Articles by Category
LEXINGTON — No Alex Poythress, no problem for Kentucky.
Playing their first game since losing junior forward Alex Poythress for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, the Wildcats got perhaps their most balanced performance of the season to easily beat North Carolina 84-70.
Kentucky jumped in front 19-8 and eventually led by 15 points in the first half and never really let North Carolina back in the game.
“They were far more superior on the defensive end than our offense was,” said North Carolina coach Roy Williams. “Physically, they are going to show a lot of teams’ limitations. We took some of the worst shots we have taken all year, but I think some of it was they took us out of our comfort zone.
“They had 12 steals and five blocked shots. Their big guys are good. I saw Willie (Cauley-Stein) diving on the floor. I saw Dakari (Johnson) diving on the floor.”
Cauley-Stein and Devin Booker both had 15 points for Kentucky while Aaron Harrison had 14, Andrew Harrison 11, Trey Lyles 9, Marcus Lee 8, Johnson 7, Tyler Ulis 3 and Karl-Anthony Towns 2.
“It was a man’s game and their athleticism and physical play was much more than ours was. It’s a physical game and they just played better and coached better,” Williams said
He said Cauley-Stein was “pretty daggone effective” changing the game.
“I watched the Texas game and he was unbelievable,” Williams said. “He is a complete player. He affected the game dramatically and only took nine shots.”
“He was Willie-good today,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.
Cauley-Stein had six rebounds, four steals, two blocks and one assist in 28 minutes. He was also 6-for-9 from the field.
“There are times I watch this team and go, ‘Wow.’ Then there are other times I go, ‘What in the world.’ I can’t even tell you how good we can be,” Calipari said.
Ulis was just 1-for-5 from the field, but he had eight assists and two rebounds. Booker was 5-for-8 from the field, including 3-for-3 from 3-point range.
“They always bring energy,” Calipari said.
He said he thought Ulis was “tremendous” during the game despite his three turnovers.
“We had a bunch of unforced turnovers in the second half. There were times I was on him that you have to control that. In the end I thought hm and Andrew were good. There are a lot of things we have to do,” Calipari said.
Kentucky also got a boost from Lee with his eight points on 4-for-4 shooting and two assists and two rebounds in just 12 minutes.
“The only reason he didn’t get more minutes was that Willie was really good,” Calipari said.
He was. Just ask Williams.
“He’s going to be effective. I watched him in the Texas game and he was unbelievable. It’s hard to believe he was a wide receiver in high school. He effects the game in every way, he blocks shots, gets steals, gets follow-dunks, and gets dunks from guard penetration throwing it up around the rim, he goes and gets it, but he is a complete player,” Williams said.
“If you look at it, he affected the game drastically and only took nine shots. They are very gifted. Johndoes a great job with them. He has everybody buying into the sharing the minutes and sharing the basketball. They had 19 assists and 15 turnovers in an up and down game and were trying to press and trying to do some things, and we have 13 assists and 18 turnovers. Their defense was so much stronger and I think that was the dominating thing in the game. And Willie was the spearhead.”
Kentucky also did one other thing it had not been doing — make 3-point shots. Kentucky shot 56.3 percent overall the only player without a field goal was Karl-Anthony Towns.
Going into the game, UK has missed 40 of 48 3-pointers in the last four games. Against North Carolina, UK was 7-for-15, including three straight late in the first half by Aaron Harrison.
“That’s the first game we’ve made shots like that in a long time. You can just tell if we can make shots like that consistently it’s scary how good we can be,” Cauley-Stein.
North Carolina opened in zone defense like Texas played when UK couldn’t make 3-pointers — and Columbia also used at times.
“But we didn't come out going 1-(for-)12, which is what we have been doing,” Calipari said. “And everybody talks about us offensively. When you're 1-(for-)12 from the 3, I don't care what you do, it's not going to look good.”
Nothing looked bad for UK in this game except not getting back in transition defense after made baskets. But North Carolina shot 45 percent overall -- the first team to hit above 40 percent against UK this year. The Tar Heels were 6-for-13 from 3-point range. They outrebounded UK 31-24. Yet North Carolina lost by 14 points.
One reason was that UK got to the foul line 31 times and made 23 compared to 10-for-12 for Carolina. But Williams credited UK’s aggressiveness for that more than officiating.
No wonder Williams was a bit flustered after the game when asked what his third key to the game on his pregame locker room board was.
“It must not have worked, because I can’t freaking remember. That’s just being honest, give me a couple seconds,” he said. “Right now, I’m too ticked off to think about any (expletive) like that. Excuse my language.”
It’s okay. He’s not the first team/coach Kentucky has made curse this year and likely will not be the last. Kentucky is just that good as easy wins over Kansas and North Carolina have shown along with a closer call against Texas when UK could not make shots.
“So I can't even tell you how good we could be. They got break out baskets, they got second shots against us next to the goal where we had a chance to rebound,” Calipari said. “We fouled jump shooters which we just don't do. And they took advantage of all of that.”
Yet even a talented team that took advantage of all that could not stay with this Kentucky team.
KSR Twitter Feed