Finally we got to see somewhat of a complete game from Kentucky today as they spank S.C. By 31 points, and handing S.C. their worse loss of the season. Kentucky came out on fire going out in front 15-0 before S.C. scored their first basket. Four of the 5 starters scored double digits, and all around everyone played good.
The strange start to this game was Liggins being taken out of the starting line-up in favor of Doron Lamb, which was a coaches decision. Not sure what that was all about, but it seemed to have worked as Kentucky played some of it's best basketball in conference play this year.
The real story of the game was the play of Darius Miller. He was just unconscious from 3 point range going 6-6 from deep before his first miss. Miller finished the game with a career high 22 pts, and going 6-8 from deep and one rebound shy of a double double. The only thing disturbing about Miller's stat line is that one, this is his first 20 point game of the season and two, 22 pts is his career high. Miller with his ability could be averaging almost 20 pts a game. And it is hard to believe that as a junior that 22 pts is a career high. But besides that, Miller played a great game and actually played with the effort I have been screaming at my TV for 3 yrs for.
Doron Lamb was his usual sharp shooting self going 3-5 from deep and 5-11 from the field to finish with 18 pts. Lamb is one of the best pure shooters in the SEC and can also hit the midrange shot extremely well which makes hit hard for the opposing team to guard him. Brandon Knight didn't have a very good game today finishing with only 12 pts, going 0-3 from long range, 4-8 from the line (which is uncharacteristic), and 4-9 from the field. But the good stat for Knight was he had 9 assists as he got everyone involved in the scoring.
Terrence Jones despite his stat line didn't play very well today he finished with 19 pts, but he made some very poor decisions on the offensive end of the floor. Many times he would drive to the rim looking to make a play that wasn't there instead of pitching out to the open player on the wings. But he did get his 10th double double of the year with 19pts and 12 rebounds.
"The Garbage Man" Jorts played well in spots finishing the game with 6 points and 9 rebounds and defended fairly decent. Jorts isn't the most talented player on the team but he does play hard every game.
S.C started the second half running some full court press which seems to rattle Kentucky the first few minutes and looked like it was going to make a run, but Cal called a timeout and settled them down. But at times the press still looked to confuse the Cats.
This was the first game in conference play that the ending wasn't ever in doubt, and it felt good to finally see a game like this. But there isn't time to rest as Kentucky goes back on the road to another tough place to play at Arkansas. And we all know how Kentucky has played on the road in the SEC this year. Let's just hope they can get over these problems on the road and actually get a win that they really need!
No comments:
Post a Comment