After carefully reconsidering what I saw last night, I have come to the conclusion that the Kentucky Wildcats may be much better this year than any of us suspected.  After last night, this is more than intuition.

Billy Gillispie said this today this about the team:

"This is the closest we've come to playing like we've practiced," Gillispie said. "We had our best practice of the year (Tuesday), and we came close to playing like that."

Folks, make no mistake -- if the Wildcats are capable of this type of play, especially considering that two major contributors didn't play significant minutes, they are capable of beating almost anyone.  I qualify that advisedly, since I have seen UNC and even Louisville play some basketball that was at least as good and possibly better in stretches this season.  I don't mean to say that the Tarheels and the Cardinals are equal by any means, just that I have seen Louisville play some high-quality ball at moments this season.  North Carolina has come the closest to doing it consistently.

I know it is easy to descend into blue-blinded hyperbole.  After all, this is just one game.  But I do get amped when Gillispie repeatedly says that his team practices better than it plays on the court.  That is a relatively unusual thing to happen on a consistent basis for a team, but pretty common for an individual (remember Josh Carrier?).  If Kentucky can continue this strong upward trend they are on for any significant length of time, the confidence that they will gain will make them much tougher automatically.  I believe it is a lack of confidence in themselves and their teammates that has lead them to such a slow start the last two years.

The more I think about DeAndre Liggins' game last night, the more impressed I am.  Liggins may not be a great leaper, but he really knows how to move his feet.  He is a very fast player, probably second only to Jodie Meeks when it comes to getting up and down the floor, and he proved it by keeping up with Ty Lawson in the North Carolina game.  I told you back during the Derby Festival Classic that Liggins was the best at getting the ball down the floor on the pass I had seen in years, and we really got some good looks at what that meant last night -- mainly dunks by a streaking Patterson.  Not only that, Liggins has developed a jump shot -- back last year, his shot was somewhat broken and unreliable, but it seems that he has done some successful surgery on it.   Liggins now looks capable of becoming a genuine threat from the perimeter, something UK badly needs from that position.

In my excitement about Liggins' sudden development, I have forgotten to mention the one guy who is really improving game to game -- Ramon Harris.  To be honest, I never believed Ramon Harris would be this good, and he hasn't come close to reaching his potential.  A lot of what Harris is bringing these days is mental toughness, and last night he was on his way to a monster game before he was injured.  If that injury turns out to be minor, as we all pray it will as it thankfully is, Harris has only just begun to show us the full measure of his ability.  I can hardly wait to see the rest.

Josh Harrellson is also getting better and more confident game by game.  He is starting to become a consistent three-point threat, and no team wants to face a guy his size hanging out on the arc -- that means double -teaming Patterson is very hard to do, and opponents really need to be able to do that.  Harrellson is in the process of taking that option away.  Combine that with Liggins' improved shooting from the perimeter, and suddenly the 'Cats look very threatening indeed.

Usually after games like last night, teams take a step back in their next game.  That will be the key to discovering if the 'Cats are likely to develop into a true threat this year, or will just peak out at "good, not great."  Of course, "great" is something that I don't expect even in my current optimistic state, but the level of execution last night was consistent with that of a "great" team, a team capable of beating anyone, anywhere, anytime.  So are we witnessing the birth of something special here, like we saw back in 2003 against Vanderbilt, or just another halcyon moment that will soon be washed away by mediocrity? 

I don't know, but I do hope.

Never in recent history has the end of a UK game felt so much like an act of mercy from God.  Congratulations to the North Carolina Tar Heels on an outstanding win, and a complete domination of the Wildcats from start to finish.  I did warn what would happen if we let them get out to a fast start, and alas, we did.

My brothers and sisters of the Big Blue Nation, your humble correspondent is growing extremely weary of writing obituaries about the Kentucky Wildcats.  The season began with such hope, and in less than a month, it has taken on an altogether sinister character, first losing to a supposedly overmatched VMI team, and now being uncompetitive with an obviously superior North Carolina team.

