Anarchy at UK
by Shawn Sillinger
We knew Vanderbilt was good, but this is ridiculous.
The Kentucky Wildcats are reeling after Tuesday night’s 57-52 loss to the Commodores at Rupp Arena. Vandy had never won a game in that building, going 0-28 since it opened in 1976; now the Dores are on top of the SEC East and Kentucky is near the bottom at 10-5 overall and a wallet-withering 4-7 against the spread.
This isn’t quite the performance the ‘Cats were expected to come up with now that center Randolph Morris is back in action. Kentucky’s season appeared to be sunk when Morris, a promising 6-foot-10 sophomore with a sweet touch in the low post, was ruled ineligible for the season. But there was hope in the Bluegrass State when NCAA officials changed their minds. Although it would take Morris until this past Tuesday to make his 2005-06 debut, the Wildcats reeled off four straight wins after the NCAA made its ruling.
Then came the most lopsided defeat in coach Tubby Smith’s nine years at Lexington. The ‘Cats went into Allen Fieldhouse for the first time in 16 years and got flattened 73-46 by the rebuilding Kansas Jayhawks. The horror. The horror.
Kentucky clearly has other issues besides Morris, who provided 10 points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocks against Vandy in 28 minutes off the bench. The Wildcats are doing a poor job of distributing the ball, managing just five assists against Kansas and seven versus the Commodores. That has caused UK to take too many low-percentage shots; as a result, the under is 7-4 for the ‘Cats this season and 6-2 since the first week of December.
The back-to-back losses sent Kentucky spiraling out of the college rankings for the first time in five years. Now the brickbats are out for a team that looked not too long ago like a Final Four contender, provided Morris would be allowed to play. Guard Patrick Sparks, who was an All-Sun Belt Conference freshman at Western Kentucky before transferring, is riding the pine more often than not and shooting just 4-for-24 over his past five outings. And UK’s three 7-footers - Lukasz Obrzut, Shagari Alleyne and Jared Carter – are combining for a mere 6.8 points per game.
Still, the Wildcats can’t be written off just yet. Morris will continue to take minutes away from the three-headed monster at center, and his teammates will eventually get used to either passing the ball inside or finding themselves open more often should their opponents focus too heavily on Morris. Saturday’s matchup at Rupp against the disappointing Alabama Crimson Tide (1-8 ATS) could prove to be the turning point in Kentucky’s season, and the launching point for a profitable run through a relatively weak SEC. Tip-off is at 1 p.m. ET on CBS.
