Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie demands that his team compete. But against the idea of good basketball?
That seemed to be the case as UK struggled to beat winless Stony Brook 62-52.
Stony Brook, 0-6, was within 43-37 at the 6:36 mark despite its only player averaging double figures, Ricky Lucas, going without a basket. At that juncture, Stony Brook had only one three-pointer (the noted equalizer in college basketball).
Kentucky needed Patrick Patterson and — surprise — Perry Stevenson to take control.
Patterson and Stevenson scored the next eight points to show UK the way to a shaky victory. The Cats improved to 4-1 going into Saturday’s game against No. 1 North Carolina.
Patterson finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Stevenson scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to post his first double-double.
(Photo by David Perry of the Lexington Herald-Leader: Perry Stevenson scored on a put-back dunk in the second half.)
Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald- Leader has covered Kentucky basketball since the 1981-82 season. That time includes five coaches, five Final Fours, four athletic directors, two interim athletic directors and many memories. Before coming to Lexington, Tipton worked eight years for the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch. He covered Marshall’s basketball team for two seasons before coming to the Herald-Leader.
It is going to be a long season…
I’m afraid we’ll have quite a few games like this this year, but I feel confident Coach Gillispie will bring the team along late in the season. The team that showed up tonight better not be the team that shows up Saturday. It’s going to be a long 40 minutes of BB if they play like they did tonight and against Gardner Webb.
The headlines will read UK BEAT BY 40. Carolina will destroy this team. How do you only beat Stony Brook by 10. Good thing they have had these so called warm up games to prepare. Good Luck Billy in your first and probably last season at UK.
So Pitiful!
This summary of the performance does not bode well for the game against UNC. I know we’ve got a young team and injuries, but I guess the only other thing we have is hope. Come on CATS from Culver City, CA!
This year’s version of the Cats is long on youth and somewhat short on talent, albeit some of that is due to injuries. The utter lack of cohesion as a team, poor defense, indecision, bad decisions, turnovers, bad shot selection, as well as lack of ability to get the ball inside, & lack of rebounding makes you wonder where the two weeks practice went after the G-W fiasco. They do not recall their lessons very well. While Meeks & Jasper, if they ever heal up & get in game shape, could provide immediate perimeter help, that situation may not come to fruition. As they now stand, the Cats have no business on the floor with a team such as N. Carolina. The youthful Cats, while hustling, will be swallowed up by their mistakes and the better talent of the “Heels”. UK has NOT recruited well in several years. It will take time to bring in and develop the talent pool to where the program regains its former top 5 or 6 status. There is a rough road ahead & the Cat followers had better get it in their minds to ride it, because it is upon us. If we can break even this year it will be a miracle based on what we’ve seen to date.
the way the cats are playin i cant see them beatin the tarhills. but if they come out and play like the real wildcats of old we can do this.but you must play your point guardno matter what.as a coach suck up your pride if not he want be there to long.to me tubby was a better coach but he have to show me what he can do.