Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Kentucky Preview

Last game in the old Joyce Center. Winningest college basketball program in town. Chance to go to NYC and win the first postseason tournament in Notre Dame basketball history. What the hell, might as well get excited for this.

Kentucky-
Pomeroy Ranking- 46th
Record- 22-13 (8-8)
Quality Wins- Kansas State, West Virginia, Tennessee (x2), Florida
Bad Losses- VMI, Georgia
Common Opponents- Lost to UNC 77-58, Beat West Virginia 54-43, Beat Indiana 72-54, Lost to Louisville 74-71
Pomeroy Projection- ND 74-69

Key Players-
#23 Jodie Meeks- 6'4", 208 lbs.- 23.8 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 40% 3PA
#54 Patrick Patterson- 6'9", 235 lbs.- 17.9 PPG, 9.4 RPG
#21 Perry Stevenson- 6'9", 207 lbs.- 7.7 PPG, 5.9 RPG

Scouting Report-
Shoot the ball and defend it well inside the arc (15th and 6th), we'll need to connect from outside.
Make 77% of their free throws (7th).
Block a lot of shots (3rd).

Meeks and Patterson are the only two guys who can do real damage, but both are fantastic players. Each saw some foul trouble against Creighton and only managed 28 points and 8 rebounds between them. Stevenson stepped up with 13 and 10 (only his fourth double-double of the year), but I'll wager he's a little rusty two days after playing 38 minutes.

1 comment:

Craig said...

Kentucky's height will bother us. We're going to be giving up a lot of inches on one or both of Tory's and KMac's men, one of whom is likely to be Meeks. Hope he's cold.

Their biggest failing on offense is that they turn the ball over a lot. I know getting turnovers isn't part of our typical defensive identity, but it'd be nice to see us play a little more aggressively and get some fast break points.