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 in the post.

Cornell plays 12 to 15 guys and subs players in waves. It’s difficult to know who is on the floor at any given time when trying to guard them. It also hurts that they all shoot the ball equally well from behind the arc. Ryan Wittman has an NBA pedigree and can shoot from anywhere inside 30 feet. He must be face guarded and pressured all over the floor.

Cornell is incredibly cerebral and well coached. They will be a difficult matchup for anyone due to their precision passing and excellent shooting. They run a complicated circular offense that starts when they enter the ball into their 7-1 center Jeff Foote. He is also an excellent passer and is equally adept at pitching and catching, kicking out and hitting cutters.

DeMarcus Cousins and Daniel Orton will have to do a good job of keeping Foote in front of them. At the end he likes to whirl and dunk one handed after faking a number of passes. This guy appears to be a pro player and UK should not underestimate him.

“If” Kentucky plays outside-in (rarely have they done this consistently this year), they should win by 10 to 15 points due to physicality and size in the post. But if Cornell dares UK to shoot by giving up long threes in gaps, it could be a very long night if the Cats shoot poorly. Eric Bledsoe will need to physically overwhelm their point guard Louis Dale, who is heady and surprisingly athletic and quick. He can also shoot it off the bounce, evidenced by his 26 points against Wisconsin.

BBL’s Take
We don’t see this game as a blow out in any way. In fact, we think this could be the last potential “bad matchup” UK has remaining on their course for Banner #8. Cornell does not slow the game down. They take the first good or open shot they can get. If they shoot well and UK shoots poorly, anything can happen.

After Cornell, neither West Virginia nor Washington match up well with UK. Both play similar styles and lack great size in the post. They will wear out before the 10:00 minute mark in the second half. WVU doesn’t typically get great backcourt play, and U-Dub’s guards are small.

The BBL has found it interesting that Calipari has lengthened his bench in the first two games of the NCAA tournament. He appears ready to give Perry Stephenson and Ramon Harris extended minutes along with Orton, Darnell Dodson and DeAndre Liggins. UK is now employing a rotation with 10 players capable of seeing double digit minutes in the tournament. This type of depth will only help them in their four potential remaining games.

The BBL believes if Kentucky beats Cornell, they are headed to Indy and matched up with a team they’ll be favored by at least seven points. But that’s why they play the games.

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 losing record and no, they aren’t a postseason threat of any sort. But this is a team with a 13-3 home record that claims more quality wins than most teams in America (wins over Georgia Tech, Illinois, Vandy, Tennessee and Florida).

True, Georgia showed its immaturity and started to completely fold in the second half under heavy UK defensive pressure, but this was not an easy place to go into and win in convincing fashion. This was a solid road performance for Kentucky, regardless of what you might hear elsewhere in the national media.

Here our some of our thoughts in this first of two game summaries on UK’s solid 80-68 victory over Georgia.

John Wall found his stroke a bit Wednesday, hitting three of his first four threes and showing that he can make you pay for leaving him open on the perimeter. His first half left-handed dunk was absolutely stupefying. Overall, Wall showed great leadership and demonstrated that he has learned when to slow it down and when to push it. We are starting to change our minds about his progress…he is getting better.

Maybe the loss to Tennessee really was what this team needed to wake up out of the poor shooting funk they’ve been in. A 52% first half really set the tone and showed a short memory.

The return of Darnell Dodson was a beautiful thing to witness. We said here that DD’s body was wearing down and we were worried about his ability to contribute in March. Dodson showed his trademark lack of conscience and kept shooting even after a rough start. This is the kind of fearlessness UK needs to make a run, as his scoring provides another deadly weapon for defenses to respect.

Patrick Patterson continued his late season surge with another double-double, pulling in 10 rebounds to go with his 17 points. PP is the glue right now, and we think as he goes, so goes UK.

There is a lot that can be said right now about Eric Bledsoe. The guy has all the talent in the world, but just simply hasn’t been able to put it together for long stretches. His decision making is abysmal and the turnovers are bound to cost Kentucky at a critical moment. We still look forward eagerly to what he can do next year, but right now, sometimes Bledsoe is a liability to this team.

