Inside game?

[Gunsmoke]

Patterson and who???:shrug1:

[DonnieKat]

Patterson and who???:shrug1:

My thoughts exactly. Perry Stevenson looks so so, Coury looks a step slow and AJ Stewart must've just picked up his first basketball. It will be interesting to see the evolution of this team over the season. Other thoughts:
-Can Jody Meeks average 54 points a game?!?!? What a S-T-U-D! He makes Tony Delk look like a Seaton Center all-star.
-All out hustle. Every minute. Every possession. Love to see that.
-The team really seems to be rooting for each other. That's encouraging.
-No surprise here, but Ramel is clearly the leader of this team.
-Joe Crawford was the 7th or 8th person off the bench.....hmmmm. That said, he looks really slender.
-UK seems to be losing the rebounding battle. Against Pikeville. Last year, it was Randolph Morris versus three guys fighting for rebounds. This year, it will be Patrick Patterson versus three guys fighting for rebounds.
-I would like to see some more of the inside-out offense that BCG preaches. There were a few really good half court sets in the 1st half. The Coury feed to PP comes to mind.

Overall, very impressive first half.

[BigblueDrew]

You make some good points. Stewart certianly looked like a Freshman on his first outing at Rupp. To me Stevenson was the BIGGEST disappointment of the evening. He hasn't gotten any bigger and doesn't look any stronger. His offensive game still looks anemic.
-- I loved Harris. He plays HARD on defense. I have to wonder if the mask might not be affecting his vision on offense and I bet he improves when it comes off. Patterson is a stud, one of those rare freshmen that is ready to start from day one.
--- Curious as to why Williams didn't play. Carter looked weak and tentative, if he doesn't get healthy quick is isn't going to help us this year.

[MojoCat21]

Disagree on Stevenson being the most disappointing. We knew Stewart was going to take a little TLC to get into the rotation, but what about Legion? Besides his nice cross-over in the lane, he looked terrible shooting the ball the few times we got him the ball. He also got beat several times on defense.

Stevenson's arm strength could use work, no doubt about it. Most of our turnovers were from our 3, 4, and 5 guys not catching the ball strong and keeping it too low below the waist. Ramon mishandled 2 or 3 that I think can be attributed to the mask, so hopefully it's not something to worry about.

But honestly, we were used to 15-20 turnovers during the Pitino era. There's more possessions. Under Tubby, 15-20 turnovers was doom because each possession ended up being so valuable. I'm more than willing to see us turn the ball over that many times to see the absolute hustle in recovering those mistakes. The on the ball defense tonight was solid overall, even from guys like Porter.

Jodie Meeks, welcome to your system. You may proceed to drop as many 3s as you please.

[misterbluecat]

I would have to agree with the disagreement. Stevenson didn't look that bad. He certainly played better than last year. He still needs to work on his hands and his defensive positioning. He got beat off the ball a few times and failed to rotate over a couple of times. He could stand to just dunk the ball too. At one point he was on the block, faced up and bounced one high off the top of the square. With his reach he could of just flushed it.

[Wildcatcrazy11]

Stevenson looked alright tonight. The turnovers bother me because I feel like he could be a strong contributor if he was smarter out there. He came off the floor numerous times and almost all of them Billy had something to say. He looked tentaive taking it to the rack and ultimately this is because of his size.

I would have to say Legion was the most disappointing of the night because he just didn't do anything. I felt like he wasn't out on the floor for long enough periods of time to really get into a flow. The few shots he did take looked good but just didn't fall. Wouldn't be surprised to see him get some more consistent minutes off the bench this friday.

[RaviMoss#1fan]

i love Jodie Meeks look like Tony Delk out there Shootin those Three i believe i go out on the limp and say right now SEC Player of the Year Jodie Meeks

[misterbluecat]

Wasn't it Legion who also got his ankles broken on that cross over out top?? Whoever the kid was on Pikeville that did that, props to him. He shook our guy out of his shoes.

[JayB]

Wasn't it Legion who also got his ankles broken on that cross over out top?? Whoever the kid was on Pikeville that did that, props to him. He shook our guy out of his shoes.

