Wed Feb 08 2012
LEXINGTON - The talk this past week about the poor state of basketball in the Southeastern Conference and Kentucky's low (74th coming into the weekend) RPI, and questions about whether the Wildcats can get enough wins to make the NCAA Tournament is all a bunch of nonsense.
It's talk you have the first week of January as you head into conference play and the dog days of the season, simply because there's nothing else to talk about.
It's true that this doesn't appear to be a great SEC lineup, but the idea that Kentucky might not make the NCAA or that only four or five teams from the league will make the NCAA Tournament field is, again, nonsense. By the end of the season the SEC will look better than it does right now.
And Kentucky is doing just fine. More on the Wildcats in a minute.
I believe there will be at least six SEC teams in the NCAA and probably seven. Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida are shoo-ins and Vanderbilt, South Carolina and LSU have a good shot. Alabama and Ole Miss are 50-50.
You'll see.
Barring a serious injury to Patrick Patterson or Jodie Meeks, I believe Kentucky will not only make the NCAA Tournament field, but the Wildcats will be seeded anywhere from No. 3 to No. 6 and have the potential to reach the Elite Eight. The only team in the country clearly better than Kentucky is North Carolina.
There are a LOT of teams that can beat the Wildcats - don't get me wrong - but there's only one team the Wildcats can get on the court with now and have little to no chance of beating, and that's the Tar Heels.
I felt like coming into this season that if Patterson and Meeks step up, this UK team could be very very good. Patterson and Meeks are doing what the doctor ordered - thank you - with Meeks averaging some 24 points per game and Patterson just under 20.
The worries of the UK fans have shifted the past two weeks from Patterson and Meeks to the team's poor ballhandling and a lack of scoring punch outside the big two.
Saturday's methodical 70-60 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores at Rupp Arena should ease your concerns on both fronts.
The Wildcats turned the ball over just 12 times against Vandy, and that's the second straight game that Kentucky's ballhandling has been good enough to win against a good team. Last Sunday's 74-71 loss at Louisville was not due to ballhandling woes on the part of the Wildcats.
Junior guard Michael Porter is a big reason for Kentucky's improvement with the basketball. Porter had only two turnovers in 24 minutes against Vanderbilt. Ramon Harris and Meeks had three turnovers each for the Wildcats.
Those numbers are satisfactory.
And as far as the scoring load goes, the Vanderbilt game was again a good sign for the Wildcats. Meeks led with 21 points, Patterson got in early foul trouble and had only 11 points, but several of his teammates stepped up around him.
Harris had by far his best game since a nasty back, head injury a month ago. Harris had 12 points against the Commodores, to go along with seven rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes.
Perry Stevenson was five of six from the field for 10 points. Porter had eight points, Meeks had seven rebounds and freshman Darius Miller had just two points but grabbed six rebounds in just 14 minutes.
Freshman guard DeAndre Liggins had five rebounds in 16 minutes, and had two steals in the second half that helped Kentucky stretch a 31-27 halftime lead to 55-35 with 9:56 to go.
The Wildcats grew complacent at that point and allowed Vanderbilt to close within 64-58 in the closing seconds, but they will learn to close out games like this as the season goes along.
Kentucky may well lose at Tennessee on Tuesday (9 p.m. on ESPN), but the Wildcats may not lose again after that until a Feb. 14 game at Arkansas.
UK coach Billy Gillispie sounded pleased with his team's showing against Vanderbilt.
"We had about a 20 minute period where we guarded real well, and we were able to get after it," Gillispie said, referring to the last 10 minutes of the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second.
Kentucky's cause was aided by the fact that Vanderbilt center A.J. Ogilvy did not play due to a foot injury he suffered Friday in practice. But Ogilvy's absence was offset somewhat by Patterson's foul trouble that limited the Wildcat star to just 10 minutes and two points in the first half.
Harris and Stevenson did a lot early on to make up for Patterson's troubles.
"Ramon has been practicing well," Gillispie said. "He's going to have some games where he plays like this. He really gave us a lift. I think it would be great if he could be a consistent 12 points, seven rebound guy. I think he's always going to be a fairly good defender and a very important leader for our team."
"I'm just a little more confident now," Harris said. "I'm not sure exactly when my confidence came back after the injury, but during my rehab my confidence has been growing more and more. There has been more and more I could do each day. Today was the best I've felt since the injury."
Gillispie was pleased with the play of several other Wildcats as well.
"Mike (Porter) is playing great," Gillispie said. "DeAndre played really well when he was in there. Darius played better."
"I think the bench players came in today and gave us a big lift," said Liggins, including himself in that group. "We have to step up."
"We knew coming in today that Vandy would be a real good defensive team," added Porter, "and they would put the clamps down on Jodie and Pat especially, so throughout the season other guys are going to have to step up. I don't know if it will be a different guy every time, but we have a lot of different guys who can."
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