Walk-on Zach Tow (20) and his UK teammates were excited after he hit a 3-pointer -- his first Kentucky field goal -- Tuesday night. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky gave its contingent something to cheer about on Tuesday night after a week of losses left fans feeling blue.
Following back-to-back defeats to No. 14 North Carolina and eighth-ranked Gonzaga last week, the Wildcats recorded a feel-good win and bounced back with an easy 103-67 win over outmanned North Carolina Central (3-9).
Although it was expected, Kentucky (6-4) was in dire need of a win after the two setbacks last week dropped the Wildcats out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll and helped erase the pain of a 35-point loss to Gonzaga in Nashville.
Kentucky nearly doubled its offensive output in its last outing — 59 points — against the Eagles and eclipsed the century mark for the third time this season and the second time in the past four games. Prior to a 3-point loss to the Tar Heels a week ago, Kentucky tallied 104 points in a rout of Tennessee Tech.
The lopsided victory featured 27 assists and a season-high 60 percent shooting from the field, but didn’t overshadow a mediocre showing on the defensive end of the floor. Kentucky coach Mark Pope wasn’t happy with the team’s overall defense and fouls in the post against an outmatched opponent.
“There’s a lot of room for us to (grow),” Pope said. “We’ve got to clean up the fouls. We got to clean up the gap (defense). We’ve got to take some pride and keep guys in front of us if we’re going to be a really good team and win competitive games. Those are spaces where we have to grow in this group and we just need to get better.”
In an effort to boost his team’s intensity from the outset, Pope inserted Trent Noah into the lineup in place of Kam Williams. Noah, who started the season opener, finished with 11 points and made three 3-pointers. On Kentucky’s first possession, Noah connected on a 3-pointer to set the tone for the easy victory.
By starting Noah, Pope sent a message and inserted players who brought energy and passion to the court.
“We just have a standard we have to live up to, and we’re not, and we have to,” Pope said. “We’ll keep fighting until we do.”
At times, especially in the first half, Pope was assertive in getting his players to compete at a high level, attempting to deliver a message of playing with a purpose.
“We just have a lot of growing we have to do right now, and we’ll grow,” he said. “We have good guys. We have competitive guys. We don’t know really what it means to compete yet, which is terrifying, but we will learn. We’re gonna learn. We’re learning fast.”
Noah was also active on the glass and dished an impressive assist to Malachi Moreno after pulling down his own miss in the second half. It is that kind of effort Pope was looking for from his squad.
The effort by the Harlan County product carried over to fellow Kentuckians Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno. Johnson finished with a career-high 22 points, while Moreno chipped in with 14 and seven rebounds. Noah, Johnson, and Moreno combined for 47 points.
Otega Oweh led five players in double figures with a season-high 21 points and has reached double digits in all 10 games this season. He made three treys and pulled down seven rebounds.
“I think he’s really trying to rally the guys,” Pope said. “He’s trying to show some leadership. He played well on both ends of the floor tonight. Otega is really important for us, and he’s carrying a big load. That’s your job, and he’s going to continue to grow into that. We need him to be great moving forward.”
Now that Kentucky has a win to feel good about, the Wildcats shift their attention to border rival Indiana in a series renewal for the next four years.
“We can’t do anything about the losses, the ones that we’ve dropped – we can’t do anything about the win that we just had,” Noah said. “It’s time to flush it and move on to the Indiana game on Saturday.”
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GAMETRACKER: Indiana at Kentucky, 7:30 p.m., Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network.
Kentucky-NC Central Basketball
Photos by Vicky Graff
14 Responses
If only playing nobody's got you in the tournament.
This is a re-post from an earlier Vaught's View article, but it is so appropriate to be posted with this article.
Dan Issel continues his streak of Kentucky criticism. Issel first ripped Kentucky after the Michigan State loss, calling this group “selfish” with “no effort” while being “terribly outrebounded on the boards” and not “helping each other defensively.” "It looked like to me, that Mark went down to the New York Athletic Club a half-hour before tip-off, got 10 guys who had never played together before, and put Kentucky uniforms on them,” “There was not one aspect of that — not one — game that would lead me to believe they’re going to be a decent team this year.” Following the Gonzaga loss, “This is going to be awful. I looked at the schedule, we play three ranked teams: Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. We play them six times. Man, on top of that, we play at Arkansas — you think Cal will be ready for this team? — at Auburn and at Alabama. This could be the worst season of Kentucky basketball since the Unforgettables if we don’t get this straightened out. “There is an Andy Griffith episode where the father is letting the son get away with murder and Andy tells him, ‘We’ve got an old-fashioned woodshed out back if you’d like to use it.’ It’s time to take this team to the woodshed.”
