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So as a tired but happy Kentucky Wildcats team sashays into the post season, we are hearing a lot of rip-roaring criticism about the way this 2010 version of the NCAA tournament was put together.  The sky is blue. the Pope is Catholic.  I know this shocks you all.

For myself, I think the 2010 version of the Big Dance looks exciting.  Yes, a few of the calls by the committee are head-scratchers, and we are even seeing a few conspiracy theories pop up.  Myself, I reject all that as typical tournament talk, and I really look forward to the tournament moving forward.

Since we are talking dissatisfaction and unhappiness, how mad should the Mississippi St. Bulldogs be that a lane violation occurred during the game on the play that resulted in DeMarcus Cousins’ game-tying shot?  Personally, I can understand their frustration.  What basketball fan has not lost a game on a controversial play that later shows some kind of violation or clear foul on replay?  We have all seen it dozens of times.

So I don’t blame MSU for griping about this a little.  I will point out, however, that officials very rarely allow games to be decided with whistles.  We have seen many travels, fouls, and other sorts of things that would have nullified a last-second shot or put the guy on the line with no time left.  The fact is, basketball officials are very reluctant to blow the whistle on that last play unless there is a clear and unambiguous advantage gained by the violator, and even then they sometimes don’t blow the whistle.  I think it is a built-in reflexive thing for officials to let game-deciding plays be contested on the court, absent something truly egregious.

More after the jump.

Was DeMarcus Cousins fouled during the put-back attempt?  Possibly.  No call.  Correctly, no call.  Why?  The officials are reluctant to interject themselves into game-ending plays like that.  It is natural, and to a large degree, commendable.  But UK fans are going to have to remember this the next time a buzzer-beater doesn’t go our way and there is a violation that is obvious on replay.  Live by the sword, die by the sword, that’s the way of things.  Mississippi State had a lot to lose on that play, and they are correct that there were violations (arguably by both sides) that did not get called.

Did the officials not make a call that was available?  Yes.  Was it the right call?  Yes, regardless of whether Stansbury thinks so or not.  It happens all the time.  Very little is left by rule to the judgment of the officials, yet that judgment absolutely impacts every game.

So does MSU have a beef about not being selected to the tournament?  Absolutely not.  Rick Stansbury scheduled an exremely easy OOC schedule thinking that he would dominate the SEC West and get in on th strength of that.  It was purely a misjudgement on Stansbury’s part.

The strongest teams in MSU’s OOC schedule was always going to be UCLA, Old Dominion, and Richmond.  Now, with all due respect to the fact that UCLA had a miserable year, these teams are the highlight of your pre-conference schedule, really? 

Look at Florida by comparision:  Florida State, Richmond, Syracuse, Michigan State.  Now that’s how you schedule when you have twice been bitten by weak OOC slates.  Stansbury needs to shut his yap and learn the same lesson Billy Donovan learned.

Moving along to Kentucky’s draw in the tournament, there has been a lot of hand-wringing about how tough it is.

Let me just say, with all the love and affection I can muster:  GET OVER IT! 

Good grief, we are Kentucky, not Duke.  We don’t need help, and if we do lose, we should not be whining about getting beat.  Nobody is entitled to an easy road, and Kansas’ trip looks just as tough, to me at least, as Kentucky’s.  So let’s stop worrying about the draw and get ready for a wild ride.  These kids need to face tough teams, because if UK does get anywhere near the Final Four, they will require more battle-testing than they’ve had so far this year.

That’s the one thing this Kentucky team lacks that it really needs before it earns the right to play for the NCAA championship — to be more tested than they were against SEC foes.  This bracket, in my mind, is very favorable to UK, particularly because the Wildcats will get to play the kinds of teams that will prepare them for what awaits them in the later rounds.  Let’s look at the likely opponents if the seeds win properly:

1. The Texas Longhorns — Texas is a big, strong, talented team the likes of which does not exist in the SEC this year.  Kentucky has out-bulked every team they have played, but they won’t out-bulk the Longhorns.  This game is an excellent preparation for the Kansas Jayhawks.
2. The Wisconsin Badgers — Wisconsin is a relatively small but extremely disciplined team that loves to control the pace and execute sharply.  They remind me somewhat of the Duke Blue Devils, and have many of the same characteristics — good three point shooting and strong perimeter defense.  Wisconsin would be excellent preparation for Duke.
3. The West Virginia Mountaineers — While they don’t play the zone, the Mountaineers have quite a bit in common with the Syracuse Orange.  Both are long, athletic teams who can shoot from the perimeter.  Both have some size but relatively little bulk.  Both defend very hard, and both are excellent offensive rebounding squads despite their lack of bulk.  While Syracuse is more comfortable at a higher pace, both teams are equally efficient offensively and play a tough, determined game.

Does Kentucky have a tough, rocky road to the Final Four?  Absolutely.  But if they can win through, they will be ready to win the national crown.  The tests along the way will be invaluable to preparing them for the most pressure-packed and intense of all college basketball scenarios, and will challenge their toughness and determination.  Get past this bracket, and Kentucky will have made the case that they are worthy of playing in April, and taking on the rest of the best.

So don’t be upset with this region.  Instead, celebrate it.  This is the kind of road this team needs to travel in order to have a genuine chance to win it all.  They are young and have never faced this kind of pressure, but they have also shown throughout the year that they can beat good teams in tough situations.  They will need to do so to get to the last weekend of college basketball season, and this bracket could not do a better job of preparing them physically and mentally for getting to Base Camp of college basketball’s Mount Everest — the Final Four.  The push to the summit demands a tested and seasoned team.

Finally, I want to take the position that if UK doesn’t get to the Final Four, it doesn’t much matter where we fall (Except in the first round — I don’t want to make that kind of history).  Kentucky’s tradition does not celebrate Sweet Sixteens, or Elite Eights, and we barely acknowledge Final Fours (except to use it as a bludgeon against coaches we perceive to be underachieving).  Kentucky is about championships, and if we fail to reach that objective, the particulars of that failure are somewhat irrelevant.

So here’s to the bracket.  I love it.  Go, ‘Cats!

(H-L photo/Matt Goins)

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

• On Dan Patrick’s Radio Show, John Calipari says John Wall wants to stay.
• Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader on UK’s freshmen vs. Michigan’s Fab Five freshmen.
• Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader on the UK women opening NCAA play in Louisville.
• Tipton on Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury saying the officials missed a key call late in SEC title game.
• Writing for the Boston Globe, Charles Pierce thinks some Cats have tuned out John Calipari.
• Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant takes a shot at Calipari. (Hat tip to Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog.)
• Rick Bozich of the C-J on Kentucky finding a way to win.
• Eric Crawford of the Courier-Journal on UK driving its way to the Big Dance.
• Brett Dawson of the C-J on Kentucky being the kiddie Cats.
• Drew Bruno of the Evansville Courier on UK’s young and restless.
• Stewart Mandel of SI.com thinks Kentucky will make it through to Indianapolis.

• Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports writes that the East won’t be easy, but UK will make the Final Four.
• Gary Parrish of CBS Sports picks Kentucky to take the whole thing.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that LSU coach Trent Johnson likes DeMarcus Cousins’ “nasty” attitude.
• Nick Craddock of the Kentucky Kernel on the UK women getting good news on Monday.
• Deke Bellavia of WWL sports says Kentucky is still the king of the SEC.
• Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports on Kentucky’s place in a wide-open tournament.
• Etan Kaplar of Bleacher Report doesn’t think John Wall can take UK to the title.

