Gameday : Alabama Laundry Detergent First Half

 

 Alright folks, about four minutes away from the introduction to the starting lineups. Crowd is strong. Maybe the inclement weather will weed out the weaklings and we will have a strong home court advantage. Check right here for updates.

I am very surprised at the turnout tonight. It is a late game against a team that is struggling, and the weather outside is getting dicey. Just another example of what separates UK from the rest. You will probably hear something like that on your TV sets shortly.  I think it being tough outside could embolden the crowd and make it fun. I hope I am right. 

Plus with it this cold I am pretty sure half the crowd has broken out their commemorative makers mark products. Bama made a long 2 but UK answers big time with big cuz.

Bama has made two terrible and contested long two pointers. I think we will give them those, but hate to see that see it go in like that early.

There appears to be something on the ball. We can't seem to hang on to it early. 7-2 Tide. Make that 9-2. Make that 9-4. 

Liggins with TWO BIG offensive boards to keep a key possession alive. Ends up with Cousins getting a nice put back on about the fifth try. Bama has the hot hand from outside, but they are going to have trouble keeping us off the boards.

Getting word that the George Mason vs VCU game has gone into OT. The Cats are playing like they know the cameras aren't on yet. Liggins has been a spark off the bench, but Wall has at least four turnovers early. It really does look like something is wrong with the ball, but a lot of it Wall trying to make things harder than they have to be. Really sloppy with the ball in the early going.

Cousins is a beast on the boards. It really is mystifying how many turnovers we have had so far though.

Still down 13-7 in the early going. Bama is playing pretty smart, but we are killing ourselves with mistakes. Seem to have settled in a little bit now and have cut it to 13-11.

Liggins comes up with his third offensive rebound of the game. He has been the difference so far early. He got fouled and will be at the foul line when we get back from the TV Timeout

Baseball team just got introduced and threw T-Shirts to the crowd. I question their chances in the SEC because none of them got a shirt up here to me in the cheap seats. Maybe the science is just different with throwing a T-Shirt though. Maybe I am being harsh? 

I like Liggins coming off the bench as a spark, but he has earned the right to be in there at the end of the game. He has become a big time difference maker. As I say that, he makes a heady play on switching defenders and causes a turnover.

Wall just made one from the Rupp Arena logo on the court. The white lettered RUPP. Yea, he got NBA range.

If we can limit our turnovers and silly mistakes we are in good shape. They can't get close to us on the boards. We are showing why we are the #1 rebounding team in the nation right now.

It is easy to see why Cousins gets pissed about the refs. He just got mugged with no call. We end up turning it over for the 25th time on the other end. And then another TO next time down.

We are sloppy on one end, but we are making up for it with pretty good defense. Thing is, Bama isn't turning it over and making really tough shots at the end of the shot clock. WE are still up 2 though. If we clean up our game we should be fine. I still wonder if something is going on with that ball though.

For you football types, Joker, Randy Sanders, Tee Martin and other football types are in attendance. Other (and better) media types interviewed them. I stuck with my barbecue sandwich.

We are on pace for about 35 turnovers right now. Pretty hard to watch honestly. Also Patterson has missed a couple bunnies, but he doesn't miss a wide open slam. With two hands. Send it in big fella. 19-17 Cats.

Several behind me are riding Wall pretty hard. He is definitely out of sync, but he doesn't need these idiots to tell him about it. Then Wall comes down and claims a spot in tonight's top ten sportscenter plays and they are his biggest fans. I think that might be some of the Maker's Mark crowd I was talking about earlier. They are dumb though. Was an amazing play by Wall. We have seen the behind the back play from him all year, but this was in a lot of traffic and it resulted in an AND 1. Great play. CATS up 23-19 with Wall getting one at the line after the break.

Liggins is always around the ball. There have been so many times that he has been right on spot tonight. He is without a doubt our 5th best player, and you can make the case he impacts the game even more than Bledsoe.

By the way, on Wall's off night he has 11 points with a minute to go in the first half. Just saying. He has a bunch of rebounds too. Yea, he is good. We have REALLY been sloppy, but part of that is Bama is playing tough and smart. Good job by Pat to get his quota of one three pointer made. We go into halftime 31-24. That is about as good as we could expect with the sloppy play and unforced turnovers. As Jimmy Dykes would say, we had a lot of "BAD" turnovers in the first half. Pretty fortunate to be up 7, but we performed pretty well in just about every other facet of the game.