Coach Calipari threatened to play the bench more and followed through, giving valuable minutes to Ramon Harris, Perry Stevenson and Josh Harrellson, who all acquitted themselves nicely. Having upperclassmen contribute like these three is a total bonus. Harris and Stevenson looked really active and found their way into some rebounds and a putback or two. It’s clear that their legs are fresh due to the limited minutes they’ve seen this year. In all, the Kentucky bench dropped a season high 24 points.

Travis Leslie is seriously one of the top five college dunkers of all time. Hands down. No other way to put it. However, he struggled against UK’s length and athleticism, and had trouble with Darius Miller in particular.

DeMarcus Cousins had a mostly quiet night, relatively speaking. But his steal, open court handle and drive to the hoop with a left handed finish was a sign of the once in a generation potential this guy possesses. In a season of amazing highlights for Big Cuz, that was about as amazing as anything.

The Cats put together an absolute block party tonight, swatting 14 shots and showing that you simply can’t bring it into the lane on this team.

Oh, and also, once again, basketball royalty was in attendance Wednesday night, as the bread truck himself, Mr. Charles Barkley watched the Cats and Dogs get down.

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 illustrious spectators as LeBron James and Ashley Judd earlier this season, Ben Roethlisberger and Magic Johnson showed up to watch the Cats hoop Thursday night. Says a lot about the state of basketball in Lexington.

DeMarcus Cousins is ridiculous. The big man hasn’t even grown into his body yet, has very little vertical leap at this point, and yet he is already nearly unstoppable, showing amazing touch, a variety of moves and a fierce desire to score and dominate games. Enjoy him for another month, Cat fans, this guy will be taking his road show to NBA millions soon and, barring something unexpected, a long and fruitful pro career. Maybe HOF?

Darius Miller is back…again. When Darius gets a good start, he plays with confidence and is capable of knocking down any shot. UK will need this production big time in March.

We thought Patrick Patterson had completely disappeared just two weeks ago. We were wrong. PP is back in the NBA lottery pick hunt, and his soft hands and scoring ability are coming up big. He finally showed up with a nice all-around game against a South Carolina squad that had become his nemesis over the past couple seasons. That up and under move in the early second half when he scored with the left hand was the real deal.

One quick thought. Patterson and Cousins would be the starting power forward-center tandem for 20 NBA teams right now.

South Carolina made the game interesting at multiple points and remained within striking distance for far too long. But as has become customary with this team, you never really got the feeling that Kentucky was letting it slip away. It was just a matter of when the next big run would be. It’s that kind of confidence and swagger that separates this UK group from any other since the Pitino era.

DeAndre Liggins is flat out all over the court. Guy has become a totally different person. His length and lateral quickness make him a nasty defender and excellent garbage rebounder. He just gets better with every game. As much as the complexion of this team will change next season, the BBL can’t wait to see what happens when Liggins becomes a featured option. We’re calling it now. He’ll be an Evan Turner-esque stat stuffer and all-SEC standout next year.

John Wall is still the catalyst and it’s hard to find too much bad to say about him. But he and Eric Bledsoe are still too out of control. They push the ball when it doesn’t need to be. It makes us wonder if both of these superb talents being on the floor at the same time contributes to them pressing too hard. Next year, sans Wall, it will be interesting to see if Bledsoe can improve his grasp of game tempo. Right now, EB is sort of lost. His jumper is broken and his sense of awareness on the court is at a season low.

South Carolina is in good hands under coach Darrin Horn. They have some active, athletic big men who block shots and get a lot of buckets around the goal. If Horn can keep recruiting like he has, and word is his next class is top 25 caliber, then this team will be a force in the SEC East for the next few years.

If you doubted that the diminutive Devan Downey could play in the NBA, that pull up 35-foot jumper before halftime should probably make you think differently.

As we stated last week, sometimes Brad Nessler seems to be the superior analyst to Dick Vitale. Thursday night, a few possessions into the game, Vitale claimed that South Carolina had no answer for Cousins on the interior. To this, Nessler responded, “I don’t think anyone has an answer for that, Dick.”

Good win for the Cats. Now do the John Wall.

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 hard for me to overstate how tough this division is and Kentucky is at the top of the division.”

This quote underscores the stakes on tonight’s game. Winning tonight in the hostile confines of Vandy’s Memorial Coliseum would all but cement Kentucky as a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance.

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.

