Kentucky Tames the Tigers

[caption id="attachment_150796" align="aligncenter" width="358"] Photo by UKAthletics.com[/caption] The 13/12th ranked UK Hoops team beat the 14th ranked LSU Tigers this afternoon in a fast-paced and tenacious game, 63-56.  Unfortunately, the internet connection in Memorial was virtually non-existant for the game, sorry about the lack of live diary folks.  Today's game was probably the most important game that this team will play this season for a couple reasons.  First of all, this team needed the confidence boost of beating a ranked opponent, especially one within the SEC.  Kentucky was coming off of a very hard felt loss on the road to Georgia, and was wanting for a victory like Wilder wants for a job as Nikki Caldwell's assistant.  This game was also important for the team because of it's determination of our standings within the SEC.  A loss to LSU today would have put Kentucky in the bottom .500 of the conference standings.  With only seven games left in SEC play, five of which are against teams who are currently ranked higher than Kentucky in the league standings, a victory today was crucial in keeping Kentucky in the battle for the SEC championship.   Defensively, Kentucky had a pretty good game.  LSU center Shanece McKinney is a giant of a woman, and was an initial concern for Kentucky, and the targeted go to for LSU.  Head coach Nikki Caldwell said that she had hoped that they would score more points in the paint than they did (22), but that had trouble "establishing their inside attack."  Caldwell also talked about how she believes that Coach Mitchell relies heavily on his defense and his transition game, about which she said Kentucky was "one of the best teams as far as their transition goes."  Kentucky's defense showed improvement today that we've been searching for all season, but there's one defensive area that's still irking me.

  Kentucky is continuing to lose their woman for back door layups.  While it was something they did improve on coming out in the second half, the first few plays and points of the game were LSU players sneaking in the paint when someone had sent the double team or had their back turned.  To me, it seems like it's 95% a lack of communication.  If Kentucky can fix their defensive communication just a little bit more, I'm thinking we'll be Beyonce Flawless on the opponent end of the court. Going into halftime, Kentucky was leading LSU 32-23, which Wilder and I both weren't completely sold on.  Yes, it was a great lead, and we were seeing this fallen team play like a true Kentucky team, but we were ready for this LSU team to come out in the second half with all their first half errors completely fixed.  We were right.  During halftime, we watched the 2o time National Championship Cheerleading team perform their routine, but we knew LSU's Coach Caldwell was having a private performance of her own, which more than likely consisted of lots of stomping and yelling, not too much unlike what we were watching.  Caldwell told us that at halftime, LSU talked about how there were two areas that were causing her team trouble.  "We weren't taking care of the ball and being aggressive off the bounce.  And we weren't getting defensive stops."  She also talked about what Wilder and I have been talking about for the entire season, and that is how competitive the SEC is as a whole.  "In the SEC, we have a tendency to just beat up on each other," Caldwell said to end her press conference.  "This league is tough, it's competitive, and we're seeing that across the board." Coach Mitchell was once again a cornucopia of fantastic and vivid quotes, so lemme share with you my top three favorites. 3). Kentucky on the Search: After their tough loss to Georgia on Thursday night, Mitchell said that the team didn't even step on the court Friday for practice.  He said they, "really worked hard and did a lot of soul searching and changed their attitudes from Thursday night, and that's not easy to do."  Mitchell talked about this team meeting in some detail, focusing on how the team critiqued their game film from Thursday very harshly.  He focused on one player's take away from the meeting in particular... which leads us to quote #2... 2). The Call to Action:  Freshman Makayla Epps has seemed to be what Mitchell referred to as a "non-factor" for this Wildcat team since mid-December.  Mitchell talked about Epp's reaction to the meeting and to watching herself on tape, saying that "she's unbelievably talented, but was just doing nothing for us.  She changed her attitude Friday night, and came back Saturday a different player."  Epps had seven points and two rebounds in her 14 minutes of game time today. 1). The Safari to Victory: Quite possibly one of my favorite Mitchell quotes of all time came this afternoon when he was asked if he thought that this win might finally bring Kentucky out of the woods.  He started out by very loudly and sternly repeating, "No," as if he were scolding a badly behaving puppy.  He continued to lay this bad boy on us... "We are working hard, but we are in the woods.  We gotta get through some briar patches, and grab some machetes and go to work."  The visual of this entire team suddenly in camouflage with machetes and canteens instantly popped into my head, and made me very happy. BONUS: I Can Be Your Hero Baby... Now usually I don't do this, but uh, go ahead on and break um off with a little preview to the remix... the remix quote of the night focused on how Mitchell told the women that they needed to focus on the team, and not just their individual traits that would help bring home victories.  He said that, "no one person is going to dig us out of this hole, it's gonna take a whole team.  Nobody's gonna put a cape on and be superwoman and come through and save everybody... the only way to stop a nightmare is to wake up."  Mitchell needs to go ahead and write a book of motivational quotes for the everyday human.  I'd buy. Kentucky will be tipping off against Florida on the road (already anxious) next Sunday, February 9th at noon.  Our next home game will be against Ole Miss, meaning our former assistant coach Matthew Insell will be in the building.  Until then, Local Taco? @KSR_allHAYL PS: Congrats to Bria Goss who has now made 23 free throws in a row, and ranks in the top 10 in the nation for free throw percentage.  Maybe she should start coaching #TeamNoSleep gym sessions...