The Big Blue Lowdown

Monday was Auburn’s night. The world watched as the Tigers captured another BCS national championship for the SEC.

On Tuesday, Kentucky reminded fans that Auburn is just a football school in a conference where basketball supremacy runs through the Bluegrass.

UK avoided its first losing streak on John Calipari’s watch and pounded Auburn from start to finish, winning 78-54 at home and evening its conference record at 1-1.

Terrence Jones made history for the Wildcats, scoring 35 points, an...

Kentucky started off SEC with a loss to the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday, falling 77-70 in Athens, Ga., to a Bulldog team that played like it was the national championship.

The Cats got a good performance from Terrence Jones, numbers wise, but Jones was inconsistent throughout much of the game.

Brandon Knight wasnt much of a factor either. He was outplayed by UGA guard Gerald Robinson, who was a step quicker for much the game.

Georgia played a physical ballgame and pushed the younger...

UK 86-62 Penn

This was the classic 'trap game': the crappy, easy-to-forget-about team at 8pm on a Monday night, sandwiched between Louisville (the emotional high point of the year) and the first game of conference play (the next step for a successful season). Penn, despite their .500 record, is a veteran squad used to winning on their level--granted, a decidedly lower level than UK plays on, but they're not used to losing even to teams that are better than them. So does UK have the...

Louisville took the early lead but once Knight tied the score at 12 on a jumper, it was all UK after that. Louisville had long stretches without offense and just couldn't any traction in the first half, as UK continued to stretch their lead up to 35-24 at the half.

In the early part of the second half, Josh Harrellson made his presence felt with an assist and two jumpers. Louisville was able to get into a bit of an offensive rhythm, but they couldn't keep UK from scoring. UK hit their free...

UK 91-61 Coppin State

Early on, Coppin State couldn't hit the side of a barn. UK was sluggish but relentless and finally blew it open by halftime. Coppin scored much better in the second half-- they actually looked like a real team--but the game was long over by that time.

UK played its most complete game of the year tonight. And Coppin State was the perfect opponent: they made UK work without ever striking any fear that they could pull off an upset. Coppin were scrappy on D, tenacious on...

Kentucky took care of business Saturday in the annual border war with rival Indiana, pulling away late and winning 81-62 in front of another raucous Rupp Arena crowd.

The Hoosiers kept it close most of the way, building a 3-point lead in the second half. But as was the case earlier this week with Notre Dame, UK’s combination of perimeter shooting, athleticism and nasty halfcourt defense was simply too much down the stretch.

Kentucky got a huge game from its veterans. DeAndre Liggins...

Thoughts from the BBL’s UKHomer43 in the wake of Kentucky’s 72-58 victory over Notre Dame Wednesday night:

Is Terrence Jones the best UK frosh ever?

Sure we had John Wall last year and he was amazing for what he did and is now doing in the NBA, but fellas...umm...errr...This kid is a freak show.

What doesn't he do? He is the best rebounding UK player since.......??? I haven't seen anybody rebound better.

He is a 6-8 man child. He plays like Shaq around the goal. He has the ability to...

UK got off to a good start hitting 7 of their first 8 shots and doing serious damage on the offensive glass.  Lamb came off the bench and kept the offense going.  OU was undermanned at every position it seemed, their only real hope was catching UK on an off-shooting night.  Didn’t happen.

UK shot 50% from the field and out rebounded OU 37-29.  OU didn’t let UK keep stretching their lead as they did against ETSU and Portland.   But Jones was unstoppable: 29 points, 13 boards, 4 blocks—hell,...

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.

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 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...

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...

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...

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....