More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

John Calipari imploring his team to defend ... at least that's what I hope he's doing.

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Nobody ever said defense optional basketball isn't fun to watch.  Well, wait, allow me to amend that statement -- UK does play pretty good post defense, allowing opponents to make only 19 of 61 two-point shots (31.3%) through their first three games.  But when opponents make a combined 33 of 69 three-point attempts (47.8%), as did Miami and Sam Houston State, their abysmal two-point average is rendered a little less meaningful. 

As the numbers shout to us, the perimeter "defense" ain't pretty, but isn't it good enough (for now) that these 'Cats are capable of illuminating the scoreboard at a blissful rate, especially if teams choose to run and gun.  Of course, some of UK's future opponents will opt for the Morehead blueprint of slowing the game down by using up as much of the 35-second shot clock as possible.  What's encouraging, though, is that these youthful 'Cats have been tested by both offensive philosophies, and have thrice come out the winner.  But, as sure as Nicholas Cage will drop a cool two-million on a Cessna, UK's competition level will be increasing in the very near future.  For a look at where the 'Cats need to improve, and where they are thriving, follow me after the jump.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Corey Allmond set a new record for 3's in Rupp Arena. Sounds like a broken record, n'est pas?

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Well, that was all kinds of fun.

Great game by the Sam Houston State Bearkats.  They really came in and gave it all they had, and it was almost enough.  This team can really shoot when they want to.  If they could bottle tonight and dole it out in doses throughout the year, they might win their league and make the NCAA tournament easily.

I have been watching college basketball a very long time, more years than some members of this blog have been drawing breath.  But I am sure that I have never seen two opposing teams back to back hit so many three point shots.  For both Miami and Sam Houston, they made the three look like a layup, or a free-throw.  In fact, I've seen lots of teams shoot a worse percentage from the free throw line than Sam Houston did from 20'9" -- 18-38.

I really don't know what to make of it, this amazing three-point shooting.  It's as if teams come into Rupp Arena, look at the basket, decide that it looks as big around as Jared Fogle before his Subway diet, and start filling it up like it fire hydrant unleashed on a blow-up backyard pool.

Kentucky's perimeter defense was pretty weak, okay?  I get that. But I don't know very many people who could stand at 25 feet and shoot 50% unopposed, let alone with other players running at them.  At least half of those threes were two to four feet behind the line.  Amazing.

Perhaps it's all the pre-season publicity that is driving this ridiculous opposition shooting.  Perhaps they just hate Kentucky.  Who knows?  Whatever it its, UK needs an antidote, and that antidote is better and sharper defense.  A big part of SHS' outstanding night was confusion and failure to communicate.  That has to get better.  But even all that does not explain the otherworldly, Hand of God shooting that UK has faced in the last two games.

But there is one really big positive -- both games were victories, and even historic three-point shooting was not enough to upset Kentucky.  I think that's important, don't you?  Can you imagine what would have happened last year?

More after the jump.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Charlie Coles is da man! What a great performance the Miami RedHawks gave in the post-game interview the other day.

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Tonight, the Wildcats take on the Bearkats of Sam Houston State, a team I know absolutely nothing about, as their opening round game in the Cancun Challenge.  Rumors have been swirling about the availability of Darnell Dodson and John Wall, but I have heard nothing definite.  The closest I can come is:

• Calipari is very unhappy with Darnell Dodson at the moment (that could explain why it took him so long to get into the game on Monday).
• Calipari is getting happier with DeAndre Liggins.  Happy enough to play him?
• John Wall's uncle passed away earlier this week. Our sympathy goes out to his family.  I have no idea if he will play or not, but I suspect he will.

In other news worth highlighting, UK just secured another football recruit, Avery Williamson, a Rivals 3* linebacker out of Milan, Tennessee.  Willimson impressed at Lane Kiffin's Tennessee Camp and is one of the very best in the Volunteer state.  Even though UT was not heavily recruiting Williamson, UK has had great success with the overlooked players from Tennessee and Georgia.

