Loge Level

Sorry, Tru, I commend your resiliency, but the Patrick Patterson news has pretty much ruined my weekend.

What makes this so difficult to swallow is that Kentucky was on the verge of completing a remarkable in-season turnaround. Gardner-Webb . . . San Diego . . . blowing the lead against UAB . . . being simply out-classed by North Carolina, Indiana, and Louisville . . . the 40-point thrashing in Nashville — somehow, it was all going to culminate with a positively mind-blowing bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Now? Uh, not so much.

We’re left with ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi crushing poor Lance from Corbin’s dreams:

Lance (Corbin Ky): Joe, let’s just say that UT does hold home-court advantage and beats UK (respectfully, let’s say by 10), and UK wins out against S. Carolina & Florida (18-11 and 12-4 sec) and has a good showing in the SEC Tournament. Where do you see UK’s seeding? I’m thinking between 7-12 depending on SEC Tournament showing. Also, if you were a 5, 6 or 7 seeded team how scared would you be to see that Kentucky was your first round opponent seeded at 12, 11 or 10? UK has really played well in the SEC this year (with exception of @ Vandy, but EVERY team has a off-night), and yes I understand that the SEC as a whole is a bit down this year to past years but, UT, UK, VANDY, MISS ST, FLORIDA and maybe ARKANSAS could give about any team fits on a neutral court site. GO BIG BLUE NATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SportsNation Joe Lunardi: (4:08 PM ET ) This may all be moot given today’s news about Patrick Patterson. It’s hard to imagine UK getting/staying on a roll without him.

[Link] Ouch, Joe. But, unfortunately, it’ll be surprising if Lunardi’s proven wrong. Even with a healthy Patterson, we were decided underdogs against Tennessee, and the South Carolina and Florida games were far from gimmes. Candidly, I don’t expect to win any of those games now. Not saying it can’t happen — crazier things have — but I’m significantly lowering the bar.

Where do we do go from here? Even if we lose out, I’d think an NIT bid would still be a possibility. But, as a UK fan, I’m unfamiliar with NIT qualifications.

So, yea, what about spring football? Will Curtis Pulley beat out Michael Hartline for the quarterback job? Would an “I *heart* Hartline” shirt be cool or not cool? And just who will Pulley or Hartline be throwing to?

Onward and upward!

I took a picture of this today driving down Nicholasville Road.  Maybe next week they will give away a free LaserDisc player.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high definition DVDs, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp a company source said on Saturday. (Link)

A lot is being made about UK’s refusal to move the UK – UofL football game to Monday right now.

I never thought I would be saying this, and I hate the fact that it’s come to this, but we should drop the series. It’s obvious that this is what Kentucky wants, and if it’s going to be like this every year - and at this point why should any of us believe that it isn’t - then the game is going to become far more trouble than it’s worth. (Link)

I honestly think that Barnhart is just trying to stick it to the Cardinals any way he can these days. (Link)

Truth be told, UK’s reluctance to acquiesce to U of L’s wish — the Cards want the Monday night affair — has more to do with the prickly relationship between the cross-state rivals than anything else. (Link)

While most people think UK’s doing this just to stick it to Louisville I’m not so sure. After all UK did acquiesce to moving the basketball game pretty quickly. I actually think it comes down to two things.

The first being UK truly doesn’t want a four day turnaround for Norfolk State. Brooks knows that no matter what the circumstances UK should win this game. But it’s only been the last couple of years that UK being favored has translated to on the field success. A loss against Louisville, while crushing to the fans, would not derail the season; however losing at home to Norfolk State would. To this point Eric Crawford writes:

That’s a bit shaky. It’s no different from playing a Thursday night game after a Saturday game. The turnaround is the same. What is different is the night of the week. (Link)

But UK doesn’t typically play Thursday night games. When they did last year they were embarrassed by a team they should have been able to play with.

The second thing that is being overlooked is that unlike UofL, UK under Rich Brooks typically doesn’t factor TV exposure into their decision making.  As John Clay notes:

Louisville has already shown it would play a football game at 3 a.m. in the Freedom Hall parking lot if ESPN asked. Kentucky has already shown it could care less (a) what Louisville wants or (b) if there are any TV cameras at all on hand for the annual rivalry game. (Link)

While this position goes against the grain the on the field results back up Brooks. After all Louisville has been willing to play anytime just to be on TV but that exposure hasn’t translated to better recruiting classes.

