The Good
* A Double Double for You, a Double Double for You, and a Double Double for You. Three double doubles last night. Last time that happened it was three guys you may have heard of: Wall, Cousins, and Patterson. Anytime you're in the company of those guys you've had a good night, and UK had some dudes show out last night. That's how you beat top 10 teams.
* Glass Men. Kentucky owned the boards last night, and it started in the first couple of minutes. Travis got us going and Washington and Johnson more than held their own. Even when we couldn't hit a shot in the first five minutes we were just playing much harder than they were. Running down every loose ball. Owning the paint. It was a man's game, as the cliche goes, and we had more of them.
* Washington Crossing. PJ was unreal in that second half, basically putting on the Kansas St. mask and doing everything imaginable for the Cats. That's the kind of game that could put him in the lottery. Now, in true PJ fashion we might see a severe regression next game. But if he can play with that effort every night I don't think there are too many players in college basketball better than he is.
* Herro Ball-Line Defense. Tyler Herro couldn't find his shot last night, firing everything off the heel of the rim, but man did he get after it defensively. The guy locked down their best perimeter scorer and just wouldn't let him breathe. On a couple of plays I thought Vick looked like he just wanted to go over and sit down. Herro was a blanket defensively and that was a huge part of how we won that game.
* Welcome Back, Rupp. From all accounts Rupp Arena was magical last night, and that was good to see. Because for the most part this season it's been a slog: mediocre opponents, empty seats, bored fans. Part of this is the team hasn't been consistent, but I think it's a symptom of sports as a whole. People would just rather sit on their couch and watch. But trust me, for games like that there's nothing better than being in the arena and feeling the electricity.
* The Streak. When people looked at the schedule over the summer they circled this stretch we just went through. On paper it looked brutal, the kind of run that Kentucky easily could have stumbled badly in. But the Cats didn't stumble at all, they owned that streak, winning all three and positioning themselves right back where we were before...
* The Duke Game. So it's almost three months since the nightmare in Chicago. It's taken that long for this team to finally come full circle and figure out who we are. Much of this is due to Ashton Hagans, who almost couldn't be on the floor in the Duke game. He's suddenly become one of the nation's point guards. But you also have Tyler Herro becoming a solid player and PJ Washington playing like he's capable of, and all of a sudden you're looking at a team that's right there in the discussion for a 1 seed. Almost nobody in America has the resume Kentucky does at this point and you've got to wonder would we have that resume without the Duke game? Sometimes you need to get punched in the mouth to understand who you are.
The Bad
* First Half Woes. Kentucky's shooting in the first half was brutal. It was clear to me in the first two or three minutes that we were the tougher team, but because of the avalanche o' clanks we couldn't pull away. It was only when a couple of those finally went down in the second half that we could assert ourselves as a (far, IMO) superior team to Kansas.
* Camera Angles from Hell. I've never been a fan of ESPN's avant garde filmmaking during games. The camera they use that moves on a wire above the court, the split screen stuff (gag), that weird phone camera the student was using...to me all that takes away from watching the game rather than enhances it. I'm of the mind that we should get forty minutes of action on one camera without seeing anything but the players on the court.
* Everything's a Flagrant 1. So there was another hook and hold late in the game last night. Another video review. Another ridiculous delay for a play that was essentially just two guys fighting for the ball. I'm convinced the officials got a memo about three weeks ago regarding the hook and hold, because I didn't see it at all early in the season. The last three weeks I've seen it in almost every game I've watched. It just should not be happening and it's awful for the spectator trying to enjoy these games.
* Dedric Man Walking. This isn't a bad necessarily, but we could do nothing with Dedric Lawson last night. That guy is a game-destroyer. His skill in the paint is truly impressive, and when you think he's going to try to work you in the paint he shoots 17-foot fadeaways. Outside Zion and Barrett he's the best individual player I've seen this season.
Brad Calipari's Turtleneck
* WTH?
