Sunday Quickies: SuffoCats Edition

The Cats continue to perform well on the defensive end

By Zac Oakes@ZacOakes Feb 23, 2020, 6:40am EST

The old saying is that defense wins championships.

Hopefully that comes to fruition this year as Kentucky continues to be one of the better defensive teams in the country, ranking 12th nationally in effective field goal percentage defense.

(In case you aren’t familiar with effective field goal percentage, you can learn more here.)

And after last night’s performance in a victory against the Florida Gators, the Wildcats have now had 16 consecutive games in which they have held their opponent below their season average in effective field goal percentage.

Kentucky has a 16 game streak of holding opponents below their season average in effective FG%. Only 3 opponents all season have a better eFG% against UK than their season avg (Utah Valley, Utah, Ohio St).
— Hoops Insight (@HoopsInsights) February 23, 2020

Defense has been a major part of Kentucky’s six-game winning streak, as the Cats have been able to defend well on the perimeter and the interior. Having returning players such as Nick Richards, Ashton Hagans, Immanuel Quickley, and EJ Montgomery has certainly been beneficial as freshmen often take longer to adjust on the defensive end.

If Kentucky wants to make a run in March, they’ll have to keep up their play on the defensive end, especially because this team is prone to having an off shooting night.

John Calipari’s best teams have been very strong on the defensive end. Maybe this team can join those ranks.

Tweet of the Day

Immanuel Quickley said John Wall was one of the biggest reasons he came to Kentucky. To have Wall here, score 26, get Wall out of his seat cheering for him? “It don’t get no better than that.”
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) February 23, 2020