Cats beat Vols 64-58. UK finishes out the season 22-8, 10-6 in the conference and most importantly took the important 2nd seed in the SEC, giving UK the 1st round bye. With our lack of depth, winning four straight games in four straight days would be quite a feat.
This was a big loss for UT, as they go from getting the 2nd seed in the tourney to dropping all the way to the 5th seed thanks to the complex tie breaker rules. UT is also on the bubble and now must make some noise in the SEC tourney to make the Big Dance. It’s a little harder this year to gauge where UT really is thanks to 3 more teams being added to the field.
This could have also been the last time UK faces Bruce Pearl unless UT makes it the SEC championship game against us.
After losing to Arkansas, how many fans expected UK to finish out with wins over Florida, Vandy and UT. Not me that’s for sure, way to finish it out.
You can view the entire SEC bracket here:
http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=LaUW6IXaoCI=&tabid=712&mid=4578
ESPN hasn’t updated their bracketology since UK’s win but CBS has and has us as 4 seed in what is a very favorable bracket, with really only North Carolina being scary:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology
Cats will not take on the winner of Ole Miss/South Carolina which is the E6 vs. W3 matchup. UK will play at 3:30 eastern this coming Friday. If we win this, we will play likely the winner of Alabama and Georgia. Bama just beat Georgia but this was at Bama with a hobbled Thompkins.
Winning today gave us the bye, kept us on the other side of the bracket from Florida and Vandy.
It was an ugly first half for UK and Coach Cal said at the half mentioned he was just glad to be down 7. Fortunately UT didn’t play that amazing either in the 1st half, giving UK a shot to come back in the 2nd half.
Cats came out well and took the lead and brought their lead up to 40-33. Then UT scored four straight to bring the lead down to 3. UK then responded getting their biggest lead to 47-39.
Tennessee clawed back and took the lead 52-51 with 6 minutes to go after a jumper by Kenny Hall. This shot by Hall ended up being the last time UT had the lead as Terrence Jones had any easy put back after Knight missed the three and Harrellson saved the play by grabbing the board, eventually ending up in Jones hands.
Player of the game went to Brandon Knight who struggled in the 1st half but was clutch in the 2nd. He ended with 19 points with 3 big threes, 6-6 from the line, 3 rebounds, 2 assist and 1 steal and no turnovers in the 2nd half.
Knight also broke the three point record by a freshman, previously held by Rex Chapman.
Other scorers: Jones-15 (Jones had another double double with 12 rebounds), Miller-15, Lamb-6, Liggins-6, Vargas-3
Personally I find Jones continuing to end with decent numbers but not playing like a lottery pick that he is projected as. He continues to force shots, bad turnovers at times, doesn’t kick the ball out quick enough when he is doubled/tripled team. Very predictable that he wants to go to left. We need him this year but he isn’t playing at the level he could be.
For UT-Harris-18 (who was one of the 1st players to turn Coach Cal down at UK), Hopson-13, Goins-9, Tatum-9, Hall-6, Field-2,Maymon-1
Cats did not shoot well from the field as we all saw. Shooting only 19-53 (35.8%) from the field, 7-18 (38.9%) from three, 19-27(70.4%) from the line.
UT shot a little better from the field, 18-47 (38.3%). The difference being their three point woes 2-9 (22.2%). This was odd as most teams UK plays gets up 9 threes in the first 10 minutes, let alone the whole game.
UT did hit one more free throw as they shot 20-26(76.9%). You can’t really call home cooking on the refs as they fouled 23 times to our 21, despite UK having Liggins and Lamb fouling out. UT went 11 deep, allowing them to spread the fouls around a little more. UK only went 8 deep if you count Vargas and Hood’s limited action.
UK barely won the rebound battle 32-30. Both teams had 10 turnovers.
Knight after the game: Great feeling to get two wins over Tennessee, one of our rivals.
What did Cal say at half? He just challenged us as individuals and they are kicking our butts in the 1st half, to come out and compete. Our guys took on the challenge in the 2nd half.
My challenge in the 2nd half was to not have any turnovers and be strong with the basketball.
Liggins and Lamb did a great job at slowing down Hopson who is a great player.
Jones got challenged and he wanted to show himself and coach that he could do this. He came out strong and hit some clutch free throws at the end.
We had a good overall season; we could have done better, lost some real close games. We improved as individuals and our team got better.
Cal after the game: We looked timid in the 1st half, no competitive spirit. He got right into the faces of three of them and told them they are getting their butt kicked.
Liggins was unbelievable in both half, without him we are down 15 at the half. We were letting the rebound hit the floors, hoping someone else would get it.
We couldn’t win down the stretch in a tight game at North Carolina, at Arkansas, etc. Today we did, this was a good sign for our team.
Cal mentioned how he was glad to leave with 1 timeout, he likes to always have 1 left. This says there was never a point in which UK really needed to call one (can’t get the ball in, on the ground with the ball) and we couldn’t. At the end they almost called it but they were able to get it into Jones who hit two clutch free throws.
Reggie Miller grabbed our team and told them they need to have some hate in you if you want to win.
Don’t forget to check out #16 UK hoops (Lady Cats) at 5:30 eastern on ESPN2, who is playing #4 UT in the SEC women’s championship. UT and UK only played once this year (women’s do not do the East/West divisions) and UK lost by 6 at Memorial in Lexington.
Go Cats! Win the SEC Tourney!
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