And finally there is this item about one of my favorite players, Chuck Hayes.  I somehow missed this when it come out (I'm sure somebody linked it, though) but I think it deserves special attention.  I love Chuck Hayes, and when he gets accolades, I like to put it on the front page.

The news follows the jump.

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It's time for the SEC Power Poll for Week 11, and Alabama once again rises to the top both on my ballot, and in the aggregated totals, which are found at Team Speed Kills, as always.

For my part, I obviously think a little more of the 'Cats and a little less of Tennessee than other voters, but other than that, there isn't a whole lot of difference.  Alabama has pretty much cemented itself as the best team in the league with more or less consistent domination of everyone, while the Gators seem to be running into more difficulty of late.  The Tide takes on an FCS school this week (Wait--didn't we get heat for doing that from TSK?) in UT-Chattanooga, then finishes the season at detested in-state rival Auburn for the Iron Bowl, which is the Tide's biggest danger of a loss in a while.

Florida, on the other hand, gets two schools from in-state to finish off the season -- Florida International and hated rival, Florida State.  As with Alabama and Auburn, the possibility of an upset looms somewhat larger with the Seminoles.

My ballot follows the jump.

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More photos » by Jeff Roberson - AP

The X man didn't look much like a mutant last night.

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Last night's game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Memphis Tigers is a great lesson for the Jayhawks that they get to learn without much cost, much like Kentucky's game versus the Miami RedHawks the other night.  It isn't exactly free -- both teams took a hit to their pre-season hype and credibility -- but its value is far beyond that ephemeral penalty.

Take a look at what Yahoo's Jason King said about Kansas last night:

Kansas’ players seemed arrogant and, as a team, the Jayhawks lacked cohesion. Memphis, meanwhile, used pesky defense and hustle plays to stay in the game. The Tigers forced 21 turnovers while fighting back from a 10-point deficit midway through the second half.

Remember the article about swagger the other day?  This is the danger of having swagger -- the possibility that it can run over into arrogance.  Arrogance in a college basketball team, particularly early in the season, leads to defeat.  The Jayhawks dodged a bullet, the 'Cats dodged a bullet, the Tar Heels dodged a bullet, and the Spartans dodged a bullet.  There is a lesson to be learned here, I think.

The lesson is that unless you adopt a professional attitude about the work before you, swagger just looks arrogant and classless.  It inspires other teams not to fear you, but to want to kick your butt all over the arena, and sometimes, a little inspiration is all you need -- right, Nick Winbush?

The early season is for learning lessons, and right now, the lesson is don't crown yourself king until you have won a few battles.  That lesson should be burning into the brain of every player on UK, KU, Michigan State and UNC.  That crown doesn't fit any of these teams yet -- it's much too small to fit on swelled heads.  Those heads will shrink as the season goes on and young players learn, but the learning needs to start right now.

Lesson #1 -- respect your opponent, and don't take him for granted.  Otherwise, he might rise up and smite you.

More after the jump.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

The great Wall smiles after his cold-blooded assault on the Miami Redhawks.

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The Kentucky Wildcats' 72-70 victory over the Miami (OH) Redhawks might not have been the bunny rabbit victory the fans clad in blue expected, but the play of freshmen point guard John Wall and power forward DeMarcus Cousins illuminated brightly why the two future NBA stars were so hotly courted by the nations basketball elite.  Sure, both players made mistakes -- Wall had 5 turnovers and a missed free throw late in the game, and Cousins was a no-show in the first half --  but when it came time for Kentucky to assert its second half authority, Wall and Cousins were the leaders of the 'Cat pack.

Although UK allowed an embarrassing 57.7% of Redhawk three-pointers (15-26) to tickle the twine, as well as making only 58.3% of their own charity attempts (14-24), the 'Cats' play over the final 11:00 minutes of the second half propelled a sure and shocking loss into the win it should have been.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

No need to get back after that shot, John.

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I don't know about you, but I think winning on a last-second jumper qualifies as a close call.

John Wall's shot has been the talk of college basketball all day long.  Here in Louisville, WHAS radio host Terry Meiners was cracking jokes about how the name "John" had become synonymous with great things.  It was a great play by a great young player, but it can't erase all the questionable and downright ugly things UK did on the court last night.