This game, as in our last game, turnovers were the story.  Early in the pre-season, we had hopes that the better ball handling we had seen in the Blue-White game might be a harbinger of an improved and even dangerous Kentucky team.  It's still to early to tell if Kentucky might wind up dangerous, but in this writer's opinion, they have a long, long way to go before there is any hope of applying that label to them.

After the first half of this game, I was so angry I was already dreaming up the phrases I was going to use to pillory Billy Gillispie.  After the second half, I had to re-evaluate my anger.  No matter what we may have thought before, it is clear that this team has issues, and they are serious.  I don't know who or what is the problem, but a problem there is, because you simply don't see close-knit teams play the kind of horrible pseudo-basketball we had to endure in the first half, and then come out after an apparent diatribe by the coach at halftime that spared no aspect of these young men's manhood and play a pretty fair second half.

The second half was markedly better than the first, especially defensively.  This Kentucky team has serious and maybe fatal offensive issues, and despite Patterson's good shooting, it is clear that he is damaged goods.  He is not nearly the athlete he was last year, and it was obvious from the first minute.  He may return to 100% sometime, but anyone who saw him this year and last cannot doubt that he is worse for the wear.

I saw some good individual effort out there, particularly in the second half.  Meeks has to learn that a pass is a good thing, but his defense is light-years beyond where it was the last time he played significant minutes.  Perry Stevenson quietly had a decent game, and DeAndre Liggins really impressed me with his defensive effort against the much quicker Ty Lawson, even though he was completely incompetent handling the ball, and particularly trying to make high-school passes in a college game.  But that can be forgiven him -- he is just a freshman.

For Michael Porter, nothing.  He is just not up to this task, at least not now, and I question if he will ever be.  I will just leave it at that.  Darius Miller was awful, but again, he is a freshman, and he will get better.  Josh Harrellson had a moment or two of decent play, but mostly he was simply ineffective and not ready to play at the level of a UK basketball player.  Ramon Harris was just the same as always -- tentative on offense and a demon on defense, but he should have been much better.

Even after this embarrassment, I am not losing hope.  All of you think that it kind of sucks being a Kentucky fan right now, but you have absolutely no idea how miserable it is to be a Kentucky blogger at this precise moment.  I stay in the game by assuring myself that we will get better, and that one day, however long it may seem, we will once again grasp the brass ring.  I am tempted to qualify that statement significantly, but I refuse to do so on principle.

So here we are, 0-2 for the first time in eight years.  Yes, that's right, we were 0-2 back in 2000, and I remember it well.  But let's keep our heads up, as hard as it may seem at the moment, and our pride before us.  Life can sometimes deal harshly with us, but in the end, this is still only a college sporting contest.  If you had been in my home during the game, you may have believed it was life or death, but it isn't.  Perspective is important, and faith in our legacy, however tarnished it is right now, is what we have.

Good night, 'Cat fans.  The sun will most likely come up tomorrow and if so, there will be more games to play.

It seems that the debacle caused by outgoing coach Ron Polk over Mississippi State's selection of former UK baseball coach John Cohen is not being well received by the MSU faithful nor the local media in Mississippi, and that is good.

Despite the respect and admiration Polk had earned over almost 30 years as the MSU baseball coach, very few people in and around the program seem to be buying into Polk's tirade at incoming MSU Athletics Director Greg Byrne.  John Clay has a post detailing a response from Rick Cleveland of the Clarion-Ledger, long-time MSU columnist and self-confessed fan of Polk.  Cleveland correctly takes Polk to task for his outrageous comments, calling them " ... wrong, wrong, wrong."

Honestly, I had never heard of Polk before the other day.  Baseball might as well be a brand-new sport to the Big Blue Nation, as Wildcat baseball has had so few followers around here that it could have just been invented this decade instead of sometime in he 1800's.  But because of Cohen's outstanding work with the absolutely downtrodden baseball program at Kentucky, we now know it is possible to create a winner here in the Bluegrass, and it seems to me that Mitch Barnhart is determined to do just that.  The fact that fans are starting to come around is a sign something good is happening to the UK baseball program, something we all hope can be continued.

