JORTS!!!!!!!
Whew so I got that out of the way, onto the aftermath.
We’ve already had a post game wrap up from Paul but now that we’ve had time to take a step back and crow at the Louisville faithful at how bad we really put it on them today in that chicken hut. I mean really, we beat them in every aspect and I don’t really think any negatives come from this game. Let’s get into it because I’m ready to celebrate a Kentucky win over little brother.
The main focus coming from this game was how the freshman and young Kentucky squad would handle going into a hostile environment on the road. Now don’t get me wrong the North Carolina fans are pretty loud but let’s face it they don’t have a new arena and full of hatred for the boys in blue. Louisville did and they had been crowing on their message boards all week. I for one usually don’t read those boards but I did this week and it was TERRIBLE and at times I wanted to make a username myself and begin talking back to them, but I told myself…Just wait for the game.
Kentucky’s poise on both ends of the ball was TREMENDOUS and they did not play like a freshman laden team. Louisville came out on fire, hitting threes and getting buckets in transition but Kentucky NEVER looked as if they were shaken and never looked like they were intimidated by the Louisville team and they shouldn’t have. Kentucky looked like a Varsity team tonight and Louisville looked like a JV team.
After the game Coach Calipari was asked how he handled preparing his freshman he said:
“We are not ever going to play this game bigger than it is. It’s always going to be the next game. They aren’t even in our league even though they are 90 miles down the road. We do not play this any bigger we do not do anything different.”
Calipari also said that Kentucky had “their worst practice in two years at Kentucky” and Coach also talked about how much he made them run, whatever he did, do it for the rest of the season.
Before I get to the other players and their stellar games I want to give my player of the game award out to DeAndre Liggins, I felt that if Kentucky would let Peyton Siva get into his groove then we were in trouble and Liggins got after him and flustered him early and Siva literally looked like a middle school basketball player today. He was throwing the ball everywhere, turning it over, getting stuffed at the rim it was a very good move by Calipari to put Liggins on Siva early, Cal said:
“Siva is the key to their team”
Liggins did a good job on Siva but when the Preston Knowles scoring flurry took place in the second half, Calipari switched Liggins over to Knowles and guess what? He never scored again. That is why Liggins gets my player of the game.
Terrence Jones wasn’t there scoring wise where Calipari would like him to be, saying that “I know he’s better than that” and he continues to push Jones into being the beast he was earlier in the year but maybe the intensity of the game got to him a bit when he pulled a three pointer early and Coach Cal took him out to calm him down, after that Jones played outstanding basketball. He had a career high in assists and when the Louisville defense collapsed on him he found an open guy every time.
Brandon Knight has matured into his role as point guard the whole time and really controlled the game. Although Knight said after the game he needed to work on “running the team” and he “didn’t have a perfect game” but with 25 points he was near perfect in controlling the tempo which ultimately led to Louisville’s demise, that 25 points was also one point shy of Rex Chapman’s freshman scoring record against Louisville.
I saved the last for the best story of the game that will most likely run its rounds through the national media for the next week and that is the performance of Josh Harrellson in today’s game. I don’t care what you call him, Jorts, Mother Hen it doesn’t matter. When Calipari kept Jorts over Matt Pilgram many howled and complained about it but now look what has happened, Jorts will forever be known as a Card killer. Coach Calipari was very impressed with the way Harrellson played and I have to say when he hit that three, I went NUTS. Coach Cal said:
“I’m proud of him, what I said to him after the game was he taught me a great lesson. What we coaches like to do is just work with the good guys and the guys who are struggling sometimes you can just push them aside, what he showed me is every kid deserves everything we have to help them get better. That’s our job as coaches. Josh probably thought I was crazy for not playing him last year but he wasn’t in this kind of shape, 23 points and 14 rebounds? Wow. It’s an emotional rush seeing that.”
After the game Harrellson said that his teammates just kept finding him and he kept making buckets.
So wherever you go tonight, wear your Kentucky gear proudly and don’t forget your jorts in honor of what was a legendary performance from Josh Harrellson that big blue nation will remember for some time to come.
Go Big Blue.
(Just kidding, I wouldn’t go as far as to wear jorts either)
You can find all the post game videos here: http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/123110aac.html
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