Three-game losing streak aside, there are plenty of reasons for Alabama fans to tune in Tuesday night's basketball game at Kentucky at 8 CT on ESPNU. Here's one:
You might be watching the SEC player of the year.
Not John Wall.
DeMarcus Cousins.
I know. A lot of so-called basketball experts already have penciled in Wall as the SEC player of the year, the national player of the year, the one-and-done player of the millennium.
Meanwhile, Cousins continues to make a case that he, not Wall, may be Kentucky's real MVP.
Before you accuse me of home-town bias in favor of the Birmingham native, consider his monster numbers, which today earned him his third SEC freshman-of-the-week award.
Cousins has put up a double-double for six straight games -- the first UK player to do so since Chris Mills in 1989.
He has 14 double-doubles for the season, the most in the SEC and the most by a Wildcat since Jamaal Magloire in 2000.
Cousins is seventh in the SEC in scoring (16.4 ppg), second in rebounding (10 rpg), second in field-goal percentage (.542), fifth in blocks (1.87) and first in offensive rebounds (4.35). And just about all of his numbers have increased in conference games.