Shooting woes catch up with UK

Shooting woes catch up with UK

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- There was a time when the Kentucky Long Rifle was the most accurate shooting implement in the world. Daniel Boone forged his way through the Cumberland Gap with one of them.

But Boone is long gone and Kentucky's long-range shooting isn't looking so hot, either.

When the University of Kentucky basketball team traveled over the Cumberland Gap to Knoxville for a noon Saturday shootout at Tennessee, there wasn't a single sharpshooter in the bunch.

The Wildcats took 22 three-pointers. They made two. And even though UK erased a 19-point deficit to tie it with two minutes left, Tennessee made the biggest plays for a 74-65 victory.

In the past four games, UK has made just 12 of 73 shots from three-point range.

Call this what you want. The chink in the armor. The Achilles' heel. The fatal flaw. After Saturday's win, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl acknowledged that the goal was to make UK's offense “perimeter oriented.”

You might think, after a team had made just 1 of 11 threes in the first half, it might back off them in the second. No, the Wildcats went 1 for 11 in the second half, too.

Coach John Calipari knows the three-point question is one his team must answer. When I asked him Saturday why the Wildcats shot so many threes, he answered with a question: “Why do you think we're getting those shots?”

He went on, “It's either shoot that or go in there and run over somebody and charge.” He said that two of the three things that can happen when UK shoots a three — made shot, offensive rebound, other team rebounds the miss — are good things. He said he'll take those odds to keep guys firing open shots.

It's a risky strategy. Even a team that doesn't live by the three can still die by it. And even Calipari seemed perturbed with some of the misses. He took Darius Miller out after an airball and told him to miss long or just miss, but don't fail to get it to the rim.

“It's not your birthright to be in the game if you miss every shot,” Calipari said. “You don't have to make them all, but you have to make some of them.”

We knew long before Saturday that this was not a good outside shooting team. And Calipari acknowledged Saturday that the “turkey shoot” three-point shots may be getting tougher for his team as the pressure builds.

If Saturday showed anything, it showed that UK can be pretty good even with bad outside shooting. If it keeps missing the turkeys, it might want to wade in and get its limit some other way.

In reality, Calipari has less reason to be worried about three-point shooting than he does about his “three” spot (small forward). While Miller emerged late in Saturday's game, between him, DeAndre Liggins and Darnell Dodson, there isn't enough consistency.

But don't miss this, as well, amid all the misfiring. My biggest question about this UK team in the postseason has been, “What happens when it gets hit in the mouth?”

The Wildcats got hit in the mouth Saturday. And they came back. Even while firing blanks. What bodes well for UK is that it always seems to give itself a shot — even when it can't seem to make one.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100301/COLUMNISTS02/3010306/Eric+Crawford+|+Shooting+woes+catch+up+with+UK

2 of 22=9% is dismal if you have open looks. coulda, woulda, shoulda.

I think its time for Hood to get a lil playing time, we might need some 3's in the tourney.

BestdamnUKfanperiod wrote:I think its time for Hood to get a lil playing time, we might need some 3's in the tourney.

Krebs instead.

I hope we see a bunch of Krebs and Hood in the tourney. That usually means we're ahead by 30 and there's 1 or 2 minutes to go.

MULECHOPS wrote:I hope we see a bunch of Krebs and Hood in the tourney. That usually means we're ahead by 30 and there's 1 or 2 minutes to go.

This. I having a feeling Hood suffers from Harrellson syndrome: too damn slow.