Transylvania Pioneers, 53, Kentucky Wildcats, 97:  Postmortem

Play gradually got better. Anthony Davis needs to hit the weight room.

Miller makes his first three shots and the Cats never look back. He didn’t disappear, and he did a lot of good things, but he always gets off to those slow starts.

Can anyone say ball handling? They can all do that, ALL of them.

Speed was amazing, almost too amazing at times.

Defense really improved in second half, which you would expect, but like you Glenn, I was pleased, but not impressed.

Any win by more than 40 points is impressive, dont get me wrong, but lots of things to clean up on that floor tonight.

If they had played well from the start. But, they would not have learned anything from it. And you can argue they they wouldn’t need to learn anything which would be hard to argue. I’ll argue anyway, of course. I want them to learn something every game. Because what they learn now will pay back later. Put a bunch of these learning experiences together and you end up with a great run at the end of the season. That’s what I want. Great progress tonight.

even if it was for Transy. Gavin Dunnagan gave a great effort tonight for the Pioneers.

was awesome. I won’t comment on individual performances, it has already been pretty well hashed out. I will comment on the crowd’s reception of Transylvania. It was very warm and positive. There was a lot of applause for those KY boys as they were introduced. Then came the UK introduction production and the Transy team stood there, transfixed by all of the glitz and hype. I thought they might be totally overwhelmed and run out of the arena but they seemed to understand what it was all about much more than the UK players. Hated to see them have to lose.

Your comment that the Transy players had a shorter walk to Rupp than the UK players got me thinking.

Gary Bates at the Rupp Arena Public meeting said that the public’s perception of distance is skewed in Lexington. The two comments that I remember clearly is that the distance from Rupp to the Library is the same distance as Macy’s to DIllards at the mall. And that UK’s campus is FAR closer than people think, but because a lack of sight lines, people feel it is longer.

So I fired up Google Maps and decided to find out. I do not know where the Transy players’ dorm is, so I calculated from Kenilworth Ct (which is close to being centrally located on campus). Obviously I calculated the UK players’ walk from Wildcat Lodge.

Interestingly, they were both 0.7 miles. If anyone know where the Transy players are housed on campus, I can fire up my arcGIS application and get a more exact measurement.

I find this fascinating, because I wouldn’t think twice about walking from Rupp to Third Street Stuff, but would never have considered walking from Rupp to Two Key’s. And Two Key’s is closer.

I think MKG is the best prepared Fresh we got. I LOVE the intensity, and I think he has tons of potential as he grows. I hesitate to compare him to Liggins, simply b/c Liggins took a few years to get to where MKG is (as far as intensity goes) right now.

Teague seems like he will get comfortable as the games come this way, I think he, too, has great potential. Davis is there, but maybe just pre-game nervs for him. I think his mind was not there this game, but will hopefully learn the mental part as we move forward.

Now, I have to say this: Jones still seems like he lets things get to him mentally. Am I the only one that notices this? He seems like he feels he doesn’t want to be “embarrassed” by a smaller player, and will go wildly with the shot, as opposed to just taking it right up. Several times during this game, he “floated” a bank shot in, on a guy that was 5 inches or more, shorter. He should have just jumped to the rim.

I see this in his eyes and when he is on the floor, he seems like he gets frustrated, then stops having “fun” and then loses focus. He needs to work on that; case in point: he was not frustrated during the blue/white game.

…If MKG continues to play like this, how long can Cal hold him out of the starting lineup. I know he’ll get “starter’s minutes” regardless, but man, that’s a nice stat line.

…I think there’s a bit more of a HS to college transition for Davis coming from Perspectives Charter than for Teague/MKG/Wiltjer, who all played for large class championship teams. Davis looked good against other HS A-A’s on the all-star circuit. He’ll be fine.

…Teague’s 9:2 AST:TO ratio was nice. 1-5 from 3, not so nice.

…Not having Hood or Poole as backups is concerning. While Miller shifting down to the 2 does cause all kinds of matchup problems for the opponent, I’m concerned that above average guards will be able take advantage of that quickness differential. Jarrod Polson getting just 3 minutes—doesn’t seem like he’ll be a contributor this year.

i thought teague did pretty good for his first game …knight and wall had similary problems if not more their first go….lamb is awesome…kidd-gilchrest ..awesome …jones…a lil off but he will be awesome…miller…played more of a role playing role when he should have stepped up ….davis did not impress on offense at all but looked beastly on defense, but i know cal will get him going..wiltjer wasnt impressive by no means actually thought he looked like crap…wanted to see vargas get more minutes..think he will be a key role player this year and might have to fill the center spot alot due to davis’ size …all in all i think uk will be very awesome this year but not as fast as we might have hoped…alot of work to be done but hey to get 97 points with a crappy first 15 mins isnt very bad no matter who the team is…. really excited for mondays game to see improvements and the starting line up….wouldnt mind seeing uk go with a 2 guard 3 f line up maybe a teague, lamb, gilchrest,miller ,jones..when we arent playing tall teams ..but all in all uk will be a def national title contender..just need to get these yougins going

…could Cal please make a team rule that prevents players from wearing short-sleeved shirts under their jerseys? It looks sloppy, and the players can’t do it once they are in the NBA. So in an effort to present your team as professional-looking, why not make a similar rule?

Anthony Davis… I’m talking to you.