That’s right, there’s one undefeated team left in the SEC, and it’s our favorite team.
Let’s go ahead and get this out in the open. Darius Miller should have gotten about five times the playing time that he got last night. Ramon Harris played poorly. Miller did not. I understand Coach has his reasons for doing these things, and it usually goes back to defense, but I didn’t notice defensive mistakes from Miller in what few minutes he got. I’ll defend Coach to the death for giving Mike Porter so many minutes despite it being one of his worst games of the year. The one thing that was killing Kentucky for most of the game (besides idiotic turnovers) was defending the high screen. Porter was better at it than DeAndre Liggins, which explains that distribution of minutes. The evidence just isn’t as clear with Harris vs. Miller, and that’s unfortunate, because I think Miller really would have helped last night.
That last paragraph makes it sound like Kentucky lost. They won by 9 – they didn’t lose by –9. I have to talk about Patrick Patterson now. There hasn’t been a 20-point, 20-rebound game since Mike Phillips did it back in the 70s. Jamal Mashburn went off for 38 and 19 against EKU in 1993, but since then, nobody has come closer than Patterson did last night. The scary thing about Patterson’s game last night is that it’s clear his hand isn’t 100%. He’s missing shots that he made earlier in the season and the ball is leaving his hands awkwardly on a few of these shots. And he still got 20 and 18. The gameplan was solid for Auburn – pound it inside. It’s a good gameplan if you have good passers on the team. Maybe that explains all those turnovers. Still, I loved that Patterson got so many touches inside. Did you know that Korvotney Barber was a McDonald’s All-American? In three games against Kentucky (he was injured last season), Barber has 12 points and 14 rebounds total. Both Patrick Patterson and Randolph Morris have abused him.
Jodie Meeks hit his average in conference play. It’s amazing that he’s been able to keep that up. It feels good to have a guy capable of going off like that. Before the game at an Auburn press conference, Rasheem Barrett said that if he got the chance to guard Meeks, he would hold him to two points on a couple of free throws. I know Meeks and Barrett are close friends from the Georgia AAU circuits, so the comments were definitely in jest, but in case they weren’t, advantage = Jodie.
Has Perry Stevenson emerged as the dreaded third scorer? Perry has scored in double figures in six out of the last ten games, and is playing like he did at the end of last year after Patterson went down. He made some knucklehead turnovers, but made even more positive plays. That play where Auburn was pulling up for a transition three and Stevenson flew in from off the screen to block the shot and save possession was superhuman. He’s playing some great ball right now.
The bottom line is this. Auburn played a style that is kryptonite for Kentucky. They’re 4th in the country in steals. They play four guards on the floor at all times. This is murder for Kentucky because both Patterson and Stevenson are too invaluable to have on the bench. Perry couldn’t hang with Rasheem Barrett in the first half and Barrett went off. Surprisingly though, Stevenson did switch off onto DeWayne Reed a few times in the second half, and while Reed did lead Auburn in scoring, none of his points came against Stevenson. Nevertheless, I can only think of two teams that always go with the four-guard approach, and we’ve played both of them. The other team is VMI. Hopefully the selection committee won’t put Kentucky and VMI in one of those awful 4-13 matchups.
At least Coach Gillispie didn’t choke his game away like Billy Donovan did last night. Florida had no business losing that game with a seven-point lead in the final minute. How in the world can you allow a runout and a breakaway layup off of a missed FT to win the game? How can you let Walter Hodge rush to the frontcourt to crash the boards when he should have been in the backcourt to prevent the runout. Lord knows Dan Werner couldn’t outrun anybody on South Carolina’s team.
Oh, well, I can’t complain about that. The upset bug was bulldozing through college basketball last night with Michigan State, Florida and #1 Wake Forest all losing games they shouldn’t have lost. Kentucky played pretty poorly all game long and still won. That one game difference might determine the winner of the SEC, and as it stands right now, I’m glad the good guys are standing alone at the top.