I read a comment today where a fan said this team has no killer instinct and didn’t play well on the road. I almost gave my opinion at the time, but I wanted to do a little research first. I’m glad I did, because the reality is much more disturbing with the actual statistics.
Kentucky has played 7 SEC games now, 3 at home and 4 on the road. Think the ‘team’ is horrible on the road? This is how the Freshmen average scoring at home vs. on the road:
[table]
[tr]
[td]Player[/td]
[td]Home[/td]
[td]Road[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Jones[/td]
[td]19.7[/td]
[td]19.3[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Knight[/td]
[td]14.3[/td]
[td]15.5[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Lamb[/td]
[td]12.3[/td]
[td]15.8[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
So you see, the freshmen are at least as good on the road – in two cases better than at home. Well then what the heck is happening? Why can we win at home but not on the road?
This is how the upperclassmen average scoring at home vs. on the road:
[table]
[tr]
[td]Player[/td]
[td]Home[/td]
[td]Road[/td]
[td][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Miller[/td]
[td]13[/td]
[td]10[/td]
[td][SIZE=”1″]*this is skewed by his 18 pt. game at SC, which UK won, otherwise his average is 7.3 on the road[/SIZE][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Liggins[/td]
[td]10[/td]
[td]4.3[/td]
[td][/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Harrellson[/td]
[td]4.7[/td]
[td]2.8[/td]
[td][SIZE=”1″]*Harrellson has scored more than 4 points only once in SEC play, 8 vs. Auburn[/SIZE][/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
I don’t mean to be negative, but when we refer to ‘this team’ as playing horribly on the road, let’s make sure we distinguish between the two. The Freshmen are actually playing awesome on the road. If Kentucky hopes to go far in the tournament(s), they will need the upperclassmen to start playing better. Unfortunately, if they haven’t learned to play better in their almost two years with Cal, it’s not likely that they’ll suddenly improve over the next month and a half.
