Game #9 - #1 Kentucky Wednesday Dec 7 7pm (CT) Rupp Arena Lexington, KY

[govalpogo]

Well...nothing unexpected.  Remember, Kentucky's smallest margin of victory is 21.  It was still very frustrating to watch the guys look so defeated on so many plays...half the time it didn't even look like we were playing defense at all.  It also seemed like they got an outrageous number of second chance points ESPECIALLY OFF MISSED FREE THROWS!  Only a 7 rebound edge though...interesting. 

I like Micah's speed and quickness, look out when his shot starts falling.  How about Sorolla sneaking close to a double double with 8 pts and 9 boards, like that as well.  And if Davidson doesn't hit that three in the first, I think the game might have ended 130-25.  Overall, 87-63 isn't too terrible to look at for the rest of the year and hopefully the guys can get back to it against Mo St. 

[a3uge]

Yeah, Kentucky will be a 1 or 2 seed come tournament time. Good luck to them - hope they win out (before having their wins vacated in a few years)

[FWalum]

Agree with valpotx, was really getting sick of the tentative and hesitant play. Was hoping that after playing some of the other power 5 conference teams last year and earlier in the out of conference games, we wouldn't be so awe struck by Rupp and the Cats.

Davidson might deserve some additional time in the future but not because of tonight's play.

[crusadermoe]

Wow. Kentucky seems quicker than ever this year as well as big.  The run from a 4-4 score to 27-4 was just shattering.

What would last year's Valpo team have done?...would Carter and Vashil have kept us within 15 well into the 2nd half?  Probably not. 

[M]

2nd half was respectable. Hammond needs to start making some 3s...think I saw a tweet that tonight he made his 3rd one...of the year.

[valpo84]

This is almost as bad as the NCAA Tournament opener against Arizona in 1996.

I was at that Arizona game and it was way worse than this.  They completely overmatched us by the first TV timeout.  I think Homer had burned 3 TOs by that time too.

Turning point of this game was the 2d foul on Lexus.  He was playing good defense and getting us into our sets.  First 4 mins were not bad.  UK had 7 turnovers (so did we but talking positives here first). 

We were not as athletically overmatched except on the Boards as I thought we might be.  They had guys with 38 and 44" verticals.  They were sky walker-ing (bad UK pun) over our guys. We had to make shots to control the break and easy baskets and we didn't. They had like 26 paint points 1st half.  That is my biggest concern this year, we are not a good outside shooting team and especially from 3.  Alec is fine when he doesn't think but he may be thinking too much on the 3.  Jubril will hit a decent %.  Shane has to be more aggressive against big name teams.  He seems to become tentative and he is too slow on his release.  The one time he came down the lane and missed the dunk is the way to attack against top teams.  Against lesser opponents he does that.  I told the Mrs. that Adebayo is a top 5 NBA pick.  He looks like a young Kevin Garnett/Dwight Howard.  I told her UK had at least 2-3 other guys plus Adebayo who will go 20 spots ahead of Alec. 

Our last 4 of the 1st half and first 4 mins of 2d half were good til Alec got the cramp.  Sorlla played well and hope they use this to start working him in more.  He battled their back up center very well and love the hook shot.  That is bank every day in the Horizon League.  He rebounds well too.  Smits still looks a bit lost offensively.  Is he playing a swing 4 or a 5.  Seems to be outside a lot and that's fine but knock the shots down then!! Defensively, he's had his moments.  Micah looked to be settling down more.  We need a couple games where those 3 can get 20 mins of play.  Nick had some nice moments.  Max disappeared last night.  Alec battled back and shows his mettle.  Although, may not have brought him back after the cramp.  We do not need to lose him.

When we played Duke a few times a few years ago, their intensive D really helped us in the games after that.  It's like practicing 6 on 5.  There are arms and legs everywhere.  It should give you confidence against every other team not named Kentucky or Duke.  Burn the tape, on to the next game.

[wh]

Kentucky is an amazingly talented team - 3 projected Top 20 picks in next year's NBA draft, 5-star recruits, Mc Donald's HS All-American's. There may be other elite teams with more experienced players, but no one in the country has as much raw talent and ability.

We don't have that kind of team, and I'm fine with that.  Our guys tried as hard as they could and did a few good things along the way.  We're still going to win a lot of games and have a lot of fun along the way rooting for a group of high quality young men. End of sermonette.

[vufan75]

Kentucky is an amazingly talented team - 3 projected Top 20 picks in next year's NBA draft, 5-star recruits, Mc Donald's HS All-American's. There may be other elite teams with more experienced players, but no one in the country has as much raw talent and ability.

We don't have that kind of team, and I'm fine with that.  Our guys tried as hard as they could and did a few good things along the way.  We're still going to win a lot of games and have a lot of fun along the way rooting for a group of high quality young men. End of sermonette.

Agreed wh. My only comment to add is you just can't go 8 minutes without scoring like we did. Not really against any opponent let alone the caliber of UK. We seem to have those scoring droughts, most notably against highly ranked teams we face. Had we been able to stay closer in that defining 1st half, maybe their freshmen would have felt some pressure and not been so free wheeling offensively. Agree also with 84 that with Lexus in foul trouble almost immediately, that changed our offensive flow significantly. We played ok in spots, we needed a couple guys other than Alec to step up big-time. I think Coach Cal may have called off the dogs a bit once the outcome was obvious. Maybe out of respect for Valpo to some extent?

Will be the type of game the players remember the rest of their lives, playing at Rupp in that environment. Would love to hear from posters who may have went to the game about the Rupp gameday experience.

[crusaderjoe]

This is almost as bad as the NCAA Tournament opener against Arizona in 1996.

For a while there I was thinking more along the lines of those early 90's games against UWGB with Tony Bennett and company. 
(To Valpo's credit, they at least made it a little more respectable last night than against Arizona.)

[talksalot]

We held the BBN to their second lowest point total of the year (tied with SFA). 
In their Wins, we were their second-closest game (MichST was a 21 point loser)

We were their last home game before the new year... they have a one-off game in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon against #207 Hofstra "Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival"... I was thinking that we have Winters in the Chicago area...

Aside from the game... that was one helluva "presentation" they put on.  It was like being at a Bulls game at the UC.  They do the POMP and CIRCUMSTANCE perfectly at Rupp.... oh, they also put a pretty good team on the floor.  and they only hang Final-4 banners from the ceiling.   I'm assuming the banners from the NCAA for non-final-4 years are given as a parting-gift to the assistant coach who got fired that year.

OH, I was asked last night for the population of the City of Lexington:  308,428 (2013)  which is 10x Valpo

[vu72]

News conference post game from Matt and John:

http://www.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-basketball-men/article100363132.html#0

[talksalot]

Peters is the second player to score 20+ against BBN this season... Rob Edwards of Cleveland State laid a 28-spot on 12 of 21 shooting 2 of 7 from 3pt and a couple of free throws to go with 4 rebounds.