Wildcat Recapitulation: The UNC game
By Staff
First a couple of quick rumors and notes to address before heading into the dissection of UK’s big win over UNC.
The first one to address is the Quincy Miller situation. There are a few people tweeting that Quincy Miller has committed to UK and I have not been able to find anything to validate that as of now. As I posted in my last entry, Quincy was very enthusiastic in his tweets following the UK game and that was a big difference from how a lot of other visitors have tweeted after their visits. I do think UK has an excellent chance at both Miller and Gilchrist, but I think it’s a little premature for either to commit right now. Hopefully I am wrong, but no confirmation on Quincy Miller committing … yet.
Now this site is too understaffed (If you want to write for us, e-mail me ) to cover any other UK sports besides basketball and football but it is worth noting that as of this morning, Kentucky is the only division one program to have both an undefeated mens and womens basketball team. Take that, Tennessee and UConn. Both teams are 8-0 on the season.
Also in the vein of other UK sports, the UK’s womens volleyball team has advanced into the sweet 16 of the NCAA tourney. Great job to them and good to see another ranked UK team.
Now onto the UNC game:
I will keep it brief because I do want to link to other sites but if anything, this game shows how deep and how talented the UK bench really is. I recall feeling a great bit of discomfort around the 8:00 mark with both Wall and Bledsoe hobbled, and Cousins, Orton, and Bledsoe having four fouls each. But this game showed a complete team effort and I think all UK fans should feel a lot better about our team this morning.
The thing I like is that during the course of the game, each player on the team will take control and dominate for a short period of time. While Wall and Patterson generally control the game and dominate the style of play while they are in, their teammates emerge and take center stage for a bit. Darius Miller keyed the first UK run with his 2 3-pointers to fuel that 16-0 streak. Darnell Dodson keyed that 12-0 streak with 2 3-pointers. Daniel Orton was huge with his key blocks late in the game and tough rebounding. Eric Bledsoe was money down the stretch. DeMarcus Cousins was a warrior under the boards and had some key boards. Ramon Harris has proven to be a very effective defender.
Calipari has done a masterful job in just eight games of blending the old with the new thus far and while we are not really a DDMO team right now, we are evolving towards that goal. We proved yesterday that no one can run with us, and Old Roy would have been sent home with a double digit loss if he had tried. The thing is, this team still have a very high ceiling. I’d love to see DeAndre Liggins (who knows…) and Jon Hood added to the mix to give us a full 11 man rotation but I am sure some things have to work themselves out there.
Like I said, Wildcat fans have many reasons to feel good about their team this morning. So let’s all bond in Big Blue Harmony and rejoice in the fact the Dirty Cards got drilled last night at Rupp Arena. To help with all that new found euphoria at being “back”, here are some of the other people I read regularly and what they had to say about the game:
For Kentucky, this represents a very good win that could have been great — not because of anything the Tar Heels did, but because UK did not appear to come out ready in the second half.
Carolina prides itself on beating teams down the floor. Wall beat the Heels down the floor. One trip, he zipped past a slower North Carolina defender for a ferocious dunk. Another trip, Wall zig-zagged his way through taller, thicker Heels for an outrageous up-and-under move that spun off the glass and through the net.
Was it a perfect game? No, freshmen make freshmen mistakes. John Wall committed seven turnovers, Eric Bledsoe took questionable shots, DeMarcus Cousins made silly fouls, Daniel Orton wasn’t aggressive offensively, and Jon Hood never got off of the bench.So was it all bad news? Nope.
In 25 years, if you are a fan of college basketball, you will be seeing highlights of the time Wall drove on a fast break, got himself too deep under the backboard, and solved that problem by gliding to the opposite side and scooping in a layup past Carolina’s Marcus Ginyard. This will be a little different because Julius Erving’s swoop past Mark Landsberger was in the NBA Finals, but Wall’s play stirred echoes of Dr. J’s brilliance.
Another thing about Wall: When he gets an outlet pass on the run, I noticed, he looks like a tailback taking a pitch from a quarterback, like Reggie Bush in a USC uniform flying around and past everybody. Sometimes Wall loses control (that’s partly why he finished with seven turnovers), and he’ll have to figure that out as he progresses. But watching him run the break might be the most exciting thing you can watch any college basketball player do this season. So I’d advise you to do it whenever possible, and I can’t wait to see Wall do it live at Madison Square Garden against Connecticut on Wednesday night.
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