Kentucky Wildcats: Bring the swagger on the road
By Paul Jordan
Lost 75-73, lost 77-70, lost 68-66, lost 71-69, lost 70-68.
What you are looking at above is the losses Kentucky has had this year on the road. As you can see the losses are of a combined score of 15. What in the world happens to this Kentucky team on the road compared to what these Cats can do in the confines of Rupp Arena?
I’m one of the folks in the camp that believe that it doesn’t matter where you play you can get it done and the Kentucky Wildcat squad last year really helped me with that argument because they loved to play on the road. You can tell they adored running out of the tunnel to a chorus of boos. They loved when the other team had black outs or red outs or white outs against them. They reveled in the spot light when fans booed them, called them names and taunted them.
This team is a little different and it’s still a mystery why.
Part of me wants to blame it on the youth. Part of me wants to say because our leading scorers are freshman. Part of me wants to say that because we are not old enough and don’t have a team full of veterans. The fact is though it isn’t the freshman players fault. In every road game no matter how shook the team looks somehow every time a freshman steps up. Doron Lamb stepped up against North Carolina, Knight and Jones was there when we needed them against Florida. It’s our veterans!
In all of our road wins three things have been evident: Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins and Josh Harrellson just don’t show up to play.
To me the only logical explanation is that they forget to pack the swagger of Rupp Arena in their suitcases before they go on the road, which is the only thing that I can think of. I mean we are talking about the same team, the same team that came close to running Tennessee out of the building several times. This is the same team that when teams make a push or when teams get up the thunder back and then some. Does the crowd really make that much of a difference?
The Cats have the opportunity to take the swagger to the road in a very hostile environment and a place that always gives the Wildcat’s trouble for as long as I can remember: Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt stands as one of the last few tough road games that stand in the way of Kentucky finishing the last few games of the season strong. They have to go to Tennessee March sixth for the last game of the regular season but that is a rivalry game and I expect Kentucky veterans to show up big in that match up. Vanderbilt is one of those teams that Kentucky has played bad against and the veterans just haven’t showed up.
It doesn’t all have to be bad though, the woes on the road could come back and be a help in the tournament, where Kentucky will never have to play a true road game if Kentucky fans show up big and I expect Atlanta to be packed with Kentucky fans in the SEC tournament.
The fact of the matter is, bring the swagger on these next three road games and you’ll never have to play another true road game all season.
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