This is what the best player to ever wear the Kentucky uniform had to say about this team. I would say that Dan Issel knows a couple of things about basketball and Kentucky basketball in particular. For those who say we are over reacting and that we need to be patient might ought to think about what it means to be a true blue Kentucky fan. Playing for Kentucky is a privilege that carries a heavy burden to not disrespect the Kentucky program. There is no room for patience…when you take the floor in a Kentucky uniform you had better be ready to play and win. Pope finally started being a coach tonight. He still has a ways to go to get this bunch straightened out, but tonight was a much needed first step in that direction, albeit was against a team that was picked to finish 5th in the MEAC conference.
Beating Indiana on Saturday is an absolute MUST! What Kentucky team wants to admit to losing to Louisville, North Carolina, and Indiana all in the same season? A comment was made that many in BBN think of Kentucky basketball as a "religion", well he is "F'ing" right! Kentucky basketball is a religion! You don't embarrass it! You don't disrespect it! And you NEVER make excuses for LOSING! We are not going to win every game, but we had better be competitive in every game or that team and coach is going to get ripped, and deservedly so! Look at Florida this year. They have lost 4 games to top 10 teams by a total of 15 points! Our 4 losses to top 15 teams are by a total of 68 points…see the difference? The Gators can still take pride in their season…they played good and just got beat by better teams. Kentucky can't do that. The Gators will go on to be in the thick of the SEC race and a national title run AGAIN. The verdict for Kentucky is in serious doubt. We need to be Indiana, St.John's, and Bama at Bama if we want to be taken seriously for the rest of the season. Aside from Bellermine, there are no easy games left on our schedule…we could lose every single one of them if we play like we did against Gonzaga. It doesn't have to go that way. Tonight, we proved that we can shoot, even beyond the arc and free throws. We had 27 assists on 39 made field goals. We only had 9 turnovers to go with 9 steals and 5 blocked shots. What we didn't do except for a couple of possessions was play hero ball. We let go of the rope too many times on defense as the Eagles should have never scored over 55 points and we gave up 67 to them, but the effort was there the majority of the time. We need to take this one game at a time, but there is no room for any more embarrassing performances.
Excellent “counter” article, Barry, to clear up any ideas that are out of bounds!
As Dandy Don would sing on MNF “Turn out the Lights! The Party’s Over ! “
The thing that bothered me the most is that Garrison should be wanting to be a team leader. His laziness is costing him millions at the next level. If we can see it, they can see it.
As for the team, I don't like UK being so easy to guard. Every time they ran half court offense, there was always at least 2 players just standing behind the arc. That is taking 2 and sometimes 3 or 4 players completely out of Offensive Rebounding. I cannot remember one time of 4 players crashing to the board. Most of their half court offense was Moreno in the middle and a player taking the ball to the basket to see what he could do, while the other 3 just stood and watched. It worked most of the time, but does not work against a talented team. That is where their turnovers against good teams come into play, with the dribbler getting stopped and not finding anyone that is really open because the defender knows his man isn't moving.
Let me pick your basketball brain. Other than being tall where has he displayed anything that resembles/ resembled anything that the next level would want. I realize they will draft "potential " . He's got no" game". Period.
He has the "potential" to be a very good player. He has all the tools but too lazy to use them. He reminds me of some of my students that just wanted everything to be easy. It was easy for them in high school, but college is a whole new game, both in sports and in the classroom.
I have no doubt that Garrison could be a Lottery Pick, but he has to want it enough to work for it. I truly don't believe he has had to truly work for anything in his life. His size got him through high school as a McDonald's All American because he was just so big. Now he is playing against people just as big and better than he is, but only because he doesn't want to work for it.
I respect your opinion. We'll have to agree to disagree. I see no tools.
I don't know what Pope sees in Garrison. He doesn't rebound or block shots. He is a poor freethrow shooter, he has trouble scoring in the low post. I guess Garrison had a couple of good games against BYU, but other than that, I have no idea.
IMO he'll soon get buried on the bench if Mo will play inside and quit shooting 3's, and JQ plays and Jelly is getting more time and doing well.
Not to mention Malachi Moreno.
One thing we could probably agree on.. It takes no special skills to hustle and put out. If you aren't good for mercy sakes give it your all…
He might go home for Christmas and stay.
UK BB standards are established against the other blue-blood programs. That’s how it always was and always will be!
Cupcake opponents are
NOT any part of UK BB standards !!!
Complete STOP!
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