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.

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