24,388 in attendance to see #1 Cats outright win their 45th regular SEC season championship as they take down Vanderbilt 83-74. Kentucky continues their home win streak now at 51, 20 in a row this season. Kentucky has one more home game Thursday night against Georgia. UK improved to 28-1, 14-0 in the SEC. Vandy falls to 20-9, 9-5 in the SEC.
UK Hoops plays Miss. St. tomorrow. If they win they will outright win the women’s SEC title not having to share with Tennessee. This would only be the 2nd time in SEC history for both the men’s and women’s squads to win the regular season SEC championship. It will be the first time in UK history.
Anthony Davis with a season/career high with 28 points. Man was Davis good today or what? He carried this team. Davis went 10-11 from the field including several buzzer beaters, 8-9 from the line, never took a three knowing that wasn’t the best option. Davis had a double double with 11 rebounds. This was his 13 double double, matching Jones for a single season best for double doubles by a freshman player.
His 7th straight double scoring game. Then he added 6 blocks and 2 steals. He was never in foul trouble despite Ezeli continuing to post up on, ended with only 2 fouls.
Other scorers: Teague-16 points (6-7 from the line, 6 assist), Jones-12 (only played 23 minutes because of foul trouble, hit two clutch free throws down the stretch), Miller-9 (all in the 2nd half), Lamb-9 (only going 1-3 from three), Kidd-Gilchrist-8 (8 rebounds as well),and Vargas with 1 thanks to a Vandy heel in the semi-circle. Witljer only saw 2 minutes of action and the only stat was a foul.
Kentucky shot 32-56 (57.1%), Coach Cal has only lost once at UK when his team shot 50% or better from the field. Vandy shot 26-63 (41.3%). That one loss came this year @Indiana where Kentucky shot 55.6%.
What kept Vandy in the game was no surprise, their three point shooting. Vandy shot 7-18 (38.9%) from behind the arc. We on the other hand did not shoot well going 2-10 (20%). Lamb 1-3, Miller 1-4, Teague 0-2 and Kidd-Gilchrist 0-1.
Vandy shot about the same from behind the arc at Memorial Coliseum as they shot 8-21 (38.1%). Kentucky as well shot poorly from behind the arc going 3-14 (21.4%).
Taylor led Vandy with 19 points, of course at least 4 of those points were garbage points at the end where UK was just stopping the three. Jenkins with 15 of his 18 points in the second half, with 4 three pointers.
Second chance points were an issue at Vanderbilt, UK won this battle 13 to 10.
UK won the rebound battle 33-23. Kentucky with 8 blocks to Vandy’s 4. The Cats did lose the turnover war: UK-9 to Vandy’s 7.
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Marquis Teague after the game:
(How do you come out of a shaky start?) Basically I just wanted to slow down and provide opportunities for my teammates.
Vandy is a lot better than last night. Guard the pick and roll a lot better. Contested our shots well.
They made it difficult to throw the lob to Davis by bringing a big up and it was hard to see over them.
We just wanted to contest with high hands and make it as difficult as possible.
Coach Cal said just keep attacking and if they commit to me, then kick it out to the shooters.
It has been a great ride, winning, having fun and we just want it to continue. We just stay together, we have fun, and we know we have each others back.
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Coach Cal after the game:
Let me start here, I will sign every ball today. You guys helped us.
How good is Vanderbilt? There good. We will likely have to play them again. My prediction is they will go in the NCAA tournament and advance and advance. They played way more physical than us. We were lucky to be only down one at the half, we couldn’t hit a shot.
He only took 11 shots; shouldn’t you think he should be taking 20? He is playing for his team.
When we had our last meeting, I didn’t like the look in our eyes. You can tell and we struggled out of the gate.
What about Jones in the second half? We need Jones to play that way the whole game. Just play that way.
How about how we finish games? Man. They play off each other, they complete each other not compete against each other. They kept coming at us and we fought them off and came away with a tough win. That’s all good stuff.
Cal asked Simmons our trainer about Kidd-Gilchrist and he said he is ready to go. I started laughing, he said what. I said, you acted like you got shot down there.
Who did I not play the last 7 minutes against Miss. St? Teague. Who cheered the loudest? Teague. Today, Kidd-Gilchrist did the same thing. That is the type of team we got.
They are not machines, they are not computers, noon games are hard to play. The issue will be in New Orleans, being the 1 seed we will play all our games at noon. Then in the NCAA tournament they will try to make it as hard as they can for us, so in my opinion we will be playing at noon. So we might as well get used to it.
Players will have the rest of today off, then tomorrow off. Then they play Thursday, senior night. Wow, what has Miller done for us? Both Miller and Vargas will graduate on time.
I’m not recruiting one and done players, I just recruit great players and if they develop quickly into an NBA talent, then best of luck to them. Wiltjer and Miller’s timelines for the NBA are different than others. I believe Miller will be an NBA player and be a NBA player for a long time. Vargas will also be paid to play the game and play for a long time, big guys play for a long time.
(On UK Hoops) Matthew Mitchell is doing such a great job and what drives me nuts is he has that team coming back next year. They also have a great player from California sitting out this year. Man what are you doing? Putting pressure on us.
(On Davis player of the year) There may be players better than him and you know that bias is involved here. I’m not going to vote on anyone from Kentucky. If you watched this guy, I’m making you tell on yourself.
The argument this guys numbers are not as good as so and so, what are you talking about? He isn’t shooting as many shots. If you watch them, it stands for itself.
I need to be more humble, but my team is so good it is hard to. I shouldn’t say those things, I think it but I shouldn’t say it.
Cats now will be back at home Thursday night against Georgia.
Go Cats! Beat Dawgs!
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