Kentucky vs South Carolina.....A Preview

Lwcat
WT Administrator

Kentucky vs South Carolina 1/7/12 Saturday 4PM-EST/3PM-CST
(SEC Network)
Kentucky leads the series 44-10

South Carolina Gamecocks

Location: Columbia, SC
Enrollment: 29,957
Arena: 18,000

Head Coach: Darrin Horn
Career Record: 161-90 (64.1%) 8 seasons
At SC: 50-42 (54.3%) 3 seasons

2010-11 Record: 14-16
2010-11 SEC Record: 5-11
2010-11 Postseason: None

2011-12 Record: 8-6

SC 75 W. Carolina 50
Elon 58 SC 53
Tenn. St. 64 SC 63
SC 61 Miss. Valley St. 57
North Carolina 87 SC 62
Southern Cal 63 SC 60
Providence 76 SC 67
SC 58 Clemson 55
SC 66 Presbyterian 58
Ohio St. 74 SC 66
SC 62 Southern Louisiana 43
SC 57 Woffard 45
SC 72 USC Upstate 66
SC 79 SC St. 51

SC Stats

PPG-64.4
FG%-43.0%
3 PT.%-34.5% (6.6)
FT%-68.8%
RPG-33.3 (+1.4)
APG-10.9
TO’s-13.1
SPG-7.0
BPG-5.6

Probable Starting Lineup

Malik Cooke-F 6’6” Sr……………………..13.1 PPG
Anthony Gill-F 6’8” Fr……………………..8.4 PPG
Demontre Harris-F 6’9” So…………………5.7 PPG
Lakeem Jackson-F 6’5” Jr…………………..5.3 PPG
Eric Smith-G 5’11” Sr………………………6.8 PPG

Other Key Players

R.J. Slawson-F 6’8” So………………………6.1 PPG
Bruce Ellington-G 5’9” So…………………...9.4 PPG

It’s no secret that coach Horn is increasingly under the gun in Columbia as his 3 year record is disappointing. Although Horn did lose a very good starter in Muldrow….he has 4 starters returning plus some freshmen….one of which, Anthony Gill, who has cracked the starting lineup and playing well.

Horn was disappointed when Bruce Ellington opted to play football at SC this season and he was missed greatly early this season when SC went 2-5 without Ellington. However, Ellington returned for the Clemson game and the Gamecocks have won 6-7 since his return…..only losing to Ohio State by 8 points.

SC starts 2 seniors and a junior and the Gamecocks have good size. The return of 5’9” dynamo Ellington has significantly improved the team. Ellington is cat quick….runs the offense and shoots 42.9% from the perimeter. Malik Cooke is the leading scorer and is a complete player….leading the team in steals with 28 while leading in rebounds along with Anthony Gill….and leads in assists with Lakeem Jackson. Demontre Harris leads in blocks with 30.

Certainly, the 8-6 record is misleading…..this is a far different and much improved SC team with the return of Ellington. This SC team will be a tougher opponent as they start SEC play against UK in Lexington.

UK followed up it’s big win over UL with an extremely poor and uninspired 1st half against a 5-10 Ark-Little Rock team….actually trailing at the half. Although, the Cats played much better in the 2nd half and won going away…..this game underscored some negative issues that UK needs to straighten out ASAP.

Although no one questions the great individual talent on this UK team, the Cats are too often struggling in their offense. For whatever reason, Teague has simply not run the Cats effectively. While certainly excuses can be made that Teague is a freshman still learning the point at UK…..the worry is that Teague is not showing the kind of improvement that we all expected after 15 games. In addition, there appears to be increasing evidence that Teague is too often ignoring Cal’s instructions. Coach Cal, while not throwing Teague under the bus, has made comments that reveal his frustration with Teague’s overall performance at PG…..even pointing out that UK played better in the last game with Teague on the bench. It may be that Teague needs to take a seat on the bench more often until he starts running the team as Cal has instructed. Certainly, Lamb and Miller would add more firepower to UK’s lineup, but the Cats still need Teague to be effective if they want to make a deep run in the NCAA. Teague has the tools, but it’s his negative attitude that is holding him back. If only Teague would understand that his job as PG is to bring the ball up…..get the Cats in their offense….and get the ball to the open man…..and not just look to score! There are 16 SEC games ahead and we can only hope that we see Teague bring forth a new positive attitude and effectively execute the offense as Cal wants.

While Teague is a major problem, the fault is not all his. This UK team needs to start playing tough hardnose basketball for 40 minutes. They need to significantly improve their ball handling…..there are far too many poor decisions on passes and too many TO’s recently. UK has in MKG a role model on the kind of energy and effort that players wearing the Kentucky jersey should exhibit throughout games.

Fortunately, there is still half the season left to correct these and other issues. If this team pulls together and Teague plays to his potential at PG, this could be a very special year!

It all starts with SC this Saturday at Rupp arena….and let’s hope the Cats come to play with a chip on their shoulder…..play hardnose defense…..and run the offense efficiently.
As Cal has said, the SEC will be tough this season…..there are a number of good solid opponents….and they all will be tough in their home arena where there will almost always be sell out crowds to welcome UK.

I remain confident that Cal will have the Cats playing great basketball and Teague will finally be the PG we all expected.

I see a UK team defeat SC by 12 points at Rupp arena. GO CATS!