Climbing the Wall

I’m impressed.  And it takes a lot for a freshman to impress me.  But to have four of them impress me at one time is impossible.  Or at least it was.  The UK basketball team was on full display last night and the changes were monumental.  This has been the most horrid defensive fundamental team I have ever seen in blue until last night.  Last night they played like one of the best defensive fundamental teams that I have seen.  The stats do not always show what really happens in a game.  UK has won without playing very good defense largely based on the missed wide open shots of the other team.  UK has won big on the nights the other team missed most of the wide open shots and won close on the nights the other team made most of the wide open shots.  The key has been wide open shots.  The reasons for the wide open shots come down to a total lack of fundamentals that cause numerous breakdowns on any given play.  Many times, the guy who has scored wasn’t defended by the guy who started the breakdown with poor play.

All of that changed last night.  Wall and Bledsoe both played back court defense like seasoned veterans.  Off the ball they had one eye on their man and one eye on the ball, players communicated, switches were timely and seamless. 

 But that isn’t what impressed me.  Wall impressed me.  I’ve been fighting it tooth and nail but at some point you have to simply tip your hat to the kid.  He isn’t the best freshman in the land simply because he can run faster and jump higher.  He’s the best because he is always thinking and he is always, and I mean always, looking for ways to improve.  The knock on he and Bledsoe has been outside shooting, but they both seem to have very good form, rhythm and focus on their shots to me.  Both are a legitimate threat to score if you leave them open on the outside which is what this team needs.  It goes beyond basketball.  He is trying (and I assume he is on course) to make all A’s this semester.  That is NOT the sign of a one and done.  That is a sign of a kid who wants to do everything right.  Folks, getting all A’s and also carrying a top division one basketball load is very hard to do.  Let’s face it, the only stat that really showed all the mistakes he was making early on was his turnover stat.  He was not in control much at all.  Some were calling for him to go to the bench but he is much more of a learn on the fly type of player and it’s showing.  It sometimes takes kids three years to learn what they can and can not do when you go from a high school court to a division one court.  He is figuring it out in a hand full of games.

 Bledsoe Impressed me.  He was the absolute worst defender I have ever seen in the first few games.  I used to play with a guy like him.  Fast as lightening but didn’t think they were playing defense unless they were guarding the ball.  This guy frustrated the wholly crap out of me because he would leave his guy wide open under the basket to go guard the ball, which was already being guarded, at the top of the key.  Bledsoe wasn’t that bad but he was very close.  But there he was last night, one eye on his man and one eye on the ball.  Textbook defense and UK had very few breakdowns because of it.  But I think back to when he signed with UK.  I thought it was a load of blue crap when Cal convinced Bledsoe that he and Wall could play together.  Two point guards at one time?  That seemed quite stupid to me at the time.  But here we are and Bledsoe has been the consummate off guard/Combo guard.  It takes a lot of skill to be able to adjust to the change from high school to college, but to also have to adjust to a position change?

  Big Cuz impressed me.  The guy just plain looks mad when he plays.  And I, for one, am ok with that.  His issue has been HAVING a chip on his shoulder versus PLAYING with a chip on his shoulder.  His issue has been understanding what he can control versus what he can not control.  But I thought he went a long way in understanding those things last night.  He is probably the most gifted player in college basketball, when you consider his size, speed, quickness, touch and ball handling.  But he feels that playing basketball is like going to war and I, for one, can understand that mentality.  I also can understand that it’s the edge he has used to hone the skills that he possesses.  Playing sports is our modern day form of war games.  Maybe the world would be a much better place if conflicts were decided on the basketball court versus a battlefield, but that’s another topic for another day.

Orton Impressed me.  The guy has been a rock every time he has stepped on the court.  I get the sense that he goes to war when he steps on the court as well, but he does it in a more quite, subtle way.  He isn’t as quick as Big Cuz and he doesn’t have the refined skills but he is just as deadly around the basket.  I honestly think the team plays better with him in most of the time because he has been much more sound fundamentally from day one.  I haven’t seen a time where he wasn’t playing within himself. 

  Some might say that you can’t really tell much from the game because it was against UNC-Asheville.  But these are things that matter in any game.  Things get tougher now.  These kids will have to learn what they can and can not do all over again once the competition stiffens.  But to have already come as far as they have fundamentally goes along way in climbing that wall.  I am impressed, and you should be too.

UK Goes to The Wall!

What does John Calipari do with his # 1 ranked class in the country to enhance his recruiting season? Well, he goes out and lures the #1 player in the class to UK. Late last night, Slam Magazine confirmed that John Wall had selected UK among Miami, Florida, and Duke.

I can’t begin to express how ecstatic the UK fan base is now, what with the job that Calipari has done already in recruiting, and now landing Wall. Described by Dave Telep as, “The nation’s single most unguardable player”, Wall joins a class already loaded with 5- star recruits, Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton and DeMarcus Cousins. I foresee us fans talking UK basketball all summer.

There were some who believed that our signing Eric Bledsoe recently would affect John’s decision. It appears it had nothing to do with it. ““I’ve been thinking about it for the last couple of weeks. I sat down and prayed and thought about it. Last night we had a meeting and I just came out and told Brian “(Clifton).

It hasn’t been that long since some of the SEC coaches have said that UK’s dominance of the league was over…Well, that is about to change and change very quickly.