* A Double Double for You, a Double Double for You, and a Double Double for You. Three double doubles last night. Last time that happened it was three guys you may have heard of: Wall, Cousins, and Patterson. Anytime you're in the company of those guys you've had a good night, and UK had some dudes show out last night. That's how you beat top 10 teams.
* Glass Men. Kentucky owned the boards last night, and it started in the first couple of minutes. Travis got us going and Washington and Johnson more than held their own. Even when we couldn't hit a shot in the first five minutes we were just playing much harder than they were. Running down every loose ball. Owning the paint. It was a man's game, as the cliche goes, and we had more of them.
* Washington Crossing. PJ was unreal in that second half, basically putting on the Kansas St. mask and doing everything imaginable for the Cats. That's the kind of game that could put him in the lottery. Now, in true PJ fashion we might see a severe regression next game. But if he can play with that effort every night I don't think there are too many players in college basketball better than he is.
* Herro Ball-Line Defense. Tyler Herro couldn't find his shot last night, firing everything off the heel of the rim, but man did he get after it defensively. The guy locked down their best perimeter scorer and just wouldn't let him breathe. On a couple of plays I thought Vick looked like he just wanted to go over and sit down. Herro was a blanket defensively and that was a huge part of how we won that game.
* Welcome Back, Rupp. From all accounts Rupp Arena was magical last night, and that was good to see. Because for the most part this season it's been a slog: mediocre opponents, empty seats, bored fans. Part of this is the team hasn't been consistent, but I think it's a symptom of sports as a whole. People would just rather sit on their couch and watch. But trust me, for games like that there's nothing better than being in the arena and feeling the electricity.
* The Streak. When people looked at the schedule over the summer they circled this stretch we just went through. On paper it looked brutal, the kind of run that Kentucky easily could have stumbled badly in. But the Cats didn't stumble at all, they owned that streak, winning all three and positioning themselves right back where we were before...
* The Duke Game. So it's almost three months since the nightmare in Chicago. It's taken that long for this team to finally come full circle and figure out who we are. Much of this is due to Ashton Hagans, who almost couldn't be on the floor in the Duke game. He's suddenly become one of the nation's point guards. But you also have Tyler Herro becoming a solid player and PJ Washington playing like he's capable of, and all of a sudden you're looking at a team that's right there in the discussion for a 1 seed. Almost nobody in America has the resume Kentucky does at this point and you've got to wonder would we have that resume without the Duke game? Sometimes you need to get punched in the mouth to understand who you are.
The Bad
* First Half Woes. Kentucky's shooting in the first half was brutal. It was clear to me in the first two or three minutes that we were the tougher team, but because of the avalanche o' clanks we couldn't pull away. It was only when a couple of those finally went down in the second half that we could assert ourselves as a (far, IMO) superior team to Kansas.
* Camera Angles from Hell. I've never been a fan of ESPN's avant garde filmmaking during games. The camera they use that moves on a wire above the court, the split screen stuff (gag), that weird phone camera the student was using...to me all that takes away from watching the game rather than enhances it. I'm of the mind that we should get forty minutes of action on one camera without seeing anything but the players on the court.
* Everything's a Flagrant 1. So there was another hook and hold late in the game last night. Another video review. Another ridiculous delay for a play that was essentially just two guys fighting for the ball. I'm convinced the officials got a memo about three weeks ago regarding the hook and hold, because I didn't see it at all early in the season. The last three weeks I've seen it in almost every game I've watched. It just should not be happening and it's awful for the spectator trying to enjoy these games.
* Dedric Man Walking. This isn't a bad necessarily, but we could do nothing with Dedric Lawson last night. That guy is a game-destroyer. His skill in the paint is truly impressive, and when you think he's going to try to work you in the paint he shoots 17-foot fadeaways. Outside Zion and Barrett he's the best individual player I've seen this season.
Brad Calipari's Turtleneck
* WTH?
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