Upon Further Review: How Good was Kentucky Against the Commodores?
by Glenn Logan on Feb 1, 2010 2:00 PM EST
in Kentucky Wildcats Basketball
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PrintThere are times during a game when, even though you have a big lead, you feel like your opponent can come back and beat you any second. I have to admit, I got that feeling, ever so slightly, at one point versus the Vanderbilt Commodores.
I mean, UK has given up big leads before during this campaign. We saw the Florida Gators come back from down 15 points early in the second half in Gainesville to tie the game before the Wildcats pulled away. Kentucky had the Auburn Tigers down 19 with 1:56 left in the first half in Auburn, but came back to tie the game at 60 with over eight minutes remaining. The 'Cats had the North Carolina Tar Heels down 19 late in the first half only to see that lead eventually evaporate en route to a 2-point win.
I think that Kentucky fans have become somewhat used to the 'Cats giving up all or part of big leads, but it goes without saying that the willingness of this team to surrender big chunks of their advantage has left most of us uneasy, although in the only UK loss so far, it wasn't surrendering a big lead that got the Wildcats beaten, but the inability to get a lead of any size and hold it.
The Vandy game, though, was different. Kentucky got a big lead with about six minutes to go in the first half, and doggedly held on to most of it throughout the rest of the game, The Wildcats were never able to continue growing that lead until the Commodores collapsed under the weight of it, but unlike other fairly recent efforts, they hung on with remarkable tenacity despite the best efforts of Ogilvy & Co.
More after the jump.
Unfortunately, Statsheet.com, whom I normally cite to compare the four factors, must've had a hiccup this game. I pretty well know without looking that Vanderbilt did not attempt 99 field goals, and that they didn't shoot 24.7% eFG. But with that said, let's look at the correct data courtesy of Kenpom.com and visualized through the magic of Google fusion tables:
A quick glance is all it takes to see where UK went right and Vandy was rendered almost helpless. Take a look at that green bar -- that represents offensive rebound percentage. Kentucky held Vanderbilt to only 13% OR. That is by far UK's best performance of the season, and you have to go to teams like the Hartford Hawks, the Drexel Dragons and UNC-Asheville Bulldogs to find teams that Kentucky dominated like that on the boards. Keep in mind, though, that the 'Cats did this to Vanderbilt, a top 25 team. How that looks in raw numbers is an 18-3 offensive rebound advantage. Gobsmacking.
For the record, that 119.1 OE number isn't bad either, but it doesn't come close to our best of the season, which was 150.2 versus Hartford. OE's over 115 are really good, over 120 are great, and values over 130 are dominant.
Of the Four Factors, the OR% disparity is the one that stands out the most. Vandy did almost everything else fine. They shot well enough to win most games, which is a little surprising to me, and they got to the line very well at 67.4%. The one area where they were a bit out of character was in turnovers, but it isn't as if they were loathsome in that stat, either. Their season average is 19.8, and in this game it was 21. Kentucky turned the ball over even more at 23.8%
Which, by the way, answers the question, "Why did UK not blow Vandy out by 30?" Three reasons, really -- UK allowed Vandy to shoot pretty well from the field, put them on the line a lot (the pathetic officiating in this game had a lot to do with that on both sides), and turned the ball over too much. In fact, Kentucky's production at the line was not that great at only 64% -- Vandy shot 10% better and got there nearly as often.
Do you recall how I rejected the idea that UK lost the game against USC? The biggest reason for that was the OR%, where the South Carolina Gamecocks clearly dominated Kentucky from an effort standpoint, along with a few other effort stats that showed the Gamecocks clearly outplayed Kentucky. This was just the opposite. Kentucky clearly outplayed the Vanderbilt Commodores in the effort area, and that was the difference.
Another thing -- many people would think Kentucky played pretty solid defense in that game, but the reality is that Vandy's eFG% was 53.3 versus UK's 55.6 That's the third highest effective field goal percentage the 'Cats have allowed this season. Vandy shot 33% from three, which is not lights-out and is certainly not par for them, but it is still good enough to beat most teams.
Vanderbilt has been vulnerable on the offensive glass all year, and in fact are allowing a greater percentage of OR's than they are getting, so this problem won't likely go away by the time we trek down to Nashville for the rematch. Vandy normally overcomes their rebounding woes by taking good care of the ball and shooting a high percentage.
In summary, this was a good but not great game by UK, statistically, except in one area -- offensive rebounding. And I'm sure you already know this, but the guy responsible for over 50% of that advantage wears #15 on his chest and his emotions on his sleeve (well, if he had a sleeve, I guess...). DeMarcus Cousins all by himself almost tripled Vanderbilt's output on the offensive glass. That's ... otherworldly.
