A Piece of Pie?

Yes.

A piece of pie.

I chose pumpkin pie, shown at left, because it's my favorite. (Can you tell that I LOVE this picture? Makes me hungry).

You may have chosen apple pie, or pecan pie, or maybe Derby pie.

There's lots of good pies out there.

We're talking about pie this morning to make just a few points in advance of UK taking on Florida in Rupp Arena this evening.

The first pie related point is this: it's not cake. And Kentucky blowing through the remainder of its conference schedule, and the SEC tournament, and zipping right through the NCAAs to banner number eight.....all of that will most certainly not be a piece of cake.

The Cats dropped a nuclear bomb on South Carolina over the weekend. Made it look easy. Far too easy. So let's remind everyone that the Gamecocks are pretty bad right now. Pitiful bad. So assuming UK will continue to thrash everyone through the rest of February, and romp to a bunch of 30 point wins, is a foolish assumption.

I expect them to beat Florida tonight. Especially at home. And they ought to take care of business against Vandy on Saturday, which would be far more difficult in hostile Nashville. That should be a really good time, with College GameDay and all the buildup and hoopla. But I honestly do give Kentucky a decent shot at running the table with the way this team is executing right now.

It just won't be EASY. It's not a given. That's all I'm sayin'.

The second point re: pie would be that I think it's very important for UK to stay hungry at this stage of the season. When you've got that number one ranking, there's sometimes a tendency to coast. You can often beat people by just showing up. The friendly confines can do some of the work for you....a nice vocal crowd, you get a few favorable calls, no sweat.

But for Kentucky to get where they really want to go this year-- that second trip to New Orleans--they will have to stay hungry. Look for challenges in games where they already have a big lead. For instance, a coach like John Caliparli will often throw out the idea of, "Okay guys, I need to to win these last 5 minutes of the game by 8 points or more." Or "Listen, Michael, I want you to take this second half and make sure the guy that you're guarding doesn't get a single basket." Things like that. Motivators to stay hungry, to keep trying to improve.

And finally, the pie also represents the need to stay humble. You know, everybody's least favorite flavor: humble pie. Kentucky has been crowned #1, and deservedly so. The roster is stacked, and the Cats have continued to make strides as the freshmen develop and the chemistry strengthens. But they aren't the Miami Heat. Division I provides plenty of challengers this year. You can bet that Syracuse and Ohio State and a few others will be working their hardest to take that crown, and this young team may need a reminder to keep its collective feet on the ground. Big Blue hasn't really won anything yet this season.

Ask the Hoosiers if they think Kentucky can be beaten. They most certainly can. But as this season has played out, and as the Cats have gotten better defensively, better at shot selection, and gained more experience, that old maxim is starting to ring more true...the only team that can really beat Kentucky, is Kentucky. So stay humble. Nobody is going to just hand it to you.

Now who wants some coffee to go with that?