UK vs. UNC ...Davis to the rescue!

The Cats really had a fight on their hands saturday afternoon against the number 5 ranked UNC! The Tar-Heels came out firing but the Cats didn't let that phase them. By the end of the half, UNC had taken a 43 to 38 lead because of some handy 3-point shooting.
Coming out in the second half it still seemed that the two teams were evenly matched throughout. Shot after shot was matched by each team. In the final minutes, UK took the lead and was up 73 to 72 with 21 seconds to go. It all came down to the final play when Zeller, seeing a double team coming his way, dished the ball off to John Henson who had an easy ten footer for the win. He sets to take the shot and releases. Out of know where the 6'10" defensive machine Anthony Davis came flying across the lane and blocked the shot to end the game grabbing the win for UK! From the looks of it, Davis is the man stepping up for the Cats in big games.
UK was lead by Michael Kidd-Gilchrest with 17 points and 11 huge rebounds. Jones and Lamb threw in 14 a piece and Miller came off the bench hitting a 3-pointer and scoring 12 points.
Calipari bettered his home winning record since joining with the Wildcats to 38-0 and the Cats now have a season record of 8-0!

UK vs. St. Johns

UK came out to a hot start defensively, but offensively not so much... Watching this game should make people see that the Wildcats quite possibly have one of the best defensive teams in the NCAA this season. The Cats totally controlled the paint on the defensive side out-rebounding St. Johns 45-35 and blocking a total of 18 shots which is a new school record. The Cats held St. Johns to only 59 points but struggled seemingly to reach 81 their selves. UK only shot 40% from the field and a low 67% from the free-throw line. Calipari was disappointed with the offensive production in this game and wasn't afraid to say it. When asked about the upcoming game saturday against a very strong UNC team, Calipari said, "If we play like tonight? I would be a very sad coach after the game." The Cats obviously have the talent to be good offensively but really need to prove it this weekend against the #5 team in the nation.
Leading UK in scoring was Terrence Jones with 26 points and throwing in 9 boards. But the player that affected the game the most was definitely, hands down, Anthony Davis who scored 15 points, had 15 rebounds, and 8 HUGE blocks! The defensive effort by this upcoming star tonight is what kept St. Johns at bay. Doron Lamb also through in 16 points of his own.
Thats 7-0 now and to make it 8-0 were going to need a defensive effort like last night with an eruption of offense to go along with it against the Tar Heels this Saturday. GO CATS!!

UK vs. Penn St.

Sluggish start... Definitely! The Cats came out with almost a lackadaisical attitude. Not hustling, taking bad shots, and playing poor defense. And, Calipari made sure they knew they weren't giving enough effort. Calipari could be heard all over the arena yelling at his players giving them instruction on what they were doing wrong. Penn State even came out with a 3 point lead at one point in the game. The Cats eventually got on track though finishing the first half with a twelve point lead. Penn States Nemanja Mitrovic had a hot hand in the game making 6 threes and scoring 20 points but it wasn't enough to down UK. Darius Miller and Terrence Jones both put in 19 points for the Wildcats helping to seal the deal. Anthony Davis helped out with his double-double of 13 points and 12 boards and Marquis Teague put in 14 points to go along with his 8 assists. The final score, 87-63 UK. Not the best of play from the Wildcats but it does go down as a W! 6-0!

UK vs. Radford

Tonight UK played the Radford Highlanders and improved their record to 5-0 on the season and Calipari improved his home record since arriving to Kentucky to 35-0! Although the Cats did come out and keep the Highlanders from scoring until about 10 minutes into the game they started off what seemed to be a little sluggish. They weren't hustling to the loose balls or finishing gimme shots near the basket but they still jumped out to an 18-2 lead at the 9:46 mark in the first half.
Terrence Jones led the Cats with 17 points and 8 boards followed by Michael Kidd-Gilchrest with 15 points and 9 boards. The boys shot 50% from the field while Radford only shot an embarrassing 26% from the field only making 2 of their 25 three-point attempts. The length of Kentucky was obviously a factor in Radford's shooting percentage. The final score of the game was 88 to 40 and was no contest.
The boys will get some good rest tomorrow and then play Portland this Saturday night in Lexington. Game time 7:00pm!

TOP Recruits

Coming in at 6'5", 181 pounds, playing shooting guard!! Archie Goodwin! For those of you that don't know him, Archie Goodwin is number 13 on the national recruiting list and is one impressive player that I know all UK fans will come to learn quite well when he's finally out on the court in the 2012-13 UK basketball season. Archie has great athletic abilities and can be a force to be reckoned with. Click the link below to get an idea of what we can be seeing next year from this fantastic basketball player!

http://highschoolhoop.com/recruiting-news/2011/11/archie-goodwin-officially-signs-with-kentuck/

FIRST DAY AT IT

This is actually the first blog I have ever done so bare with me cause I may struggle a bit to keep up with whats going on in UK basketball. Ever since I was little I've always loved basketball and always grown up around UK sports. In my blog I'm going to give run downs on games and upcoming recruits and more. If you like the sound of that follow my blog!