SEC links for Tuesday:

• Scott Dochtermann of the Cedar Rapids Gazette thinks Bruce Pearl will be on Iowa’s wish list.
• Rick Brown of the Des Moines Register has Pearl atop the Iowa search list.
• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel writes that Tennessee sees itself in San Diego State.
• Wes Rucker of the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Tennessee’s big challenge.
• Vanderbilt is guarding against that unlucky No. 13 seed, reports Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean.
• Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun reports that Florida’s Billy Donovan took special pride in this NCAA bid.
• David Jones of Florida Today writes that the Gators are giddy about return to tournament.
• Paul Finebaum of the Mobile Press-Register wonders if Anthony Grant really wants to be the coach at Alabama.
• Seth Emerson of The State writes that South Carolina is truly Darrin Horn’s team now.
• Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger reports that a still-steamed Mississippi State is preparing for its NIT game.
• Ole Miss wants to move forward, reports David Brandt of the Clarion-Ledger.
• Brad Locke of the NE Mississippi Daily Journal writes that Mississippi State is trying to regroup.
• Tim Tucker of the AJC reports that Georgia wants to start a football season with a game at the Georgia Dome.
• Chris Bahn of Arkansas 360 says comparing John Pelphrey to Nolan Richardson does a disservice to both.

Mississippi State Rick Stansbury charged referees with missing a critical call at the end of regulation that helped Kentucky win the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship on Sunday.
When Eric Bledsoe intentionally missed a free throw with 4.6 seconds to go in regulation, two UK teammates violated the rule that requires all players not lined up along the lane to remain behind the three-point and free throw lines extended until the foul shot hits the rim.
Still photography and a video appeared on the Internet clearly showing John Wall well inside those lines while Bledsoe’s shot is several feet from the basket.
No call was made. Wall chased down Bledsoe’s intentional miss in the right corner, dribbled and took a three-point air ball that teammate DeMarcus Cousins laid at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
UK won 75-74 in overtime to win the championship and dash Mississippi State’s hopes of receiving a NCAA Tournament bid.
“It’s not a judgment call,” Stansbury said. “And I do think there’s a little bit at stake if the correct call is made.”
Gerald Boudreaux, the supervisor of SEC officials, and the NCAA rulebook support Stansbury’s contention that referees Tom Eades, Joe Lindsay and Ted Valentine did not correctly call the violation.
On Page 115 of the NCAA rulebook, Rule 9 of Section 1G states that “Players not in legally marked lane spaces shall remain behind the free throw line extended and behind the three-point line till the ball strikes the rim. . . .”
The video also shows State’s Dee Bost and UK’s Darius Miller improperly crossing the three-point and free-throw lines.
If the referees had called a double violation, the play would have been whistled dead and the ball awarded according to the possession arrow.
Besides no judgment required to call a clear violation, what irked Stansbury was that the mistake came in a free-throw situation, not in the chaotic swirl of game action.
When it was suggested that calling the violation would have been a gutsy move for a referee, Stansbury said, “What’s their job? Their job is to get it right.”
In the regular season, Mississippi State to Kentucky in overtime that that saw 10 calls made against the Bulldogs and none against UK in the game’s final eight minutes. Stansbury said his anger over the non-call in the SEC Tournament was unrelated to the game in Starkville last month.
“The first game, I put behind me,” he said. “I’m not a guy who cries over spilled milk very often. I never said one thing about (the game in Starkville). I moved on. We took the loss and moved on.
“This was a hard pill to swallow because this was not a judgment call.”
Stansbury, a native of Battletown, Ky., said he did not meant to detract from Kentucky.
“Hey, congratulations to Kentucky,” he said. “This isn’t about Kentucky. They had a great season. This is about doing the right thing. Doing the right thing.”
Losing two overtime games to the SEC’s flagship program in which controversial officiating played a part both times led Stansbury to suggest a double standard exists that favors Kentucky.
“I’ve been at this a long time,” the State coach said, “and one thing I’ve learned: At Mississippi State, you’re supposed to take it and be quiet I had a hard time swallowing this pill because so much was at stake and my players were affected.
“When does the truth matter?”

Kentucky guard John Wall was voted a first-team All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association, the USBWA announced Monday.

Teammate DeMarcus Cousins made the second team.

Here are those two teams:

UK’s John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins were among 26 players on a final ballot for voting for the Wooden All-American team.

All 26 players selected to the ballot have proven to their universities that they are making progress toward graduation and maintaining a cumulative 2.0 grade-point average, the Wooden press release said.

The ballot includes returning Wooden Award All-American Luke Harangody of Notre Dame, Kalin Lucas  of Michigan State, Kyle Singler  of Duke, and Sherron Collins of Kansas.

Kansas, Kentucky and Duke were the only teams with more than one player on the ballot.

The only other SEC player to make the ballot was Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State.

John Calipari was voted Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year by The Associated Press, the wire service just announced. He guided Kentucky to the SEC regular-season and tournament titles.

The AP had 12 media types for the all-league awards.

Calipari did not win the coaches’ balloting for Coach of the Year. The award went to Kevin Stallings of Vanderbilt.

UK guard John Wall won the vote for Player of the Year.

Wall and DeMarcus Cousins were voted onto the first all-SEC team.

John Calipari was “teasing” Dan Patrick when he said on Patrick’s radio show today that point guard…

“… you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?  Well, do ya, punk?’”

Harry Callahan

Watching the 2010 version of the University of Kentucky basketball team invokes many differing, sometimes contradictory emotions: A team so youthful, yet a team so mature; A team so immature, yet a team so clutch; A team so defying of all the odds, yet a team with such lofty expectations; A team so talented, yet a team so very lucky … or, is it luck?

The “it” I refer to is the seemingly “mission impossible” this UK squad has time after time successfully completed.  Regardless of time or score, John Calipari’s team of achievers have brought themselves, as well as an entire angst ridden Big Blue Nation, back from the brink of defeat nearly without fail.  It is an almost indefinable quality not often found in any team, in any sport, but a quality Kentucky basketball fans have luckily become accustomed to over the last five months.    

Basic Instinct 

Whether it be the incomparable John Wall’s game-winning shot with :03 remaining to win the Miami, OH game back in November, or, the DeAndre Liggins three-pointer to bring UK within four points against Mississippi State in Starkville, or, Wall’s spectacular defensive play, first blocking Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins‘ shot, then stealing the ball from Jenkins to preserve UK’s 58-56 victory in Nashville, or, the inconceivable path the ‘Cats took to victory over Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament championship game on Sunday.  Regardless of time and score, these ‘Cats maneuver their way to victory lane, and savor the sweet taste of Wildcat champagne more often than they should.

Throughout the season, fans, pundits, and coaches alike bemoaned this groups lack of killer instinct when it came to putting opponents on the early bus with an “L.”  But what we all know now is that the killer instinct this team possesses is the cruelest, most unforgiving of all instincts: It is that which lures the foe into a premature sense of victory, then, without warning, the killer ’Cats intuitively move in for the win.  And suddenly, where there was defeat, there is now victory.  It’s not taught, it’s not learned, it’s not even practiced.  It just is.

Some people call it a refusal to lose, some call it the winning instinct, some call it winners, winning games, and still others call it luck.  I, though, call it pure, unadulterated talent.  And it is UK’s best chance since 1998 of hanging banner number eight in the lofty heights of Rupp Arena.

Unfortunately, if the Big Blue talent were older, only by a year or so, it would simply be no contest.  Kansas, Duke, Syracuse, West Virginia … they could all mail their RSVP’s to the Big Dance with their regrets, because afterall, why show up?  But the fact that this UK team is so painfully young, gives the others reason to believe, which is exactly what this team wants — Give the opponent a reason to believe they can win, then snatch away their faith in the micro-second it takes the ‘Cats to turn lemons into lemonade.  It ain’t water into wine, but it makes UK fans drunk with delirium. 

Designs on Destiny

Regardless of time and score … it almost seems comical.  Not in a Richard Pryor sort of way, but in a disbelieving, head-shaking sort of way, as if to say, “Did I just see what I think I saw?”  Unforeseen turn of athletic events happen on all the various fields and courts of competition, but rarely is one team the source of such bemusement.  And rarely does such youth consistently win in the way these ‘Cats have won.  But talent, and in UK’s case, extreme talent, has a way of manifesting the confidence needed to win that which was lost.  Sunday’s showdown with the Mississippi State Bulldogs is Exhibit A:  A John Wall steal and resulting layup inside the final minute; followed by an intentional free throw miss kept alive and tapped to the corner by Patrick Patterson; and finally, a DeMarcus Cousins tying put-back with a “mili-second” remaining on the clock.  If just one of those improbable plays would have happened to secure victory (or at least overtime) for UK, it would have been considered by many to be a miraculous turn of events.  But to have all three plays fall the ‘Cats’ way is … well, indescribable, unfathomable, and perhaps …

Destiny: The seemingly inevitable (certain to happen) succession of events.

