Might UK’s best perimeter defense be its interior intimidation?

All year long, it’ll be tough to find a team that can match UK’s size, especially inside. Saturday, the Cats took advantage and controlled the paint without question. And magically, Rider’s 48.5 percent-from-deep before Saturday materialized into 4 of 17.

What happened to the defense between Thursday night and Saturday afternoon that made it so much better, so much more fluid and in-touch? Thursday, the Cats gave up 11 3-pointers to a single player, Corey Allmond.

Seems like a long time ago. From the outset Saturday, Rider couldn’t hit anything. It got some open shots, but many of its looks were contested. And most of them weren’t even close.

That’s a big jump for UK, a team that had about 38 or 39 hours between the end of one game and the tip-off of the next.

“I know they have taken a bad rap for some of the 3-pointers that have gone in against them, but I watched every game and a couple of kids went nuts against them,” Rider coach Tommy Dempsey said. “They gave up open shots, but you can’t expect them to not give up open shots in the course of the game, especially when they are pressing, jumping in passing lanes and trying to create offense with their defense.”

Rider didn’t hit a lot of open shots Saturday, but chalk a lot of that up to the pressure Rider felt on its bombs. They had to make the deep shots, because they certainly weren’t going to get anything inside. The Cats outscored Rider 56-20 in the paint, and Rider made just 14 field goals from inside the 3-point line the entire game.

Those big uglies down low put some fright in Rider. DeMarcus Cousins played just 15 minutes, but he blocked five shots. Even John Wall, who probably makes brushing his teeth in the morning fun to watch, blocked two shots.

All of a sudden, Rider had to hit 3-pointers to keep up. With that kind of pressure, few teams would respond. Rider did not.

“If we have to hit shots like that all night to stay in the game, it’s going to be a long night,” Dempsey said, referring to UK’s two previous opponents. “They were active and their big kids were aggressive guarding the perimeter.”

Of the bigs, Patrick Patterson’s day was best. He went for 19 points and 18 rebounds, but he was disappointed he didn’t grab 20. Maybe he could’ve hauled down two more if not for how the rest of the brusiers played.

Daniel Orton played his best game so far at UK, posting 14 points and six rebounds. Although credited with no blocks officially, his presence defensively just made it that much more difficult for Rider to get anything underneath.

“I am going to play those boys together, because Daniel and DeMarcus deserve minutes, and Patrick has to play,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “There is only one way to make that happen and that is to play them together and I am fine with that.”

If you’re into the brevity thing, these big men came to play Saturday. And if they each come to play like this every game, nobody this side of Dwight Howard will be able to challenge them.

Talk about a perimeter defense.

Don’t be fooled into thinking a 30-point win over Rider means the Cats have arrived and are now in mid-March form. They aren’t. Ground still has to be made up — and quickly, too, unless the Cats want to risk losing to North Carolina on Dec. 5.

But don’t dismiss Saturday’s game, either. Perhaps the most telling sign that UK’s win may go a long way was John Wall’s reaction.

“I smiled more than I usually do because we were having a great time and we were playing defense,” Wall said. “We have to do this every game.”

I don’t think that will be a tough sell.

James Pennington is a journalism senior. E-mail [email protected].