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 against a dangerous Mississippi State team that the BBL feels is one of the few squads in the nation not at a disadvantage athletically when matching up with the Cats. When breaking down the schedule earlier this season, we actually predicted a loss for Kentucky in this game. Though the Bulldogs have struggled this year, nothing changes in our assessment of how these teams match up.

Personnel at a Glance
MSU is a tall, rangy team with a lot of active leapers who will rebound, scrap and block shots. Defensively they are the best team in the conference in points allowed, and it all revolves around 6-9 center Jarvis Varnado, who is 16 blocks shy of the NCAA record.

Offensively, point guard Dee Bost has a quick first step and can get into the lane or pull up and hit outside jumpers. He’s coming off a huge game vs. Auburn where he scored 32 points and hit seven threes. State has a bevy of wing scorers in Phil Turner, Ravern Johnson and Barry Stewart, none of whom are scared to pull the trigger from long range.

They go about eight deep and have an assortment of good rebounders, starting with Varnado, who pulls down an SEC leading 11.3 per game.

Plan of Attack
Mississippi State will attempt to drive the lane early to loosen up Kentucky’s perimeter defense. If the Bulldogs can find creases in UK’s halfcourt defense, the Cats will need to watch for kick outs and be ready to close on three point shooters. None of State’s shooters need a lot of daylight to pull.

On the defensive side of the ball, MSU will likely follow the now standard blueprint for teams playing Kentucky and run a 2-3 matchup zone with Varnado manning the middle. Varnado is giving up a couple inches and about 30 pounds to DeMarcus Cousins, but with his condor like wingspan and uncanny timing, he will be a tough obstacle to shoot over for Cousins or any Wildcat who gets into the lane.

A big X-factor in this game could be MSU’s Kodi Augustus, a broad shouldered 6-8 power forward who can play out on the perimeter. He’ll likely draw Patrick Patterson away from the basket and look to slash.

All in all, it’s likely to be raining three point shots for most of the game, and if MSU’s outside jumpers are falling, they have a good shot to win.

BBL’s Take
Kentucky will be facing a hostile crowd in “Stark-Vegas” as the Bulldogs need this victory to put themselves squarely into the NCAA field of 65. MSU has struggled through the middle part of the SEC season, but hasn’t lost a conference home game since last year. Without question this will be the toughest road setting the Cats have played in up to this point.

Kentucky will need to get out to a good start and hope to get some transition buckets to silence a raucous crowd. State will try to take away the penetration of John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, but if the Cats can find a way to get the ball to the middle and pull Varnado away from the basket, they should find a lot of open looks.

UK will also need to attack the zone more effectively than they did against Tennessee last Saturday. This means Wall and Bledsoe being more patient with the ball and recognizing when they can draw two defenders at a time to find open gaps from the wing. If Kentucky has a good shooting night, they should escape with a huge conference road win and take another big step toward a top seed in the tourney.

Well, that was fast.

One week ago today, the BBL wrote here that “greatness can come in a flash, and be taken away even quicker.” No, we didn’t have Devan Downey in mind when we uttered those words, but we might as well have been discussing the diminutive South Carolina guard after the way he completely dictated the game in Kentucky’s deflating loss Tuesday night in Columbia, S.C.

True, many in the Big Blue Nation are having their trademark panic attack over the loss and yes, some in the national media are already taking on a rather satisfied air now that the “will UK go undefeated” stories have come to an end (without naming names, there are at least two “experts” under the employ of the worldwide leader who seem a little too happy about the upset).

But the real question is, how bad did this loss hurt and what did we as observers learn from it?

A Perfect Night for an Upset
From the start, it felt like it was going to be a rough night for the Cats. Those who watched the game on ESPN probably recall at least two or three occasions when commentator Jimmy Dykes said something to the effect of: in order to pull the upset, X, Y or Z have to happen. It’s safe to say now that they did.

Here are a few numbers from the game that must seem a little surprising to anyone who has watched Kentucky with even a passing interest this season:

• Patrick Patterson scored 5 points, Darius Miller had zero
• The Kentucky bench was woeful, scoring only 7 points in a total of about 48 minutes
• The Cats shot 38% from the field, about 12 percentage points below their season average
• South Carolina blocked 8 shots to UK’s 5 (we think this is the first time all year the opponent has had more blocks)

This is only part of the story, however. More specifically, this is just what the numbers tell us. To anyone who watched the game, the problems ran much deeper. The Cats were outhustled. SC beat them to loose balls. The big men for the home team were far more aggressive. UK lobbed lackadaisical passes on more than one occasion late in the game. The team in blue missed a number of chip shots and important free throws.

