#21 Miami @ Kentucky: First Half Thoughts

By Kartik Krishnaiyer
Canes Rising Staff

Coming off a tough, emotional loss to Ohio State, many wondered aloud how Miami would come out this afternoon at the greatest college basketball setting in the country: Rupp Arena.

Miami provided us with perhaps the Canes best half of Basketball on the road in many years, leading by 20 at the half. Defensively the Canes forced the Wildcats to take quick outside shots, denying Patrick Patterson the basketball inside and kept Jodie Meeks, who can be explosive from hitting double digits. Frank Haith made the adjustment of bringing in Julian Gamble and DeQuan Jones early today to counter Patterson and Meeks. Gamble's defense has been superb, as had that of Jimmy Graham.

Offensively, Miami was able to get good looks from outside, and James Dews who was so disappointing in Tuesday's loss to Ohio State was on fire early. One area of concern: Miami has yet to really pound the ball inside to Dwayne Collins. The game has been frenzied to this point and the fast pace has prevented Miami from really settling down into a half court offense. This needs to change in the second half for Miami to avoid a similar second half collapse to what happened Tuesday night.