Kentucky Wildcats 76, Georgia Bulldogs 68 -- Postmortem

Zone will be every opponents defense until the Cats show they can beat it.
Got to make the foul shots. Game isn’t close if you make the freebies.
Bledsoe is showing he’s the best on the floor in the last 5 minutes. Got to love it, and his ankle looks find today.
Cousins got a couple assists today. That has to continue.
Patterson was Patterson again today. You always get the same effort every game.

and I really can’t add anything. I was typing away and UK1972 said the things I was typing!! ZONE, ZONE, ZONE……this team needs to hit shots from outside but we also need to be more consistent penetrating and kicking off. Until we do that we’re going to see a lot of games like today.

Haven’t see many posts about it but we’d better play a better game Tuesday night cause Flordia isn’t going to want to back to back conference losses.

I think Wall hurts this team when he walks the ball down the floor so slowly. You can see the other UK players straightening their knees and standing around flat-footed. This team needs to move, and the sense of urgency gained when you’ve got your point guard hustling the ball down the court to get the offense started can be a real motivator. Some good guards walk the ball past half-court and then break into a run as they approach the defense, but our points tend to just walk it on the rest of the way.

Speaking of getting the ball to the defense, I don’t see any of our outside players angling to get the defense to double-team them so someone is open. As good a passer as Wall is and as quick as Bledsoe can be, that can be a great tactic, particularly against a 2-3 zone. If the two front-line defenders are on the ballhandler, someone is open. To make this happen you have to angle to the other defender, not away from him.

Shooting from outside has been awful the last two games. It almost seems like the guys are expecting to miss so they don’t get their feet under them and focus on the shot.

Speaking of getting their feet under them, I’d like to see Big Cuz keep his feet under him a little better when he makes his move around the basket. He made a couple of great moves today, but didn’t have enough knee bend to really burst up for the shot/jam. That’s really picking nits on a kid who played with such emotion.

If I was Coach Cal today, I’d cut a ball into three pieces and give one each to PPat, Cuz, and DeAndre. They were head and shoulders above the rest.

The trip on Wall was just unbelievable…..but a ton of miss calls also happened

One of them didn’t even practice yesterday. It appeared (to me) that one of them could have been John Wall. Let’s get over this bug and be done with it. Game wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. I think Coach Cal has us as 9-7 now. That is a lot different than 16-0. Story to be continued in Gainesville on Tuesday. :-)

Them…..us……it was a good game between two good teams……Georgia is not as bad as they were advertised to be going into the season. DeMarcus Cousins played the most MATURE game of his college career today. Everything that everyone said was going to happen to him happened today…..his shots didnt all fall….he mishandled the ball on a couple of occasions…..he got lousy calls from the referees……and he wasnt hitting all of his free throws…….and in spite of it all, the kid got a lot closer to manhood today. because he took it all in stride…..let them ride his back all day……and still carried this team to a W………he didnt lead the team in points today I dont think…….but he had assists…..he had smart plays where he simply let the game come to him……and he was 2 fouls short of fouling out every man on the Georgia bench taller than 6’6"……..If I didnt know better I would say John Wall was sick, or getting his butt chewed on by Calipari at every turn for playing some really lousy D…….he looked tired and slow for much of the game, but he too pulled the laces up tight and trodded on.

This kind of a game is what winners do……they dont lose to teams they shouldnt lose to when they play bad. It was not pretty….crap, it wasnt even really ugly…..it was just a battle…..but unlike the UL game, this team chose to battle us on the backboards rather than the floor……we didnt make a lot of offensive errors, we just didnt play well. We played great defense at times, and lousy at others……but in the end we did it again……someone may get us this way, I dont know….but we are learning to play ball Calipari’s way…..it frustrates the devil out of me sometimes…..but I am beginning to understand the little nuances of it…..maybe that is the way the players feel too, I dont know…..but I will say it again, I really love winning while we are learning better than losing while we are learning.

They really gave it their all and were great on offense. That dunk by Leslie – oh my. I love Cousins but that was a nasty dunk. Cousins was otherwise very good today though. I second Tru’s nod on his composure.

Cats were really rough on offense but they definitely deserve credit for gutting it out and the win.

Darrius Miller just needs to play better. He wasn’t a factor in the game.

- true and the comment seems to appear after most games; which, if we keep seeing

DeAndre Liggins was fantastic……

You touched on all my favorite parts of the win over Georgia today. In order…

1. That oh-so-sweet pass from Cousins to Patterson down low. I love the preciseness of an incredibly successful pass in the paint, and this one did not go unnoticed by me. I would love to see more.

