WHEW!!! This has been my statement at the end of way too many games lately. What has happened to the team that we saw in the beginning of the season. I know that as it gets closer and closer to tourney time, everyone is stepping up, but it seems as though we have taken a few steps back in some areas, which makes me really nervous as we get closer and closer to March.I think that Patterson deserves more credit than he is getting this season, especially after his performance tonight. I really think that he is one of the most overlooked players on the team this year as everyone is focusing on and praising Wall, Cousins & Bledsoe. I love to watch Patterson, especially when he steps out and drains a 3! I also admire him for being as big a part of the basketball team as he has been over the last 3 years, and being able to finish his degree an entire year early... what an accomplishment!
Let's hear it for Patterson and his accomplishments, those both on and off the court!
Great point Misty, Patrick is the real deal. He has really has become a UK great. I am so happy that he has had the opportunity to play on a great UK team.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Pat doesn't get enough credit. He has really turned it on the last few weeks too. There were times earlier in the year when he was deferring to wall and cuz a little too much .. It is good to see him take over a little more.
ReplyDeleteAs for our decline you refer to, I have to disagree. Earlier in the year we played inferior opponents. I understand what you mean about the games being too close for comfort, but that is more a result from playing SEC opponents, especially on the road. We have grown leaps and bounds. On defense throughout the season.. At the start of the season we would have lost this game by double digits because our defense wouldn't have been good enough to bail us out. Teams have figured out a formula that can keep them in the game, but we have been lucky enough to find a way to win in all but one game.
Great post Misty! Glad to see Pat getting the credit he deserves. He is one of my favorite Cats ever and he unfairly caught some heat earlier in the year especially after the SC game from a very small corner of the radical (hmm hmm idiotic) group of UK "fans" that sometime give the rest of us a bad image with the media.
ReplyDeleteHe has played hard and been a silent leader with his defensive effort all year and his numbers are finally starting to pick back up because Cal is starting to figure out how to keep the young talent happy and still get the go to junior his touches.
I have to agree with Austin about the SEC schedule simply being tougher though. All of our key wins that we thought we had early on are turning out to not look as good as we thought, so the competition is definately tougher now that we are in the conference part of the season. Every game in the conference schedule is a grind, and to have only dropped one is a testament to how solid this team is and to how much they have improved since some close games against teams like Miami OH, Sam Houston State, and Stanford early in the season.
Once again, great post and I hope to see more insight from one of the few female writers here at BBNR very soon. GO BIG BLUE!!
Glad Patterson is stepping it up..Vitale said it best lastnite. Take 1 first round pick out put in another
ReplyDeleteI know that the SEC is a tough...probably the toughest conference this year in my opinion, but it just doesn't seem like our heads were in the game several times last night. I also am amazed at how many dunks we have missed over the last few weeks. Maybe we should go back to layups!!! The one thing that I see that we definitely need to work on as we get closer and closer to tourney time is our free throw shooting; those can win or lose a game for us!!
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