After a little redemption Wednesday night against Vanderbilt, Kentucky must now turn it's attention to one of the new members of the SEC, Missouri. While Missouri will be a tough game, there is a little added pressure considering the fact that ESPN College Game Day will be invading Rupp Arena for their all day broadcast from the floor of the winningest program in college basketball history. There is no doubt this will be the largest crowd of the year for Game Day, much like it was the largest crowd the last time the show was broadcast from Rupp during Cal first season at the helm.
Missouri came to the SEC from the Big 12 and started the year off pretty strong reaching a number 7 ranking in the AP Poll, but has seemed to have faded a bit heading into the final weeks of the regular season as they will enter the game Saturday unranked. Don't let the fact that they aren't ranked at the moment mislead you, this is a very good team, a team that just defeated Florida by 3. Kentucky will without question have it's work cut out for them this weekend when these two face off for just the fifth time in history. Which of these two has won the first four meetings you ask, that would be Kentucky winning 3 of the 4 by double digits and the smallest margin of victory being 83-79 in 1971.
The effort and intensity we seen Wednesday night against Vandy will have to carry over and there definitely CANNOT be any second half lull because this team will make you pay. Since Missouri is a new member to the conference and some may not be very familiar with them, let's do a little highlight of their history...
EST: 1839
LOCATION: Columbia, Missouri
COLORS: Black and MU Gold
NICKNAME: Tigers
MASCOT: Truman the Tiger
NOTABLE ALUMNI:
Sheryl Crow (musician)
Jon Hamm (actor)
Brad Pitt (actor- also one credit away from graduating with a degree in journalism)
Evan Bourne (WWE Superstar)
Pat Forde (every Kentucky fans favorite Yahoo sports writer)
Now that your caught up on a little bit of the history of "MIZZOU" let's see how the Cats compare with the Tigers numbers wise....
BY THE NUMBERS:
TIGERS CATS
PPG: 76 74
RPG: 42 38
APG: 14 14
SPG: 7 6
BPG: 3 7
TPG: 13 13
FG%: 44 48
FT%: 75 64
3P%: 33 36
THE TIGERS HAVE 6 PLAYERS AVERAGING DOUBLE FIGURES IN SCORING
Laurence Bowers: 14.2ppg, shoots 53% from the floor and 39% from 3
Jabari Brown: 14.5ppg, FT% 80, 3PT% 37
Phil Pressey: 11.8ppg, 6.9 asts, 1.8 stls, FT% 79
Keion Bell: 11.6 ppg, 3PT% 38
Earnest Ross: 10.5 ppg, 3PT% 38
Alex Oriakhi: 10.3 ppg, 8.6 rpg, FT% 73
THE TIGERS ALSO LEAD THE NATION IN REBOUNDS PER GAME AT 42.2 AND ARE 25TH IN THE NATION IN POINTS PER GAME WITH 76.
KENTUCKY RANKS 45TH NATIONALLY IN REBOUNDS PER CONTEST WITH 38.1 AND 35TH NATIONALLY IN POINTS PER GAME WITH 74.3. THE ONE AREA THAT THE CATS RANK HIGHER THAN MIZZOU IS FG% WITH 48% WHICH IS GOOD ENOUGH TO PUT THE CATS AT 13TH IN THE NATION.
By looking at the stats, Kentucky will have to play a near perfect game offensively and defensively to pull this one off. I'm not saying it's impossible, but considering they are missing their best player and the way they have played all season, things look doubtful.
For the Cats to even have a shot at winning Saturday night, they must first take care of the ball better than they have this year. You cannot have unforced errors against a team with this many weapons and expect to win the game. Missouri is a team that will make you pay for even the slightest mistake, just ask Florida. The last thing (besides all the usual ones we go through every game) Kentucky must do a better job of is rebounding the ball. With the Tigers ranking 1st in the country in rebounding, they will get their share (maybe more) of rebounds without guys helping them by not battling under the basket. No way can Kentucky give up easy offensive rebounds the way it usually does and be in a position to win at the end of the game. Guys will have to work harder than usual as Missouri is big and physical in the middle, more so than any other team the Cats have faced all year. Toss in the fact they will have to do all this without Nerlens Noel and it's then you begin to realize how steep the hill is they will have to climb Saturday night. The up side to all this is, if Kentucky can pull off the upset (yes it would considered an upset) their dreams of getting an NCAA tournament bid comes a little more into focus.
I for one will be expecting a win Saturday night just like every other Cat fan out there in the Big Blue Nation. But a loss isn't the end of the world... but it's as close as it could get when it comes to the Cats' post season hopes...
No comments:
Post a Comment