Cody54

Following Kentucky's 76-68 conference opening victory against Georgia, Kentucky coach John Calipari gave some feedback on who he thought stood out. In his opinion DeAndre Liggins was the difference maker and was the factor that in the end allowed that W show up in the win column. Here is the excerpt from UK Athletics of Calipari discussing Liggins;

[SIZE=2][I]“Who fought? You tell me who went in and fought? DeAndre Liggins. It is not brain surgery. We all saw how he can play. Now the question is, do I start him? Should he be a starter? The tentativeness, the softness, the `I got screened I’m sorry’, it is too late now. We are in the middle of the season and you have to ball. You have to go out there and fight and compete and if you are not, I am going to play somebody else. I have not changed since I got in the seat. We got some guys fighting it a little bit, `I would try ig you give me the ball more.’ It isn’t about that. It is about battling. DeAndre was probably the difference in the game. If I had to play pother people we probably wouldn’t have enough to win. One guy was breaking down and they were coming up with balls. He tied up a ball for a jump ball and made that layup when we were dying. He did some really good things, I was proud of him too, really proud of him.”[/I][/SIZE]

Now by all means DeAndre has showed that he can be on the team, following his suspension he has stepped in and made a difference. His biggest impact I feel has been on the defensive end with his intense pressure on the ball handler of the opposing team. With that said maybe Liggins only needs to be the sixth man for this season, he was suspended for most of the non-conference schedule after all. It would seem that the starter that Coach Calipari would be directing this comment toward would be Darius Miller who hasn't done a lot in the past few games but I don't believe he has done enough to lose his spot. When Bledsoe or Wall go to the bench it is Darius you will see bringing the ball up the court and although he does hesitate from time to time to take the shot, he does take care of the ball. This is a position I don't think Liggins is ready for, he was last year's Bledsoe by getting a full head of steam and either losing the ball or being called for a charge on the defender. Now all of this could be nothing more than Coach John Calipari trying to give Darius Miller or possibly Eric Bledsoe some initiative to be more than a difference maker but I felt it was a big topic to discuss amongst his comments from his postgame interview.