SUPER BOWL 2012

UKFreak00
Senior Board Moderator

Here we are the last tune-up before the showdown against North Carolina on December 3rd. So what can we take away from the St. John’s game? Here is what I saw.

Positives:

• I have to start off acknowledging the 18 blocked shots, a Kentucky record. And it is not just Anthony Davis. Everyone on this team is long and able to block or alter shots. Davis had 8 of the 18 blocks but the only player who played more than two minutes and did not record a blocked shot was Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

• The defense in general. Everyone on the court plays good, tough, physical defense. The way Calipari gets the kids to buy into his defensive system shows what a great coach he is. We forced 5 shot clock violations last night.

• 16 assists on 28 field goals. Kentucky played a lot better team basketball against St. John’s and did not play as much one-on-one basketball. This number would have been even higher if we had been able to knock down some more open shots.

• Only 12 turnovers. We are going to turn the ball over because of the pace we want to play. While I admit I would still like to see this number around 8-10, the reason I am happy with 12 turnovers is because five of those came early. After five turnovers in the first five minutes of the game, we settled in and only turned the ball over 7 more times the rest of the way.

• Only two turnovers for Marquis Teague. Teague still looks like he is struggling to fully grasp the offense, but over the last two games he has at least protected the ball better. You can see the improvement each game from Marquis Teague.

• 15 rebounds from Anthony Davis and 9 from Terrence Jones. These are the two guys I have been saying need to be more physical on the glass. They did just that last night, bringing a combined 24 of Kentucky’s 45 rebounds.

• Quick hands on defense. A lot of balls were knocked away from driving St. John’s players last night. To go along with the 18 blocks, there were probably 6 or 7 balls knocked away before they could even get into a shooting motion.

• Darius Miller played with some aggression. My issue with Darius Miller throughout his career has been that he lacks a killer instinct. Even though he only scored 9 points last night, you finally saw Miller play with some fire and passion. The one handed dunk on the lob is a play I never thought I would see from Darius Miller. Miller keeping the intensity up is key for us this year.

• Anthony Davis looks like he understands the offense better. Early in the year, Davis seemed to be lost at times on the offensive end and had a tendency to be out of place. Last night, Davis did a great job at finding soft spots in the zones which led to a lot of lobs and easy dunks.

• Terrence Jones’ basketball I.Q. It was always clear how talented Terrence Jones was; the question was the mental aspect of his game. Jones is not forcing shots the way he did last year, the only three pointers he has taken have been open shots, not forced like they were last year. He is playing 15 feet and in, and his drop step on the low post is 100% improved. It is like Terrence Jones is a completely different player this year.

• Doron Lamb shook off his mini-slump. Lamb had not been shooting well the last couple games, but finished last night with 16 points on 6-11 shooting and 2-3 from three point range.

• Anthony Davis’ ability to run the floor. I am not talking about on offensive fast breaks, which he also does well, I am talking about Davis always getting back on defense. Davis never gives up on a play and always hustles to get back to contest a shot. There were a couple St. John’s fast break opportunities that were broken up due to Davis hustling back down the floor.

• Winning a game where we could not play at the pace we want to. St. John’s did a good job at taking the air out of the ball and slowing the game down. This team has athleticism that is comparable to the 2009-2010 team but what separates the two teams is this team’s ability to play in the half court. Remember, this was only the first day of December and this team is already playing better in the half-court than that team ever did. Continued growth and improvement in the half-court combined with our athleticism will make us a scary team.

Negatives:

• Kyle Wiltjer, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Marquis Teague combined to shoot 4-24 from the field. We are going to need better offensive output from these guys if we are going to beat North Carolina this Saturday. They do not need to score a lot of points, but they need to be efficient. 19% from the field is far from efficient.

• Free Throws. 20-30 from the stripe for 67%. We had improved a lot over the past couple games from the free throw line, but we need this number to be up around the 75% mark.

• Another slow start offensively. We cannot afford these slow starts when we get into playing North Carolina, Louisville, Florida, Vanderbilt, etc. Seven minutes into the game we had 6 points, and 5 turnovers.

• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on the offensive end. The first couple games led to high expectations for Kidd-Gilchrist, but he was a complete non-factor on the offensive end Thursday night. We will need him to bounce back on Saturday.

• Kyle Wiltjer is just not athletic enough to play with some of the teams we will play this year. Wiltjer is going to be very important for us if we run into a team like Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament because he has a high basketball IQ and is very fundamentally sound. However, there are just not a lot of minutes for him against more athletic teams.

Overall I was satisfied with this performance. We handily won a game that we were unable to force the tempo. St. John’s, while they have struggled this year, is still a talented team who plays very physical. This team adjusted well to playing out of their comfort zone and came away with a solid 22 point victory.