Big game is tomorrow

Let's hope the Hoop Dogs can finally play a complete game and pick up a huge win over Kentucky tomorrow. Last year, we played those guys tough both in Lexington and Athens. There is no reason to believe that we can't beat them tomorrow, but we need to do a few things in my opinion. First, we need to be aggressive because UK basically plays only 6 guys. I am not suggesting that we run and gun but rather have Trey, Travis, and Gerald get involved-I don't think UK has anyone that can really handle Trey and we need to get the ball down to him constantly-he needs to go strong to the hoop. We need to rebound the ball well as UK has done a great job in that area this year. We also need someone, whether it is Ware, Leslie, Robinson or my hope, Brantley, to hit some open 3's. Most teams this year have played a lot of zone on us because we have not been able to hit 3's consistently, except Ware against GT. We need to hit some of those shots so we get more man D from UK and I personally believe that could lead to foul trouble for them. It is pretty evident Coach Cal does not have confidence in his bench when he has 6 players playing about 90% of the minutes. Of course we will also have to make our free throws, against a quality opponent, we simply can't afford to continue missing free point opportunities.

Considering our next two games are on the road, it really is important we get the win on Saturday. It will not be the end of the world if we don't but I am still not completely sold on our ability to win on the road, even though we are 3-0 on opposing floors to this point. We have not lost at home either and played really solid at home last year so it is very important we continue the solid play at home. The team has not played a game since Dec 31st, hopefully they will be well rested and have spent countless hours shooting free throws.