Five down, 11 more to go. The conference schedule can be a real grind at times, and there will be games where a lot of stuff goes wrong – like Patrick Patterson battling foul trouble all day long and being a statistical non-factor. In those games where a lot of stuff goes wrong, it takes upper echelon mental toughness to withstand all those storms and come away victorious. Kentucky did it again yesterday against a fired-up Crimson Tide from Alabama.
Obviously, the health of Ramon Harris takes precedence over anything that happens on the court. I only know as much as what’s been released to the public. Ramon passed out yesterday as the guys were getting ready to come out of the locker room for the second half. It is uncertain what caused this, but he was rushed to the hospital and has since been released and sent home with the rest of the team. It was a scary situation for everybody, and I think it was more unsettling than the collision with Mike Porter against Lamar. One sports clip that I refuse ever to watch again is Hank Gathers collapsing on the court. We all know what happened there. I hope and pray for the best as they run tests on Harris to see what exactly happened, and it was a testament to the character of Billy Gillispie to stay in the locker room with Harris, even as the half began without him.
When the well being of a player is in question, it’s hard to even talk about the game, much less play it, but the show must go on, just like it did yesterday in Tuscaloosa. The player of the game on the radio broadcast was Darius Miller. TV said it was Jodie Meeks. The box score would argue that it was Perry Stevenson. All three are worthy candidates, but I’m going to make the case for DeAndre Liggins. It took three missed layups for Coach Gillispie to decide that it wasn’t going to be Mike Porter’s day. That third miss is a breaking point for anybody, I guess. So in comes DeAndre Liggins to play the point for the rest of the game. In the first half, the bad outweighed the good with Liggins. When he came back in for Porter, the good started to outweigh the bad. The one area where you should have noticed this was on defense. When Ron Steele decided that he didn’t want to play at Alabama anymore, the team was handed over to Mikhail Torrance, who is more of a scorer than a distributor like Steele. With Steele out of the lineup, Torrance had averaged over 22 points a game. Torrance did not score against Kentucky. He had a difficult time even getting off shots against Liggins. Liggins also had some timely and spectacular assists, and would have had more if Perry Stevenson hadn’t made like a Kentucky wide receiver during the regular season. He was the difference maker, and if you believe Gillispie’s comments after the game, the coach agrees.
Opposing players just need to stop challenging Jodie Meeks. Unlike Rasheem Barrett of Auburn, Senario Hillman was being dead serious when he said that Meeks wasn’t going to go off for 50+ points against him. First off, way to shoot for the stars, Senario. Were you going to celebrate if Meeks scored 49 points? Secondly, Meeks got his against Hillman – 27 of them, to be exact. But I guess it was a quiet 27 points. Really, I thought Alabama and Hillman made Meeks work harder for his points than any SEC team (he scored less against Vandy, but had a ton of open looks that just didn’t go in), but the shots still went in. He’s having a transcendent season, so enjoy it.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t say anything else about Stevenson and Miller. Yesterday was arguably Stevenson’s best game as a Wildcat. It definitely was from a statistical perspective. With Patterson struggling with his finger injury and battling foul trouble for most of the day, somebody else had to step up and provide points. Stevenson took the Bama bigs out to the perimeter, put it on the floor and drew fouls like we’ve never seen from him before. This is good because Perry hits his free throws at a high percentage for a power forward. His defense was excellent, as usual. One play stands out from the first half where Hillman got a steal and only Stevenson stood in between him and a highlight reel dunk. Stevenson altered the attempted dunk and there were no points on that possession.
As for Darius Miller, he had about as good a game as you can play without scoring a point. Along with his seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocks, he also locked down Bama’s best player, Alonzo Gee. Miller had to come in because of a tough emotional situation with Harris, and he was everywhere. To come in under those circumstances, play the entire half without coming out and do it at a high level speaks volumes of his ability and his toughness. I have no problem with Leach and Pratt awarding him player of the game. These minutes in tough games are going to be huge for Darius come March.
All due respect to the Crimson Tide players, but I hope Alabama loses the rest of their games this season because of Mark Gottfried. He deserves it for what happened to Ron Steele. This kid was one of the best players in the history of the Alabama program, and Gottfried played him 40 minutes a game on an injured knee or ankle in 2007 when he probably had no business playing at all. That’s the most blatant disregard for a player’s health that I’ve ever seen. My feelings towards Gottfried were cemented after his behavior yesterday, when he was visibly upset that there was going to be a delay to start the second half because Gillispie was still in the locker room with Ramon Harris. Basketball is important, Mark. But you have to draw the line somewhere. Plus, if you weren’t sold on his coaching ability, that technical was a thing of beauty, wasn’t it? In a game that was all Alabama for 25 minutes, that technical swung everything in favor of the good guys. To rip from Bill Simmons, it was the “He’s cut! The Russian is cut!” moment of the game.
After Tuesday, Kentucky will have already played half of its conference road games after only six games. The Cats should also be ranked when the polls come out on Monday. It will be a gigantic load of bull’s crap if they are not, considering all the low-end ranked teams that lost this week. If the good guys bring their flashlights, they should win that one.
Thanks for reading.