Kentucky, trying to improve it's resume heading into the post season and Missouri, looking to get a quality win on the road (they were 1-6 on the road coming into tonight) in the SEC met on the biggest regular season stage, ESPN College Gameday. Both teams needed this win, Kentucky more so than Missouri considering the fact that Joe Lunardi's latest mock bracket had the Wildcats as one of the "first four out". However, if Kentucky could pull off the win, Lunardi said "this would move Kentucky from the "first four out" to the "last four in", so you could say this game had a little bit ridding on it for the Cats.
We spent the last hour of College Gameday hearing each announcer saying how Kentucky had to "get tough" and "play smarter", the bad part is, they're right. It wouldn't take long to find out if the Cats could answer the call...
Kentucky started the night off playing great defense and not allowing any easy buckets underneath. Ryan Harrow broke open the scoring by banking in a long two from the top of the key giving Kentucky and himself a much needed boost in the confidence department early. Not to be outdone, Missouri connected on their next three shots to take a 7-2 lead with 16:46 to go in the first. The one thing the Cats struggled with early was keeping the Tigers off the offensive boards. That, however has been the story in just about every game this season, so it was no big surprise. The difference in this one was, Missouri is a team that can destroy you if you allow them to get easy put backs. At the first timeout, Missouri led the Cats 9-6 with 14:40 to go till the half.
In the first half, Kentucky seemed to play more under control and comfortable than they have as of late. That was a relief to see for Kentucky fans considering how the last few games they looked like they couldn't wait for the season to be over. After starting the game with some good tough defense, Kentucky started to show old habits on several occasions when Missouri's guards would just blow past a Kentucky defender for an easy lay-up. Guard play would prove to be very important in this game. With 11:04 to go, Missouri led 17-8 thanks in large part to their ability to get offensive rebounds, most of which were too easy because of Kentucky's lack of effort rebounding.
Ryan Harrow played with more confidence in the first half than I have seen him have most of the season. He said when he went to Cal and asked for his starting job back that he felt like he grew up, I would have to agree. The praise can't rest on Harrow alone as Willie Cauley-Stein showed signs of filling the empty shoes left by Noel by blocking two shots in the first half and showing signs of his offensive game improving and the sooner the better.
Missouri led the Cats 21-14 with 7:51 to go while Ryan Harrow had scored 8 of Kentucky's 14 points, the bad part was Kentucky was 0-6 from three up to this point. If Kentucky could play 40 minutes of defense that we see in spurts, they would be by far more successful. These guys give up so easy on defense it's no wonder you can hear Calipari scream on the broadcast. There was no excuse for some of the wide open drives we saw in the first half.
The offense wasn't any better than the defense was for Kentucky, with 4:35 to go in the half, Ryan Harrow and Alex Poythress combined for all of Kentucky's 19 points besides two free-throws from Kyle Wiltjer. If everyone on this team could all get on the same page at the same time, it would be interesting to see what they could accomplish, like Cal said earlier today, the talent is there.
Despite poor defense, poor rebounding and a lack of offense from most of the guys on the roster, Kentucky went to the half down just 35-31 thanks in large part to a 12-4 run to close the half. It was one of the strangest halves to watch, even though Kentucky pretty much got out played for most of the first half, it seemed like they played rather well despite their woes on defense and rebounding.
FIRST HALF STATS:
Harrow: 12pts, 3rebs, 3asts
Cauley-Stein: 2pts, 5rebs
Poythress: 10pts, 4rebs, 1ast
Mays: 3pts, 3rebs, 1ast
Wiltjer: 4pts, 1reb, 2asts
Goodwin: 0pts, 1reb
When you look at the stats for the half, you begin to realize what I was talking about when I said it would be nice to see them all on the same page at one time (I'm looking at you Archie).
Kentucky was out-rebounded in the first half 27-18 and gave up 12 offensive boards. This is one area that has been somewhat of a weakness all season and very well could be their downfall.
Cauley-Stein, despite his lack of offense in the first half did set a career high for blocked shots with 4.
During halftime we did get to see Anthony Davis' NBA commercial, it's always nice to see former CATS prosper.
Kentucky started the second half with Archie Goodwin hitting his first three in 12 games, he was 1-21 in SEC play until that shot. Then Archie had a run out dunk to give Kentucky its first lead at 36-35, this is the Archie fans like to see. Not the one who puts his head down and bowls people over like a fullback. The energy the Cats had to begin the second half was outstanding, everyone got in on the action from the get go. At one point, it sounded as if the roof was going to blow off Rupp. I gotta hand it to the fans tonight, they done everything they could to will Kentucky to a victory, the first time all season that has happened.
At the first timeout of the second half, Kentucky led 47-46 with everyone chipping in, from Archie Goodwin to Julius Mays and Alex Poythress. This was something Kentucky fans have longed for ever since the scrimmage at Big Blue Madness showed us what these kids are capable of. If only we could get 40 minutes of this type of effort every game.
When Goodwin's head is in the game, he can get to the rim better than anyone in the country evidenced by his 9 points all in the second half with 13:11 to go. Kentucky needs more of this version of Archie vs. what we have seen most of the season. I'm not sure, at times where Archie's head is at, but when he decides to play, he plays and no one can stop him. When he hit his second three of the game with 11:49 to go, he had connected on more threes than the rest of the SEC games he has played combined. Maybe this was what he needed going forward with the rest of the season.
At the 9:02 timeout, Kentucky seemed to have found itself leading Missouri 62-55 by playing some of its best basketball of the season. From Archie Goodwin to Julius Mays, everyone brought their best in the second half, and it was fun to watch. I'm not sure what Cal said or did at halftime, but he should write it down for future reference.
At the under 4 timeout, it had turned into a dogfight with Kentucky hanging onto the slimmest of margins at 70-67 thanks to a heavily contested three by Julius Mays with the shot-clock winding down. With two minutes to go, Goodwin went back to his old self, driving the lane turning it over allowing Missouri to tie it up with a lay-up on the other end. He has got to learn when to drive and when to stop and pass.
When the clock struck 0:00, it was only fitting that this game would need an extra 5 minutes to decide a winner. Both teams played an excellent 40 minutes, now what was to come in the extra stanza?
Nerlens Noel couldn't watch the last seconds of the game, even though there was nothing he could do to help his team. This picture speaks volumes.....
Kentucky started the overtime period with a turnover that turned into 2 points on the other end. Julius Mays came right back to nail two free-throws to knot the score at 77 all. One thing I learned during the course of this game, there's a reason Phil Pressey was the pre-season player of the year in the SEC, the kid don't miss when it matters.
The bad part about it going to overtime meant Archie Goodwin played like he did in the first half. Making passes with no one around, just driving to the basket when there was no play to be made. It's hard to figure this kid out, I couldn't begin to imagine trying to coach this kid. Just when you start to question Archie's decision making, he makes a backdoor cut for two, to give Kentucky a 81-79 lead with 48.2 to in the overtime session.
Kentucky wins what was probably it's most important game of the year by surprisingly hitting 8 free throws in a row to set the final score at 90-83. In a game they desperately needed, Kentucky finally showed some "killer instinct". Now their post season chances seems a little more within reach than they did before the start of the day. Now they must avoid any slip-ups on the road to assure themselves a spot in the "big dance".
Box scores and post game quotes to come.....
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