Sunday Quickies: John Calipari’s Cardinal Dominance Edition

As the dust settled after the 71-58 victory the Kentucky Wildcats won over the Louisville Cardinals, one has to marvel at the way that John Calipari has completely owned this rivalry from the minute he stepped foot in Lexington.

Cal is now 10-2* (one of those losses was vacated) over the Cards and has defeated three separate coaches. Of course the majority of those wins came against Rick Pitino, but Cal dispatched David Padgett last season 90-61 and welcomed Chris Mack to the rivalry with a butt kicking all his own.

It eats at the souls of Cardinal fines as they despise Calipari. They hated him when he was at Memphis and they hate him even more at UK. But they are helpless against the complete control he holds over their program.

And by the looks of things, the domination isn’t going to end anytime soon.

Tweets of the Day

Sorry about your luck, Chuck.

**crying face emoji**

ROTFLMAO

Except that Kentucky’s three point defense has gotten exponentially better over the last few games. Do some research, Howie.

Nah.... we good.

Quickies

Ashton Hagan’s offensive burst scary for future foes | Lexington Herald Leader- Hagans was once again brilliant on defense and is starting to run the offense like a true point guard. If he can add the drive and score to the basket, the ceiling for UK will continue to rise. There’s a marked difference in the way the team plays all around when Hagans is on the floor.

What we learned about Kentucky’s win over Louisville | USA Today- More Hagans love here as it’s noted that he’s become the catalyst for the Cats.

UK’s season back on track | Cats Pause- It took a little longer than expected but it looks as if this team is ready for the SEC. The setback against Duke had bigger ramifications than maybe we realized and Calipari admitted in his postgame presser that he may have been a little intoxicated with the team after the Bahamas. But the way they closed the month of December makes everyone in BBN feel much better.

Time to quit talking about Duke | WDRB- That game seemed like it was a year ago and this Kentucky team is completely different as guys have finally figured out and accepted their roles. Maybe a Final Four rematch will be a fitting end to the season.

Cats handle Louisville with ease | CBS- In a game where scoring at times was hard to come by, Tyler Herro was 10-13 from the field and 4-6 from three. The kid was electric and put up a career high 24 points.

UK has full appreciation of Penn State challenge | UK Athletics- While the Big 10 is laying egg after egg this bowl season, the Wildcats are not looking at the Nitany Lions like they’re paper tigers.

WKU beats Wisconsin | WDRB- Always a shame when the Badgers lose.

PJ Washington’s game continues to develop | Cats Pause- He had just 5 points but PJ Washington impacted the game in so many ways. His defense on Jordan Nwora held UofL’s best player to 17 points on 17 shots. Washington also grabbed 8 rebounds and blocked 4 shots. He was fantastic in the post when double teamed as he dished the ball off to the open man. Last year, when PJ was doubled it was a turnover or a bad forced shot.

Bama vs. Clemson IV | CBS- There’s been a great deal of crying and whining about the continued dominance of the Tide and the Tigers. My view is if people are sick of them then maybe some other teams need to step up and beat them.

UCLA stinks | USA Today- Lonzo Ball ain’t walking through that door. Steve Alford’s Bruins are in a world of trouble after dropping another game yesterday. UCLA lost 73-58 to Liberty. At home. That’s right: Liberty beat UCLA as bad as Kentucky beat Louisville.