For Cohen's part, there was simply no amount of money that could have kept him at Kentucky, and when that happens, you just have to stand aside and congratulate the man.  Reading this press conference transcript convinced me that nothing Barnhart could have offered him would have enticed him to stay, very much as nothing TAMU could have offered Billy Gillispie would have enticed him to stay when UK came calling.  Coaches have dream jobs, and when a dream job is offered, you take it 100% of the time unless your name is Billy Donovan.

Cohen and Byrne offered very classy remarks in the press conference, very complimentary to Kentucky and Mitch Barnhart.  As much as it hurts, when a national collegiate baseball powerhouse like Mississippi State hires your coach away from you, you know your AD has been getting the job done.  The fact that Barhart put up such a tough fight against impossible odds is impressive in itself, and I have absolutely no criticism of his handling of this situation.  It was simply a battle he could not have won.

It always hurts to lose a great coach, and Kentucky has lost a few in my lifetime.  It is never fun, always a setback, and invariably requires rebuilding the culture.  I truly hope Coach Henderson is up to the task, but if he isn't, I'm sure that Mitch Barnhart is capable of finding someone who is.  If we were willing to pay Cohen the big bucks to stay, we are capable of luring another great coach to Lexington.  Perhaps we won't have to.  We'll see.

Fortunately for Cohen, it seems that the fans of Mississippi State are firmly behind Byrne and his hire.  If you read the comments to these various articles, you will be hard pressed to find anyone who agrees with Polk.  That is good news, and I think Ron Polk will just have to take his ball and go home.  Nobody wants to play with a bully, even a fiercely loyal one like Polk.  Bad behavior in the name of loyalty is still bad behavior, and make no mistake, Polk is behaving like a 6-year old child who's mother refused to buy him a candy bar.

UPDATE:  Already there is one casualty in UK's 2008 class to the departure of Cohen.  Expect more.

As widely feared by many, Mississippi State University has hired John Cohen away from UK.

Cohen has been the architect of an astonishing turnaround in UK baseball, taking a moribund program and turning it into one of the best in the SEC.  For several years now, speculation has been that Cohen would move on to greener pastures if one of the great SEC baseball programs came calling.  MSU is one of the winningest programs in the SEC, and Cohen played under outgoing coach Ron Polk, who led eight MSU teams to the College World Series and 23 to the NCAA tournament in his 29 seasons at MSU.

This is a tough break for UK but one that many anticipated.  It is hard to blame Cohen for going home to such a storied powerhouse, and although we will undoubtedly miss him, life goes on.  UK had a great recruiting class coming in next year, one of the tops in the nation, but I expect that to change drastically now that Cohen is gone.

UK wasted no time in naming Henderson as the successor to Cohen.  Henderson has been UK's associate head coach and pitching coach for the last 5 years.  Henderson was formerly at Oregon State before coming here (looks like Barnhart has managed to get OSU guys into lots of UK jobs) and has served as pitching coach at Florida.

Henderson has really big shoes to fill, and I hope he is up to the job.  I confess, I am not particularly optimistic -- Henderson has been in coaching a long time and has never generated the kind of success that Cohen did.  He is no doubt a fine coach, but in all honesty, I have my doubts about Henderson's ability to keep UK at its current level.  But then again, Barnhart hired Cohen, so I suppose I should have a little faith in the guy.  He clearly knows what he is doing, and I think I'll just go on trust and, at least for the nonce, hope he turns out to be another Rich Brooks.

Here we go, the official A Sea of Blue open game thread for Kentucky vs. Michigan in the NCAA baseball tournament.

I found a truly awesome overview of the Ann Arbor regional here.  It may take a while to read, but it is worth it.

You can follow the action at CSTV.com, starting with the bracket view here.  From there, you can follow the games in progress as the scores are updated live.  UKAthletics.com also has links for live audio and live video.   I was lead to believe there would be no video, but give it a try.  Live stats are also available here.

Unfortunately, I still don't have a batting order or an official list of starters.  John Clay's blog will be doing some live blogging of the game, so you may want to check in there periodically as well.

Game time is 7:00 PM.  Time to take it to the Wolverines.  Post your comments below.

Go Cats!

