Tubby Yells, Ole Miss Fell

What you don't see: the mini trampoline Tubby's jumping off of that the dance team left behind. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Not quite an impressive win for Kentucky last night, but I'm always happy with any SEC road-trip win the Wildcats earn. After Tubby talked about needing Perry and Crawford to play better, one of them showed up last night and it wasn't the one who's been trying to shake a morphed strain of senioritis lately either.

Joe Crawford answered coach's call with an almost near perfect shooting night for the game high 23 pts and a 4-to-1 assist/TO ratio which included 4 of 5 trifectlicious trifecta's on an SEC opening road win against the Rebels. Morris got his double-double - if he doesn't reach this every game, I'd almost say Kentucky's doomed to lose each time, I mean what can you say about Morris that already isn't obvious? He scored 14 and grabbed 10 (9 defensive) and instead of blocking the ball, he made up for it by stealing the rock three times. Bradley wasn't that bad either adding 7 boards, 13 pts (three of his four shots were three-balls), and added 5 assists (however 5 TOs) and a block. Freshman Derrick Jasper didn't put up huge numbers but he added 7 pts and 4 assists. The night really belonged to Crawford though, he and Bradley played a game high 37 minutes each and helped Kentucky in the second half pull away for a 10 point lead after trailing by 2 at the half. The game was tied for the 12th time at the 9:27 mark of the second half before Kentucky went on a 15-5 run to close the game for the win which included 8 straight points by Ramel Bradley.

Despite the struggle for three-fourths of the game, twelve ties man, the Wildcats did dominate in areas where you expect them to. This was the first game this season that Kentucky came back to win the game after trailing at the half. They shot 55%, held Ole Miss to under 40%. They held the rebounding edge by 3, specifically dominating on the defensive side, +8. They posted 18 assists to 13 turnovers and 5 team steals. More importantly, they were 9 more assists and just 4 more turnovers compared to what Ole Miss did. Both teams attempted 17 Threes but Kentucky landed twice theirs. Had Ole Miss connected on just a few more … but that's Kentucky's D. They do a very good job defending the long ball and make it hard for their opponent to get an open look most of the time. Kentucky's defense is on its way to becoming an exciting defense if they can continue to do just as well on the road and magnify this defensive performance against the SEC elite at home because home is where the heart is and they have to make things hard for their opponents especially when Florida rolls into Lexington.

I think this was a good grind out road win to begin the conference portion of the season for them. Meeks and Thomas saw some good minutes off the bench and even Stevenson, who's been really quiet lately, and Obrzut are seeing respectable time, and I have a feeling that Obrzut needs those minutes consistently because something tells me that he is going to play a bigger visible role off the bench for Morris or Perry as the conference schedule progresses onward. After all, we know the goal is to win back our conference.

Three Is A Very Good Number

Looking at numbers (I love to play with numbers from time to time), I noticed in Kentucky's three losses, they were the only games before taking on Ole Miss that they trailed at the half. Since their last loss to UNC in early December, Tubby Smith has started a trio of guards [Bradley, Crawford, Jasper] and are 8-0. Here is what I noticed …

Trio - Bradley, Crawford, Jasper

· Since the starting trio of guards, Kentucky is 8-0
· Out of those eight wins so far, only twice has the margin of victory been less than 10 [Indiana +5, Houston +7]
· Not only was the Ole Miss game the first game Kentucky has come back to win after trailing at the half this season but it's the first time during this span of the starting trio of guards that Kentucky has trailed at the half
· Ole Miss marks the first game since Chattanooga that the trio of guards have combined to make 15 shots, the highest for them
· Out of the last 8 straight games that the trio of guards have started for Kentucky, in 5 of those games the trio of guards have combined to make 10+ shots; Ole Miss marks the 4th straight game they've accomplished that
· In each of those 8 games that Kentucky has started the trio of guards, the trio's worst combined TO's are 10 [3 times]; Ole Miss marks the 3rd straight game they've combined for less than 10 turnovers [5-4-9]
· During their 8 game span of starting, the trio's Assist + Steals for each game have been 10 or more, 18 being the highest [Chatta] …

Assists
Hi: 13 [Chatta, UMass, Ole Miss]
Lo: 7 [L'ville]

Steals
Hi: 6 [EKU]
Lo: 1 [Ole Miss]

· The starting trio's assist/TO ratio during this span has been +3 or better in all but two games [Indiana, L'ville - both +1]

Two straight SEC home games coming up, then a TV travel date with the Gamecocks on ESPN, things are beginning to warm up now.