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Oklahoma coach Porter Moser suffered two heartbreaking losses to Kentucky this season and he believes others will find out in NCAA Tournament play how difficult playing against UK can be even with the injuries coach Mark Pope has had to cope with this season.
“In terms of Kentucky’s team, they got a lot of weapons. They’ve got two really good passing bigs (Amari Williams and Brandon Garrison),” Moser said. “They have some elite shooters. They have (Andrew) Carr. Almost all of them can knock down 3’s. Everybody can shoot.
“It’s tough to pick your poison when you’re spaced out with Otega (Oweh) going downhill the way he does. I think they can make a long run (in NCAA play). “
Why?
“They got some older guys, veterans, winners. I believe their offense is hard to guard. I think getting in this tournament, people are going to have to adjust, five out. Not too many teams have two bigs that can pass like they do,” Moser said. “They run excellent stuff at that five out. I think they’re going to be a hard out.”
The big question for Kentucky has been the status of point guard Lamont Butler who re-injured his shoulder in the win over Oklahoma and played only eight minutes but is expected to be ready for UK’s first game in NCAA play tonight against Troy.
“Lamont’s a Final Four point guard. He’s done great things for them this whole year. He gives you an elite defender, he gives you a confident leader at the point. He’s a terrific player. Got a lot of respect for him,” Moser said.
Butler did not play against Alabama when the Cats got routed by 29 points, UK’s most lopsided SEC tourney loss, either. However, even Alabama coach Nate Oats emphasized not to write off UK quite yet.
“Our plan was to try to keep them out of transition, keep them off the 3-point line, pressure them on defense. On offense I thought we could attack them a little bit better downhill than we had in the past,” Oats said. “Obviously it’s a thinner Kentucky team. They’ve got a lot of injuries. (Jaxson) Robinson has been out . And then Oweh got hurt a little bit. Only played 20 minutes. We were fortunate that they weren’t as deep as us.”
