As Kevin said, “We didn’t come here to play close. We thought we could win.” I always agree with that. The reason Kevin says that is he knows he has a good basketball team despite the 74-70 loss to Ky last night. And as strict a judge as he is on his basketball team, he has to be pleased with how the offense played last night. That’s a very good sign. Defense wasn’t where it needed to be, but it was good to see us knock down shots. Kentucky still has five, five-star players in their rotation and the rest of the players are four-stars, so they’re still a very talented basketball team and still have a pretty good shot at making the tournament even without Nerlin Noels, their five-star frosh center and dominant player who tore his ACL last week at Florida. But I thought we showed we can play with anybody in the SEC last night at Rupp, one of the most hostile places in the country to play. When they would sink a three or score on a dunk, the crowd would be wild, but we’d come right back and sink a three or a mid range or Josh would score inside. I thought we showed a lot of mental toughness last night and that’s a good sign for the rest of this season. We are a good basketball team. The record doesn’t reflect that we’ve played that well (10-15 overall, 4-9 SEC), but we just keep getting better and better.
Kede, despite his shoulder acting up again–somebody hit him on a layup and it got knocked out of socket again–played courageously and put up some nice numbers: 17 points, seven assists and only one turnover. Kede was two-of-four from three and seven-of-eight from the line. Kevin said after Kede hurt his shoulder in the first half again, he wasn’t the same but hung tough. Always proud of Kede. With Kede, Kyle, transfer Eric McClellan and Dai-Jon, we’ve got a really nice guard rotation next year. Darrius Thompson de-committed from us two days ago, but that’s OK. With those four, if they all stay healthy, we will have a formidable backcourt next year. A.J. Astroth, one of our freshmen, looks like he could be a pretty good player for us too in the backcourt. Thompson just didn’t think he could play right away and he’s probably right. Think we have better players than he’d be next year. I watched film of him and I liked him for the most part, but he wasn’t a dominant player by any means. Think the guys we have are better. If we could reel in a power forward in this late period, that would be awesome.
Liked the way Josh played. He was five-of-seven from the field and three-of-four from the line for 13 points. Would like to see him hit the boards better, he only had two pulls, but love how his offensive game keeps developing. Needs to bear down and bang with guys like Willie Cauley-Stein, Ky’s big seven-footer. Josh will keep developing and keep getting better. He’s smart and very skilled. Rod had an outstanding first half and did some things in the second half. Just need to get a consistent, two-half game from Rod. He finished with 16 points, but only one board. Didn’t have his best defensive night either, but he’s been very good on offense and had been playing terrific defense lately. Rod will be fine. He’s a very good player. He was four-of-six from trifecta.
Kyle played an excellent game. Had two beautiful drives and scores to the basket at the end of the first half that kept the game within reach. Kyle finished with 14 on five-of-10 from the field and 2-of-3 from trifecta. Had only one assist but it was a beauty to Josh for the stick in. Kyle needs to get those assist numbers up, but he’s a very important player on this team. Dai-Jon and Kevin B didn’t have their best nights. Sheldon sank a three, but wasn’t a big factor and Shelby did OK. He always hustles. The whole team does. Sheldon will be a good player for us without a doubt. Needs to just keep gaining confidence on the court. He definitely has the ability to be an excellent player.
We shot 42% from the field in the first half and 46.4% in the second half. We sank 6-of-10 threes in the first half and 4-of-12 in the second stanza for 45.5% overall (10-of-22). We were 8-of-14 from the line in the first half and 6-of-8 in the second half for 64% overall. We’re steadily improving at the line. We’ve got guys with good strokes. It’s all confidence and with continued play in the SEC those free throw numbers will keep ascending.
Ky shot 61% in the first half. They were really on fire. Thought they were really good in the first half and many times in the second half. They are still a very talented group. They shot 40 percent in the second half. They only sank four-of-12 threes, but they seemed to come at killer times. Cauley-Stein is awesome offensively. He gave us fits. He scored 20 and had seven boards. Archie Goodwin, their shooting guard, had 16, Ryan Harrow hurt us driving to the hole. He finished with 12. Julius Mays didn’t tear up the nets as he scored only nine points, but he made some plays offensively that really hurt us, including a three late in the game when we had cut the deficit to two. Kyle Wiltjer didn’t do a ton, but made a couple of big shots in the first half and had two blocks. Cauley-Stein had three blocks. The boards weren’t bad. They out-rebounded us 36-30. It was a war out there. I liked our toughness against them. Kevin B got kicked out of the game for leaving the bench during an altercation on the floor along with another one of our players who didn’t play, but I liked our toe-to-toe mentality. We never backed down from them. Kevin S. said KB took two steps out on the floor during the altercation and there was a TV timeout, so really he shouldn’t have been ejected. Kevin S. said we’re not gangsters and it was not a big deal that Kevin did that. The refs seemed to overreact.
