Jodie Meeks scores 54 - breaks Dan Issel 39 year old record

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/jherwitt/2009/01/14/Kentuckys_Meeks_has_our_attention_now

For as good as his freshman and sophomore years were at Davidson, Stephen Curry didn't hit center stage until last March when he helped the Wildcats score upsets over Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament.

But with Curry’s dazzling postseason performance last year and the junior now leading the nation in scoring, the son of former NBA veteran Dell Curry is no longer a secret by any means — and neither will his brother, Seth, be soon enough at Liberty.

That said, if Kentucky’s Jodie Meeks continues to do anything like he did in Tuesday night’s win on SEC rival Tennessee’s home floor, then the junior guard has be to considered along side Curry and Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin for Player of the Year honors.

Because for those of you who didn’t watch the Wildcats’ victory at Thompson-Boling Arena, you missed something truly special go down.

Meeks, in fact, did what hadn’t been done at Kentucky in 39 years, breaking Dan Issel’s school record for points scored in a game with 54 against the Volunteers, 30 of which came from beyond the arc.

"It means a lot to be in the same sentence as Dan Issel. It's mind-boggling," he admitted afterward. "I was just out there playing to win."

Meeks might have been playing to win, but he certainly knows how to put the ball in the hoop.

The 6-foot-4 native of Norcross, Ga., currently ranks fourth in the nation in scoring and leads the SEC, while his previous high of 46 came not that long ago against Appalachian State on Dec. 20.

"I have never seen anything like it," Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie remarked about Meek's game Tuesday night in Knoxville. "Jodie Meeks had 46 against Appalachian State and they are a nice team, but not near a team the quality of Tennessee and on the home court."

Appalachian State also doesn’t have that suffocating defensive pressure that Bruce Pearl’s teams have been known so well for the past few seasons.

But nothing that the Vols threw at Meeks could slow him down, as he answered every Tennessee run with a run of his own and knocked down all 14 of his free throw attempts to stave off any hope of a comeback from the home team.

"Defensively we tried to guard him as a team," Pearl explained. "We didn't have any one guy on him, but none of our guards could guard him."

Not only could Pearl’s guards not lock down Meeks, but they also couldn’t shoot the ball from the perimeter, making just 37.9 percent of their field goals and only 6-of-23 attempts from three.

"Tonight we were not competitive," the Tennessee coach maintained.

The same goes for the SEC, which could have no teams ranked in the AP Top 25 next week and is clearly the weakest BCS conference in college basketball this season.

That’s bad news for a league that sent six teams to the Big Dance last March, thanks in part to Georgia’s magical run in the SEC Tournament.

So while Meek’s performance Tuesday might not have been as magical as the Bulldogs’ postseason run a year ago, it’s a night that he and his teammates will never forget.

And in the end, it's a night that we could possibly be pointing back to as the one that put Meeks in the national spotlight and Kentucky back on the NCAA tournament track.

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