UK Hoops Live Diary: Elementary Day at Memorial

[caption id="attachment_168885" align="aligncenter" width="570"] Photo by Britney Howard|UK Athletics[/caption] Welcome to the first of many live diaries for the UK Hoops 2014-2015 season!  Today's game is being played against Morehead State, and yes, it is tipping off abnormally early.  Kentucky is fresh off their defeat of the #8 Baylor Bears, and will be looking to extend their record to 3-0 with a win over the Eagles.  So why is the game so early, you ask?  It's elementary day! The best and worst day ever.  It's great that we get to start teaching kids to love the Hoops team at this young of an age, but it's a LOT to handle at 11AM. Morehead State's head coach, Greg Todd, is in his first season with the Eagles, after coaching eight years at Transylvania.  In his 22 years as a head coach, he is 548-144, giving him a winning percentage of .791.  With stats like that, hopefully he'll be able to help this team become competitive again. As some of you may know, Coach Mitchell was the head coach for the Eagles before coming to Kentucky, so a victory this afternoon would probably be that much sweeter.

#13/9 Kentucky v. Morehead State

FINAL- Hayley: Kentucky 91, Morehead State 62. What a predictable ending.  Kentucky now extends their overall record to 3-0 with today's win.  Not for one single second today did I think that Morehead could come back, would comeback, really would do anything except lose to Kentucky.  Statistically, they had a decent game.  This is not a bad team, Ladies and Gents.  The Eagles only had 24 turnovers, which comparatively speaking, is not bad.  They shot 45% from the field, and collectively had 35 rebounds.  This team will fair nicely in the OVC. Four Wildcats scored in double figures this afternoon, and Azia Bishop had a double double.  This and more in the post game... coming soon.

2nd Half: 7:15 -Wilder: The pace of this game has definitely slowed of late. Kentucky is thoroughly dominating all phases of the matchup with the Eagles, but their field goal percentage has been low this half shooting just 39%. Mitchell has been using this game to test out a few different lineups and gear his team up for a few challenging road tests in the weeks ahead. Cats leading 68-48.

2nd Half: 11:59 Hayley: Kentucky and Morehead should have just played through halftime, because this all looks awfully familiar.  There were minimal adjustments made by each team at the half.  Morehead State looked like they could chip away at the score for a few seconds, but it's stayed pretty consistently spread at Kentucky with a 20 point lead.  For every Eagle basket, the Cats respond.  The most interesting thing here right now is certainly the prepubescent dancing to old Kentucky favorites, such as "Blue and White."  Kentucky 60, Morehead 40.

Halftime: Hayley: Kentucky 45, Morehead State 24. Well this game has really gotten out of control.  Kentucky is dominating in every way possible.  Kentucky has kept the turnovers (pigtails) to a very reasonable three, while Morehead has 12.  The Wildcats are out rebounding the Eagles, offensively and defensively, for a grand total of 31-24 boards, respectively.  Every single player on the Kentucky roster, minus Ivana Jakubcova, who is injured, has scored today.  Coach Mitchell has been quick subbing all afternoon.  Janee Thompson is leading the scoring efforts with eight points, while Azia Bishop is leading defensively with seven rebounds.  Hopefully today's halftime entertainment is the kids taking a nap. zzzZZZzzzz

1st Half: 3:31 -Wilder: The rout is on. The best thing about this is: Morehead isn't even some awful team. They came into today's game with Kentucky with a 2-0 record, notching two road wins over Norfolk State and George Mason to start the season. The Eagles will probably be competitive in the OVC, but against the taller, more athletic Wildcats, they don't stand a chance. Cats are running over MSU 43-16. Janee Thomposon has eight, followed by seven for Jen O'Neill and six for Linnae Harper.

1st Half: 8:13 -Wilder: Morehead definitely has an interesting mix of players on their team. The majority of them are from either Kentucky, Tennessee or Ohio but starter Maiki Viela hails all the way from Hawaii, transferring to MSU after a previous stint at Gonzaga. She also has a tattoo sleeve so that's...cool? Kentucky's size is really hurting the Eagles early on, as the Cats lead the rebounding battle 25-15. and UK widens the lead 32-10. 

1st Half: 11:59 -Wilder: It's nice to be back in live diary mode after a summer-long break KSR fans. Kentucky has looked sharp this morning, picking right up where they left off against Baylor on Monday night. The Cats have still only turned the ball over once, an improvement Coach Mitchell was anxious to see. Eight Kentucky players already have at least two points, comparable to Coach Cal's platoon system. Look for UK to hit triple digits today...Cats lead 21-6.

1st Half: 15:57 -Hayley: So far, this game has started off exactly how we expected.  Kentucky has taken a 12-0 lead on Morehead, and we're already getting somewhat ADD.  When the games are no where near close, we prefer to talk about people in the crowd, players on the bench, you know, just analyze everything.  So far, the Eagles have three turnovers, to our one turnover.  They're beating us in blocks, two to our zero, but they're 0-9 from field goal range.  Yikes.

10 Til' Tip- Hayley: Well guys, it's pretty shrill in here.  There's such a distinct noise of hundreds of middle school kids screaming at the same time.  It's not something I would wish on my worst enemies.  But I do love the fact that all these kids are here.  How cool is it that Kentucky <3 basketball so much that these guys and gals got to miss a couple hours of school to come support?? When we got here, I was a bit tired from last nights' celebration, but I'm wide awake now.  There's a girl on the Morehead State team with a full sleeve.  Just saying.  Here we go Cats.