UK enters the semester break portion of its schedule with a string of home games beginning with Austin Peay.  I will be very interested in how the team performs in this game.  The Cats are coming off their best game of year and after a week of practice and with exams behind them the players should really be ready to get on the floor and play.

Series History:

Kentucky is 4-0 against Austin Peay and last played them Dec 31, 2003 in Louisville, a 61-53 victory.  Believe it or not, that game is tied for the largest margin of victory by UK in the series, the other games decided by 6, 2, and 8 points.  I don't think that means anything about Saturday's contest, but it should be noted that UK was ranked in 3 of the previous 4 constests.

• GOG #00 has information about the game.  Follow the link if you have any questions.
• Statsheet.com has information about Austin Peay.
• Congratulations to tippey for winning GOG #09!  Follow the link for full results.

GOG 2009 #10: Austin Peay [Max 34 Points]

1. The Ken Pomeroy game predictions are out and KP has UK an 18 point winner.  Simply asking who wins this game would be a stunningly easy question to answer, so instead I ask you this: Does UK win by 18 points or more? [+1 point if correct, -1 point if incorrect] Yes, UK won by 21 points
   
2. KP also predicts 68 possessions for this game.  Do UK and AP play faster (more than 68 possessions) or slower (68 possessions or fewer) than predicted?  [+1 point if correct, -1 point if incorrect] The game went exactly 68 possessions, so "slower" for the purposes of this question
   
3. I really like the game stats provided by the UK Athletics website.  They provide information in a lot of categories like points in the paint, points of turnovers, ties and lead changes and usually provide 1st half/2nd half box scores.  This provides a lot of fertile ground for GOG questions, such as asking for 1st half/2nd half leaders in categories.  Who leads UK in scoring in the 1st half?  In the second half? [3 pts each] Wall led the first half with 13 points, Patterson the second half with 11
   
4. You may want to look at some old box scores before answering this one: how many fast break points does UK score? [3 pts] 13
   
5. DeAndre Liggins made his season debut against the Hoosiers, does he play against the Governors? [+1 point if correct, -1 point if incorrect] Yes
   
6. Can a Hoosier be a Governor? [0 pts]
7. Eric Bledsoe is coming off a terrific shooting performance against IU, predict his field goals made/field goal attempts/three pointers made. [2 pts each] 2/4/1
   
8. The Governors have a couple of dangerous outside shooters in Wes Channels (21-43, 48.8%) and Anthony Campbell (25-51, 49.0%).  How many three point shots do they combine to make? [3 pts] They "combined" for 5, but really it was only Channels as Campbell was held to 0-6 from beyond the arc
   
9. We all know that Cousins fouls a lot, but did you know that Cousins is 2nd in the country in drawing fouls from opposing players?  Opponents are fouling the big man at a rate of 9.0 per 40 minutes and Cousins is tied with John Wall for the most free throw attempts on the team.  How many free throw attempts does Cousins get?  Who attempts more free throws: Cousins or Wall? [first question: 3 pts, second question: +1 point if correct, -1 point if incorrect] Cousins had 5 FTA and more than Wall (2 FTA)
   
10. The three biggest areas of improvement for the Cats (to my mind anyway) are turnovers, 3pt shooting defense, and defensive rebounding.  The Cats are 279th in TO%, 231st in opponents' 3pt shooting and 109th in defensive rebounding (rankings from Ken Pomeroy).  Austin Peay comes into the game forcing a 19.0% turnover rate, shooting 35.4% from 3pt shots and grabbin 32.4% of thier own misses.  Does UK turn the ball over less than 19% of the time?  Does UK hold Austin Peay to less than 35.4% shooting on 3pt shots?  Does UK hold the Governors to under 32.4% offensive rebound %? [+1 point if correct, -1 point if incorrect] UK had a 23.5% TO Rate, AP shot 33.3% from deep and had a 34.2% offensive rebound % so that's no - yes - no.
    
11. Despite having two really good outside shooters, the 3pt shot is not a big part of the Austin Peay offense.  Only 29.7% of the Governors' shots come from beyond the arc and they only make 6.2 per game.  This is very similar to Kentucky as only 27.1% of UK's shots come from beyond the arc and the Cats only make 5.9 per game.  How many 3pt shots do the two teams combine to make? [3 pts] 17 combined 3's
    
12. Which UK player leads the team in assist-to-turnover ratio (minimum 5 minutes played)? [3 pts] There was a tie for this as both Harris and Liggins had 1 assist and 0 turnovers
    

Deadline for entries is tip-off at 4:00 PM Saturday, December 19.

We have a 3-way tie for the winner of GOG #10!  Congratulations to (in alphabetical order) a2d2, btcoop71, and kentuckygirl0724 who each scored 9 points!  This was an otherwise low scoring GOG as dancoo626 was 4th with 4 points.  Full results are below.