Am I believer in destiny?  I must confess, I’m not sure.  But I do know I’ve seen, over the years, teams that are special, and teams whose specialty is winning games they have no business winning.  But, when one team, in one season, continues to leave arenas of competition with a smile “tatted” across their face, when a loss would have been a more appropriate outcome, one has to wonder.  Wonder if this team, because of their overly creative ways and means of coming out on the winning side, is destined to be remembered … Wonder if this team, because of the decisive manner in which they respond to challenges, is destined to be revered … Wonder if this team, because of their unusually high level of accomplishment, in spite of their youth, is destined to be flattered by emulation … Wonder if this team, because of all of this, is destined for greatness, destined to be beloved? 

Destination Indianapolis?

Whether it be luck, destiny, talent, or simply refusing to lose, this Kentucky basketball team is without peer in the recent annals of college basketball.  One has to venture back nearly 20 years to find a team so young, yet so talented.  The Michigan Wolverines, aka, The Fab Five, are the last team (‘91-’92) with such a kiddie corp roster to boast enough talent to challenge the college basketball world for supremacy.  But even Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwuan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson never rose higher than 11th in the AP Poll in their freshman year, were a “6″ seed going into the NCAA Tournament, and lost seven games along the way to the Final Four.  Talented?  By gawd yes.  Destined for greatness?  Lord no.  But do we judge this Kentucky team by how far they travel in the NCAA Tournament?

In my eyes, this UK squad has already achieved that which I hoped it would — They have brought back to Lexington, as well as the rest of the Bluegrass, the feeling of anticipation, in place of dread, hope, in place of heartache, and admiration, in place of sympathy.  Collectively they have reconstructed the UK brand with gusto.  And for that we should all be grateful. 

But the simple fact is, this team has proved overwhelmingly, that size does matter, but age doesn’t.  And when it comes to winning games, they’ve mastered the art of finishing.  And because of that, my expectation is for the ‘Cats to travel in a northerly direction for the final weekend of fun.  Yes, along the way, the road will be filled with all manner of distraction, possibly including Longhorns, Owls, and Mountaineers.  A surly bunch, indeed, but the boys in blue have me believin’. 

So call it destiny, luck, or whatever you like, I’ll believe, until I have reason to doubt.

Thanks for reading, and Go ‘Cats!  

(H-L photo)

Big Blue Links for Monday:

• Mark Story of the H-L picks Kentucky to win it all.
• Dick Vitale also picks the Cats to cut down the nets at the end.
• Kentucky will face a bumpy road, writes Story.
• Some are calling it a brutal road, reports Jerry Tipton and Ryan Alessi in the Herald-Leader.
• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal on Kentucky’s No. 1 seed in the East.
• Matt May of the Cats Pause on Kentucky’s seeding and NCAA path.
• The tournament is wide open, writes Michael Wilbon in the Washington Post.
• Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News on Kansas and Kentucky as Goliaths.
• Boogie time in Nashville, writes Metz Camfield of the Kentucky Kernel.
• ESPN.com on DeMarcus Cousins’ crush on Connecticut’s Maya Moore.
• B.W. Jones of the Kentucky Kernel on UK’s tough draw in New Orleans.
• Kentucky kept its emotions in check in Nashville, writes Ray Glier in the New York Times.

• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that East Tennessee has NCAA experience.
• The wait was worth it for Kentucky, writes Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches.
• Tom Leach has video of John Calipari talking about the bracket.
• Ryan Clark of the Kentucky Enquirer isn’t buying the difficult road angle.
• Bluegrass State Basketball has the complete list of NCAA Tournament TV announcers.
• Nation of Blue thinks that playing for seeding doesn’t matter anymore.
• A Sea of Blue on Kentucky’s March Madness.
• Kentucky Sports Radio on UK taking the SEC Tournament title.
• Straitpinkie says UK won the SEC Tournament in Houdini fashion.
• Kentucky Ink on UK’s unbelievable tournament title.
• Some random interviews from Inner Circle.
• Kentucky Sports Network has some post-game video from Nashville.
• Wildcat Blue Blog compares Calipari with Billy Donovan when it comes to developing NBA players.

As promised last week, here’s the log5 predictor for the NCAA tourney. Pythagorean Win Percentages are again taken from Ken Pomeroy’s most excellent stats site.

According to the predictor, Kentucky is roughly a 5-to-1 underdog to make the Final Four and about 25-to-1 to cut down the nets on April 5.

More following the jump.

Sadly, the percentages say Duke. Let’s hope they’re wrong, although the committee certainly didn’t do anything to hurt their chances. Until I saw this bracket, I was unaware that there are actually five regions in the NIT. I don’t understand how Kansas can be the #1 overall seed and yet Duke gets to play the winner of the game between the two weakest teams in the field in the first round (or why Florida is in the field, for that matter). But ours is not to reason why. If you’re looking for a good 5-12 game to pick in your bracket pool, look at Utah State-Texas A&M. Utah State, the 12 seed, is actually favored slightly in the game, though it’s a virtual coin flip (52%-48%). In the same bracket in the 6-11 game, Old Dominion is a 52%-48% favorite over Notre Dame.

A few other notes:

• The chances of all four number one seeds making the Final Four is roughly .02%.

• The 16 seed with the best chance of pulling the hugest upset of all time is Vermont, which is only a 94%-6% underdog against Syracuse.

• The lowest seed with at least a 5% predicted chance of making a run is Florida State, the 9th seed in the West.

Anyway, enjoy if you’re into this sort of thing. If not, just enjoy the last three weeks of this most excellent of recent seasons.

SEC links for Monday:

• Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger reports on the double bad day for Mississippi State.
• The madness began on Sunday, writes Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
• Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun reports that the committee included Florida after a two-year absence.
• Florida made it with room to spare, writes Jeremy Fowler in the Orlando Sentinel.
• David Jones of Florida Today writes that it was the non-conference schedule that gave the Gators the bid.
• Joe Goodman of the Miami Herald writes that Florida did just enough to get an invite.
• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports on Tennessee’s No. 6 seed in the NCAAs.
• The truth starts on Thursday, writes Mike Strange of the News-Sentinel.
• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that blowout loss impacted Tennessee’s seed.
• It was a Vol fall, writes Wes Rucker of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
• Vanderbilt was excited to get a No. 4 seed, reports Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean.
• Ole Miss will start with Troy in the NIT, reports David Brandt of the Clarion-Ledger.
• Brad Locke of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal on the Rebels and Bulldogs going to the NIT.
• Will the fact that Chuck Person doesn’t have a degree disqualify him for the Auburn coaching job? So asks Ray Melick of the Birmingham News.

Well, it’s that time of year again Wildcat fans; it’s that glorious, fun-filled, ever-so-thrilling time of year that we-who-are-crazy-about-college-basketball call March Madness.  Selection Sunday is behind us and now it’s time to rearrange your schedules, take time off of work, get a sitter, plan pre-game and during-game parties, grocery shop for the proper food, buy the proper drinks, shop for festive new UK-inspired apparel, or whatever it is you normally do in order to suitably prepare to celebrate March Madness and to watch a whole lot of college basketball.  In addition to schedule reshuffling and all the other things mentioned above in order to get ready for March Madness, it’s also time to fill out your annual NCAA tourney brackets.  March Madness, here we are.

