freshman, and he’s got some growing to do as a floor general.

Let’s get to UK’s grades:

Turnovers: B

This was UK’s best performance in the turnover department against a decent team to date, only giving the ball up 14 times, with Miller, Liggins, and Patterson being the prime offenders with three each.  My grade would be better, but I couldn’t bring myself to go any higher because there are a couple bad turnovers down the stretch that I’ve been replaying in my mind the last few hours (especially Patterson’s when he was stripped taking it to the hoop when they were down 5).  The Cats couldn’t quite make it over the top in their valiant comeback, they got the deficit down to 4 or 5 a few times, but stalled at that point.

Rebounding: B

Liggins, Miller, and Patterson were beasts on the boards, getting 33 between them.  UK won the overall battle 45-35, grabbing a season high 18 offensive rebounds.  However, as Gillispie pointed out in his post-game comments, the number of bad shots the team took is what gave them so many opportunities for offensive rebounds.  Everybody knows that missed threes make for long rebounds, and Liggins and Meeks made sure there were plenty of those.  Miami is strong team on the inside, so winning in the rebounding department against them is an achievement.

Getting the ball to Patterson: D+

 This is the area that Gillispie was most upset about after the game.  Patrick Patterson basically disappeared from UK’s offense in the first half, scoring only four points on four shots.  Patterson got the ball much more in the second half, but they were so bad in this category in the first half that they deserve a nearly failing grade.  Poor first half shot selection and ignoring Patterson in first half were the two main reasons why UK fell short today.

Wink will be around before gametime tomorrow to give us a little insight into the Delta Devils (great nickname) of Mississippi Valley State.  Let’s hope the Cats don’t come out flat tomorrow after an emotionally and physically exhausting ball game and practice tomorrow morning (yeah, they have practice at 8 am).