Wall In An Empire State of Mind, Leads UK Over Huskies

Giga-frosh John Wall played the first of what should be many games in New York's Madison Square Garden Wednesday night. He scored 25 points-- in myriad ways -- against 14th-ranked Connecticut. His "old-fashioned three-pointer" with half a minute remaining sealed the deal in the Kentucky victory, and he once again displayed a breathtaking athleticism and basketball wisdom that belies his years.

I think it would be safe to declare that Mr. Wall has a fully stocked arsenal in terms of offensive moves, and he demonstrated that with a varied assault for the patrons at the Garden. Your pull-up jumper. Your two-handed jam. Dagger trey. Cool as an igloo free throw at the end.

And yes, I've got a bigger man crush on the guy than Dick Vitale does right now.

Kentucky certainly needed every bit of Wall's production to top UConn. That's back-to-back December games for the Cats that felt a little more like March matchups. And they go to Bloomington this weekend. Oh my.

UK cooled off quickly (to put it kindly) after a white-hot start against Jim Calhoun's squad. That 12-0 lead was nice, but perhaps a bit too good to be true. Unfortunately, it seems like Kentucky tends to let its collective foot off the pedal after building early margins over decent opponents. I don't know that you can call it a pattern just yet, but we'll keep an eye on it.

The early foul trouble was a big reason that the Huskies were able to claw back and take a first half lead, as Cal's starting five seemed to get caught flat-footed frequently and were also caught hacking away by the officials. Wall, Cousins, and Bledsoe all spent extended time on the bench for their transgressions. (Due credit to Dyson for driving effectively and aggressively.)

Patrick Patterson seemed to be moving VERY gingerly in the second half. Vitale and Schulman kept calling for him to get more touches late in the game, but I think Pat was really hampered with what they were describing as a lower leg issue. Kudos to him for showing that toughness that Big Blue fans have come to expect, and checking the box score he wound up with 16 big points for the Cats tonight. Is that guy a gamer, or what?

Of course, you throw in another 10 for Big Cuz and that was about it for UK's offense. Young Cousins also had 10 boards, although Kentucky was outrebounded 42-34...to demonstrate another reason UK was fortunate to win.

Honestly, that was a "survival" type of win, considering Orton and Bledsoe both fouled out and contributed little to the stat line. Darius? Don't get me started. The game truly shaped up more like a Big East slugfest, which in my way of thinking would obviously favor UConn.

And yet, the Cats are now 9-0 with a couple of nice scalps in the win column now. Not a bad visit to New York, New York.