Cats Kick Roosters On The Road

UK's win over the other USC on Saturday has to fall under the category of "much needed". The young Kentucky squad had Big Blue Nation in a near-panic after two road losses in SEC play. But a big scoring effort from Brandon Knight, some hella-jams from Terrence Jones, and the emergence (re-emergence? cameo appearance?) from Darius Miller all spelled victory away from Rupp Arena for the first time this season in conference play. Kentucky now stands at 15-4 overall.

First of all, we thank dear God in heaven that Devan Downey is no longer a Gamecock. He is not missed by this blogger. Not at all. Devan Downey played a total of 7 and a half full seasons for South Carolina, and reportedly Darrin Horn is doing his best to try to get him another 5 years of eligibility. When I heard that Downey was playing professionally in Turkey, I thought somebody was trying to play some kind of cruel joke on Enes Kanter, but apparently it's true.

Without Downey, South Carolina looked far less fierce. Kentucky got off to a fairly good start and was able to quiet the camouflage-clad student section-- and really, the arena looked like it had plenty of blue sprinkled throughout. Sam Muldrow had a couple of freaky-nice dunks himself which produced a good reaction, but otherwise the Gamecock faithful must have been saving most of their enthusiasm for the half-time appearance of Steve Spurrier. *pukes*

But that's one secret of road play that hopefully the Cats have begun to figure out: the first 5 minutes are so important to setting the tone. If you can get your offensive rhythm, get a few stops early (perhaps even build a modest lead), then the home crowd is far less apt to be a factor. Keep 'em quiet until at least the first TV timeout and you're well on your way. Kentucky had a 10 point lead at the half.

Of course, good teams are going to eventually make their runs, and SC did an admirable job of hanging around and even threatening late in the game. The Cats however knocked down free throws in the last couple of minutes and did not entirely succumb to the pressure. Knight was 9 of 10 from the line on the day, Lamb 7 for 8, and Miller was perfect on 3 attempts.

It would have been a very long week around here if UK had dropped another roadie. I'm not gonna lie. Instead, we get to think about how this team can close out January with a revenge win over Georgia at Rupp, and hopefully ponder the growing maturity that the squad is starting to show. UK has 5 more road games in SEC play.