In another gigantic game early on in the season, the #6 Texas Longhorns rolled into Lexington, Kentucky and pushed the #1 WIldcats around in the first half going into the break notted up at 26. However, Kentucky coach John Calipari, made good halftime adjustments as they outscored the Horns by 12 points to win 63-51.
Everybody has been talking about the two platoons of the Wildcats and how dominate both of them are on offensive while using their size to their advantage on the defensive side of the ball. It was Willie Cauley-Stein who had the best night out of the bunch as he finished the night with the most amount of points scored as he ended up with 21 of them. Cauley-Stein was very effective from the field as he drained six of his eleven shots and made nine out his 12 costless throw attempts. But it was his size that dominated Texas as he disrupted seemingly everything around the rim.
"I was more confident," said Cauley-Stein. "I've been working on my game and I had confidence. That was the biggest thing, doing it. It paid off."
Truth be told though, this was not the greatest game of basketball that you will ever see. The first 20 minutes were a real struggle for both schools as they struggled to get a good offensive rhythm going. Texas finished the evening shooting under 30% from the field, which is atypical of a Rick Barnes coached squad. One of their major downfalls from this game, at the Rupp Arena, was their inability to shoot the three pointer as the Longhorns made just four of them all evening out of 20 total attempts.
The scary thought though, is Kentucky was nowhere near their best tonight as multiple players underperformed, including the Harrison twins as well as Alex Poythress. Coach Cal will be able to tweak little things hear and there as the season goes on but expect them to be up near the top of the rankings all season long. For Coach Barnes, he should be proud of the way his squad fought and held their own against Kentucky. He will be unhappy with the lack of shooting and the amount of turnovers they committed, 22, but Texas will be better with their decision makings while in possession of the ball to get more opportunities to put points on the board.
Texas will next play at home against Texas State next Saturday evening, while Kentucky will look to remain perfect against Eastern Kentucky in two days time.