UK 88-65 ETSU

Box Score (UK 88-65 ETSU)

Early in the second half, ETSU cut into UK's halftime lead and got the score to 50-40. From there on UK went on a 20-4 run and that was pretty much the ball game. While UK played well throughout and generally had a nice lead from the first few minutes on, ETSU was a scrappy veteran squad who threatened to keep close enough to make a run. But that 20-4 spurt broke the game open and that was that.

I was generally pretty impressed with ETSU--they weren't bad! Which only made me more impressed with UK. This was a pretty good start for these guys. I thought UK would win by 10 points or so, but I thought it would be a closer game and that the UK frosh squad would get tested, maybe even have to pull it out late--maybe even flounder around and get beat. But they responded well in their debut. While this team isn't last year's team, I've got high hopes for them. They'll lose more than last year but they'll work harder too and that may make this team a sturdier bunch than last year's overwhelming talent.

Good news: I was pleased with the team defense: good stay-at-home ethic with good athleticism, didn't overpursue, didn't work too hard, sloppy on the baseline but up top they played with good discipline.
17-10 assist to turnover is good and ETSU was a good solid squad, so that is pretty impressive. (And worth pointing out: Knight, Jones and Lamb had 9 of the assists and only 3 of the turnovers; that's nice)
13-26 from 3 is outstanding! (Hmm, a little too good, maybe, they won't be that good every time out) They were streaky though, hitting a nice stretch and then faltering for a while before regaining the stroke.
Knight is a solid PG and Jones is gonna be stud. Two solid chips to build on.

Bad news: 9-23 from the FT line just isn't gonna work. This team doesn't have the overwhelming firepower of last year's team, they will play close games and the FT line is too important to ignore it.
The passing in the half-court set was much too sloppy and ambitious. They got away with it tonight (and it curiously meshed with the 1-3-1 that ETSU was playing), but in general it looks like it could lead to a lot of breakaway baskets once we get into conference play.
I would've liked to see more offensive rebounds. They box out well on defense but play from disadvantage on offense.
Isiah Brown was able to go for 25 points, 3 blocks and 14 boards. As Pedro Martinez might ask: who is Isiah Brown? He's a nice player, I was pretty impressed, but we're gonna play better guys than that this year.

The players:
Terence Jones is the man. Serious skills on both ends of the court and once he got going he was a serious beast. I loved the way he was putting it on the floor and getting to the basket, had a nice running jumper and was just generally good around the rim. And he can hit the 3--he is the dynamic offensive presence that UK needs. Down side: He needs to watch his over-confidence, he started taking dumb shots just because he was hot--and that's not how you stay hot. And he needs to make FT's, getting to the basket is a big part of his game and with his size and skills, he's gonna get fouled a lot. He's going to need to score a lot of his points at the line.

Brandon Knight clearly does not have the explosiveness of John Wall but he seems like a steady ball-control guy. He's lean and athletic, built around ball handling and setting up an offense rather than that quickness down the court that we got used to last year. He reminds me of a more confident, consistent version of Liggins, actually and that should be just fine. I haven't seen crazy one-and-done skills from him yet but I think he has the potential to be a really solid PG for UK this year.

Deandre Liggins is a much better scorer than a floor leader, I'm glad that the presence of Knight allows him to slide into that role. Truthfully, I was not terribly impressed with Liggins in his freshman year and with Wall and Bledsoe around, he disappeared last year. But now he has the opportunity to blossom into a solid scorer with good defensive skills. Tonight, he shot well from outside and got to the basket, but he needs to work on a mid-range jumper and some weakside rebounding. He's still got an NBA-quality body and decent skills, if he works and finds his niche, he can be a serious contributor to a solid UK team and move on to the next level.

Doron Lamb was a nice spark plug off the bench. He's got starter skills but I like him as the 6th man. I'm still getting to know these players, so I didn't feel like I saw enough of him tonight.

Darius Miller is probably the only pure scorer on the team, but he disappears at times. He's a nice defender and runs the floor well, too, but I'd like to see more consistency out of him. He's not at this point a fearsome offensive presence but he could be and should be. I'd like to see him work on his NBA prospect status, that's the next level of his game and that's where he needs to go. That means consistency and deadly scoring skills from all over the court and he hasn't done that yet.

Josh Harrelson had too much foul trouble too quickly. He barely played the first half and found himself in trouble early in the second too. He works hard but he can only contribute if he's out on the court.

Eloy Vargas had moments, didn't play a lot of minutes. He doesn't seem like a shot blocking center or a back to the basket post-up guy, so I'm not sure what his role is going to be at this point. But he's a nice big body and he's not overwhelmed out there.

I hope Jon Hood gets consistent minutes this year. He doesn't need to play a lot (5-8 minutes a game is plenty), but I would like to see him in the regular rotation. He works hard and his offensive role is clearly defined whereas everyone else seems a little all over the place. I think Hood settles the team when he's in there and, like I said, he doesn't need to play a lot, but when things spin out of control, I think Hood can be a calming force.

I didn't get to see any of Stacey Poole because Fox Sports inexplicably cut to another game--WTF! This is Lexington, Kentucky! You don't cut off UK to go to UT! WTF!


PS -- Don't give up on Enes Kanter. The appeals committee is an entirely different bunch of people and they may be more sympathetic to Kanter's situation. In Europe, its not at all uncommon for guys to go pro straight out of high school--in USA its only basketball and football where they don't go pro straight out of high school (hockey, tennis, golf, baseball, soccer, etc.). If the NCAA wants to forsake its presence in Europe, I think that is a foolish move. So they need to moderate their rules to incorporate the culture that is already at work overseas, rather than the other way around. Also, I'm curious to see how many other teams out there have European ballers that may have similar circumstances. Kanter may be a bigger domino than we realize.