Andrew Carr, left, and Kobe Brea celebrate against Florida. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Andrew Carr did not have a spectacular first half against Florida Saturday but that certainly changed in the second of Kentucky’s 106-100 win.
He finished with 14 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the field and 4-for-7 at the foul line, five assists, four rebounds and no turnovers in 29 1/2 minutes. He hit a huge 3-point shot in front of the Kentucky bench late to help seal the SEC win.
“You go down these (stat) lines and it’s pretty incredible. You think about Andrew, you know, he’s 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line and he’s five assists, zero turnovers,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said.
“We spent the last several minutes of the game switching one through five and he had a ridiculously difficult defensive responsibilities. I thought he was terrific.”
Pope liked that Florida had to try and counter what lineup he put on the court.
“You could see that Florida had to be responsive in the lineups they were choosing to put on the floor because they were trying to deal with Andrew down the stretch,” Pope said. “And that’s really impactful.
“You have a good feeling as a coach when you know that the other side has to kind of jockey a little bit to try to figure out what they can do lineup wise. It might not be the lineup or position that they want on the floor for a bunch of reasons but the one they have to have on the floor to handle Andrew Carr. That’s a pretty good feeling. And that talks about his incredible effect on the game.”
9 Responses
I had said a couple weeks back that Carr was the key to our season. He has had several halves this year when he didn’t look for his shots. He has all the physical attributes but seems to lack that constant Dog.
Carr has been the most consistent player, by far. His ANE is 0.617 (Professor’s Adjusted Net Efficiency) which measures efficiency based in key factors. 0.600 is rarely sustained this many games into a season and many players never come close to 0.600 even one game in a season or career.
Butler is next at 0.416 which is a class act in itself.
Williams & Garrison are at 0.343 & 0.325 which are excellent and the only other players abive 0.300.
To put these numbers into perspective, the UK team average is 0.228 which is far, far below the level needed to be a FF contender. It is not even close.
The 2 players with a lot of minutes who significantly lower the TEAM ANE are Oweh at 0.157 and Robinson with a negative value at (0.072).
The Professor used to provide an article with these valuable comprehensive stats for years at VV, thanks to Larry V giving him the platform to post it. I’ve been following UK BB since the late 50’s and closely following it since the 60’s and eventually closely following stats and analysis. Nothing compares to the accuracy of the PROF.ANE. It is remarkable that year after year, the NCAA champion can be projected to be one 1 or the top 4 teams with the highest ANE value.
UK needs to play TEAM 1st ball the way Coach Pope developed and taught them which is how the 1st 5 games were played and finally again the last 2 games. The slide between those games was primarily due to the selfish play of some who decided to try to be the star and hog the ball instead of passing it.
The A:TO ratio is a quick snapshot of how much TEAM ball is being played. Williams $ Garrison had at least 4 assists each the last game when UK out-gunned FL. TEAM 1st wins big games.
With all due respect to the Professor, I’m glad he was wrong about us losing to Florida.
But, he did say "that’s why they play the games. "
Yes he did
Yes, it was FL, but only by 1/2 point.
Such a margin is essentially a pick ‘em which is mighty close and can go either way.
Teams do not perform “exactly” as projected in any given game, but the long term track record is what determines the degree of accuracy of any statistical model.
UK finally returned to play Coach Pope’s TEAM 1st ball in the Brown win and a 2nd game in a row vs FL was ever so timely!
Every game and stretch of games will have its fluctuations, but a good model will boil down the numbers to give an excellent snapshot of rhe team’s expectations.
UK played an exceptional game at the offensive end to pull off a magnificent win to start the SEC.
Carr is the glue to this team. He has to make at least a couple of 3s each game to keep the defense honest. He can shoot it. Hopefully he will continue to do so. If Perry and Almonor can find their confidence from 3, we will put up points. Free throw shooting and rebounding have to improve. Every team won’t have the unconscious shooters that the Gators had, but Auburn, Alabama, and Tennessee do. Pope made the right call by staying man to man against Florida, but playing some zone will be necessary to avoid foul trouble on the road. Go kick some Dawg ass! Go CATS!!!!
We have no replacement for Carr
I love what Carr brings to the game. He is essential to our offensive flow and has given the team some incredible offensive boosts at very key moments. He presents matchup issues for opposing teams.
Carr — like almost every UK player — had a tough night