Game Notes

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Samford University basketball team will face its third top-20 ranked opponent of the young 2012-13 season Tuesday at 6 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs meet the 19th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats for a second straight year at venerable Rupp Arena (23,500).
 
The game can be heard locally on ESPN 97.3 FM The Zone and will be broadcast live via the Internet on ESPN3. The contest will also be televised to a regional audience on Fox Sports South as the action will be called by Dave Baker and Larry Conley.
 
Already this season, Samford (2-7) has squared off against No. 2-ranked Louisville and No. 16-ranked Memphis. The Bulldogs have played five of their nine contests away from home this year, four of which were part of the Atlantis on the Mainland Tournament.
 
Samford heads into Tuesday's showdown with a full head of steam after earning a pivotal 57-48 home victory against Georgia Southern on Saturday. In the key Southern Conference-opening win, the Bulldogs' Tim Williams (18), Raijon Kelly (11) and Clide Geffrard, Jr. (11) all scored in double figures.
 
Russell Wilson, Samford's true freshman from Lake Wales, Fla., scored a career-high nine points against Georgia Southern and turned in a 3-of-4 shooting performance from the field. He also went a perfect 3-of-3 from the free-throw line and tallied four assists and two rebounds.
 
Brandon Hayman, the Bulldogs' athletic 6-foot-3 guard from Braselton, Ga., went 2-for-2 from the floor and finished with four points and a steal.
 
Samford finished the game shooting a season-high 51.4 percent from the field and out-rebounded Georgia Southern, 25-20. When it counted in the second half, the Bulldogs limited the Eagles to a 37.5-percent shooting performance.
 
Kentucky (4-3) enters Tuesday's game looking to rebound from back-to-back losses against Notre Dame, 64-50, and Baylor, 64-55. The Wildcats' non-conference setback versus Baylor on Saturday snapped their impressive 54-game winning streak at home.
 
Kentucky boasts four players averaging double figures in scoring this season. The Wildcats are being paced offensively by Archie Goodwin's 16.4 points per game, while Alex Poythress, a
6-foot-7 freshman forward, is averaging 15.4 points per contest this year.
 
The Wildcats' freshman forward Nerlens Noel and sophomore forward Kyle Wiltjer are scoring 11.4 and 10.3 points per game, respectively.
 
Last season, on Dec. 20, 2011, the Bulldogs played against Kentucky for the first time in school history. Samford, in front of its largest crowd of all-time, dropped an 82-50 decision to the third-ranked Wildcats in Rupp Arena. The 2011-12 edition of the Kentucky Wildcats went on to win the national championship with a 38-2 overall record.
 
In last year's matchup, Samford's bench outscored Kentucky's reserves 22-7, but the Wildcats did their damage on second-chance points (18-4) and points off turnovers (18-5).
 
Kentucky finished the 2011 game with seven blocked shots and was held below its season average of 10 per outing. Samford only committed 14 turnovers, while the Wildcats committed seven miscues.
 
At this point last season, Samford had already attempted 257 shots from 3-point range, as compared to only 242 field-goal attempts from 2-point range. This year, under Head Coach Bennie Seltzer's more aggressive approach to scoring, the Bulldogs have only taken 187 shots from beyond the arc.
 
Most of Samford's points this season have come from inside the paint and the Bulldogs are averaging 9.9 layups per contest.
 
Samford will face one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation this season. Three of the Bulldogs' 13 out-of-conference games are against opponents ranked in the top-25, and Wisconsin opened the season ranked as the No. 17 team in the nation. Two of the Samford's 2012-13 opponents opened the season ranked in the top 10.
 
On Nov. 15, the Bulldogs played in Louisville, Ky., and were defeated by the No. 2-ranked Louisville Cardinals, 80-54. Just two days later, Samford squared off against the 16th-ranked Memphis Tigers at the FedExForum and nearly pulled off the upset, 65-54.
 
The Bulldogs' Williams is ranked No. 8 in the nation with three double-doubles. Already this season, Samford's highly-touted true freshman from Chicago, Ill., has registered double-double performances against Austin Peay (23/10), Martin Methodist (13/10) and Alcorn State (10/14).
 
Williams, a 6-foot-8 forward, is also ranked No. 50 in the nation in rebounds per game with 8.4, and is the Bulldogs' leading scorer this season with an average of 15.6 points per contest.
 
Samford point guard Jaylen Beckham, who made his first career start Saturday against Georgia Southern, will be returning to his hometown of Lexington on Tuesday.
 
Beckham, the Bulldogs' exciting, lightning-quick true freshman, finished his high school career under the tutelage of head coach Mike Allen at Bryan Station High School. He led BSHS in virtually every statistical category by averaging 19 points, five assists and six rebounds as a senior.
 
Another Samford tie to Lexington and the University of Kentucky is the Bulldogs' assistant coach Scott Padgett. Padgett played at Kentucky from 1995-99 and helped lead the Wildcats to the 1998 NCAA National Championship, where he was named to the NCAA All-Final Four team, as well as the NCAA All-East Regional team and All-Southeastern Conference during the regular season.
 
In 1997, Padgett helped Kentucky to the NCAA championship game and was also named to the All-Final Four team. A true student-athlete, Padgett received All-SEC honors twice for his work on the hardwood, and he was also honored with Academic All-SEC honors in 1998 and 1999 for his success in the classroom. Padgett scored 1,252 points over his career, which ranks 32nd on Kentucky's all-time list.
 
Samford has made at least one 3-point field goal in 634-consecutive games. The last time that the Bulldogs did not make a 3-point basket was on Jan. 19, 1991, against UTSA.
 
UNLV is the national leader in consecutive games with a 3-point field goal as the Running Rebels have made a 3-point basket in 843-straight games dating back to the 1986-87 season. Vanderbilt (835) and Kentucky (833) are the only other two schools that have made at least one 3-point basket since the rule was adopted prior to the 1986 campaign.
 
Following Tuesday's contest at No. 8-ranked Kentucky, the Samford University basketball team will next be in action Saturday at 1 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs conclude their two-game road stretch against the Bowling Green Falcons at the sparkling, new Stroh Center (4,387) in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Game Notes