NCAA Basketball Kentucky WildcatsSEC Basketball

Defense Continues To Lead Kentucky Basketball To New Heights

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Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Defense wins championship, and boy do the Kentucky Wildcats have defense. As the No. 1 team (18-0) in the nation, it is only fitting to own the top spot in several areas, one of those being most blocked shots. However, offensive execution has to improve by the Wildcats moving forward.

Kentucky has a great big front court that intimidates guards and other bigs when trying to attack the paint, and led them to 11 blocked shots for the night (two shy of their season high). The continued high-intensity effort cannot go unnoticed.

Coach John Calipari also shows how much emphasis he places on hard working players with his willingness to take off those not keeping up to the speed of the game and keeping those who are, on the court longer. Kentucky is extremely good at intercepting passes and scoring off turnovers; most of their first half points came from transition plays.

Many one-on-one plays and post-up plays set up by the Wildcats did not end up as good possessions. However, some good plays did come out of sharing the ball, finishing with a total of 13 assists. Many players on the team can come off the screen and shoot or stand at the wings to create space for the forwards to work the post. The Wildcats, who have not relied heavily on the three, only attempted six in total and made four – two major ones by their leading scorer for the night Aaron Henderson.

The Vanderbilt Commondores are a great shooting team with several bright stars. Aside from the Kentucky giants playing hard physical defense against Damian Jones, the 19 year old still managed to score 11 points and grab seven rebounds. Both Riley LaChance and Matthew Fisher-Davis are great shooters who kept bringing the young team back into the ball game. Their defense can use improvement, but was able to slow down Kentucky to make it a close one.

Abdikarim Hashi is a NBA writer for www.Rantsports.com. You could follow him on Twitter @Goldhashi, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google. 

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