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I think
most of those percentages that don’t shine on Kentucky come from the fact that we were in fould trouble with our starters. Again, the TOTAL bench play was not impressive. I wish I could do stats on it but I am not techie :)
no doubt
If we had not been in foul trouble, we were looking at a 40/20 game for Cuz.Otherwise, we were just running away with it until all the calls killed the momentum.
"Ignorance, I can fix, stupidity, well that's another matter!"-82nd Airborne NCO
Bench play
Although they did not extend the lead, what made me happy about the bench play was that they maintained a consistent gap of 14-16 pts for the most part. When Wall, Cuz, and Pat were on the bench I was nervous about Vandy going on a run.
We had BCG's recruits holding the fort
while everyone else was on the bench
"Ignorance, I can fix, stupidity, well that's another matter!"-82nd Airborne NCO
Hell yeah! ;)
It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
by kentuckygirl0724 on Feb 1, 2010 2:43 PM EST up reply actions
Bledsoe and Liggins played well on both sides of the ball off the
bench and the others played good defense, especially to maintain the lead for the last 4 to 5 minutes of the first half. There have been plenty of games we didn’t get much out of the bench, but that was not the case in this game.
I
am racking my brain to try to explain this………….guess what I am saying is the bench play was not continuing what was going on…….they weren’t pushing it enough………I am sorry but bench play in future games might have to be better to maintain the lead………we were lucky the Ogilivy had poor foul shooting that day.
Ogilvy
Cousins made Ogilvy his b****.
It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
by kentuckygirl0724 on Feb 1, 2010 2:08 PM EST reply actions
...and then slapped his mama....
First time I shot her, shot her in the side.
Hard to watch her suffer, but with the second shot she died...
Careful btcop!!
We dont want the headlining story on ESPN to be “Cousins Goes Beserk: Slaps Rival Player’s Mother.” ;)
It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
by kentuckygirl0724 on Feb 1, 2010 2:11 PM EST up reply actions
Sorry for butchering your name - lol!
It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
by kentuckygirl0724 on Feb 1, 2010 2:11 PM EST up reply actions
I think it can reasonably be stated
that Big Cuz is the best and most dominant big man in the nation. Wall #1 and Big Cuz #2 in the draft (ok, maybe 3, 4 or 5).
My god he has developed a wicked baseline move.
by Shootmeibleedblue on Feb 1, 2010 3:07 PM EST reply actions
If I'm an NBA GM
I take Cousins, simply because of the premium that exists on pro big men. There aren’t very many truly dominant big men, and Cousins has the POTENTIAL to be a great NBA player.
I’m not taking anything away from Wall; he’s a great player, who will excel at the next level.
Vandy game - I thought UK was clearly a focused, intense ball club, and the play out of the three-spot was the best it’s been all year - Liggins, and Dodson combined for 25 points in jsut over 40 minutes of combined action. Vandy is an excellent team, and they were made to look very average (except for Beal).
No team would
pass on Wall as the #1 pick. Although he has not played very well the past couple games, he is truly the elite of the elite and makes all NBA teams drool. He is not the transcendant player like LeBron so if a team went with Big Cuz I don’t think it would start raining cats and dogs.
by Shootmeibleedblue on Feb 1, 2010 3:31 PM EST up reply actions
You can't use em-dashes ...
… in comments. Just use a single “-”.
Also, preview is your friend. :-)
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
If we get that kind of production from the 3 spot the rest of the year
we should be very hard to beat.
Big Cuz might not have had a sleeve
but he wears a really neat headband. LOL
Maybe that’s it. :-)
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
I think he meant that it was Nashville not Knoxville, the article now shows Nashville
"Come test me every day if you want," says Pujols, "Everything I ever made in this game I would give back to the Cardinals if I got caught."
I'm gonna fire my editor.
Oh, wait … :-)
Thanks to all for pointing this out so it doesn’t have to live in posterity. :-)
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
teach me to read down further
"Come test me every day if you want," says Pujols, "Everything I ever made in this game I would give back to the Cardinals if I got caught."
Jeebus.
I was just listening to some channel here in Louisville (whatever the heck 790 AM is) and two guys were just teeing off on Cousins, warning UK fans of the horrors of the officials running him sometime on a phantom forearm and UK losing a game.
First of all, what the heck are UK fans supposed to do, start hating on him? After the last two games? Are you freaking serious, guys? Compared to Jamaal Magliore, Cousins is a shrinking violet.
Second of all, get over your bad selves about the Swopshire mishap. That was so seven games ago. Yes, it was bad, but it wasn’t that bad. And yes, the SEC has reviewed both incidents and found them wanting in the “worthy of punishment” department.
Third, if Cousins gets run and costs us a game because he develops a bad reputation, so what? What can fans do about that, go over to his facebook page and talk bad about his mama? That’s basketball. It happens. If Coach Cal is cool with it, he can listen to us gripe at him if Cousins costs us a Final Four, because trust me, we will. But fans have no place haranguing players. That’s the coaches job.
