The Great Wall of Kentucky Scores 27
The young guns of Kentucky are packing some serious heat.
LEXINGTON—John Wall made his Kentucky debut Friday night against Clarion and did so with style. Wall scored a game high 27 points on 10-14 shooting and 6-7 from the charity stripe. He also dished out 9 assists as Kentucky rolled over coach John Calipari’s alma mater by the score of 117-52.
Wall had plenty of help as the Wildcats placed 6 men in double figures. DeMarcus Cousins chipped in 20 along with Patrick Patterson’s 14. Patterson perhaps one of the premiere post up players in the game, didn’t do much of that in Cal’s Dribble Drive offense. He was 2-for-2 from the 3-point line though. That’s not something you would expect from the 6-9 power forward.
Kentucky also cut down on turnovers with only 12 against Clarion. That is a big contrast to the 23 miscues they recorded against Campbellsville. They forced 23 turnovers against the vastly undermanned Clarion Golden Eagles and held them to 23% shooting from the field.
John Wall was pretty much as advertised, and what you would expect and more out of the number 1 recruit in the nation. He scored from almost everywhere on the floor, played outstanding hard-nosed defense, and wasn’t afraid to share the ball. The 9 assists were testament to that, and those assists led to easy baskets, dunks and lay ups. He continuously beat the press single-handedly driving through and past 2 or 3 defenders. Unless you witness Wall in person it is hard to describe how quick and fast he is. He seems to have another gear after running full speed, a hyper-speed that enables him to accelerate past several defenders. He has great court vision and a crazy vertical jump that allows him to finish with nasty dunks. He had the crowd rocking when he drove the lane circled the ball behind his back and banked it in and drew the foul. That used to be one of my patented H.O.R.S.E moves with one difference, I didn’t have two guys hanging on me.
Evidently Coach Cal got everyone’s attention when he started the “no more Mr. Niceguy”, two a day practices. The players responded with an all out effort. I was thoroughly impressed with this game, albeit they played Clarion, and it was an exhibition game. They still have a long way to go to live up to the number 4 ranking that has been bestowed upon them.
As a side note Eric Bledsoe did not play due to a sore ankle. Daniel Orton left the game after 4 minutes with a sore chest. For the second game in a row, DeAndre Liggins didn’t get in the game.
The other double figure scorers were, Darius Miller, Darnell Dodson, and Ramon Harris, all with 11 points. Perry Stevenson added 8, Jon Hood 7, Mark Krebs 5 and Josh Harrellson 3 to round out the Kentucky scoring. Dodson also led the Cats with 9 rebounds. Kentucky had 10 blocked shots for the game.
