Kentucky veteran described why the Wildcats need to be more physical
While Kentucky's loss to the Gonzaga Bulldogs, of course, has no effect on SEC play, it would have been a nice Quad 1 win.
The Bulldogs of the WCC were 0-5 in Quad 1 games when they made the cross-country trek to Lexington, but that changed when they took down the Wildcats 89-85 in Rupp Arena. Gonzaga looked like a better team than many have given them credit to be, and this will likely springboard them to another WCC Championship.
What was frustrating about this game was how Kentucky was getting dominated down low by Gonzaga. The Bulldog's big men were getting high-percentage looks almost every single possession after bulldozing through Kentucky's seven-footers. Kentucky still has to face off with some really talented big men in the SEC, and if the big guys aren't going to play with physicality, these players will bully Kentucky's frontcourt all game long.
Kentucky G/F Adou Thiero had this to say about Kentucky's physicality on defense, “Definitely, I think there is– we just got to find it. We do it in practice every day. We just have to bring it to the game and transfer it to the game. We just got to find a way to, you know, when the lights turn on, be able to flip that switch again and be physical.” Thiero was a bright spot in this game as he played good defense and scored in the Wildcats loss.
If this team is physical in practice, we need to see this in the game, or Kentucky will continue to get dominated down low.
