Smith: Hot Cats can still improve

[ukfaninva]

Coach spots lapses in rebounding, screening

By Jerry Tipton
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith sensed a problem as his team played Mississippi State last weekend.

"They thought, 'OK, we can just go out and play,'" he said yesterday. "'We're at Rupp. We can show up and play.' "

Fortunately for Kentucky, this ho-hum approach did not lead to defeat. The Cats made enough plays offensively and defensively to hold off a much-improved Mississippi State.

"It just sort of happened," forward Bobby Perry said. "It's kind of a subconscious thing. We had beaten Auburn by 27 (three nights earlier). It's only human nature to come out the next game feeling somewhat good about yourself. We got a little complacent."



http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/sports/16469166.htm

[c2]

Hopefully a little payback for the SEC Tourney last year will be on the Cat's minds as they venture into Columbia to face theyard birdsand that they leave them feeling Kentucky fried.:)

[Bluesong]

c2 wrote: Hopefully a little payback for the SEC Tourney last year will be on the Cat's minds as they venture into Columbia to face theyard birdsand that they leave them feeling Kentucky fried.:)

Nice play on words :thumbup

They gotta be thinking about that.

[Will Lavender]

So far, UK's defense has been historically stout. Opponents' shooting accuracy of 37.2 percent is on pace for the lowest in Smith's 10 seasons (38.1 percent in 1998-99) and the program's lowest since 1961-62 (36.8 percent).

:shock:

[Swimmer4uk]

Will Lavender wrote: So far, UK's defense has been historically stout. Opponents' shooting accuracy of 37.2 percent is on pace for the lowest in Smith's 10 seasons (38.1 percent in 1998-99) and the program's lowest since 1961-62 (36.8 percent).

:shock:

Pretty solid stat with our RPI SOS being so low. I ready for the SEC tough games to start so we can have definite feeling on this team.

[titleist_guy]

I agree - that defense has been fun to watch. I wonder how much Auburn contributed to that stat? That might have been the worst shooting performance I've ever seen.

[ukfaninva]

Will Lavender wrote: So far, UK's defense has been historically stout. Opponents' shooting accuracy of 37.2 percent is on pace for the lowest in Smith's 10 seasons (38.1 percent in 1998-99) and the program's lowest since 1961-62 (36.8 percent).

:shock:

if thinks hold the same in tonights game it looks like Uk's defense will hod USC under 30%.