I am so excited that this year’s bracket includes our beloved Kentucky Wildcats, and boy does it ever include them as our remarkably talented boys are making us quite proud with an extremely impressive return to the field of 65 this year with a #1 seed coming out of the East region, and our first game is slated against the Buccaneers of East Tennessee State on Thursday March 18th.  When quickly glancing at our bracket and perusing the teams with the highest seeds I see a few teams of interest.  Now, this is not to say that any of the teams in our bracket couldn’t be a potential matchup for us, but just for the sake of simplifying things I will just make mention of the #2-6 seeds in our bracket.  I confess to knowing absolutely nothing about New Mexico or Temple, so I have no informed opinion whatsoever about them, but I have seen Wisconsin, Marquette and West Virginia all play numerous times this year and if were we to meet up with any of those three, Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers being the most difficult, IMO, well, they could prove to be quite challenging for us, but you must play and beat the best to be considered the best as that is the name of the game, after all, and I for one, relish the chance.  March Madness, I can’t wait.

It’s true that our team is young and our critics, rivals and even some of our own fans see that as a negative aspect for us, and it’s also because of that youth we might not be coming in as the paper-favorite or popular favorite to win it all this year, and while no team as young as we currently are has actually ever won it all, history does not always repeat itself, anything is possible this time of year and they don’t call it March Madness for nothing.  The paper or popular favorite does not always win games in March, but rather it’s the teams that peak at just the right time and click on all cylinders precisely when they should that win games in March and ever the optimist, it’s that mentality that gives me great hope and belief in our team, and there is really no good reason for me to think that we won’t be the team that excels and overcomes any obstacle in order to advance and conquer.  It’s what we have been waiting for, it’s what we have been working ever so hard for, and even though we are young and inexperienced in major tournament environments and could be prone to youthful mistakes and those mistakes could indeed prove costly, our boys are also totally and admirably fearless in their youth and that’s one of the reasons I really like our chances, they are not afraid of losing when the stakes are raised, why should I be?   I’ll take fearless talent over experience any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.

Sure, sometimes we get down, and we don’t play with an experienced teams’ level of intensity for 40 minutes straight or make all the decisions that a veteran laden team might make, but in addition to flexing our considerably talented muscles by blowing teams out as we have done a few times this year, maybe more remarkably, we are capable of taking a 10 point deficient and converting it into a lead in a matter of minutes, we are capable of overcoming glaring rebounding and turnover deficiencies, we are capable of playing incredibly ferocious lock-down defense, and simply, somehow, have successfully been finding a way to win more than a respectable amount of games all year long, and when you reach March and everyone elevates their play and is playing for their lives, so to speak, it’s because of the fact that we can overcome being down in one way or another and it’s because of our will-to-win ideal combined with our freakish athleticism, extraordinary playmaking ability, unsurpassed talent, and Coach Calipari’s leadership that I find this team to have a truly magical nature about them, they are more than capable of greatness in a major tournament environment and could very realistically be the last one standing come April 5th.  In the end, though, whatever happens this March, I am simply ecstatic that I have the opportunity to cheer on our ‘Cats in the tourney this year.  March Madness, bring it on.

March Madness is when considerable memories are made, and as I said previously, just because a team as young as ours has never won it all, that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.  This year, we have a chance to write an amazing story and make history while we are making memories — here’s to all our memories being good ones.   We shall see.  March Madness, oh, how I love thee.

An HTML Version of the bracket can be found after the jump.  Comments, criticisms, bloviation and other opinions on the 2010 tournament bracket are weclome.

To celebrate March Madness and get in on all the fun around here, ASoB is once again going to do our very own NCAA tourney bracket challenge on Yahoo! Sports.  This will be the third year in a row for the ASoB challenge and if you would like try your hand against your fellow ASoB members, I invite you to fill out a bracket(s) for yourself.  All ASoB members are welcome and encouraged to participate

Those of you who participated in this challenge in years past are old pros by now and know exactly what to do, but for those of you who didn’t get in on the fun before this year or for those who need a reminder where to go, please click here.  Once you click on that link, you will want to pick the “Join Group” button.  If you don’t currently have a Yahoo! account, you will be prompted to create one.  After you have created a Yahoo! account, or you have simply signed in to your existing account you will need to enter the Group ID # 21007 and Group Password asob2010 (no space) to access our group and once you have created your bracket name you can then enter your picks.  More details to follow.

As far as your bracket name, I would make the suggestion to use your ASoB username or something similar as your bracket name.  Most of us who have participated in this challenge in the past have used our ASoB usernames (for example, I use BigSkyCat) and it definitely makes it easy to identify everyone that way, but, of course, you are welcome to choose something entirely different, as well, it’s whatever you prefer.  Also, if I remember correctly, last year there was some trouble with entering picks immediately as the Yahoo! site is quite understandably overrun with traffic the minute the bracket challenge goes live, so if at first you are unable to make your picks, don’t fret, just try back in a few hours.  The deadline for making your picks is the tip-off of the first game scheduled for Thursday, March 18^th.   

One difference in the bracket challenge this year is that I changed the maximum number of brackets you call fill out for the ASoB group from 1 to 2.  I know some of you have children, spouses, nieces, nephews, etc. that might want to get in on the fun and I thought that increasing the number of brackets you are able to fill out might be an easy and convenient way to include them, or perhaps you yourself would like to try your luck more than once, and that’s fine too.  I know I fill out more than a handful of brackets every year and I’m sure ya’ll are no different.

There will be no money involved, of course, and other than bragging rights for the winner(s) there are no physical prizes to speak of.  But, provided you aren’t afraid (wink, wink) and you feel like giving the bracket challenge a shot by competing against your fellow ASoB members, and you happen to have a bit of a competitive nature like I do (imagine that, a UK fan with a competitive nature, crazy, right?) — go for it!  Please give a shout with any questions you may have about the bracket challenge, and no matter if you end up making your bracket picks with your head or your heart, best of luck to you. 

Feel free to discuss anything UK, March Madness or bracket related in the comments below, and of course, lastly, but surely not least, GO ‘CATS!

At long last, Kentucky Wildcats fans get to watch an NCAA selection show with absolutely zero trepidation.  I had almost forgotten what it felt like not to worry about where UK was going to be picked.  I have none for this season.

Many will sweat the bracket, but frankly, I can’t find myself doing that after today.  No matter what happens from here on out, this year has been a success in my book after suffering through the last four years of having about as much relevance to the NCAA basketball championship as a random hockey puck.

For Kentucky, they will unquestionably be selected a #1 seed, but they will not be the #1 seed — that honor deservedly belongs to the Kansas Jayhawks, whom we have no shot at meeting until the Final Four, if both teams happen to make it.

I think there are still a lot of questions about who the #2 seeds will be, but I can’t come up with a scenario, based on my review of the teams, that has anybody but the Kansas Jayhawks, Kentucky Wildcats and Duke Blue Devils in it.  I think there is still doubt about that last number one between the Syracuse Orange and West Virginia Mountaineers.  I really think West Virginia may have done enough to steal the fourth one seed from the Orange.

I’m pretty lousy at bracketology, so I won’t even attempt to predict things — instead, I’ll leave that to the experts.  All I know is that if UK isn’t a #1 seed, there will need to be a Congressional investigation.

So chat about it, enjoy, and we’ll be back with more later.

Now that was pretty exciting, wasn’t it?  Kentucky snatches victory from the yawning maw of defeat.  Priceless.

Outstanding effort by the Mississippi St. Bulldogs.  They just would not go away, and the Kentucky Wildcats absolutely could not put the basketball into the basket from point-blank range, let alone from the perimeter. I cannot recall the last time I watched a basketball team miss that many layups, and Jarvis Varnado certainly deserves credit for affecting a good number of them.  But in this game, UK could not even make wide-open looks, let alone challenged shots.  It was a loathsome offensive performance by Kentucky, and the Bulldogs did almost everything necessary to make us pay the price.

But almost is not enough in basketball, and with spectacular heroics from freshman phenoms DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall, the Wildcats pull out a game in the most unlikely fashion.  First, it was a deliberately missed free throw by Eric Bledsoe that bounced perfectly to Kentucky, got Wall a wide-open 14-footer which he left woefully short, but which Cousins tracked down and stuck back in just as time expired. 

