As I posted in the midst of the "pity party," it's time for J.Carter to man up. We all heard BCG say he's been practicing well, so maybe it's his time to shine. Carter at the 5 and Perry at the 4 isn't awful, if they both play their hearts out.

Who knows, maybe we'll see the return of Meeks too. He can easily put up as many if not more points than Patterson averages. This team can still prevail.

and I AM SPARTACUS!!!  I will stay behind them every step of the way.  GO CATS - I BELIEVE.

For Christ's sake, let us mourn for a second.

We stayed the course through Meeks' injury.

We stayed focused through 7-9.

We stayed strong through 41-point debacle.

Now this?

Enough, indeed. Billy Gillispie may well get the job done at Kentucky, but it won't be because God was on his side. Never, ever, could we have expected the kind of punishment inflicted in this year's Cats.

Just preposterous.

But you're right. No sense mired in the negative.

Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons and Daughters of Kentucky, my brothers and sisters! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of Big Blue Nation fails, when we forsake our legacy and break all bonds of basketball, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and fractured ankles, when the age of the Wildcat comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men and Women of the Bluegrass!

Awful, terrible, horrible.

And on top of all this nonsense, he's a good kid.

This is just ridiculous.  Way over the top.  My condolences.

This the type of event that can often force a guy to man up and give a team another legit body the next season. P-Steve, Carter hell even BigMike can fill up a lane and give us 15 fouls to take it on the chin with.

For some reason I am not terrified. Cautiously leaning to a new optimism.

BTW: pitty parties can be very healthy. I agree with JL, 16 posts are not a party. Gathering?

~ Great teamwork is the only way we create the breakthroughs that define our careers. ~   Pat Riley

~ Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. ~   Michael Jordan

...time to rally around the seniors.

However, this does blow mucho Donkey balls.....

Since PPat won't have any epic tourney games this year (think Danny Manning in '88), I guess this diminishes the chance he will go pro at the end of the season.  So he can come back strong next year!

I'm tryin', I'm tryin'. . .

Obviously, the blessing that Alex Legion's mom had given Patrick's shoes must have worn off.

its NOT like the Keith Bogans injury in 2003.

WE will not go quietly into the night!!!

Joe and Ramel and the rest of the CATS will fight until they fall over from exhaustion then they will get on their hand and knees and crawl down the court. All i ask is that they find someway to beat UF.

late and just now hearing the news.  Big blow.  But about 6 seconds after reading it I thought "well, here's a chance for greatness."  Because every difficulty you face can either be whined about or faced head on.

I know what tact Billy Clyde will take and I'll be right there with him.  Let's go find some greatness we didn't even know we had.  And next year we will be even better.

...is that we will never know just how good this team could have been. No matter who steps up and how the season eventually ends, we will never know what a lineup of a healthy Bradley, Meeks, Crawford, Stevenson, and Patterson with Jasper as the sixth man would have been capable of after they all bought into Coach G's system. After all, that was the team we were all excited about at the beginning of the season, wasn't it? I'm with Tru on not giving up and with blbskue on Carter finally becoming a man, but I am so disappointed that we will never see the peak of the talent we have all at the same time. After all the work they've done to get us back to where we are, Joe and Ramel deserved to have everyone healthy at the end of the year.

My gut feelings, as my wife just text me the news, was that the only thing worse she coulda said was that im leaving you for another man!...Its over folks :(

has surprised me all season long.  First it surprised me by laying down and letting g-webb and san diego push them around.  I was completely stunned by the no show they pulled against indiana, it was as though most of the team was uninterested.

Then around the new year something happened, results equally as stunning as the aforementioned losses started taking place.  The team started playing together, with heart and suddenly we were knocking off teams we "weren't supposed to beat."  First came the double OT gave vs. vandy where we had plenty of chances to fold, a couple more nailbiters after that and next thing you know we take out a damn good ut team.  

Euphoria sets in during a run that sees the Cats win 4-5 in a row, and POW we get smoked by vandy.  After that game how many of us would not have been all that shocked if UK struggled the rest of the way down the strech?   Surprise, surprise yet again the men on this team show what they are made of and just how much they have matured.  Against all probability they run off another 4 game win streak.

Now this, another injury, obviously its time to pack it in....it's all over.

You know, for some reason I just don't think so.  To often in the first half of the season I doubted this teams character.  Never again will I make that mistake.  Count me as a true believer that this team has heart, BIG TIME heart and it plays like a real Kentucky basketball team should.  Like everyone else I hate what Patrick now has to go through.  He is a true warrior out on the court, someone who personafies UK b-ball and I wish the guy all the best in recovering as soon as possible.  That said, I am not willing to give up on the rest of the team or this season.  It simply would not be fair to Joe and Ramel, seniors who have turned around all perceptions BBN had of them or Jasper for that matter who has given so much to overcome an injury of his own.  

This could possibly be the stuff legends are made of, be it an idividual stepping up or the team as a whole refusing to die, I have complete faith in these young men to fight to the finish in every game left on the schedule.  They have come to far to not compete for one another and represent this school like we've come to expect from them.

Big Blue Nation as a whole needs to be behind these guys now more than ever.  Now is the time to throw in a few more surprises and show everyone out there thinking this is the end for UK this year just how wrong they are.  They have given us a hell of a season to date but it's not over yet.  I am sure they are not giving up, we as the fans cannot let them down!  GO BIG BLUE!

