Crossing the Line

Its interesting how the media plays the difference between Calipari and Pitino. The NCAA implicated Pitino in 8 of the 64 violations against Hawaii in the 70′s. The violations involving Pitino included providing round-trip air fare for a player between New York and Honolulu, arranging for student-athletes to receive used cars for season tickets, and handing out coupons to players for free food at McDonald’s.

Calipari on the other hand is portrayed as dirty even though he turned Camby in and played Rose after the NCAA cleared him.

So lets try to figure this out, the media portrays Calipari as dirty and would portray Pitinio as faster than a jackrabbit except there are a few lines the media, outside of a well known LHL reporter wont cross.

Just What These Cats Needed

What a wild ride! Most may not see the value in this game and hardly any average fans thought this type of game was possible. The very first thing you have to do is tip your hat to Miami. UK wasn’t ready for a perimeter game, and hasn’t been in any game so far, and Miami took advantage. They did a whole lot more right than just hit some shots. They laid the blue print on how to guard Wall and Bledsoe. Get back, try to keep them in front, funnel to the middle where help comes out in front of the basket or funnel to the sides. They boxed out well and limited the passes into the post, which is what UK wanted to do from the start. It seemed like the Cats all had their own things going on and no one was working together. That was especially true on D. I know I’ve been on Bledsoe about his defense but it was on full display last night. He just doesn’t want to play weak side defense and that is just as important, if not more important than on the ball D. The ball reverses, Bledsoe gets sucked into the lane, and in one case all the way across the lane, his man is free to roam to an open spot, the ball reverses to his guy, he’s no where to be found and a forward is stuck with two guys, his guy being the hot hand. This team wasn’t killing UK in the lane and the post simply didn’t need his help. This has to stop and now. BUT, there was a lot of good in this game. UK was seriously on the ropes. Dodson came in and provided good shooting and decent defense and UK began to cut into the lead. The guys started playing more together and started limiting the open looks. I had hoped to cut the lead to eight by the half and they did even better than that. But UK continued to do one good thing, then one bad thing the rest of the game. I again have to give Miami credit for not going away. They fought and took advantage of almost every UK mistake. I seriously question coach’s choice down the stretch and think he needs to do a much better job of understanding the personnel on the floor versus what he has on the bench. This has always been the knock on Cal and it was on full display last night. UK has the ball and a two point lead. Miami is going to foul, UK will get two shots and UK needs both of them. Wall is an all but automatic 1 for 2 at this point. Krebs is in his pocket and coach doesn’t pull him out. Krebs is a much better percentage at getting both free throws and if he gets one for 2, you put Wall back in. Krebs hits both shots and the game is over, and lets face it, UK was darned lucky to hit the shot and even more lucky they didn’t call a foul on Wall, which three free throws wins the game for Miami. I don’t think we will see the same team Thursday. I think we see a more timid team. We will see a team willing to jab and spar some instead of going for the knockout with one punch right out of the gate. Wall and Bledsoe swung wildly at nothing for a good part of the game. Much of that is our fault for thinking, and making them believe, they could over talent anyone. They also have to learn what they can and can not do at this level, and even higher than last night. I’ve been uneasy from the get go with having so much inexperience on the floor at one time. We’ll simply have to live with a lot of up and down play, and this team will probably lose to some lesser teams, and that’s OK. Wall seems to learn fast and the first thing he will learn is he will need help to be able to do the things he’s used to doing. He’ll learn that teams are going to try to take away his path to the rim and he’ll need to counter to make them pay. THEN the rim will be there. And as for Big Cuz, he gets my MVP award because he seemed to grow up right before our eyes last night. He was stellar, aside from his one late bone head, which turned out not to cost UK and may have helped use enough clock to shorten the game enough to get UK the last shot.

All in all, I think this was just what these Cats needed.  Oh, and they got the win..

The real wizard

It’s been a good week for the Cats. Men’s soccer clinched a post-season berth with a win Wednesday over SMU behind senior Tim Crone’s goal in the second half. It was his 3rd career goal all against SMU. His other two goals came in a 2-1 victory over #1 SMU in 2007.

The #11 womens volleyball team showed they are deserving of a top 10 ranking by defeating Alabama Friday night. The lady Cats (23-2, 13-1) got their 50th win at Memorial Coliseum in the last four years with the win.

Men’s basketball routed Clarion 117-52 with John Wall scoring 27 in his first game for the Cats. DeMarcus Cousins had 20 points, Patrick Patterson scored 14 and Ramon Harris, Darnell Dodson and Darius Miller had 11 points. It was a clean well played game with excellent play by everyone who touched a ball.

The football Cats won on Saturday with a 37-12 thumping of Eastern Kentucky behind two second half touchdown passes by Morgan Newton and all around good play by the team.

So what did we learn this week? In football Morgan Newton, LaRod King and Chris Matthews are going to be great next year. Donald Russell is probably going to see more playing time after his 79 yard run for a TD.

In volleyball the lady Cats can go deep in the NCAA tournament and with a little scheduling luck bring home a championship.