Yeah I was thinking to myself " lets watch Legion pick this chump" then EWWW LOL I was like wow nice one... I agree he played a bit flaky on D but we really cant judge the O yet, wasn't he backing up Meeks mostly anyways? When you have that beast on the team I wouldn't be surprised if Alex got splinters from the pine. Now that I think about it, I think he was backing up Joe. In that situation I see why he was benched alot and was flip flopping alot. I'm sure coach wanted Crawford to get his point, play hard or you'll be benched not that I thought Joe played bad.

[Gunsmoke]

Alex appears to be pretty quick on D and has very good technique for the first game as a true freshman. I think he will help us considerably there as the season wears on. Perry still needs work on his hands. I don't know how you turn bricks into sand but he has to get better catching the ball and going up strong to the hoop. He just has to. We appear to be sorely lacking in the post position. If Carter doesn't do something and quick, well..

[Mark Blueblood]

Legion will be alright. One coach stated that they'd never had a player that could score like he can score. But hey - the kid couldn't spell defense when he got here. Billy's like Tubby (like it or not) - you don't play defense, you don't play - it doesn't matter how well you put the ball in the hole. He's quick - he's coachable - he'll be a star someday.

Stevenson was alright. I agree he still gets pushed around but he'll get stronger and learn to play smarter.

I do not agree that 15-20 turnovers a game are okay. We do 20 against a really good team and we'll get hammered. We need to take better care of the basketball. We pulled it off last night - but that was Pikeville, not North Carolina.

[WingoCatFan]

I was a little dissappointed with Legion, but it was his first game and I am sure he will improve. Everyong seemed to hustle and put forth effort. The first couple of games are exhibition and are the best place to shake off the cob webs, or get over the anxiety for playing in front of the most intense fans in college basketball.

My biggest dissappointment was not seeing Williams in the game, and Carter only being in for about 1 minute. This is the year that Carter needs to prove his worth...and I think he will. Hopefully he will get more PT against Seatle.

Overall, I was very pleased with the game. Lots of room for improvement, but the desire to play is definately there...which means the improvement will come.

[teamchemistry09]

Although it would be nice to have Stevenson contribute more on the offensive side, he played very well on D and is very agressive. He isnt afraid to get dunked on and thats what we need in a defender. Him and Patrick both go up to block the shot they dont just step out of the way.

[Dwight Schrute]

Stevenson looked fine in the second half. Still needs to get stronger, but once he settled down, he had 9 points, I think 6 rebounds and 3(?) blocks?

I don't mean to slight Tubby, but I think he was poorly managed last year. It's difficult to get any game experience when you get yanked at your first mistake never to be heard from again the rest of the game. Billy G did yank him, but coached him and put him right back in. It's just going to take time to get him up to snuff in the post. He needs to over-achieve to accomplish what we all want, but it's going to take time and coaching to get him there.

[BOURBON TOWN CAT FAN]

I think the keys to the season are:

1) for Bradley to play like a leader, under control without any hot dogging or forcing shots.

2) Stephenson being a defensive presence in the middle and picking up some trash buckets off rebounds. I'm going to predict that Patterson will lead the SEC in rebounds, but Stephenson needs to keep Patterson from being double teamed in the paint constantly.

[RP_McMurphy]

Our frontline has more issues than a Brittnay Spears on a parental visit. We have one real player (Patterson), One sorta real player(Stevenson) and then a bunch of players that have no business wearing the Kentucky Blue. If Kentucky breaks even in the rebounding battle this year in games then I am happy. To help in rebounding a guard will have to be held back on fastbreaks and thus slowing some of our open court scoring.

[teamchemistry09]

Our frontline has more issues than a Brittnay Spears on a parental visit. We have one real player (Patterson), One sorta real player(Stevenson) and then a bunch of players that have no business wearing the Kentucky Blue. If Kentucky breaks even in the rebounding battle this year in games then I am happy. To help in rebounding a guard will have to be held back on fastbreaks and thus slowing some of our open court scoring.

So what you are saying is that Carter, Williams, Stewart, Harris, and Coury have no business being on our team? Thats a little bit uncalled for someone to say. Its so easy to sit here behind our computer screens and tell our players what they need to do and how they need to do it. If its that easy why didnt you play for Kentucky and why didnt they offer the coaching job to you? Thats honestly a disgrace to any and all of our players to say that some of them dont deserve to play for Kentucky. We have a good team and a deep team some players just need a little coaching to reach their potential

[teamchemistry09]

I think the keys to the season are:

1) for Bradley to play like a leader, under control without any hot dogging or forcing shots.

