By LARRY VAUGHT
larry@amnews.com
LEXINGTON — Hartford coach Dan Leibovitz figured his team’s only chance to play with Kentucky was to open in a 2-3 zone to take away easy points inside and force the Wildcats to make outside shots.
Instead, Kentucky was 8-for-16 from 3-point range in the first half and 14-for-28 in the game to easily coast to a 104-61 win here Tuesday night.
“I thought we got their A-game and I think a lot of teams would have lost to Kentucky tonight,” said Leibovitz. “As a small team, we have to say to ourselves, ‘What are we going to try to take away?’ We did our best to take away the paint and make them take 3’s. They did that.
“They got past the first line of defense and they threw over us. It was an overwhelming challenge for us. Kentucky is one of the best teams I’ve seen in all of my years coaching in terms of talent. They played very hard defensively, and we really couldn’t get into anything we wanted to do offensively.”
Darnell Dodson had a career-high 19 points and was 6-for-10 from 3-point range. Darius Miller had a season-high 16 points and was 4-for-6 from 3-point range. Four other players also hit 3-pointers for UK, which was 41-for-68 overall from the field.
“They are capable,” Leibovitz said. “They are not non-shooters. Coach Cal at Memphis was playing the dribble-drive and it was different because there weren’t 3-point threats like there are here.
“We had to hope they didn’t (shoot well), but I’m not completely surprised because it seemed like they were all going in. I thought they made more than 14 to be honest.”
The Hartford coach knew his zone defense did little to slow down the third-ranked Wildcats, who are not 14-0.
“They got the ball in the middle and made some high-low plays. For us, it’s difficult because of our size. John Wall was getting into gaps and creating things,” Leibovitz said. “I just haven’t seen too many people get so many dunks and lobs.
“I think they’ll see some bigger zones and I think they’ll see a lot of them. But they attacked it pretty well and it’s clear that they’ve been working on it.”
Calipari said when his dribble-drive offense is working, Kentucky’s shooters should get open 3-point shots. He said the 3’s are like a “turkey shoot” because players have open looks with no defender hounding them. That’s why the Cats were able to shoot their highest overall percentage since a win over Lamar in December of 2008.
“We have good enough shooters to make those 3’s, but some games we miss. It’s nice if you come in and say we will give them 3-point shots, but it is dangerous because if we are making them, we will blow you out of the game,” Calipari said.

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