Kentucky Basketball Saturday Headlines: Beat Bama Edition

Good morning to you all and happy Saturday!

The Kentucky Wildcats are in Tuscaloosa to take on the #7 Alabama Crimson Tide. It’s January 7th and the Cats desperately need a signature win to boost their meager tournament resume.

Kentucky is 2-1 in Quad II games but are sitting with a big fat donut in Quad I games. They’ve whiffed all season long and we really aren’t accustomed to (until recently) not having wins against ranked teams going into SEC play.

The Tide are going to present a challenge for Kentucky. They have some fabulous freshmen and some good returning players. Nate Oats is really starting to click as the head coach. When Basketball Bennies discuss SEC basketball, Alabama is the cream of the crop along with Tennessee and Arkansas. Kentucky is not mentioned in these discussions even though they were picked to win the conference. We aren’t used to this around these parts.

So here we go This Saturday at Bama. Next Saturday at Tennessee. The Cats have to win one of these two.

Tweets of the Day

Georgia’s chances just went down tremendously.

C’mon guys let’s get this win.

Headlines

Know your opponent | Cats Pause- I’ll recap here: Alabama is very good (but seriously click on the link and learn more about the Tide).

Chin Coleman on stopping Brandon Miller | KSR- Brandon Miller is a 6’9 freshman that plays like Kevin Durant. He will be the toughest assignment on the floor and my guess is they’ll start with Jacob Toppin guarding him.

More scrimmaging and tighter rotations getting Cats back into form | Vaught’s Views- We have seen Calipari do this with teams in the past (the Brandon Knight team comes to mind) but I worry about conditioning and injuries with guys playing this many minutes.

Calipari a candidate to replace Chris Beard at Texas | CBS- I don’t think this will happen but there is a quote in there about Calipari not taking the UCLA job a few years ago that made me do a double-take.

10 questions for Kentucky football during the offseason | SDS- Kentucky has made some fantastic moves in the portal but, as Mark Stoops likes to say, there is a lot to clean up.

Stetson Bennett is one game away from being an all time great | SI.com- The only thing he would be missing is the Heisman Trophy but I would say going back to back in title games is more impressive.

Damar Hamlin makes amazing progress | ESPN- Less than a week removed from having CPR performed on him on national TV during Monday night football, Bills Safety Damar Hamlin had his breathing tube removed today and facetimed with his teammates. What an amazing recovery from what seemed like a fatal situation. Keep those prayers coming.

Lionel Messi is the athlete of the year | Sporting News- I don’t follow soccer but I know who Messi is and I know he dominated the World Cup.

Listen in on the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife UK Postgame Show as Jason Ence and I break down the game. Hopefully it’s a win so we can all be happy together.