Kentucky Regular Season Awards

Ahead of tomorrow's SEC Tournament tipoff for the Cats, I figured I would hand out a few awards in honor of UK's tremendous 29-2 regular season.

The REAL Coach of the Year: Cal! (Duh.) All due respect to Kevin Stallings, and he had a great interview on Jim Rome's show today, but I really don't see how John Calipari got overlooked by his SEC coaching brethren on this one. Lil' bro and I had a brief discussion about this-- again, admittedly, Stallings is great and they do a nice job there at Vandy-- but come on now, in less than a year on the job, John Calipari just assembled a HUGE amount of incoming talent, installed a brand new system and coaching staff, won the conference, all but locked up a #1 seed, completely re-energized an entire fan base, dare I say an entire state, and oh by the way (wait for it.....wait for it....) beat Vandy twice in the process. Yes, you could say I'm bitter about it.

Enigma of the Year: Darius Miller. I don't want to say he underperformed, so we'll stick with the enigmatic label-- and I'll grant that he has shown some consistency down the stretch. However, a former Kentucky Mr. Basketball with his size and skills should be expected to completely lock up a starting spot, and we all shouldn't have to wonder what type of outing we're going to see from him on a night-to-night basis.

Overexposed Dance of the Year: Okay, so I'm a little tired of people flexing their arms and moving their fists back and forth. It was cute for a while, though, and I'm guessing the rest of the country is going to get caught up with it during the NCAA tournament.

Rupp Arena Visitor of the Year: Vitale? Um, no. And keep your LeBrons and Magics and Roethlisbergers, too. I'm sticking with my second favorite Ashland Tomcat, Miss Ashley. You'd like a picture, you say? Sure. Twist my arm.




Game of the Year*: Hmmm...well, it's always nice to thrash UNC, but that turned out to be pretty underwhelming given the Tar Heels' fall from grace. And beating Indiana anymore just seems like punking a first grader for his Pokemon cards. There were some good conference victories to consider, but I guess I would have to say the Louisville win is just about always the sweetest. All right, it was ugly this January. It was hard-fought. It looked like football at times. But when you beat an in-state rival like that, it just puts a little pep in your step. *Hopefully Kentucky's true game of the year comes in the postseason of course.

Headwear of the Year: (Tie) DeMarcus Cousins' headband, DeMarcus Cousins' bomber hat. One for work, the other for play. "Peter Parker Swag". Ha! That guy kills me.

Dunk of the Year: Could easily have just renamed this category the "John Wall Dunk of the Year." Tough call, actually. Really liked that breakaway at Georgia last week. But I suppose I'll take the left-handed tomahawk at IU's Assembly Hall in December. Oh man, I'm gonna miss that kid. I don't even want to think about it.

Villain of the Year: Bruce Pearl would be the obvious choice, and I thought about Downey too, but instead I'm giving this to the Mississippi State fans as a group. Y'all know what you did.

Comeback Player of the Year: DeAndre Liggins. Unanimously. Went from the deep, deep end of the bench-- for reasons still not entirely explained-- to becoming a valued contributor throughout conference play and an excellent energy guy. He makes the occasional three, plays well above average defense, and gets tons of loose balls. And for the longest time, I really thought he would be transferring elsewhere over the Christmas break. Nice job, Mr. Liggins.

Lovefest of the Year: ESPN's College Gameday visit to Rupp Arena prior to the Tennessee game. That was awesome. Really wish I could have been there. Jeez, even the reviled Digger Phelps got into the spirit of things. Just a cool event and a tour de force for the entire program. I was very, very proud of my alma mater that day. Sadly, it had nothing to do with academic achievement.

Cal-ism of the Year: "They think they poop ice cream" (referring to his freshman stars in particular).

Venue of the Year: The Moon Palace Resort in Cancun. Bizarre. Cracker box of a place, essentially a ballroom with chandeliers possibly in play. An open bar in the concession area. But hey, that turned out to be a good trip for Kentucky. Got a couple of wins, some good team bonding, fun trip for the boosters, and nobody got swine flu.

But speaking of venues, it's apparent that the one destination UK has on its mind this season is Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. (And maybe they can take some hardware out of the Sommet Center in Nashville first.) Enjoy the tournament.