On Monday morning, March 30th 2009, the BBN awoke to face another day of wondering what we were going to do. Our Kentucky Wildcats had lost during the NIT just five days earlier to Notre Dame. First, the mere fact of playing in the NIT was not acceptable to most. Two days after that, we were informed that now we were without a head coach. We had already heard rumors of unhappy players thinking about the possibilities of a transfer. Needless to say the Big Blue faithful were no where close to being atop a cloud. Flooding thoughts of this nightmare could not be pushed aside no matter how hard we tried.

In years past when a season ended way too soon, we started the process of moving on. We always fought it for a while, discussing the reasons we felt it ceased too early, how we could have done it better, and sometimes pointing out which parts were good. Fairly soon we would sway our attention to October and begin to hope for a deeper run next time. March of '09 was different though. We had found ourselves in a bit of a pinch, again. Above all else, we knew we had to get our beloved ship up-righted and on course or we could not begin to turn our focused hope. We did not have a skipper, though.

How would we do this and where would we start? I am sure we all wondered this. The thoughts of most of us were to turn to our fellow fans and think this through. Obviously, we could not think of any better place than the blue confines we call A Sea of Blue. The place we knew we could discuss possibilities, find real facts, up-to-date information, and seek comfort from others who understood exactly how we felt. With our crystal balls in hand, we flocked in numbers to help and be helped. We could not have imagined the journey we were about to experience. Well, I am positive we never thought about watching a door for hours, that turned into days.

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Matthew Mitchell has a really simple job for the rest of the season. Just don't lose. Or at least that's what he seems to think. The UK Hoops squad continued their Sherman-esque march through the SEC tonight by scalding the Lady Tigers from Auburn. The Hoops squad is now 8-0 in SEC play after defeating Auburn by a score of 66-48 in Auburn, playing a combination of efficient offense and their trademark stingy defense. Led by A'dia Mathies again, as her 20 pts over 27 minutes were more than the Tigers could handle. Auburn dropped to 2-6 in SEC play. Mathies was coming off of a game against Florida where she only scored 3 pts, and was looking to get back into a groove, which Auburn was none too happy to allow.

Mathies stated afterward, " I need to be more aggresive, they would rather have me shooting and creating plays than anyone else." " I tried to get more people involved" Mathies had three assists to go along with her 20 pts.

The Hoops squad got out early and never let up, forcing 30 T.O.'s on Auburn, which led to 38 points. Maegan Conwright added 10 pts as well, as she and Samarie Walker helped pile on a total of 16 pts between them.The ladies had 13 steals, shot 6-3pt baskets, and grabbed 34 rebounds.

The UK Hoops squad's defense is becoming not just stingy, but downright devastating. Those 30 T.O.'s are the most ever forced by a UK Hoops squad against Auburn in history.

Blanche Alverson scored 15 for Auburn, and Morgan Jennings added 10 more.Overall, Auburn was simply outrun and outgunned.

Coach Matthew Mitchell stated, "A great performance by our team tonight, that's what good teams do, go on the road and win." " I told 'em before the game, because we're confident does not mean we will win, but if we play confident we will win this game" "This group has worked really hard, and they need to understand that if they do that, it will work for them."

Bernisha Pinkett and Conwright together added a total of 18 points. Samarie Walker had 15 rebounds and 2 steals to go along with her 6 pts.

The Hoops squad takes on Alabama to start the second half of their SEC schedule at Memorial Coliseum on Sunday Jan 29th at 2 pm. TV Coverage provided by Comcast Sports South. We will have a live blog here at ASOB.

Anthony Davis is getting all sorts of love today from just about everywhere, and he is a factor in the National Player of the Year race.

Your links:

Link: Davis the best defensive prospect since the 1980's - Kentucky Wildcats

I'm just struggling to find an NCAA player [to compare to Anthony Davis] who had so many blocks and steals while fouling so rarely. Check his latest stat line. The 27 points on 12 shots is impressive, as is 14 boards. To me, the most staggering aspect is, "seven blocks, no fouls."

