Battle for the Bluegrass: UBFC 2010 (Ultimate Basketball Fighting Championships little brother edition)

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 surprise 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

The John Wall show continues... Hartford edition.

Solid play from everyone attributes to a huge blowout in a yawner of a game. It wasn’t even as if we missed Eric Bledsoe who sat out as result of a couple of ankle turns in a short period. The show was again John Walls to be had as he was dishing “Alleys” as he was calling them from the floor. Patterson, Orton, Cousins, even Wall himself got in to the alley oop business with his own rendition of a mid air spin(more or less a 360) reverse slam from the baseline. Needless to say everyone in attendance showed the love to wall, including my cousin Steven Hamblin from the Boyle Co area of Central KY. As far as I know it was his first game at Rupp and I was thrilled to have him along. John Wall broke Travis Ford’s 15 year old modern assist record with 16. He didn’t score but he didn’t need to by involving everyone. Good to see Dodson lighting the basket up and I still think the shooting from him and Darius may make us or break us. Fortunately we have DeAndre Liggins getting some PT as I have seen very good indications from the young mans actions that he is a team player. If perhaps he could knock down a couple 3s a game and relieve pressure from Darius so he could get that mid-range jumper that he is so good at. Kentucky roared to the half up 57-31 and the only drama over the final 20 minutes was Wall's pursuit of the assist record. He didn't disappoint. He drew within one before Kentucky coach John Calipari took him out with about 12 minutes to go. He returned with 7:53 remaining, tied Ford's record on a basket by Josh Harrellson then broke it a few moments later when he found Stevenson at the top of the key. We out scored, out paced, out rebounded and out hustled this smaller team. Apparently Joe B. was right when he said Cal isn’t being honest on how this team is progressing. Of course Loserville is ominously looming as some sweet revenge awaits. Hopefully John Wall can demonstrate the total control over the game he had tonight with the red birds. Lines worthy of note: Demarcus’ 19 pts & 12 rebs in 19 mins. Pattersons weak statistical night. Darius solid shooting. John wall dishing like he is a server at Red Lobster and Darnell not being afraid to shoot when he can hit. Orton had a solid 10 pts in 13 miins and I cant tell you l have more pride in any cat right now than DeAndre who had a solid 20 mins of play and was the defensive threat. looking forward to the next one, the big show with little brother. Sorry no pics I was chllin with Steve all night and didn’t care to try! 14-0, 15-0 on Saturday!

UK2K1: Short surprise from Long Beach State, Big-Cuz rolling heads from the LBC

The hangover is what the press types are calling this game. After a near championship style celebration just a couple of days earlier a lazy first half was bound to happen. Thank goodness the coach can speak with the team at half without the burden of being in public. Whatever it was that he said worked and I couldn’t have asked for a better turnaround from one half to the other. Most likely all these kids have Christmas break on their minds as their fellow students have been gone from campus for almost two weeks already. Between them being pretty good shooting from the floor and outrebounding us there is wonder why we were tied at half. They could have been up by 5 if it weren’t for the grinding defense of the cats. The late in the game run was made it apparent that the cats were acting like real cats by toying with their prey as they load up to pounce and take it out. Coming down the stretch John Wall showed yet again he is much more than a freshman point guard. He is a legend in the making. With Wall and Cousins hammering the LBS guys it opened the floor for other good things including making a defensive stand the last 11 mins. only allowing 7 baskets. If our D can grind down teams then we must consider being a more intensive team for 40 minutes rather than 10.
Big Cuz had a great game and the technical was due him for his immature actions. It makes me question whats going to happen next week when the dirty birds come in and make it much worse on him? Sitting because you cant control your emotions is something I am sure he will not allow himself to be bottlenecked by. The second half run was controlled by him although the guards were showing him the ball and he could have cruised more on defense. Good thing he wasn’t cruising because he kept the rim cleam of any shots during that spurt. It appeared to be motivated and focused basketball and we all know he is even better but we just have to be patient to see his real game.
Kentucky ended the game slow but managed to hit all their shots including a couple of great 3s by Bled-Bled and Jimmy (John walls preferred nickname). Once again the phenom freshmen willed the cats to victory. Our offensive effeceincy in the last 10 mins drastically improved our overall numbers for the night. We shot everything better in the second half as well as a +9 in rebs in the second half. What can you say about John Wall that hasn’t already been said? I will get back to you as soon as I figure that one out. It appears the bench is becoming more and more important as the minutes are finally being spread around and everyone is seeing some PT now. Another big shout out to DeAndre who keeps on making me believe with solid D and running on offense instead of walking. Although PP was a solid contributor with his umpteenth double double he appears to be sceding some of his real estate to the big man because of his position.
LBS is picked to win their conference so I believe this was a really good test for an opponent they likely know nothing about. 13-0!

UK2K: Celebration of a milestone.

