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*