Can We Just Worry About Ole Miss For A Second?

Nearly lost amidst all the chatter this week about Coach Gillispie, UK's decline over the second half of the season, and the general sky-is-falling atmosphere surrounding the Kentucky program, is the fact that the Cats have a little game to play tomorrow. Or should I say a big game?

It may not exactly be a grand stage on Thursday as UK kicks off the SEC Tournament with an early matchup vs. Mississippi, but I do see some real significance in how well (or how poorly) the team performs in this opener. For starters, it will be a character test in its purest form: how does this unit respond to (ever-increasing) adversity? Will this Kentucky squad roll over as it has in several late season contests, or will it come to play like the team that showed such promise when sitting at 16-4?

Because people, Ole Miss is...well....how do I put this?....beatable. They are not a conference juggernaut a la LSU. There's a very good reason that they "earned" the 5 seed in the West. Not to take anything away from Andy Kennedy, but the talent level in Oxford is not exactly frightening. I mean this respectfully-- and in humble recognition that the Rebels did hand UK a 5-point loss in January-- but on a neutral court, Kentucky should absolutely take care of business and advance to play again on Friday.

Really, that is all I am looking for at this point. A win. Of any sort. Just a plain old, vanilla win. Survive and advance, as they say in March. With all the aforementioned hoopla, and the uptick in criticism that Kentucky's players and coaches have been taking lately (present company guilty), a victory would demonstrate that yes, there is still some Big Blue pride amongst these competitors.

Heck, I'll even admit that I'd like to see a Kentucky win at this point so that they can at least finish with 20. Seriously. Some of those 20 wins might be cheap, sure (I'm looking at you again, Delaware State) but there's always something nice about being able to meet that nice "round number" threshold of 20 wins. So just worry about Ole Miss, play a decent game, and UK can get there.

It will also be quite revealing to see whether the Cats can come up with a spirited assault tomorrow considering that there is some question as to whether Coach G has truly "lost" this particular team. Are instructions being tuned out? Are players following the scouting report and executing what is being asked of them? Personally, I'll be looking for effort stats, particularly defensive rebounding, as well as that word that rhymes with shmurnovers (I hate to even type it at this point).

Again, I don't mean it as a slam against opposing players like Malcom or Terrico White at all; but if anything, UK should have a bit of a "revenge" kind of edge in this one, simply to prove to those guys that what happened earlier this year was a fluke. You can't tell me that warriors wearing Blue like Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson don't have what it takes to claim a first-round victory in Tampa.

So for now, let's hope Kentucky can just focus on beating Ole Miss. Worry about everything else later.

Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons by Neville_S