Cal's Cats: Game Anaylsis and News

-First I would like to say I'm excited to be part of bigbluenationreport.com. UK has some seriously exciting times in the future. I have been doing Cal's Cats through Facebook since Cal came aboard and we have grown to coming on 6,000 total members amongst both groups. One hindrance has always been sharing the reports with non Facebook users. This outlet takes care of this, the more UK fans informed on what is going on the better.

I'm not an insider by any means, I am a fan just like you. Cal's Cats is basically the cliff notes version of all the information that is out there and then usually some additional tidbits that comes from people amongst our group who have some very close connections. Both Cal's daughters Megan and Erin, Eric Bledsoe, Scott Padgett, amongst others are members of Cal's Cats.

Onto the news:

-Indications keep coming out that Cal’s not going to be doing a complete dribble drive this year, he mentioned after the game about feeding the post which isn’t dribble drive basketball but you have three guys who can dominate by being fed in the post…so this is likely going to be a big part of the offense despite it going against traditional Cal’s style of basketball.

-Cal mentioned in a pregame interview that these kids will do anything he asked and if there is anything they are lacking such as conditioning then it is his fault not theirs

-Now onto tonight’s game…117-52…it is clear the two a days has either worked or at the very least Cal has gotten them focused…just because it’s an exhibition doesn’t mean we didn’t come in to work…the last time we scored a 100+ was against Tenn. St. on 12/22

What can you say but wow…this is what we have all been waiting for. I watched it on FSN South and it is currently on again here delayed and I have it on again…I would have never done that in games last year…once was enough.

ESPN has already wrote their own love fest article on the game…one of many to come this season…

Most want to know about Liggins, let’s get the bad news out of the way first…the word on the street is he did something he shouldn’t have done…what exactly isn’t clear but he has been suspended until further notice because of this. I have heard he may be out for a few more weeks. There is lots of speculation on what exactly he did but it is fairly clear it isn’t an ineligibility issue or because of his play in practice. He is still struggling in practice with his decision skills aka lots of turnovers…but this factor isn’t why he is riding the pine…

Then you have Daniel Orton’s injury…in the replay I was watching specifically to see what happened with Orton. Around 13 minutes until half Orton is in the paint and the ball ends up on the court and he bends down to try to pick it up and the ball ends up being rolled to another player and there was a little competition on Orton for the ball but it didn’t look anyone touched his chest. Then he comes out complaining about pain in his chest…so it was an odd situation, they went back to the locker room to have it checked out and they didn’t find anything to be concerned about. He is listed day to day and hopefully it is nothing serious.

Now onto the good news…Wall is just amazing…it’s going to be sad to see him leave so soon…but it is clear he belongs in the pros. There was one play for those who didn’t get a chance to watch where he drives and does this behind the back play that was just nuts that made you just shake your head and go are you kidding me…pretty much the whole game was a highlight reel…

If Cousins continues to play like that he is definitely one and done as well…he is a force to be reckoned with. He is very intimidating and of course he can dunk over the under sized 6’5 defender but what I was mostly impressed with was his ability to do the little turnover shot in the post. This is a shot he is going to be getting all year and he has the touch to knock it down.

There was some concern that Cousins might be the second coming of Randolph Morris and would come in and be an average type of player with a bad attitude and poor work ethic. That is far from the case…even comparing an older Junior Morris vs. freshman Cousins…Cousins is running circles around Morris…

Morris is in the NBA now and I root for all UK players but Cousins is simply a much better player than him and Morris went undrafted and Cousins is setting himself up to be a lottery pick.

A little funny thing on Cousins is his love for his warm up gear. Every time he would come out he would put his warm up gear jacket back on and then when he would come back in, he would jump up and would try to come back in with it still on and then realize what he did and come back and take it off…just a funny thing to watch I’m told.

With Bledsoe out as well, Miller ran the point some in the second half. Wall ended up playing some of the second half but came out about mid way through and at that point it was Miller’s turn to be the floor general. I was impressed with Miller at this point, he stepped up and seemed to play more aggressive and with more confidence. Three things you need to play the DDMO: athleticism, aggressiveness and confidence. Those last two has held Miller back and when I spoke to Darius after Cal was hired, he was very excited to play in this offense…it is perfect for his style but he needs to continue to be aggressive and show confidence even when he isn’t running the show on the floor.

Patterson is still a work in progress with this new offense…he is trying to find himself. He has been the central piece at UK…playing a different way of basketball two years. It is kind of like moving to England and learning to drive on the other side of the road, it takes some adjustment…the DDMO is a odd animal.

-I was very impressed on how everyone seemed to be involved and was scoring…we are not a team where opposing teams can strategize on stopping such and such and they can win, you can’t double team all five players out there no matter who is out there…

-The dancing guy was back, he is always entertaining…

-Lots more could be said about the game, but I will end with some quotes from Clarion’s coach Ron Righter, who had some nice things to say about UK after the game:

“I'm thoroughly impressed with John's [Calipari] team. I think he got their attention this week, because that is a different ball club than the one that played Monday night. In thirty-five years of coaching Division One, Division Two and across the country, that is as skilled a team as I've seen. It's just a matter of time and this place will see something special. What I saw tonight was veterans blend in and give the 100 percent he demands. There was a nice energy and nice team play from every one of those guys. I was very impressed with everyone coming off of the bench and the way they played hard. He definitely got their attention this week and he definitely got ours. I knew how good John Wall was, but he is the real deal. He is in another league. I've followed [Patrick] Patterson and the guy is a tough kid. I told him after the game, ‘You are going to be the foundation, you have to keep the young kids together and keep believing in what you're doing. You are the key this year to how far the team will go.' I've always watched his game and I'm glad he came out and did a good job for them tonight."

On the difference in Kentucky's play from Monday …

“You could tell right from the get go their closeouts were more intense. They didn't miss any closeouts and you saw the way they closed out on our perimeter people. They got pieces of the ball and they didn't allow many open jump shots. Even when we swung it around, they always got a piece of the ball. The biggest difference was the space in the dribble drive. They ran their dribble drive offense night and day. They had their angles picked. The way they were rotating, no matter where Wall drove, he knew where the other four were. The spacing, the closeouts and the aggression was there. They had fire in their eyes.”

Go Cats!