LeBron Witnesses UK Win Over Vandy

Yes, King James was in the house yesterday. Yes, he wore a spectacularly funky sweater. And yes, Big Cuz is perhaps on his way to eclipsing John Wall as best freshman in the country and top pick in the NBA draft later this year.

Hard to believe I'm typing that, but seriously...DeMarcus Cousins added yet another double-double to the resume yesterday, and if this kid can just keep himself under control in the heat of battle, he is displaying the kind of talent that will surely propel him to a VERY high position in the lottery come summertime.

His penchant for technical fouls and run-ins with opponents remains disturbing. The headband: inadvisable. But jeez, the feet on this guy! Have you ever seen a 280 lb dude that was more nimble? He's got a little bit of range and whole lot of touch. He can make a good percentage of free throws. He goes after rebounds and loose balls like someone half his size, flinging his 6'11" frame around the court with a reckless abandon that his this blogger gushing after Kentucky's triumph over the 'Dores.

Oh yeah, the game.

Well, it was bit of a mess. Way too many whistles. For crying out loud, if I hadn't thoughtfully tivo-ed the hour long wrap-up show on ESPN, I'd have missed most of the of the second half. What can you say? Sometimes the refs think everybody came out to see them, and not the players. Maybe they figured their flight out of Lexington would be canceled due to the snow, and so there was no rush.

But good gravy, what a foul-fest. Made it really hard to watch, even on a Sunday morning with a nice cup of coffee, and no distractions at all.

However....what I most certainly did enjoy watching, aside from Cousins' performance, was the three-point shooting of one Darnell Dodson, and his partner in perimeter crime...Patrick Patterson? Yes, Patrick Patterson! P-Pat been puttin' some work in, hasn't he? Nice. Very nice. Less treys is probably more for Patrick, but if that stretches the D out for the team, then I'm all for it. More importantly, Mr. Dodson has to continue to stroke it with confidence, and I like how he was making the catch-and-shoots look so fluid against Vanderbilt.

As far as the presence of Mr. James goes, well, I suppose it's kind of cool. Additional buzz for the program, and all. I know all about the Nike connection, and I believe Cal is sincere in his admiration for the King, and that LeBron can function as a mentor of sorts to J. Wall and Cousins and the rest of the possible NBA-bound Kentucky roster.

I just don't want it to become a circus or anything. I prefer a brighter line between college ball and the NBA, in the old-school, amateur athletics kind of way. Obviously, Cal has done a tremendous job of raising/restoring the profile of Kentucky basketball in his brief tenure, and this is just another example of that. At least #23 isn't going to Kansas or Duke games, right?

But the take home message from this win is that the Cats "bounced back" from the South Carolina loss in a most effective manner. They practically shut down AJ Ogilvy; maintained, if not expanded, a comfortable second-half lead against a very solid conference opponent; and now look forward to a Groundhog Day matchup with the Ole Miss Rebels in a very winnable home tilt.

UK Falters in Columbia

Okay, so I'd really like to blame this on President Obama. I mean, the nerve of that guy, bringing his bad health care mojo over the telephone to congratulate Cal and the UK program, honoring their efforts to raise relief funds for the Haiti earthquake victims. For crying out loud, why don't you get Roy Williams on the phone again?

But I know at least one Democrat reads this blog regularly (she knows who she is) and so I'm not going to put this all on the POTUS.

Now the refs, on the other hand....

(Okay, so I'm trying to keep the sense of humor intact.)

But really, there's nothing funny about this loss. Kentucky got outplayed tonight. Period. If you would have told me the Cats would only tally 62 versus the Gamecocks, I'd have said you were crazy. And really, I think that's where the problem was.

It wasn't really Devan Downey. Not in my opinion anyway. The guy took 29 shots. And let's face it, a few of those were complete, unmitigated cr@p that just went in. Of course he's going to wind up with 30 points. And yes he's a good player, and yes Jimmy Dykes has borderline erotic dreams about his crossover dribble, but I really don't think it was Downey that won the game.

It was more like UK lost the game.

Not blocking out. Rushing on the offensive end. Settling for bad shots.

Patrick Patterson absolutely disappeared in the second half tonight. That just cannot happen, folks. John Wall turned it on late, sure, but he was largely absent as well.

I like how Kentucky responded at the end and played with real urgency to try to pull it out, but seriously, where was that effort for most of the game? Did this group get the big head after beating Arkansas over the weekend and ascending to the top of the polls? You can bet that John Calipari was preaching his best "we're not really 19-0" sermon leading up to this one, but was his locker room flock giving him an "amen"?

Now, Big Cuz certainly showed up with his 27 total, but that's probably more a function of his actually staying in the game for 30+ minutes. It's almost expected, which says a lot about the freshman and his potential when he stays out of foul trouble. But if Eric Bledsoe plays 30+ minutes and only gets two field goals, well, it's going to be a very long night for the Big Blue. And it certainly was. Patterson's line is even more flabbergasting: 35 minutes, and only FOUR ATTEMPTS. Wha?

The balance was just way off tonight. It was a little reminiscent of Jodie last year: it's nice when he had a big game, but you didn't really want him to have to get 40 for UK to have a chance to win.

