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On Saturday we had the immense pleasure of watching the Kentucky Wildcats play their best game of the season. For those keeping score at home, this is the third straight game that UK has played their "best game of the season." If this trend continues, I fully expect to see them beat Georgia on Senior Day by a score of 103 to 15.
I listened to Tom Leach's post game interview with Coach Calipari and when Leach asked Cal what the team did defensively to shut South Carolina down, I heard something I never expected from a Calipari interview: silence. There was a long pause and I could almost see the wheels turning in Cal's head as to how to give an answer that would not embarrass Darin Horn or the Gamecock players. Cal eventually answered that when you block a lot of shots it starts to take a toll on the opponent and make them start to second guess whether they want to take a shot or not. Nowhere was this more evident than in the 2nd half when a Gamecock (I don't remember who it was) pump faked approximately 23 times to try and get Anthony Davis into the air before deciding to pass the ball back out to the perimeter.
| Kentucky | Defense Box Score: Kentucky vs South Carolina | ||||||||||||
| Name | Min | FGM | FGA | 3PTM | 3PTA | FTM | FTA | Def Rb | Blocks | TO | Steals | Points | Fouls |
| T. Jones | 27 | 1 | 6.16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0.84 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| M. Kidd-Gilchrist | 30 | 4 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0.33 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
| A. Davis | 28 | 2 | 10.68 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 1.83 | 2 | 9 | 3 |
| D. Lamb | 28 | 2.5 | 6.66 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1.5 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
| M. Teague | 28 | 1.5 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.67 | 1 | 4 | 1 | |
| D. Miller | 20 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0.83 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| T. Beckham | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| E. Vargas | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| K. Wiltjer | 18 | 1 | 2.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Undefended | 40 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 8 | |||
| Totals | 200 | 18 | 59 | 9 | 20 | 7 | 15 | 26 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 52 | 13 |
- I cannot say enough good things about Doron Lamb this game. He was very energetic and active on defense, moved his feet well and refused to be parted from his assignment. Lamb started off guarding Damian Leonard and did a terrific job on him.
- Marquis Teague was also fantastic in defending Bruce Ellington. You can see above that Teague was involved in defending a lot of shot attempts and only gave up 4 points. I really liked watching him play defense this game.
- Darius Miller's numbers are not going to look good, but I think he defended well - guys just hit a number of tough shots against him. He also grabbed a defensive rebound!
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is the victim of being one of the few Wildcats still somewhat interested in defending during the last 5 minutes of the game. 2.5 of the made field goals against MKG came in the last 6 possessions of the game. It's odd to see him with only 2 defensive rebounds too, but that is certainly a fluke.
| Kentucky | Four Factors | Ratings | |||||||||
| Name | Opp eFG% | Opp TO% | FTRate | DRb% | Stops | Scores | Plays | Stop% | DPoss% | Def Rtg | Opp Eff |
| T. Jones | 16.2 | 12.6 | 32.5 | 19.0 | 5.2 | 1.5 | 6.7 | 0.78 | 0.17 | 80.6 | 44.9 |
| T. Beckham | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11.4 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.00 | 0.04 | 83.2 | 0.0 |
| M. Teague | 25.0 | 32.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 5.2 | 0.71 | 0.12 | 84.0 | 77.0 |
| A. Davis | 23.4 | 16.2 | 56.2 | 18.3 | 7.4 | 3.9 | 11.3 | 0.65 | 0.27 | 84.3 | 79.7 |
| Undefended | 50.0 | 11.4 | 0.0 | 15.4 | 5.8 | 3.0 | 8.8 | 0.66 | 0.15 | 85.3 | 91.4 |
| K. Wiltjer | 60.0 | 0.0 | 80.0 | 11.4 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 0.63 | 0.10 | 86.3 | 109.8 |
| D. Lamb | 45.0 | 19.8 | 45.0 | 11.0 | 4.6 | 3.0 | 7.6 | 0.61 | 0.18 | 87.1 | 92.5 |
| D. Miller | 50.0 | 17.0 | 40.0 | 5.1 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 4.9 | 0.49 | 0.16 | 91.2 | 123.1 |
| E. Vargas | 150.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 8.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.35 | 0.09 | 91.8 | 195.8 |
| M. Kidd-Gilchrist | 40.9 | 4.4 | 0.0 | 6.8 | 3.6 | 4.0 | 7.6 | 0.47 | 0.17 | 92.2 | 118.8 |
| Totals | 38.1 | 13.3 | 25.4 | 66.7 | 35.4 | 21.3 | 56.7 | 0.62 | 86.7 | ||
- Another terrific game for Terrence Jones who just continues to dominate opponents on the defensive end. He did a bit of everything this game and made it really hard for his man to score as evidenced by a 78% Stop Percentage and 44.9 Opponent Efficiency.
- Anthony Davis gets involved and makes it really hard to score. I lack the vocabulary and writing skill to adequately describe just how dominant he is game after game. This requires someone like Joe Posnanski.
- I mentioned this above, but I don't read much into the ugly lines for Miller and Kidd-Gilchrist.