I have to admit, when I read this preview of the Kentucky Wildcats versus the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday Down South earlier this year, I was uncharacteristically miffed about it -- so much so that I specifically remembered it and hoped I would get a chance to thumb my rhetorical nose at the writer. Here's a taste of why:
It is clear that the University of South Carolina has accepted the torch passed from the SEC football gods by ensuring that Kentucky football remains irrelevant, insignificant, and mediocre. Words of advice to the land of Lexington: get rid of any dream of beating South Carolina this year, it won’t happen. The gamecocks winning number 11 in a row is a sure thing, in fact I don’t know of a surer thing, unless of course we want to discuss Calipari and the NCAA sanctions he will bring upon Kentucky basketball, but that is another topic for another day. See you in October UK fans, and when we try to find you in November we will politely look down and ask Vanderbilt to get out of the way.
If you are a Kentucky fan and this does not make your blood pressure rise just the tiniest bit, you need to check your pulse. I laughed at the basketball part, but the football part got to me just a little, I admit. So I hope you'll join me in a heartfelt, deep-from-the-depths-of-the-soul, "Up yours!" Thank God for classy South Carolina fans like those at Garnet And Black Attack, who, even though some might feel the same way for all I know, have the good grace not to write it on the Internet.
Just one question to the SDS writer before I move on. How do you like us now? That karma, she a beeotch, n'est ce pas?
Continuing on the theme of football, Coach Calipari had a few words for the football team on Lexy. Now that basketball is here, you know some of the focus is going to tend to come off of football, despite their heroics on the the field. Nice to hear the basketball coach talk about Phillips & Co., and to Coach Cal's credit, he does it all the time.
I don't really agree with this:
Had it not been for Mike Hartline, the University of Kentucky football season would have flatlined Saturday night against No. 10 South Carolina.
I think Crawford is being just a little dramatic. Kentucky needed one win out of this three game home stand to have hope for the season. Two wins and they have hope for a very good, if not great season. The win versus South Carolina made a very good season possible. The loss to Ole Miss made a great one impossible.
Yes, I have relatively low expectations for the football team -- a bowl game is good enough for me, for the most part, and yes, I know that these days that is a very low bar. I don't agree with those who think UK is some kind of sleeping giant in football. In my opinion, those days passed with Bear Bryant, and that was a long time ago.
But that does not mean we can't rise up and smite the SEC Philistines a lot more regularly than we currently do. Every time it happens, I am as giddy as a schoolboy, and this victory is no different. I'll feel the same way if we manage to beat the Georgia Bulldogs in Commonwealth next weekend.
Jessica Camerato has a great article on Rajon Rondo today. Here's a taste:
On one side of the locker room, Shaquille O'Neal repeatedly tossed a Celtics strength-and-conditioning coach in the air. On another side, teammates joked loudly with one another.
Rajon Rondo quietly sat in the middle of it all, hands rested in his lap and eyes glued to game film. Tip-off was less than two hours away and it was his job to reign in all these personalities on the court.
Rajon Rondo continues to impress, and seems intent on reaching the potential that we all saw mostly in fits and starts while he was at Kentucky. One can only imagine how good he could have been in John Calipari's offense, although his inability to shoot the perimeter shot would have been a concern, just as it was in Tubby Smith's offense.
From BallinEurope:
28. Not strictly Euroleague, but BiE wants you-heard-it-first status for this one: No matter where he plays in 2010-11, Enes Kanter will be an NBA Draft lottery pick.
Word.