First of all let me say that I wish Patterson a full and speedy recovery. He has gone way beyond what I expected out of him this year. His attitude and work ethic are both exceptonal, as we know, and are the reasons for his success. Get well quickly Patrick.

The primary objective is still the same; make the NCAA Tournament. Keep that streak alive, and get ready for next year.

Basically the players and Clyde have to find 16 points and 8 rebounds. Defensively, losing Patterson is no small loss, either. But, there are answers to the problem.

Offensively Stevenson, Stewart, and Carter are going to be responsible for replacing Pattersons offensive numbers. Stevenson is the one who has a real opportunity to show how far he has come. In Tru's most recent poll, Stevenson got a lot of love for being the most improved player on this team. Now is the time to fulfill the promise, Perry.

One thing Perry will not have now is Patterson to make his life easier. Stevenson's leap in productivity is a direct result of his increased confidence and aggressiveness. In stretches he looks unstoppable, on both ends of the floor, but he'll suddenly quit eyeing the basket. It's puzzling. He has to be consistently aggressive. Now is not the time for a confidence dip.

Gillispie has noted improvement in Carter's game recently. Here's hoping it wasn't BS. We all like to see the Kentucky boys do well, now though, we need the Kentucky boy to do great. I really have no idea how Carter will play, if anybody does, please let me know.

Stewart is an interesting talent. He could come in and be a major contributor, I think. It seems to me that he is on the verge of taking a quantum leap forward. The problem with Stewart is that he is so much like Stevenson. Playing them at the same time, for lenghy periods, may not be the wisest strategy. Those two on the court at the same time, without Patterson, are going to look painfully thin. I'm afaid Speights and Werner would be apt to have a big game...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I really feel those three guys can make up for Patterson's lost offense and rebounding. What those three will not be able to do is constrict the defense, like Patterson does. Teams sag in on Patterson to an extraordinary degree, which of course opens up the outside and allows the dribble penetration that Crawford and Bradley get. Defenses will now be able to extend. Putting more pressure on Crawford and Bradley. The two seniors will be asked to be even more creative and reliable. They will face defenses more geared to stop them, instead of Patterson. My bet is they will respond in a positive fashion.

Harris is another who will see increased minutes, and therefore will be responsible for increased production. Harris' defense has always been solid, and he has begun to contribute a bit more offensively, but he was not good versus Mississippi Wednesday night. I believe he had 4 turnovers in only 13-15 minutes. Let's hope that performance was an abberation. I have faith in Harris. He is supposedly one of the most competitive guys on the team. Now is the time for that attribute to shine through.

For those who have given up, let me say this; no one in the locker room, or the coaches office, has given up, nor will they give up. This coach and these players have too much fight in them to retreat. They have come much to far to go back now. The progress they have made since November is quite possibly the biggest in-season improvement I have ever seen in any UK team, or ANY team, for that matter.

Remember-

The objective is still the same:

Tennessee, probable loss
S. Carolina must win
Florida must win

Go 2-1 in the final three and get in the Big Dance. Both the S. Carolina and Florida games are going to be nailbiters, but that's no different than what we have been experiencing over the last 2 months. Neither Bradley nor Crawford can falter. They both must be, as Tiger says, on their A game, every game, from here on out.

They know this, and they will slay Goliath.

They will find a way. And if not, it's still been a rewarding year. To see a team come together as these guys have, was fun to watch.

If things don't end well it will be a crime for the great strides Crawford and Bradley made to be diminished in any way. The current situation was comletely out of their control. It's not their fault Patterson is hurt.

They deserve credit for the leadership and excellent effort they have shown the last two months. This team started winning games when they started playing better. Their transformation has been a joy to behold. They have played like two guys from Hindman.

For that, they are appreciated by me, and many others.

This morning during the Gameday segment of SportsCenter, Hubert Davis and Digger Phelps were asked their opinion on bubble teams Syracuse, Maryland, Florida, and Kentucky.

Hubert said that Kentucky was out using the early losses as a reasoning point.  Digger noted the loss of Patterson, but said that Kentucky was in.  All in all, it was a fair discussion.

It should be noted however that Hubert had 3 of the 4 teams discussed out of the tourney, he only said that Maryland would be in.  And Digger had all four of them in the tourney.  Someone's going to miss out Digger... they can't all dance.

allow me to suggest that the game can be quite enjoyable, even if the team is down.  I'm not implying the UK is a perennial loser, obviously, but you've very rarely been the underdog in a game before and it shows a bit.  There are still plenty of talented players on the team, and watching them play will still be a lot of fun.  And entering a game as an underdog with adversity heaped on top is not necessarily a bad thing.  If a world-beater whomps Little Sisters of the Poor, there's not real thrill to it.  If a team wins an even matchup, it's an accomplishment.  If Little Sisters beats the world-beater, it's a memory for a lifetime.  It's the "risk of perfection", and it can be a lot of fun to experience, even if the team does happen to fall short of that goal.

Enjoy your team and enjoy them game.  The sun will still rise on Monday.  Unless you get heavy cloud cover - then it's more of a grayout, but you get the idea.

http://www.kentucky.com/232/story/333241.html

Demarcus Cousins has commited to UAB, just after listing his interest in UK as high. Big recruiting loss for the 'Cats.

Also - anyone watching BC at UNC? The BC guard Rice has 34 points (8 for 9 on threes) in the first half. I'm definitely going to catch the second half of that.

Wouldn't it be nice to see Crawford or Bradley light it up like that tomorrow?