Switching gears

The mens basketball team begins SEC play this Saturday, against the most talented (very young) team in the conference, of course that being Kentucky. Why is it that we have to open against this particular school two years in a row?? Anyway, at least this year we open at home. Game is set for a 4pm tip and is on the SEC network, assuming that would be Peachtree TV in Atlanta at least.

In case you were curious about how the Cats have been doing so far in the non conference schedule, they are 12-2, fresh off a victory last night against Penn, 86-62. The two losses, 75-73 at UNC, and 64-67 at UCONN. Also of note, they have Oklahoma (W76-64) ,Washington (W74-67), Notre Dame (W72-58-ND is of course one of the two schools that beat us in Orlando), Indiana (W81-62) and recently @ Louisville (W78-63). It is obvious they have been battled tested coming into the SEC slate. Of course they had basically their entire starting five drafted last year, so this year they are led by two FR in Brandon Knight, 6-3 guard and Terrence Jones 6-8 F who average 18.0 and 17.7 pts a game respectively. That puts them just ahead of our own Trey Thompkins who averages 17.4 per game. Jones is also second in the conference in rebounding at 9.2 per game, behind his teammate, SR Josh Harrellson who leads the SEC at 9.4.

Needless to say, this will be a tough battle and hopefully the team will play a complete game for the first time this season. If not, this would not be a good SEC start considering we play at Vandy next Wed and that is always a TOUGH place to play. Makes me sick to look at UK after losing Wall, Patterson, Cousins and Bledsoe and think, here we go again. That does appear to be the case right now though-a win over UK is big anytime but considering it is our home opener in conference play, this could really be a huge win and one that would help position us for a strong conference season-and shot to play in the Big Dance come March. I just hope we have enough to pull it off. One thing for sure, against a quality opponent like UK, we MUST do a better job hitting our free throws.