Still too early to say the team has permanently turned a corner and surely there will be more ups and downs with a season still so young. But this team is really hitting its stride in an impressive way, at least over the past couple of games. UK followed its 80-66 road win at Arkansas with an equally impressive, never-in-doubt win over Vanderbilt today, 76-57.
Tyler Ulis is an absolute magician with the basketball. From his handle to his balance, his jump shot to his uncanny feel for where everyone is on the court, he really never ceases to amaze me. He's finding open shots for Derek Willis an others and making it easy for everyone around him to be at their best.
Against Arkansas it was Skal Labissiere who needed to be singled out for praise among the big men. Today it was clearly Alex Poythress. He was, in short, unstoppable. Talk about an efficient offensive performance with 8-10 shooting.
Amazingly, Kentucky cruised to victory in spite of shooting just 4-6 at the foul line and with Vanderbilt shooting 20-25 at the charity stripe. Kentucky basically matched Vanderbilt from three and given the disparity between the two teams from beyond the arc that's quite telling. Vanderbilt needed to win the three-ball battle by a significant margin to win this game.
Derek Willis didn't shoot the ball well but he still made his presence felt on the boards and this experiment with Willis starting seems to be working. Kentucky came out of the gate strong and sustained excellent play throughout the game. Kudos to Marcus Lee for staying out of foul trouble.
Kentucky shot 55-percent for the game and 64-percent in the second half with their top three scorers (Ulis, Murray, Poythress) combining to finish 24-36 from the field. Wow.
On the flip side, Vanderbilt held its own (32-32) on the glass against Kentucky and that was clearly a surprise.
Now, it was a strange step back for Skal Labissiere, who played only four minutes. Not the best way to build on a great performance on the road at Arkansas.
Tyler Ulis is an absolute magician with the basketball. From his handle to his balance, his jump shot to his uncanny feel for where everyone is on the court, he really never ceases to amaze me. He's finding open shots for Derek Willis an others and making it easy for everyone around him to be at their best.
Against Arkansas it was Skal Labissiere who needed to be singled out for praise among the big men. Today it was clearly Alex Poythress. He was, in short, unstoppable. Talk about an efficient offensive performance with 8-10 shooting.
Amazingly, Kentucky cruised to victory in spite of shooting just 4-6 at the foul line and with Vanderbilt shooting 20-25 at the charity stripe. Kentucky basically matched Vanderbilt from three and given the disparity between the two teams from beyond the arc that's quite telling. Vanderbilt needed to win the three-ball battle by a significant margin to win this game.
Derek Willis didn't shoot the ball well but he still made his presence felt on the boards and this experiment with Willis starting seems to be working. Kentucky came out of the gate strong and sustained excellent play throughout the game. Kudos to Marcus Lee for staying out of foul trouble.
Kentucky shot 55-percent for the game and 64-percent in the second half with their top three scorers (Ulis, Murray, Poythress) combining to finish 24-36 from the field. Wow.
On the flip side, Vanderbilt held its own (32-32) on the glass against Kentucky and that was clearly a surprise.
Now, it was a strange step back for Skal Labissiere, who played only four minutes. Not the best way to build on a great performance on the road at Arkansas.
