Leave it to Kentucky to steal away the spotlight from ESPN's college gameday event in Seattle. Just one week after Kentucky showed the rest of the college basketball landscape how to truly play host to the ESPN Gameday crew, the Cats are more or less stealing the thunder again tonight.Dick Vitale and his sweat stains will be making the trip to Nashville for the UK-Vandy game, and not the cross country trip to Seattle for the UCLA-Washington borefest. Yes, that game will be part of the "GameDay" experience in name only because in reality, all eyes will be on Memorial Gym for the huge SEC match up between the Cats and Dores.
Our contacts in Nashville have said this is the biggest event to hit their campus in years, and to say they're hyped up for the game would be a terrible understatement. Me and Austin are on our way down there to see for ourselves, but in the meantime, lets break down the match up.
Statistically speaking, these two teams couldn't be more alike, except rebounding. Take a look...
2009-10 Team Stats UK VU
Scoring Offense 81.3 78.6
Scoring Defense 65.7 68.8
FG Percentage 48.4% 48.4%
3-point FG Percentage 36.6% 36.5%
FT Percentage 67.8% 70.8%
Rebound Margin +10.3 +0.9
Assists 15.6 13.4
Turnovers 15.2 14.0
2009-10 Stat Leaders
Scoring UK: John Wall (17.0)
VU: Jermaine Beal (14.7)
Rebounding UK: DeMarcus Cousins (10.3)
VU: A.J. Ogilvy (6.1)
Assists UK: John Wall (6.5)
VU: Jermaine Beal (2.9)
3-point FG Percentage UK: Patrick Patterson (40.9%)
VU: John Jenkins (45.4%)
Blocks UK: DeMarcus Cousins (1.7)
VU: A.J. Ogilvy (1.6)
Steals UK: John Wall (1.9)
VU: Jeffery Taylor (1.3)
Kentucky certainly has more weapons in their arsenal. In their last game, the Wildcats got double-doubles from DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson and John Wall, marking the first time Kentucky has had three players tally double-doubles in the same game since 1978. Wall just missed a triple-double by two assists. UK also held the league's leading shot-blocking team to two rejections, while the Cats recorded 12 swats against the Dawgs. If that's all you knew about the game, you'd think Kentucky would have won in a blow out. However, we know that wasn't the case, so it will take a similar effort from the Cats to win tonight.
Where the Cats should have a clear advantage is under the basket and on the boards. Look for Kentucky to punch it in to Cousins and Patterson early and often and for them to use their size advantage with offensive rebounds and put backs.
However, this is such a unique environment that there's no way to know how our boys in blue will respond. This is a game that we could easily lose, and if we do, it wouldn't be a shocker.
But, what do you think? Do we win tonight? If so, by how many? Share your thoughts and predictions in the comments section below...
I love the mentality of our young team. In games where they feel like they have something to prove they always show up big time like the thrashing they gave Arkansas to prove they were a team capable of being #1.
ReplyDeleteI say tonight they do the same because UK has had some rough trips to Nashville in recent years and these boys will want to prove that nobody can dominate them, and i mean NOBODY!! I say Cuz makes Ogilvy look like a little school girl and the CATS win big, 81-68
If you break down the talent on these teams, there is no way that Vandy stays within ten points. However, Vandy typially plays over their heads at home, and way over their heads when it's against UK. I say UK pulls out a close one.
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