Sheesh. I’ll take my chances with the big guy’s temper, thank you very much. By the way, to all you Cousins haters out there (Not many takers here, I’ll bet), that was a forearm, not an elbow. If it had been an elbow, he would have been ejected.
I want Cousins to settle down and stop the superfluous stuff just like every other UK fan, but to hear these guys talk, you’d think he’d been caught with a shiv hidden in his headband or something. But of course, the real audience wasn’t us – it was the officials they hope are listening. They want to see Cousins tossed and suspended so bad, it’s killing them. One guy claimed to be a “fan” of Cousins.
Well if so, then STFU and make your claim when he does something worthy of recriminations. God knows, I’m about the world’s worst scold, and if I think it’s BS, you gotta really wonder what all the fuss is about.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
Embrace it Tru
I have heard that saying somewhere before, can’t quite put my finger on where exactly.
;-)
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
Sometimes ...
… you just have to tell ‘em to go to hell. For sanity’s sake. :-)
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
now when I do that you start referring to some zen nonsense
and tell me to have “patience grasshopper”…..lol….why dont I get to tell ’em to go to hell???
Remember, we're having fun now!!!
Tru,
please don’t hold your feelings back so much in your next post.
Heh.
I have to admit, they got to me a bit. Nobody would like to see Cousins knock off the superfluous contact more than me, but until he does something more than a common foul, I don’t see what all the fuss is about.
I think part of the problem is that the announcers are just itching to berate Cousins for something. They expect him to do something reckless, so they blow common fouls into “should have been ejected”s.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
wins and success are not stories
They are all waiting to report the next big story,instead of following the program and just reporting it. Sensationalism has spread to the fans too.
"Ignorance, I can fix, stupidity, well that's another matter!"-82nd Airborne NCO
EXACTLY
This is what I have been talking about. Cousins is being hammered in the media and I for one am SICK of it.
People better back off! I love me some DeMarcus Cousins and I’m starting to get real pissed off about this whole situation. What’s that saying again? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?? Maybe a different context here, but the basic principle still applies. ;)
You tell those guys at 790AM – and whoever else chooses to be on the wrong side of this argument – You tell ‘em I’m comin’…and hell’s comin’ with me!!!
TEAM COUSINS!!!!!!!
Ok….so maybe I DO have just a LITTLE flair for the dramatic – lol. Feels good though. ;)
It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
by kentuckygirl0724 on Feb 1, 2010 6:33 PM EST up reply actions
you and cuz
would make a good team, the media would really have something to write about….lmao
STFU?
Remember, opinions are like a** holes, everybody has one. And they are entitled to their opinion…even if it is from someone who is off their rocker. I didn’t hear it, but your description makes them sound like they have the six pack, just not the plastic thingy to hold it together.
Guys like that ...
… are only entitled to an opinion if I give them one! :-)
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
"the plastic thingy to hold it together"
That’s called a “zilch”. (Yes, they really have a name for it.) This random piece of trivia brought to you by Acdixon, the letter “K”, the number “8”, and generous donations from viewers like you.
Hmm
I was just listening to some channel here in Louisville
There’s your problem right there……
Haters want to hate…..
First time I shot her, shot her in the side.
Hard to watch her suffer, but with the second shot she died...
Hey ...
… I live in Louisville. We don’t get Lexington radio down here. :-)
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
You can't pick up 630 Wlap in Louisville?
I listen to it all the way from about Lock 8 to Indianapolis every work travel day.
"Ignorance, I can fix, stupidity, well that's another matter!"-82nd Airborne NCO
Tru, your valiant defense
of DeMarcus is very admirable and as you can guess, is very much appreciated by me. : )
Maybe a bit over the top considering that the words were coming from, as you mentioned, a Louisville radio station, who in my mind is really not an entity that matters all that much and they can hardly be considered mainstream media and to me, giving credence to low-budget no name media outlets is sort of like rewarding drama with drama, you know? But, like I said, your voice here was most definitely appreciated by little ol’ me.
DeMarcus Cousins has approached the point of being uncritisizable in his game, and since he is all the buzz right now and everyone is talking about him in some capacity, the only thing that rivals, or just downright haters have left to do would be to attack his character. They are clearly exaggerating their thoughts and words for effect.
But again, I really appreciated your noble defense of DeMarcus, and would like to point out that most excellent article that a mainstream media did actually come up with; it’s the si piece you linked in yesterday’s Big Blue Daily Mail. It’s a great read and hopefully the "DeMarcus Cousins isn’t evil" mantra it’s catching on with some of the other mainstream media, as well, because after all, they are the ones who spread the word to thousands, not just a limited Louisville market. : )
What's all the fuss about?
