Last night UK won the first exhibition game of the BCG era 99-64 over Pikeville. You can read about the game
here, but the headline to the post says it all. At halftime, Meeks had 27 and Pikeville had 27. In the 2nd half he did not attempt a 3 point shot, presumably to give Pikeville a chance. It was unreal. I only wish it had been a real game so that his 1st half performance could be put up there with Tayshaun Prince’s game against North Carolina. Anyway, here is a rundown, in order, of the best players on the team and a grade of their performance last night.
1- Jodie Meeks- Unreal. See above. 7-9 from 3 point range. Great defense. Didn’t really like him at the point at the start of the 2nd half, but you can’t fault BCG for trying something. Grade: A+
2- Ramel Bradley- 15 points, 9 assists, 5 boards, and 5 turnovers. I think this is about what you can expect from Ramel. Facts are facts, as a PG he will turn the ball over. But if he can keep it hovering around a 2-1 assist to turnover ratio, the team should be OK. He played within the system and the amount of useless dribbling has dropped, but not altogether disappeared. Oddly, I think he should have looked for his shot a little more. He is a good 3-point shooter and passed up a couple of open looks. Grade: A-
3- Patrick Patterson- 21 and 9, not to mention a couple of blocked shots. Started the game slow, but ended strong. The only problem for PP is that there is no one in the frontcourt for UK that is even close to his talent level. UK tried to run the high-low, with some success, but you can only imagine how much better it would have looked with Randolph Morris still on the team or another talented forward/center. Also, played defense and blocked shots without foulding. That is very impressive for a freshman. Grade: A
4- Joe Crawford- 15 and 4 assists. People worried how Crawford would do coming off the bench. He seemed to be OK with it and the crowd gave him a very nice ovation when he checked in. Late in the 2nd half, he turned back into the no purpose dribbling Crawford, but hopefully BCG will break him of that habit. Because of the weak outing by Alex Legion, I think it is safe to say that if Crawford does not start, he will be the first guy off the bench. Grade: B
5- Ramon Harris- 0 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals. This one is a bit of a reach, and has more to do with how I think Perry Stevenson played poorly. What can Harris do that other cannot? He can play extremely tough man to man defense without fouling. Harris WILL play a lot this year, especially when the other team has a high scoring small forward (Terrence Williams of Louisville for instance). However, he will need to attempt more than 1 shot and MUST cut down on turnovers. He had 5 in 14 minutes. Grade: C
6- Perry Stevenson- 9 and 6 with 4 blocked shots. On paper it looks OK, but in person he was very unimpressive. I was hoping to see Stevenson dominate Pikeville the way he did Miami of OH and some of the other teams from early in the year last year. He did not. He had trouble finishing around the rim and had some silly fouls. PP is going to need some help down low, and Stevenson is the guy, athletically, who should be providing it. Grade: C-
7- Mark Coury- 2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists. The frustrating thing about Coury is that he seems to know what to do, but he is sometimes just not physically capable of doing it. I may start calling him “White Sheray Thomas”. That is who he reminded me of. But, considering he is a walk-on but is going to play some minutes, he wasn’t too bad. Grade: C
8- Alex Legion- 0 points. Very disappointing. It is only the 1st exhibition game, but since I think UK is going to have to be a guard oriented team, the more guards we have who can fill it up, the better. Grade: D
9- AJ Stewart- 0 points, 1 rebound. He did dive on the floor, but he also shot a jumper off the side of the backboard. Extremely athletic, but I still don’t think he helps much this year unless it is a massive foul trouble or injury situation. Grade: D
10- Michael Porter- 0 points. It appears he may be the main back up to Bradley at PG, since he is the only other true PG on the roster. He still makes me nervous when he tries to bring the ball up against pressure. I also heard he got married, which would be the dumbest thing in the world. If you are a scholarship basketball player at UK, enjoy the time. Marriage will always be there. Hot ladies throwing themselves at you won’t. Think about it. Do you think Patrick Sparks is hooking up with any hotties wherever the hell he is? I doubt it. Grade: D- (Sorry, but the marriage is a reflection of his decision making)
11- Dwight Perry- 3 points. Dwight Freakin’ Perry?!? I thought the start against ‘Nova would be his career high point, but he almost had the chance to push UK over 100 points. That would have been a close 2nd. Because he missed 2 free throws, he denied us the Century Club. Grade: D
12- Jared Carter and Mike Williams- These 2 combined for less than 1 minute. Williams did not play at all. This does not bode well for the future. I am very shocked that Williams did not see the court. Grade: Incomplete
As far as Coach Gillispie, he gets an “A” for his first exhibition game. I have to be honest. It was odd at the beginning when they introduced the coaches and I did not hear, “Orlando Tubby Smith”. Although BCG has been there since April, it still caught me off guard. Also, you would be surprised how noticeable the absence of the Tubby Foot-Stomp is when you are at the game.
As far as the complaints on the message boards:
1. Too many turnovers- Agreed. UK needs to cut those down.
2. Front court worries- Agreed. If something happens to PP, we may as well run a 5 guard lineup.
3. BCG wore a yellow tie and not a blue tie- Seriously? That is just dumb. Quit complaining about stupid crap like this.
Until next time,
The Kid
When I think about Seattle, I think of a few things: Starbucks, the movie Singles, rain, grunge music, and, of course, Nirvana. I guess it could have been “of course Pearl Jam”, but for The Kid and The Lon the 90’s were all about Nirvana. The kids today may not remember, but at the time, you had to choose. You couldn’t like both Pearl Jam and Nirvana. I guess it would be like today’s tweens having to choose between “High School Musical” and “Hannah Montana”. Anyway, maybe the Rupp Arena PA guy will surprise us and play a little old school grunge for us. But, I doubt it.
