John Clay’s Sidelines

Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson talks about the intensity displayed by the Cats on Saturday.

Two post-game videos of John Wall after UK trounces Tennessee.

DeMarcus Cousins talking to the media after Kentucky’s 74-45 win over Tennessee.

Kentucky stats in Excel files through Saturday’s 74-45 thumping of Tennessee in the SEC semifinals:

• Kentucky individiual game-by-game statistics in Excel using Google Docs.

• Kentucky team game-by-game statistics in Excel using Google Docs.

Looking at the numbers after Kentucky’s 73-67 quarterfinal win over Alabama, one trend pops out. After a string of holding opponents to under 1.0 points per possession, the Cats have now allowed their last four foes to top the 1.0 mark.

Tennessee averaged 1.056 in the Vols’ win over UK in Knoxville. Georgia averaged 1.052 against UK in Athens, even though John Calipari’s team beat the Bulldogs that night. Billy Donovan’s Gators averaged 1.016 last Sunday in Rupp. And Anthony Grant’s Crimson Tide averaged 1.016 yesterday, though in a losing effort.

One reason for the opponents’ rise in PPP is rebounding. Foes are getting way too many second shots. Kentucky outrebounded Tennessee by four, but Georgia (by 10), Florida (4) and Alabama (12) have all outrebounded the Cats. The Crimson Tide bashed Kentucky 45-33 on the glass on Friday.

Before this recent run, Kentucky had held 10 of its 13 opponents under a point per possession.

(H-L photo)

Fifty random notes to know about today’s Kentucky-Tennessee semifinal in the SEC Basketball Tournament.

The first 20:

1. Kentucky last played Tennessee in the SEC Tournament in 2005. Tubby Smith’s Cats beat Buzz Peterson’s Vols 76-62. That was Peterson’s final game as the Tennessee coach.
2. “If you see somebody not wearing blue or orange in here, you wonder if they’re in the wrong place,” UT senior forward Wayne Chism told Wes Rucker of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
3. Bobby Maze told Chris Low of espn.com: “I’m looking around at all that blue and thinking, ‘Aren’t we in a city in Tennessee?’ ” Maze said. “I knew a lot about their tradition, but I didn’t know how much Kentucky traveled. I had no idea they were going to book every hotel, that they were going to book all the clubs, all the events and buy up all the tickets. I mean, they travel like the Million Man March.“
4. Kentucky is 34-2 in SEC Tournament semifinal games.
5. This is the first time UK has reached the SEC semifinals since 2006.
6. Kentucky is 6-3 against Tennessee on neutral sites.
7. UK’s Eric Bledsoe played 36 minutes without a turnover in the Cats’ 73-67 win over Alabama on Friday. That’s only the second time this year Bledsoe has gone an entire game without turning the ball over. He played 23 minutes without a turnover against Connecticut at Madison Square Garden back on Dec. 9.
8. DeMarcus Cousins has scored just 21 points in his last three games. He has taken just 15 shots, making seven, in that span.
9. After making five of seven shots against Florida, Darius Miller made just one of six against Alabama.
10. Patrick Patterson’s 20 points Friday was his highest output since he scored 23 against South Carolina on Feb. 25.
11. Patterson is a perfect 14-of-14 from the foul line over his last three games.
12. Patterson did not get a rebound until there was 7:56 left in the game on Friday.
13. Perry Stevenson’s four points on Friday was his highest output since he scored six against Arkansas on Jan. 23.
14. Kentucky scored 46 points in the paint against Alabama.
15. The Cats shot 63.6 percent the second half on Friday.
16. Ray Melick of the Birmingham News figured it this way: “But what Kentucky did do, and what Kentucky seems to do better than anybody else in the country, is make short shots. The shorter the better. The Wildcats outscored the Tide 46-26 in the paint. Over the course of 40 minutes, Kentucky made only two baskets from outside the lane, hitting 23 of 31 shots from within 5 feet for 74.1 percent.“
17. Alabama had three different players with at least 10 rebounds against Kentucky.
18. Tennessee’s Wayne Chism had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the Vols’ quarterfinal win over Ole Miss.
19. It was Chism’s seventh double-double of the year.
20. Chism played 36 minutes each against LSU on Thursday and Ole Miss on Friday.

Continue reading ‘Fifty random notes to get you ready for UK-UT’

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Big Blue Links for Saturday:

• Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader writes that it was John Wall to the rescue for UK’s win over Alabama.
• My column on Kentucky-Tennessee, round three.
• Tipton leads his post-game notes with UK failing the board test.
• Herald-Leader photo slide show from Kentucky’s win over Alabama.
• Jennifer Brooks of the Tennessean reports that Kentucky fans have overrun Nashville.
• John Wall doesn’t need perfection to shine, writes Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal.
• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal writes that shaken Cats must now shake off Tennessee.
• Matt May of the Cats Pause says Kentucky survived, and advanced.
• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel on Tennessee’s win over Ole Miss, setting up the Cats-Vols semifinal.
• It’ll be all about passion and emotion today, says Griffith.
• Wayne Chism has the energy of urgency, writes John Adams of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that this semifinal will stoke the fires.
• Michael Compton of the Bowling Green Daily News on the Kentucky victory Friday.
• Tom Leach says Kentucky played Wall ball.

(H-L photo)

Continue reading ‘BBL: All the links for Kentucky-Tennessee, part 3′

After Tennessee’s quarterfinal win over Ole Miss, Scotty Hopson talks about Saturday’s game with Kentucky.