Then, in overtime, Wall made a spectacular, “Hail Mary” three from the left corner as the shot clock ran out.  Combined with a Cousins free throw a few seconds later that hit the perfect spot between the backboard and rim that killed it dead as a stone and let it trickle in, these two unlikely shots provided the decisive margin in a hotly contested game that could not have been any closer.

More after the jump.

I must admit, I am still in a bit of shock.  Kentucky was surely as bad as they have been all year on offense, but their defense was outstanding.  Credit Mississippi State with making not only the open shots they got, but hitting many challenged shots that had UK fans shaking their head.  Rarely does a team make that many shots with people hanging all over them, but MSU did anyway, and it was almost enough to undo the Wildcats’ storybook season so far.

Observations and superlatives:

• Patrick Patterson had a good game, but he seemed to disappear late.
• John Wall is, as we speak, getting fitted for a blue cape with a stylized “S” on it.
• DeMarcus Cousins also deserves a superhero uniform.  I’ll leave it to the reader to figure out which one, because I don’t know many that he could fit into.  Maybe we’ll just put a blue mask on him and call him Captain Cuztastic.  Yet another double double, and the game-saving rebound and stick-back.
• Eric Bledsoe and John Wall gets both get a bit of criticism, because they missed three critical front-ends between them that could have won the game in regulation.  Bledsoe was very important today, though.  He made a couple of big threes and tough plays that helped make the difference, and that missed free throw could not have been any more perfect.
• Darius Miller simply never got untracked today.
• DeAndre Liggins gave Kentucky some terrific minutes in the first half, but I don’t know if he even got in in the second half.
• I took Patterson’s name in vain after he failed to close out on Ravern Johnson in the right corner that allowed him to make a three that put UK down 5.  You must force MSU to put the ball on the floor.  For the most part, we did that well today, but Patterson made two really bad mistakes that resulted in six points — he ran away from Barry Stewart on a fast break in the first half, allowing him to shoot an uncontested three, and the aforementioned failure to close out Johnson.
• Daniel Orton once again was a big contributor, with lots of rebounds and several points.
• Since when did free throw shooting become so difficult for this team?
• Ramon Harris was in the game very late, and validated that Calipari decision with maybe the biggest rebound of the game.
• Perry Stevenson once again gave us some valuable minutes in reserve of the foul-hampered DeMarcus Cousins.
• I do hope MSU gets into the dance.  They definitely earned it today, in my opinion.
• Rick Stansbury and John Calipari were having a contest to see who could get closest to half-court without being chased back into the box.
• How about that Big Blue crowd?  Represent, Big Blue Nation!!
• Congratulations to the Kentucky Wildcats and the Big Blue Nation for sweeping the SEC titles for the first time since 2002-03!

That’s all I’ve got.  I’ll have an open thread later for the selection show.  There won’t be much drama for Kentucky (How nice is that, for a change?), but it will be interesting to see what happens to Florida and MSU.

With freshmen scoring all the points in overtime, Kentucky beat Mississippi State 75-74 in overtime to win the SEC Tournament.

John Wall hit the big shot — an off-balanced three-pointer — with 27.6 seconds left to point Kentucky toward victory.

Trailing 62-57 with less than 90 seconds left, Kentucky rallied. Patrick Patterson’s putback got UK closer.
Then with State clinging to a three-point lead inside the final minute, a pressing Wall stole the ball from Barry Stewart in the left corner and drove the baseline for a layup with 40 seconds left.
Dee Bost missed the front end of a one-and-one (one of three State misses in the final 96 seconds).
But Wall missed a 12 footer in the lane. Stewart rebounded and was fouled. A 70.8-percent free thrower, he made both shots to put State ahead 64-61 with 8.2 seconds left.
State chose to foul rather than risk a tying three-pointer. Eric Bledsoe made the first with 4.6 seconds left. He intentionally missed the second and Wall retrieved the loose ball with barely three seconds left.
Wall missed a three-pointer from the right wing, but DeMarcus Cousins got the rebound and scored at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

Kentucky and Mississippi State traded the lead five times in barely more than three minutes.

At the end of that point and counterpoint, State led 50-48 with 11:24 left. Ravern Johnson’s long-range three-pointer gave the Bulldogs the lead.

Kentucky turned up the defensive heat in the second half.

State got good mileage out of a 2-3 zone. The Bulldogs also rebounded well out ot ehzone, lmiting UK to no offensive rebounds for a long stretch.

It’s becoming a battle of defenses. State using a 2-3 zone. UK a man-to-man.

State leads 52-50 with 6:57 left.

Cousins is going to the line after being fouled by Varnado. It’s only Varnado’s second foul of the game.

State leads 59-55 at the final TV timeout with 3:41 left.

Dee Bost gave State the lead with a three-pointer. It countered a three by Eric Bledsoe, which broke a one-for-11 shooting slump for Kentucky against State’s 2-3 zone.

After Wall and Bledsoe missed the front end of one-and-ones, State called time. The play called was a pick and roll with Ravern Johnson finding Jarvis Varnado for a dunk.

That put UK behind by four going into the final TV timeout.

Wall and Cousins made their presence known early in the second half and it propelled Kentucky into the lead.
After Bledsoe opened the half with a three-pointer, Cousins scored on back-to-back trips for his first baskets of the game. On the second, he beat his defender downcourt after a made State basket and dunked to tie it at 38-38.
Kentucky took the lead when Wall made a layup in transition after driving into Varnado’s chest. The score put UK ahead 40-38 and prompted a State timeout with 17:20 left.

Two free throws by Patterson, his first points since the 11:56 mark of the first half, gave Kentucky a 44-41 lead with 15:47 left.

State leads 27-22 with 5:39 left in the first half.

DeMarcus Cousins picked up his second foul with 9:42 left and went to the bench. Daniel Orton held his own as the replacement.

But Jarvis Varnado seemed more comfortable working against Orton.

After Orton scored on a pretty spinning turnaround shot over Varnado to tie it at 22-22, State scored the next five points.

Stewart swished a three-pointer. Then Varnado grabbed a rebound and put in a hook over Orton to give the Bulldogs a five-point lead.

After Kentucky missed its first three three-point shots (two by Saturday’s long-range hero Eric Bledsoe), Darnell Dodson hit UK’s first trey. It came with 4:46 left in the half and reduced State’s lead to 28-27.

On the plus side, Kentucky only trailed by one while John Wall had one basket and DeMarcus Cousins none.

Mississippi State scored the final four points of the first half to take a 35-31 lead at intermission.

Jarvis Varnado dunked a third-chance opportunity to give the Bulldogs a 33-31 lead with 1:52 left.

After Kentucky missed a shot, Ravern Johnson hit a pullup jumper from the foul line area with 1:22 left to set the halftime score. That gave him 12 points in the half.

Kentucky called time, but only got a three-point attempt by John Wall from the right corner. He missed. UK’s only other shot of the half was another three-point miss by Wall to complete his one-for-six shooting half.

With DeMarcus Cousins failing to score so far, Patrick Patterson filled the void. He made four of his first five shots and scored nine points with the game barely eight minutes old.

UK led 13-9 when Patterson took a lob from John Wall and dunked. That came after State’s Romero Osby missed a contested dunk off a lob at the other end.

State called time with 11:56 left.

Barry Stewart, who picked up two fouls inside the first four minutes, returned. The senior steadied State by hitting a three-pointer.

The game is on.

The Kentucky Wildcats are down by 4, 35-31 at halftime to the Mississippi St. Bulldogs.  DeMarcus Cousins has two fouls, as does Barry Stewart for the ‘Dogs.

Kentucky saved their best basketball for the second half yesterday.  Will they do it again today?

Mississippi State leads 9-5 at the first TV timeout.

State is attacking early before UK’s defense gets set. The Bulldogs are also double-teamming DeMarcus Cousins whenever he gets the ball in the low post. The latter has resulted already in a tie-up and a charging foul on Cousins.

