Cats scale Rocky Top

Cats scale Rocky Top

February 9, 2011 by Aaron Smith · View Comments

Heading into the Tennessee game, an unfamiliar training tool was brought out by UK head coach John Calipari.

A boxing bag.

It was to instill toughness in a team that had dropped two straight games on the road – two losses that also contributed to some pent-up frustration the players were able to take out.

“I was trying to break through that bag every time I punched it,” Josh Harrellson said.

UK (17-6, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) was throwing heavy punches of its own in a 73-61 victory over Tennessee (15-9, 5-4 SEC).

Harrellson especially was taking swings, scoring 16 points while missing one shot, and taking what he said was the first charge of his life.

“I might not have been hit that hard,” Harrellson said. “I kind of fell down with it. (Calipari) was smiling at me. I gave him a little point, like, ‘I can do it.’”

Also leading UK was DeAndre Liggins, who tied a career-high with 19 points and limited Tennessee’s Scotty Hopson, in his first game back after an ankle injury, to 11 points.

And after the game, Liggins cut Calipari in line to be the first to shake Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl’s hand. It was Pearl’s first SEC game back after being suspended for recruiting violations. Pearl was peppered by fans, causing security to intervene at halftime, and by signs in the student section.

“That’s all sportsmanship,” Liggins said. “I respect him as a coach.”

Liggins said he heard some of the words being thrown at Pearl.

“Yeah, but that’s none of my concern,” Liggins said. “I’m not into all that. We just came out trying to play the best we could.”

It was close to it. UK came out charged up, using a 17-2 run to build a lead as large as 19 in the first half. Emotion was flowing from the start, with plenty of chest-pounds and fist-pumps and those ubiquitous three-point hand signals (UK shot 7-for-18 from three).

But all the emotion led to some early carelessness with the ball, as UK turned the ball over 11 times in the first half after averaging 11.4 per game.

“You know what that was? Jitters,” Calipari said. “I couldn’t even get mad.”

Terrence Jones had five of those turnovers, part of an offensive game Calipari called “awful” as he shot 2-for-8 and scored 11 points. But Jones also had four blocks and 11 rebounds – the rebounds were his commitment – and said he had fun despite the poor personal showing.

“Terrence almost had a triple-double – 11 rebounds, 10 points, 10 turnovers [he had eight],” Calipari said. “But Terrence today had four blocks and 11 rebounds. … That’s why we won, because he rebounded and blocked shots.”

While Tennessee closed the half on a 10-0 run, cutting UK’s lead to seven points, the Cats answered with a 13-0 spurt early in the second half to build the lead back to a comfortable margin. Tennessee never got within 10 again.

“From there we never looked back,” Harrellson said.

A little bit too much hype over beating an unranked and very poor UT team. I hope we can play well against good teams also.

stuckinknoxville wrote:A little bit too much hype over beating an unranked and very poor UT team. I hope we can play well against good teams also.

Well they beat Pittsburgh and Villanova , So I'll take it.

Hard to believe isn't it?

Perhaps you're a bit biased living in orange country. They are a pretty good team, certainly not poor.