0.78: Points per possession for Louisville. Louisville doesn’t have a great offense (83rd nationally) but their previous low was 0.83 in a win over Arkansas State. It’s their lowest since scoring 0.73 in last year’s horrible home loss to Drexel.
0.87: Points per possession for Kentucky. Kentucky currently has the 7th ranked offense in the country and had only been held below a point per possession one time this season (in their win over ODU). It was the lowest output of the year, and matched their lowest scoring all of last season when they scored 0.87 in their loss against UConn in the Final Four.
4: Made field goals, in 23 attempts, for Peyton Siva and Chris Smith. The guard pair combined to shoot 3-16 (18.8%) on 2s and 1-7 (14.3%) on 3s.
6: Anthony Davis blocks. Davis displayed great touch on his blocks, and rather than swatting them into the stands he kept the ball in play and Kentucky took possession on 5 of his 6 blocks. Davis blocked Russ Smith three times, and has now had 5 or more blocks in half of Kentucky’s games. His counterpart – Gorgui Dieng – also blocked 6 shots – and Kentucky maintained possession on 5 of them.
19: Rebounds for Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who seems to save his best games for ranked opponents. In three games versus ranked opponents (Kansas, UNC, Louisville) Kidd-Gilchrist has had two double-doubles and averaged 17.7 points and 13 boards.
20: Kentucky turnovers, in 79 possessions. For the season, UK turns it over on 18.5% of their trips, which is 52nd best in the nation. If they played every game like the Louisville game they would rank 324th.
20.6: Combined 3-pt FG% for both teams. Neither team entered the game with a reputation for shutting down the arc. Kentucky was 65th in defensive 3-pt% and Louisville was 180th. And neither team is really known for its 3-pt prowess on offense. Kentucky shoots 36.3% and Louisville shoots an abysmal 31.4%. What that adds up to is that on certain nights these teams are going to miss a lot of open shots, which is exactly what happened on New Year’s Eve.
43: Kentucky trips to the free throw line. The Wildcats are decent at getting to the line (70th nationally). 43 is the most FTs Kentucky has taken since last season, when they attempted 44 in their December 11, 2010 win over Indiana. For Louisville it’s the 2nd time this season they’ve sent an opponent to the line 43 times (Memphis). Kentucky made 32 (74.4%) which is 18 more than the Cardinals.
