[SLIDESHOW] Cats roll over Clarion 117-52

It was well worth the wait for UK basketball fans.

After serving half of his two-game suspension against Campbellsville, point guard John Wall treated the Big Blue Nation to a performance they won’t soon forget, but hope to see more of.

The freshman from Raleigh, N.C., treated Cat fans to the tune of 27 points, nine assists and four rebounds in a 117-52 win over visiting Clarion.

“I couldn’t wait to put the Kentucky basketball jersey across my chest,” Wall said. “I think our team put out a great performance out there tonight and hope we can come out and do the same thing (next Friday against Morehead State).”

Wall missed the Cats’ first exhibition due to a suspension from the NCAA. Brian Clifton, Wall’s AAU coach, was a former certified agent with FIBA, basketball’s international governing body, for a year.

Wall’s impact was made immediately as he hit his first four shots and got everybody on the floor involved. Wall teamed up with fellow freshman DeMarcus Cousins to provide the Cats with an inside-outside duo that gave the Golden Eagles fits.

The freshman duo of Wall and Cousins was on display from start to finish as Cousins scored the game’s first four points and finished with 20 points on 9-12 shooting. After playing against Cousins in the under-14 AAU days, Wall said it’s nice to be on his side.

“It’s great to have a good big man like that that can finish it in the low post and he doesn’t mind playing defense,” Wall said. “He doesn’t mind helping you out, he doesn’t mind working and getting better so to have a player like that is great.”

Wall showed his speed off routinely by slowly dribbling down the first third of the court before kicking into high gear and starting the offense. Fellow freshman point guard Eric Bledsoe, who many believe to be Wall’s backcourtmate as the season starts, was absent from the game with an ankle injury.

For the Cats, Clarion was an opportunity to improve upon the complicated Dribble Drive Motion offense and cut down on their turnovers. UK head coach John Calipari said Clarion was actually a better team than Campbellsville, it’s just that they played much better against Clarion than they did on Nov. 2 against Campbellsville.

“We’re getting closer,” Calipari said. “… What I demand, they will do. This team listens. They want to be coached. They’re good kids. I’m just going to really have to be specific and be precise in what we want from them. But there was a lot of good.”

A welcoming sight for Cats fans was the improved outside shot of  junior forward Patrick Patterson. One of the main reasons Patterson returned to the Cats instead of foregoing his junior and senior seasons was to play in Calipari’s Dribble Drive Motion offense.  Patterson was 2-2 from beyond the arc and showed off the ability to drive into the lane with the basketball routinely.

Wall repeatedly said after the game that Patterson was the best player on the team. Calipari said Patterson is that unselfish of a player that he doesn’t care how many shots he puts up and how many points he scores, he just wants to win.

“He’s got to be a dominating player,” Calipari said. “I want him to shoot threes, I want him to have mid-range shots and I want him to get in the post.”

Clarion head coach Ron Righter was thoroughly impressed by the Cats’ performance, saying it was a different team than the one that played against Campbellsville. Righter said UK closed out on rebounds better, closed out on their perimeter players better and they didn’t allow open jump shots.

“In 35 years of coaching Division I, Division II and across the country, that is as skilled a team as I’ve seen,” Righter said. “It’s just a matter of time and this place will see something special.”

DUNKS:

Sophomore guard DeAndre Liggins didn’t see the court for the second straight game. After the game Calipari wouldn’t comment on Liggins’ status, saying he only wanted to talk about the players that were playing … Freshman forward Daniel Orton went down in the first half due to soreness in his chest. He is listed as day-to-day … The Cats shot 50 percent from 3-point range with Patterson hitting the most threes by going 2-2 … The Cats held both exhibition game opponents to below 24 percent shooting from the field … Calipari was presented a framed jersey from his alma mater, Clarion, before the game. Calipari led the Golden Eagles in assists and free throw percentage in the 1981 and ’82 seasons … Attendance was 23,802.