The fuss is about the fact that nobody, and I do mean nobody, can stop him when he’s on the floor; therefore, get him off the floor. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on the Swopshire incident. I undoubtedly would have done the same thing if I had been kneed in the head. The forearm Saturday was hard, but I’ve seen other similar incidents where there was no call at all, much less an ejection. I will not give him the benefit of the doubt about his argument with the officials. Players just can’t do that, period, even when the officiating is as horrendous as it was Saturday. Maybe when he stomps on a player’s chest while he’s flat on his back, I’ll change my mind. It seems like I saw that once and there was no ejection, only a technical. The details won’t quite focus in my mind. It’s like it was 18 years ago or something.
I may be paranoid, but that doesn't mean they're not out to get me.
Yeah.
But arguing with the officials like that isn’t going to get you tossed, just a T and some time on the pine where the coach will explain the inappropriate nature of popping off to your elders.
I can live with the odd technical for arguing or demonstration. That’s just something that happens, and that’s Cousins’ first one, to my surprise, for crap like that.
A Sea of Blue -- Kentucky Sports for the Discerning Fan
We know...
you have a perfect memory of the incident 18 years ago. We ALL do….LOL
You can’t fool us by claiming minor amnesia. ;-)
Blue... there is no other color to Bleed !!!
every UK fan
remembers that like it was yesterday, where they were at, who they were with……it was like a bad dream…it couldnt be happening
It was the start
Of the “Duke conspiracy”
"Ignorance, I can fix, stupidity, well that's another matter!"-82nd Airborne NCO
Cuz took an elbow to the head
Saturday. No foul called.
I didn't mean he should get tossed for arguing
That sort of thing just adds to his notoriety, whether it’s deserved or not. I think the main problem with the officials was that they wanted their moms to see them on TV. The game seemed to be as much or more about them as it was about the teams from the “git go.” One way or the other, I love Big Cuz, whether it’s schooling the other team’s 5 or making a baby laugh.
I may be paranoid, but that doesn't mean they're not out to get me.
Tru,
this is totally off subject but I looked everywhere and can’t find where someone contacts you guys to post an advertisement.
That Cousins talk
is apparently fodder in the Southeast (or at least TN) sportstalk’s repertoire. Morning and afternoon shows bring it up virtually every day in Nashville. I’ve heard it in Knoxville too. Fact is, Big Cuz seems to take his territory very seriously, I’m happy to say.
new uniforms next week!
just announced on the Big Blue Sports Network. LeBron uniform model, whatever that is. Hope someone will have a picture up soon.
"Do you recall how I rejected the idea that UK lost the game against USC?"
Um. . .yeah, I think that might have been discussed once or twice in this forum. . .
;-)
It's time. . .
This article is just another bullet
…in the list of how much Demarcus Cousins owned this game. I think it was obvious to all who watched his offensive output early and then throughout the game. While he pwned ‘em on offense, I didn’t realize how thoroughly he owned the O boards. If that young man could learn to control his emotions just a bit better, the sky is the limit. JW may have to look out for a possible threat to his #1 draft spot.
If PP2 would show up more often and be the beast we know him to be, this team could not only win it all, but leave a mark like the 96/97 Cats did.
I am really enjoying the ride this year. Thanks to a great group of guys and Coach Cal for bringing back the fire. Bring ’em on!
As other's have pointed out.....
neither team could get into any kind of flow due to the way the officials called the game so not sure how you can really judge this game. Vandy has a good team but doesn’t have a player besides the big Aussie that could break UK’s top 7. Should UK have blown them out? Probably if they were clicking all on cylinders but they weren’t.
Were they more focused than in the SC game? Obviously yes but in my opinion they still weren’t playing anywhere near where they should be. Miller is still MIA and thankfully Dodson and Liggins are picking up that slack. PP is shooting bend forward at the waist 3 pointers and yes he hit some but hope we never get in a game where we NEED that shot. Wall and Bledsoe both played pretty good games but nothing near the level we’ve seen both play in their better games. Cousins for all the drama is becoming THE MAN more and more each game……never know how many minutes you’re going to get from him but you know he’ll be busting his ass every minute and what more can you ask?
Kansas seems to have had some in season issues between some of the players and Self but based on their play in last couple of games at least, they appear to have put those behind them and are looking really good. Is UK having some similar issues?
I think many will agree that Wall hasn’t looked like himself for a couple of weeks, PP hasn’t seemed his normal self, Miller is MIA and the name Cousins seems to be on everyone’s lips and not in a good way. I think this is the point in the season where Cal is really going to earn those big bucks he’s getting paid. I feel good about his ability to get all these kids focused and together as we head toward the end of the regular season and get ready for the tournament.
In my opinion, the two best games we’ve played this year were the 2000 wins game and the getting to #1 game. The kids have shown what they can do…..now it’s on Cal to get the kids focused and hungry and if he can, there’s no college team out there that can hang with these kids.
You can't fix "stupid"!
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