The two royal families of basketball met in Rupp on Saturday afternoon for a game fit for a king. I have to admit that bliss is a light term compared to the way it felt on Saturday afternoon as my team, the team with decades more tradition than the “new” winning program in basketball, was once again (insert “finally”) flexing some muscle. Dare I say that its been 6 years since we were even talked about in the same realm of the other final 4 contenders, should I further dare to say its been 10 since we were really that good. This is Kentucky, the place where absences from final fours gets you shown to the door after 20 win seasons each year, the same Kentucky where the NIT gets you put out on your BUTT. There is a lot of talk lately about what is it really that a Kentucky fan “wants” or expects and I am going to venture a guess here. I think we, just like young girls in high school, want to be invited to the dance by someone who wants us. I guess you could compare my analogy to all the late talk about being relevant. Being relevant is however, well, relative. You know a concept of interpretation as to whom it is you that you are relative, and how relevant you actually are. 
Being wanted means that without you it was boring and no fun, not only did you want to go to the dance really bad, someone else thought you would be a good partner to dance with and wanted you to be there enjoying the same thing. I guess I am beating around the bush saying that without KY in the national picture recently there have been other teams enjoying a level of success at our expense that was unheard of. They had successes in recruiting, pre-season, non-conference, conference and of course tourney play. Saturday afternoon, in front of more people than ever before witnessed a game in Rupp Arena (24468), we learned that once again we like to dance with the big kids and on some level they missed dancing with us while we weren’t dancing so well. What they may have forgotten is that once we start learning to dance again we may soon be the Belle of the Ball. 
What we can clearly see from the outset (and from every other person’s opinion) Kentucky goes as John Wall goes. While this is a pretty accurate statement I feel that this team would still be okay without him. The fear-theory, early on, that the two best point guards in the nation playing together would create some issues may have some teeth to it. I will say it differently however as it was alluded to by Bledsoe himself, after the 68-66 Kentucky victory over Carolina on Saturday. He wouldn’t be making some of his mistakes that have currently dogged him as he has turned the ball over by trying to operate “around” Wall or be “having to throw the ball to John”.
It’s hard to tiptoe around a sleeping giant and not have some sort of fear of disturbing him. With Wall clearly the superior athlete in this scenario I can see how young Bledsoe can make a couple of rookie mistakes based on being in the shadow of the future superstar. Does anyone remember the best debut of a KY freshman ever? I do it was nearly a month ago and the young man was casting his own shadow on the court of Rupp against a 09 tournament team. The Bledsoe we saw that night was without fear of involving a player better than him at his own position. The one we saw on Saturday was a more mature version of the same player contributing in a very different manner than in his debut. He is the kid who had a bad game until it was his turn to shine. He never let down his aggressive nature on either sideo fo the ball although he had a piddly game admittedly even to his own standards up to the point of the game where he bailed us out with his free throws like a Wall-St. investment bank . 
For the folks that know me they know I have seen Kentucky-Carolina before as well as Kentucky-Duke in person. Those who I have gotten to bore over and over with my stories of getting to see the 96-98 championship run live and in person will tell you that I am fond of those teams for a lot of reasons. I have the same level of admiration for this team as I did those. I am honestly giddy still from getting to sit 5 feet from the sidelines at this game and get to witness these two storied programs clash in our house. I told folks all week that it would likely be that I won’t get much sleep before the game and it held true. I recall seeing 2:30AM and still being wide awake from the anticipation of what was to come. Boy was I ever right in that anticipation. Kentucky-Carolina 2009 edition did not fail to mesmerize this basketball fan.
The 9-2 start from the Tarheels was starting to reel and even as Kentucky answered with two baskets in the next couple of minutes it was as if the wildcats of previous seasons were in the game letting a good team be better. The 28-2 run everyone is talking about really should be shortened to a 24-2 as the “run” started as sloppy as the first 5 minutes but we were lucky to get a couple of rebounds off misses. However you want to cue the run it was probably the most fun I have ever had watching a basketball game. Maybe it was the Tarheels, maybe it was the seat location or maybe it was we saw shades of the past in a big run against a good team. I pick the latter. Remember when the cats used to go on big runs? Well unless you’re at least 20 years old you probably don’t as we haven’t had a team since the 90s do that. Now the big question is can we replicate that type of play. Two huge things stick out in this game for me. The first was that our 28-2 run could have been much better. Really? Yes, really.
