Coppin St. Eagles 61, Kentucky Wildcats (11) 91:  Postmortem

tonight it was just that he didn’t even get involved in the offense hardly at all. 5 FG attempts (and no free throws) in the game is just way too few for someone who is expected to be any kind of scorer. Jon Hood had more FG attempts than Miller tonight.

It also seemed that Jones took a back seat on offense tonight. I know he ended up with the team high points total, but it didn’t seem that they were running anything for him, and the good part is also that he didn’t force anything. He simply took complete advantage of the fact that Coppin State just doesn’t have a single big/physical player on the team and went straight to the hole whenever he wanted. He didn’t seem to have the usual intensity, but he got better results tonight than he has been getting. Kind of interesting.

…think about it. He doesn’t start, he doesn’t get as much attention as the other freshmen (minus the couple others) but yet, he has been VERY consistent, and makes few mistakes.

I see a very bright future for him at UK, and I am glad the spotlight isn’t on him this year, so, hopefully, he stays a while before moving to the next level :).

Of course, I love TJ and BK, but Lamb has really surprised me, and he is very entertaining to watch play ball…..

-The end LOL…

I don’t even recall the last one we took this season HAHAHA, but on a serious note, we do need to work in that if we want to run deep this year.

As others have said, Knight, Lamb, and Jones are going to be the leading scorers. But I really liked what Miller and Liggins did tonight. Actually, I liked what they all did tonight. They played as a team on both offense and defense. If Miller and Harrleson play the rest of the season like they did tonight, UK is going to be ok. Miller and Harrleson got their points within the offense. I am fine with that. They both have been playing hard and they hit the open shot. You can’t ask for much more out what I would consider role players. And I can’t say enough about Liggins. Love the way the kid plays. Now lets go eat some birds!!

I pull for Jon every minute he’s out there. His D needs to improve, he was late to rotate a couple times. Maybe coulda gotten a charge. I was glad to see him get 14 mins. Poole didn’t do anything to raise his stock. I gotta say that I was a little disappointed with Josh’s rebounding. What did he have? Maybe 3 or 4? Loved that chasedown for the block. Josh has wheels? :) Vargas also. What did he have maybe 2 boards?, albeit in limited mins, against inferior kids. But, overall, a good, solid win. Now things get interesting from here on out.
FREE ENES!

Two points which have probably been beaten to death, but I think there may be more reason for discussion.

Miller: What Miller is not yet grasping about his situation is that while he does not have to score for the team to win, he does have to score to help make other players better. Miller scoring from inside drives or that one handed floater of his will open lanes for Terrence. Other teams saw Jones pounding everyone and decided to change their focus to Terrence and that has caused him some difficulty. If Miller is productive it will make Jones more productive.

Harrellson: HE has become a lynchpin for this team. He now moves 100% better than he did even this summer, he is more athletic, more focused, and is looking for the ball more. There is no reason that young man cannot be nailing down double doubles nightly. What that does is bring to light another dilemma. Is this team better off taking the outside shots and making the D come to them, or trying to look inside more and letting that open up the outside shooters?

Also of note, the “Calzone” seems to be more fluent each time it is deployed, but some of the guys still look like a fish out of water playing it. But Cal is making it more of a “matchup” zone which helps.

if he was asked who is the better overall player, Wall or Knight? I must admit, I thought there would be a huge hole to fill at point guard, but I think I like Knight’s game better than Wall’s from a team aspect. Much sooner than Wall, he has figured out how to get with the flow of the game, and not try to force anything. He made 2 early silly TOs and Cal stopped play to have a chat, and he didn’t turnover the rest of the game. Don’t get me wrong, J Wall was a fantastic player for UK, but I find myself just as comfortable, if not more so with Knight running the point. And he has a much better outside shot.

Seems to be coming along a little, too, which I like.

But, is it just me or does it seem to anyone else that when he (Vargas) jumps, he doesn’t seem to leave the floor? I mean its almost as if he just picks his feet off the floor without elevating, or something, like jumping rope. For a 6’11" guy, he never seems to get the ball above the rim.

I’m too lazy to look up the stats, but wonder what the head to head score is in Cal vs. Pitino?

Folks, its time, I think, to start commenting on this year’s team without seemingly endless comparisons to last year, including Knight “vs” Wall. The gist of the comments I hear or read is essentially that Knight will never be as good as Wall. So what? As long as Knight plays up to and from time to time exceeds his abilities, then that’s all anyone could expect.

This team is different than the outfit of 12 months ago, in that they seem to improve at least a little bit each time out and they usually play pretty hard. So, on to the Yum to face Louisville State!

Jones made to Harrelson in kind of a high-low post set? The thing that can make that so effective is that Jones has incredibly quick hands (notice him pick off that rebound without leaving the floor—like the strike of a rattlesnake) and can keep the defense honest with his ability to drive.

It happened twice in the second half and was really cool. The defense was so frozen by guarding against Jones’ drive that even Jorts had time to make the bucket underneath. Impressive, but it happens best, of course, when Jones is facing the basket. He still looks a “little” uncomfortable with his back to the basket.

UK, overall, played a very efficient game. That’s probably the first time I could say that about the team this year. The only issues I saw were a few lazy offensive mistakes, it took a bit to adjust to the “CalZone” defense, and they missed several open shots in the first half.

Miller played a much better game than he has previously. I’ve seen a lot of “intense” posts and I agree with them. But I also think he made better decisions on offense. When he got the ball, he made the open pass when he should have and took the shot when he should have. He didn’t score a lot, but he did take the open shot when it was there. I’d still like to see him become more involved in the offense by asking for the ball – make the defense play him more honestly – and we’d see even more opportunities for the “stars” to get open shots. Last night was a big step in the right direction. Hope he continues improving.

Glad to see Hood got a decent amount of playing time. I think he could be a viable option – just needs to hit his open 3s like he did in high school, and get more aggressive on defense. He should be on the Harrellson practice schedule, IMO.

when UK went to the zone, their offense went flat. Any thoughts on a correlation?