Well, today was a great day in college basketball. Two titans of the hardwood met in historic Rupp Arena with the #1 ranking in America on the line, and the Kentucky Wildcats emerged victorious over the North Carolina Tar Heels by a single point thanks to a last-second block by Anthony Davis on a John Henson jump shot.

By any measure, this was a terrific game by both teams. It had intensity, it had defense, it had great 3-point shooting, good passing, good rebounding and excellent ballhandling. In every sense, it was a game worthy of two of the most storied basketball programs in America. North Carolina should not be proud that they lost, but they should be proud of the way the competed, and somehow you knew that this game was going to come down to the last second. It did not disappoint in any aspect.

For the fist 5/8ths of the game, North Carolina was simply the best team. They took what Kentucky gave them, they made big shots and got the lead all the way out to nine points a couple of times. It was not until 15:18 to go in the second half that Kentucky managed to get the lead back after playing from behind for most of the game, and finally took the lead for good at 61-60 with 7:32 remaining. It was nip and tuck to the very end.

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Per Adam Zagoria at Zagsblog:

According to multiple reports, the 7-foot center from St. Mark’s (Mass.) will trip to Kansas this coming weekend and Arizona the following weekend, and then decide between the two.

I don't know how that reads to you, but to me it says that UK is no longer under consideration, and neither is North Carolina.

Calipari is turning his attention back to Kentucky and, in particular, to recruiting, which I consider a very good think owing to the lack of commitments for 2012 so far.  That really isn't something to necessarily worry about, Calipari will get his players -- he always does -- but from a layman's standpoint, its fairly easy to conclude that Kentucky has lost some recruiting momentum while Coach Cal has been coaching the Dominicans.  He did a great job with the DR team even though they didn't get a spot in the Olympics this time around (a loss to Brazil put them in third).

I expect Calipari will try to immediately re-establish his momentum with the 2012 recruits and try to capitalize on his experience in South America.

Alex Meyer, starting pitcher for the Kentucky Wildcats, was selected 23rd overall by the Washington Nationals in the first round of Major League Baseball's Rule 4 Amateur Draft last night.

Meyer, a 6-foot-9, 220 pound right-hander, went 7-5 for the Wildcats this year.  He posted a 2.94 ERA along with 46 walks and 110 strikeouts in 101 innings pitched.  While the Cats had a disappointing season overall, finishing the season 25-30 (and 8-22 in SEC play), their ace Meyer was stellar in blue and white.  He also tossed four complete games, including two shutouts, and earned second-team All-SEC honors.

Meyer becomes the fifth Kentucky player to be selected in the first round of the MLB Amateur Draft, following in the footsteps of Everett Murray (1975), Chad Green (1996), Joe Blanton (2002), and James Paxton (2009).  That's a vast improvement from Meyer's original draft slot -- In 2008, the highly regarded prepster was selected in the 20th round by the Boston Red Sox, but turned down a contract offer (with a reported $2 million bonus) to attend Kentucky.  After joining the Cats, Meyer had a disappointing freshman season followed by an injury-riddled sophomore campaign.  However, his junior year was stellar, and his on-field results translated to being drafted in the first round.

Should Meyer sign, he will join a Nationals system that is absolutely stacked with potential stars, starting with Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, the first overall pick in the 2009 and 2010 drafts.  With the sixth overall pick in this year's draft, the Nationals drafted Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon.  Prior to the season, Rendon was considered by many to be top overall prospect in the draft.

Congrats to Alex on his Kentucky career and his draft slot as he goes after the dream of making in to the Majors.

After the jump, some draft capsules of Meyer and his potential as a pro:

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John Calipari wrote an article yesterday on CoachCal.com describing what a "players-first" program means to him.  It is a short piece, but it goes a long way to explain his philosophy about college basketball in the era of "one and done," and even though there is nothing really surprising in the article, there is a lot more meat there than some may realize.

The first thing Coach Cal touches on is the fact that he doesn't "make outlandish promises" about playing time, minutes, positions, etc.  In this case, what he doesn't say is also instructive -- Calipari doesn't say that he doesn't make promises about these things, he says that he doesn't make promises that he cannot keep, or that don't square with the reality of what the basketball team needs to win.

This might seem to be a small thing, but the concept of keeping promises is probably the single most important factor in why Coach Cal's reputation with players is what it is.  No matter what the media think about Calipari and how he does business, no matter the arguments about "slickness" or "sliminess" that we see from his detractors, the truth of the matter is that today's college basketball recruits know him where most of the commentariat do not -- they know him, and they respect him.

There is a reason you have virtually never seen or heard a former or current player speak ill of Coach Cal. Even players in the NBA who never played for him almost universally speak highly of Calipari, and it''s not his charming personality or natty attire.  He tells it straight and keeps his word, because he doesn't give it lightly.

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All year long, Kentucky fans have lauded Josh Harrellson's play starting from about the Louisville game when he broke out for 23 points and 14 rebounds.  Harrellson has continued on to lead the SEC in offensive rebounding and be a guy that you can always depend on to play hard, run the floor, get big rebounds and do the little things, like set solid picks and defend the pick and roll.

