Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Kentucky By The Numbers

Day before game day at Arkansas, I decided to look into how a few UK players stacked up against the conference in some categories.

Kentucky is #11 in the nation in 3 point% shooting 40% and is #1 in the SEC.

Kentucky is #22 in the nation is scoring at 78ppg, and #1 in the SEC.

Kind of surprising that Kentucky leads the SEC in 3 pt% considering how well Vandy shoots the ball. But Vandy checked in at #16 in the nation, and obviously #2 in the SEC. It has been a while since Kentucky has been such a good shooting team from 3. Last season Kentucky was awful from deep shooting 34% and ranking 168th in the nation.


Brandon Knight is #2 in the SEC in Assists at 4.0 apg

Brandon Knight is #4 in the SEC averaging 17.4 ppg

I would say by looking at the numbers that Brandon Knight has filled John Wall's shoes quite nicely in his own way. Bonus, Brandon is a great 3pt shooter averaging 41% from deep, which is the one thing that John Wall didn't have last year. Shooting that good from deep means the defense can't lag off of him to stop the drive, because left open Knight will shoot the three form anywhere on the floor.


Doron Lamb is #6 in the nation in 3pt% shooting an impressive 49% (51-103) and is #1 in the SEC. Doron is averaging 13.8ppg this season while mostly coming off the bench, which gives one thing we haven't had in quite sometime, a deadly shooter coming off the bench. But he and Brandon aren't the only shooters on this team.


What came as quite a surprise was the 3pt% Darius Miller has. He is shooting an impressive 46% (40-86) from deeep and that is good enough for 31st in the nation, and #2 in the SEC. Now I'll be the first to admit I have been critical of Darius this year, and I feel that I was right because of the way he can disappear in key stretchs of games. But he has started to play well as of late, most notably his scoring outburst against South Carolina going 6-8 from deep and ending up with 22 points for the game. Kentucky needs more of this from Darius for them to have any chance at making a deep run in the tournament.

Terrence Jones is #3 in the SEC in scoring averaging 17.9 ppg and is an animal on the glass when motivated averaging 9.1 rpg #1 in the SEC. The reason I say when motivated is because Jones has the tendency to be lazy on the glass at times, and is one of the main reasons why Calipari pulls him out of games. But when he is playing like he should, he is hard to stop down low.

Josh Harrellson is #2 in the SEC in rebounding averaging 8.6 rpg and holds his own in offensive rebounding as well averaging 3.6 orb. Now Jorts won't out score the opponent on most nights, but one thing he will do is hustle. He gives you everything he's got every game regardless what some might say.


DeAndre Liggins isn't the most flashy or the highest scoring player on the team, but he is by far the best defender that we have had in a while. He has gotten under some players skin this year with his defense, most recently Scotty Hopson of Tennessee. Liggins was draped all over Hopson holding him to 11 pts and at one point had Hopson so upset with his defense, Hopson threw Liggins to the floor drawing a offensive foul in crucial time in the game. It doesn't get said enough, Liggins is one of the best defenders I have seen in a long.

By looking at the stats, Kentucky stacks up pretty well in the conference. If Kentucky could figure out their road woes, and take care of business at home they should be able to get a good seed in the SEC and NCAA tournament.

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