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5 Rushed Reactions: Kentucky basketball at West Virginia

By Matt Upchurch

MORGANTOWN, WV - JANUARY 27: Jarred Vanderbilt
MORGANTOWN, WV - JANUARY 27: Jarred Vanderbilt /
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MORGANTOWN, WV – JANUARY 27: Head coach Bob Huggins of the West Virginia Mountaineers and head coach John Calipari of the Kentucky Wildcats talk before the game at the WVU Coliseum on January 27, 2018 in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
MORGANTOWN, WV – JANUARY 27: Head coach Bob Huggins of the West Virginia Mountaineers and head coach John Calipari of the Kentucky Wildcats talk before the game at the WVU Coliseum on January 27, 2018 in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /

2. Calipari’s defense

I was really surprised with John Calipari’s defensive game-plan. I expected Calipari to play much more zone defense. The Kentucky basketball team has struggled mightily with their man to man defense no matter who the opponent has been. With Kentucky playing in a very hostile environment, I expected Calipari to help this young team out by playing zone defense. Unfortunately, Calipari waited to switch to the zone defense when Kentucky was already down double digits and had already made a lot of shots.

The Cats did a great job defending and scoring in the second half – there’s no knocking Calipari there at all. But I simply expected Coach Cal to help “ease” this young team into the game by playing zone defense and protecting the defensive liabilities of this squad. This UK team isn’t going to have maximum success in March by ONLY playing zone or ONLY playing man-to-man defense. However, this team will certainly have a great deal of success in March if they continue to effectively utilize and rotate both of these defenses.

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