Thursday, November 8, 2007

SEC Basketball Player Profile - Ramel Bradley


Ramel Bradley questions a call against Mississippit St. in last years SEC tournament where the bulldogs sent the blue clad fans home from Atlanta early.

Name: Ramel Bradley
Position: Guard
Class: Senior
Height: 6' 2"
Nickname: Ball Hog

Ramel Bradley likes it when the ball is in his hands. He is pretty much a ballhog and the Kentucky fans have been known to call him on his selfishness. In his junior season his assist numbers went way up under the final year being coached by Tubbie Smith.

In Wednesday Night's Coaches vs. Cancer game in Rupp Arena, Ramel led all scorers with 24 points on 4-11 shooting. The key is he got to the line. 14 times. That's a lot of free throws and he made every last one of them. And for being a ball hog he led his team in assists also with 3 of them. Ramel might be blossoming under Billy Gillespie, but 24 points in a losing effort is still a losing effort. Ramel's 4-11 from the field is a little better than the overall 22-62 for the whole wildcat team which only went 9 deep and had Ramel Bradley playing a full 40 minutes.

Once again, a team that you wouldn't think could beat Kentucky beats them, and the Wildcat faithful are left with tickets they can't use. Madison Square Garden looked to have been full of Blue with Memphis already punching their ticket and UConn a likely favorite to be there in the semifinals, but Kentucky couldn't cut it and now their fans will be sitting at home.

Ramel is a good player and looks to be one of the prominent scorers on this very talented Kentucky team. He should have a good season, but he doesn't seem like a good pro prospect with his limited shooting ability and only being 6'-2".

As for everyone not associated with the Kentucky basketball program? Everyone is excited, and a little afraid. We all know Kentucky has good talent and a talented coach, but we were all kinda hoping that they would think they could just coast on that for the season. Losing this game early will mean 1 of 2 things.

1. Kentucky is really bad. Gillespie doesn't know how to coach and his players were way overhyped. They will plummet to the bottom of the SEC and make a run in the NIT.

2. Kentucky is going to play the rest of the season all crazy-like. They are going to become aware that talent and reputation will get you 0 wins and they will be out to prove they are the best.

I think it's the latter and other teams that have Kentucky on the schedule might be saying "aww s--t" right now.

Ramel Bradley hopes so. He can score and can play ball, but he and his team will have to get better on defense and execute on the offensive side of the ball, or the Kentucky faithful will be saying "aww s--t" a lot this season.

No comments: