This years Kentucky team has the fan base turned into Road Worriers not Road Warriors...
Brandon Knight - Knight's evening can be wrapped up in a recycled Jimmy Dykes line of "We need to play that song 'What a good good kNight!" But when Dykes is right, he's right as it was a good night indeed for the freshman PG. Knight was the leader of this team and emerged with 26 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assist. He went 9-9 from the free throw line and seemed to be the only person capable of scoring for long periods of time. The offense went through him and you knew at the end of the game, the ball was going in his hands. The only drawback, his 1-8 performance from behind the 3 point line including 2 chances at the end of regulation that would have won the game.
Josh Harrellson - Josh has played spurratically the part of a quiet roll player. Jorts was up to form on Wednesday in Fayetteville. He leads the SEC in offensive rebounds and against Arkansas, in his 42 minutes of play, he managed to collect 6 of his 14 boards on the offensive side of things. He put up 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting and was the garbage man UK needs him to be.
OT - Previously, Kentucky has managed to lose all 6 road games in regulation. I don't really know if this is a bright spot, but hey, at least they managed to delay the loss by another 5 minutes by getting it to overtime.
Then there's the not so good things.
Late Game Heroics - This is the 7th loss on the road. This is the 6th loss of less than 5 points. ( UNC 2, Alabama 2, Mississippi 2, Florida 2, Vanderbilt 4, Arkansas 1). It is a freshmen lead team and the obvious item they struggle with is late game leadership, a known negative of freshmen lead teams. Someone needs to step up and hit a shot and make some plays late in the game to win, versus just to play not to lose - as they aren't doing the latter very well.
Terrence Jones - Jones managed to get 10 points on 5 of 12 shooting and 8 rebounds - not bad right? Not so fast my friend. While double digits are nice, his points were mostly soft points. Jones has to be the cog the offense runs through, not just another role player. The stats are in his free throws statistics, of which Jones had two attempts. A telling line that displays Jones' settling for outside shots. He is a handful for anyone to guard but not difficult for a double team to lock down, which was demonstrated on his 2 turnovers (both when the defense collapsed around him) and when he got his shot blocked down low. When the double occurs, Jones has to be the guy to get others involved and when it doesn't he has to take it to the rack and get fouled or get points. Jones is a critical part of the offense for Kentucky to succeed, something he was not on Wednesday.
Where is the world is... Doron Lamb - By far Lamb's worst game. He collected season lows in minutes (16) and points (2). After the game, Calipari said it was his defense off screens that saw his minutes evaporate. Lamb was replaced by DeAndre Liggins and based on this performance, Liggins will be that starting position come Saturday and Lamb will be relocated to 6th man duty. He has to be a part of the team - offense and defense - in order for this team to win.
Schedule - Kentucky has managed to lose games against some of the worst teams in the SEC. The bad part is that they've also managed to lose the games against the better teams as well. Outside of the home win against Tennessee, Kentucky has lost at Florida and Vanderbilt as well. The unfortunate part for the team is that they play Florida Saturday (4:00pm @CBS), then Vanderbilt on 3/1 and wrapping the season up in Knoxville. The small piece of hope remains in the thought that Florida and Vandy are in Rupp... a place Kentucky stands undefeated with Calipari at the helm.
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