Let me start with a clarification: I severely hope all is well between DeAndre Liggins and Coach Gillispie. I’ve always felt that if things were actually really bad with that situation, Liggins wouldn’t have seen any court time against West Virginia. Let me also clarify that in no way do I ever approve of a player refusing to come into a game unless he is too severely injured to play. As a fan of the New York Expiring Contracts (copyright Bill Simmons), I’m dealing with a player that refuses to play. His name is Stephon Marbury, and I cannot stand him. He’s a horrible teammate and I’m glad the Knicks are doing everything in their power to rid him from their roster. DeAndre Liggins is not Stephon Marbury – far from him, actually. Marbury has a history of having these kinds of problems. This is the first situation I’ve ever heard of Liggins doing this, and if you listened to anything Coach Gillispie has said since the West Virginia game, it sounds like it might be the last. But either way, the kid made a big mistake.
With all of that in mind, here’s the conspiracy, and I don’t necessarily believe all of it – just throwing it out there to see how credible it sounds: What if that was the desired reaction of Coach Gillispie? Maybe it’s messed up for a coach to want his point guard of the future to refuse to come into a game, but it isn’t too much of a stretch for a coach to want his point guard of the future to have the desire to be his point guard of the present. Since that sentence sucked, but I can’t think of a better way to word it, let me elaborate. Coach knows that Liggins needs to be the man in order for this team to reach its full potential. There are things that Coach wants a point guard to do that Liggins was not doing. I’m not sure what those things are, but keep that in mind because I’ll get back to it.
I can guess that part of it had to do with the effort and leadership being shown in practice. Say what you want about Mike Porter during games, but there has to be a reason why he’s gotten the game minutes he’s gotten so far. It has to be practice and passion. As much as I oppose what Liggins did, it was passionate, and it was competitive in nature if you believe all the sources coming from Vegas. Coach said on Sunday that what Liggins did was extremely competitive. When Porter struggled against WVU, Liggins got a chance to walk the walk, and his impact on the team backed up whatever boast he may have had. In particular, the team ball movement was better in the second half. Liggins was the one who found Meeks and Patterson on consecutive possessions that brought WVU out of their 2-3 zone. His step-back jumper with a foot on the line was a very savvy move for a freshman. Coach Gillispie said that Liggins’ performance against the Mountaineers was the best performance by a point guard since he’s been at UK, and if you’ll remember, Ramel Bradley was brilliant in a lot of games last season, Tennessee and Vanderbilt jumping out at me.
So hopefully, this means the light is starting to come on with Liggins. Only time will tell if this is true, but the success of the season hinges on it. In the meantime, how do you think he’s being punished: running or listening to Barry Manilow? If I could walk, I think I’d rather do wind sprints than sit through “Weekend in New England.”
Some quick hitters in closing:
- Crazy stat #1: Coach Gillispie destroyed a caller on his show last night that clamored for him to use a zone defense. He said that when not taking into account points off turnovers and second chance points, his team has been giving up 19 points a game. How he came up with that statistic, I do not know, but it sounds great.
- Crazy stat #2: In the two Vegas games, Kentucky’s opponents tallied 11 combined assists. Kansas State had four and West Virginia had seven. That has to be the most points (72) scored by a team that only got four assists. That’s some good halfcourt defense.
I’m Seth Stogsdill, and they also threw in the “I Love You” song from “Barney” in that story I linked. Now that’s torture.