The Big Blue Lowdown

Here’s some notes for Tuesday as we await the outcome of tonight’s opening round games in Dayton that will determine UK’s second round opponent in Louisville on Thursday…

• The Associated Press announced the winners of the Southeastern Conference post-season awards on Monday and Kentucky swept the top places on the list.  Anthony Davis was named the Player of the Year and the Newcomer of the Year while John Calipari was named the SEC Coach of the Year.  Michael Kidd-Gilchrist joined Davis...

Random thoughts about Kentucky’s loss to Vanderbilt on Sunday in the SEC Champinship game…

1.  While disappointed that the Cats didn’t close the deal and keep momentum going by beating Vandy, the loss isn’t the end of the world.  As we all know, the 1996 Wildcats had a very similar path in the regular season-early season loss, undefeated SEC season, and then a loss to Mississippi State in the SEC finals.  That team steamrolled to the NCAA tournament.

2.  With that said, the loss is also a...

It wasn't always pretty, but the Kentucky Wildcats took haymaker after haymaker on Saturday afternoon but survived a major test by Florida to advance to the championship game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in New Orleans.  Five different Wildcats scored in double figures for Kentucky with Doron Lamb leading the way with 16 points.  Terrence Jones, Anthony Davis, and Marquis Teague had 15 points each and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist added 10.

Davis also had 12 rebounds for a...

It wasn’t pretty, but the Kentucky Wildcats survived a tough game against LSU by a score of 61-50 in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament this afternoon.  UK fans overwhelmed the New Orleans Arena but had to breathe a collective sigh of relief after the Wildcats survived one of their worst performances of the year to move in to Saturday’s semifinal matchup with Flordida and improve to 31-1 overall.

Friday afternoon’s opener wasn’t without drama, however, as the Wildcats appeared to sleep...

It’s an unusual thing to go undefeated in conference play, and yet the Kentucky Wildcats accomplished that milestone again on Sunday with a 74-59 win at Florida.  Not only did UK complete the SEC season at 16-0, they also moved to 30-1 overall, the first time in school history that the Wildcats have recorded 30 regular season victories.

The win was a total team effort, but it wasn’t as easy as the margin of victory might suggest.  Florida’s last lead came with about 14 minutes left in the...

Now that the Cats have completed a 16-0 SEC season and won their 30^th game, it’s not too early to think a little about this team’s place from a historical context. In other words, how does the 2011-2012 Kentucky team stack up against the greatest teams of all time?

Ok, fine, I take that back. It's actually way too early to have this conversation. They still have a long road to pave if they want to be champions, and we cannot count on anything yet as a certainty. In fact, I could still see...

It was a thriller for most of the game, but the Kentucky Wildcats held off a determined Vanderbilt team by a score of 83-74 in Rupp Arena on Saturday.  The win runs UK's record to 28-1 overall and 14-0 in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and, more importantly, clinches the SEC regular season championship. 

In what has become a broken record (albeit the good kind!) Anthony Davis was an absolute beast in dominating the game on both ends of the court and, in many national opinions, possibly...

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...

It's fair to say I'm not a big fan of programs like Kentucky beating up on teams like Arkansas-Little Rock, but I am a realist and accept that this is the way of big time college basketball.  For UK, these types of games are no more than glorified practices that sell tickets and provide needed breaks in a very impressive pre-conference slate of games.  I realize you can't play North Carolina and Louisiville every night out, and for teams such as UALR, these games provide financial support of...

In the past 12 months Kentucky basketball has run the gamut of emotions in a way few programs (possibly in history) ever have. Reflecting on where the Big Blue Nation has been since this time last year requires a seat belt and a willing suspension of disbelief.

Approximately one year ago this week, Cat fans were riding high. Kentucky had re-entered the AP Top 25 on Jan. 26th for the first time all year on the back of a five-game winning streak to start SEC play and 11 victories in their past...