In mens soccer we learned that SMU probably looks forward to Tim Crone graduating.

In basketball we learned that the real wizard isn’t the the pretender from Westwood nor is he the fine dining coach from Louisville or the blue collar earth wizard from Michigan. He’s certainly not the dripping wizard from Tennessee who’s only claim to wizardry is his ability to cast a spell on the color orange or the cave dwelling wand waver from Connecticut. And lets not get started on the kettle stirring witches from Carolina or the seller of love potions from Kansas.

The real wizard is the Wizard of Lexington. The Wizard of Lexington is not just a wizard in coaching and recruiting. He’s also a wizard in the way he cast a spell that brought back our ability to laugh and enjoy ourselves during a basketball game.

Coach Cal the Camper

You probably are not much of a UK fan if you don’t have some idea about all the people that have camped waiting for the Big Blue Madness tickets.  1000s of people have been camping, some since last Wednesday.  The players and coaches have interacted with the fans just as they have in the last few years, but this team has taken it to a whole new level and that includes the coach Cal.  The players have hung, thrown footballs, played corn hole and abused news crews, all in good fun.  Coach Cal has organized food handouts and signing sessions with the fans.  But Coach Cal took it to a whole new level Friday night.  Coach Cal did what any great UK father would do.  He grabbed up his son, a tent and two sleeping bags and joined in the fun.  Yes, Coach Cal camped with the fans.  There is nothing he could have done, and that includes winning a National Championship, that I would think was more cool.  I mean, this is seriously cool.  This is cool to a level of cool Fonzie could never even hope to obtain.  In other words, or not, this was way cool.

I can only hope you get some sort of idea how cool I thought that was. If not, then I probably need to work on my writing skills, which I never really worked on much to begin with.  I’ll be honest in saying I have some reservations about Coach Cal.  There are few to none I wouldn’t.  I am not the type to throw the title of Saviour on a guy that hasn’t even coached one second of basketball for UK yet.  I also get a little defensive internally when I see others who do.  It’s a sure fire recipe for fan explosion if things do not go to their plan.  But right now, I have something tangible I can grab on to with Coach Cal.  I have a camp out.  It might not even seem like much to some, but to have a coach who is so all in that he would do this is amazing to me.  And even larger is the fact that this was a father son deal.

Way Cool, Coach Cal the camper, way cool.

Bring out the Lions and Let the Crucifiction begin

The latest is that Kentucky has reported a secondary violation according to Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News.

In early July, Bilal Batley visited the UK practice gym to speak with a player regarding an academic matter, the source said. While there, he was seen gathering rebounds for one of the players. The university determined it should be turned into the NCAA as a secondary violation.

We could talk about Tubby doing the same thing but we all know that Main Stream Media is more interested in crucifying Coach for the ratings than in mentioning that.

So come on Pat Forde you got a article to get out in a hurry.

The beauty of a sport

This is a good piece about soccer and a very good read. Why is it here in the basketball section. Because of something said below that I disagree with.

On the way back to our hotel, driving in our bulletproof car, we passed under a bridge on the highway and noticed one lone Mexican man happily swinging a flag back and forth. He had to have been 45 minutes from the stadium. There was nobody around him. He just kept swinging that flag with a joyous grin on his face. I remember thinking to myself, “Nobody in America will ever care about a sport that much.” And we won’t.

Obviously he has never been to Kentucky to know how much our fans care about the sport. Of course we Kentucky fans would never throw bags of urine at Indiana or Tennessee fans or Coach Calipari would walk off the court hiding a smile hopefully.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090817

And just as obviously we American love the beauty of the sport of soccer as much as anyone in the world. So much in fact that our passions boil at the thought of the game.

Darius Miller playing great at U19 games

Darius Miller is continuing to improve his play and build his confidence at the U19 World Championships. His defensive play has been outstanding according to Purdue coach Matt Painter.

His ability to block shots and make steals is evident with him leading the team with 11 blocks and 11 steals several coming at critical times in a game. His stats in 16 min. or so of play a game show he is gaining confidence every game. He is shooting over 60 percent while averaging 5 points, almost 4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals a game. Coach Calipari and his teammates have to be ecstatic over his play.

You can see highlight video at the fiba tv site.

As The Basketball Spins

The more I read this week about the player situation the more can’t wait for the week to get over. John Clay in todays LHL says players are in limbo. Players say they want to be here next year but it seems like many are expecting some of the players leave. These same players are representing the state and the fans. They are expected to work hard on the court, be perfect off the court, win all their games and go far in the NCAA. In simple words they are expected to be loyal to the university and the fans. Will the university and the fans be loyal to them in return is the question now.

Coach Calipari is being straight with them in telling them that if they don’t fit the system they wont get any playing time and it would be better if they go some where they will fit in. I can applaud that and am sure the players can respect that. The question is can Coach Calipari, the university and the fans respect it if they tell the coach they want to be here next year and be a Wildcat.

With the possibility of signing several players with better basketball talent we will just have to tune in to the next As the Basketball Spins for the answer.