Consistency. It is something that every team strives for and every coach demands of his players. John Calipari has had the luxury of consistency from certain players all season long. Whether it was the tremendous gaurd play of Wall and Bledsoe, or the dominating inside game of Cousins and Patterson, Coach Cal knew what he was getting when he put them out on the court.
Yet there is one spot that has been an uncertainty for the Wildcats this season. John Clay looks at the importance of the play of Darius Miller and Darnell Dodson in his latest article for the Lexington Herald Leader. Both Miller and Dodson may be the X Factor as UK moves toward the goal of a NCAA Title. Here is a short exert from Clay's article.
Dodson suffered through a seven-game stretch in which he made just two of 21 three-pointers. The last two games, however, Dodson has made five of eight threes, and scored 21 points in 32 minutes.
Miller, the 2008 Mr. Basketball in Kentucky, had strung together 11 straight games of single-figure scoring outputs, and temporarily lost his starting job along the way. He did not shoot the ball well at Georgia last week, but did do a good job guarding the Bulldogs' athletic Travis Leslie. Sunday in Rupp, Miller did shoot well from outside, and even grabbed a rebound and threw down a jam inside.
More exerts of John Clay's article can be found by clicking read more below.
Darius) and Darnell have really stepped up," said John Calipari on Tuesday. "It's nice when they pull up to shoot and you think the ball's going in versus 'please don't shoot an air ball.' "
Come NCAA Tournament time, you need those shots to go in the basket. And sometimes you need those made shots from unexpected sources.
Kentucky history backs that. In the 1996 national title game, freshman Ron Mercer scored 20 points off the bench in 24 minutes. In the '98 title run, Cameron Mills kept coming up big, hitting a huge three-pointer with 2:15 left in the comeback regional finals win over Duke, scoring eight points in 12 minutes in the NCAA finals victory over Utah.
In 1978, James Lee scored 13 points off the bench, including making all five of his free throws, in the national semifinal win over Eddie Sutton and Arkansas.
Or look at UK's first-round tournament victory that year, when the Cats overcame a 39-32 halftime deficit to beat Florida State 85-76. The Cats' leading scorer that day? Truman Claytor with 16 points.
Maybe the best example: In 1974-75, starting senior guard Mike Flynn averaged nine points per game. In UK's epic regional finals win over previously unbeaten Indiana, Flynn scored 22 points.
You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.
