http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x140291478/Meeks-hits-3-UK-beats-Florida
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Jodie Meeks scored 23 points, including a fade-away 3-pointer with under 5 seconds left, as Kentucky snapped a three-game losing streak with a critical 68-65 victory over Florida on Tuesday night.
With the game tied at 65, the Southeastern Conference scoring leader swished in the closely guarded shot.
Florida got an opportunity to tie when Kentucky's Kevin Galloway fouled Nick Calathes while trying a last-second desperation heave. But Calathes missed all three shots, the last one intentionally, as Kentucky held on.
The loss spoiled a huge night for Calathes, who scored a career-high 33 points and joined the career 1,000-point club — the eighth-fastest Gator to do so.
Kentucky (17-7, 6-3) pulled into a tie with Florida (19-5, 6-3) atop the SEC East, and avoided matching the second-longest conference losing streak in school history.
While Meeks put the Wildcats on his back at the end, a balanced offense was needed to outlast Calathes' scoring barrage.
That was particularly so midway through the second half, when Kentucky's other star, center Patrick Patterson, got tripped up during a layup attempt and was slammed to the floor. He stayed there for more than two minutes before limping off with an apparent leg injury that would sideline him for the rest of the game.
For most of the game, Meeks hardly resembled the scorer who set a Kentucky single-game record with 54 points against Tennessee last month. He made just 3 of 10 3-pointers in this contest.
Less-heralded guard Michael Porter needed just four attempts to match that total, and even the one he missed was productive as Perry Stevenson grabbed the rebound and dunked it home, giving the Wildcats a 48-47 lead.
It was one of nine lead changes in the game, along with six ties.
For a Kentucky offense that revolves around the inside-outside combination of Patterson and Meeks, that pair did virtually nothing in the final 11 minutes of the first half, when Florida appeared poised to run away.
After Meeks banked in a 3-pointer to cut an eight-point Florida lead to 14-9, Meeks and Patterson didn't score from the floor again before halftime. Patterson's free throw with 2 minutes left was his lone point of the half.
Yet the Wildcats gained ground on the Gators by getting the next 19 points from the floor from a less-heralded combination of Porter, Stevenson, Josh Harrellson and Kevin Galloway.
Harrellson (11), Stevenson (10) and Porter (9) trailed Meeks in scoring, and Galloway led the team with a career-high nine assists.
Kentucky's victory was the second straight over Florida, which had won the previous seven meetings. Even before tipoff, the Rupp Arena fans voiced their anti-Florida sentiments, loudly booing coach Billy Donovan, who had been mentioned as a candidate to take over at Kentucky before Billy Gillispie prior to last season.
Showing posts with label Jodie Meeks UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jodie Meeks UK. Show all posts
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
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.
To check out my latest power rankings, click here
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.
To check out my latest power rankings, click here
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