1. Kentucky extended its unbeaten streak to 26 in a row on Tuesday night with a 66-48 win over Tennessee in Knoxville. While the Wildcats struggled to put away the Volunteers for a good portion of the evening, they continued their march toward perfection by setting a school record for consecutive wins to start a season. The previous mark of 25-0 matched Adolph Rupp’s 1953-54 squad (which declined a bid to the NCAA Tournament). It is difficult to imagine that John Calipari’s team won’t continue to extend the school record given what is mostly a soft schedule the rest of the way. Arkansas comes to Rupp Arena in 10 days and the Wildcats then travel to face a floundering Georgia squad four days later. The odds are that the Wildcats will win those two games and will roll into the SEC Tournament in Nashville boasting 31 straight wins.
2. Despite the success Kentucky has already achieved, the question of whether it will run the table and win the national title with a perfect 40-0 record is college basketball’s hottest topic. The Huffington Post’s sports columnist, Jordan Schultz, recently set forth three reasons why the Wildcats might not cut down the nets in April. Schultz believes that the Wildcats’ guard play, half-court offense, and “youth” may lead to their downfall. With regard to their backcourt, Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker have provided what the Harrison twins have not been able to, so production from the perimeter does not appear to be an issue. The so-called “youth” concern is an overrated factor, too, given the great experience so many players on this roster got last year in the team’s run to the national championship game. The half-court offense, though, continues to be a legitimate area of concern, as the Wildcats don’t always shoot the ball very well and rely so heavily on offensive rebounding that an off night in either area could lead to trouble.
3. As we continue our Kentucky-themed M5 (and hey, why shouldn’t we go this route?), Karl-Anthony Towns, who was dominant down the stretch of the team’s three-point win over LSU last week, was named the SEC Freshman of the Week on Monday. He averaged 10.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game in victories over the Tigers and South Carolina. Unfortunately for Towns, he did not continue his stellar play in last night’s win over Tennessee, as he scored only three points and grabbed four boards in 16 minutes of action. For his part, Arkansas’ potential SEC Player of the Year Bobby Portis was named Player of the Week for his efforts in his team’s two road wins over Auburn and Ole Miss last week. Portis, who leads the league in scoring, averaged 17.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
4. South Carolina coach Frank Martin suspended two of his players for the remainder of the regular season on Tuesday. Sophomore Demetrius Henry, who has started 19 games and is averaging 6.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, and Shamiek Sheppard, a seldom-used freshman, were punished for unidentified violations of team rules although each could be reinstated before the SEC Tournament begins in three weeks. The suspensions certainly did not hurt the Gamecocks on Tuesday night as they upset Georgia by six points in Athens. The win gives South Carolina a season sweep over the Bulldogs.
5. On the other end of the suspension scale, Missouri will welcome freshman guard Tramaine Isabell back for tonight’s game against Arkansas. Isabell had been suspended in late January for what head coach Kim Anderson called “unacceptable” behavior. On Saturday, they welcomed back Montaque Gill-Caesar and Namon Wright from their own suspensions. The Tigers are 1-11 in SEC play and are without injured leading scorer Wes Clark, but they now have gotten all three players back who had been previously suspended. While having three freshmen available may not translate into more wins for Missouri, it does give Anderson the opportunity to use the team’s final six games to begin building for next year.

David Changas (166 Posts)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2015 at 8:01 am by David Changas and is filed under microsites, morning 5, sec. Tagged: bobby portis, demetrius henry, karl-anthony towns, kentucky, missouri, shamiek sheppard, south carolina, tramaine isabell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.