Finally, the CATS in Rupp Arena

Back at it. Why wouldn't you be? ...

The Wildcats started off very strong against a depleted Georgia team. I didn't get to see it, because ESPN was finishing up the previous game and didn’t switch over until the score was Kentucky 11 – 2 over the Bulldogs. Things stayed on track for a bit. The CATS extended their lead to 20 – 4 before being lulled into playing poorly. I guess that’s a little unfair. Crawford was hot early and then he cooled off significantly. Georgia started out doing little or nothing offensively and finally started knocking down some shots. Kentucky was above 50% from the field and from behind the 3-point line in the first half. They also hit almost 90% from the charity stripe in that period. All their numbers were down in the second half. Overall shooting was down to 31% thanks to going 0 – 7 behind the arch. Free throws even became more difficult with the CATS hitting 6 of 10 in the second half. I would venture to guess that having only 8 turnovers for the game and nobody in foul trouble was the key to the win. Georgia’s Gaines, Woodbury and Bliss were outgunned by Patterson, Crawford and Bradley. The announcers mentioned why the Bulldogs were struggling so mightily, but I really didn’t care. They are sitting at the bottom of the SEC East. They should not have been able to come into Rupp and play at the same level as Kentucky. Meeks did not play, so the injury roller coaster is still fully operational. Some people would give Billy a pass this year mostly because of the injuries, but I think that’s garbage. It would seem logical that players only being available sporadically do not lead to team cohesiveness. It seems to me that allowing players to rest early would have helped them be 100% this late in the season. With 5 games remaining before the SEC tourney, it would have been nice to see the CATS at full strength and able to demonstrate the awesome power of this fully operational Death Star – I mean team. As it stands, it looks we will still be walking with a limp into any type of post season which is not good. I’m still hoping the CATS can win 3 or more games before their trip to Atlanta. That kind of record would most likely leave them in 2nd place in the East and 3 wins away from a conference championship.