I suppose the classy thing to do in defeat is to credit the victors, and unquestionably "the other" USC had a great night on the glass, out-rebounding the Cats 44-40. Lexington native and WKU grad D. Horn kept his team composed and focused all game long. They responded well when UK took a 5 point lead in the second half. But the Cocks only had 6 total assists and shot but 34.4% from the field themselves. Not exactly a fantabulous statistical effort, but hey, it was enough to have the court stormed when the final buzzer sounded.

Calipari warned that there would be games like this, that the virtual bulls-eye on Kentucky's collective back had only grown larger with each win, and you would have to say that it caught up with them. The real test for the young Wildcats will be, how do they respond? Do they take a second loss quickly, a la Texas last week? Vandy is going to be capable, after all. With perfection now out of reach, will the squad regroup and focus on what remains attainable?

I maintain that if Kentucky plays to potential, it is still far and away the best team in the conference and amongst the best in the nation. The optimist in me therefore hopes that the silver lining in this loss will be that UK's Fiddlin' Five (redux) learns to quit fiddlin' around so much and take care of business. Step up, Patrick. Play every minute with urgency, Great Wall.

If you must lose, then at least learn from it. And after this visit to Columbia, UK must. Or, to borrow a phrase from a certain Chicago politician, Yes We Can! *pukes*

Tebow Scoreless in Florida Loss

Kentucky left Florida with its second true road win of the season, defeating the Gators 89-77. The Cats moved to 2-0 in conference play, with a trip to Auburn slated for Saturday.

It was a fairly balanced Kentucky attack. 25 for Bledsoe (a career high). 19 for Wall (what a freshman backcourt! Never gets old.) 15 solid points for Patterson and a mostly quiet 13 for Cousins.

Really, I thought Florida shot themselves out of this one. I can understand the thinking that you simply need to make the 3's rain on UK in order to have a good chance at winning....but man, Billy D had those guys launching from 23-25 feet consistently. Like that was the plan. And you don't get any extra style points for those, people. Just a lot of crazy, short possession 3-point shots for the Gators that I could not make much sense of strategically.

Granted, Florida did come out pretty hot at first, and when Tyus made an early bomb, I guess they thought it might be their night. But that would be like Kentucky getting excited because, oh say, Perry Stevenson hit an early trey. A certain former UK coach would call that "fool's gold."

Now I absolutely loved the fact that with the score tied at 72, the Cats went to Patrick Patterson and he came up with a hoop and the harm. And this was one of the rare times where a missed free throw was a blessing, leading to a 5-point trip that more or less sealed the game. Midway through the season, UK still tends to forget about Pat at times, although it's tough to argue with undefeated results.

Also loved the continuing variety of lob plays that Cal runs for John Wall. That type of thing really takes the air out of the competition, IMHO. Has to be demoralizing when you're defending an out of bounds play or coming out of a timeout-- and Kentucky looks like they're trying to just get into their offensive set-- but then you see Wall streaking the baseline and rising for a thunder jam in your grill off of a super sweet pass. Yeah, that never gets old either.

Now, can we do something about all these missed chip shots early in games? UK's big men seem to make a real job out of hitting a lot of simple put-backs and layups that should normally be very high-percentage shots. I can't really explain that one; maybe they're just too amped, or get in a big hurry at the outset. Kentucky hasn't really lacked for points in the paint this year, but making some of those bunnies would really change the complexion of things as conference play rolls on. If you can make enough 2-footers, you don't have to make as many 18-footers, right?

But the beat goes on for the Wildcats, with Dick Vitale and Erin Andrews (sigh) there to see it in person. The perfection continues.

"W" Over Georgia Not E-Z

I guess somebody forgot to tell Georgia that they weren't supposed to be that good. Certainly I came away very impressed with the Dogs after they hung, hang, hanged with UK throughout 40 brutal minutes at Rupp Arena yesterday.

You're just not supposed to posterize Big Cuz like that. Not at home. And you aren't supposed to hold the Cats to 2 of 14 from three-pointsville (again). And you're definitely not supposed to be just a hair's breadth away from victory in Lexington. Not in UK's conference opener, and especially not with the divine Ms. AJ in the house.

Of course, ACC rival Georgia Tech learned a thing or two in the Bulldogs' previous game about just how tough a squad they really are. And certainly John Calipari had done his best to warn his #3-ranked Cats about how difficult a task it would be to keep that goose egg in the loss column with UGA coming to town.

Georgia played a stifling zone and showed tons of athleticism to go with metric tons of toughness. Fortunately, this Kentucky team has a bit of grit itself and managed to make enough plays (and free throws) down the stretch to keep streaking in the victory column.

I am again mucho encouraged by the '09-'10 Wildcats' ability to rise to the occasion and defend the home turf. Once again, its too bad that Billy Gillispie's not here to enjoy Billy Gillispie not being here.

And certainly I agree with much of the blogosphere that this game is an indication of just how strong these SEC teams are going to come after Cal's Cats. Good grief! Things will be hoppin' in Gainesville on Tuesday night. UK will have to absolutely earn every conference win that it can get....and it wants oh, about 15 more.

But Tennessee over Kansas?! Seriously?! Just how good is Bruce Pearl's team? Think Mississippi State will be tough? I do. And Vandy too. Everybody will play Kentucky tough. Everybody. It's not all chinstraps in the south, after all.

But as they say, you gotta take 'em one at a time. And UK took one from Georgia yesterday. But it weren't easy.