2) Stephenson being a defensive presence in the middle and picking up some trash buckets off rebounds. I'm going to predict that Patterson will lead the SEC in rebounds, but Stephenson needs to keep Patterson from being double teamed in the paint constantly.

1) His name is Stevenson not Stephenson
2) I highly doubt that Patterson will lead the league in rebounds this year. Thats a very bold prediction. He is good but lets keep things in reality. Hes not going to be Greg Oden or Kevin Durant for us. I think he will def be on the All SEC freshmen team and will be in top 5 rebounds for the league but in no way do I see a freshman lead the league in rebounds

[RP_McMurphy]

I was being serious and calling 'em like I see 'em. Sometimes I wrong and most of the time I am right. However I will not blow smoke to blow smoke. Our frontline has major talent issues and like I said there are players that don't have the talent to be wearing the Kentucky Blue. Does that make them bad people. No not at all it makes the group that recruited them look bad. They put these players in a bad position of not having "Kentucky" talent but having to wear Kentucky Blue.

So what you are saying is that Carter, Williams, Stewart, Harris, and Coury have no business being on our team? Thats a little bit uncalled for someone to say. Its so easy to sit here behind our computer screens and tell our players what they need to do and how they need to do it. If its that easy why didnt you play for Kentucky and why didnt they offer the coaching job to you? Thats honestly a disgrace to any and all of our players to say that some of them dont deserve to play for Kentucky. We have a good team and a deep team some players just need a little coaching to reach their potential

[teamchemistry09]

I was being serious and calling 'em like I see 'em. Sometimes I wrong and most of the time I am right. However I will not blow smoke to blow smoke. Our frontline has major talent issues and like I said there are players that don't have the talent to be wearing the Kentucky Blue. Does that make them bad people. No not at all it makes the group that recruited them look bad. They put these players in a bad position of not having "Kentucky" talent but having to wear Kentucky Blue.

Callin em like you see em? Weve had 1 exhibition game under an entire coaching staff change. How can you call anything? We still have injuries? How can you say Jared Carter doesnt deserve to wear Kentucky on his chest when you havent seen what he is capable of? The same with Harris? Stewart? Williams? Coury is a walk on, what more can you ask of him than what he is giving? If im not mistaken, Carter, Harris, Stewart, and Stevenson were all top 100 in their class. Anyone in the top 100 is deserving to wear Kentucky. I know itd be nice to have 12 of the top 25 players on our team but in reality that just doesnt happen. We have a group of very talented young players who are going through a big change with the new coaches. Give them a chance to get healthy and more than 1 exhibition game before you say they dont deserve to play for us. You say you are right most of the time but I say you are wrong this time

[crazzedcats22]

I was being serious and calling 'em like I see 'em. Sometimes I wrong and most of the time I am right. However I will not blow smoke to blow smoke. Our frontline has major talent issues and like I said there are players that don't have the talent to be wearing the Kentucky Blue. Does that make them bad people. No not at all it makes the group that recruited them look bad. They put these players in a bad position of not having "Kentucky" talent but having to wear Kentucky Blue.

It's hard to disagree with that statement at this point. I tend to agree with you and don't think there will be enough improvement from those guys to warrant a scholarship to UK for all of them. I'm willing to give them a little time to see what they have, my expectations, however, are not very high.

[lribookend]

Seems like some are trying to do an autopsy before the body is cold. Maybe we should wait until a few more games have been played before we start claiming there is no inside game. I would like to see what Jared Carter and Mike Williams can contribute before I make any grandiose statements about how good (or bad) certain inside players might be.

[wanderingcat]

All teams have role players or guys who mostly sit on the bench. The problem with the list of players mentioned by RP is that not one of them appears to be any more than a role or backup player. Yet, for now, some of them will get their minutes. We are, as we have been for quite some time, one real big guy starter short. Hopefully, one of these players will step up. Each will contribute, but it is reliability that is the question.

[UKhoov]

You need to give these guys a chnace. If all of them can give us some solid minutes each game they can play the position by commitee.

How is that really any different from what has happened the last couple of years.:shrug1: One solid contributor( Morris=Patterson) and everyone else.

Most of the interior guys are Sophmores and Freshman, they are going to take their lumps , but given some time they will step it up with experience and some confidence.

Luckily we have enough talent and scoring ability in other spots it will help cover our lacking interior.