I am sorry to say but the reason was that one player wasn’t on the same page as the others. I won’t embarrass him by saying his name but his jersey number is 15. Smack dab in the middle of our run and after hitting an impossible looking rainbow of a jump shot Cuz shut us down in less than 30 seconds. Breaking it down: fouled on a miss, miss the FT, fouled on a miss, miss the FT, miss the 2nd FT, miss a jumper then foul the Carolina man who got the rebound. The score never changed during this time but it certainly should have in our favor.
I want to honor this long awaited run that Kentucky fans have been waiting on for 10 years now by breaking it down. I hope this is easly enough to follow from the 2-9 score at 16:30 to go in the half:
John Wall dunk
Orton steal
Orton block
Wall layup
UNC turnover
Miller jumper
Miller steal
Patterson jumper
UNC turnover
Miller – 3 assist to wall
UNC jumper by Drew
Patterson layup assist by miller
Cousins Jumper assist to harris
(Big CUZ breakdown for about 40 seconds)
Dodson steal, miss a 3 and get his own rebound, hit a 3 assist to wall
Wall layup and one
Patterson 2 FTs
Playing not to lose almost cost us the game in the second half although UNC never rallied back. The play of Tyler Zeller kept them in the game in addition to the three timely 3 pointers that they made. For Zeller to not be as physically intimidating as our bigs he sure carries a good game especially around the rim. Our 12 turnovers for the half is unacceptable and unfortunately mostly on Wall and Bledso. Thank goodness Eric Bledsoe has practiced his free throws. With a sub-par first half he bounced back like tigger again and held his composure and didn’t allow himself to bring his play down. Cousins can learn a lot from this kid. With our gaurds the fast breaks are getting freakish as even though someone may be assigned to guard them they hardly have enough time to find them by the time they are streaking to the basket. Our points off turnovers really disappeared in the 2nd half indicating that our defense lapsed and we were indeed playing not to lose.
Earshots:
cal to Bledsoe while Wall was MIA - "Eric control the game!"
Roy Williams to his entire team " SOMEBODY STOP THE EASY PASS"
Well there you have it folks my take on the Carolina game. For what its worth I have heard Rupp louder but I haven’t seen many times when the cotton tops and blue-hairs all get up and down the whole game. The fan participation was much better than I have ever seen. It was so much fun I cant say I have ever been more entertained by a game of basketball in my life. Lets hope this win sets us up for a very successful rest of the season. 
Being wanted means that without you it was boring and no fun, not only did you want to go to the dance really bad, someone else thought you would be a good partner to dance with and wanted you to be there enjoying the same thing. I guess I am beating around the bush saying that without KY in the national picture recently there have been other teams enjoying a level of success at our expense that was unheard of. They had successes in recruiting, pre-season, non-conference, conference and of course tourney play. Saturday afternoon, in front of more people than ever before witnessed a game in Rupp Arena (24468), we learned that once again we like to dance with the big kids and on some level they missed dancing with us while we weren’t dancing so well. What they may have forgotten is that once we start learning to dance again we may soon be the Belle of the Ball. 
What we can clearly see from the outset (and from every other person’s opinion) Kentucky goes as John Wall goes. While this is a pretty accurate statement I feel that this team would still be okay without him. The fear-theory, early on, that the two best point guards in the nation playing together would create some issues may have some teeth to it. I will say it differently however as it was alluded to by Bledsoe himself, after the 68-66 Kentucky victory over Carolina on Saturday. He wouldn’t be making some of his mistakes that have currently dogged him as he has turned the ball over by trying to operate “around” Wall or be “having to throw the ball to John”.
It’s hard to tiptoe around a sleeping giant and not have some sort of fear of disturbing him. With Wall clearly the superior athlete in this scenario I can see how young Bledsoe can make a couple of rookie mistakes based on being in the shadow of the future superstar. Does anyone remember the best debut of a KY freshman ever? I do it was nearly a month ago and the young man was casting his own shadow on the court of Rupp against a 09 tournament team. The Bledsoe we saw that night was without fear of involving a player better than him at his own position. The one we saw on Saturday was a more mature version of the same player contributing in a very different manner than in his debut. He is the kid who had a bad game until it was his turn to shine. He never let down his aggressive nature on either sideo fo the ball although he had a piddly game admittedly even to his own standards up to the point of the game where he bailed us out with his free throws like a Wall-St. investment bank . 
