Nov. 25, 2009

Cats Head South of the Border to Cancun

The Wildcats advance to their second in-season tournament championship in as many years after claiming a 73-49 win over Cleveland State. John Wall led the Cats in scoring for the second time this season posting a game high 15 points to go along with six assists and four rebounds. DeMarcus Cousins was the only other Wildcat in double-figures with 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

Gameday Information
Game Notes	UK Notes | Stanford Notes
Date & Time	Wednesday, Nov. 25 9:30 p.m
Coverage	TV: CBS College Sports (coverage details) Radio: BBSN Online Audio
Location	Moon Palace Resort Cancun, Mexico

Stanford Cardinal at a Glance
Head Coach	Johnny Dawkins
Record at School	23-16
2009 Record	3-2, 0-0 Pac-10
Ranking	Not ranked
Series Record	Kentucky leads 2-0
Last Meeting	Kentucky defeated Stanford in OT 86-85 in San Antonio, Texas in the 1998 Final Four

2009 Team Stats	UK	SU
Scoring Offense	82.8	74.2
Scoring Defense	66.6	66.8
FG Percentage	52.7%	43.7%
3-point FG Percentage	38.0%	38.2%
FT Percentage	66.7%	67.3%
Rebound Margin	+14.2	-2.0
Assists	15.2	14.4
Turnovers	19.4	10.6

2009 Stat Leaders
Scoring	UK: John Wall (19.0) SU: Landry Fields (23.0)
Rebounding	UK: Patrick Patterson (10.8) SU: Landry Fields (9.2)
Assists	UK: John Wall (7.0) SU: Jarrett Mann (6.0)
3-point FG Percentage	UK: Eric Bledsoe (50.0%) SU: Drew Shiller (50.0%)
Blocks	UK: DeMarcus Cousins (2.6) SU: Landry Fields (0.8)
Steals	UK: John Wall (2.0) SU: Landry Fields (2.0)

The Wildcats led 35-27 at halftime and used an 18-4 run to open the second half, breaking the game open. Kentucky outrebounded the Vikings 48-28, the Cats largest rebounding margin this season.

Cat Scratches

• Kentucky is in its 107th season of basketball.
• Kentucky is the all-time NCAA leader in wins with 1,993.
• Once again, every Wildcat basketball game will be televised live, including both of UK’s exhibition games as well as the Blue-White scrimmage and Big Blue Madness.
• UK’s 5-0 start is the best for the Wildcats since the 2004 season.
• UK is 2-0 all-time against Stanford (21-10 vs. Pac-10).
• Patrick Patterson recorded his 24th career double-double against Rider, tying him with Pat Riley for 10th on Kentucky’s all-time double-double list.
• Patrick Patterson was named Associated Press Preseason 1st Team All-America.
• Patrick Patterson and John Wall were named to the Naismith Preseason Watch list.
• John Wall was named to the Bob Cousy Watch list, given to the nation’s top point guard.

Pregame Quotes

Please note: These quotes were taken prior to Kentucky's win over Cleveland State.

Head Coach John Calipari

On whether the team is growing together…

“The best teams I've coached, they would move in mass. They would go to a movie and they would all go; they would go to the mall and they'd all go. My best teams, whether they were Massachusetts or Memphis, that's how they were. I was in my hotel room yesterday and I looked out and I see all of them walking around the complex and I thought, ‘Not bad, maybe it's the start of something.' I've told them, and so has Tony Delk and Scott Padgett, that the best teams at Kentucky, and the best pro teams, they'd land in a city and they'd all go to dinner together, or they'd go to a movie together. But it's hard, because they are into their own things, so if we can get a team that's truly concerned about each other it's a step in the right direction.”

On the floor…

“They brought the floor down from Boston Garden. They don't quite match; there's a little seem, balls are going to fly. There's (a gap) in front of one bench that you can sprain an ankle, there's a gap about three inches. There are some dead spots on the floor and it's a ballroom. We go from 24,000 to playing in a ballroom, which is fine. The good news is the other team is playing the ballroom on the same floor too.”

On whether this helps them play through things that are out of their control…

“The only thing I've always worried about was getting us prepared for the NCAA Tournament. Let's play every different style; let's play at different times of day; let's play afternoon games; let's play veteran guards because if they're in the NCAA Tournament they're going to be veteran guards or they wouldn't be in the NCAA Tournament. Playing in a ballroom isn't exactly preparing you for NCAA anything.

“It's a good experience; we're coming down, we're in a bracket with four good teams. The NCAA Tournament, what you do is go into a bracket of four and you try do is win that bracket, so you play two games. And the next weekend you're in another bracket of four, you try to win that. And if you win the next one, you just won the national title and that's how you do this. So coming down, playing in a tournament format, there would be in a day in between, it wouldn't be back-to-back, but that's ok because whatever we're up against, we're playing somebody tomorrow, and whether we win or lose, they're doing the same thing. They're flipping around real quick too.”

#4 Jon Hood, Fr., G

On the gym…

“The bleachers look like high school soccer bleachers, like metal bleachers. It's about like Alumni (Gym). It's got chandeliers raised up; you can barely see one of the scoreboards because a chandelier is in the way. They're the rickety bleachers too. The court is not good at all, but that goes both ways, (opponents) have to deal with just like we do.

“That's not a gym, that's a ballroom. Our high school gym held three times as many people. It's like an auxiliary gym at an AAU tournament.

“We have to bond down here and that's really good because we're just with the guys. There is no cell service, well there is if you're loaded, but mine's off. It's fun.”

#54 Patrick Patterson, Jr., F

On whether the trip is a business trip…

“It's definitely a business trip. We came down here for one thing, and that's to win and that's the thing we want to concentrate most on; working in practice, working hard in preparation and pregame practice and then play hard and hopefully get the win. But it's still kind of a vacation; not many of us will have a vacation this year due to playing basketball all year around, so we're going to have fun while we're here but also take care of business.”

On if getting away helps the team bond…

“We're finally getting away from Lexington, finally having an away game. The bond is getting stronger with us. We were walking around the other day, the entire team just walking around, hanging out, walking around the beach, walking around the pool, just talking about what we're going to do in or spare time. We're just hanging out in our rooms with each other, signing autographs for the fans. The chemistry is getting stronger.”