Why We are Who We Are

There are certain things about this Kentucky team that may surprise you that perhaps make this teams 24-8 record. We all know about the youth of this team, and with the absence of Kanter many people were starting to question this season, especially after our road woes in the SEC. But once we won at Tennessee it was time to point out our season long amazing achievements as a team.

The first surprising performance of the season is UK's ability to shoot the basketball from behind the three point line. This team has the best 3pt % for any team in the last 10 years and beyond. Doron Lamb is shooting 48.4% from behind the line, which is good for the best % ALL TIME in our storied program. In recent years we have had players like Jodie Meeks and others but never a team effort like this one. One could argue that we have shot our way to this record.

The second fact that stands out is Kentucky's ability to rebound the basketball this year. Only two times in the last nine years have the Wildcats ranked in the top 25 nationally in this category, and last year was that other year. If you think about some of the good teams we had early in those past nine years that stands out, especially with the lack of depth at the big positions. From this we can conclude that Josh Harrelson is extremely underrated and Terrence Jones is a beast, Cal stated that Jones is the best rebounder in the country.

Kentucky also does not turn the ball over, that plain a simple. We average 11 TOs a game which is also good for the best in 10 years. It has been so long since I have been able to watch a Kentucky team that does not make dumb TOs throughout the game leaving me wanting to throw the TV out of the windows. Credit Brandon Knight with this. His youth has shown at times down the stretch but for the most part he has led this team magically all season. The scary thing is that he is probably more of a shooting guard, and if he stays next year, look for Teague to find Knight for threeeeeeeeee all game.

Perhaps the smallest thing I have noticed is attributed to UK's execution. This season I have taken notice of our teams' ability to come up with buckets from out of bounds plays. Every game it seems that our team has the right play to get easy buckets from a dead ball. It is fun to watch and when you can get easy buckets like that it can either stop an opponents run or continue the Cats run.

All of these and many other factors obviously are why UK is 24-8, but perhaps the the most frustrating part about our team is the lack of depth. Give us two more hard nosed guys like Liggins, combine that with our ability to shoot, execute, prevent TOs, rebound, etc, and this team is scary good. But for now sit back and watch the Cats take on Florida tomorrow with players injured. And when you do, keep these winning factors in mind.

This has been a fantastic season, one that unfortunately will probably go un-talked about in the future, but these amazing statistics needed to be pointed out and recorded.

Go Cats, beat the Gatos