For the folks that know me they know I have seen Kentucky-Carolina before as well as Kentucky-Duke in person. Those who I have gotten to bore over and over with my stories of getting to see the 96-98 championship run live and in person will tell you that I am fond of those teams for a lot of reasons. I have the same level of admiration for this team as I did those. I am honestly giddy still from getting to sit 5 feet from the sidelines at this game and get to witness these two storied programs clash in our house. I told folks all week that it would likely be that I won’t get much sleep before the game and it held true. I recall seeing 2:30AM and still being wide awake from the anticipation of what was to come. Boy was I ever right in that anticipation. Kentucky-Carolina 2009 edition did not fail to mesmerize this basketball fan.
The 9-2 start from the Tarheels was starting to reel and even as Kentucky answered with two baskets in the next couple of minutes it was as if the wildcats of previous seasons were in the game letting a good team be better. The 28-2 run everyone is talking about really should be shortened to a 24-2 as the “run” started as sloppy as the first 5 minutes but we were lucky to get a couple of rebounds off misses. However you want to cue the run it was probably the most fun I have ever had watching a basketball game. Maybe it was the Tarheels, maybe it was the seat location or maybe it was we saw shades of the past in a big run against a good team. I pick the latter. Remember when the cats used to go on big runs? Well unless you’re at least 20 years old you probably don’t as we haven’t had a team since the 90s do that. Now the big question is can we replicate that type of play. Two huge things stick out in this game for me. The first was that our 28-2 run could have been much better. Really? Yes, really.
I am sorry to say but the reason was that one player wasn’t on the same page as the others. I won’t embarrass him by saying his name but his jersey number is 15. Smack dab in the middle of our run and after hitting an impossible looking rainbow of a jump shot Cuz shut us down in less than 30 seconds. Breaking it down: fouled on a miss, miss the FT, fouled on a miss, miss the FT, miss the 2nd FT, miss a jumper then foul the Carolina man who got the rebound. The score never changed during this time but it certainly should have in our favor.I want to honor this long awaited run that Kentucky fans have been waiting on for 10 years now by breaking it down. I hope this is easly enough to follow from the 2-9 score at 16:30 to go in the half:
John Wall dunk
Orton steal
Orton block
Wall layup
UNC turnover
Miller jumper
Miller steal
Patterson jumper
UNC turnover
Miller – 3 assist to wall
UNC jumper by Drew
Patterson layup assist by miller
Cousins Jumper assist to harris
(Big CUZ breakdown for about 40 seconds)
Dodson steal, miss a 3 and get his own rebound, hit a 3 assist to wall
Wall layup and one
Patterson 2 FTs
Playing not to lose almost cost us the game in the second half although UNC never rallied back. The play of Tyler Zeller kept them in the game in addition to the three timely 3 pointers that they made. For Zeller to not be as physically intimidating as our bigs he sure carries a good game especially around the rim. Our 12 turnovers for the half is unacceptable and unfortunately mostly on Wall and Bledso. Thank goodness Eric Bledsoe has practiced his free throws. With a sub-par first half he bounced back like tigger again and held his composure and didn’t allow himself to bring his play down. Cousins can learn a lot from this kid. With our gaurds the fast breaks are getting freakish as even though someone may be assigned to guard them they hardly have enough time to find them by the time they are streaking to the basket. Our points off turnovers really disappeared in the 2nd half indicating that our defense lapsed and we were indeed playing not to lose.Earshots:
cal to Bledsoe while Wall was MIA - "Eric control the game!"
Roy Williams to his entire team " SOMEBODY STOP THE EASY PASS"
Well there you have it folks my take on the Carolina game. For what its worth I have heard Rupp louder but I haven’t seen many times when the cotton tops and blue-hairs all get up and down the whole game. The fan participation was much better than I have ever seen. It was so much fun I cant say I have ever been more entertained by a game of basketball in my life. Lets hope this win sets us up for a very successful rest of the season. 
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