The Big Blue Lowdown

We won’t jump to any conclusions after watching Kentucky fall to Tennessee 74-65 Saturday afternoon in Knoxville.

Sure, there are plenty of eyebrow raisers about the way Kentucky played. But all in all, this was not an extremely damaging loss. The Cats may drop a spot in the polls, but nothing more. Their No. 1 seed resume wasn’t tarnished, and they still have two more chances to clinch an SEC regular season championship.

Nonetheless, the BBL offers our thoughts on Saturday’s loss.

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And so, the Cats got their revenge. The 82-61 win over South Carolina Thursday night in front of packed Rupp Arena was mighty satisfying for a Kentucky team that continues to improve, gel personnel wise and find all sorts of lethal weapons with which to punish the opposition.

As usual, we offer you our thoughts on what’s developing with this special group of Wildcats. 

First off, let us just say that Rupp Arena is becoming the place to be seen in college hoops. After hosting such...

Yes, this is what you think it is. The John Wall dance now has an official rap song to go with it. It’s not too bad either.

Check out the video here:

Points for creative rhyming of Patterson and Cousins, among others.

As we said earlier in the year, stuff like this just serves as a reminder that Kentucky is back. And not a moment too soon.

After impressive back-to-back road wins this past week, the Kentucky Wildcats improved their record to 26-1 overall and 11-1 in the SEC and, more importantly, virtually assured themselves of a No. 1 seed when the NCAA tournament brackets are announced March 14.

In their win over Vandy Saturday night, the Cats once again showed the nation that they are capable of beating good teams even when not playing their best basketball. While Kentucky’s youngsters were far from a portrait of maturity...

Wow, what a war.

Kentucky pulled off a huge win Saturday night over Vanderbilt in a game characterized by rugged physical defense, poor shooting and high drama in the closing minutes.

As John Calipari said in the post-game interview, “that was an Elite Eight style game.” He was right. The atmosphere was about as intense as any in college hoops this year.

While Kentucky did not play a great game, this was the kind of gritty performance that championship teams are capable of displaying....

Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings had the following to say about the SEC East. Pretty strong words from an (obviously) biased source.

“We think the (SEC) East is the toughest division in all of college basketball. I don’t think we are just four (teams) deep. I think all six teams in our division are very good,” Stallings said. “It is as balanced and tough as it has been in a long time. I think it is very unique to have an entire division get better (in the same year), but it’s...

Thanks to this sweet highlight mashup from hoopmixtape.com, get a look here at some sick plays by the 2010 McDonald’s High School All-American team.

Of particular interest to Cat fans should be CJ Leslie with his oustanding length, Josh Selby (a true athletic freak), and Brandon Knight, commonly considered the nation’s top high school player and a strong Kentucky lean.

If Calipari signs these three, UK might not experience the drop off next year that some are predicting.

Kentucky went into a hostile road environment Tuesday night and took the best shot from a talented Mississippi State team in desperate need of a win. Here are a five big post-game thoughts:

1. Patrick Patterson was clutch Tuesday. He rebounded better than he has in weeks. He also made his free throws and hit the huge jumper to tie the game in regulation. That is the Patterson Kentucky needs to see in the tournament.

2. The Kentucky big men just absolutely erase you inside. When they block...

Kentucky went into a hostile arena Tuesday night and, with the eyes of a national TV audience upon them, showed serious moxie in beating the Mississippi State Bulldogs 81-75 in overtime.

The game was officiated very closely, as both teams were called for a number of ticky-tack contact fouls from the start. MSU center Jarvis Varnado missed 16 minutes of the second half after picking up his second, third and fourth fouls right around the 18:00 minute mark.

With Varnado sitting most of the game,...

And so the regular season comes down to this. The Kentucky Wildcats, 24-1 overall and 9-1 in the SEC, embark this week on a brutal six-game stretch that will test the mettle of this young team and go a long way toward dictating the fate of the 2009-10 season.

Four of the games will be on the road, and five out of the six come versus teams still deserving strong consideration for NCAA tournament bids. None figure to be cake walks.

Murderer’s row starts off Tuesday night in Starkville...

The stage is set for a memorable night in Lexington, Kentucky.

If you didn’t see it, the Kentucky faithful created a scene this morning at ESPN’s College Gameday, putting 20,000 plus fans in Rupp Arena by 10 am.

Kentucky will meet Tennesee in less than an hour, in what should be one of the Cats stiffest tests, on paper, of the entire season. This is an excellent chance for the Cats to solidify their No. 1 seed resume in the eyes of the nation, and send a message to the rest of college...

The Kentucky hoops freaks behind the Big Blue Lowdown (JRokDimes and UKHomer43) got together last recently and debated some important points about the future prospects of this year’s UK squad. Here’s an excerpt from the the point-counterpoint:

1) Who is the team UK should be most afraid to face?

JRokDimes
The Cats’ match-up with Mississippi State in Starkville on Feb. 16 still looms as a difficult road date based on MSU’s ability to shoot from deep, defend on the interior and run with...

The Kentucky Wildcats have been summarily castigated by local and national media outlets after a “subpar” double digit victory over Alabama at Rupp Arena Tuesday night.

John Wall’s six turnovers and the Cats’ overall sloppy play seem to be the most story-worthy topics related to UK’s performance, despite the fact that ‘Bama never got closer than six points after the 10:00 minute mark of the first half and only rarely threatened to make things interesting.

In truth, the criticism of Kentucky...

Here’s a quick look at Kentucky’s new uniforms, which they’ll be debuting this weekend for the Tennessee game featured as part of ESPN’s Gameday.

These photos were part of an upcoming feature in Slam Magazine.

Photos courtesy of John Calipari’s Twitter account.

We had the privilege to attend the Texas-Kansas game Monday night in Austin, Texas, where Kansas looked every bit a number one ranked team in dispatching the rapidly unraveling Longhorns 80-68.

Here are some of our thoughts after watching the two squads that, other than Kentucky, have managed to make it to the top of the rankings at some point:

Kansas is an extremely unselfish team that uses incredibly fluid ball movement to find open looks. They are well coached and were able to execute their...