And frankly, Kentucky also got unlucky. There were several critical moments that told the story of the game. The first came at around the 7:00 minute mark, when a loose ball that looked like it might turn into a UK steal and breakaway instead dropped into the lap of Brandis Raley-Ross who converted an easy layup.

A minute later, with Kentucky down two, Darnell Dodson got a backcourt steal but somehow missed the uncontested dunk. One minute after that, in what might have been the play of the year so far in the SEC, Downey caught an inbounds pass and nailed a ridiculous baseline fadeaway at the shot clock buzzer. He got fouled on the play and hit the free throw to put SC up three, a lead which they held for good.

What Can We Take Away?
People often talk about a team’s first loss serving as a “good loss” for the long term health of the season. I don’t necessarily agree with this sentiment, but I do think that, for a roster as young as Kentucky’s, the pressure of trying to be the first team in 34 years to win every game could potentially be more of a burden than a blessing. Now that it’s out of the way, can we expect to see more losses?

Wall and Bledsoe need to clean it up. We’ve discussed it all year. UK’s backcourt is as spectacular as any we’ve seen in the nation, but the turnovers and reckless play could really come back to haunt them. This was definitely the case versus the Gamecocks. Nine turnovers and a lot of bad decision making from UK’s guards hurt.

Patterson and Miller, where did you go? Miller followed up his best game as a Wildcat with possibly his worst. He continues to be an enigma. Patterson has been steady all year but has laid eggs now in both of his last two trips to Columbia. He needs to play tougher and look to get involved in the offense. Kentucky should go to him more often as well.

Must stop dribble penetration. It may be true that UK won’t be facing too many more Downeys this year, but after the “olay” defensive effort last night, the Cats will need to stop guards who get to the rack. This weekend’s game vs. Vandy will be a good first test, as guards Jermaine Beal and Jeffrey Taylor can get to the hoop as well as shoot from deep.

Bench production is key. We already mentioned it, but Kentucky will need its bench to do more than what it showed in this one. Ramon Harris, Perry Stevenson, DeAndre Liggins and Daniel Orton combined to take only three shots and commit five fouls. That’s inexcusable.

Lowpost lapse. Things started out well. Cousins, Patterson and Orton scored 17 of UK’s 29 first half points and had a distinct rebound advantage over a depleted SC frontcourt. But it was a tale of two halves as UK’s bigs wilted down the stretch and allowed Carolina’s no-name big men to block and alter shots and ultimately win the rebounding margin.

BBL Take
The Cats have the nation’s most talented roster, top to bottom, in our estimation. The BBL thinks this will ultimately be borne out by the fact that as many as six or seven players on the current roster have a legitimate shot to be selected in the NBA draft.

Up to this point, Calipari has done a masterful job of taking this talent and meshing it, despite a difficult mixture of holdovers from the former regime and fresh-faced youngsters. But Kentucky must play better. Road games at Mississippi State, Vandy, Tennessee and Georgia should put them to the test.

Sounds easy to say, but we think of the South Carolina loss as more of an aberration than a sign of major trouble. Despite some of the alarming trends in this lackluster performance, Kentucky still managed to keep the game within one possession down to the final 10 seconds. Chalk this one up to a bad night on the road where the opposing team got every bounce and Downey, despite his small stature, stood taller than everyone else on the court in refusing to let his team lose.

There will be better days.

Closing out the game on a 17-5 run that included clutch threes by Darnell Dodson and Eric Bledsoe, Kentucky once again showed the ability to perform under pressure and demonstrate poise well beyond its youth in an 89-77 victory at Florida.

But despite dominating the stat lines, the Cats failed once again to put an opponent away when the opportunity presented itself. Here’s what you need to know about the game:

Wall and Bledsoe are virtually impossible to guard at the college level. Their ability to push the ball past and through fullcourt pressure is uncanny. When one of these two is getting past the defense and into the lane, Kentucky’s offense is lethal.

Bledsoe is almost certainly an NBA lottery pick when he decides to leave. It is positively scary to think that his long term pro stock might be every bit as high as John Wall’s. As we have mentioned on here before, agreeing to be the secondary ballhandler on this team must have been a difficult choice for EB and both he and Wall have handled it with grace and maturity. But make no mistake. If Wall was not around, Bledsoe would be hitting the highlight reels as often as his backcourt mate. We dearly hope he sticks around for next year, but with every passing minute, it seems less and less likely.

