That muffled sound you hear is all of the “BCG should play Liggins more” crowd eating crow (at least the smart ones who know basketball and are honest with themselves). Once again we receive a humbling reminder of why BCG makes the millions, while others sit and carp.

I would hope that we will see some moderation in the intemperate language of those who have been telling us how much smarter they are than BCG. Hubris is an ugly thing, even on a sports blog.

I try to stay positive but enough is enough. What you saw from DeAndre “Six Turnover” Liggins tonight is what we see from him in practice almost every day — a reckless and selfish player who thinks he’s still playing against Dawson Springs High, who plays most of the game out of control, and consistently makes the wrong choices. Even the CBS commentators noted that as soon as he went into the game, the intensity shut down on both sides of the ball. It became the “See DeAndre miss another shot that he shouldn’t have taken in the first place, then turn the ball over again” show. It’s sickening to have to watch that, and I’m just tired of it.

Here is a guy who thinks he’s Michael Jordan, but who hasn’t hit any of the 11 three’s he’s taken in ANY of the last three games. That’s right, he’s O-fer, including the EIGHT consecutive threes he missed that cost us the Miami game (supposedly his great break-out game — what are these people smoking?) And what the hell was that backwards lateral he threw to Perry Stevenson in traffic tonight (that wound up with Perry on his back)? What is the kid thinking? On defense, he looked like he was in slow motion in a jar of molasses, and he got beat repeatedly. Let’s face it, he would be getting ZERO playing time if BCG weren’t afraid he’d pull a Legion and bolt.

And as far as the Porter/Liggins controversy, after tonight I don’t know who thinks there still is a controversy. While Porter was at the point, we more than doubled IU’s score. When DeAndre was at the point, they actually outscored us by seven. We didn’t have an offense. We had a wild ass freshman flailing around like a fish out of water. If you missed the Porter-led offense at the start of the game, then you missed some beautiful Kentucky basketball. If all you got to see was what happened after Liggins came in, God bless you and I’m sorry. The second half did include a beautiful Porter to Patterson Alley-Oop, but Mike hurt his ankle on the play and had to come out — and that was that for beautiful basketball in the second half.

Porter played less than half the game (his first game playing without the ten stitches in his head), and his A/S/T line was 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers, one of which came immediately after one of his steals, when he was double-teamed and had to chuck the ball to a teammate while he was falling to the ground. DeAndre had 3 assists, another 6 turnovers, and no steals. He also missed four more shots, including his eleventh consecutive miss from three. He would have had two more turnovers had he not been rescued by two IU fouls.

The only positive thing that could be said of his performance is that when his brashness and ball-hogging got him to the foul line (as hot-dogging will generally do), he did convert — small consolation for screwing up the rest of the offensive flow.

Look, I sincerely hope the guy will come around, because the physical skills are there. But ten games into his college career what we’ve seen so far is that there is no basketball IQ to go with the body. What we have is a not-too-damned-bright pouter. This is, after all, a guy who had to struggle just to get the absolute minimum grade needed even to be academically eligible. All there is is attitude and crybaby petulance when he doesn’t get what he deems to be the proper amount of playing time.

If you’re gonna play the diva, you need more than what we’ve seen out of him to back it up. And yes, I admit that I prefer a team full of the humble, hard-working Untouchables spirit to the type of attitude we have seen from Liggins.

In those games where DeAndre does get substantially more playing time than Michael, our offensive numbers plummet, and the overall result is a bad one unless we’re playing Lamar. Against West Virginia we had the second worst offensive efficiency of the season under an almost exclusively Liggins-run team (the game after his “I ain’t gonna play, coach” episode). We all know too well how the VMI game came out. And as I noted above, he single-handedly cost us the Miami game by refusing to pass to the open man, and by repeatedly taking ill-advised three-point shots, all eight of which missed.

Realize that at the time of the Miami game we were top ten in the country in field goal per centage from inside the three point arc. So what does genius Liggins do at the point? Get the ball inside, right? No, DeAndre initiates and presides over a game in which the guards take 23 damn shots from behind the three-point line, AND MISS 21 OF THEM!

That’s a game we lost by six points; you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why.