The feeling was all mutual among all in attendance. It was love, the kind of love that you discover and from day one can’t get enough of. The former & current players and coaches, the Governor, and yes the little people were all in attendance, and in love. This is too simple to go on; Kentucky loves their cats more fondly than any other fan base out there. Is it because we have no pro teams in KY? Is it because the ones nearby are the Redlegs and the Bungles? Is it because during the winter in the mountains there isn’t a heck of a lot more to do than crank the radio up to Tom Leach and let him paint his mystic picture of our beloved team. It could be all those things or it could be fact that we have the best team and fans out there period. I take the latter.

This blog post will not be about how UK shut down Drexel and out toughed them in every category. It also won’t be about Cousins 18 pts and 13 rebounds in 14 minutes, or John Walls 16 & 7 assists effort, or Patrick Patterson getting only one rebound. While Ramon and Harellson had great games this wont be about that either. This is about Kentucky not the team, not the school, not the fans nor any single entity.

This is about the entire flock that recognizes their faith in something larger than they are. Together we are all a part of it whether we want to be or not. I suppose on some level we are lucky that Kentucky chose us rather than the other way around. While the competition was weak the feeling in the building wasn’t. I suppose the love was simply pouring out of the 11th largest crowd to ever see a Kentucky team in Lexington.

Free throw choice? When Eric Bledsoe was injured while driving to the basket and getting fouled early in the 2nd half. There was a moment of humor between friends and rival coaches. Buster Flint Drexel’s head coach was obviously confused as he wasn’t aware that Bledsoe was going to the bench and someone else would have to shoot his free throws. Calipari yelled “Hey Buster pick someone to shoot” as a shoulder shrugging Flint didn’t understand. The refs ran over and asked him to pick someone

Calipari looked down to him again and held up his hand with all digits sticking outward signifying (and saying under his breath) “Five”. He was trying to get Flint to choose Harris which I am not sure but may have been UKs worst free throw shooter this year. Buster shrugged it off again and chose Cal’s recommendation as Harris walks up and misses the free throw. The two longtime friends shared a long laughing glance as you could know that the 46 point lead was on both of their minds.

Apparently during Cal’s post game interview with Jenine Edwards, Codi (she actually waved to the camera) and I were on TV the entire time. How funny when you see yourself on national TV like that. I have a picture of me and I have a picture of the camera taking my picture.

Of course my hero Joe B was great to see & hear as well as he was obviously emotional about what he was telling us when he said that Cal has been sandbagging us all season as to how good this team is progressing. Seeing Herkey Rupp, who sits in front of me, go out to the floor to be with and speak to the team was great. Here's a pic of Cal & him greeting each other. Seeing the Jamal Mashburn back in Rupp since his senior night was special as well as he was an analyst for this game for ESPN.

Pp showing us he is the certain leader in this group really did a great job of including the Keightlys in his speech. The after party was an incredible feeling that I imagine happens when you watch your team cutting down the nets in April.

Overall the game was a bore but the celebration soon made us all forget just how badly UK beat this team down and for a moment not worry about being undefeated still. The celebration atmosphere was something that I will remember for a long time. There is a certain routine or proxy that happens for games and to be out of that routine with a packed house (11-th all time largest crowd) in Rupp was quite unique. It was a love fest, a real love fest between everyone there. I was thrilled to be there with my wife as she really has only been a blue bleeder since about 2004. I know it will be a memory I cherish for a long time. All around it’s hard to describe the atmosphere past the feeling of exhilaration and love for one thing, Kentucky Basketball.

non-Party like its 1999 : UK vs Austin “Let’s Go” Peay

You could tell by the way the arena lazily filled up before tip, you could tell in the near silence in the arena from the fans, you could tell it by the players energy and lack of enthusiasm. What you could tell is that the in between game just was one everyone wanted to get past us and move on. People were possibly contemplating holiday recipes or perhaps making travel plans, whatever they were doing it wasn’t cheering for their team. Very few times have I ever seen a crowd not get up for the 2001: Space Oddessy version of the big flag turn at half court. What do you call that deal anyway? After a complete spin there was still a good percentage of folks sitting on their butts. One person who wasnt was the Boogey man as he was spotted gyrating in the ERupption Zone this game in another throwback jersey. Another rare creature spotted was DeAndre Liggins who for the most part came in and looked fresh and focused to play. He seemed to have a good energy to his play and the fact that he had a great rebound and put back that excited the crowd louder than any other moment in the evening. His assist to Cousins was a beauty too. You can tell people are pulling for this young man and I for one am not in the closet over it. I have liked him from the beginning but last years retard for a coach about ruined a talented athletes career.That atmosphere set what was possibly one of the most boring wins in history, and you know we have 1998 of those already so that says something. We dominated them in the paint, they couldn’t hit a basket to save their lives and we seriously outrebounded them to where I was asking if something was wrong with APeay. We however allowed them to shoot well early in the game and it seemed as if there was a five minute stall on starting for the cats.I am simply amazed at how in tune this team is to each other. We should call this team the alley-cats because they have so many beautiful ally-oops and dunks. The one from Bledsoe, to Wall, to Patterson was the proof that AP was simply outmanned. I am not for certain but I don’t think either of those three guys had a defender on him during that play. The other nice dunk was in fact a “tigger” sighting. I don’t know how Eric Bledsoe can jump so high but he definitely needs to continue training as he skied over both teams to put back a miss with a thundering dunk. He was also the man in charge and got fancy with the behind the back pass to Patterson who took care of the ball and scored. It was great to see Darius starting to sync a bit more with the offense. With the combo of him, Dodson and Bledsoe we will not need a definitive outside shooter this season, My highlight was having my Grace with me as we got to get a new cheerleading uniform for this game! She is having a blast at the games this year and I have caught her watching the game and following it. What the most fun is she now claps for the cats when the crowd roars.