UPDATE Saturday 31 May 2008:  Play was suspended by bad weather last night, and play will resume at 11:00 PM with UK down 5-1 in the bottom of the 5th inning with runners on 1st and second, 2 down and a 3-1 count on Michigan's 3rd baseman.

UPDATE Saturday 31 May 2008:  Check out this liveblog of the action prior to the restart at Sidelines to get up to date with the action.

UPDATE Saturday 31 May 2008:  Kentucky loses to Michigan 7-5.  Once again, the Cats proved their starting rotation is their weakness.  Despite all the rest he had, Rusin pitched only 1.1 innings and had 5 earned runs.  Lovett came on in relief and gave the 'Cats a chance, but too many stranded runners (particularly in the 3rd and 6th) and an unproductive 9th inning when the meat of the lineup was batting.  Congratulations to the Wolverines.

Kentucky now plays Eastern Michigan at 2:00 PM in an elimination game.  Continue to post in this thread.

Dave at the outstanding SB Nation Michigan Wolverines blog Maize n Brew kindly consented to do a Q&A with me so that the fans of both Kentucky and Michigan could get to know their opponent better. 

As you know, I follow baseball a little, but like many UK fans, this whole idea of being competitive in SEC baseball is a novelty.  We have suffered roughly 90 years of futility in the 104 or so years we have been playing baseball at UK, and having three outstanding teams back to back to back is a new experience for the Blue and White.  But I am very excited about our opportunity to play in the Ann Arbor regional in the NCAA tournament, or second shot at an NCAA regional in 3 years.

More after the Q&A.  Now, I give you Maize n Brew Dave:

[ASoB]:  Michigan is known as one of the Great Powers of college football.  How big is baseball in Ann Arbor?

[MnB]:  I know it's hard to think back that far, but Michigan used to be a perennial baseball power.  Jim Abbott.  Barry Larkin.  Scott Kamieniecki.  Hal Morris.  Chris Sabo.  Steve Howe.  A decade (well not a decade) of sanctions put Michigan in a hole it finally climbed out of a few years ago.  The last three year's Michigan's rise to prominence, at least among northern baseball schools, has re-vitalized the baseball fan base in Ann Arbor.  Ray Fisher Stadium got a complete overhaul and Michigan's facilities can compete with any school south of the Mason-Dixon, if not exceed them.  The new Wilpon Baseball and Softball Complex is awesome. Unfortunately, recent photos of the complex aren't readily available so you'll have to check out the construction photos from March.  But they'll give you a great idea of how seriously Michigan is taking its baseball program.

The team's success hasn't gone unnoticed by the school or its fans.  Attendance continues to improve, recruits that would normally flee to the south are staying put, and Michigan is pumping all kinds of money into the program.  Baseball will never surpass Football or Hockey in terms of fan support, but the teams sustained success is turning Ann Arbor into a baseball town.

[ASoB]:  Both Michigan and Kentucky have both played similar levels of competition, 34th and 39th in strength of schedule respectively, and are very close in the psuedo-RPI's that I have seen.  How much advantage do you think hosting the regional gives to the Wolverines?

[MnB]:  Major advantage.  Anytime you get the last at-bat it's a big deal.  The other thing is this is the first time since 1986 that Michigan gets to host a regional, but they're not even the No. 1 seed in their regional.  So Michigan gets to sit in their own locker room and feel like they've been slighted.  Michigan won its conference, won its tournament, and still didn't get a one seed.  Now they get to be pissed off and sleep in their own beds.  The other thing is, if the weather dips even a tad, it's a huge advantage to the northern team that used to it.

[ASoB]:  Kentucky had a great out of conference record, but got beat up in the powerful SEC.  Do you think playing in a significantly less difficult conference but playing a similarly tough overall schedule as Michigan did this year is an advantage, disadvantage, or neither?

[MnB]:  I don't think the schedule helps either team.  Kentucky dropped as many games to tournament teams as Michigan did.  The only difference is Michigan played their tournament teams early in the season and Kentucky got them during their conference schedule. 

(Rant on) I think the SEC's 9 team selections are a little ridiculous, southern speed be damned.  At least one of those spots, not Kentucky's obviously, should've gone to Purdue.  (rant off)

The schedules are pretty even.  Their play is pretty even.  So I don't think either schedule benefits either team.

