By: Tyler Adkins
UK is the defending national champions who lost their top six scorers from last year’s team. Say that five times in a row, and then take a deep breath. I had to do that after watching the non-inspiring performance against Baylor on Saturday and now I remember what an incredible task this young team faced this year. Having said that, it is still the beginning of December, so we should be looking for improvements. Without further ado, here are my things to watch for against Samford:
*Intensity from the start
Samford is completely overmatched in this game. We all know it. But I want the Cats to play like it from the start. I don’t want to see them hang around for a half and then slowly get put away late. I want to see UK show that they are angry over the losses so far and come out like it is a NCAA Tournament game. The entire team needs to be ready to go and pounce on Samford early and often. This is my first thing I will look for: Is this team mad about losing or just going with the flow?
*Wiltjer getting his groove back
Wiltjer has struggled shooting the ball the last few games we all know that. Why is it happening? Who knows? All shooters go through slumps, but if this team is going to be as good as they can be he needs to get his shot back. Now that there is a little less pressure on the team based on the opponent tonight, I am hoping to see Wiltjer get some confidence back in his stroke. If he can do that, this team will be dangerous come March, if not, well, offense will continue to be a tough go it appears.
*Poythress getting up shots
Poythress has been criticized a lot, most of which unfairly, but nevertheless he needs to be able to impose his will on the other team tonight. Poythress is shooting a ridiculous 67% from the field and averaging 15.4 points. This leads me to think that with this team struggling on offense, he has to get more shots. Poythress can shoot it from anywhere and until that field goal percentage dips down a lot, I would really like to see him get more shots. If he doesn’t take 10 shots from the field tonight I will be disappointed. Whether those shots are from deep or down low, he just needs to get some looks because so far this year he hasn’t missed much.
*Cohesion
I have yet to put this as something to watch for because I assumed it would come together naturally, but something is missing from this team, chemistry wise. I am not sure how to explain it, but they don’t seem to want to make the extra pass for a teammate or help on defense that well. It is more of a “me” mentality instead of a “we” mentality, especially on offense. We usually see the team make the greatest strides during the Christmas Break “boot camp” as Calipari calls it, but we also usually see the teams seem a little closer than this team does already. I don’t think it is an issue of the team not liking each other; it just takes a while to learn how to play for each other on the court. I am hoping to see this trend start to develop tonight.
There will be a new feature after the game. Per a member’s request, I will give feedback to each of these points based upon the performance of the team tonight.
Until then, Go Big Blue.
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