Well Coach Calipari mentioned he was unhappy with Harrellson’s lack of blocked shots last night (he had five) so Harrellson blocked the first shot in the first play of the game. Doron Lamb had a poor shooting night, he opened up with a high arching layup from the right side after Harrellson’s block. Early in the first half, Western Ontario went on a 9-0 run to take the lead at 13-12. After a time-out Kentucky pressed got a quick steal by Jon Hood and a score then another quick score by Miller with an and one. You like to see your team come out of a time-out and execute.
The Cats really put the heat on tonight forcing 28 turnovers and shooting 52.3% from the floor. Calipari’s defensive scheme doesn’t generally call for a lot of turnovers, so getting 28 turnovers on 20 steals is nice. It should be noted that the Cats only committed 14 turnovers, many of them unforced and only held their opponents to 46.9%, but they were able to keep them from scoring by limiting shots.
Josh Harrellson was more aggressive on the defensive end. He did get called for a goal tend, but Cal makes it clear he’s ok with a goal ten or two because it means his players are getting after it challenging shots. He still fouled a couple of times when he shouldn’t have and Calipari was in his ear frequently.
Brandon Knight picked up right where he left off, getting inside with ease, drawing fouls and scoring plenty of points.
Doron Lamb shot much better even getting a friendly roll that seemed to spend about a minute and a half on the back of the rim before falling in the basket. He also had a nice harassing cover on the ball forcing his opponent far outside and then forcing his opponent to turn it over on the travel. Had a great follow up game to last night when he struggled in what Calipari called his worst play so far. He led all scorers with 24 points.
Jon Hood once again looked good getting steals and generally looking quick on his feet on defense.
Darius Miller is a different player. He’s mean under the basket and aggressive with the ball. He had a stat stuffer night with 20 points, 4 rebounds, 5 blocks, 5 steals and 3 assists. He is playing with the attitude and mindset results that I expected him to have prior to last season. Last year he disappointed me a little bit. Not gonna happen this year.
Stacey Poole didn’t really stand out. He had four points, no rebounds and 2 steals in 16 minutes of play.
Jarrod Polson got a lot of playing time again and again looked perfectly comfortable on the floor. He didn’t have any of that walk-on jittery play that you so often see. Again, not nearly as skilled as the other players and much smaller, but I like the kid.
DeAndre Liggins played well and hit some nice shots. A solid performance as he came out with 11 points 6 rebounds and 3 steals.
All in all a pretty good outing, and the defense is definitely a good sign. If this team continues to play with this kind of defensive intensity, they should be in a place where they can win a lot of games where the offense isn’t clicking on all cylinders.
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