GAME 13
LAMAR CARDINALS (8-4)
DECEMBER 28, 2011 – 8:30 PM
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY
TV – ESPNU
KENTUCKY LEADS SERIES 2-0
LAST MEETING:
12/3/2008: KENTUCKY 103 LAMAR 61
Interesting.
At first glance, Wednesday’s matchup against the Lamar Cardinals would appear to be the standard post holiday cupcake matchup for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, the Cardinals are coached by Pat Knight, son of UK antagonist/Calipari critic Bobby Knight. Knight is at his first season at Lamar and has the Cardinals with an 8-4 record after they finished 27-35 the previous two seasons. We can write all we want about his father, but seeing a Knight on the sidelines at Rupp Arena decked in red has to stir some feelings.
Secondly, these Cardinals will not be in awe of Kentucky and Rupp Arena. Already this season, Lamar has played at #2 Ohio State and #4 Louisville and lost both times by a respectable 20 points each. The Cardinals are coming off a 70-50 loss to Ohio State on December 20. They lost to Louisville 68-48 on November 13. If we want to see another similarity, consider the fact that Lamar trailed at half to both UL and OSU by 13 points. Weird, wild stuff.
Plus, it’s just kind of ironic that we play back to back games against Cardinals which are coached by despised names like Knight and Pitino. You have to give credit to Lamar though. They get the mascot thing right and recognize that BIRDS DO NOT HAVE TEETH!! Lets meet the Cardinals .
PROBABLE STARTERS
#1 – G – ANTHONY MILES – SR – 6’0, 170
15.1 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 3.9 APG
#5 – G – MIKE JAMES – SR – 6’1, 175
13.3 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 1.7 APG
#4 – G – DEVON LAMB – SR – 6’2, 185
11.0 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 2.0 APG
#21 – F – CHARLIE HARPER – SR – 6’5, 200
10.8 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 1.1 APG
#35 – F – STAN BROWN – JR – 6’8, 225
3.8 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 0.2 APG
THE BENCH
#20 – G – BRANDON DAVIS – SR – 6’6, 190
9.0 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 1.3 APG
#22 – G – DONLEY MINOR – JR – 6’2, 180
2.9 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 0.9 APG
#33 – C – OSAS EBOMWONYI – SO – 6’11, 220
2.7 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 0.2 APG
#3 – G – TRE LYNCH – SO – 6’0, 165
3.3 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 1.3 APG
NATIONAL STAT RANKINGS AND OTHER STATS
SCORING
KENTUCKY: 82.3 (11TH)
LAMAR: 72.1 (115TH)
REBOUNDING
LAMAR: 42.3 (4TH)
KENTUCKY: 41.3 (8TH)
ASSISTS
KENTUCKY: 14.7 (75TH)
LAMAR: 13.3 (155TH)
FG %
KENTUCKY: 49.9% (11TH)
LAMAR: 40.4% (284TH)
3 PT SHOOTING
KENTUCKY: 72-196 (36.7%)
LAMAR: 51-158 (32.2%)
FT SHOOTING
LAMAR: 244-329 (74.2%)
KENTUCKY: 193-279 (69.2%)
A/TO RATIO
KENTUCKY: 1.19
LAMAR: 0.93
When you look at the stats for this game, a couple of things pop out at you. Lamar is a very good rebounding team and this is a team that gets to the foul line a good bit and is a pretty good FT shooting team. Automatically a couple of red flags go up as you figure that they will try to get Anthony Davis into foul trouble and we still don’t fully know the status of Terrence Jone’s dislocated finger. To answer that, I would think that Davis has learned from the Indiana game and will not be bated into making the stupid fouls. And secondly, Jones appeared to be in pretty good shape at the open practice last night, although I would still think he may not be at 100%.
The good thing is that Lamar is not a big team. And they are a horrible shooting team, which would attribute to some of those rebounds. And big men do tend to have good games against them. UL’s Chane Behanan had 10 points and 13 rebounds against them while OSU’s Jared Sullinger had 18 points and 11 rebounds. I would expect a double double from Anthony Davis but in this game, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Darius Miller could have dominating games. Lamar simply does not have the size and skill player to match up against those two, so look for a big game from MKG. Lamb and Harper (Charlie Sheen’s alter ego from 2.5 men) live to bang on the boards and it will be important to box out against. Kentucky should be able to control the boards due to the size advantage, but this is a team that was outrebounded by Louisville 46-41 and OSU 39-35.
I’m not saying that Kentucky is on upset alert. This is a very bad shooting team, but they are not as bad as the stats indicate from beyond the arc. Lamar went 0-12 from 3-pt range against OSU and even a player like James who is shooting 23.5% on the season is capable of going 5-5 from 3-pt land as he did against Rice. Lamar is not a team to be looked past. It says something that they held OSU and IL to 70 points or lower. That said, Kentucky will not overlook Lamar for the Louisville game. Calipari has done a good job of getting his teams up for the games they should win and if they have a lackluster first half, they quickly pu the game away in the second half. ODU is the only team to sneak up on UK and they won that game by 10. I would look for a focused Kentucky team to come out aggressively on defense and force LaMmar into a hole and the take their foot off the pedal down the stretch, winning 75-51.