The charge on Cousins came with 14:23 left. The first four fouls of the game had been called against State. Dating back to the game in Starkville, that meant 14 straight foul calls going against State in a game with Kentucky.

Still, the charging call caused the many UK fans here to boo.

Country music star Lorrie Morgan just sang the national anthem before Kentucky plays Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament championship game.

As she came to center court and waited for her recorded musical accompaniment to began, a fan yelled “Go Big Blue” to interrupt the quiet inside Bridgestone Arena.

Morgan smiled slightly and nodded her head.

Morgan then sang the anthem. Her’s was a moving nearly two-minute version done slowly without flourishes.

The Kentucky Wildcats and the Mississippi St. Bulldogs enter the arena to contest the 2010 SEC Tournament championship today in Nashville.  This is a rematch of the game that these two teams played to overtime in Starkville earlier this year, and it promises to be every bit as intense as that game was.

Game particulars are as follows, courtesy of UKAthletics.com:

Date & Time	Sun., Mar 14, 1:00 p.m. ET
Coverage	Tournament Central TV: ABC Radio: BBSN GameTracker Online Audio Text Updates
Location	Bridgestone Arena Nashville, Tenn.

I doubt that the teams have to worry about projectiles from the crowd today like they did in the earlier game in Starkville, as Mississippi State is not known for how their basketball fans travel, and Nashville is much closer to Kentucky than to Mississippi.  So this crowd is very likely to be rabidly partisan in favor of the Wildcats.

For more on the Bulldogs, be sure to check out For Whom The Cowbell Tolls, SB Nation’s Mississippi State blog.  More following the jump.

What UK needs to do to win:

• Continue to shoot the ball well;
• Guard the three.  MSU will take a ton of them, and they make them;
• Attack the Bulldogs inside, where they have little depth.  If UK can get Jarvis Varnado in foul trouble, this game will get much easier;
• Continue to get to the free throw line.

What UK can do to lose:

• Lose the battle on the offensive glass;
• Play like they have nothing to gain;
• Fail to get Patrick Patterson involved.  It may have worked yesterday, but it rarely will;
• Miss free throws.  They may not have mattered yesterday, but they likely will today.

I want to beat MSU primarily because of how rude they were when we played them last.  Plus, UK has been without an SEC tournament championship long enough.

Go, ‘Cats!

Kentucky planned to watch Sunday’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show in the home of Coach John Calipari.

But those plans became questionable when UK advanced to the SEC Tournament finals on Sunday.

With tipoff for the championship game set for a few minutes after 1 p.m. EDT, the UK travel party isn’t sure it can be back at Calipari’s home by the start of the Selection Show at 6 p.m. EDT.

If all goes well, the game will be finished a few minutes after 3 p.m. EDT. That gives UK less than three hours to cut down the nets, be presented the championship trophy (assuming UK beats Mississippi State), have players take bows for making the all-tournament team, do interviews, get to the Nashville airport, go through security (even for chartered flights, passengers must go through security), fly to Lexington and get to Calipari’s home.

UK spokesman DeWayne Peevy said that alternatives were being considered: Stay in Nashville and watch the Selection Show at the team hotel, watch it at the Nashville airport or watch it at the Lexington airport.

Today, Kentucky takes on Mississippi State in a game that means everything — to Illinois. And…

Just a few stories to prime you before the big game in an hour or so.

Find them after the jump.

• Samardo Samuels to enter the 2010 NBA Draft and other UL news. – Kentucky Sports Network
  Lots of U of L news here that will bring smirks to the Card haters among us.

• Breakfast with the Pattersons | Vaught’s Views
• Calipari’s insights on today’s game | Vaught’s Views
• Foes say not to underestimate Bledsoe’s value to UK | Vaught’s Views

• Stoda Pop ” Gators don’t deserve NCAA bid
  Well, there’s one man’s opinion.

• Rush The Court ” Blog Archive ” Weekly Bracketology: 03.13.10

• ” Has Kentucky’s defense slipped a little? John Clay’s Sidelines
  It has definitely slipped lately.

• Bubble banter: Who’s in, out? – Beyond the Arc – msnbc.com
• Kentucky Sports Radio ” Kentucky-Tennessee Postgame BEATDOWN Notes

• Bledsoe: “If I make 3’s, nobody can touch us” | Vaught’s Views
  Terrific game by Eric Bledsoe. Just terrific.

• Twitter / Brett Dawson

  Miss State coach Rick Stansbury pleading for fans of schools other than UK and MSU to come out and root for Bulldogs in tomorrow’s final.

  What’s going on with Stansbury?  Is he jealous because he didn’t get an interview?  Dude, get over it!

• What happened with Orton-Calipari? | Vaught’s Views
  I think the officials had a bit of a quick trigger on the techs today. Two words — Tony Greene.

• VIDEO: Stansbury on the rematch with Kentucky in SEC final

• Fresh faces carry UK into final
  Nice read from Chris Fisher.

• LEX18 | Lexington, KY | News, Weather, Sports, Kentucky | Cutler Comments: Cal Blows Out Pearl 74-45

  It was rough and nasty. Melvin Goins was tossed from the game after he threw an elbow at Cousins. Cousins received a technical for yelling back at Goins after his cheap shot.

  A shot to the boys seemed to help DeMarcus Cousins focus on his free throws — he didn’t miss one after that.

  Maybe a shot to the the junk would help him tomorrow with his free throw shooting.  Just don’t ask me to do it — unlike Melvin Goins, my daddy taught me not to tug on Superman’s cape, let alone punch him in a delicate spot.

• Goins’ groin shot on Cousins | College Hoops Journal

  I get the feeling SEC coaches have purposefully gone after Cousins to try and get him to snap. That’s not to say I think Bruce Pearl directly told Goins, Hey, if you get a chance, throw a fist into DeMarcus’ crotch, but I don’t think coaches have shied away from telling their team that he’s a hot head who will crack if you give him reason to.

  This is wrong if it is happening, and not only needs to stop, but needs to be rebuked with prejudice.  If any coach has encouraged his players to try to get Cousins to react, he deserves to be fired for cause. 

  This is not only unsportsmanlike, it borders on the criminal.  These are kids, not adults, and this sort of manipulation smacks of John Chaney sending “thugs” in to attack opponents physically.  Unethical, unsportsmanlike, unspeakable.  To any coaches who may be thinking this is a good idea, for God’s sake, get a grip, or go to the NBA where nobody cares about sportsmanship.

• Never know what to expect from Kentucky? Neither does John Calipari | al.com

  Do you find yourself watching Kentucky play and not knowing what to expect?

  Heh.  Only every single game.

• UK notebook: Cousins’ defenders shouldn’t get leeway on fouls, ref says | KentuckySports.com

  The refs, like the teams, seek to survive and advance. From 96 in the first round to 48 in the second, to 36 at the regionals to nine at the Final Four. Among the topics touched on by Adams were:

  ■ Calipari was correct that Cousins should expect referees from other parts of the country to bring pre-conceived notions of the UK big man into tournament games.

  “Referees are like any fan,” Adams said. “They watch games on TV.”

  Boy, that just gives me all kinds of confidence in the NCAA officiating.  Not.

• More NBA Minutes Likely for Ex-Cat Jodie Meeks
  Great to hear.

• Wall: We weren’t going to be punked – College Basketball Nation Blog – ESPN

  Cousins said what really got him going was Tennessee reserve forward Steven Pearl, who went after Cousins physically early in the game and tried to get under his skin.

  “I know what his job was to do, but he didn’t do a good job of it,” Cousins cracked.

  Asked just what that job was, Cousins said. “Foul me and try to get me out of my game.”

  Grrr.  My dislike of Pearl grows with comments like this.  But I must try to keep in mind this is only one side of the story.

• Thumbs UP, Thumbs DOWN : UK vs Tennessee – Kentucky Sports Network

• Ashley Judd Was Very Giddy Over Kentucky’s Performance | The Big Lead
  This is not really fit for consumption, but … well, just be warned — Ashley Judd is almost sexually harassed in this blog post — or at least, this guy says what a lot of UK male fans are probably thinking …

• Calipari admits he was wrong about SEC tourney | Vaught’s Views
  I totally agree with Larry here. Kudos to Calipari for admitting his mistake.

