By the Numbers: UK vs. Transylvania

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By Les Johns | @KernelJohns

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This is the number for everything Willie Cauley-Stein.  Cauley-Stein was 4-of-4 from the field and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.  He also gathered four rebounds. Disappointingly enough, he only accumulated three steals.

With UK head coach John Calipari unhappy with how the team played in the first half, Cauley-Stein earned a second half start and was part of the 20-4 run by the Cats to start the half.

Transylvania head coach Brian Lane joked about once recruiting Cauley-Stein.

“When we started recruiting Willie, we watched him playing on the football field,” Lane said. “I said a guy that plays football that is that big probably can’t play basketball, so we stopped recruiting him.”

Cauley-Stein was on the receiving end of two lob passes from graduate student guard Julius Mays, finishing both plays with a dunk.

“Obviously we’re the two that’s coming off the bench, so we are on the same team in practice all the time,” Mays said about finding Cauley-Stein in the game. “We’re on the same page a lot of times.”

47-10 vs. 60-30

Although generally speaking, it will be advisable to avoid making comparisons between this current group of Cats and last year’s championship team, the parallels in exhibition games against Transy are striking.

Last year, the Pioneers hung close early and was behind 37-23 at the half, before getting throttled 60-30 in the second to lose 97-53.

This year, the Cats were close to losing the lead late in the first half, going in to the break with a 27-18 lead, before suffocating Transy en route to a 47-10 second half performance.

“Last year, we got off 35, 36 3-pointers. That was how we could stay in the game,” Lane said. “This year, we couldn’t get them off. They close so well. If one guy makes a mistake, the next guy is there.”

The Cats clearly came out of the locker room with a renewed sense of focus on both ends of the floor, oft-times turning a strong defensive effort into transition baskets.

“It really comes down to our unity as a team,” said freshman forward Nerlens Noel. “The first half we struggles, but we came together in the second half. At halftime, we figured it out and really got it going.”

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“Now I’ve got to figure out if we can stick in Jon Hood, which I’m going to do against Transy,” Calipari said after the Northwood exhibition. “And Jon Hood is way better, because he is playing within himself. He’s playing the way coaches tell him to play and the way I know he should play. So he’ll be fine.”

So Hood clocked 14 minutes against Transy, grabbing two rebounds and two assists in his time on the floor.  He did not launch a shot, but did some of the little things while he was in there that should continue to make him an option as the season progresses.

Related Links:

Jumpstart needed ahead of Cats’ Big Apple visit

UK routs Transy 74-28 in final exhibition

Video reactions from Mays, Harrow and Cauley-Stein

Photo gallery