Kentucky Preview
March 26, 2010 06:27 PM | General
March 26, 2010
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – You can pick any one of a number of storylines for West Virginia’s game Saturday night against No. 2-ranked Kentucky at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. for the East Regional championship and the right to go to the Final Four.
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| Old buddies John Calipari and Bob Huggins share a laugh on Friday on the Kentucky team bus outside the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. Huggins and Calipari's teams will sqauare off Saturday for the right to go to the Final Four.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Good friends Bob Huggins versus John Calipari … the SEC versus the Big East … up tempo versus slow tempo … big versus small … inexperienced versus experienced … Huntington native Patrick Paterson versus his home state school … the Hatfields versus the McCoys … it goes on and on.
None of that really concerns Huggins as much as his team making a few shots Saturday night against the Wildcats.
“I would be happy as a clam if we could make some shots,” Huggins said Friday afternoon. “We are what we are, and we have to do what we have to do to try and win.”
That means controlling tempo, playing tough, physical defense, keeping Kentucky’s guards from driving to the basket and keeping the Wildcat big men off the glass.
Of course that’s a lot easier said than done.
Kentucky (35-2) is college basketball’s hottest team right now, winning 16 of its last 17 games. The Wildcats have posted double-digit wins in each of their three NCAA tournament games against East Tennessee State, Wake Forest and Cornell, and boast the biggest team in the country with 6-foot-11 DeMarcus Cousins (15.1 ppg. And 9.9 rpg.) and 6-foot-9 Patrick Paterson (14.5 ppg. And 7.3 rpg.) in the starting lineup and 6-foot-10 Daniel Orton coming off the bench.
In the backcourt, the Wildcats have the nation’s most dynamic player in 6-foot-4 freshman guard John Wall (16.6 ppg.), who is expected to be the No. 1 player selected in this year’s NBA draft.
“Every time we’ve needed a run he’s made plays,” said Calipari of Wall. “He’s had great maturity. What I keep telling him is, ‘You don’t have to live up to any of this hype, just lead our team.’”
Kentucky poses a terrific challenge for the Mountaineers, particularly West Virginia’s two front-court players Wellington Smith and Kevin Jones, who will be responsible for guarding Patterson and Cousins.
“Both me and K.J. have each other’s back in terms of helping each other out defensively,” said Smith. “One thing about Cousins is he does a lot more in terms of scoring. He’s so quick with his feet, but all you have to do is try not to let him get the ball that much. When he gets the ball in the paint he’s going to score all of the time.”
“We’re going to try and limit their touches as much as possible and just make sure we keep a body on them on every possession,” added Jones.
Another key for West Virginia (30-6) will be figuring out a way to hold onto the basketball when it has it. On Thursday night against Washington, the Mountaineers turned the ball over a season-high 23 times in their 13-point victory over the Huskies. Kentucky thrives on turnovers and transition baskets.
“Hopefully we don’t do that,” Huggins said.
Calipari said Friday that he expects a variety of zone defenses from the Mountaineers. Tennessee’s zone was effective in forcing the Wildcats to shoot jump shots in a 74-65 win on Feb. 27. In that game, Kentucky shot just 2 of 22 from 3-point range.
Yet on other occasions Kentucky has had little trouble attacking zones.
“We’ve faced just about every kind of zone you can throw at us: 3-2, 2-3, 1-3-1, box and one, triangle and two – pack it in, they’re not going to make shots,” said Calipari. “You are just hoping we miss – we’ve seen it all.
“The difference with the 1-3-1 that West Virginia plays is they’re very long,” Calipari added. “What we’re trying to do in any zone we play is we’re trying to get the ball inside but it’s a little harder with them because their wings are so big, you can’t just catch it on a wing and throw it in.”
One other area to pay attention to is free throw shooting. The Wildcats are shooting 67.2 percent from the line this year and made just 7 of 17 last night against Cornell. West Virginia is shooting a much better percentage (70.3), but missed free throws were a big factor in three of the Mountaineers’ six losses this year to Syracuse, Pitt and Villanova.
Both coaches expect a tough, physical game on Saturday night.
“I was sitting pretty close (to the action) yesterday and I didn’t think any of them were running from anybody,” said Huggins. “They’re really, really physical. For my skinny guys – for them to think we’re physical with the front line they put on – they just keep coming. It’s pretty impressive.”
“It’s going to be a hard game,” Calipari added. “You’re going to have two teams that are playing for something that’s important for both states, playing for something that’s bigger than themselves which means there’s some anxiety that goes along with that.”
Calipari’s biggest concern is the fact that it’s a one-shot deal on Saturday to get to the Final Four. West Virginia doesn’t have to win a five-game series to get past the favored Wildcats.
“If a team plays another team best-of-five, the best team is going to win 98 percent of the time that series,” Calipari said. “When you’re playing one-and-done, one team comes out sluggish, one team doesn’t shoot it, one player on the other team goes nuts for 40, and you’re done. Your season is over.
“Now he couldn’t do that three straight games, but he can do it once. That’s what makes this difficult. That and the fact that everybody wants to see upsets so you have a lot of karma going against you – if you’re the team trying to win.”
Tipoff for Saturday’s game is 7 p.m. ET with Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas handling the play-by-play for CBS. MSN’s pregame coverage with Tony Caridi, Jay Jacobs and Kyle Wiggs begins at 6:30 p.m. with Coliseum Countdown.
Friday Tidbits:
“He played at West Virginia with Joe Fryz, who was my high school teammate,” said Calipari. “When they came to Pittsburgh to play Pittsburgh and Duquesne and those teams I saw him play. He was a good player. But when he got the Walsh job I was working the Five Star Camp and I went over and said hello to him. I said, ‘I know you don’t know me but I watch you’ and from that point we kind of stayed in touch.”
“I went to their campus and met Coach Beilein, a couple of the players and saw their facilities,” said Patterson. “I liked it. It was home and all my friends were going there. I think Beilein was looking at going to the Michigan job at the time and he had left and Coach Huggins came in and picked up where he left off in talking to me, but by that time I had been interested in Kentucky and Florida.”
“Everything is fine,” Butler said. “I’m just keeping it on just to make sure nothing happens.”
Butler had a hard fall during last night’s win against Washington.
“He reminds of Billy Kilmer,” said Calipari. “I don’t mean body wise and all that. I’m saying he just wins. If he has to throw it left-handed or right-handed, and the ball wobbles a little bit, but they catch it and march up the field. I don’t care what it looks like, he’s going to win.”