John Calipari told us it would be this way, and he wasn't wrong.  The question is, how soon can the 'Cats figure out how to right the ship?  We'll know in a couple of days versus Sam Houston State.

Moving on to football, Kentucky is gearing up for a meeting with the Georgia Bulldogs between the hedges this weekend. This is a huge game for Kentucky, as right now, Georgia looks to be the most beatable of UK's remaining two foes.  If the 'Cats can get a win against the Dawgs, it would not only remove any long-shot doubts of not getting invited to a bowl game, but it would actually put UK in a position to win second place in the SEC East if they were to beat both Georgia and Tennessee.  Who would have imagined that?

Just a programming note about Saturday -- I will once again be at the racetrack, and I don't know if I will make it back by kickoff, but I should be there by halftime at the outside.

The news follows the jump.

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Week 11 is here, and it's time to publish my blogpoll ballot for this week.

Alabama surges to the top, Texas falls to #2, and Florida winds up at #3.  Well, you have to put all of them somewhere, and I guess they will just be taking turns on my ballot for a while.

There were relatively few big games last week, so what we had is a series of humdrum games, with none of the top teams really having the opportunity to prove their superiority.  I guess that will happen for sure when Alabama and Florida face off in the SEC championship.  Texas' only remaining games are against fading Kansas, mediocre Texas A&M and Nebraska in the Big 12 championship, so they will likely be in the BCS championship game versus the winner of the SEC championship game.

My ballot follows the jump.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Daniel Orton -- bloody, but unbowed.

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Wow.  Just wow.  At Kentucky, we don't expect to have barnburners in the second game of the year, even though we have sufferd through them in each of the last three years.  I know many UK fans were seeing visions of VMI and Gardner-Webb dance in their heads.  But not this time.

First of all, I have no words for the Miami RedHawks.  They were just incredible.  15-26 from three point range is some of the best perimeter shooting I have ever heard of, and Nick Winbush's 80% on 10 shots is simply breathtaking.  Superlatives fail me.  At the end of the day, it was only by dint of the most furious of all-out efforts that UK was able to prevail, by the narrowest of margins.  Folks, coming in to Rupp Arena, whether you are Miami of Ohio or North Carolina, and barely missing by two points is a moral victory, if there really is such a thing.

It would be easy for me to find fault with the Wildcats, as there is plenty of fault to go around.  But we'll get to that later. First, I want to remark on the absolute playoff atmosphere in Rupp Arena.  Never in recent memory have I seen a home crowd so into the basketball game, so animated, so determined to push the Wildcats over the top.  And that's what happened, I think.  I think the crowd was just enough to make the difference.  Remarkable.

I have to admit a certain ... Zen feeling about this game.  Unlike many games in the recent past, I never thought we would lose, even at the very last.  I cannot say that about the Wildcat teams for the last four years before now.  I was always pessimistic, for whatever reason.  But whatever the cause, I was never upset too much, and I kept my composure remarkably well during the whole game.  What does that mean?  I have no idea.

More after the jump.

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by Ed Reinke - AP

Heeeerrreees Johnny!

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We continue with four straight days of Kentucky Wildcats sports today with men's basketball -- the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks.

In this post, I'll be breaking down the game (insofar as possible with the very few games played so far) and look at what we can expect from the RedHawks this evening in Rupp Arena.

The RedHawks have played one official game so far this year, and two pre-season exhibitions, just like Kentucky.  The RedHawks won both exhibitions, but lost their opener to Towson State, 82-71.  In that contest, Miami had the lead early in the second half, but turnovers and excellent Towson free-trhow shooting ultimately doomed the RedHawks, and Towson shot 58% eFG for the game to pull away in the second half.

Last season, the RedHawks were 17-13 for the season and 10-6 in the MAC Eastern Division.  Miami returns 9 players from last year, losing 5.  The RedHawks and the Wildcats have met 23 times previously, with Kentucky prevailing in 20 of those contests.  The last time the RedHawks defeated the Wildcats was in 1927.

A further analysis after the jump.

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