Archive for February, 2010

Magic Johnson made his way to Rupp Arena tonight while he was in town meeting with the governor and the first lady about unemployment and keeping young black males in school to finish their education.  Magic has always been a big part of promoting the betterment of peoples lives.  Magic spent some time with Dick Gabriel tonight before the game talking about John Wall and this years team.  Magic also discussed when he played here back in 1978 against Kyle Macy and Jack Givens.

Before the game started Johnson went into the UK locker room to give them a pep talk.  Magic told the team to continue to be strong on defense and everything will be fine.  The players were very encouraged by his words and put on a great defensive effort against South Carolina holding them to 38% field goal shooting and 20% three point shooting.

When it was time for the famous “Y” in Kentucky, Magic came out on the court and was like no other “Y” Rupp Arena has ever seen.  Magic played to the crowd like no other has ever played to the crowd.  First he turns towards the scorers table and raises his arms up then goes into the John Wall Dance.  Next he gets the crowd going encouraging them to stand up and cheer louder.  As he turns to the other side of the Arena he again displays the John Wall Dance.  When he finishes with the “Y” he then continues to get the crowd going by pointing at the UK bench and holding up one finger, saying UK is number 1.

Magic left a lasting impression on the players as well as Big Blue Nation.  He greeted fans all that he could, signing autographs and taking pictures.  Magic missed a lot of the second half of the game due to his willingness to mingle.  He has said before that he loves to watch this team play and tonight was no disappointment.  John Wall did not have his most impressive performance but when he is not at his best Wall is still better than 95% of the other point guards in the country.

John Wall has been getting lots of ink after the huge game saving block against Vandy last night. There was no doubt that the block by Wall and the three pointer by Patterson were the two biggest plays of the game. Enjoy the video provided by Wildcat World.

UK Wins The Close One
Kentucky won a close very physical hard fought game. On a day that John Wall was not at this best he came up with the biggest block of his young college career. Cousins overcame an evening where he got beat up on the boards and whenever he touched the ball around the basket. Besides the block that Wall had at the end of the game there was one other huge play in my mind that stands out. The basket interference call at 7:56 with UK down 44-43 was big. From my view of the call, which was basically looking right down at the basket, there was no doubt that it was a bad call. However, I will also say that UK deserved to have a call go there way. This was a game that I felt the ref’s let many easy calls go and made a lot of questionable calls that hurt UK.
Key to the Game
The biggest key to the game in my opinion was UK’s ability to put together a great defensive plan and communicate at a level that they have not done all season long. The team talked helping each other find the open three point shooters with only a few getting wide open looks. Bledsoe for the first time all season long did an excellent job not giving up the back door. Bledsoe has had a very bad problem of relaxing when the ball swings away from his man and giving them an easy look at the basket. Today he stayed in his stance and made sure that he covered all cuts towards the basket.
Patterson
Patrick Patterson had another big day and made another big 3 to push UK to victory. For most of the middle part of the schedule Patterson did not play at the level that Coach Cal and everyone else thought he should be playing at. South Carolina was his low point of the year and since then he has gradually brought himself back into All-American form. Patterson finished the game with 13 points and 13 rebounds which is one of his better rebounding games of the year. Coach Cal said in his post game comments that he has been telling Patterson to just play, he wants him to get 25 points and 15 rebounds every game. Cal also added that Patterson needs to quit deferring to the other players and go get his.
Bad Offensive Stats
In a game that UK had pretty bad numbers in all aspects of shooting they were able to pull out the win. Coach Cal said that he loves this kind of game. UK shot 35.8% from the field, 18.8% from 3 point range and 56.7% from the line. On top of the bad shooting today the Cats were out rebounded 40-36 and only managed to get 10 offensive rebounds (2 in the first half). Needless to say, this was not UK’s best game of the year, but I have to totally agree with Cal that it is a great win. To see UK play defense at the level they did in order to get the win is very encouraging. They are going to need a lot of that Thursday when Devon Downey comes to town. I will say that Downey is over rated beyond belief and that if John Wall, Bledsoe, Patterson or Cousins took as many shots as Downey they would probably average 40 points a game.
The Haters Continue
As I am sitting in the suite here at Memorial Gym, I am listening to the national media bash UK and how “it is an unwritten rule that you do not blow the whistle on UK at the end of the game”. Directly in front of me there is also a very well known member of the national media talking about how full of crap Calipari is and that he never gets his facts right. I will agree that Coach Cal does see things a little different than those in the media, but I must add that there are a lot in the media that have a very skewed view of the game as well. I will not mention individuals names, because I don’t do that, but CBS and ESPN do have some serious UK haters. That is part of the being UK and I welcome it with every insult or complaint.
Great Day
Today was a great day to be a UK fan as we closed out another very close game. I got to meet some of my favorite people in the college basketball world and will remember this day for a long long time.