But Harrellson has made more of an impact even than most people think in terms of all-time records.  As of right now, Josh Harrellson has the highest non-scoring Tendex rating of any player in UK history, which you can find over at Jon Scott's excellent UK history site, BigBlueHistory.net.  As of this moment, Harrellson is at .391, ahead of such worthies as Chuck Hayes, Anthony Epps, Nazr Mohammed, Rajon Rondo and Sam Bowie.  How this rating is achieved is explained here.

What this means is that Harrellson has performed a combination of the little things -- rebounds, assists, turnovers, missed field goals, missed free throws and personal fouls -- better based on this calculation than any player, per minute, in Kentucky history.  What you will see when you examine these ratings are interspersed the names of a few players who made a limited impact on Kentucky basketball, like Shagari Allene and Kevin Galloway.  These players played few minutes for various good reasons, but the minutes they played had high numbers of the things that count in these measures.

But as I mentioned earlier, there are some big names on there, also, and it occurs to me that the player who played most like Josh Harrellson while he was here was Chuck Hayes.  Hayes scored much more, of course, and played the game a much different way, but he was always collecting unlikely rebounds over bigger and more talented guys, or finding ways to get steals, assists, or just make plays.  Harrellson is kind of a poor man's version of Chuck, or a bigger version of Jared Pricket.

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This was one of those games.

Most teams, like our orange and white neighbor to the south or red and black neighbor to the west, say that through gritted teeth and a frozen grimace.  But not this Kentucky team.  "One of those games" means the same thing this year as it did last year.  Against notably inferior opponents, Kentucky has off games just like everyone else.  The difference is, off games are a matter of degree, not result.

A hearty "Thank you" and "Happy Holidays" to the Mississippi Valley St. Delta Devils.  They are road warriors in every sense of the word, playing hard and determined basketball against superior teams in the hopes of getting the warped floor of their arena fixed before their first home game.  They did not come into this game with expectations of victory, but they did come in with hopes and dreams of a monumental upset.  They represented the true test, and true reason, that college basketball is so wonderful -- they came in to a huge, hostile arena against a vastly superior foe and gave their all.  Delta Devils, we salute you, not just for your Unforgettable coach, but for your dedication to the college game.

This game for the Wildcats was notable mostly for the fact that coach John Calipari got himself ejected from the contest midway through the second half.  In an affair reminiscent of a Kentucky loss under Rick Pitino I once saw (I believe it was at Vanderbilt early in Pitino's career, perhaps 1991), Calipari went out to game official Mike Stewart at half court and chewed him out after the ejection for at least 30 seconds.  That's what's called, "getting your money's worth."  I am not sure what provoked the first Calipari ejection in his two years at Kentucky, but whatever it was, he was not wishing Stewart a Merry Christmas during his last seconds on the court.

The ejection was remarkable mainly for its rarity.  Coach Cal has been thrown out of exactly one college or professional basketball game -- as head coach of the Massachusetts Minutemen, February 24th, 1996, almost 15 years ago.  Pitino, conversely, got run pretty much once every couple of years at least while he was coach at UK.  Calipari was clearly agitated at a call about 3 minutes earlier, perhaps a non-call on a Doron Lamb drive where Eloy Vargas was knocked to the floor.  Only Calipari knows for sure, and whatever it was, it was consumed by the rest of the often-sloppy game and not really obvious to me.

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For those of you who are wondering what is in Wildcat Tip-off 2010, here is one of the articles in the book, presented with a special viewer that shows it just like it appears in the Annual.

Wildcat Tip-off is shipping now, and will be coming to stores near you by October 29th. You can order your copy right now from the Maple Street Press website.

Enjoy.

On a day when the Big Blue Nation arguably said goodbye to almost half their 2010 basketball team in a pre-game ceremony that seemed to lack some of the emotion that it has generated in some past years, the Kentucky Wildcats withstood a furious Florida Gator second-half comeback to finish the 2009-10 campaign undefeated at home, and with 29 regular-season victories against only 2 losses.

The Gators came out discombobulated in the first half and looked very much like a deer in the headlights as they went down by 18 points at one juncture, and were down 10 at halftime.  But despite that deficit, Florida dug down deep and came almost all the way back -- to within 2 points -- but finally bowed to the home team.  Florida's efforts, particularly on the offensive glass in the second half, were very impressive and they nearly undid the Wildcats' perfect home season and sent them into the SEC tournament losing two out of their last three.  Great effort by the Gators, but the Wildcats, once again, proved that while coming back on them is certainly possible, coming all the way back and getting the win is hard.

I think most UK fans would have preferred a convincing victory over the Gators, but even if this season sweep of Florida will not be remembered for UK dominance, it is nonetheless a pleasant change from the debacle that was 2005-2008.  Florida has played Kentucky tough many times in the past, and since Billy Donovan came to Florida, the Gators have enjoyed 12 out of their total of 32 victories over Kentucky since 1927, including a stretch of seven straight wins.

More after the jump

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