The Big Blue Lowdown

The BBL’s own JRokDimes offers his candid thoughts on Thursday night’s Kentucky-Cornell matchup in the East Regional Semifinal.

Folks, I will eat my helping of crow. The final margin of 17 (Kentucky 62-Cornell 45) does seem to reflect a dominating performance by the Cats. We at the BBL were wrong to insist that the game would be close throughout.

Kentucky’s overwhelming NCAA Tournament performance through two games (vicious beatings of East Tennessee State and Wake Forest) have got the basketball media speculating left and right about the slew of Wildcats leaving school after the season to enter the NBA draft.

Most reports have made it a foregone conclusion since January that John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson would leave UK for NBA riches when the season ended. But due to reports by draft guru Chad Ford and a range of...

Eric Bledsoe’s one handed tomahawk dunk against Wake Forest last Saturday may go down as one of the greatest NCAA Tournament dunks in Kentucky history.

Here’s Bledsoe talking about it. We must say, it’s a refreshing feeling to know that the head coach is encouraging his super studs to “dunk on people” when they get the opportunity. And folks wonder why John Calipari is one of the best recruiters in the game.

We’re going to play Devil’s Advocate with the Big Blue Nation here and say, “uh oh” with regard to the Kentucky Wildcats next opponent in the 2010 NCAA Tournament. The team of which we speak is the Cornell Big Red.

Banner Carrier of the Ivy League
Cornell just overwhelmed and discombobulated two teams who spent the entire season in or around the Top 25. The games weren’t close. They dictated their style and their amoeba defensive zone prevented both Temple and Wisconsin from entering the ball...

The Kentucky Wildcats will battle Wake Forest tonight in a second round matchup that should be plenty entertaining to a primetime national TV audience.

Here are a few of the BBL’s thoughts on this game.

1) Wake Forest’s chances start and end with point guard Ish Smith. Smith, fresh off a game winning jumper to beat Texas in OT Thursday, is the playmaker and pace setter for the Demon Deacons. He is athletic and quick and should be a fine challenge for Kentucky’s young guards. Keep an eye on...

BBL contributor UKHomer43 offers his considerably not optimistic thoughts on the eve of UK’s first 2010 NCAA tournament game.

I have analyzed the Bracket countless times now.

The Kentucky Wildcats advanced to the SEC Tournament championship game after an impressive 74-45 victory over 13th ranked Tennessee, avenging a February loss to the Vols in Knoxville.

UK was led by a huge DeMarcus Cousins performance of 19 points and 15 boards, while John Wall controlled the tempo from start to finish and created offense seemingly any time the Cats needed it.

The Big Picture
With every passing day in March, the picture comes more into focus for this Kentucky Wildcats team....

The Vols and Cats play their rubber match today, and a lot more is on the line this time.

Both teams are securely in the field of 65, but a shot at an SEC tournament championship hangs in the balance Saturday.

Kentucky needs to shoot well and control the paint if they are to pull off the big W.

We’ll have coverage after the game.

The Kentucky Wildcats get a chance to relax and scout the competition today as the first round of the SEC tournament tips off in Nashville.

The Cats will play Alabama tomorrow at 1 p.m est, after the Crimson Tide defeated South Carolina in the first game of the bracket. This will be the second meeting of the season between these two, and as we know, Bama gave the Cats all they could handle in Rupp Arena last month. Should be an interesting game.

For now, here is what we would like to see...

On sale now, the latest SLAM magazine with a celebration of John Calipari’s latest crop of future NBA studs.

See more here:
http://www.slamonline.com/online/the-magazine/toc/2010/03/slam-137-on-sale-now/

The Wildcats were not extremely impressive in their final home game of the 2009-10 season, but they did what they needed to do to close out a Florida team desperate for a tourney-clinching win.

The Cats were led, on Senior Day, by Darius Miller and Eric Bledsoe, who tallied 14 points each in an emotional game that could be the final game in Rupp Arena for as many as five Wildcats—three seniors plus John Wall, Patrick Patterson and DeMarcus Cousins.

Overall, Kentucky did not rebound as well...

The BBL is not usually one to post rumors or break news, but we’ve talked to some pretty reputable contacts today, and they have confirmed to us that the nation’s consensus top high school player, Brandon Knight, is a “done deal” to sign with Kentucky.

Rumors have been rampant that Knight was looking to confirm this news next week. But our sources say that it’s now a sure thing. The same sources also say C.J. Leslie is also pretty close to a certainty, as well.

We can’t give away our...

Two post-game quotes, courtesy of ESPN’s Chris Low, jumped out at us after the UK-UGA game Wednesday night. The first, from John Calipari, seems to indicate that Kentucky is putting itself in position to sign a few impact players in the late recruiting period (as if we ever doubted this). The second, from John Wall, is just a reminder that Wall is a money player and he knows it…perhaps more than anyone.

From Cal:

“Each situation is different, but I’ll sit down and be honest with every...

Another big road test for the Cats faced and overcome.

The nation is well aware of the talent and potential of Kentucky. Most are also well aware of how deadly this team could be on any given night. But it seems there is a general disregard for the accomplishments thus far of this UK team, and a lack of overall respect for the quality of the SEC, as well.

The BBL thinks America should take Kentucky’s record for granted at its own risk. Winning in Athens is no small task. Yeah, Georgia has a...