Video: DeMarcus Cousins receives interesting voice mail.

Here are just a few pictures from ESPN GameDay…

Another great product from Cincopa Send Files. Also read about Cincopa best wordpress plugins for your website.

We are going to give it a shot tonight. We are going to have a live blog and see how it goes. Here is the link to join the blog tonight.

Tonight DeMarcus Cousins takes on Jarvis Varnado in a match up I have been waiting for all season.  Before the season started I was somewhat frustrated about the level of press that Cousins was getting.  In fact I had many discussions with people about Cousins being the best big man in the country.  The biggest argument that I got in return was Cole Aldrich and the second was that Cousins attitude would keep him from becoming the elite big man int he country.

Cousins is coming off of his worst performance of the season against Tennessee in which he only had 5 points and 12 rebounds.  He played most of the game extremely frustrated with the zone that UT was throwing at the Cats.  Cousins did not get many touches and when he did he was getting a lot of contact and not able to do much.  There was one big play in which Cousins took the ball away from JP Prince off a rebound and dunked it.  His other basket came from a tip in when he was falling down and managed to get one hand on the ball and finese it through the basket.

Even with his worst game of the year he still grabbed rebounds showing that he can dominate a game on the glass even if his offense is struggled.  The only part of the game Saturday night that is concerning was the technical foul.  From my point of view it looked as though Bledsoe and Maze got into a battle of words following Maze pushing off several times.  What I did not see, and according to Bledsoe was Maze taking cheap shots on Cousins including a knee to the back at one point.  Bledsoe had even stopped guarding Maze at one point to look him in the face and tell him what he thought.  Just seconds later there was a dead ball and Cousins got involved in the talking as soon as the ref walked up which meant Cousins was going to get the technical foul.

I do agree with Coach Cal that this is just another learning point and 100% agree with Cal that when you do anything in life mad you are not at your best.  That being said, tonight is going to be a big challenge for Boogie.  I believe Cousins will be back and show why he is the best big man in the country.  Top to bottom there is no big in the country who can score, pass, rebound and move as well as him.

Varnado has had his way with UK since he has been at Mississippi State blocking shots with ease.  Tonight is going to give Varnado a much different look than he has seen at UK and different than any other player he has ever faced.  I do believe that if any player in the country can pose legitimate problems for Cousins one-on-one it will be Varnado.  I do expect Cousins to rise to the occasion, because he is the best player in the country right now and that is what big players do.  Tonight’s game is the game that I have been talking about all year long and I believe this will be one that UK shows its true power and the rights to own the over all number 1 ranking in the country.

Cousins talking about his match up with…..

Today, DeWayne Peevey and John Hayden of the UK Athletics Department, have sent out a warning for all fans purchasing tickets from 3rd parties to be aware of fraudulent tickets. There have been several instances recently that fans have been denied access to the games after purchasing tickets from places other than Ticketmaster or the UK Ticket Office.

UK has not warned against scalpers by name, but be careful. Fans be aware that scalpers are not always the most reliable people! Scalpers are only out to charge you as much as possible and make money at YOUR expense. Even if you have been purchasing tickets from scalpers for years, in this day and age you need to be extra cautious as there are a lot of people trying to make a few extra bucks off of UK’s success this season.

GO CATS!!!