Cats Now Getting Punked By Opponents But Separation Is Developing

(National Signing Day Wednesday in Football)

By – Ira D. Combs
Director / Syndicated Columnist
Tri State Sports Media Service Inc.

As we enter the final month of the 2011 – 2012 college basketball regular season this week two things are becoming glaringly obvious to the well trained eye of most veteran basketball observers across the nation in my opinion :

# 1 – The once upon a time physical and aggressive play used against UK is now what today’s youth calls “getting punked” or as us over the age of 50 crowd calls dirty play .

# 2 – It isn’t working and could possibly be causing a new mind set in the UK players which in turn is slowly producing separation between UK and the rest of the top 10 teams .

With that being said there is still a lot of basketball to be played but to my trained eye that’s my story and I’m sticking with it for the present time .

Coach Cal’s constant call for tough play to his players may not have been getting through to all team members but it appears the opponents dirty tactics of play is beginning to set that tone of play by UK for Cal , so a big thank you today goes out to Cuonzo Martin , Trent Johnson , and the rest of the SEC coaching fraternity . Keep it coming guys your just toughening up Cal’s boys for March Madness .

Kentucky’s most talented freshman hoopster , 6′ 10″ Anthony Davis , finished the day at LSU with a school record ( at least in my mind )quadruple double of 16 points , 10 rebounds , 11 shots either blocked or altered , and 10 different types of bruises , punches , beat downs , knock downs , and punks . Actually , had the three man SEC officiating crew not been on top of things for most of the game it could have ended in one of those Xavier – Cincinnati type brawls because UK had an answer (albeit in the form of scoring) for each swing or punch LSU took until the final horn .

Many people that I know who have traveled extensively say Louisiana ”Cajuns” are a different breed of the southern red neck culture but most of us thought they resided in the swamps not on a college campus . At the end of the day I actually thought Coach Calipari was really rolling the dice by leaving several of the top 7 players on the court for the last two minutes . I believe I would consider inserting a sacrificial lamb or two in the future Coach Cal . I’d hate to lose a thoroughbred in a demolition derby .

Yes , these are extremely harsh comments to place in a sports column by a former educator turned sports columnist like yours truly but it my eyes it was one of and maybe the worst exhibitions of bush league basketball exhibited by a group of supposedly rationally thinking student athletes who were suppose to be coached up and lead by a coach who teaches fair play .

Not a stellar reflection on LSU’s head coach Trent Johnson or his staff or the LSU athletics administration , yes , they all should be held accountable to .

New Nike uniforms will be worn by UK in Tuesday nights game against Tennessee . If you’re a long time UK traditionalist you may want to tone down the color monitor because the feature colors of white with blue trim made famous over the last 60 plus years will not be the color scheme this night . It will be a somewhat medium to dark grey and blue uniform . Everybody will have their own take on the new uniforms, mine, well let’s just say I’ve already instructed our photographer to take one pre-game photo of Darius Miller for filing in our photo records department……………the one deep down in the basement.

Cat Facts At This Juncture Of 2011 – 2012 Season

# 1 – UK is now (21 – 1 overall and 7 – 0 in SEC) and ranked # 1 in all the major polls of college basketball.

# 2 - UK is now 892 – 251 overall in SEC competition only 8 wins away from their 900 SEC win which could come the week before the SEC tourney begins in New Orleans.

# 3 – UK extended its streak of at least one 3 pt. shot made in a game to 809 games making them # 3 in college basketball on that list.

# 4 – UK lead 35 – 26 at the half, the Cats are 17 – 0 overall and 6 – 0 in SEC play when leading at the half this year.

# 5 - The six UK turnovers were the lowest since four against Portland University on Nov. 26th.

UK returns to action Tuesday against Tennessee in a return match at Rupp Arena in a nationally televised game on ESPNU at 7:00 p.m. then returns to the road once again on Saturday at South Carolina for a 6:00 o’clock tip off on ESPN.

National Football Signing Day Set For Wednesday

Joker Phillips and his staff appear to be set on filling all available scholarships for Wednesday’s signing day although their usually is a modest surprise or two that is unveiled.

Presently the headliner recruit is a home grown boy who plays a position that has helped produce many UK wins in its most recent years of modest success by other home grown recruits at the same position.

If history stays true to Big Blue Nation then Patrick Towles a 6′ 5″ Four Star QB from Ft. Thomas Highlands , one of Kentucky’s most storied high school football programs will get Joe “Joker” Phillips off the hot seat and going down the same path that Tim Couch lead Hal Mumme and Andre Woodson lead Rich Brooks. Oh yes, let’s not forget the lone 7-5 year in 2002 that Jared Lorenson produced for Guy Morris even though it was lost in the aftermath of clean Claude Bassett’s recruiting scandal that set UK football back about five years.

Sorry, drifted a little too far back on that one (now back to the future).