Kentucky Wildcats vs. West Virginia Mountaineers: The "Juicing" of Willie Cauley-Stein

For some reason, I kind of knew this was going to happen. It always seems to surround teams that pack around a reputation of being "tough." Seems like they feel the need to talk the talk, rather than just walk the walk. So, we apparently have shots fired by West Virginia reserve, Daxter Miles Jr.:

In case you don’t have time to watch it all, here’s the relevant part:

"I don’t think they’ve played a team like us," Miles continued. "To me, they don’t play hard. To me, they don’t play as hard as we play. Nobody is invincible, so their time will come, and I think we’re going to pull it out."

You know, this used to bother me years ago, but it amuses me now. If you think about it, these are just young men, surging with hormones, playing an energetic sport. It’s hard to get exercised about smack talk before, during and after the game.

I just hope our guys handle it the right way. Kentucky doesn’t need to come in all in emotional overdrive trying to beat WVU by 100 in the first ten minutes. Better if they just come in with the same approach they’ve had to big games all season — another day at the office, focused, intense, and handling the hype with aplomb. West Virginia’s words can only get to Kentucky if they let them. The only thing that matters is the game on the court — the rest is just noise.

Willie Cauley-Stein had this to say, in response:

I recall that Arkansas talked trash to Kentucky:

Confirmed: Arkansas players ran to to tunnel to talk trash to UK players as they left the floor.

— T.J. Beisner (@Beisner_cn2) March 14, 2015

And this happened:

I really don’t think you want to juice Willie Cauley-Stein, fellas. You wouldn’t like him when he’s juiced. Heck, he doesn’t even need to be juiced — Arkansas didn’t have time to trash-talk in Rupp Arena, but Willie reminded them of why the Wildcats are the #1 defensive team in America:

Don’t juice Willie, Mountaineers. It will not end well for you.