UK vs. Mississippi State: Preview

Coming off a very depressing loss at the hands of Miami (FL), UK looks to rebound today against Mississippi Valley State as they visit the once feared Rupp Arena. UK has a lot to improve upon from yesterday’s sad performance but it should be relatively easy against a mediocre Mississippi Valley State team.

KEYS TO THE GAME

The first key is to just simply not start Michael Porter. Porter has the single worst affect on a UK basketball team since Saul Smith. Obviously there have been worse players than him but they have not cost us games with their terrible play. Why Gillispie continues to start Porter over a future star in DeAndre Liggins is a complete mystery to me. Liggins needs as much experience as possible and why he has not started yet is flabbergasting.

The second key will be to establish Patrick Patterson early. Yes he finished with 19 points but he forced a few shots because he was frustrated with not getting the ball earlier. We need to be able to get the ball to him on 95% of our possessions, if we do that this will be over at halftime. Patterson is a top 10 player in the country in my opinion so it is unacceptable for him to get only a few shots in any half against any opponent.

The third key will to be more efficient shooting the basketball. Going into the game against Miami UK was ranked in the top 10 nationally in field goal percentage and then we managed to shoot under 40% from inside the arc and 2-23 total from outside of the three-point line. Jodie Meeks especially needs to shoot better because he is the leader when it comes to knocking down shots. Once he starts knocking down shots our team tends to follow him and start hitting theirs.

But I think the biggest key today will be to finally get out to a great start. In three straight games we have been down by at least 7 points in the first 5 minutes of the game. We managed to come back to win two of those but once we start playing quality teams we will not be able to keep trailing 16-7 and scores like that. That means guys like Darius Miller need to make an immediate impac

Porter…er… Cats fall to Miami

KEYS TO THE LOSS

The Cats dug themselves yet another huge whole in the first half, due in most part to the lack of ability to make plays from their starting point guard Michael Porter. Porter had his fourth consecutive terrible game while the man who should be starting, DeAndre Liggins, had yet another fabulous outing with 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Porter played 17 minutes and managed only 2 points and 0 assists. Patrick Patterson finished with 19 points and 16 rebounds but did not have almost any touches in scoring position in the first half because Porter could not manage to get the ball to him because he would pick up his dribble so often.

The second reason why UK lost tonight was because of the three-point shooting. Miami was one of the top three-point shooting teams in the nation last season and really shot the lights out tonight. They shot 8-19 from long distance while UK only managed 2-23, including 2-12 from junior star Jodie Meeks who finished with a season low 10 points. For some reason Coach Gillispie had Michael Porter on Jack McClinton, the Hurricanes’ star guard, to begin the game and he torched him with double digits in the opening minutes. At one point UK had 9 total points while McClinton had 10 points by himself.

Other notes

- One thing that befuddled me was the fact that Josh Harrellson did not even play in the second half after playing nearly half of the first 20 minutes. Harrellson had 6 points before intermission off the bench but did not appear in the second half.

- By looking at the box score you would almost think UK won this game. They out rebounded the ‘Canes 43-30, shot 15-18 from the line compared to 19-31 from Miami, and had 10 more offensive rebounds. But while looking deeper you see Miami shot 10% better from the field and hit 6 more three pointers. Also they hit enough shots to win the game while UK on the other hand had many opportunities to close the gap from four points late in the game after back-to-back possessions in which Miami missed two free throws.

- I CAN NOT understand the reasoning for Coach Gillispie leaving Michael Porter in there. DeAndre Liggins was the best player on the court for most of the game and Kevin Galloway at least brought some sort of presence to the game.

UK plays again tomorrow against Mississippi Valley State and hopefully some changes will be made in the form of Michael Porter not playing.

UK vs. Miami (FL): Preview

Today Kentucky gets their first shot at a team that has, at one point in the season, been ranked. Miami (FL) is no longer ranked because a loss at Ohio State but do not let that fool you, they played the majority of the game without their best player, Jack McClinton, after McClinton felt it was necessary to punch a guy in the face and get himself ejected. Had he been in the game odds are they would have won so UK should look at Miami as a ranked opponent.

