It’s time to move on. Kentucky lost to South Carolina and now it’s time to rally behind our players and start looking forward to what may be an even bigger challenge. 19-1 is a great spot to be. There are about 343 other teams that would love to me in our position and its better that this loss happened in now rather than in March or worse in April. Yaadaa yaadaa yaadaa. It’s all been said today so let’s move on.
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[I]We pause for a moment to bring you today’s special: [B]Public Figures and Scary Pictures[/B]. Have you ever sat back and sighed in relief knowing that your not a public figure and didn’t have to worry about down right scary pictures being captured of you? I wonder if Coach Stallings has ever seen this one and thought “craaaaap”. We now take you back to your regularly scheduled ramblings.[/I]
On Saturday at 4:00pm the Vanderbilt Commodores will enter Rupp Arena looking to build on their own successful season. Kentucky has an extra day to rest and prepare for this match-up as #23 Vandy faced in state rival #14 Tennessee on Wednesday. Vanderbilt brings on a different challenge than the Wildcats have had to face this year. Vandy has a very well balanced team that produces equally well across the starting five with four of them averaging double digit scoring. Their front court consists of Jeffery Taylor and A.J Ogilvy who are at the top of the scoring list with 14.3 and 13.9 respectively. These guys know how to get to the foul line as well; something that Kentucky doesn’t need any help with achieving. Their starting backcourt consists of Jermaine Beal, John Jenkins and Brad Tinsley are combining for 30.8 points this year. Vanderbilt brings 79.2 points per game this year so another 20 points are coming from bench production.
That’s a lot of offense for Kentucky to handle. Even though the Cats are balanced pretty equally, we have seen that it can come in spurts. Spurts will not do any good in this game; we will need a balanced output from all 5 spots. In the front court I think everyone would agree that Demarcus Cousins will do his part. He has become more aggressive and is now consistently demanding the ball. Patrick Patterson on the other hand seems to have become more timid with the ball and although he produces 15.4 points per game this year he only added 5 to the total against South Carolina. Daniel Orton and Perry Stevenson could potentially play extended minutes in this one due to Vandy’s ability to get to the free throw line.
In the back Wall, Miller and Bledsoe will have to produce something offensively and will have to guard the 3-ball more effectively. Wall scored 19 on Tuesday but Bledsoe and Miller combined only added 4. 4? Yes, 4. Ok, all credit goes to Bledsoe because he got the 4 while Miller didn’t score a point. These two together are averaging 18 on the season. Coach Cal recognized this problem on Tuesday and gave Darnell Dodson and Deandre Liggins a chance. During 33 minutes these two only added 5 and likewise we have to give Darnell the credit here having scored all 5. I know we’re moving forward, but it should have been 7; enough said.
Being the top team in the nation isn’t about being undefeated. In fact it’s more about rebounding from adversity and the Cats have the chance to show the nation that they know how to handle it. We’re at home and we’re coming off of that tough loss which John Calipari says the team can learn a lot from. The Nation of Blue are behind you all, let’s pull together and get back to winning.
[CENTER][B][SIZE=5][COLOR=blue]GO BIG BLUE![/COLOR][/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]
