Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
Kentucky not only snapped a two-game losing streak last night with a win over Vanderbilt, but they also– at least momentarily– revitalized the hopes and spirits of the Kentucky faithful. Perhaps even more importantly, Kentucky kept its NCAA tournament hopes alive. A new sense of fight, a few rounds of Dodgeball, inspired team play, and an improved Willie Cauley-Stein all factored in to the equation that helped Kentucky push past Vanderbilt in a must-win game. The other key area of improvement that many people have been talking about, which we haven’t seen much of in the past month or so, was the strong performance from both members of Kentucky’s guard duo: Archie Goodwin and Ryan Harrow.
Last night Goodwin and Harrow combined for 65 minutes, 28 points (on 13-23 shooting), 11 rebounds, 7 assists, and only 2 turnovers. The two both played arguably their best game in nearly a month. Harrow had all but disappeared during the last few games, barely showing up on the stat sheet. Goodwin made his presence known, but often for the wrong reasons: forcing shots, passing up opportunities to feed the ball to his teammates, turning the ball over, etc.
After last night’s solid performance by Goodwin and Harrow, I decided to take a look at how the team has performed when the duo are playing well at the same time. Much has been made of how this Kentucky team will live or die, succeed or fail, reach potential or fall short of expectations, all based on the play of Alex Poythress. Although I still agree that we will never really know the ceiling of this team without Poythress consistently playing at a higher level, the play of Goodwin and Harrow tends to predict the outcome (win or lose) for this team much more so than how Alex Poythress plays.
Due to his absence for a stretch during the beginning of the season, Ryan Harrow and Archie Goodwin have only played together in 22 games. The results and stats will only be factored in for those 22 games.
- When Archie Goodwin and Ryan Harrow combine to score 20+ points, Kentucky is 12-2.
- When Archie Goodwin and Ryan Harrow combine to score LESS than 20+ points, Kentucky is 3-5
- In Kentucky’s 15 wins with both Goodwin and Harrow playing, the 2 average 24.3 ppg combined
- In Kentucky’s 7 losses with both Goodwin and Harrow playing, the 2 average 14.0 ppg combined
- In 3 of Kentucky’s worst losses of the year (Notre Dame, Florida and Tennessee), Goodwin and Harrow combined scored 3 points, 8 points, and 7 points.
- In a close loss to Louisville in which Kentucky actually played fairly well, the 2 combined to score 39 points
- In Kentucky’s 15 wins with Goodwin and Harrow playing, they have combined to score AT LEAST 15 points (Auburn)
When looking at a number of other statistics to try to find similar trends (Wiltjer’s number of shots in each game, Wiltjer’s total points in each game, Poythress’ total points in each game, Poythress’ number of shots in each game, Julius Mays’ assist totals in each game), none of the other trends played out as strongly as the trend of Kentucky’s success when both Goodwin and Harrow are playing well at the same time and scoring 20+ points combined.
If Kentucky has hopes of not only making the NCAA tournament, but also making any kind of a run at all in the tournament– Archie Goodwin and Ryan Harrow playing well at the same time will likely be one of the biggest factors.
Kentucky’s most important duo: Archie Goodwin and Ryan Harrow
Kentucky’s second most important duo: Willie’s headband and Cal’s lack of a tie
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February 21st, 2013 at 8:33 pm
Any news on when Poy might be joining the team? Rumor has it that he was a 5* stud and Mickey D’s.
February 21st, 2013 at 8:39 pm
My biggest concern (and I’ll add Poythress in too) is will that energy and focus be maintained or built-on. We need to give that effort game in and game out. I’m certainly glad we picked it up last game but can we move on and keep it when something don’t go right.
February 21st, 2013 at 8:45 pm
2) good point with Poy making it a 3-some.
February 21st, 2013 at 8:51 pm
Bring on Football!!! I wish all this basketball talk would just die.
February 21st, 2013 at 8:55 pm
Willie better not EVER play without that headband again & If Cal wears a tie Saturday I WILL drive to Lex to rip it off!
February 21st, 2013 at 8:56 pm
It’s only weird if it doesn’t work!
February 21st, 2013 at 8:59 pm
What is Harrow doing with his left hand?
February 21st, 2013 at 9:00 pm
I bet Ryan is telling Archie how he gets butterflies in his stomach whenever Archie gets close and puts his arm around him…..
February 21st, 2013 at 9:01 pm
4, I’m ready for pigskin too but let’s be honest…We true UK fans have endured things such as BCG, Eddie Sutton, etc. over the many, many years.
So, if basketball in Ky ever died….it means that the world as we know it would end -whether by asteroid or other apocolptic means.
Hey, is “apocolyptic” a word or is my hillbilly-heritage making one up?
February 21st, 2013 at 9:07 pm
Ally, was it coincidence that as you posted specifically about Harrow & Goodwin…lurking in the pictures background was umm….well, you know.
February 21st, 2013 at 9:14 pm
Interesting that we are 12-2 with both scoring 20+.
Ridge, you’re good:
a·poc·a·lyp·tic Adjective,
1.Describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world.
2.Resembling the end of the world; momentous or catastrophic.
February 21st, 2013 at 9:40 pm
#7 – “Motivating” Archie.
I came on here to comment about Harrow rubbing some dong, and sure enough, someone had already done it.
February 21st, 2013 at 9:42 pm
hmmmm, i wOOd suggest that KY’s most important duo wOOd be the many Double-D “racks” sported by various voluptuous young coeds across the campus????
February 21st, 2013 at 10:18 pm
Too bad this pic looks like it’s from the Tennessee game…I could be wrong
February 21st, 2013 at 10:30 pm
It was good to see us play like Wildcats!!!
February 21st, 2013 at 10:39 pm
Don’t be surprise if we get beat by 20. We beat Vandy by 4 at home. Vandy has a RPI of 140. Rated above them in no particular order: A team named Bryant, Oakland, Green Bay,Pacific etc. We just don’t have a very good team. I will watch every minute of the game and cheer them on, but I just don’t see us beating anyone with a pulse.
February 21st, 2013 at 10:48 pm
14) no…. those are not the unis worn for the debacle at UT Saturday…
February 21st, 2013 at 11:08 pm
Great insight Ally. Keep up the good work. I would really love to see this team grab adversity by the balls and SQUEEEEEEEEEZZZZEEE!!!!!!!!! Go Cats!!!!!!!!
February 22nd, 2013 at 4:33 am
So when we our players score more we have a better chance at winning? Who would’ve ever thought that to be the case.
February 22nd, 2013 at 8:28 am
Kentucky is 18-8 not 15-7
February 22nd, 2013 at 8:33 am
Sorry i mis read the line bout only counting the 22 they’ve played together.
February 22nd, 2013 at 9:06 am
It looks like Ryan is telling Archie to turn his head and cough
February 22nd, 2013 at 9:10 am
I think its whether we play up tempo….looavul beat us 20-2 on fast break points…we ran in the first half and outscored Vandy… they outscored us in the 2nd half when we didn’t run…
February 22nd, 2013 at 9:33 am
I’m sure it’s safe to say some combination of Harrow/Goodwin/Poythress/Wiltjer/Mays/Willie has been called UK’s most important duo at some point this season.