The Big Blue Lowdown

The Kentucky Wildcats showed the nation why they are the #1 ranked team in the country last night with a thorough dismantling of the Tennessee Volunteers by a score of 69-44 at Rupp Arena.  Anthony "The Beast" Davis made yet another case to win the Wooden award for the best player in the nation by flirting yet again with a triple-double-18 points, 8 rebounds, 7 blocks, and three assists in just 30 minutes of play.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist added 16 points and 8 boards while Terrence Jones had...

A recurring theme seems to fit this Kentucky basketball team in SEC play-it wasn't pretty, but a win is a win.  That was certainly true in Rupp Arena on Saturday as the Wildcats withstood a tremendous effort by Alabama to claim a 77-71 win.  Give the Tide credit-they had a great shooting performance for the game including 5-of-7 from three but, more importantly, it seemed every time UK was about to make a run, Alabama came up with a big shot to snuff it out.  It was great free throw shooting...

In what has become a recurring theme in SEC play, the Kentucky Wildcats overcame a sluggish first half and a raucous crowd while showing poise down the stretch to pull away to a 65-62 win over Tennessee in Knoxville.  Anthony Davis led the Wildcats with 1 points and 8 rebounds and turned in another huge second half when the Cats were trailing.  Davis also had four blocked shots to pull within one of the UK season record for blocks.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was again an absolute beast with 17...

The Kentucky Wildcats are in Auburn, Alabama tonight for their first SEC road game of the year.  The road was not kind to the Cats in league play last season-they lost six of their eight games on the road, yet they were able to rebound and win the SEC tournament and advance to the Final Four.  I don't expect this team to struggle that much on the road, but its fair to say that conference road games are a different animal and the freshmen are in for an eye opening experience.

With that said,...

Just a few random notes on the New Year's holiday as I sit here and watch college bowl games that unfortunately don't feature the Wildcats...

As expected, Kentucky moved up to the #2 ranking in both the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll and the AP poll.  Syracuse has a serious lock on the top spot, but the Wildcats still garnered one top vote in the Coaches poll and five in the AP poll.  North Carolina, Baylor, and Duke round out the top five in the AP poll and the same three teams fill out the...

Rumor has it that there is a big basketball game in Lexington tomorrow, and one would have to agree. While I certainly thought the North Carolina game was a little better barometer for where UK stands on a national level, certainly there aren’t many more bitter rivalries in college basketball than the one that exists between Louisville and Kentucky.
I tend to put rivalries in two categories-there are some rivalries that are good ones simply because the rivalry is competitive, the competition...

As expected, Kentucky assumed the top spot in both the AP and the Coaches polls today following this weekend's loss by then #1 North Carolina.  Kentucky is followed in both polls by Ohio State while the Tarheels, who will visit Rupp Arena on Saturday, fell to #5 in both surveys.

Although they received a much tougher test than anyone expected, the UK Wildcats withstood a stout challenge from Old Dominion this afternoon in a 62-52 win that ran the Cats' record to 4-0 on the year and claimed the Hall of Fame Tipoff Tournament championship.  Give ODU credit-they played the Wildcats tough, but in reality most of Kentucky's struggles were of the self-inflicted variety.  UK struggled offensively against the ODU zone defense, which, given how the Cats looked against ODU, I...

It's hard to comprehend tonights' beat down of Morehouse College.  Of course it was expected to be lopsided, but who would have ever expected the Cats to take a 74-13 lead-at intermission!  I've seen some dominating performances by UK over the years (see UK vs Tennessee in the SEC tournament in 1993) but I don't think I have ever seen a team on the college level lead by 63-6 in the first half. 

Another amazing statistic is that the UK starters were a perfect 24-24 from the field during the...

Kentucky coach John Calipari released a statement today on his  #website that  sends a clear message to other, unnamed college coaches about dirty recruiting tactics.  While I certainly have no inside knowledge of what coaches or programs the message is intended for, I think its a great message to recruits, their families, and even the other coaches.

Basically, Calipari is saying that other coaches will tell a recruit anything he wants to hear in order to get his signature, while at...

There’s been a lot of talk, and a lot of movement, among schools in the big conferences over the past few months. Currently everyone (except me) is waiting with baited breath to see if Missouri decides to bolt from the Big 12 to the greener pastures that are our beloved Southeastern Conference.

That the SEC needs to pick up another team seems pretty obvious since the addition of Texas A & M as the 13th team. Currently the Western Division sits with seven teams while the East has six which...

What an amazing show UK put on today in CATlanta. (Up until the last 2 minutes where disaster struck--More on that later)

Right now, every player UK puts on the floor is capable of driving, dishing, shooting from the perimeter or scoring. Even Harrellson is starting to find confidence in his back to the basket game with an assortment of head and pump fakes.

I am hopeful UK faces a physically worn team tomorrow in the winner of UF/Vandy.

I continue to be hard on Brandon Knight as I don't...

Due to my job being so busy in the last four months, I haven't been able to view the landscape of college hoops like I normally am able. But in the past 10 days I’ve been able to view a majority of the Top 25 teams either in person or through ESPN highlights and breakdowns.

This is what I know.

The ACC

Duke is not the best team in the ACC. Not by a long shot. UNC is that team, but they are young and lack great perimeter shooting. Duke has great perimeter shooting, but has no inside...