• Dodson making his impact felt | Vaught’s Views
  By KEITH TAYLOR ktaylor@winchestersun.com NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Darnell Dodson may have given Kentucky coach John Calipari another option off the bench as

• Dodson making his impact felt | Vaught’s Views

• David Climer: Mississippi St. will be exposed to ‘blue dust’ | tennessean.com | The Tennessean
  The Big Blue Nation will be there. Trust me.

• EARLY EXITS TO NBA DIM MARCH MADNESS – MontereyHerald.com :

  The tournament that used to be about basketball and the stars that played it is now about brackets and the millions of folks that fill them out. The vast majority of those who monitor the games are more interested in their pools than in colleges they can’t locate on the map or players they can’t identify

  There are fair-weather fans in every sport, and college basketball is no different.  I don’t participate in pools anymore, and for me, it’s all about the sport.  But if some people enjoy it for the bracket challenges, I can’t see a thing wrong with that.

• Semifinal gets chippy as Kentucky basketball routs Tennessee | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal

  “I’ve been hit before, but I don’t think anything was that personal,” said Cousins, who got a technical for jawing at Goins after the play. “I don’t know what that was about.”

  Cousins didn’t just jaw at Goins, he wanted to put knots on his head.  He was truly angry, and I marvel that he was able to restrain himself as much as he did.

• Kentucky Downs Vols in Big Blue Blowout — NCAABB FanHouse

  While the elbow may have been intentional, it was impossible to tell for sure. And it was certainly less egregious than DeMarcus Cousins’ elbow against Louisville.

  Y’all agree with this statement?  Heh.  Didn’t think so.

• UK recruit in title game

For the first time since 2004-05, the Kentucky Wildcats find themselves in the SEC Tournament championship game.  Their opponent today, the Mississippi St. Bulldogs, won this tournament last year to get into the NCAA Tournament, and most observers think that they have done enough to get into the Big Dance again this year by defeating Vanderbilt yesterday, 62-52.

For the Wildcats, the road to the SEC Tournament championship game was a blowout win over the Tennessee Volunteers.  The ‘Cats got hot from the perimeter yesterday and provided one of their best defensive efforts of the year.  Combined with cold Volunteer shooting and numerous incidents between the two teams, the Vols simply folded (perhaps in part from the fatigue of three straight games) and Kentucky rolled.

So now, the setup is simply this:  Mississippi St. should be in the tournament, but the only way they can be sure is to defeat Kentucky today.  UK is unquestionably a #1 seed and will not be the #1 overall seed since Kansas won the Big 12 tournament yesterday, so from an NCAA seeding standpoint, this game is meaningless to Kentucky.  Because of this, and the overtime loss they suffered at the hands of the Wildcats in Starkville the motivation advantage goes to the Bulldogs.  Kentucky will have to be motivated by the fact that they haven’t won this tournament since 2003-04.

More after the jump.

It turns out that the dashboard was not ready by the time we went to “press,” so we won’t have our dashboard available for this game but it did come in later (Thanks, as always, to Sylvar):

First of all, let’s look at the overall stats:

This chart simply shows the season possession-based stats for the two teams.  I have highlighted the team that has the advantage, blue for UK and peach for Mississippi St.  The big takeaway here is that Kentucky is more efficient both defensively and offensively, shoots the ball very slightly better overall, and is a better offensive rebounding team.  It’s also interesting to note that UK has almost as high a block percentage as the Bulldogs, but UK spreads it around a bit more — almost all of the Bulldogs’ blocks come from Jarvis Varnado.

Now, let’s take a graphical look at the last four games.  The stats we’ll be examining in these three graphs will be a couple of the most important of the Four Factors in this game:  eFG% (offensive and defensive) and offensive rebound percent.  First, offensive eFG%:

What we see here is that UK is the better shooting club, and while both teams are on a negative trend, UK shoots the ball slightly better.  Of the Four Factors, this is the most important stat, accounting for 40% or so of their impact.

Defensively, the two teams look like this:

What we see here is that both teams have been improving defensively over the last four games, but UK is still showing up as the better overall defensive team, forcing opponents to shoot worse in virtually every game than Mississippi State.

Finally, we’ll look at OR%

Here, we see our first divergence.  The trend for UK in OR% over the last four games is distinctly positive, and the trend for the Bulldogs is negative overall, but note the little uptick in the Vanderbilt game.  Even though Kentucky also showed an even more significant uptick, we can’t ignore the fact that the Bulldogs seem to understand the importance of offensive rebounding.  Make no mistake, rebounding, particularly offensive rebounding, is key to Kentucky’s success this year, and was the reason we blew the doors off the Volunteers yesterday.

Mississippi State Roster

Mississippi State Statistics

Overall Analysis

When UK took on the Bulldogs in Starkville, they were without the services of Ravern Johnson, the second leading scorer and dead-eye 3-point shooter for the Bulldogs.  That game came down to overtime, but it was also a game in which Kentucky did not play well at all.  Kentucky turned the ball over liberally and shot the ball very poorly from the perimeter.  If UK repeats that effort today, I would be willing to bet against them.

But this UK team showed me yesterday that they are beginning to understand that each game, at this time of the year, is do or die.  Despite the intense physicality of the game yesterday, Kentucky remained focused on one objective — winning.  If they retain that laser-like focus today and refuse to be distracted by the ebb and flow of the basketball game, I think UK will handle the Bulldogs comfortably.

The real question is whether or not this Kentucky team can find sufficient motivation now that they are secure in their position and have a somewhat insecure opponent.  That is normally a formula for a loss, unless this young Wildcat team can find some kind of internal motivation that isn’t obvious.  I’m sure Coach Cal will provide plenty, but whether or not this team will internalize and commit to it is the big question, in my view.

Kentucky is a superior team in every meaningful way that is measurable.  As we know, though, we don’t compare statistics and declare the winner, and this game is all about motivation and focus.  UK doesn’t have to do anything particularly well, they just have to do everything well, just like they did yesterday (yes, I know free throws were a problem yesterday, but they were irrelevant).  If the ‘Cats are motivated and focused, this game will likely wind up much like the game yesterday.  If not, this is an upset in the offing.

No prediction today.  I am superstitious about such things, and yesterday’s lack of a prediction worked out well.

Kentucky-Mississippi State in SEC Tournament

(AP photo/Wade Payne)

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

• Kentucky thumps Tennessee to reach finals, reports Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader.
• My column saying that Kentucky proved that it thinks the SEC Tournament does matter.
• Tipton’s notes lead with Mississippi State’s second chance.
• Herald-Leader photo slide show of Kentucky win over Tennessee.
• Kentucky-Tennessee turned into a chipfest, reports Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal.
• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that the blue dust will bother Mississippi State.
• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel calls Saturday a Big Blue beatdown.
• What went wrong for Tennessee? Almost everything, writes John Adams of the News-Sentinel.
• Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun writes that Big Blue days are here again.
• A huge 27-4 run helped Kentucky rout the Vols, writes Darrell Bird of the Cats Pause.
• Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Kentucky’s domination.

• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger on Eric Bledsoe and the three-point shot.
• Mississippi State ready for the Cats in the final, writes Metz Camfield in the Kentucky Kernel.
• 

  (H-L photo)

  James Pennington of the Kernel calls Kentucky’s thumping of Tennessee UK’s best game of the year.

• Tom Leach has video of Mississippi State’s post-game press conference.
• Sean Deveny of the Sporting News gives four ways Mississippi State could beat Kentucky today.
• Nation of Blue remembers the Mississippi State water bottles.
• Thumbs-up/thumbs-down from Ryan Lemond of Kentucky Sports Network.
• Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches on Kentucky fans again proving to be nation’s best.
• Chris Setters of Kentucky Ink on the toppling of Rocky Top.
• Kentucky Sports Radio has some post-game UK-UT notes.
• Big Blue Lowdown on crushing the Big Orange.
• Inner Circle speculates on the language of the Cousins-Calipari confrontation.
• A Kentucky-Mississippi State preview from Wildcat Blue Blog.
• A Kentucky-Mississippi State breakdown from Blue Nation blog.

