The Great Wall of Lexington

It's hard to anoint someone as a legend after only 9 games. After watching UK improve to 9-0 Wednesday, its hard not to anoint John Wall as a UK legend. The intensity was on display at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night as #4 UK took on #12 UConn as part of the Big East/SEC Invitational. But the intensity was to be expected: Dicky V was calling the game. Unfortunately it was the video feed that kept going out during the game instead of Vitale's microphone. But I digress.

The Cats thundered out of the opening tip-off once again, storming to an early 12-0 lead behind the stellar play of freshman John Wall. But ~4 quick timeouts later by Jim Calhoun and the Huskies found themselves on a 26-6 run (at this point in the game I took the note to write about how super annoying Kemba Walker is (see below*)). UK's youth showed during the first half, with Cousins, Orton, Bledsoe, and Wall all acquiring 2 fouls with time to play in the first half. John Wall finished the first half playing only 9 minutes and the Cats found themselves down 29-23. With Wall out of the game, UK's half court offense struggled mightily. As good as fellow freshman PG Eric Bledsoe has looked, it's clear he can't run the transition offense the way Wall can.

Luckily, the Wall show commenced in the second half and Wall played all 20 minutes. Kentucky closed the gap to 33-32 with 15:00 to go and the game was on from there. The perimeter shooting that was nonexistent from UK in the first half, found brief life when Dodson, Patterson, and Wall hit back to back to back 3's as Kentucky moved ahead by 5. But the talent of UConn wasn't going to let the young Cats win easy and took at 61-60 lead on a Kemba Walker off-balance jumper with 1:12 to go.

With Kentucky finding themselves down by 1 with 1 minute to play, on a team that starts 3 freshman, who was going to step up and make a play? Enter - The Legend. On a heroic drive with 31 seconds to play, John Wall put the Cats ahead for good with a layup & one. UK goes onto win 64-61, John Wall finishing with 25 pts and 6 steals. Yet another outstanding performance by what Jim Calhoun considers to be the best point guard out of high school since Jason Kidd. Needless to say, the Legend grows...

Kentucky has a tough challenge on Saturday playing at an up-and-coming Indiana team. Stay tuned for what magic Wall will deliver next.

*And now for my rant on Kemba Walker: Let me just start by saying that I hate showboaters. Similar to the way that I hate people who use the express lane at the grocery claiming that 23 yogurts actually only counts as 1 item. Well, Kemba Walker just rang up a $100 tab in the express lane. I'm not sure if he realizes that every layup he makes is not in fact the greatest thing to ever happen to planet Earth. When you make a basket to tie the game at 16 with 30:17 left to play, don't act like you just won the National Championship yourself playing 1 vs 5. Please.