Even on an off-night Patterson, Cousins and Orton are a formidable inside presence. Orton is like a human fly swatter, batting balls into the stands with regularity. Watching Florida’s post players try to get shots off around the glass with him lurking was amusing. If and when he develops an offensive game, he could be an All-American. He will have to work on his touch, which is abysmal right now.

Miller showed more aggressiveness tonight and stepped up to take some pretty big shots. In particular, his jumper to put UK up 3 with about 6:00 minutes to play was a shot we didn’t expect him to think about. He also held his own inside and pulled in a few tough boards. Meanwhile, Liggins took a bit of  a step back in limited minutes, turning it over twice and looking sheepish.

When the game was tied at 72-72 inside of 5:00 to play, we were pleased to see Kentucky go to the elder statesman, Patrick Patterson, who promptly hit a turn around hook, got fouled and silenced the crowd. The Cats never looked back after that.

BBL Take: Kentucky was the superior team in almost every facet of the game, but still let Florida get back into it, mostly due to hot three-point shooting by Erving Walker and a rowdy home crowd. The Cats’ inability to put teams away is mildly concerning, but going on the road and beating a conference foe as solid as UF by double digits is yet another statement for this team in its possible quest to make history.

People are taking notice of this 17-0 squad, even some who should have known by now. For instance, we caught this Tweet by ESPN hoops analyst Andy Katz during tonight’s game:

“Kentucky can reach Final Four and compete for title. I see it more than ever with speed, size, rebounding, shooting.”

Uh, ya think Andy?

One of our favorite all-time Wildcat heroes, Chuck Hayes, is making quite a name for himself in the NBA.

With the Houston Rockets missing Yao Ming, Chuck has logged the bulk of the minutes available at center, despite his 6-6 frame. The results? Coaches and players are raving.

Check out the recent quotes on Hayes’ performance so far this season (for the record, he’s averaging 7 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists):

“He’s incredible,” Rockets Coach Rick Adelman said. “You watch him play that game against a 7-1 guy in Andrew Bynum. That guy is a really good young player. He gets 17 points and 17 rebounds. Chuck ends up with 14 and 14. When he’s on the court, we’re so different. Right now, he’s confident and making some plays for himself. He’s playing with a lot of freedom. I marvel at what he gets done against certain people in this league.”

“Luis Scola and I were talking in the weight room this morning,” Shane Battier said, “and we both agreed Chuck Hayes is our favorite player in the NBA.”

“He’s the perfect player,” Power Forward Carl Landry said. “He rebounds, plays defense, takes charges, gets steals. He does the dirty work.”

We present our first look at Darrin Horn’s South Carolina Gamecocks.

Backcourt:
Devan Downey might be the most underrated guard in D-1. He is virtually uncheckable in transition and in the open court. He has a rare combination of speed, athleticism and ball skills. Downey will get his 20 and 6 every night. The other SC guards are good in their own right. Brandis Raley-Ross is a decent scorer while Evaldas Baniulis hit an uncanny 48 of 100 3-point tries last season. Watch out for a good incoming crop of long and strong wings.

Frontcourt:
Dominique Archie is a highlight reel jumping jack who gets out on the break as well as anybody in the SEC. He can play on the wing defensively, too. Juniors Mike Holmes, Sam Muldrow and Austin Steed will offer solid complementary post play.

Freshmen:
SC’s 3 incoming combo guards are impact players right away in the SEC. It appears Horn’s up-tempo system is luring skilled athletes to Columbia. Stephen Spinella, Lakeem Jackson and Ramon Galloway are all big, athletic and capable of scoring from the wing or off the bounce. Incoming JC transfer Johndre Johnson is long and lean and adds depth inside.

Outlook:
This squad has the potential to be USC’s best college hoops team since the Eddie Fogler Days. They are a serious darkhorse Sweet 16 group. They are balanced, experienced and deep. Of course, the SEC East figures to be a mine field where anything can happen.

BBL Take:
USC swept UK last season and its frontline flat out humiliated Patrick Patterson in Columbia. Expect war when they match up this year. An epic battle between John Wall and Downey looms.