We improve to 11-2 and are now set to be break back into the top ten in the rankings. Lots of blue in the arena, way to represent Cat fans!
Louisville started off with a 6-2 lead. Cats brought it back to a tie score 6-6 after Harrellson scored a two point layup. Cards went on a 6-0 run to increase their lead to 12-6 after Knowles nailed one of his six threes.
UK did not get its first lead until 11:22 left in the 1st half, when Miller scored to tie it at 14 and was fouled. Miller nailed the three throw to take the lead 15-14. I remember saying at this point, now let’s never lose this lead and that’s exactly what UK did. From this point on, UK never gave Louisville the lead back.
The player of the game was of course senior Josh Harrellson who finished with a double double 23 points, and 14 rebounds, 2 assist, 1 block and 1 steal. He shot 2-3 from field including nailing his only three attempted. I wish they would have shown Pitino’s face when Harrellson nailed the three. He had to be throwing up his arms at this point. There is no strategy that would help the Cards at this point.
Other points for the Cats: Knight-25 points, Jones-12, Lamb-9, Miller-7 (first points for Miller against Louisville), and Liggins with 2.
Jones did not have a jaw dropping stat night but I loved his easy ability to flip to Harrellson for the easy scoring over and over and over. Jones could have forced shots but Louisville just kept giving Harrellson the wide open shots over and over. Jones chose to be a team player, which is important for him. If it wasn’t Jones passing to him it was our guards throwing up lobs to him. He was able to grab the ball and finish. Harrellson has had issues with his hands in the past, balls lobbed into him and he would fumble it or lose it. When he fumbled it, the defense would have time to collapse on him. This didn’t happen today. He cleanly took the ball and went right up with it. Cal and the whole Big Blue Nation saw what Harrellson can do for us.
Kanter is receiving quite a bit of credit for Harrellson’s improvement. Kanter is helping him in practice quite a bit. If Kanter is ruled ineligible then it has actually been a blessing for NCAA to be stalling on their decision because of Kanter’s ability to keep practicing with us while we wait.
Cats did not shoot great from the field, 29-57 (50.9%), 6-16 from three (37.5%). We did shoot well from the line 14-16 (87.5%). When you play tough defense, you typically can afford to miss some shots and that was the case today.
Cards shot 46.3% from the field, 40% from three, and a bad 5-11 (45.5%) from the line. I thought it was Cal coached teams who can’t shoot free throws???
Louisville only had two players to score in double figures. Knowles with 22 and Chris Smith with 15. I expected Knowles to end as the leading scorer because as the line CBS used today, he was an “atm” he was money with almost every shot in the second half. He ended shooting 6-10 from three, 8-16 from the field.
Cats easily won the rebound battle 35-23. We tied in turnovers both with 13. We won the block battle 7-3. Close in the foul column, Louisville fouled 18 times to UK’s 15. No one fouled out. Miller ended with 4 for UK. UofL had two players end with four fouls: Siva and Kuric.
Mike Marra and Elisha Justice both played some despite Pitino just announcing yesterday they wouldn’t play. Pitino continues to show why no one should trust anything that comes out of his mouth and that is not being bias, Louisville fans should even know this…neither Marra nor Justice scored or did anything worth mentioning.
If I was a Cards fan I would be upset at Pitino for several reasons. The obvious of course is fielding a significantly less talented team, that’s on him. Then he made two mistakes for this season, if he really wanted to beat UK…both involve scheduling.
We used to play Louisville a few weeks earlier. I know we played them on Dec. 16th in 06 because that was my wedding day and we had a big crew at BW3’s on my wedding day rooting on the Cats before our wedding that night…yes I am a true blue UK fan! The bridesmaids were out getting their hair done…
The last few years at least the game has been in the first week of January. I would push for even earlier than this if I was Louisville…
The reason why Louisville needs to play UK as earliest as they can is because Cal will continue to field young teams because of his desire to recruit the best of the best. Those players will deck early. Not a team with a ton of experience from year to year. Louisville’s best chance at winning is to take advantage of our inexperience. The earlier they can get us, the better chance they have.
The second mistake involving scheduling is Louisville not playing one truly talented team before UK, Butler and UNLV is not on UK’slevel. Schedule one team a few weeks before UK to truly see what your team is made of would have helped. Even if you lose, you now can see what you can do to adjust to these issues and you have a better feel for what a top talent team looks like. Next year I would schedule the game away as well to help prepare for the crowd at Rupp.
The Cards did not know how to go from playing cupcake teams, to playing a team like UK and it showed. He set his team up to fail with a schedule like that. I realize his team is less talented this year and scheduling the cupcakes got him a top 20 ranking that he wouldn’t have had with a tougher schedule but in the end it hurt his team develop at their highest level.
They are not developed at the level they could be and that strength of schedule could hurt their tourney chances if they don’t do well in the Big East. Of course their sos will go up after playing in the toughest conference in the country but they may need an even tougher sos if they don’t finish in the top 6 in the Big East. Selection Committee puts a lot of wait on who you beat on the road and neutral court and how you have performed lately. We shall see how well they do in the Big East…
Cal after the game was very happy with our execution. He was very proud of Josh’s play. “He just kept playing. If Harrellson didn’t get the ball then we didn’t get it. Vargas didn’t play well and we didn’t go deep tonight because of it.”
Cal claimed they only played six which was mostly true but Hood and Vargas saw a few minutes but for the most part it was Knight, Miller, Liggins, Harrellson, Jones and Lamb throughout.
Lamb did not play a whole lot in the 1st half after getting two quick fouls. Cal did put him out there close to the end of the second half and nailed a big three with 1:24 to go in the first half.
Cal after the game said we had to contest threes and for the most part we did that. When we made mistakes it was when we left our feet and they were able to drive and score. Cal emphasized that we can’t leave our feet and get beat.
When Cal was asked about what he likes about Liggins and Knight: Liggins is long and athletic and tough. Knight is terrific. He is having less and less break downs each game.
Cal wants to see Miller to be tough and felt he played good today.
Cal emphasized the importance of having the break at Christmas for the players and his family. Maybe taking a little shot at Louisville who chose to not allow their players to have a break.
A few other games to catch today: UT is currently getting drilled by Charleston…maybe a few more tears coming for Pearl before the day is over…
Florida plays at Xavier, #13 Minnesota plays at #19 Michigan St. and don’t miss #7 San Diego St. take on power house Div. III Occidental, which sounds like a dental insurance company…not sure how San Diego St. is worthy of #7 in the country and an undefeated Cincy is not ranked…
Cats play at Rupp Monday Jan. 3rd against Penn before we start conference play.
Go Cats! Great game Josh!
I haven't been to Rupp since Cal came to UK but those Louisville fans were crazy I got to hand it to them. U of L had all the support they could possibly need.
ReplyDeleteI'm not impressed with either UK or UofL's fans as far as being loud. Many schools have students jumping up and down the entire time the opposing team has the ball and waving pomp pomps the whole game. UK and UofL fans get loud when their team is doing well, which is really the opposite of when home court advantage is needed the most...jmho...
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