Finally in regards to Rick Bozich’s comment:

Schedule the game for Labor Day Night. If Kentucky doesn’t show up, mark it down as a forfeit. (Link)

Maybe if Louisville wanted to play on a Monday so bad they should have put that in the contract. After all it looks a bit odd that the so-called best AD in the world — Tom Jurich — keeps getting out maneuvered by Mitch in regards to football scheduling.

The last six at-large bids in Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology at ESPN.com:

-UAB (19-8, 0-1 top 50, 4-3 top 100, 7-3 last 10, 68th RPI, 130th Strength of schedule) 

-Arizona State  (17-9, 4-5 top 50, 6-7 top 100, 3-7 L10, 70th RPI, 79th SOS)

-Davidson (20-6, 0-3 vs Top 50, 0-5 vs top 100, 10-0 L10, 61st in RPI, 158th SOS)

-Florida (20-7, 1-4 top 50, 3-6 top 100, 5-5 L10, 60th RPI, 115th SOS)

-New Mexico (22-6, 0-3 top 50, 5-4 top 100, 8-2 L10, 44th RPI, 149th SOS).

-Ohio State (17-10, 1-8 top 50, 3-8 top 100, 5-5 L10, 54th RPI, 40th SOS)

So, how do the Cats stack up?

-Kentucky (15-10, 3-5 top 50, 3-8 top 100, 8-2 L10, 65th RPI, 19th SOS)

I don’t think they should be in ahead of any of those teams RIGHT NOW — UAB and Florida beat them, plus Ohio State beat Florida — and it looks like the UAB loss might end up being a bigger loss than San Diego or Gardner-Webb. Read the rest of this entry »

SEC Football Power Rankings in February, huh?

If you’re curious, ESPN.com’s Chris Lowe has Kentucky at No. 11 — in front of only Vanderbilt.

What we know: Rich Brooks has restored credibility back to Kentucky football.
What we don’t know: Is there life after Andre’ Woodson?
How the Wildcats can get to Atlanta: Buying a ticket would be their best bet.

[Link]

In his overview of Spring Football in the Conference, Lowe says the positions to watch at Kentucky are quarterback and wide receiver. I’d have to agree.

So much has happened since I last blogged about the Wildcats’ rise to legitimacy. I’ve been a little busy the last couple weeks, but it’s also been a very full news cycle in Cat Nation.

They finally lost — in grand fashion — to Vanderbilt. I refused to turn off the TV despite the embarrassment. I firmly believe it’s a character-building moment that will vault the Cats to loftier heights.

The legendary Dick “Hoops” Weiss first compared Cats coach Billy Gillispie to Norman Dale of Hoosiers fame while questioning if Billy G is the right fit or if he’ll even stay. To think Gillispie didn’t know what he was getting into is short-sighted. And to claim UK fans are too demanding is once again an easy call from hundreds of miles away in New York. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28y5NTprYRI

Do Arkansas fans know about this? 

http://www.kyproud.com/

Well, the season could have come completely unraveled after Tuesday night’s debacle, but the Cats demonstrated their bouncebackability and gritted out a 67-63 win against the rejuvenated Louisiana State Tigers.

The win keeps alive our slim hopes of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and keeps the Cats in the driver’s seat for the East 2-seed in the SEC Tournament.

According to RealTimeRPI.com, the RPI is now up to 74.

Onward and upward!

Is this how Hoops Weiss sees it? (Link)

A Sea of Blue has already provided a pretty thorough criticism of this column so I won’t do that here.  However, I couldn’t resist making a quick Photoshop.  And can’t we all see Patrick Paterson saying “There’s just one thing… I play, Coach stays. He goes, I go.”

A few random notes after last night’s loss.

• UK has proven that Billy Reed is an incredible reverse predictor.  On December 17th he attacks Billy G and the Cats go on to turn the season around.  Then this Monday he praises Gillispie writing that he should be considered for coach of the year and we all know what happend at Vandy.

• After going quiet for 35 days BillyGSucks finally gets a chance to post again.

• Somehow we moved up in the RPI last night and for the first time all season we are now ahead of Minnesota.

• And at least we’re all not IU fans.

Indiana University men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson “repeatedly” provided “false or misleading information” to the school and NCAA investigators, according to a list of five major violations the NCAA is alleging against IU.

The “notice of allegations” sent to IU president Michael McRobbie on Feb. 8 and released publicly today alleges that Sampson knowingly violated telephone recruiting restrictions, and then lied about it. The restrictions were imposed because of the coach’s NCAA violations while at Oklahoma. (Link)

Wow.

