Kentucky Wildcats 5 for Wednesday: The sensitive side of Enes Kanter

Like Pete Best, Enes Kanter has watched from afar while his former band, the Kentucky Wildcats have put together a string of chart topping performances and they prepare for the final tours of the season.  Kanter, denied eligibility before the season, now resides on the Wildcat bench as an undergraduate assistant coach, which has to be torture for the kid, being so close to the action but unable to help his teammates.  And yes, it does affect the big guy:

“I cry when I watch the games.  When I watch them play I’m sad because I cannot help my teammates. When I see them losing, it’s frustrating.”

Kanter has spent his time preparing for the NBA draft, where he is projected as a possible top three pick but if Kentucky does advance to face Ohio State next weekend, it will be hard to keep the national focus from drifting back on Kanter and ripping that scab open again. You see, in his appearances against Jared Sullinger in the all star games, Kanter absolutely owned the future Buckeye and that will be brought up a couple of thousand times.

The post season honors continue for the freshman duo of Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones. They were both named to the All Freshmen All America team that was released by the USBWA. The association also named Jared Sullinger as their freshman of the year.

Regardless, even with the absence of Kanter, most Wildcat fans believe this team is battle tested and tournament ready and are peaking at the exact right time.  Our good friend Ken Howlett from A Sea of Blue has the following reasons to support that train of thought:

•Since giving up 77 points at Arkansas on February 23, which ended a streak of UK giving up 70+ points in five of seven contests, the ‘Cats, in their last six games, are allowing only 61.7 points per game. In that string of games, UK has allowed only .95 points per possession to Tennessee, .96 points per possession to Ole Miss, and perhaps most impressive, only .92 points per possession to the Florida Gators in Sunday’s SEC Tournament championship game — Like so many teams before them, light bulb illumination begins with defense.

•Since Florida made eight of 19 three-pointers (42.1%) in their loss to UK in Lexington five games ago, the ‘Cats have allowed only 24 of 83 long-bombs to ring true (28.9%), which is well below their season three-point defense of 33.2%.

•Since giving up 40.0%+ field goal shooting to five straight opponents from February 1 to the 15th, UK has allowed only three of their last eight foes to make over 40.0% of their shots from the floor, while giving up an average of 39.2% accuracy overall in those eight contests (183-467).

•Offensively, Kentucky has been relatively strong all year, but since the ‘Cats loss to Florida 12 games ago (a contest in which UK scored 1.05 points per possession), UK as surpassed 1.13 points per possession on eight occasions, and an outstanding 1.20 points per possession five times.

•Since UK’s overtime loss at Arkansas seven games ago, a setback in which Kentucky made only three of 19 trifecta attempts, the Wildcats have been en fuego from long-range, making 37 of 92 from beyond the arc (40.2%).

Now I know that we are going to see tons of highlights of past NCAA classic games over the next couple of weekends, but I bet you have not seen them in Lego form.  Yea, me either.  Here are some great Tourney moments in Lego-form for you, starting of course with ugh … the Laettner shot:

If that does not get you pumped for the upcoming tournament, at least show more manners than former Hoosier coach Bobby Knight, who apparently fell asleep during his appearance on the Mike Francesca show.

Come on Bobby, stay with us. It’s only March Madness!!!

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