Stifling defense propels Kentucky to another impressive win
They shot well below 40 percent from the field. They didn’t dominate the offensive glass the way they usually do. They missed their first 11 attempts from behind the arc before finally sinking one with less than three minutes remaining in the game
Kentucky wasn’t at its best offensively Friday night against a determined Texas defense, but the top-ranked Wildcats didn’t need to be to stay unbeaten. They still pulled away for a 63-51 victory over the sixth-ranked Longhorns because their own defense remains utterly impenetrable.
Fueled by full-court traps and relentless ball pressure, Kentucky forced 22 turnovers against a Texas team that missed injured starting point guard Isaiah Taylor. The Longhorns also couldn’t make the Wildcats pay for that aggressiveness even when they did manage to get a shot off, sinking just 29.8 percent of their attempts because Kentucky’s stable of long, athletic big men surrendered nothing easy around the rim.
That defensive formula is what has enabled Kentucky to open with eight straight wins and tighten its grip on the No. 1 ranking even as it’s still finding itself on offense. Opposing teams are averaging 45.4 points per game and .67 points per possession against the Wildcats so far this season, both the lowest in the nation.
To put into perspective how impressive that is, consider that no team this century has finished a season yielding less than .83 points per possession. Granted Kentucky’s total should increase later in the season when it faces high-major opponents regularly, but that still reflects just how hard it is to score against the Wildcats this year.
Texas might have enjoyed more success attacking Kentucky off the dribble if Taylor were available, but without him the Longhorns simply didn’t have the firepower. Elite freshman big man Myles Turner and standout center Cameron Ridley battled foul trouble the whole game and combined for just seven points. Point guard Javan Felix was overmatched athletically and made too many poor decisions with the ball. Aside from a couple jump shots from Jonathan Holmes and Connor Lammert and occasional dribble penetration from DeMarcus Holland, Texas simply lacked the creativity to score.
The score remained tight the entire first half because Kentucky could neither score against Texas’ disciplined defense nor get a defensive rebound. The only reason the Wildcats even entered halftime tied with the Longhorns was due to a late 6-0 spurt that followed a flagrant foul assessed to Holmes after he knocked Karl-Anthony Towns to the floor as he was rising for a transition dunk.
Kentucky finally opened a sizable lead early in the second half by turning Texas turnovers into transition opportunities. Junior center Willie Cauley-Stein tallied six points, four rebounds, two steals and a block during an 18-2 Wildcats surge that provided the breathing room needed to survive a late Texas comeback.
Cauley-Stein was easily the best player on the floor Friday night, scoring a game-high 21 points on an array of dunks, put-backs, tip-ins and short jump shots. He also collected 12 boards on a night when Kentucky was out-rebounded by 11, defended both the paint and the perimeter and used his long arms and quick feet to amass five steals and three blocks.
All in all, there were plenty of positives for both Kentucky and Texas to derive from Friday’s early-season litmus test.
The Wildcats demonstrated they can beat an elite opponent even when their offense is misfiring, which makes it scary to think what they can accomplish if they ever figure out how to attack a zone or get their jump shots to fall consistently. And the Longhorns managed to play a competitive game on the road against the top-ranked team in the nation with their leading scorer sidelined and two of their top big men producing hardly anything offensively.
Friday’s game was one of the ones viewed as a potential loss on Kentucky’s schedule before the season because Texas is one of the few teams in the nation with the size and strength in the paint to counter the Wildcats’ armada of big men.
The Longhorns indeed held their own inside as projected, but they didn’t have enough weapons to threaten a Kentucky defense that so far has yet to meet its match.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
