First the Tennessee Vols knocked off the #1 Kansas Jayhawks at “The Summit” in early January. Then today, the Vols knocked off #2 Kentucky Wildcats 74-65 on the same court. If Bruce Pearl and his Vols keep playing like this at home, the Thompson Boling court may finally gain a reputation other than that place where the Lady Vols won all their titles.
Yea, I know. That came off as kind of bitchy. Forgive me, I am battling a cold this weekend and spent most of the first half dozing in and out of consciousness on the couch. Apparently John Calipari’s Wildcats did the same thing as they found themselves the victim of an early 18-0 Tennessee run that caused them to play catchup the entire way. John Wall ended that run with a pair of free throws, but the Wildcats were groggy and already against the ropes, down 18-6 barely ten minutes into the game. Kudos go out to Bruce Pearl and his Vols who followed his game plan to a “T” and kept the pressure on UK for the entire first half, never allowing Kentucky to get within nine points and the Vols went in at the half up 40-29.
Any hope of Kentucky storming the court early in the second half were put on hold as UK came out ice cold in the second half and Tennessee built on their stellar first half and had a 19 point bulge, 54-35, with 14:06 remaining. But as we have said numerous times on this blog this year, this is not your Kentucky Wildcats of seasons past. Over the next four minutes or so, Kentucky asserted themselves and made a run, like you would expect a championship contender to do.
Bledsoe hit a layup. Wall hit a layup. Wall added another layup and got the foul shot on a plus one. Wall with another layup, and Patterson with a slam and like that, Kentucky was back in the game at 54-46 with about ten minutes remaining. Darius Miller made a couple of nice baskets to help lead the Kentucky offensive pressure on and John Wall’s layup pulled UK to within four at 61-57. DeMarcus Cousins scored six points in a row for Kentucky as the Cats clawed back to a tie at 65 apiece with 2:13 remaining. JP Prince put the Vols back up two and Kentucky basically self destructed, turning the ball over on back to back possessions and then Kentucky native Scotty Hopson put the dagger through UK’s heart with a three point bomb that put the Vols up 70-65.
Tough loss, for sure for the Wildcats. Hopefully, like with the South Carolina loss, Kentucky can learn from this and go on a nice run. To be honest, I am always kind of a fan of a late season loss as I believe every team has “that one bad game” in the arsenal headed down the stretch, and hopefully for Kentucky, this was that one bad game. Kentucky shot 35% from the game and 9% from 3-point range. Kentucky’s defense was ragged for most of the game and allowed Tennessee several easy transition baskets, The Vols also got several easy baskets on last second cuts as the shot clock was running down.
In all reality, Kentucky did not play well enough to win. And despite the loss, UK is still in very good shape to earn a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They still will lead Vanderbilt by at least one game in the race for their 44th regular season SEC championship. So it’s not the end of the world, Cat fans. Not even close. Even though it feels like it right now. I attribute part of that the the overdose of cold medicine in my system.
John Wall led UK with 19 points but did look mortal at times. DeMarcus Cousins had 15 points and 14 rebounds. And Patrick Patterson had 10 points and 5 boards. One thing I have noticed lately is that UK has become more of a three man team with these three lately. Either Bledsoe, Miller, or Dodson need to step it up and start scoring in double digits consistently again if UK is tso make a deep tournament run.
For complete game stats, go here.
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