Miami is led by McClinton, who returns for the game, and Dwayne Collins, who is averaging 12.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. Miami comes in pretty balanced scoring wise, having eight players averaging 6 ppg or more on the season as they are averaging 76 ppg this season as a team. Miami also has a highly recruited freshman out of New York named DeQuan Jones who, although he is averaging just 3.5 ppg, can really jump and could explode in a game.

KEYS TO THE GAME

The biggest thing Kentucky needs to do is to cut down on their turnover numbers. UK comes into this game leading the nation in turnovers per game with 22 tpg where as Miami is only averaging 13.2 tpg. With Michael Porter hurt, but still playing, look for DeAndre Liggins to start at point guard. Liggins, although turnover prone himself, does not throw the ball away as much as Porter, who commits about 3 tpg in only 18 mpg. Liggins helped lead the Cats to victories in Las Vegas over Kansas State and West Virginia with his big plays in the second half of those ball games. If UK can stay around even with Miami in terms of turnovers then we will have a good shot to win.

Another key will be to keep Patrick Patterson out of foul trouble. It seems as though in every game Patterson picks up two quick first half fouls and then has to sit for a long time and then will come in the second half and pick one up. Patterson is averaging less than 30 mpg. which is not good. With Miami having many guys that can come down low and score it is crucial that Patterson is in there to match them and to help prevent them from scoring. Patterson is the best player in the SEC and he will need to have an All-SEC performance today to help propel the Cats.

Prediction

I think that Gillispie is a very good coach, especially at putting the right lineups on the court at the perfect time and I think he does it again for the Cats. I think Patterson has a monster game and Meeks has another 18-22 point performance in helping the Cats to a 72-65 win over the Hurricanes. One very important factor will be the point guard play. I assume Liggins and Galloway will again get major minutes and with them both being new players to the program it is crucial that they play smart.

It’s official…

Per Gillispie, Porter will play saturday vs. Miami (FL) and Harris is out indefinitely.

UK news and notes

- First off, good to hear that Ramon Harris has been released from hospital after suffering a scary injury to his neck. He is listed as day-to-day, but I would not expect him to be in action saturday vs. Miami (FL). Michael Porter seems to be in a bit better shape after his injury caused him to get 10 stitches, he should play against Miami (FL), unfortunately.

- I thought Coach Gillispie handled the DeAndre Liggins situation perfectly, and not because Liggins basically led us to victory over West Virginia the day after his tantrum, but because it is understandable that he was upset and in my opinion he had every right to be. I’m sure Liggins understands why he got some extra “gifts” in practice this week after his reaction. I would start him over Porter saturday if I were Gillispie.

Miami (FL) star Jack McClinton

 

- I expect that Cats to win this weekend at home against Miami (FL). After watching Miami’s first national game vs. Ohio State earlier this week I do not think they should beat us or even come close. Although they played the majority of the game without their skilled, yet easily angered, guard Jack McClinton (left) they still did not look impressive. UK has gone just about every game with Patterson on the bench due to consistent foul trouble and we have already beaten two teams that went to the NCAA tournament a season ago. I expect Patterson to have an enormous game, about 25 pts and 11 rebs.

- The starting lineup for UK-Miami SHOULD be:

D.Liggins
J.Meeks
D.Miller
P.Patterson
J.Harrellson

With Stevenson, Galloway, Stewart, and Porter coming off the bench. I am assuming of course that Harris is not going to play, in which case he should come off the bench at SF.

We’re baaaaaack….

Well after a long break the UKmadness Blog is back up and running. We are also setting up a ‘brother blog’ that is just random and does not necessarily have anything to do with sports. You will be able to access that blog through a link on the blog.

Be ready for a post or two tonight or tomorrow regarding the Cats!