45 Seconds is all it took, all it took for there to be 7 fouls in the game. Less than a minute into the game the freshmen had about all they could handle of an emotional and physically heated game without breaking out the meanies. There was the pre-game shoot-around where the cardinals could easily bee seen mouthing off to whoever they could as long as they were at the other end. Or it could have been Delk walking through UKs line as they were warming up or the pot shot that he took at Bledsoe as the teams went to their locker rooms before the game.
On the other hand it could have been Bledsoe’s unwillingness to focus and not let those guys get the best of him. He was an active participant in the pre-game smack talk so much that he didn’t make it past 8 seconds till he was yanked. The emotion was in the air, on the sleeves and in everyone’s chest that felt 3 feet thick. Between the inexcusable banter between the players and their horrible shooting this game should be one that might be better forgotten except one thing, Kentucky once again was better and showed it.
What was special to me is that my wife in all her 5 years of following the big blue finally got what its really like when these two teams get together. The scene wasn’t for the faint hearted as you could feel the elevated heart rates of nearly 25000 people. The anxiety, the pressure and yes the game itself really gave us that feeling that is impossible to reproduce with another opponent. A good friend that hasn’t experienced the UK-UL experience asked me what its like. My response is that for one afternoon, for about 3 hours you are at the center of the basketball universe. 51 fouls (5 of them technical) and 36% combined from the field later (22.6% combined on 3s) defense prevailed and the team with the best D won. That would be Kentucky, although I highly doubt an individual awards need handing out total team D was the factor. One can certainly say with confidence that the win won’t be remembered for finesse or style rather it will be inner strength and the will to win in an ugly situation. Another Rupp Arena record attendance meant that we had a huge presence off the court that cant be duplicated. I wonder what it felt like wearing red in that arena that day? Scratch that I wonder what it felt like being so intimidated by so many angry people?
There are a couple big things that stick out in my mind from the rivalry game of the decade. First it Louisville not hitting a basket till 10:54 left in the half and their second shot at 5:49. Kentucky shut Louisville down in the first half only allowing 5 total field goals and making them miss their first 14 and only hitting one in over 15 minutes of play. The fact that UK turned them over 19 times is another aspect that has been missing. That’s amazing to me that no one has talked about this huge feat of dominance. What overshadows that is trash talking, fights on the boards for the rebounds and actual fights on the floor. Kentucky wasn’t exactly good either, they went almost 9 minutes without a score in the first half and turned the ball over too much to take the game completely over and put the cards down. The second half was plain ugly fight of the century style bball. What happens next shouldn’t su
rprise anyone on the planet, superman Jwall hit an identical shot as he did to win the UCONN game and that hammering he took while doing it set the spark that ignited his fire. UK went on a run and took control of the game. Even with more garbage play by Loserville. The garbage was that Jerry Smith would not give Wall position on the inbounds play twice by grabbing his jersey (I saw it with my own eyes). That encouraged Wall to try to run over Smith trying to get to the baseline. That was all before the ref even handed Patterson the ball to put it in play. In the grand scheme of the moment the technical seemed like a good idea based on the warning the refs were giving them to stop the extra-cirriculars. Otherwise that type of play had already happened for 30 minutes.
While shaken from the early scrum DeMarcus Cousins showed us why he thinks he is the best center in the country. He used the low post as his domain and had 19pts and 18 rebs. Once UL hit the zone defense it slowed our(Cousins’) efficiency to nothing and a turnover led to the basket that helped Louisville take its only lead. That’s when the messiah John Wall performed another miracle run and show us why he is the best player in the country hands down. Cousins kept his emotions in check for the most part and capped the win with a monster dunk with 37 seconds left that hammered home the nail in the bird coffin.
While ugly the two big things from this game was that we controlled the points from the paint and points of turnovers. Another words Calipari has taught this young bunch how to capitalize on their hard nose defense. Can you believe UK was outrebounded? A -1 in that stat means UK should have had about 10 more rebounds than they actually had.
Once again the battle for the bluegrass was indeed a battle and in fact has re-heated this rivalry that seemed to be put in a leftover box and left in the frige. Being a part of the crowd in this moment for this team was a lifetime event and I am only happy that Codi has experienced her first “once in a lifetime" Uk/UL moment.
Top:Coach Calipari and Tom Leach post game. Bottom: Cal with former Gov. John Y. Brown who is the man responsible for the rivalry game tradition.
Cal and Rapper Drake with enterouge
45 Seconds is all it took, all it took for there to be 7 fouls in the game. Less than a minute into the game the freshmen had about all they could handle of an emotional and physically heated game without breaking out the meanies. There was the pre-game shoot-around where the cardinals could easily bee seen mouthing off to whoever they could as long as they were at the other end. Or it could have been Delk walking through UKs line as they were warming up or the pot shot that he took at Bledsoe as the teams went to their locker rooms before the game. 
Top:Coach Calipari and Tom Leach post game. Bottom: Cal with former Gov. John Y. Brown who is the man responsible for the rivalry game tradition.
Cal and Rapper Drake with enterouge
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