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Jack Givens is a former Kentucky All-American and Final Four MVP on UK’s 1978 national championship team. He’s now the UK Radio Network analyst but while he has more basketball knowledge than most fans, he can still think like a fan at times.
“You look up and Kentucky scored 93 points on a night where it seemed like the offense was not going anywhere,” said Givens.
He was right. Kentucky had 25 points with four minutes left in the first half of what turned out to be a 93-77 win over Vanderbilt Wednesday but the Wildcats scored 20 points in the last four minutes of the half and put the game away early in the second half.
However, Givens also realized what he was seeing — or not seeing — from UK’s defense again.
“At times you just have to make up your mind you are going to stop people. That is an attitude that does not come easily for this team,” Givens said.
Amen.
That’s the most perplexing thing about this team. At times the Cats just seem to lose focus/interest on defense.
“It’s not about getting a stop every time but getting stops when you need them,” Givens said. “Kentucky did that in the second half. Now they relaxed when they got a big lead and that’s not good. Still room for improvement on that end of the floor.”
Yes there is but it is so late in the season that you can understand why coach John Calipari has recently admitted he knows there will be games UK just has to be able to outscore teams and not count on the defense getting those stops.
“In the second half we finally got stops and were able to string together some stuff and get out in our style of play,” Kentucky assistant coach Chin Coleman said. “We just decided to guard and play harder. Did a better job making sure we were guarding the guys that killed us in the first half and not letting them get to their sweet spots.”
Calipari said it still often comes down to either miscommunication or a lack of communication on defense.
“Teams come in and play well against us but we have got to get better defensively,” Calipari said.
10 Responses
I thought the cats came out flat and let Vandy hung around in the first half. It be interesting how they will respond to a red hot Tennessee team.
They do this every game of late..lose opening tip, play with zero sense of urgency, keep opposing team in the game by halftime and then survive in the 2nd half. I am guessing that Knoxville had a hard time sleeping last night in anticipation of feasting on Cat on saturday.
Luckily, we played lowly Vanderbilt last nigh. Unluckily, we play Tennessee on Saturday. It looks like we will be playing on Wednesday next week.
There’s lot of scenario that cats can be a 2,3,4 or 5 seed in the SEC tourney.
Cats79, the Cats will be a 5 seed (playing on Thursday) if they lose Saturday. Win and they get the 2 seed. Go Cal’s Cats!
Jimmy, you can actually make sense when you aren’t kissing Calipari’s azz.
Barry, you are the epitome of what’s wrong with America today.
I love watching this team play. They play fast and are very good at putting the ball where it goes, in the basket. But I really fear the lack of defense will end up biting this team.
OF….how many UK teams that you have watched over the years have missed this many shots at the rim and how many UK teams have given up this many shots at the rim? That is our season and will predictably keep us from winning SEC title for 6th straight year and keep us from advancing to Final 32 again.
They do this every game of late..lose opening tip, play with zero sense of urgency, keep opposing team in the game by halftime and then survive in the 2nd half. I am guessing that Knoxville had a hard time sleeping last night in anticipation of feasting on Cat on saturday.