Tennessee doesn’t play a lot of zone. But like any team, when it comes time to face Kentucky, a zone appears to be the only way to slow the Cats.For 30 minutes on Saturday night, it appeared to be the answer.DeMarcus Cousins, for the first time in two months, couldn’t generate anything in the scoring column. With Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl going to a rare 3-2 zone, Cousins was swallowed up in a blinding see of orange.Without Cousins’ production, the backbone of Kentucky’s four-game winning streak since the South Carolina loss, Kentucky had to figure out the Rubik’s Cube that has perplexed them the entire season. The Kentucky guards had to figure out a way to overcome a zone – one they didn’t even see coming.”They went to a 3-2 zone, and I’m going to be honest with you, we didn’t work on it,” head coach John Calipari said. “I knew they had it in their arsenal but I didn’t know they’d run it because I hadn’t seen it on any of the tapes I watched. What happens in the first half? We come out and didn’t look like we knew what they heck we were doing because we didn’t.”Kentucky shot just 35.7 percent in the first half before torching the nets in the second half with 53.8 percent shooting, including 5-of-10 from behind the arc.”When we had halftime I told them, ‘Guys, they’re playing a 3-2. That’s not your fault, that’s my fault. I’m not blaming you, but here’s what we’re going to do in the second half and how we’re going to attack it,’ ” Calipari said.John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, even if only for a 10-minute span, figured it out under the national spotlight on Saturday in front of jam-packed crowd of 24,402 at Rupp Arena. Wall and Bledsoe scored 23 of UK’s final 25 points and ignited a late 20-4 run in the second half to lead No. 3/2 UK to a 73-62 win over league rival and 14th-ranked Tennessee.Wall finished with a game-high 24 points and Bledsoe finished with 16 points — all in the second half — on 3-of-6 shooting from behind the arc.”I was being physical but I wasn’t getting certain calls I thought I would get going to the basket, so I just had to be a little more physical and starting finishing,” Wall said. “When they gave me lanes that I found, I found my teammates and we got it going.”Especially Bledsoe, who busted out of a frigid shooting slump. Entering Saturday’s game, Bledsoe had missed his last 14 of 16 attempts from behind the 3-point line over the last six games. Bledsoe admitted Friday that doubt was starting to creep into his mind, but Calipari told him to continue to shoot or sit the bench.  All it took was a few makes and a big game to restore his confidence.”I knew it was a big game we had to win,” Bledsoe said. “Coach was kind of riding me about shooting the ball. I just kept trying to penetrate the zone to get other people shots. He just told me I was one of the best 3-point shooters on the team so I stopped thinking about it and just started shooting.”Once that second one fell with just over five minutes to play in the game and UK storming to a seven-point lead, it was all but over for a stingy Tennessee squad.
“It took a lot of pressure off me towards coach,” Bledsoe said. “The first three I made, I didn’t hesitate. I just shot it.”Bledsoe’s timely shots cracked the pesky zone that riddled the Cats for much of the game. The fact that Tennessee was even able to hang with a deeper, more talented UK team was a huge credit to Pearl.The fifth-year UT coach might not be able to pick out a fashionable coat to wear on game day – no matter how many times you see the orange suit, it’s still hideous – but the guy knows how to coach. With a shorthanded frontline (Wayne Chism was bothered by an ankle injury and Tyler Smith was dismissed from the team a month ago), Pearl covered up the weakness brilliantly. Kentucky’s go-to man of late, Cousins, scored just five points, and the Vols held their own on the boards.The Cats finally figured out the 3-2 zone midway through the second half by flashing a big man at the free-throw line and by running Bledsoe on the baseline. Bledsoe’s back-to-back 3-pointers in the second half came from both corners.They ultimately broke Tennessee’s back.”When a team is trying to hold a ball late in the shot clock and take a shot late, if you can make a shot it puts so much pressure on that team,” said Calipari, whose team hit 7-of-19 shots from behind the 3-point line. “We have had games where we were missing every open shot. The first half tonight was similar to that. The second half we made them and you are seeing the gap that we were talking about.”It is not like you have to make them all. You just can’t miss them all.”Never lost in Bledsoe’s reemergence was the continued solid play of Liggins. The second-year guard continued to provide an unmatched element of grit and energy off the bench.”He’s becoming a real high-profile prospect,” Calipari said. “Everybody that’s evaluated my team, all of a sudden DeAndre is being talked about. You’ve got people that absolutely love him. He’s playing a style that he can play. … There’s no such thing as a 50-50 ball (with him). He’ll rebound, he’ll play hard and he’ll bring energy to the game. He’s as valuable to our team right now as anybody.”Liggins’ seven-point, four-rebound, four-assist game provided only half the story of his value. A key steal and timeout underneath the Tennessee basket with 4:34 left in the game was so impressive that Calipari jumped off the bench, ran past midcourt and high-fived the once-maligned sophomore.”That’s the play that wins games,” Calipari said.The Kentucky guards, against unexpected adversity, could do no wrong Saturday night.