[ASoB]:  Who is Michigan's best player, and why?

[MnB]:  You've got two obvious answers:  senior 1B Nate Recknagel or and junior RHP Zach Putnam.  Recknagel was the Big Ten's Player of the Year and Putnam was its pitcher of the year.  Recknagel's simply a monster, 23 dingers, 68 RBI, and a .372 BA.  He was the best hitter in the Big Ten, everyone knew it, and he still went bananas this season.  He's protected by two All Big Ten hitters in Adam Abraham and Zach Putnam both of whom have power and drove in over 40 runs. 

Option two:  Putnam pitched 71 innings with a WHIP just around 1.10, and a K per inning average.  Putnam is a fly-ball pitcher who isn't afraid to challenge hitters.  He went 7-0 for a reason.  He's also pitching white hot, winning his last 6 starts. Throw in the added bonus that he hit over .300, drove in a pile of runs, and can hit for power and he's easily the team's best athlete if not player.

Honestly though, Michigan's best player may well be Chris Fetter.  The right hander has compiled a 10-1 record and tossed 4 complete games.  His one loss?  A complete game, 1 earned run loss.  Not too bad.  He induced far more ground balls than Putnam, has a comparable K/BB ratio (75/25) and a better opposing batting average than Putnam.  Pitching wins in the post season, so I'd say pick between Putnam and Fetter.

[ASoB]:  Kentucky only averages about 2000 fans/home game.  In fact, UK games were better attended on the road than at home this year.  What is Michigan's attendance like?

[MnB]:  Being located in Chicago it's tough for me to comment on the regular attendance at the games, but everyone I've talked has told me there's been a noticeable uptick in attendance over the last two years.  However, Kentucky and Michigan's home attendance numbers sound comparable.  Michigan's attendance is generally pretty low at the start of the season because it's so damn cold, and honestly there's nothing worse than freezing your ass off at a baseball game in April.  However, as the sun starts to peek out from behind the May clouds, Michigan's been in the 2000-2500 a game range in terms of attendance.  When the weather dips, well, you're lucky to see 800 people.  As the season's gone on and word's gotten out that this is a good team to watch, people are making their way to the Fish.

People will come, Ray

[ASoB]:  Who the Michigan/UK game, by what score, and what facet of the game is the difference-maker?

[MnB]:  I'm looking at this match-up and seeing a 6-4 or 6-5 game.  Because it looks like Kentucky's got some power (4 guys in the top 12 in conference BA), I wouldn't be surprised to see Fetter on the mound to start the round robin.  I am a little concerned that Michigan's bats were quieter than usual in the clincher against Purdue.  My guess is Kentucky races to a 2-0 lead in the second.  Michigan tacks on a run in the fourth.  Kentucky scores two in the fifth and Michigan plates 4 in the bottom half of the sixth with an insurance homer in the eighth.  That's kind of the way it's been going for us lately, so I'll stick to the script. 

Michigan takes game one 6-4.

Thanks to Dave for taking the time to swap questions and answers with us.  This should really be a great game and I know 'Cat fans are excited.

You can find my answers to Dave's questions over at Maize n Brew.  I hope true 'Cat baseball fans will forgive any ... er, ignorance ... that I may have demonstrated there.  My status as a baseball fan is definitely a work in progress.  But I did correctly call the starting pitcher for tomorrow's game, so that has to be worth something.

UPDATE Friday 30 May 2008:  Game time set for 7:00 Eastern.

OK, folks, it's time to drop the bouncy ball for a little while now and start thinking about America's favorite pastime.  That's right, we be talkin' baseball here at A Sea of Blue, and the Wildcats have made it into the NCAA field of 64 as a #3 seed in the Ann Arbor regional hosted by the Michigan Wolverines, who Kentucky plays in the 2/3 game on Friday.  Times to be decided later.

Kentucky has drawn a very strong region, but overall our draw appears pretty good.  The 'Cats have strong competition, but they didn't wind up drawing one of the top eight seeds, with Arizona being the #1 in the Ann Arbor regional.  Kentucky did not by any means get the easiest draw, but it is one that the Wildcats are capable of winning.

