Cats gain offensive spark as defense holds strong

By Kyle Arensdorf

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On Nov. 16 the Cats played with a virtual “looking ahead” mentality when they took on Buffalo in Rupp Arena two days prior to playing then-No. 5 Kansas in Indianapolis.

UK began that matchup at a lackadaisical pace and trailed an inferior Buffalo team by five points going into halftime.

The Cats’ next two matchups are Sunday against Providence, who is ranked 25th in the nation according to the Associated Press Coach’s Poll, and No. 7 Texas five days later.

But the Cats learned their lesson since their Buffalo game and throttled UT Arlington from the opening tip-off Tuesday to a 92-44 victory.

“First half I’ll take responsibility for that,” UT Arlington head coach Scott Cross said. “They picked us apart in that zone, it was impressive watching them play and seeing them go inside and outside.”

UK picked apart the Mavericks’ zone with an offensive game that came alive for the first time all season.

For the second time in UK’s five wins this season, it shot over 50 percent from the field.

The Cats also shot better than 40 percent from beyond the 3-point arc for the first time all season.

Despite the offensive splash, both sides of the ball were working for UK Tuesday.

The Cats held UT Arlington to 27 percent shooting from the field and 19 percent from beyond the 3-point line.

“We won’t face another team like this, their size is absolutely unbelievable and you can’t simulate it,” Cross said. “I thought we would be able to get up a couple open looks, but in the first half we got zero open looks.

“That’s what is really amazing about what they are doing is what they are doing defensively.”

The Cats also blocked 11 shots and came up with six steals, which had head coach John Calipari singing their praises and making lofty predictions in his press conference following the game.

“On Oct. 3 we started talking defense,” Calipari said. “This team has the potential to be one of those teams you talk about, defensively, all-time. If they choose to be.”

Cross wanted his players to take only positives away from this game; he won’t even show them the negatives, citing that UK is unlike any other team they will face this season.

“I won’t even show our players the video of this game,” he said. “We have spent two hours on  video before, but we won’t even watch this game’s tape.”