As I mentioned the other day, Anthony Davis, the NCAA leader in blocked shots, averages just over 2 fouls PER GAME. That's unheard-of. Only 43 college players average fewer fouls per game than Davis.

Freshman of the Year: Nash makes his case - CBSSports.com

1. Anthony Davis, Kentucky (Last Week: 1): 13.2 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 4.7 bpg, 62.9 FG% Davis didn’t have his best offensive week the past two games, going just 3-for-12 from the field for 15 total points. He’s still a menace defensively and on the boards.

Bilas: Anthony Davis is Best Big Man in College Basketball

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Yes, we have heard it all before, and we will hear it again. That is, until it's wrong.

What am I talking about? The same thing that starts to crop up every year for the last three years: Kentucky can't win the NCAA Tournament championship with freshmen. This time, it is Shane Ryan writing for Grantland.

Consider this:

What about a national championship? Conventional wisdom says that teams who win a title have a fortunate combination of talent and experience, meaning that Kentucky is bound to fall short yet again. To assess the accuracy of that idea, let's look at the last few title winners.

Ryan goes on to list the NCAA Tournament champions from the last 12 years, contending, essentially, that none of them were truly freshman-led (although he really doesn't differentiate this point). His argument is, in essence, that because we have had so few (2003's Syracuse team probably has to be considered an exception) freshmen-led NCAA title winners, the odds are against having another one.

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Click here for an explanation of how the DSS is charted and what the ratings and box score represent.

On Tuesday Kentucky put together one of their best defensive performances of the season, holding the Georgia Bulldogs to 44 points in a 56 possession game - a defensive efficiency of 78.5 points per 100 possessions. While it is certainly true that Georgia is not a very good offensive team, that mark represents the Dawgs' 2nd worst offensive performance of the season, behind only a 71.4 mark against Cal on a neutral floor back in November (courtesy KenPom (subscr.)). It really was a pretty nice performance by the Cats.

In particular, UK held the Bulldogs to only 3 Free Throw Attempts (a minuscule 5.5 FTAs per 100 FGAs) and 6 offensive rebounds out of 38 possible chances (an almost as minuscule 15.8 Offensive RB%). That helped offset only forcing 6 turnovers.

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Well, today the new Nike Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms were unveiled. Reaction has been decidedly mixed.

Now, for the links:

Calipari: To want more you have to ask for more // CoachCal.com

"You could tell I wasn’t happy with some stuff," Calipari said. "And I wasn’t happy because, again, we weren’t talking. They got layups because we had two guys come together and didn’t speak to each other. ‘Well, I thought he was going to stay and … ‘Come on, man, just talk. Just say, ‘I got him. You got him. Help me.’ Again, we’re into our own thing right now and you’re can’t be a special team and be that way."

Kentucky Wildcats 57, Georgia Bulldogs 44: The Instantaneous Ill-Informed Roundball Wrapup // Dawg Sports

This game was as frustrating as the loss to Ole Miss, but for an entirely different reason. The Hoop Dogs proved at the beginning of the night that they are capable of playing with (quite literally) the best team in the land, but they were unable to hold on despite solid efforts from Djurisic (10 points, 5 rebounds), Robinson (6 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists), and Dustin Ware (12 points, 2 steals).

The ACC and SEC Blog: Will Kentucky Transfer Stacey Poole Help Get Georgia Tech Back On Track?

A Q&A I had about Stacey Poole Jr.

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Gene Wojciechowski, author of The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky, will be joining Ken, Norm Haney, and Seth Burchett today for Wildcat Wednesday on 1340 WBGN. We'll discuss his outstanding book, which covers the UK and Duke basketball programs from roughly 1989 until The Game in March of 1992. If you haven't read the book, I highly encourage you to pick up a copy. It's a real insider's look at the behind the scenes machinations of both programs during that time.

The show starts at 5:00 ET. To listen to live streaming, go here, and click on the iTunes or Windows Media Player logo. We encourage your phone calls at 270-746-9246, or email sportsguys@1340wbgn.com.