How about a history lesson? Back in the 1940s the jitterbug dance was one of the most popular dances in the United States. The dance is known for it’s rhythmic movement and the way it makes people shake their body is where the name originates from, meaning to get the jitters.
The dance is perfect for those who aren’t very coordinated and to those who lack rhythm because when it’s performed it’s so fast-paced it can get done on the fly.
Speaking of fast-paced, the one team in college basketball that is starting to rapidly ascend above their competition is the Kentucky Wildcats. It’s no secret that Kentucky is the best team in college basketball, they have the No. 1 ranking for a reason. They also have all of the ingredients on their roster to win the 2015 National Championship.
At the forefront of their leadership is a proven master motivator in head coach John Calipari. Anchoring their smothering defense is one of the front-runners for the SEC Player of the Year award, center Willie Cauley-Stein. In addition Kentucky also has so much depth on their roster that they have nine players who average at least 18 minutes or more every game.
So why is it that a team with so much talent and that bares the potential to become one of the greatest college basketball team’s ever assembled has recently faced difficulty?
Their struggles can get attributed to their offense because it has no rhythm. It’s time for Kentucky to start playing with less jitters, and start to play with more jitterbug.
The Same Song & Dance
When Kentucky played against Ole Miss in the SEC season opener, it not only was a Jarvis Summers three-pointer away from being the biggest upset of the year, it also showed that Kentucky had a big problem, their fast-break offense.
For a team that averages around 70 points per game, which ranks within the top 50 in the NCAA, Kentucky doesn’t get that many fast-break points.
For a team that averages around 70 points per game, which ranks within the top 50 in the NCAA, Kentucky doesn’t get that many fast-break points.
They normally start off slower in the first half of games, averaging around 37 points in the first half and then because of the depth of their team they get stronger in the second half, scoring around 39 points.
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Kentucky’s defense may be awesome, but because their defense doesn’t always translate to easy scores it gets more difficult in games when it shouldn’t be.
Their in ability to get east buckets in transition is a huge reason why Ole Miss almost pulled off the upset in Lexington. For most of the game Ole Miss didn’t play slow, and methodical as Kentucky did, they played the opposite. In that game Kentucky scored a grand total of four fast-break points.
The Ole Miss game wasn’t the only case where Kentucky almost got upset, in fact we got to see Kentucky get pushed to their near brink against Louisville. After Chris Jones made a three-point jumper with 2:16 remaining in the second half, making the score 50-42 it was anyone’s game.
Additionally Kentucky once again scored a low number of fast-break points, finishing with six on the night.
In addition when Kentucky played against Texas A&M they still couldn’t manage to get fast break points. Aaron Harrison would keep getting steals in the half court and run and attempt to convert them into scores but often times he came up short. Against Texas A&M their inability to get easy scores once again almost gave them their first loss.
Sound like a trend? It’s because it is. Look at the number of fast-break points that Kentucky scored against high-profile teams:
- vs. Kansas 0
- vs. Ole Miss 4
- vs. Louisville 6
- vs. Texas 6
- vs. Columbia 8
- vs. Texas A&M 9
- vs. North Carolina 12
The Kentucky Two-Step
Thankfully the Wildcats have a lot of time to make a serious turnaround. With the beginning of the SEC portion of their schedule Kentucky will have to start getting easier scores. If they don’t teams are going to come out hungry against them and play a feast or famine style from the three-point line that could do Kentucky harm.
The backcourt of Kentucky arguably is the weakest part of their defense, and as the old saying goes, if you cut off the head of the snake then the body will fall. We got to see that against Texas A&M as Andrew and Aaron Harrison kept getting taken off the dribble resulting in center Willie Cauley-Stein having to bail them out.
Cauley-Stein did all that he could and fouled out the game. Most of that same story goes for forward Karl-Anthony Towns Jr., who also was picking up fouls playing weak side defense.
As a defender starting point guard Andrew Harrison has the size to matchup to the best guards in the conference but isn’t a well polished defender quite yet, and that’s got to change. Otherwise coach Calipari is going to have to start freshman Tyler Ulis, in order to shore up that problem defensively.
In the conference alone there are guards such as Jarvis Summers, Josh Richardson, K.T. Harrell, Michael Frazier II and Levi Randolph that could single-handedly do what Ole Miss’ Stefan Moody almost did to Kentucky.
At least the Wildcats still have an undefeated record to their name. Who wants to let fans like this down?
They need to start playing more loose, and push the ball more, so when they go dancing, they’ll look like the team we expect them to become.
At least she’s ready to go dancing.