The regionals are essentially a double-elimination mini-tournament just like the SEC tourney.  The winner from there goes to a super-regional game, which is a best of 3 series.  The survivors from the super-regionals go to the College World Series, which is another double-elimination tournament within a tournament for the first round, and a best of three series for the finals.  The entire bracket can be found here in .pdf format [Hat tip:  Mike at Card Chronicle].

Speaking of the Cardinals, they drew a somewhat tougher spot, the 3 seed in the Athens regional where the #1 team is the 8th overall seed, the Georgia Bulldogs.  But truth be told, Georgia looked rather vulnerable at the end of the season and in the SEC Tournament, suffering the same fate as the Wildcats and being dismissed from the tourney by Alabama, who really produced some runs at the end of the season.  Louisville has a decent shot of getting it done in Athens unless the Bulldogs regain their form, and if Louisville and Kentucky both win their way through, they could meet in the top half of the bracket in the first round of the CWS.

Overall, nine SEC teams made it into the field of 64, a very impressive showing for arguably the nation's toughest baseball conference (we already know suspect the SEC is the toughest football conference), two of whom are regional hosts -- Georgia and LSU.  Kentucky was considered along with Florida to host a regional, but the Wildcats' poor performance in the tournament doomed their chances, along with a weak out-of-conference schedule.

Much more coming later.

The SEC tournament had to be a big disappointment for John Cohen and the UK baseball team, getting upset by Ole Miss on a walk-off homer and then getting drubbed by lower seed Alabama to wind up out of the tournament before the semifinal round.  The loss to 'Bama can maybe be forgiven -- after all, we beat the Tide 4 straight this year, and doing a five-game season sweep on a team as good as Alabama is a very tall order.  But the Ole Miss game was a missed opportunity that may wind up haunting Kentucky as the conference champions are chosen and the at-large selections begin for the NCAA baseball tournament.

Kentucky is now 42-17, sporting a 25-1 non-conference record, a fourth-place finish in the SEC regular season and 19-0 mark at home this year.  Unfortunately, I feel compelled to note that the one loss we had in our non-conference slate this year was -- who else -- Louisville, who just won their way into the NCAA tournament with a victory over Cincinnati yesterday in the finals of the Big East tournament.  Previously, the Cardinals were considered very, very iffy for the NCAA tournament, but they now have earned the automatic Big East berth.

So where do the Wildcats sit for the post-season?  Well, Rivals baseball currently has the Cats slated to be the 2nd seed in the Houston regional, who they figure will be hosted by #5 Rice University.  We'll see how that actually works out very soon.

So how do NCAA baseball at-large teams get selected, anyway?  Fortunately, our SB Nation colleagues at Corn Nation, the Nebraska Cornhuskers' blog, had this interview with Damani Leech , the NCAA Director of Baseball and Football last year in which the process is described in detail.  I think you will find it is very much as you would expect, and now that an RPI has been created for college baseball just like basketball and football, the tools the NCAA has for assessing who the best 34 at-large teams are is very similar to those we are most familiar with in basketball.  This interview is a must-read for college baseball fans and those who are just curious about the process in a sport that is fast becoming one of the Wildcat's best.

We'll have more coverage of the Bat Cats assuming they make the NCAA's, which is almost (but not quite) a foregone conclusion.  Their finish to the season in the SEC tournament was a big disappointment to many, and it will no doubt affect both the seed and the location of our regional opponents.  CollegeBaseballInsider.com has an incredible nine SEC teams getting into the tourney (think this league isn't tough?), two more than the nearest competitor, the Big 12, with seven.  Just to make you feel a little better, the Big East is expected to get two whole teams into the tournament.  Louisville arguably would not have made it without the autobid, as their RPI just prior to the championship game was only 56.  But give the Cardinals props, they did it the old-fashioned way -- they earned it when it was looking like do or die.  Congratulations to them.

I hope everyone is continuing to enjoy this beautiful Memorial day weekend.  I am sitting out on my deck enjoying the sounds of nature as I write this piece, and thinking what a great day it is for a little baseball.