Anybody still not understand why Porter starts?

I am enjoying this season, but I can’t wait to get Hood, Orton, and GJ in here next year so BCG ball can hit full stride.

You had me laughing at your ‘list of ten’ to open your piece.

By the way, I agree with everything you wrote.

Excellent encapsulation of how most UK fans probably feel.

You forgot to thank iu for coming to Rupp and with their rag-tag group of athletically challenged spunky white men. Also when you were talking about defensive performances to remember and you mentioned Vandy, I thought you were going to refer to last year in Nashville.
Note to self, Porter plays well against slow white teams.

It was said earlier, but Porter had a great game against a team featuring walk-ons. He know’s how to play within himself, but his game is just not that good. I don’t know where you saw our team “clicking on all cylinders” when he was running point. Nobody was missing in the first 10 min, but after that Galloway was prob our most effective PG. You just can’t run an effective offense when your PG crosses the half court line and immediately turns his back to his defender (and the entire offense). Notice how Porter has to constantly call for help if ONE guy is pressing him in the backcourt? Constantly missing the wide open shot (air-ball anyone?)?

I think Porter catches a lot of flax, but it is warranted. It’s not his fault though, he shouldn’t be playing for a team of our caliber. Liggins had a horrible game, and made a myriad of bad decisions, but in the end, we are still much more effective with him, or Galloway, running point.

The combined point guard play of Porter and Liggins of yesterday suggests why we’re likely to be in for a rough season ahead. Porter’s game was decent but not outstanding against mediocre athletes; Liggins’ performance suggested he was mentally unprepared to play against a freshman-dominated team. We don’t seem to have anybody who can get the offense started effectively in the half-court set against solid competition. Consistency of effort and good decision-making are our main problems. Both should get better as the season progresses.

Should be 12-4 (+) against SEC teams. The SEC is weaker than last season.

Worst case, that’s 23-8 headed into postseason play. EASILY 25+ W after that.

If you watched more of the segment… he is actually really good friends with that reporter… it was done in jest…

was Harellson constantly looking to score. I wish Stevenson would do that more.

I’m still happy though.

Like many, I missed most of the best part of the game, so that is going to color my feelings somewhat. Hopefully those first 8 minutes will show up on youtube soon.

It’s good to hear the Porter/Galloway combo worked so well in the first half. I’ve had my doubts about Porter, but pairing him with Galloway should push him more into a “SG with privileges” type role where he is involved in getting the offense initiated, but doesn’t have to worry about bringing the ball up against tough defenders. That should work just fine against all but the elite teams. Since UK only has 3 such games remaining (@UL, 2x UT), I feel much better about the offense going into conference season.

The Patterson, Harrellson, Stevenson triumvirate continues to be dominant. UK has one of, if not the best, front court rotations in the SEC. (On a somewhat related note, one day I will be able to spell ‘Harrellson’ without having to double check it).

I was thoroughly unimpressed by anything Liggins did today and was frustrated by most of what he did do. I don’t have much to add to what others have already said, except that one bad game isn’t going to sour me on the kid. If UK wants to have a chance against UL and UT, they are going to need Liggins to get his head in the game.

Despite my best intentions, I did not actually pay much attention to Darius Miller’s defense this game. I’ve read in other places people say they thought it was better, but I’d be interested to know what fellow ASoBers think.

The second half was a chore to watch, but in the end UK got a win against a major conference foe and that’s something to be happy about.

in a game like this does not reveal anything about the team in the lead….

Ken Pomeroy’s comments on DeAndre Liggins are perhaps more severe than those I would make but he does provide insightful information. Considering that Liggins is a 20-year old just making his college debut, that he had serious academic problems at his Chicago high school, that he experienced real difficulty in becoming college eligible from a school whose purpose is college preparation, that he is said to have a learning disability certificate, and, adding the Las Vegas incident, yesterday’s report from Jerry Tipton of Liggins’ tardiness in reporting for the game, plus his seeming uncoachable, irresponsible on-court performance — considering all that I perceive that DeAndre Liggins’ time as a Wildcat is in jeopardy, either by coach’s decision or academic ineligibility. The second semester will give an accurate indication.