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Vanderbilt destroys Kentucky, 93-52
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NASHVILLE - Just when it looked as if Kentucky was turning its season around, the Wildcats were handed their most lopsided SEC loss ever.
Shan Foster scored 20 points and A.J. Ogilvy added 19 points and 12 rebounds as No. 24 Vanderbilt beat the NCAA's winningest program 93-52 on Tuesday night.
Kentucky hadn't been beaten this badly in decades.
"To have them to stomp us into the ground like that, it's horrible," freshman Patrick Patterson said. "They played like men, and we played like boys."
Kentucky thought it had fixed the problems that led to a 6-5 start under first-year coach Billy Gillispie, which included an 84-68 loss to Gardner-Webb at Rupp Arena and a 70-51 loss to Indiana that had been the biggest margin in a loss by the Wildcats this season. They had won five straight, including a victory over Tennessee, before Tuesday's blowout.
The Commodores (21-4, 6-4 SEC) started a four-game homestand by winning their fourth straight. The only SEC team to open league play with six of their first nine away from home had lost 79-73 in double-overtime at Kentucky on Jan. 12.
"They took us to the woodshed," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said of that loss. "We didn't want that to happen again."
They more than got their revenge before a sold-out crowd.
It was the worst loss for Kentucky (12-10, 6-3) since losing by 55 to Kansas on Dec. 9, 1989.
Making it sweeter for Vandy? This 41-point margin matched a 52-11 loss to Rose Polytechnic on Feb. 10, 1910, as the fifth-biggest loss in Wildcats' history and their worst loss in SEC history. LSU had a 35-point win over Kentucky, 76-41, on Jan. 18, 1987.
"I didn't see this coming in any way, shape or form," Stallings said. "Not of this magnitude."
Vanderbilt had never beaten Kentucky by this big a margin. The Commodores' previous best was an 81-51 victory Feb. 8, 1989, and now they have won three straight in Memorial Gym and five of the last six in this series.
Gillispie tried to downplay the defeat as only one loss.
"We just got our tail kicked. That's all there is to it. It's one loss, and we got our tail kicked severely. Congratulations to Vanderbilt. They played fantastic. We'll move on. We'll make a positive out of it someway," Gillispie said.
Ramel Bradley, who had 18 of his 21 in the second half, said it felt pretty bad.
"Nobody wants to lose like this, on the road, at home regardless. This is just embarrassing," Bradley said.
Kentucky native Ross Neltner added 15 points for Vanderbilt, and Jermaine Beal had 10.
Joe Crawford had 11 for Kentucky, and Patterson finished with 10.
The Commodores led 41-11 at halftime and led by as much as 43 several times, the first when Ogilvy hit two free throws with 11:36 left at 66-23.
Kentucky had held its last eight SEC opponents below 70 points in regulation. The Commodores hit that on a free throw by George Drake with 9:27 left — 10 seconds after Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings subbed out all five of his starters leading 69-30.
The Wildcats looked lost from the start. Kentucky struggled to find the basket, hitting only 3-of-15 from the floor with more turnovers (12) than points (11) in the first half. It was their fewest points by halftime since scoring 11 against Cincinnati on Dec. 20, 1983.
Patterson, the freshman who had been averaging 17.2 points per game, struggled in his first visit to Memorial Gym. He missed his only shot of the first half, turned it over under the basket and picked up two fouls within 50 seconds. His third came with 6:34 left in the first half.
The Wildcats finished with more fouls (26) than made shots (17).
By the time Crawford scored on a drive to get the Wildcats to 10 points with 2:21 left in the first half, fans serenaded Kentucky by chanting "Double digits."
The second half only got worse.
Crawford was called for a charge, negating a bucket with 16:31 to go. Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie grabbed the ball and started toward the bench, picking up a technical foul.
© 2008, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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Posted by VOLstuckINky on February 13, 2008 at 11:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The suicide watch is in effect in Lexington ... LMAO !!!!!
Posted by HotlantaVol on February 13, 2008 at 11:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Take a deep breath, KY. There is hope. You can always pull for Murray State or WKU or . . . I can't type it . . . okay, I'll try . . . Louisville!!
Posted by spam247buster on February 13, 2008 at 11:20 a.m. (Suggest removal)
When Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings subbed out all five of his starters the score was 69-30, and the final score was 93-52.
That means the Vandy "subs" even outscored Kentucky, 24-22.
Brutal. I hope the Vols can embarrass the Wildcats like that at Thompson-Boling this season.
Posted by volchamp on February 13, 2008 at 11:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
watched the game, that was the worst performance by kentucky that I have ever seen. They were lucky to get to double digits in the first half.
makes us look bad for losing to them
Posted by utfpmd on February 13, 2008 at 11:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Remember when the Vols used to get beat down like that? No more! Thanks Bruce!
