More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Patrick Patterson was a bit more present this game than versus Campbellsville.

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Thanks to the Clarion Golden Eagles for coming into Rupp Arena and giving a game effort against the Wildcats.  John Calipari's alma mater came in and gave a good account of themselves versus a vastly superior team, and did both the school and our coach proud with their relentless effort.

Examine the score.

Kentucky has played many exhibition games over the years.  The last time Kentucky scored over 110 points was just last year, versus Missouri-St. Louis, 111-53.  Two games later, Kentucky allowed 111 points in a loss to VMI.

I mention this only to focus the mind of the Big Blue Nation.  This victory, and the size of it, is as ephemeral and meaningless as the pixels on your screen.  Well, maybe the pixels mean a bit more.

No matter what, this was a much more impressive game than versus Campbellsville.  The Wildcats played with more skill, more cohesion, and an equivalent level of intensity and determination.  When big guys like DeMarcus Cousins start taking charges, that is motivation and determination.  Kentucky has quite possibly taken more charges in two exhibition games this year than they did in the first four games last year.  Maybe that is a comment on the disparity of the skill level.  Maybe it is a comment on the determination of the team.

My observations follow the jump.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Who is this man?

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All the media cares about is Kentucky this season.  Well, that's the message for the last couple of days, anyway.

According to this piece over at SI.com, Kansas may be #1 in the rankings, but UK is #1 in the minds of college basketball watchers:

Yes, Kansas was the runaway No. 1 choice in the preseason Top 25. And sure, the Jayhawks had two players on the preseason All-America team.

But it's Kentucky that's generating all the buzz. With one of college basketball's storied programs now being run by John Calipari, what else are people going to talk about?

Aside from the obvious schadenfreude toward the Jayhawks that many UK fans will feel (especially since UK has lost its past three meetings with the Jayhawks), the media narrative this season seems to be focused squarely on Lexington. 

The interest seems to be multi-dimensional -- yes, the media see UK's fanstastic freshman class which includes at least two and possibly three sure-fire lottery picks (DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall and Eric Bledsoe) in the next year or three, not to mention Patrick Patterson, but they also seem fascinated by the cult of personality that is developing around John Calipari with his near-million Twitter followers and hundreds of thousands of Facebook devotees. 

As if that weren't enough, some of the media feel like they are watching a slow-speed train wreck with a coach known for having his teams forfeit wins now coaching at a school formerly known for rule-breaking and general acts of poor NCAA citizenship.  Add to that Calipari's remarkable personal and social media strategy, his new book, Bounce Back, and his absolutely ubiquitous nature on sports shows, interviews and public appearances combined with Kentucky's storied history, and it's easy to see why the sports media is drawn to Bluegrass like David Letterman to a pretty production staffer.

As a long-time fan of Kentucky basketball, it is amazing to me watch the current media fascination with a team that was an absolute non-entity for the last four years except as a cautionary tale.  First it was all about how Tubby Smith's team was struggling and how unhappy the fans were, then there was the whole Billy Gillispie fiasco that turned out to be all about offering scholarships to middle schoolers, angering the NABC over that and his moving of the date of Big Blue Madness, making rude comments to female reporters during halftime interviews and winning fewer and fewer basketball games.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

We saw far too little of this from Patrick Patterson tonight.

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First of all, thanks to Campbellsville University for coming into Rupp Arena and fearlessly taking on the much bigger and more athletic Wildcats.  The Tigers were full of hustle, effort, and teamwork, and they helped contribute to forcing the Wildcats into 23 turnovers and making them look quite a bit less impressive than their press clippings have been.

Well, John Calipari said it would look ugly early, and he was not kidding.  This was as ugly as the north end of a south-bound camel, and take it from a guy who has seen that far closer than anyone would want to, that's ugly.  No ice cream there, and no ice cream here tonight.

But.

This is a big, big "but."  This is a euphoric "but" rather than a damning one.  This team was more fun to watch at its worst than last year's team was at it's best, excepting Meeks' lights-out performance at Tennessee.  This was an ugly game, but it was incredibly beautiful in that this was clearly the kind of team that can crush people into the dust when they finally figure it out.  It is a thing of beauty to see a team that clearly has no clue still recognize that they are so superior to the other team that it really doesn't matter what the other team does. 

Ugly, yes, but like a nasty, hairy caterpillar that you know will turn into a beautiful butterfly.  More thoughts after the jump.

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More photos » by Garry Jones - AP

Pre-season All-American, Patrick Patterson. That sounds really sweet to me.

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Forgive me for running a little behind today.  Monday's can be like that.

So tonight, we begin basketball in earnest with an exhibition game against Campbellsville in Rupp Arena at 7:00 PM.  The game will be carried on Fox Sports South, so check your local listings for availability.  This post will also serve as the official Open Game Thread for the game.

