On a night the UK Wildcats were supposed to unveil their bright new future, Charlie Coles and his Miami Redhawks showed up and did their best “Scrooge” imitation some six weeks before Christmas. Instead of an easy win over an overmatched opponent, UK faced a fearless, scrappy and a “never say die” minded Redhawk team that brought back visions of the ghosts of basketball seasons past: Gardner Webb, UAB, Houston, San Diego, and VMI. For 39 minutes and 59 seconds the Redhawks played the spoiler role to perfection but John Wall purged the demons of the past with a last second jumper that brought jubilation to Rupp Arena and kept the “For Sale” signs off of John Calipari’s front yard as the Wildcats eeked out a 72-70 victory.
Yes, it was that dramatic.
The Wildcats scored the first 5 points of the game but the game Redhawks answered back and kept even with the Wildcats for the first part of the game and Nick Winbush gave Miami their first lead of the game at 11-8 with a three pointer at the 15:28 point of the first half. Remember that name. Winbush hit his second three pointer to knot the game at 14 and then team mate Kenny Hayes hit his first three to give Miami a 17-16 lead with 12:01 left. Are we noticing a trend?
Nick Winbush hit his first 5 3 pointers and Hayes added another one as the Redhawks outplayed, outwitted, and outhustled the Wildcats to take a 36-18 lead with 7:01 remaining in the first as Kansas and UNC bloggers rushed down the stairs into the deep lairs of their parent’s basement and tried in vain to find new ways to rhyme Miami with VMI. Keyed by a couple of three pointers by Darnell Dodson, UK went on their own 15-0 run over the next 6 minutes and UK was down just 36-33. Winbush and Dodson traded 3 pointers before the half and Miami went off the court with their “shock the world” 39-36 lead.
Scoring was at a premium the second half and Miami was up 6 at 48-42 when Winbush hit another 3 pointer at the 14:07 mark. One of the big disappointments of the first game and a half was the play of DeMarcus Cousins. He only played 4:00 with no points before getting two quick fouls in the first half. For several minutes in the second half, Calapari and assistant coach Strickland held a intense conversation with Cousins on the bench before he entered the game in the second half. Whatever they said worked, because Cousins played like a man possessed the rest of the game.
Cousins grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a jumper, got an assist on a nice pass to Patterson for a dunk, and then he grabbed the rebound off a Winbush missed 3, grabbed the rebound off a missed Darius Miller shot and layed it in as Miami called a timeout clinging to a 50-48 lead. Cousins gave UK their first lead in a long time when he missed two layups, but grabbed his own rebound each time and finally scored to give UK a 54-52 lead.
After that, it was Darius Miller’s time to re-emerge. Miller who was scoreless since the first basket of the game Miller added a three pointer and 2 jumpers to give UK a 63-62 lead, but Miami was not through as Winbush hit yet another 3 and Miami was back up 65-63 with 3:24 left. Patterson and Cousins scored again inside to put UK up 69-67 and John Wall had a chance to ice the game with :19 left. Wall hit the front end of the one and one but missed the second. Kenny Hayes drilled a 3 pointer to tie the game with :06 left but John Wall calmly took the ball down the court and without hesitation drained the jumper with half a second left to give UK the 72-70 win.
First off, kudos to Miami and Winbush. Winbush shot an incredible 8 of 10 from 3 pointers and ended with 26 points. Kenny Hayes was 4-6 for 3’s and finished with 16 points and the Redhawks had 15 3 pointers.
For UK, it was nice to see Cousins emerge as he had a double double with 10 points and 10 boards in just 19 minutes. Patrick Paterson had a double double as well with 17 points and 10 boards and he drained a 3 for the second straight game. John Wall had a nice debut with 19 points with 5 assists. Darius Miller finished strongly after disappearing most of the game and Daniel Orton is one tough kid.
On the other side, Bledsoe went from 24 points to 2 points as the hyped Wall/Bledsoe pairing did not click as expected in Game 1. It’s all a learning exercise at this point. I, for one, think the close game was the best thing that could happen for UK. They need to be tested and tested they were. As Cal says, it’s going to be a bumpy November as this team gains its identity and struggles to find it’s chemistry. The one thing we do know is that this team has the heart of a winner and knows how to fight down the stretch instead of choking and disappearing at the end.
It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win. And if feels good to start exorcising some of our past demons.
For complete game stats, go here.
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