Fire Billy?

The Fake Gimel Martinez comes from a real-life family of UK fans. This season Fake Gimel will share some of the conversations he has with his real-life father (pseudonym: Big Floppin’ Rob Locke) and his uncle (pseudonym: Uncle Roger Hardin) in this “The Shaw Smith Brotherhood” column. You can join in on the family’s discussion by posting in the comments. Enjoy!

Predictions for Saturday’s North Carolina Game

Fake Gimel:

Let’s start with your UNC game prediction. Give me a final score, and your Wildcat player of the game.

Big Floppin’ Rob Locke:

I watched UNC play last night and I predict that they will beat us by 40 points, unless Billy releases some of his reigns. If he does it might be a closer game but UNC will prevail.

Uncle Roger Hardin:

I think UNC will win by 25 points. I think that Coach [Billy] will have them ready to play and the players and the fans will be fired up. But I think UNC has superior talent and I don’t think we can stop Hansbrough. He hasn’t had a good game against us and I think he is due.

Player of the Game for the Cats… A J Stewart, if he can stay awake and get into the game, I think his quickness may help us in the high post on offense against the 2-3 zone. After the last game, you know they will play zone against us until we prove we can score off of it. If we have a shooting game like the last one, then UNC by 40.

Fake Gimel:

I think its going to be closer than you guys think. UNC has talent but they seemed a little sluggish against Ohio State’s pressure defense on Wednesday. And I think our pressure D looked better than what the Buckeyes gave UNC. The biggest concern is individual on-ball defending, because the Tar Heels’ guards will be looking to shake free and create penetration passing opportunities.

I have *never* seen a UK freshman forward play defense like Patrick Patterson. Of course, we’ve played some pretty lower-tier teams. If Patrick can keep himself in position, play Hansbrough straight-up and (most importantly) doesn’t get quick fouls, I think our chances for pulling off the upset are good.

If the ESPN anchor uses “North Carolina escapes Lexington with a win”, I’ll be happy. But I really think we can pull off an upset. Let’s say Wildcats 68, Tar Heels 65. Player of the Game is Patterson with around 17 points, double-digit rebounds and over 5 assists.

Life Without Patrick?

Fake Gimel:

If Billy Clyde didn’t secure Patrick Patterson last spring, what would our record be right now?

Uncle Roger Hardin:

I don’t think it would be much different. We haven’t played a tough schedule yet…. The next few weeks will be the real test. I’m concerned if Patterson gets into foul trouble that we are going to be in trouble with almost any opponent.

Big Floppin’ Rob Locke:

I really think that the record would be the same, but we sure would be hurting from this point on.

Fake Gimel:

Basically we would have AJ Stewart and Perry Stevenson down low without Patterson, with maybe some more time for Mike Williams. I think without Patterson the Gardner-Webb game would have been a blowout for them, and we would have a lot more closer games, although I do think AJ Stewart would have done enough offensively to keep us from losing. And you guys are right, we would very much miss Patrick now as the schedule gets tougher.

The Shaw Smith Brotherhood vs. Jared Carter

Fake Gimel:

Jared Carter still plays like either he’s injured, or too timid. With the way he’s playing, could the three of us beat him in a half-court game to 20 points? Uncle Roger, you won’t have to wear your ankle weights for this game.

(Reader’s Note: Uncle Roger always brags about beating one of his taller friends in one-on-one basketball by 10 points with ankle weights on. Its his one roundball glory moment.)

Big Floppin’ Rob Locke:

Do you mean that I would actually have to do something physical? I don’t even want to think about it.

Uncle Roger Hardin:

I don’t think any of us could guard his kneecaps! If he wanted to score he will score. I think we could score a few points on him since there is three of us. But I think a lack of oxygen would stop our point production very early. Carter 20 Old Farts 8.

Fake Gimel:

Okay, so here’s the gameplan. Since there’s three of us, more than likely he’s going to make us beat him from the outside and guard the paint. He won’t be at 100% because of the shoulder, so he won’t totally out-hustle us for the rebounds. Knowing that, we need to concentrate efforts to get high-percentage inside shots and layups.

Offensively, we’d put Big Floppin’ Rob about 6 feet from the basket — say just outside the paint to either side — and let him stand there, since all he can do is shoot set shots. I’d work the high post and Uncle Roger would run a (albeit slow) point guard at the top of the key. Uncle Roger and I can work the ball back and forth, getting Jared to commit to either posting up me at the top or trying to defend Uncle Roger driving to the lane. When Uncle Roger got winded, I’d take over point. We can get Jared to commit to the penetrator or shooter, make an extra pass down to Big Floppin’ Rob, then have Rob throw it back out if Jared over-commits to stopping him.

The only way we can stop him from scoring is having everybody rush down to right below the basket and completely prevent him from dunking. If we can force him to shoot 5 foot hooks, we’ll get a few rebounds to offset the dunks he’ll get when he catches us out of position on D and can dunk it.

I think it could be close. Maybe losing to the three of us would light a fire under Jared’s butt. Coach Gillispie, if you’re reading, set up a time and we’ll be there.