Tonight, the Kentucky Wildcats take on the NAIA Campbellsville Tigers in exhibition basketball action at Rupp Arena.  This will be the first time the Tigers have played the University of Kentucky.  Campbellsville was in a rebuilding year last year in the Mid-South conference, winning only 2 conference games and having an overall record of 10-19.

Tonight will mark John Calipari's debut as coach in a game where they play by the rules and keep score, so that's significant.  We will be able to see how he will comport himself on the sidelines, how he will coach the kids, and how the young players will respond to him.  That will be very much worth watching.

Another thing we will see is the UK team without John Wall, likely for one of the very few times this season.  There has been some talk about who will play and who will not, but Chris Diggs gives us more detail:

Here's the announced starting line-up as of now.

Eric Bledsoe - Fr.
Darius Miller - So.
Darnell Dodson - So.
Patrick Patterson - Jr.
Demarcus Cousins - Fr.

Back-ups (First f0ur in no particular order)

Jon Hood - Fr.
Josh Harrellson - So.
Daniel Orton - Fr.
Ramon Harris - Sr.

Who we don't see in this is interesting -- no Perry Stevenson and no DeAndre Liggins.  Oh, I'm sure they will both play, but not being on his announced list kind of says something to me, even though I may be reading tea leaves that say nothing.

And, in an interesting John Wall development, apparently addressing questions about Wall missing one exhibition and one regular season game, we have this:

Calipari said that "they" told him what games Wall would miss. The UK coach did not identify who "they" were.

Were "they" the NCAA staff? UK's athletic administration? A fan poll on CoachCal.com?

Apparently, Calipari doesn't even know who "they" are, or if he does, he's not telling.  Maybe it's "the Visitors."  I blame Jerry Tipton -- I think he knows "them" and is just having a bit of sport with us for ragging on him so hard lately.

Unfortunately, there is not much in the way of statistics available for Campbellsville, so I can't tell you much about their players, who leads the team, or anything else.  But I can give you their roster from the school website, which you can find after the jump.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Darius Miller shows off his extra 2 inches in height by bringing the thunder!

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Well, as you might expect from a public scrimmage, there was a lot of fun had tonight in the Big Blue Nation.  The Blue/White Scrimmage is now a historical fact.

Some questions were answered.  Others remain.  But overall, there was a lot positive from this intra-squad tussle.  Here are the main things I noticed:

• Wall and Bledsoe together are scary as heck in this offense.  Nobody could stop them.
• John Wall is as advertised, but he really needs to work on his perimeter game, it is a significant weakness.
• Eric Bledsoe's perimeter game is better than it was.  Early progress is a good thing.
• Patrick Patterson is showing signs of having small forward skills.  That's really great to see.
• DeMarcus Cousins is a big, big boy.  And he plays like one.  But he is quite a bit more athletic than he looks.
• Darius Miller was invisible in the first half, and awesome in the second.  I don't know what that means.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

John Wall -- Will he play, or will he watch?

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Here are the particulars, courtesy of UKAthletics.com:

GameTracker | Live Video (Extreme Access) | Live Blog

So what should we be looking for tonight?  My thoughts after the jump.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Coach Cal not pleased with the new NLI policy? Well, he'll have plenty else to occupy his attention.

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I did an interview for a sports radio program today, and on the preliminary call to ask if I could come on with short notice (today at 1:00), he asked me about the "Calipari Rule."

I told him I had no idea what he was talking about, and asked him if this was something that cropped up this morning, maybe, before I had a chance to check the sports news.  I have been a bit busy lately -- not like I was with the Annual, but still busy.  He said it had been out for a while, and told me what it was all about.

What it is is the new rule by the National Letter of Intent program that forbids side deals like Memphis (among others) was willing to grant their players -- i.e. a separate agreement between the school and the player where the school agreed to cancel the NLOI if the coach left, or was fired.  The term "Calipari Rule" was apparently coined by Moondog Sports.

I told him that I totally supported the stance of the College Commissioner's Association in this case.  The "amendments" (actually separate agreements since the NLI program is explicit about what signing an NLI means, and has been before now) were being put in place in order to entice players to sign a letter of intent by promising (in writing) to release them from it if the coach left or was fired.

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As I sat and watched the seconds slowly tick away in Kentucky's 94-88 national championship victory over the Duke Blue Devils on March 27, 1978, I wanted to be Kyle Macy, and believe me, I wasn't alone in that sentiment.  Afterall, Macy was the leader of one of the greatest UK teams to ever grace the hardwood.  He was as cool a customer as existed in college basketball, and it seemed he never made a mistake.  He was that good, and to me, he was Kentucky basketball.

The fact that Macy stood-out so boldly on a team full of great players is a testament to not only his ability, but even more-so, to the discipline he exhibited on the court.  Never one to rush a pass, or take a quick shot, Macy led the Wildcats almost effortlessly.  Or at least it seemed that way.

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