Kentucky rolled to an easy 88-40 win over Radford, but there were some red flags. One continues to be turnovers. Kentucky had just 11 assists compared to 16 turnovers. Marquis Teague did a much better job, turning the basketball over two times. But John Calipari’s young club is still too sloppy with the basketball, especially with the epic North Carolina challenge just over a week away.
More notes and thoughts from Kentucky basketball’s Wednesday night win.
Some quick notes from Kentucky’s 88-40 win over Radford tonight:
- Terrence Jones led the way with 17 points. Believe it or not, that’s the highest scoring output from Jones since he scored 19 versus South Carolina on Feb. 19 of last season. The sophomore was 6-of-13 from the floor, 1-of-2 on threes (the made three being a rainbow three) and four-of-six at the foul line. Forgot to mention that in Connecticut, had more than one Eastern media member ask me how good would Jones be in the pros? There seems to be some doubt on that topic.
- Marquis Teague dished out five assists as compared to just two turnovers. The point guard entered the game with 11 assists and 18 turnovers. He does need to stop leaving his feet. Afterward, Calipari said he was willing to allow his freshman point guard “one flub each half.”
- As a team, however, Kentucky had 11 assists and 16 turnovers. Jones turned it over four times. If Kentucky is going to have any chance of beating North Carolina on Dec. 3, the Cats have to take better care of the basketball.
- Darius Miller did not have an assist — for the first time this year. The senior entered the game with 18 assists in the first four games, an average of 4.5.
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist grabbed nine rebounds for the second straight game. Would like to see MKG grab a few more offensive boards.
(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)
- John Calipari did not seem overly pleased with Doron Lamb’s play during the game, and the sophomore was on the floor for just 22 minutes. That is his briefest appearance since he played 19 minutes against West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament last year.
- Eloy Vargas grabbed four rebounds in just 12 minutes. He’s getting better.
- The Cats have made just nine of 28 three-point shots over the last two games. Lamb was just 1-of-3 from behind the arc tonight. Darius Miller missed all three of his three-point attempts. That brought down the average as UK was just five-of-15 on the night.
- Radford shot 26.9 percent. None of UK’s first five foes has shot better than 33.9 percent. The Highlanders were just two of 25 three-pointers.
- The play of the night came from walk-on Sam Malone, who did a cross-over for a layup that faked out the Radford defense. Really. Calipari said afterward that he saw Malone in the gym late the other night taking shots. He said Brian Long better get in the gym.
- Radford coach Mike Jones on Kentucky, “They remind me of the Syracuse team that won the national championship that year (2003). We played them when I was at the University of Richmond and they would sit in the zone and we had to figure out how to get the ball into the middle and it’s hard because of their length, and when you think you have a shot they’d close out and quickly and be able to put pressure on it. I definitely think if they did play some (zone) it would be tough to score against them in that.”
- To that end, Calipari said he thought this team would need to play some more zone.
- My column for Thursday is how, at this point, I don’t think Kentucky is ready for North Carolina. Your thoughts?
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Right now Jones would be a superstar in the pros….because the only pro game in the U.S. is the NBDL which i starting it’s season this week.
I do see improvement in Jones this year. He is going to his right more often and effectively. He will get even better as the season progresses. One reason is he has tougher competition to go against in practice each day this year.