This from the in-box:

You might find this interesting. A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were watching Kansas playing somebody. The TV broadcast crew was Bob Knight and Brent Mussberger. During the broadcast and usually during time-outs, they would do promos about upcoming games. They did a couple that day with UK and an upcoming opponent. After the last promo involving UK, my wife said something to the effect: Did you notice that neither Bob Knight or nor Brent Mussberger ever said the word “Kentucky”.

They would dance around it by referring to that first place team in the SEC or something to that effect but, they would not say the word “Kentucky”. Well,we just watched Kansas beat Kansas State and the game was broadcast by Bob Knight and Brent Mussberger. Guess what? They did it again! At no time did they say the word “Kentucky” during a promo. They would say Georgia Tech vs. Duke and Mississippi State vs. the regular season SEC winner but, they would never say “Kentucky”. Think maybe Bob Knight had something to do with that? Our only explanation was that they must suffer from “Wildcat Phobia”. It was kinda funny, really.

(AP photo/Wade Payne)

SEC links for Sunday:

• Mississippi State’s defense sticks it to Vanderbilt, reports Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger.
• Jarvis Varando sparked Mississippi State to the SEC final, writes Ron Higgins in the Commercial Appeal.
• Kevin Stallings takes the blame for Vanderbilt’s loss, writes Joe Biddle of the Tennessean.
• Vanderbilt’s offense ground to a halt, reports Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean.
• Ray Glier of the New York Times reports on State’s victory over Vanderbilt.
• State is focused only on Kentucky, blogs Chris Low of espn.com.
• Randy Kennedy of the Mobile Press-Register on how Auburn basketball lags.
• Bill Bryant of the Huntsville Times writes that Auburn’s problems finally caught up to the now fired Jeff Lebo.
• Florida will spend today awaiting its NCAA fate, reports Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun.
• LSU is switching up its secondary, writes Scott Hotard in The Advocate.

Kentucky’s Daniel Orton on what caused him to briefly leave the UK bench.

Kentucky stats in Excel files through Saturday’s 74-45 thumping of Tennessee in the SEC semifinals:

• Kentucky individiual game-by-game statistics in Excel using Google Docs.

• Kentucky team game-by-game statistics in Excel using Google Docs.

DeMarcus Cousins talking to the media after Kentucky’s 74-45 win over Tennessee.

Two post-game videos of John Wall after UK trounces Tennessee.

Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson talks about the intensity displayed by the Cats on Saturday.

This was one physical basketball game on both ends of the floor.  It was pretty much the kind of no-holds-barred cage match you expect from two bitter SEC rivals — four technical fouls and a flagrant foul that resulted in an ejection.

There is no doubt that the Tennessee Volunteers did not play their best game, and the Kentucky Wildcats gave what was arguably their best defensive effort of the year.  Tennessee shot the ball poorly and never seemed in sync on offense, and utterly failed to get a sufficient number of rebounds to get out in transition. 

I know people will be tempted to make angry and insulting comments due to Melvin Goins’ ill-advised deliberate elbow to DeMarcus Cousins’ junk, but you can be assured that was not something this excellent Volunteer team wanted or needed.  Goins was correctly removed from the field of battle, and Cousins’ man-parts will surely recover from the insult.  Other than that unfortunate affair, the Volunteers played hard, clean basketball, but in the parlance of horseracing, lacked a late response.  Kentucky, therefore, ran away from them and buried the Vols by an embarrassing margin under a fusillade of three-pointers and layups.

I was struck by the amazing passion of both coaches in this game.  They truly coached this game like they hated each other, alternately encouraging and reviling their players in loud, demonstrative ways, stomping, gesticulating, and generally behaving like men possessed of great emotion.  It was all a bit much, if you ask me, but it was definitely exciting.

More after the jump.

So here is what I think:

• Game ball — DeMarcus Cousins.  He wasn’t just a beast today, he was Leviathan, or the Kracken — utterly indomitable and almost unstoppable on the glass.  It was a performance for the ages when it comes to rebounding.
• John Wall is just amazing.  He keeps so much pressure on defenses that when he gets help, they just collapse.
• Eric Bledsoe began fearlessly shooting threes, and the result was a bunch of burried shots.
• Darius Miller had his moments, both good and bad.  But overall, he played pretty well.
• DeAndre Liggins really is going to be a great player at Kentucky, he just isn’t quite where he needs to be yet.
• Patrick Patterson did a lot more than his stat line will indicate.  He created many offensive rebounds by keeping balls alive and did a great job on Wayne Chism defensively.
• Darnell Dodson did what he was supposed to do — make shots.  He also had a couple of very good rebounds and defensive plays.
• Daniel Orton played a strange game, but he did more good than bad out there.  He really suffered by comparison to Cousins today, but his effort was not bad.
• This team, when properly motivated, is one of the best defensive teams in the nation.
• This is the kind of game that can launch the ‘Cats into the post-season.
• I have rarely seen this Kentucky team so focused and determined.  I wish that Cal could bottle that, because they are going to need it later.
• In the middle of Tennessee, the best the Vols could manage was what looked like about 1000 fans?  I know they are a football school, but Pearl and his fine players deserve better.  I hate to say it, but I was disappointed in the Vol faithful for their showing today.  I expected much more orange.
• What a great showing by the Big Blue Faithful.  I just have no words.  The place was a sea of blue.

I am very pleased, and I know most Wildcat fans are just as pleased.  This is the kind of game that makes me think we have a chance to go all the way this year.  I’m still not there yet, but this was a step in that direction for me.

Now, I’ll turn my attention to this tot of Four Roses Single Barrel.  Enjoy the rest of the day, we’ll have more later.

Go, ‘Cats!

The ‘Cats versus the Vols.  What more can any SEC basketball fan ask for?  What more can any Kentucky or Tennessee fan ask for?

The Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Mississippi Rebels yesterday to earn a tilt with the Kentucky Wildcats, who escaped the upset-minded Alabama Crimson Tide.

Game particulars are as follows, courtesy of UKAthletics.com:

Date & Time	Sat., Mar. 13, 1:00 p.m ET
Coverage	Tournament Central TV: ABC Radio: BBSN GameTracker Online Audio Text Updates
Location	Bridgestone Arena Nashville, Tenn.

My big concern is that this is exactly the kind of game Kentucky will need to win in the NCAA tournament to have a shot at the Final Four.  Despite some pretty up and down basketball lately, this team has remained remarkably resilient, and now they get to prove to everyone that they are ready to take on all comers if they can find a way to beat the Volunteers on a “neutral” court in Nashville, Tennessee.

For the Tennessee take on things, be sure to visit Rocky Top Talk, SB Nation’s outstanding Volunteer blog and one of A Sea of Blue’s closest blog-friends.  More following the jump.

What UK needs to do to win:

• Shoot the ball better from everywhere, particularly the three.
• Guard Tennessee in transition.  They killed us in transition last time these two teams met.
• Attack the rim.  The Volunteers are foul-prone, and the more they put UK on the line, the better the Wildcat’s chances.
• Force the Volunteers into tough shots.  UK gave away too many bunnies last game.

What UK can do to lose:

• Let Tennessee beat them down the floor.
• Play passive defense — UT feeds on anything that they perceive as fear or hesitation.
• Settle for outside shots.  UK must work to get the ball in to Patrick Patterson and DeMarcus Cousins, and Tennessee will not make that easy.
• Turn the ball over.  Tennessee kills teams that turn the ball over, especially “live.”

This is a bigger game than many might think.  UK needs to prove to themselves they are ready, and this is the kind of game they will face in the Elite Eight or possibly even the Sweet Sixteen.

Go, ‘Cats!