By: Tyler Adkins
With the Cats coming off of a road win in Oxford that may have included the best play of the year for long-stretches, the Cats will look to continue that play with LSU coming to town for a rematch game. As you may painfully recall, LSU took it to UK down in Baton Rouge and caused a mini-firestorm across the Big Blue Nation and in the national media. Today, UK gets a chance to get revenge on the team that caused them to drop an unheard of 7 spots in the polls after a single loss. With that, let's get to the things to watch for:
*Here's Johnny
There really could only be one thing to watch for but I wouldn't do that to you. However, Johnny O'Bryant was that good against UK the first time around scoring 29 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. He simply embarrassed Julius Randle and Cauley-Stein. Randle was held to his worst game of the year and often looked as though he did not want to fight with O'Bryant to get the win. That is not meant as a knock on Randle, it is simply to show how dominating O'Bryant was in that game. The key to stopping him is to have someone be physical with him and not allow him to push guys around down low to get rebounds. That is his main calling card and if UK can find someone willing to accept the challenge of matching up with him, then UK should be able to get this win. I am looking for O'Bryant to have less than 7 rebounds and 14 points.
*Leaving a Hickey
Anthony Hickey was not recruited by UK and was barely recruited by many SEC powers when he chose LSU. During the last game, Hickey proved to be, dare I say, a pain in the neck for UK in the second half. UK has no one who is as quick as him and he simply ran up the court with the ball and either scored or dropped an assist on what seemed to be every second half play. Hickey had 6 assists and 11 points but it felt like he controlled the game late. I expect UK to use a lot of zone today to attempt to keep Hickey from blowing by guys on the dribble drive and not letting him get in transition. UK will look to use length and strength to slow down Hickey and if the defense gets back in transition, it will make life difficult for the pint-sized speedster. I am looking for Hickey to have less than 6 points.
*Finishing Kick
UK has been a second half team all season long and it was beyond surprising in the last two games to see them struggle late in the game. They have started to come out strong but then have a tendency to fade away toward the end of the games. I am not sure if it is fatigue or a lack of focus, but either way they better get it fixed soon. UK needs to outscore LSU by four points or more in the final 10 minutes of the second half and I think it will prove to be a good night for BBN.
That is all for today. Go Big Blue.
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