I know that every member of the Big Blue Nation expects, or at least hopes the Cats to be hanging another banner at 2012 Madness. Except for it only to be a National Championship banner. This team is Physically imposing in terms of size, athleticism, and speed. But I also believe that there is ALOT of work to do with the ball in their hands. Yes, I know that the top eight players were all top 25 recruits coming out of High School. With that being said, these guys still have a long ways to go before they are cutting down any nets. Davis is as good as any 4-man in the country, but could definitely gain about 30 pounds so he doesn't get pushed around down low. Teague will be relied on alot, and needs to improve his finishing around the rim. I watched him play a few times in high school and noticed that he isn't a great finisher in traffic. Gilchrist is the athletic beast that everyone hyped him up to be. With a little work on his shooting and ball handling, he could be a top 5 pick in next year's draft. With the schedule that the Cats have, it is easy to see possibly three losses before Christmas. I do believe that this is going to be a better team than last year's Cats, but it may take a while to get there. The only reason I think that they have a long way to go, is because of the tough schedule. North Carolina is without a doubt, the best team in the nation. Louisville will not be a pushover, along with Indiana. The Hoosiers will be much better than they have been in the past two years. But you can't forget about Kansas and St. Johns. The SEC will be tougher this year than the previous year. Florida is good again, after a great recruiting class, along with Alabama. Kentucky should be the unanimous favorite to win the SEC, but it isn't going to be a cakewalk. All of these tough games is going to be a great way to prepare for March Madness. Even if they take five or six losses, it can only help the young Cats. They are truly playing the best schedule this season. Finally I wanna talk about the leadership of Darius Miller. I believe that Darius is the key to how far this team will go. He has the potential to be the SEC player of the year and easily score 20+ppg. Also he should be hitting the glass hard, and playing stellar defense. He has took alot of criticism over the past three years and it seems to me that he is on a mission to prove those critics wrong. I hope nobody takes this article the wrong way. I am in no way, trying to put down on UK. GO BIG BLUE!!
While I was trying to take a picture of Rajon Rondo at the Big Blue All Star game, Rondo decided he wanted to take a picture of me and took my camera. After he took the pic he said to make sure I hang it on my wall. I'll just post my cheezy grin in my blog instead.
It's no secret I'm sort of cranky. Don't believe me, just look at my articles on here. Then, after you read the articles, look at some of the comments calling me a bad fan, bandwagon jumper, kitten-setter-on-firer, whatever. Actually, most of those are on the Facebook pages. But still, it's out there. But today, a reader left a great comment on my most recent article that hits right near where I'm coming from, and I felt compelled to share it here. This comes from reader JPhelps, and I really love his take on the situation, if for no other reason than his agreeing with me. Take a look. JPhelps: It's all about a very simple dichotomy. I'll try to break it down as best as I can. You have football fans and you have basketball fans (now, this isn't trying to say that you can't be both, I am both, as are most of you, but bear with me.) I've polled a fair share of both, people who like football better than basketball and vise versa. It's about what you would expect 90-95% in this state are basketball first, but there are some of the opposite that exist. When I ask them this one simple question, this is where I think football fans differ big time from most UK basketball and "both sport" fans in general... WOULD YOU GIVE UP 15-20 YEARS OF BASKETBALL TO BECOME A CONTENDER IN THE SEC IN FOOTBALL? All football fans say that they would sacrifice the next 10-20 years in basketball to get competitive enough to one day compete in football. I know... Asinine right? In horse racing, they call this throwing good money at bad money. Why on earth would I put a crisp 100 dollar bill on a horse that's 100/1 when its all but certain it may never win a title... Get my reference? Football has 3 major problems. First, the BCS. If you lose one game and you are done with your national title aspirations. One sloppy game to rival Louisville first game and its over. Or hell, you can run the freaking gauntlet in the SEC (see Auburn with Cadillac and Ronnie Brown) and not make the championship. Second, the SEC is too freaking good to take a chance like this. With the land mines that wait to derail your championship season every game, its an absolute miracle to come out undefeated (WE ALMOST beat Auburn last year). Thirdly, and thank God for this, UK fans are basketball crazed and the basketball fans and both sport fans would roll over in their grave before they'd let the basketball team slide out of contention. Contrast that with basketball, where we went 1-7 on the road in conference last year, but come tournament time, when the chips were down, we lost the national title game. UConn/Butler doesn't count. And for anyone of you who thank, "But we're UK! We could let the program slide and come right back?" You honestly believe that? With as much parity as is in the system today? Really? That's like saying one day a team like Gardner Webb could come into Rupp Arena and actually beat us! Wait a second... You got to keep fanning the flames, and a good way to look at it. What is a historically great program that let things slide and has been 15-20 years recovering. The dreaded armpit to the North.... Indiana. I don't know about you, but for this basketball 75% Football 25% fan, I think you are crazy to throw basketball under a bus. Hard to argue ain't it?
I've been in Pikeville since Friday and I have been to 2 football games and the Big Blue All Stars game vs. UPike. I got a couple of videos of Pikeville vs. South Floyd and thought I would post them. Click to watch on Youtube Click to watch on Youtube
Here is my official game prediction: South Carolina 28 Kentucky 7 I hate to do it but I have a hard time believing that in a week's time, the Kentucky offense has come around. The defense will come out strong again but they will tire out from being on the field too long...leaving the fake USC opportunity to score. I truly hope I am wrong in my prediction and will be pulling for our Wildcats!
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