Posted by Volchaz on February 13, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't worry Mildcats, you can always pull for Arkansas' coach, a former UK star. But they'll be roadkill tonight, and Lofton and company put on a clinic (our version of Arky's ole' 40 minutes of hell)
Posted by VOLS85 on February 13, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
spam - stallings put his starters back in for about a 3-4 minute span again after he took them all out...at any rate, it didn't matter, kentucky got owned
Posted by dirislr on February 13, 2008 at 1:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hey you Fullmer haters. Running off Tubby don't seem to have helped the Cats much.
Posted by murrayvol on February 13, 2008 at 1:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This, my fellow Americans, is a mindnumbing loss of biblical proportions and it could have been worse....much worse.
Can't wait to get AirForceOne's take on the sheer scope of this debacle. He probably won't be available for comment until he get's out of ICU. Wonder if the surviving Cat fans can spell NIT?
Posted by KingsportVol on February 13, 2008 at 1:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't hate Fullmer.I don't even know him.But I do remember getting beat by 40 not to long ago in another sport.Go Big Orange.Gut the Pigs.
Posted by johnlg00 on February 13, 2008 at 2:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
murrayvol, AirForceOne posted onto a couple of other bball articles and took his ribbing like a man. I'm glad to say most of our folks didn't rub his face in it too badly, since it was evident that he was hurting. Just hope the same or similar doesn't happen to US when we go to Nashville!
Posted by marc_ash on February 13, 2008 at 3:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Airforceone actually has taken this kick to the sweets in stride. Course, what other way could you possibly take a beat down like this?
Should be a good game tonight. Notice it isn't on local tv. Guess it's off to BW3 or some non-smoking bar to catch this contest. Word on the street is their pt guard leads the league in rebounding at 6'1. Uh oh.
Any word on those Vandy/UT tickets Volchaz!?!?!?
Can't wait till 8pm. Go Vols.
Posted by BigOrangeVol on February 13, 2008 at 3:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
VU athletic supporters are in euphoria right now but that never stops them from dragging the Vols into the conversation. They "can't wait to get UT in Memorial Gym". They beat the worst UK team in history and feel like they are World-beaters! The only decent teams they have played this season...UT, Fla and Ole Miss beat them by an average of 19.3 points but they are talking no end of smack here in Nashville today. You would think that they had a .500 year in football or that their women's bowling team repeated as national champions!!!
Posted by Volchaz on February 13, 2008 at 3:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Give it up to the commode doors... They represented the state well, and we need them to stay in the top 25, so it'll make us look better when we beat both them and Memphis. Too bad they aren't held at TBA....
Posted by pdhuff on February 13, 2008 at 4:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Man, for a repeat of that debacle to happen on March 2, I would look like Snoopy doing his 'Dance of Spring". KY B Ball fans are the most out of touch with reality on any site I've ever read. You'd think they were defending NCs.
They truly drink the blue koolaide.
Posted by Chainsaw on February 13, 2008 at 4:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"To have them to stomp us into the ground like that, it's horrible," freshman Patrick Patterson said. "They played like men, and we played like boys."
Yeah, pretty much. The sad thing, at least it would be sad if I were a KY fan, is that the players didn't seem to be playing for anything - not themselves, not their teammates, and definitely not their coach. The complete submission to the will of Vandy is the kind of think that will haunt them for years to come.
Posted by General_Watermelon on February 13, 2008 at 5:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I used to laugh at the Kentucky football anouncers when attending the UT-KY football games. He would say in a loud voice, "IT'S ANOTHER KENTUCKY FIRST DOWN!!!!" I'd crack up everytime. Thanks to Vandy, we can laugh at their basketball team too.
Posted by General_Watermelon on February 13, 2008 at 5:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. KingsportVol (in my best Ronald Regan voice) - there you go again.......
I've never actually seen a blue duck, but I painted the duck blue....well, because I wanted to see what a blued duck looked like.
Miss Libby's Class
Posted by VolCane7979 on February 13, 2008 at 6:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
For those of us in South Florida, we can't get the game tonight. Guess it's time to go to the bars.
K-port Vol... why drag Fulmer into this? This is a "bash Kentucky only" story. Cmon man.
Posted by murrayvol on February 13, 2008 at 7:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I can't help but wonder what kind of bet would've been available giving UK plus 40. Homes, cars, portfolios, wives, children and all manner of other stuff would have been there for the taking.
Posted by IPOrange on February 13, 2008 at 10:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
My, how the mighty have fallen. I bet somebody lost their trailer betting on this one.....
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