Despite their best efforts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Kentucky somehow comes away with the win. Even though we shot the lights out in the second half, it felt like we were down 20 the whole time. Why can’t they just get the ball in? It’s very frustrating to watch when they are pushing 4.7 seconds to inbound the ball every time. They also had a 10 second call. I haven’t seen one of those in a while, and Rondo wasn’t even handling the ball.
Speaking of Rondo, it looks like he decided he wanted to play tonight. He had four or five drives to the basket in about a four minute span. He’s pretty impressive in that respect. It seems like he can turn that part of his game on or off at will. Paired with his defensive skills, that has to be why he is listed so high on the draft boards.
It was a big game for Randolph as well. He finally looked like the dominating force he was supposed to be all along. I think he scored 8 or 10 straight points for us during one stretch of the game.
This just wasn’t Ravi Moss’ night though. When Tom Hammond said that Ravi picked up his second foul, I couldn’t believe it. It seemed like he had at least four at that point. I haven’t looked at the stats but he had to have been involved in a minimum of five turnovers.
Brandon Stockton may just be the smartest basketball player on the team. He doesn’t really make any stupid mistakes(see 10 second call above), and he is always hustling(see end of game). This should put to rest any of that NIT talk. Go Cats!
*update* I just realized when I read back through this post I sounded more negative than Tim Woodburn. Sorry about that, but I thought it was just a hard game to watch.
March 2nd, 2006 at 10:50 am
I think it was more like “Tennessee snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.” Pearl did a poor job in the second half; once it was evident that Kentucky was going to the “Spread, high screen, Rondo drives” offense, he should have adjusted his defense. Next time, I bet Pearl calls a timeout once Rondo rattles off his 3rd layup attempt.
UT looked confused on transistion defense most of the game. During a fast break, the curly-headed UT player ended up sliding out of the lane to guard Crawford, leaving Rondo uncontested for the layup. Also, Pearl should have let Lofton have 2-3 possessions in the last 2 minutes. Lofton might have been cold from outside, but you get your stud involved when you need points (Senior CJ Watson’s last homegame notwithstanding).
Even though UT had control of the game (even when UK was up, and UT was playing desperate even though they shouldn’t have), UK played the game they needed to play. Great defense all around. Movement on the offense. A hot streak of shooting when they needed it in the second half (which is more a testimony of UT’s inability to stop layups and dunks by Rondo & Morris). Morris staying in the majority of the game. Somebody from the 4-spot getting rebounds and generally being a nusance (played last night by Sims).
It seems to me that the last piece of the puzzle is turnovers. Take away half of UK’s turnovers in the first half, and UT wouldn’t have scored 20 points off of those in the first time. UK could have rolled to a 8 point victory.
If UK can shave those turnovers down by 5-8, the SEC teams are in trouble next weekend.
March 2nd, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Great win fore the cats Im so happy we beat the big orange. Im so proud of the team and I do hope this helps things for theme . I belive florida is in trouble come this weekend I hope Rupp is rocking and rolling. As fore coach great job on this game he coached his heart out. Im not a big Tubby fan but I must say at times he is fun to watch. Great job wildcats now lets get the gators!