Cintucky Celebration!

Its a great day to be a Cintucky sports fan. In almost an ironic way, the week we open this blog, two of the teams which combine to form its name go out and win HUGE games. The atmosphere was great at Mulligans in Hyde Park today, and I think my neck will be sore after the UK game and UC game were on TVs at opposing ends of the room. The two games were almost polar opposite of each other: #5 Kentucky got out to a huge lead (39-20 with 5 minutes left in first half) and wound up hanging on to win by 2 over #10 UNC. UC fell behind early (31-10 with 3 minutes left in first half) but was essentially saved by the play of 1 man - Mardy Gilyard - and wound up winning by 1 in very exciting fashion.

Some thoughts on the UC game:
-Seriously Mardy Gilyard, wheres he projected to go in the draft? I doubt the Bengals go WR first round, but I would love to see that guy in black and orange stripes. Unfortunately he seems to be a fine young individual and not looking for a second chance in life/football so no way Mike Brown drafts him. But man, his ability to return kicks changed the momentum in the game multiple times.
-Did Tony Pike save his draft status with the game winning drive at the end? His stats end up looking a lot better than he did throughout the day (300 yards, 3TD, 3INTs), but he pulled it together when it mattered. The guy needs to put a little more zip on those passes. Too many balls felt like they were floating in the air forever. But considering that was probably his worst game all year, I think he still projects well as far as NFL draft stock.
-Along the lines of Pike, it took some guts from Brian Kelly to stick with his senior QB and not put in Collaros when the passing offense was going backwards. They showed Collaros warming up on the sidelines (I couldnt hear what they were saying about the situation because there were some UC fans doing their best Ohio State fan impression and being very annoying throughout the game) but obviously Kelly was debating putting Collaros in.
-And all of us Cincinnatians out there thought only Cincinnati teams could miss extra points? Right when UC missed their XP I yelled "BENGALS!!". Luckily Cincinnati seems to have Pittsburgh edge in life this year and caught a break themselves.
-I thought it was funny - the progressions of the sportsticker on the bottom of the screen during the game relating to Brian Kelly and Notre Dame. It's like, what is Brian Kelly secretly texting ESPN in between plays or something?

BCS
UC fans now switch their allegiance to Nebraska as the Cornhuskers take on Texas tonight for the Big 12 championship. I guess the question is now, would UC jump Texas in the BCS if the Longhorns wind up losing? UC's win was not very convincing but I think when you're playing a team that was ranked top 10 last week, the convincing is done by winning. However, I think Florida needs to take care of Alabama for UC's perfect scenario to come true. I'm not sure UC would jump Florida if Florida lost, but I do think UC would pass 'bama if 'bama lost. Guess we'll know within 24 hours or less.

Some quick thoughts on UK's game (and I'm sure Reinhart will elaborate)
-John Wall is unreal. Every time Wall touches it on what doesn't even seem to be a fast break, hes thinking "There's the basket. That's where I'm going. You're not stopping me." It's fun to watch.
-Pattrick Patterson is loving life these days now that UK finally has a legit point guard. All game he rips the rebound down and almost blindly turns around and fires the ball down court because he knows Wall will be there. Then just sits back and watches the John Wall show.
-The turnovers, although a bit concerning, are to be expecting from a team that starts 2 freshman PG's. The foul situation is what concerned me most.
-If you told me Cousins would end the game with 5 pts, 5 rbds, and 4 fouls I would have guessed a 10-15 point UK loss. Fortunately Wall was inspired today to prove ole Roy "I did something to my left arm that shouldn't be talked about to children" Williams an idiot for not recruiting him.


That's about all I got. Since there's no playoff in college, we are forced to root for teams like Nebraska tonight. Go Cornhuskers!

-Greg "I gotta go clean up the trash that my dog decided to rip open and eat the sh*t out of while I was gone rooting for Cintucky today" Richter