KENTUCKY WILDCATS (12-9, 6-2 SEC)
at Vanderbilt Commodores (20-4, 5-4 SEC)
Tuesday, Feb. 12 ? 9:00 p.m.
Nashville, Tenn. – Memorial Gymnasium (14,316)
TV: ESPN
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Kentucky carries a season-high five-game winning streak into Nashville for a key matchup against SEC East foe Vanderbilt. The Wildcats are in the middle of a stretch that sees them playing four of five games on the road. They won the first two road games in this stretch, at Georgia and Auburn, last week.
UK defeated Alabama at home Saturday, 62-52. Ramel Bradley returned to the lineup and led the Cats with 19 points.
Vanderbilt recorded its 20th win of the year Saturday, 66-65, at South Carolina when Jermaine Beal hit a runner in the lane with one second remaining.
The Cats and Dores played a classic last month at Rupp Arena, with Kentucky taking a 79-73, double-overtime victory over then-No. 13 and previously undefeated Vanderbilt.
CAT SCRATCHES
Kentucky is the all-time NCAA leader in wins with 1,960. UK boasts three of the SEC?s top 11 scorers: Patrick Patterson (7th, 16.9), Joe Crawford (8th, 16.6) and Ramel Bradley (11th, 16.0). Kentucky leads the SEC and ranks 12th nationally at the foul line, shooting 76 percent. The Wildcats rank second in the SEC in FG percentage (.480) and FG percentage defense (.388). In league play, UK ranks first in the SEC in FG percentage (.476) and rebounding margin (+4.9). Ramel Bradley, the SEC?s top foul shooter (.863), has made 37 of his last 40 free throws. Patrick Patterson ranks in the SEC?s top 10 in both scoring (7th, 16.9) and rebounding (4th, 7.9). Mark Coury was named first-team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District. None of UK?s eight SECfoes have scored more then 70 points in regulation. UK has held its last 13 opponents under 50 percent shooting. In SEC action, Patrick Patterson is averaging a league-high 41.0 minutes, Ramel Bradley is averaging 36.3 minutes, and Joe Crawford is averaging 35.9 minutes. Joe Crawford is shooting 61 percent (11-for-18) from three-point range over his last four games. Joe Crawford (1,231 career points) is currently 33rd all-time at UK, and Ramel Bradley (1,167) is tied for 39th.
Kentucky Head Coach Billy Gillispie
Opening comments ?
??We?re very excited about going to play Vanderbilt. It?s a very difficult team. We?re going to be in the same boat as them. After our first game against Vandy, we had six of our next games on the road. And that?s what they?ve already done, they?ve already completed (the road games) and they came out of it in really good fashion. They have a 5-4 conference record and people think they have struggled, they haven?t struggled, they just had six out of nine on the road and that?s a very difficult stretch for anyone to have to go through. Really good team, offensively, defensively, in transition. It?s really hard to stop them in transition. It?s hard to get anything on them in transition. It?s just a really good team. They spread you out so much because they can shoot and they have great confidence to score from all positions. So it?s a really nice team that?s undefeated at home and tough place to go play, obviously.?
On coaching from the end of the court as opposed to the sidelines ?
?You have to have leadership, you have to have confidence and those kinds of things. A coach can?t be out there for you all the time, yelling instructions at you all the time and that?s not going to be a factor in the game for us. It will be different, I understand that but it?s not going to be a factor for us in the game.?
On whether he would want the offensive or defensive end of the floor late in the game ?
?I really don?t know, I have thought about that. You know, used to be the opponents choose what end they wanted to be on and a few years ago they changed it to where you always started opposite your bench and always had your offense in the second half. I really don?t know, we?ve been fairly good defensively, we?re getting better. I really don?t have a preference. If we were forced to choose, I?m sure that we would choose the same thing every time, but I?m not really sure what it would be.?
On the season ?
?Well, when it was at its most bleak, the season wasn?t over, and the season?s not over now. So you play every single game until the end and you see where you are at the end. That?s what we said then and what we are saying now. Even though we?re in a decent position now, that doesn?t mean anything. What we have to do, is we have to play better every single time out. We have some very difficult games, most of the teams we are going to be playing are definitely fighting for post-season berths. They are going to be very competitive games, as all our games have been so far.?
On Jodie Meeks and practice ?
?He went a little bit today, but not anything near close to full speed. He?s a potentially really good player for us, but we haven?t had him and we haven?t used it as an excuse and we won?t. Whatever the situation is we?re going to try and deal with it the best that we can.?
On looking to the future ?
?I?m not concerned about that, we?re facing a very difficult team and what I am concerned about is our opponent tomorrow night. We?re going to play a very intense game tomorrow, it?s going to mean a lot to them, it?s going to mean a lot to us. One team?s going to win, one team?s going to lose. We?re going to give it our best to put ourselves in the best situation to win, the best position to win. We?re not thinking about (the future), we?re thinking about our opponent tomorrow night and for those 40 minutes we have to compete like crazy to have any kind of chance.?
On the play of Perry Stevenson ?
?I don?t think he?s played very well lately. I think that his numbers might indicate that he?s played better and he has improved greatly, but I don?t think he?s played nearly as well in the last two or three games as he might have played once or twice earlier during conference. He needs to play better for us, he needs to be more assertive from the very first play and he needs to be more alert from the very first play, that?s been a key spot for us. Whether we?ve done well, or whether we?ve not done so well, it?s very important that he plays well from every single play, just like all of them. We have to get better play than we have been getting from him if we are going to continue to improve. He has to be more alert from his very first play, he has to be more assertive from his very first play and not pick his spot so much. You should take advantage of playing with Patrick Patterson is what you should do, because Patrick makes everyone better. When you give the ball to Patrick, everyone becomes a better player and he has to do a better job for us offensively, defensively, on the boards, consistently from the first minute to the last. He needs to be more aggressive for us, from the first play. And he makes outstanding plays, but I?d rather have a guy make average plays for a 40-minute period than make a lot of really good plays and a lot of really bad plays. I think that you need to know what you?re going to get and that?s my concern with Perry is you don?t know what you?re going to get. I really applaud him for improving drastically and because of his improvement we?ve been able to improve, but you have to accept the responsibility of taking your game to another level at these times and hopefully he will. Hopefully all of us will, but hopefully that spot specifically needs to do a lot of great things for us.?
On the play of Ramon Harris ?
?He?s played great. I think he?s improved as much as anyone on the team. They all have improved greatly. His next step is to be more confident with the ball and quit picking his dribble up and be in attack mode instead of safe mode all the time – to pick his spots in the right spot at the right time. But I think he?s improved greatly, he?s become a very sound defender, getting to be a better rebounder – he had five rebounds on Saturday, five assists. The next step for him would be to be a more confident offensive player, understanding that when we drives we become a lot better and take advantage of the opportunities he has to take the three-point shots and take care of the basketball better like we all have to do. I think Perry has improved, don?t get me wrong, but Ramon Harris has to be a different player for us the rest of the way if we want to do special things. Perry Stevenson has to be a special player for us consistently for forty minutes, not play like freshmen or sophomores – that?s not being critical, it?s just saying we have to do better, all of us have to do better.?