She is picking up on what she needs for the rest of her life as a wildcat! I really enjoyed a nice game in Rupp with my Girls and hope we might be able to get in one more this season all together. Our attention inevitably turns to the number 2000, not the next opponent but the next win. I hope that this team can come out and not play so flat against what appears to be another sleeper. Glad to have the pics back again.

Carolina pics are up please scroll down to see

Hoosier Daddy: the Kentucky Wildcats is who

Slow style of play from IU and the hoosiers hanging in there like a hair on a biscuit in the first half of the annual "rivalry" game. Its still a game till the second half starts then UK showed IU exactly what a (soon to be) great basketball team can do. What can you say other than UK didn’t act like a bunch of freshmen like they are supposed to be doing right now. If anything veterans Harris and Darius Miller are reacting like freshmen and like MOST freshmen in the NCAA they are watching from the bench. DeMarcus and his antics showed up again. This time he simply used the ball to pick up a kid. No worries he set him back down and appropriately acted as if he had done nothing. He didn’t get the foul he deserved but he did get to ride the pine for a while to make sure nothing is made out of it. Give the guy a break; he is a sasquatch without the hair. He is huge. Until you have stood next to him its hard to imagine a nearly 7 foot giant that has arms bigger than most peoples legs. I think he and Orton are seriously playing outside of their physical capabilities. They haven’t adjusted to the agility and finesse that is required to play with the best down low. I think that describes the foul situation pretty well. Big Cuz had only 16 minutes but managed 8 rebs and 14 pts while catching 4 fouls. A very solid effort from the guy who may be the man to go to when he is able to manage his psyche while playing on a high level.

How about Maurice (don’t call him Cheeks) Creek? What a freshman phenom. His 17 point first half, and our ability to foul away from the ball, kept IU into the game through the first half. Man o Man, in that second half, to see blue Jesus and his disciple Bledsoe so in sync brings a smile to my face. Walls 8 assists are a direct catalyst to the scoring we saw Bledsoe hitting; 4-5 from beyond the arc showed exactly how good Wall is in finding open people on the floor. He looks but doesn’t look and is impossible to read as a defender. His crisp passing has every UK player on alert so as not to be the kid JW breaks his nose with a strong pass. Pat just has that ability to be the guy night in, night out. Its almost as if he doesn’t exist minus his huge presence on the floor and his superior rebounding qualities. Those 15-20 points a night are worth something too, right? I still say we are missing two half players. One half is Darius Millers dark side where he isn’t afraid to be aggressive and the other is the sharp-shooting side of Darnell D. If either half shows up in any game we seriously have 6 super threats to guard.

Good signs abound especially once again in the latter half of the game: our team is acting like a bunch of veterans (minus Cuz) and not letting things get away from us. Cuz playing aggressive and NOT fouling out, Patrick proving again he is unstoppable and Bledsoe and Darnell hitting 3s. And the best sign of the game was DeAndre Liggins. I know some of the folks who follow this have told me they are ready for him to leave. I feel just the opposite, I want him to stay and learn under Cal (who else could do well with this kid?) and prosper as his own man. He got a raw deal with Billy G and it seems he didn’t do anything to improve the situation this season but it appears he is staying strong, proud, and ready to be a contributor to this team. His speed alone makes him valuable to us but lets hope he has picked up on some things from the two frosh guards. Good for you DeAndre Liggins I wish I could shake your hand and tell you way to hang in there and keep doing the right things and good results will occur. Congrats to the coach for being the first since Rupp to have such success in the beginning of the season. I can see us going well into SEC play with no losses. However Rupp’s first loss in the 31-32 season? Georgia, the first SEC team we will play. I can too see another not so rosy scenario where we win everything but to TN and FL. YUCK and F….

IU vs. UK wasn’t a super exciting game but it was once again entertaining meaning that we are having FUN again! I think that is really all us UK fans have been wanting. We have finally gotten over our bland brand of basketball and have some excitement again!