#1 Cats dismantle the Vols 69-44 in the new unis. If you are a fan of the new look or not, the performance was top notch. UK is playing their best basketball right now and we will need it as we have a tough schedule coming up.
Kentucky improves to 22-1, 8-0 in the SEC. Vandy who is right behind us at 5-1 is currently getting beat by Arkansas, which would be a very helpful win the for Cats.
UK seemed unconscious early on and really did it with easy shots. Any team can just happen to be hot and nail shot after shot but typically that strategy will fail. UK did it the smart way, just took it to them and not settling for the three. When UK did decide to start shooting threes the streak ended.
I didn’t mind the little scuffle early, no punches were thrown and UK shown you can’t beat us through intimidation. Making a statement of not only are we talented but we are tenacious as well.
UK’s home streak extends to 48 and Coach Cal ties his Memphis home win streak in the process.
Davis was the star of the show with his 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 blocks. Davis went 6-7 from the field. 2 of those shots were deep twos, forcing players to come out and guard him. If you can just back off Davis then you can just pack it in.
Great to see the leadership in Jones. The one spark Tennessee had was Woolridge going 5-5 from three. Cal calls a timeout and Jones ask to guard him. This is odd after Cal has been on Jones for his poor three point defense. His long arms got to Woolridge and he only attempted one more three the rest of the game, a three he missed.
Then Jones had the great “I’ll hurdle you if I have to” steal then pass down for the Kidd-Gilchrist dunk. He also went 5-5 from the line. Two games in a row Jones is shooting well from the line. Jones ended with 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals.
I’m loving the progression of Teague. He may or may not be able to play at the level of Wall and Knight but we don’t need him to be at that level, just hold the fort and he as of late is doing that well. Teague had 9 points with only 2 turnovers.
Other scorers: Kidd-Gilchrist-16 (8 rebounds), Lamb-9 (hitting the only 3 for UK the whole game), Miller-4 (not his best night going 0-4 from 3), and Wiltjer-2.
The one negative as mentioned was the 3 point shooting as UK went 1-10 (10%). UK’s streak barely holds entacted for 820 straight games with a 3. UK has the 3rd longest streak in this stat behind Vandy and UNLV. There was one game under Sutton where UK did not hit a three. Vandy and UNLV has never played a game without hitting a 3. Of course prior to the Sutton years there was no 3 point shot.
UT shot well from three thanks to Woolridge, going 7-18 (38.9%).
Kentucky shot 22-41 (53.7%), to UT shooting 16-57 (28.1%).
UK did great at the line 24-27 (88.9%), that may be the highest of the season without looking at every box score to see. Tennessee shot well from the line 71.4% unfortunately only went to the line for 7 shots. That also might be a career low against UK team.
Interesting note on UK’s defense. Since the shot clock came about 26 years ago, UK has never had a 3 game stretch scoring as low as this team has in the last three games. Pretty odd in that all three games: Georgia, LSU and UT were dominant performance where UK owned it out of the gate.
Looks like Stokes 20 shoe size and improved stretching abilities did not help him tonight as he finished with only 4 points, 2-9 from the field.
What is the deal with Cameron Tatum? If you remember he goes back to being involved in the drug scandal a few years ago that got multiple players suspended and Tyler Smith sent packing. He is the only name holdover from Pearl and he is a no show. Zero points and until they called his name in the 2nd half forgot he was still there.
UK now takes on South Carolina on the road Saturday at 4 eastern. USC has been the punching bag of the SEC so far this season, going only 1-5.
Go Cats! Beat the Gamecocks!
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