Florida International at Kentucky -- Open Game Thread

That's a good sign.

You say Jodie started, does that mean we are now 11 starting line-ups in 12 games?  Who else started?

But I have hope for this team with a healthy Meeks and Jasper.  They are much, much better.

Effective offense, and effective defense.  Very few turnovers.

Much more.

Just what we should expect out of this group.  This is a team that can compete with anyone.

If this team shows up every time, we will be very tough indeed.  But I am now encouraged that we have a chance to win some games.

I knew we should be better, and today we truly have been.

Finally we actually played real basketball, and there were several very unselfish, excellent sequences.

If UK can just duplicate this effort, they will be in a lot of games with tough teams.  We still have a ways to go on both sides of the floor, but this game gives us all something to point to and say, "that is what good basketball looks like this year."  Yes, the opponent wasn't that strong, but neither was G-W or San Diego.

For the first time all year, Gillispie's rotations made sense.  There appeared to be an actual plan.  The whole game didn't look so incredibly random and chaotic.  People moved to spots, made passes, and made open shots.  The ball rotation was the best we have seen in a while, and so good that several shots were taken where the nearest defender was at least 15 feet away.  That is what you love to see.

Gillispie's demeanor was noticeably more cordial toward his players, although that was really the only thing different.  He maintained a rather stoic intensity as is his wont here at UK, and coached players every time they went in and out.

This team with Jodie Meeks and Derrick Jasper playing together is unrecognizable if you have been watching the Wildcats this year.  Jasper played for 28 minutes today and did not appear winded at all, although Meeks did a couple of times.  But Jodie had the normal bounce in his step this game, unlike last, and his jump shot was much sounder than it has been since he returned from his stress fracture.

On the down side, this is two games in a row where Patterson has only pulled down 5 rebounds, and only one offensive.  That won't do.  We have got to have more productivity from him on the glass, and while scoring 20 points per game is nice, he needs to be much more assertive on the backboard.  What will no doubt help is Carter, if he can improve enough to see major minutes.  Carter has not played much basketball in the last 2 years and it shows, so he has a lot of learning to do.  But today, he played pretty well if you can ignore his 3 turnovers, all of which came on rebounds he got but lost.  Carter will never be an offensive threat, but he can clog the middle and make it harder for point guards to get to the rack.  Despite his meager statistics, Carter had an impact on the game, especially defensively.

We saw point guard penetration a few times today, but for the most part, UK did a good job with that.  Of course, the FIU point guard wasn't near as good as San Diego's.  Still, it looked like the lesson took, and that is an encouraging thought.

My game ball goes to Derrick Jasper.  Five assists, two turnovers, one block, one steal and four points in 28 minutes.  He was almost single-handedly responsible for our improvement in ballhandling, and it seemed to rub off a bit on the rest of the back court.  Jasper is the sole reason we had more assists than turnovers.  Ramel Bradley also had a nice game, and showed some real leadership out there, especially by encouraging Carter, which he did several times.  But on the down side, Ramel took a couple of selfish shots when he had wide-open teammates, and I hate that.

But all in all, it was a great effort by the Cats.  All we need to see now is if they can do it again back-to-back.  Because to beat Louisville, it is going to take what we saw today, plus a little.

I think if you read all the comments around this site from the last few weeks, its basically been frustration in looking for a game like this.  We all knew that there was talent there (even if its less than normal for UK... its still there).  We all knew that Billy G could coach at his other schools.  We were all wondering why that wasn't happening here.  Now that we've seen it fit together (even if it was against sub-par competition) what we need is to see it a few more times.

If the boys can show up every game, I don't think there's a team in the SEC we can't at least compete with.  Yes, I think UT and Vandy are better than us (that hurts to say) but I think the rest of the league (even Ole Miss) is in for a surprise if we can put this sort of team on the floor night after night.

One thing I noticed was the announced attendance of 19,000.  Not too shabby.  Name me one other school that can put nearly 20k in the stands for a basketball game while sending 50k to a bowl game played on the same day.

Of course a proper mixture of both is what is most desired, but as Bob Knight will attest, one has to have players to win.

Not to say that UK should have lost to GW or SD, but having a full contingent of SEC caliber players will certainly help ease the transition.

Tremendous progress is apparent.

UL should be a good yardstick to judge how far they have come in the last few weeks.

As some have noted previously, UK's January SEC schedule is loaded with good, and one very good, teams. Vandy and UT at Rupp, MSU and UFA on the road.

Go Bearcats!