The play that really summed up the evening for me was when AJ Stewart blocked Andrew Ogilvy’s shot and the ball inexplicably went through the basket.

Silver lining: According to RealTimeRPI.com, we’re up to No. 82 in the RPI, despite playing the ugliest half of Kentucky basketball I’ve ever scene. [Caveat: I’m young enough to have no recollection of the 1984 Georgetown game.] Perhaps Jay Bilas had a point when he suggested scrapping that thing.

Chin up. Saturday’s game can’t come soon enough.

This has already been noted at A Sea of Blue and Kentucky Sports Radio, but I wanted to follow up on last week’s post in which I took issue with Jay Bilas’ February 2 comment that there was no way Kentucky could earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Candidly, I do this only to illustrate that I’m not a total homer: non-Blue-Goggle-wearing people now believe Kentucky can earn an at-large bid. Andy Glockner put the Wildcats on his Bubble Watch (as he said he would last week). And Courier-Journal columnist Rich Bozich wrote Sunday that an at-large bid was a possibility for the Cats.

Even Bilas now seems to agree. While he stopped well short of predicting the Cats would make the tournament, on February 9’s College Gameday he conceded that a Kentucky team that finished 12-4 in conference play would have to be considered for an at-large bid.

That said, I’m not near as confident as the KSR guys (see here and here) that the Cats will finish 12-4 in SEC play. They’re certainly capable (I’ve written as much). But we’re underdogs tonight against Vanderbilt and we’ll certainly be underdogs when we visit Tennessee. If we drop those two games, that leaves no margin for error. The home games against surging Arkansas and Florida are no gimmes, and neither is the trip to South Carolina. I won’t be surprised if we win all three of those games, but I won’t be surprised if we drop one either. Especially if you consider our depth — or lack there of — and the luck we’ve had with injuries this year. Not trying to be negative here; just pointing out that going 6-2 through the back-half of the SEC schedule is far from automatic. It goes without saying that a win tonight would be massive boost to the Cats’ tourney chances.

Onward and upward!

At ESPN.com Peter Tiernan is providing some interesting statistics for the NCAA tournament since its expansion in 1985.  His article is available via insider so I don’t want to quote to much of it. But I thought I would provide this chart showing overall tourney wins. (Link)

What sticks out most during UK’s five-game winning streak is that they’re winning games they have no business winning.

A couple months ago, we were blaming a number of things for these Cats’ failures. They lost to Gardner-Webb, UAB, Houston and San Diego. There were plenty of excuses being made for losses that could not be excused.

In no particular order: Tubby’s recruiting, injuries, Tubby’s departure, Billy Gillispie’s lineup and playing time decisions, lack of chemistry between the new coach and the old players, etc. Did I mention Tubby’s recruiting?

Now, you won’t find any excuses being made. Jodie Meeks hasn’t played in three games — hasn’t mattered. Ramel Bradley gets the flu, then a concussion, and misses most of two games — doesn’t matter. Derrick Jasper still can’t run or jump like this — doesn’t matter. Joe Crawford’s feet feel like knives are shredding his arches with every step — doesn’t matter. Ramon Harris slams to the floor with a hip pointer — doesn’t matter. Michael Porter plays a lot — doesn’t matter.

There has been some good luck, although the scales have not been balanced. Richard Hendrix, a beast and one of the best players in a depleted SEC, must have received a virus-o-gram from Bradley and couldn’t play on Saturday. Auburn has no fans (read near bottom) and even fewer players who can accurately shoot the leather. Georgia’s defense was only topped in ineptitude by Auburn.

Still, without Bradley and Meeks – and with a hobbled Crawford only able to play in short spurts because of cramps and a foot condition that makes every step burn — the Cats had no business winning on the road at Georgia or Auburn.

But the Cats are finding ways to win close games. (Aren’t they all close?) And a lot of the credit goes to players emerging. Perry Stevenson has been a force. Patrick Patterson has been dominant. Bradley and Crawford are shooting the ball as fine as I can remember any Wildcat the last five, maybe 10, seasons. When Joe shoots, it seems automatic.

You expect good things to happen, don’t fear for the worst, and there are no longer any excuses.

The two SEC games they lost — at Mississippi State (Vanardo’s a hacker) and at Florida (let’s hope UK benefits the same way with borderline calls when the Gators visit Rupp) — the excuses were at least tempered.

But, most importantly, the message has been sent that there will no longer be inexcusable losses.