2. Cousins’ play down the stretch. Like you said, Tru, just awesome. He’s a smart kid, a quick learner, and appears to be a good listener, as well. Those are all very admirable qualities and if he continues to demonstrate those, you, my dear, Tru, will have lost yourself a bet on the ejection issue, and although I don’t think there was an "official" bet, but my memory is good and I won’t soon forget. : ) Cousins’ performance on the court is, dare I say, approaching the point where he can almost be considered — un-criticizable? In this UK fans’ eyes, that is a "yes".

3. Liggins’ incredible play. What has gotten into him? Whatever it is, it’s good and games like today can only help his confidence, which is so good for him, I think.

When you can win with that kind of performance from the line and beyond the arc, compared to relatively good jobs in those areas from UGA, you’re doing something right.

Did anyone else feel like that was the case today? and that’s not a shot at georgia at all. Theyre a well coached and scrappy team but it just seems that sometimes we can take a game or two off. The flip side tho is that we show up against better competition, so hoepfully thatll b the case on tuesday

is much better than advertised. I think the game was a combination of a few different things. First, Georgia beat Georgia Tech, who beat Duke, who was probably not at their best last night. The bottom line is, I hope Georgia does a lot of good things this year in the SEC, I think it has the ability.

However, they REALLY exploited our weaknesses, which are apparently the ability to play against a zone defense and take an effective outside shot. We had a few clutch shots, but no one was consistent.

I the team can attribute poor shooting to a combination of things, I think we are playing unsure and weak against the zone, the tentative, and off-balance shooting leads to a poor start and then the guys have confidence issues all game. I think for this team to be good, Miller HAS to step up and make big shots on the outside, period. I don’t think Liggins can do it. Miller has been soft and tentative all year, and he’s still starting. There’s a reason for that. Liggins has shown an ability to drive to the basket, but he’s third man on the totem pole in that perspective. Yeah, he can take Miller’s starting position, but I doubt it.

Oh well, time to make some adjustments.

is ALL OVER ESPN this morning.

I do like Eric, but my one concern with his game is that when he dribbles (particularly if he is going downcourt), he seems to dribble with the ball very far in front of him. I don’t know if the stats bear this out, but it would seem to make him more prone to getting the ball knocked away and turning it over. Anecdotally, that seems to be the case.

Also, does anybody know why Big Cuz went without the headband yesterday?

I’ve been as guilty as anyone else about picking apart this basketball team’s plus and minuses. With that said, I decided to step back a minute, and just look at the team as just a college basketball fan. One of 3 undefeated division-1 teams left, wow. New head coach, and five freshmen, 3 starting with a So. and Jr. This usually causes major “growing pains”, yet again, undefeated, amazing. Entirely new coaching staff and new system/style of play, and 13 players to understand this system, still defeated halfway through the season, unbelievable. Favored to win the league, and possibly make the final four, and have 2 potential players of the year, unthinkable. This is a very, very YOUNG team to have accomplished what has happened in the first half of the season. How can I nit-pick this team? You know what, don’t think I can,or should. Go Cats, and good luck the rest of the season!

Tennessee at home, backs against the wall, wounded tiger, (ok, dog) and playing the #1 team in the country on national TV….

I think the Vols can win this game and expose the Jayhawks for what they are, #3…lol

At least for one day, I will be screaming, “GO Vols”..!!!! (I can’t believe I just typed that)… lol

He already knows that the team he put together knows how to play basketball. He is wanting them to learn to play the way he knows will make them champions!!! Yesterday, the announcers kept saying that UK had to learn how to beat the zone. The way they do that is by playing the DDMO style of ball Calipari has been drumming into their heads! Walking the ball down the court, and playing pass and hold does not penetrate a zone. What penetrates the zone is take advantage of the zone’s weakness of following the live basketball. Set your key people up on the weak side of the zone, and put them into the position to DRIVE the ball through the opening when the defense shifts!!! Better still…….utilize Wall’s amazing speed to Hyperdrive the ball down the court before they even get the chance to get their zone set up in the first place.

Wall had an off game against Georgia. The young man is amazing, so an off game for him is still better than a lot of lesser talented players best games. However, the team needs to learn how to play the DDMO with multiple players in case Wall and Cousins are not 100% on their game. They also need to remember they thrive in an uptemp game and not WALK the ball down but RUN as much as possible.

Calipari wants the team to utilize the strengths of the DDMO not just go out there and play ball. They have done this in 9 games. The other 7 they relied on the style of play he is trying to break them of relying on…. REACTIONARY.

Looking forward to the next game, I really hope Coach Cal can show them how listening to him and utilizing the very essence of the DDMO will keep them from getting blocked out by the zone.. every time. (It also wouldn’t hurt to work on 3 point shooting!)

Duke loses, Kansas goes down and UK wins. Now if North Carolina will lose at home to Va Tech it will be the icing an a very nice cake.