Anyway, we’ve got State on Saturday at 1:30 PM ET/12:30 CT on the SEC Network (for those who aren’t getting the other SEC game), and on ESPN3. We’ll play Georgia next Wed (2-27) at home at 9 PM ET/8 CT on Fox Sports South, then we go to Auburn on Sat, 3-2, for a 9 PM ET/ 8 CT tip on ESPN2. Then we’ll go to Florida (Wed, 3-6, @ 8 PM ET/7 CT on SEC Network) and finish at home against South Carolina (1:30 PM ET/12:30 CT, SEC Network), so there are some winnable games coming up, especially if we can play offense like we did last night and get the defense back to where it was before last night. The SEC tournament is March 13-17 (Wed-Sun) in Nashville at the Bridgestone Arena. You never know what might happen. If we get hot, which we’re capable of, we could make some noise in the conference tourney.
Baseball is rolling after a 10-2 victory over Central Arkansas yesterday at the Hawk. Conrad Gregor was two-for-three with two ribbies. Connor Harrell walked three times, and in his only official plate appearance, doubled down the left field line to knock in a pair of runners. Freshman DH Xavier Turner, who is making a case for the starting job at third base, knocked in a pair with a double. Walker Buehler, a freshman, started and gave up eight walks, but struck out six and only allowed one run on two hits in four innings. Would like to see Walker get his control down, but he has good talent. Steven Rice came out of the bullpen and pitched terrifically throwing three scoreless innings, giving up only one hit with no walks and 3 K’s. We are now 4-1 with our only loss coming to Long Beach State last Sunday 13-9.
Tony Kemp is hitting .500 with nine hits in 18 at hats. He’s unbelievable. Xavier is hitting .444 with eight hits in 18 ab’s. Connor is hitting .375 with two long balls and 11 ribbies. We get Connor’s bat hot for the whole season, with the other guys hitting this way, look out SEC. Conrad is hitting .353 and Spence Navin .350. We’re hitting .335 as a team. Only had six errors in five games, not great, but the errors have been committed by some of the younger players. The vets are playing good defense. If we get that weekend rotation of Zo , Beede and T.J. hot, we could do some serious damage this season. Bullpen is solid. We need to develop 2 or 3 midweek starters as well. We have a potentially awesome-Omaha team. We play Monmouth of New Jersey this weekend. They are 1-0. They beat ‘Nova last weekend, 7-6, but have had the rest of their games cancelled due to weather. Ready for some spring weather and hopefully our baseball and basketball teams will be rolling in March.
Football spring game set for April 13th, a Saturday, at 2 PM ET/ 1 CT. I imagine CSS will broadcast it. Will let you know when I know more. Very interesting spring coming up with quarterback and other positions. My hunch is that Austyn Carta-Samuels will get the job, but we’ll see. We’ll have three quality qbs in the spring and four in August. The talent is getting better and better every year. Looking at another eight-win season and maybe better.
Brandt not playing this weekend at the Accenture World Golf Championships Match Play tourny in Tucson, so it’s not as fun, but there’s talk B will be back for Doral in a couple of weeks. I know he’s shooting for the Masters for sure, but would love to see him get Doral and Arnie Invitational in before that. Luke not in field either, but should be an exciting match play event. Excellent event as a matter of fact. Most of the top 64 players playing in the event including Tiger, Phil, Keegan Bradley, Luke Donald, all those guys. Should be fun
Kedren said in his postgame interview that his shoulder hurt and was sore, but he was going to play in the second half. “I was having too much fun,” Kede said. What a team guy and terrific kid.
Nothing new on recruiting yet for ’14. We’ve got two committed and both are high caliber players. K.J. Carta- Samuels, Austyn’s little brother, is a four-star quarterback out of San Jose, Caly and Jay Robertson, our other commit, is not rated yet at dtackle, but is rumored to be a four-star when he gets ranked. Jay is out of MBA in Nashville. Jay is 6’3″, 276. K.J. is 6’3″, 210. Like both of these guys a lot. Excellent start on 2014. Recruiting should even be better next year. Could be a top 10 class on signing day next February. Will keep you posted on any developments. More to come in the next day or so including a preview of basketball and baseball.
