It is game nine of the Kentucky Wildcat Basketball season as this young group of Cats are set to face the Portland Pilots, who travels into Rupp Arena with a 3-5 record. It’s worth noting that the Pilots were last in action this past Tuesday as they took on the #21 UNLV Runnin Rebels, and led by as many as nine points in the second half, but UNLV took over and rallied to win, 68-60. Portland has lost eight straight to ranked opponents, and Kentucky is currently ranked 19th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The game can be seen opn ESPN2, and as always, we’ll be live blogging throughout the contest, and would love for you to join us.
Projected UK Starting Lineup
Archie Goodwin
Julius Mays
Alex Poythress
Kyle Wiltjer
Nerlens Noel
Portland Players who have Started
| Minutes | Total | 3-pts | F-Throws | Rebounds | Scoring | |||||||||||||||||||||
| ## | Player | GP | GS | Tot | Avg | FG | FGA | FG% | 3FG | 3FGA | 3PT% | FT | FTA | FT% | Off | Def | Tot | Avg | PF | A | Ast/G | TO | Stl | Blk | Pts | Avg |
| 32 | NICHOLAS, Ryan | 8 | 8 | 246 | 30.8 | 40 | 98 | .408 | 7 | 24 | .292 | 22 | 32 | .688 | 20 | 61 | 81 | 10.1 | 23 | 16 | 2.0 | 15 | 11 | 1 | 109 | 13.6 |
| 00 | BAILEY, Kevin | 8 | 8 | 180 | 22.5 | 26 | 63 | .413 | 5 | 16 | .313 | 23 | 30 | .767 | 2 | 12 | 14 | 1.8 | 27 | 12 | 1.5 | 24 | 8 | 8 | 80 | 10.0 |
| 12 | VAN DER MARS, Thomas | 8 | 8 | 166 | 20.8 | 24 | 33 | .727 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 7 | 14 | .500 | 12 | 23 | 35 | 4.4 | 26 | 8 | 1.0 | 14 | 0 | 4 | 55 | 6.9 |
| 35 | CARR, David | 8 | 8 | 173 | 21.6 | 15 | 41 | .366 | 6 | 18 | .333 | 1 | 3 | .333 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 1.1 | 8 | 21 | 2.6 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 37 | 4.6 |
| 21 | THIELEKE, Korey | 8 | 5 | 191 | 23.9 | 20 | 47 | .426 | 3 | 15 | .200 | 11 | 16 | .688 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 3.0 | 16 | 10 | 1.3 | 9 | 12 | 9 | 54 | 6.8 |
| 03 | RILEY, Tanner | 8 | 3 | 156 | 19.5 | 17 | 40 | .425 | 9 | 24 | .375 | 6 | 7 | .857 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 1.5 | 11 | 4 | 0.5 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 49 | 6.1 |
UK 74, Portland 46
Goodwin, Poythress pace Cats with 15 points each. Mays with 13, Wiltjer 12, Harrow 8, Noel 7p, 9r, 7b
Thanks everyone for joining us. Have a blessed weekend.
Cats playing these last minutes like game is on the line
HELLO SportsCenter. Archie Goodwin just dunked ALL OVER some poor dude
Never would have imagined typing that out…
Harrow is starting to take this game over with his aggressiveness and drive to the basket.
They’re still learning. They’ve got three full weeks before Louisville. I expect to see a completely different team by then.
Harrow gives UK its largest lead with a floater then a 3 quickly after. Cats up 60-49, 4:16 left.Gaining some much-needed confidence.
I hate to say this but this team has stretches of play that are boring to watch. Painful even. The pain isn’t bc they play poorly but they don’t play to their potential.
Kentucky leads Portland 52-35 with 7:35 left.Noel has six points on just three field-goal attempts to go along with eight rebounds, six blocks and a steal.
Good block by Portland
Oh yeah…I forgot about that. Thanks.
Cats finally seem to have woke up agin. 9-0 run puts lead back at 48-29 with 11:05 left
The 2011 squad couldn’t quit doing it. Even when they played Princeton in tournament, kept playing to level of competition.
UK leads 46-29 with 11:39 left
There are times when this team plays to the level of their competition. It killed Tubby. They’ll stop that with Cal.
UK 43, Portland 29. Wiltjer going to line for old-fashioned 3-point play
Nerlens Noel now with 4 points, 6 rebounds, 5 blocks
Kentucky sluggish start to 2H. Leads Portland 39-26 with 15:51 left.Cats are 2-6 from the field with two turnovers in the second half
Halftime: Kentucky 35, Portland 20. Poythress has 11. Wiltjer seven. Goodwin: six points, four assists.
(3:27) – UK 31, Portland 19; Pilots started 4-of-19 from the field but have made 4 of past 6 shots
auley-Stein scoreless but has 4 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal in 6 minutes off the bench.
Calipari to Harrow: “RUN the team! Stop walking it up!”
Free throws killing UK right now. could be up by 20+ but instead up just 28-14
Haha yeah he’s not too shabby
Cal will figure it out. He usually does at some point lol.
There has to be a way to make that work better.
Exactly. And we don’t have Renardo Sydneys on the team so the physique shouldn’t be an issue. Conditioning obviously is. No other team can have a 7 footer on the ball OOB, a 6’8″ guy at HC and a 6’10″ guy back.
Cal has to take the approach Pitino has taken with his teams lately. Not very talented, but physical, full-court defense keeps them in every game.
It is the ONLY aspect of Pitino’s teams that I wish would carry to every coach since him.
If Cal can get this team in the shape of Pitino’s UK teams, that full court pressure would work.
The players out there now make this look like UK-Texas Western…backwards
This team’s 3 point shooting droughts remind me of Cal’s first team. We HAVE to find consistency there or we will have huge trouble every game where we don’t play the deaf and blind.
Chitwood needed that. We can all breathe again.
Mays dives on a loose ball, get’s steal, calls timeout. He does that sequence better than anyone.
THREEE!!!! WILTJER!!!!!!
The video looks edited it’s so weird. I mean what HS Center does that?? He’s be an awesome TE. Equivalent to having the Fridge at the 1.
Just for one game, I’d love to see him suit up for football team. He’d be a deadly red zone threat.
Watch his film. He looks like a man playing with pee-wee players.
WCS must have been hell as a WR in HS. He’s a 7’0″ MKG.
Wiltjer is as cold as the other side of the pillow.
Wiltjer, just cannot make a shot, but Poythress can. Drills three and UK up 13-10
I mean, if he’s going to be in late game situations, he HAS to be better than me at FT’s.
Can someone please tell me why Goodwin is good for 1/2 at all times?
Portland player just hit on a cheerleader…with the ball. Nice pass.
UK leads 9-6. Whatever’s bothering Noel, he’s blocked three straight shots.
I love seeing WCS out there. He’s got a finesse motor.
Harrow with the phantom foul.
Harrow misses first shot today. Now 3 of 20 this year.
Man, Harrow can be the guy. I can’t wait for him to get up to game speed and comfortable out there.
PG Defense continues to be an issue. It’s too easy to get to the rim. Causes the bigs to tire down and get into foul trouble.
Noel is playing through some pain. He’s clearly slowed down some kind of knee/leg/ankle issue.
Chitwood with the step to the bucket!
Ryan Harrow not starting today. Continues to be Goodwin, Mays, Poythress, Wiltjer, Noel.
Starting lineups being announced
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