Basketball notes from the Austin Peay game

The game story is up, but here’s a few quick hits from the UK-Austin Peay game and a few hits outside the game. Here ya go:

The Cats dominated Austin Peay on the boards in their 90-69 victory. UK outrebounded the Governors 44-24, leading to a 44-16 advantage on points in the paint.

UK blocked eight shots against the Governors, led by Darnell Dodson with three. He was in UK head coach John Calipari’s doghouse earlier this year, mainly for his effort, especially on the defensive end of the floor. It appears he’s getting the memo.

Some of the bigger ovations of the game came from the appearances of sophomore guard DeAndre Liggins. Liggins made his season debut Dec. 12 in Bloomington, Ind., against the Hoosiers, and it’s still unknown as to why that was the case, but this was the first time Liggins got significant minutes. He played 12 minutes, going 1-for-2 from the field, grabbing one rebound, dishing out one assist and scoring two points.

After the game, Calipari said he wanted to get Liggins minutes to see where he was.

“DeAndre broke down a couple of defensive plays, but I liked his energy in the first half,” Calipari said. “I thought that DeAndre gave us the energy that we didn’t have. It is nice to have a full roster that you can go to.”

The Cats went 18-for-18 at the foul line against Austin Peay. That mark is the third best in program history for UK.

Freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins has one of the cooler/funnier/sweeter fashion senses I’ve ever seen.

The Southeastern Conference is struggling in basketball – again. After last year where the SEC only produced three NCAA Tournament teams, there were a large number of people who believed the SEC would be improved this year. Well, today Southern California beat Tennessee by 22 points, Richmond beat Florida in Gainesville, Fla., Wofford beat South Carolina by seven, Arkansas beat Stephen F. Austin by only three points, Louisiana State eeked out a four-point win over Rice at home, and Mississippi State, the favorite to win the SEC West division, beat Houston by only six points. The SEC may put more than three teams in the tournament this year, but they’re a long way away from being the elite conference in basketball that they want to be.

Will John Wall win the SEC Freshman of the Week award this week? Wall scored 17 points, only one point less than his 18.1 points per game average, but turned the ball over six times and shot 6-of-15 from the field. While these aren’t pedestrian numbers by any means, they are numbers that will at least give the other freshmen in the conference a chance. I guess it is the giving season.