Thursday, February 17, 2000
Kentucky 66, Alabama 54
'Cats 2-of-22 from 3 but win inside
BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Tubby Smith had hoped quantity could lead to quality. His Kentucky team, he figured, could shake a season-long shooting slump by simply shooting more. Don't expect the new look to last.
The Wildcats nearly shot themselves into an upset loss Wednesday. Despite efforts to open up the offense, their 66-54 beating of ailing Alabama followed a familiar formula: muscle over hustle.
“The new approach would have worked, except we shot atrocious,” junior point guard Saul Smith said. “If we shoot the ball decent with this (up-tempo) style, we'll score 85 or 90 points.”
The haunting numbers: 2 of 23. That was UK's 3-point shooting, an .087 percentage — its second-most such attempts of the season, its second-worst results from that range.
Playing an undermanned, undersized opponent, the 19th-ranked Wildcats (18-7, 8-3 Southeastern Conference) succeeded solely with their strength: strength. They scored 44 points in the paint and allowed just six there, dominating inside while they struggled from long range.
“We played OK on the inside, getting rebounds and so forth,” senior center Jamaal Magloire said. “But we need to redeem ourselves shooting-wise here pretty soon.”
UK lowered its season 3-point percentage to a sickly .286. The previous worst by a UK team was .334, set last season.
“The (Alabama) zone gave us some problems,” Tubby Smith said. “That's something we'll have to resolve, or we'll see a lot more of it.”
UK saw an 18-point lead whittled to five with three minutes left, but a key offensive rebound by Desmond Allison led to a Tayshaun Prince basket that stemmed the Crimson Tide's tide. Then Magloire made two free throws for some breathing room.
Magloire totaled 16 points and nine rebounds, and Prince added 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots. Their efforts were minimized by mounting concern about the guards.
“We were shooting excellent in shoot-arounds this week,” Tubby Smith said. “I thought we built some confidence, and I was anxious to see how it carried over to the game.”
It didn't.
“It's contagious,” sophomore guard Todd Tackett said. “If one person misses, it seems to mellow out everybody.”
After back-to-back double-digit defeats, UK was ready to experiment. Alabama (11-12, 4-7) was its test subject, Rupp Arena the lab.
Because of injuries, Alabama had just eight available scholarship players. It started three freshmen and used a four-guard lineup. The Crimson Tide hasn't won an SEC road game in more than a year.
UK, on pace for its lowest scoring average (68.6 points) in 13 years and its worst field-goal percentage (.426) in 37 seasons, successfully pushed the tempo. A full-court press helped it build a 16-point first-half lead, and it totaled a season-low six turnovers for the game.
“I think the faster pace worked out well, getting us into the lead,” Saul Smith said. “But we had a lack of focus and let them get back in the game.
“On our (3-point) shooting, a couple times guys were indecisive. We've got to keep shooting. The shots will fall.”
Tubby Smith admitted he is running out of ideas for how to remedy matters. For the second straight game, he played Tackett and Steve Masiello extensively — they have one 3-pointer on the season between them — in hopes maybe a new face might catch fire.
Neither did; Tackett went 0-for-4 from the field; Masiello, 0-for-2.
“There's nothing more we can try,” the UK coach said. “We really have been working exclusively in that (3-point shooting) area. We just have to hope things get better.”
Smith brings back 6 a.m. practices
ALABAMA (54)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Martin 31 2-6 0-1 0-4 0 2 6
Grizzard 36 7-15 2-4 2-4 0 2 20
Dudley 30 2-8 0-0 4-7 0 5 4
Meade 38 4-13 1-2 3-9 0 1 13
London 40 0-3 2-3 0-6 7 0 2
Cotton 13 2-10 0-0 1-3 0 1 4
Davis 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3
Bakken 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Haginas 8 1-3 0-0 1-1 0 2 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 19-59 5-10 11-34 7 13 54
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.322, FT-.500. 3-Point Goals:
11-24, .458 (Martin 2-4, Grizzard 4-8, Meade 4-9,
London 0-1, Cotton 0-1, Davis 1-1). Team
rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 2 (Grizzard, Dudley).
Turnovers: 15 (London 7, Grizzard 2, Bakken,
Cotton, Dudley, Martin, Meade). Steals: 2
(Grizzard, Meade).
KENTUCKY (66)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Prince 31 6-12 2-2 3-5 4 1 14
Allison 27 1-6 0-0 2-6 5 0 3
Magloire 26 7-13 2-3 1-9 0 3 16
Bogans 30 4-11 1-1 1-4 1 2 10
Smith 25 2-4 0-0 0-1 3 3 4
Blevins 15 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Masiello 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Tackett 12 0-4 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Stone 13 4-6 1-2 3-7 1 1 9
Camara 16 5-11 0-0 5-6 1 2 10
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 29-71 6-8 15-39 16 13 66
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.408, FT-.750. 3-Point Goals:
2-23, .087 (Prince 0-4, Allison 1-4, Bogans 1-7,
Smith 0-1, Blevins 0-2, Masiello 0-1, Tackett
0-4). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 10 (Prince
3, Magloire 2, Stone 2, Camara 2, Allison).
Turnovers: 6 (Smith 3, Bogans, Magloire,
Tackett). Steals: 6 (Bogans 2, Smith 2, Allison,
Prince).
__________________________________
Alabama 26 28 - 54
Kentucky 38 28 - 66
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 22,137. Officials: Jim
Burr, John Cahill.
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