I know that Kansas State lost Mike Beasley and Bill Walker to the NBA last year. I know that last year, at least on TV, it appeared that Frank Martin couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag. But that was last year, and the 5-0 Wildcats are not to be taken lightly.
K-State has jacked a lot of threes because they’ve faced several zone defenses so far this season. They haven’t hit the threes at an exceptional clip, except for Fred Brown, who is shooting 50% on the year. It’s a stone cold lock that K-State will not see a zone tonight from Kentucky, so it will be up to Jodie Meeks and whoever plays point guard to keep speedy Denis Clemente out of the lane. Clemente is a transfer from Miami by way of Puerto Rico, and he is a blur. I want to say he played for the Puerto Rican national team this past summer, but don’t hold that against me if I’m wrong. If he can take his man off the dribble and kick out to Brown and Jacob Pullen, they’re going to win this game.
The one huge advantage Kentucky does have is on the inside. Darren Kent is the biggest K-State player to get major minutes, but he’s more of a face-up guy, so whoever is guarding him needs to stay out on him if he spots up from the top of the key, as big shooters tend to do. Luis Colon is the other player on the team from Puerto Rico. He has more of a traditional post game than Kent, but he seldom plays. Jamar Samuels is super athletic, but he’s also wiry and doesn’t have a polished offensive game. According to K-State fans, Ron Anderson is the team’s best interior player on offense, but Coach Martin doesn’t like his defensive effort, so his minutes are way down from what was expected. My point is this: it looks like Patrick Patterson should have his way if he gets it down low against any of these guys.
However, you should be worried about the ability of the UK players to get Patterson the ball in this game, because K-State likes to press. That’s the scariest notion in the world when thinking about this team. These guys have not shown the ability to handle a press so far. What’s scarier about this group of guys from K-State is that Beasley and Walker are gone. That means there aren’t any superstars on the roster. They’ve been playing much better as a team without Beasley and Walker than they did with them. Last year, they relied on Beasley and Walker so much that it probably got into the heads of the other guys and ruined their confidence. That problem doesn’t exist this year because there is no go-to guy.
I think that Coach Gillispie has done a good job of getting the objective of this team across to his players, which is, in all caps, GET THE BALL TO PATRICK PATTERSON. All due respect to Meeks, and I’m well aware that the competition in the last two games has not been at a high level. But in the last two games, Patterson has been the center of attention for the offense. In the first two games, it was Meeks. When Meeks is the center of attention for the offense like he was against Carolina, he ends up taking shots that don’t come within the flow of the offense. With Patterson getting the most touches and shots, Meeks got off more of his shots in the rhythm, hardly anything forced. That’s when Kentucky starts living up to the potential. If Patterson is getting the ball and scoring, eventually he’ll be able to kick out of double teams to open shooters, and this is when the offense will become the most efficient. But if the guards can’t break the K-State press, this absolutely will not happen, and the good guys will lose by double digits.
I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I’m full.