Cats pass the big exam!!! UNC goes down.

As the school semester is coming to a close and players are having to take their final exams, our Cats passed one huge test by taking down the most talented team Kentucky will face until the final four.  Cats found themselves down five at the half (maybe Tracy McGrady going into UK's locker room at half time helped) and North Carolina had the lead for most of the game.

Kentucky did not take the lead for good until the 7:31 mark when Anthony Davis scored off of an assist by Teague. A shot that bounced around the rim and then finally fell.  We only now know this shot took away the last lead North Carolina would see the rest of the way.

The lead rose as high as five, 69-64 after Doron Lamb nailed another three (no word yet on if the media approved in Lamb's response to this shot).


UNC made it close with a three by Barnes to cut it back to 2.  Miller scored to bring it back to 4.  Henson hit two free throws to bring it back to 2. Gilchrist hits 2 free throws to bring it back to 4. Bullock hits a big three to bring the lead down to 1. Teague misses the first of a 1-1 giving UNC the chance to beat us.  Davis picked up Teague by coming down and blocking away Henson's shot.  UNC seemed stunned and didn't foul.  Odd decision with it being right in front of Williams.  Seems like at least Williams would have been yelling foul, I believe they thought he just said "ah shucks."  I hear Williams is blaming the UNC fans for selling their tickets for their loss.

Then an odd ending as Lamb ran off with the ball before the clock buzzed and he clearly walked with around a second left and the refs chose not to call it, may not even been looking.  The UNC guys had thrown in the towel, ball game.

Cats win it 73-72.  The Cats improve to 8-0.  Of course if you bet on Carolina you won since UK did not cover the spread which was at 5.  

Kentucky has won 38 straight in Rupp.  Billy G won his last game in Rupp and then Coach Cal is 37-0 since coming here.  38 if you want to count his win of the Dominican team over the Kentucky All Stars...(of course if you count that one then I guess you would also want to count the exhibition games the last three seasons).

If you would have told me that North Carolina was going to be that hot from three when that is their one weakness...I wouldn't have believed it.

Stats from the game:
Kidd-Gilchrist led all scorers with 17.  He came and shined today.  His one flaw was no threes, 0-1 from behind the arc.  He picked a good time for him to step up with record breaking amount of NBA scouts in attendance.

Other scorers for the Cats: Jones-14, Lamb-14, Miller-12, Davis-7, Teague-7, and Wiltjer-2.

UNC: Barnes-14, Zeller-14, Hairston-11 (so much for a sprained wrist and not even playing as he went 3-4 from three and 2-2 from the line), Henson-10, Bullock-8, Strickland-5. 


Cats shot 44.4% from the field (UNC shot 41.7%).  Poor three point shooting night as we shot 4-17 (23.5%) to UNC's 11-18 (61.1%).  We shot a poorer free throw % but hit more of them 13-18 (72.2%) to UNC's 11-14 (78.6%).  Zeller went 6-6 from the line, that guy never misses a free throw against Kentucky and that is the 7 foot center???

Cats won the rebound battle 36-33.  We had 7 steals to their 2.  7 blocks to their 6. UK had 9 turnovers to their 16.  Their turnovers kept us in the game when they were hot from three.

No one was in foul trouble other than Barnes going out in the 1st half with three.  He didn't have another foul the rest of the game. UK didn't have anyone with more than 2 fouls.   

Davis on CBS: North Carolina is an unbelievable team and they have John Henson and CODY Zeller (it's Tyler Zeller, Davis...Cody you still have coming up against IU), They are really tough in the post, they really outweigh me.  They wanted to go with the right hand hooks and we had to double team them to shut this down.

Miller after the game: I think my teammates did a good job of getting me open and giving me looks, I just had to take advantage of it.  We seen they were not trying to leave Davis because of the lobs we gave up to him, so we had to take advantage of knowing this.

It seemed like they never missed from three.  We have to do a better job to not give the other team open looks like that.

They execute really well and when you execute like this and can hit your shots, your a tough team to beat.

(asked about UNC's physicality) We thought they would come in very physical and we had to prepare for this.

(asked on the difference between this team and the previous UK teams Miller has been part of) We seem to be getting "it" earlier than we have in the last few years. 


Cal on CBS: All our team with freshman and sophomores to do as they should have, I'm proud of our guys.  They want to be coached, they love each other, they are playing for each other, that makes us pretty good.  North Carolina could have easily won this game but my man Davis came out of nowhere with the block.

Cal after the game to the Rupp crowd: Wow what about North Carolina? That is two heavy weights slugging it out.  I'm exhausted.  UNC would not go away.  For us to play like that when we are this young I'm ecstatic.

The block from Anthony Davis shows his will to win.  Terrence Jones will to win was crazy.  How about Wiltjer's stepping up and playing defense and hitting that huge layup when we were dying. How about Vargas stepping up and playing tough defense.

We were hanging around and finished away to finish them off.  This environment was crazy.  This is why I coach here.  I would have been happy if Henson hit that last shot, not real happy but I would still be proud of our guys.

Last night I'm watching some tape and then he saw UK/UNC on the ticker.  The announcer said the biggest game of the year and he realized the players are probably going to see this.  So I drove into the office and talked to the upperclassmen.  He told Vargas he would be seeing more minutes because of his size.  I was happy with that decision as he played well.

Then I talked to the other upperclassmen giving them insight for tomorrow.  I was happy with that and then went back home.

I didn't realize they had 11 threes.  I knew if we left Marshall open he would hit shots.  Anyone who watched this game had to say, "that was a great basketball game for December."  Both of us play hard and played aggressive.

I wanted them to play for each other, that was my key message.  I've been tough on these guys.  Trying to drag them to make sure they needed to have what they needed for this game.  Even if we were easily beating the other team, I had to make sure they were ready for this game.

My job is about them, about protecting them.  If I'm riding them it is to get them where they need to be.  I must ride them to get them to the progress guys like Rose and Wall.  I will probably be spending more of my time with Teague, he is getting there but not quite there yet.  At the end I told Teague, that wasn't your play but if you are going to take it then you got to hit those free throws.

(On Davis) What happened was he was getting pushed around down low but he played a good game.  What did UNC take away? They took away the lob.  What opened up? The middle.  Doron and others had the runner in the middle because of Davis.  When we played them a year ago we were not getting that shot.

We had to trap Zeller, he is one of the best players in the country.  Henson has really improved as well.

We want to play fast but to win championships you have to play half court defense.  How do you play? Can you grind it out.  I believe our team can play both ways.

The other day we played St. John's and they played us with a zone.  We can go against a zone.

Players will get today off...tomorrow off...the next two days they will be doing individual work.  We need to step off the pedal a little bit, to keep them going strong.

Cats now have a week off before taking on Indiana on the road December 10th. Indiana is 7-0 but hasn't played a top 25 team. Their best win over 5-2 N.C. State.

Great day to be a Wildcat! Go Cats!