Big Blue comes to town with our game slated to tip off at 9 PM ET/8 CT on ESPN tonight. They are 9-4 right now and look to be getting better and better. They played No.4 Louisville a tight game, losing 80-77 at the ‘Ville a week and a half ago. So that was impressive. I watched their game with Eastern Michigan, their last game last Wednesday, and they won, 90-38. Eastern Michigan is not that great, but not bad either. Was pretty impressed with the ‘Cats. They’re going to be a dangerous team, and they’re getting there right now. They lost to Duke, 75-68, on Nov. 13 on a neutral court, and have lost @ Notre Dame, 64-50, on 11-29-12. They lost to Baylor at home, 64-55, on Dec. 1, and they lost to Louisville. No real marquee wins except their first victory on Dec.9 over a pretty decent Maryland team, which is 13-2, but lost to Florida State last night, 65-62, at home, so that may not be that impressive.

Five-star freshman Archie Goodwin, a shooting guard, leads them in scoring at 15.8 per season. He’s shootinn 40 % from three (10-of-25). Five-star frosh Alex Poythress, a 6′;8″, 225 power forward, whom we were heavily involved with in recruiting last year, is averaging 14 points per game and six rebounds. Sophomore Kyle Wiltier, who was a five-star recruit two years ago, averages 12 points per game, and is shooting 43% from trifecta (33-of-76). He will jack it up at any opportunity. And they have length. Five-star center Nerlins Noel, a 6’11” player, is averaging 10.3 points per game, 9.3 rebounds and  3.5 blocks per game (46 on season). Willie Cauley-Stein is another 6″11″ player who is averaging eight points, six boards and has 27 blocks on the season. Ryan Harrow runs the show at point. He’s a transfer sophomore and he’s pretty impressive. Reminds me of their point guard two years ago, Brandon Knight. Just a smooth player. He’s averaging 9.0 points per game and has 31 assists. Julius Mays backs up Harrow at point and plays a lot of minutes–he’s basically a starter–averaging nine points per game.

Kentucky is shooting 49 percent from the field, 37 percent from three and 64 percent from the line. They average almost 40 rebounds per game. We’ve got to be able to keep up with  them in that area. They average eight steals per game and average almost 14 turnovers per game.

It’ll be tough, but I do like the way we played against William and Mary. The Tribe weren’t a bad team and I loved the way Sheldon Jeter played. We’re shooing 42 percent from the field, 35 percent from three and a miserable 58 percent from the line. We’ve averaging 32 rebounds per game and 13 turnovers per game.

Kede leads us in scoring at 16.6 per and Kyle is next at 12. Rod is third at 9.6. Kevin Bright leads us in rebounding at 6.4.

They’re many things we need to do well. Defend, which we’ve been pretty good at this year giving up only 59,5 points per game. We’ve got to take care of the basketball and not give them some easy opportunities on steals and fast break baskets. We’ve got to shoot it well, both inside and from triple, and we’ve got to somehow hang in there with them on the boards.

Kentucky is good right now and they have a chance to be great. Our team is OK right now, but I still like our players and think we can be good. We’ve just got to get it going on a consistent basis. Tonight would be a good start.  This game will give us another look to see how we’re progressing. The crowd will be huge as it always is, but there are going to be a ton of Ky fans in attendance. Our students and our crowd need to match the big blue  intensity of their crowd. If we can get some confidence early and hang in and  have a lead in the second half, maybe with 10 minutes left, there is a chance. Not a great chance, but a chance.

A couple of new football recruits have come on the radar, at least on the recruiting sites. Brandon Vandenburg, a 6’6″, 260 junior college tight end, has garnered a lot of interest from James and the staff. Brandon is a 5.6, three-star on Rivals and an 85 on 247 , solid numbers. He played at the University of San Diego for one year. He was recruited by now Michigan coach Brady Hoke when he ran a good program at San Diego  Brandon transferred to junior college at the College of Desert. He is from Palm Desert, California. He’s the number three junior college tight end in the country as ranked by 247. His other two choices are Arkansas and Tennessee, but we are his leader. He will visit us Jan. 18, he’ll visit Arkansas on Jan. 25, and he’s working on a visit to UT on Jan. 11. He likes what the staff is doing and James and three of the coaches had an in-home visit with him recently.

Another player on the radar has been C. J. Duncan, an unranked athlete from Montgomery, Alabama. He rushed for 800 yards this year and threw for 1,000, but he is projected to be a slot receiver for us. C.J. likes us. He holds offers from Southern Miss and Troy, but Miss. State and Auburn are showing interest. Looks like an interesting player as well.

We’ve got bball recruit Darius Thompson in town this weekend. Believe he’ll be at the game tonight. He’s a 6’4″ combo guard. Three-star. Would like to land him.

Will be in touch tomorrow.