Me, Kentucky Basketball, & The Quest for #8

By Bean

Posted January 25, 2012, 11:49 pm

1 Comments

I thought I would take a few minutes and share my opinions on the overall state of the program and where we stand in my mind. And I mean aside from the obvious “we’re really flippin’ good” point of view. I hope everyone is enjoying the ride of the season that we’re on, because I tend to find myself, and others, complaining about how this team is playing at times. I will have to stop myself when I start saying things to myself like “man we don’t blow teams out like I thought we would,” and “man I can’t stand Terrence Jones!” Guys, it was only three short years ago when we had one Clyde Billy at the helm of the program locking players in bathroom stalls and acting like a general buffoon. Let’s enjoy this while we can because Calipari is not going to be here forever.

Lately I have literally been having dreams (and nightmare’s) of Kentucky cutting down the nets for the first time since 1998. The nightmare part comes in when I dream that we lose to some crap team like Butler or West Virginia and I have to wake up and convince myself it was only a dream. I am that tied to the program to literally have dreams and nightmares based on their success.

By nature, you might call me a Negative Ninny or Pessimistic Peter or whatever you want to call me for seeing things in a negative light. I was the guy last year who told everyone who would listen that we had “no shot” against Ohio State. Of course I believe we did have a good shot to beat them, but I like to convince myself that we aren’t going to win so that I will not be so disappointed when we do lose. If I am convinced that we are going to win, then I set myself up for nothing but disappointment. I do not take losing well. This trait might have started in 1992 after the loss to Duke, but I think it really started with the loss to Arizona in the 1997 Championship game. At the time I was a freshman at UK and when we beat Minnesota in the Final Four matchup, then realized that UNC had lost to Arizona while celebrating down on Woodland & Euclid, I thought we had #7 (at the time) in the bag.

Well the universe had other ideas. I remember celebrating for the game at some random apartment with my college roommate at the time getting sloshed off of Two Dogs and cheap beer. I remember Anthony Epps nailing a three at the end of regulation to force overtime and almost crying, because I thought he had saved us from a sure loss and we would prevail in overtime. Well, when Nazr Mohammed couldn’t hit a free throw to save his life and all Arizona could do was hit their free throws, I realized that the impossible came true. We lost. And I spent the next several days in a fog.

Soon thereafter Pitino left for the Celtics, Kentucky hired Tubby Smith from Georgia, and he subsequently won a championship with Pitino’s players. I’m not here to debate Tubby’s successes and failures. His greatest coaching job to this day was his coaching in that Duke game by saving his timeouts. I do think that Tubby should have his “jersey” retired in Rupp’s rafters at some point, but that is a debate that we will get into another time.

For now I want all of the Big Blue Nation to realize what a run we are on. This team is poised to hang banner #8 in Rupp Arena’s rafters. I see this team growing with every game they play. I know that Syracuse, Baylor, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio State all have really good teams this year. But I do not believe they have the mix of talent, experience, coaching, and intangibles that this Kentucky team has. Darius Miller appears to be stepping up into a leadership role right as his career is ending. I see him calling for the ball at the end of games and he now has a killer mentality that one needs to gut out victories in March. I never believed that Terrence Jones was that type of player. He is a tremendous talent for sure, but I don’t believe he can be counted on late in the game to make a play that saves this team in the tournament.

I see growth in Marquis Teague with each game he plays. He does not need to do anything more than be the floor leader that sets things up for his teammates. Last night for the most part, he did that. We do not need his scoring as much as we need his taking care of the ball and setting up guys like Doron and Davis.

Speaking of Davis, I am a total homer but I do not see anyone else as college basketball’s player of the year. Yes I believe Thomas Robinson of Kansas is the front runner, but it should be Davis. People need to realize that just because it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet as a point or rebound doesn’t mean it does not matter. The guy is going to shatter the UK record for blocks in a season! He changes everything on the defensive end. And his offensive game is starting to improve each and every game. When you have a guy that other teams must game plan against on the defensive end, then you have something that no other team has.

But I totally believe that the key to this team lies with Doron Lamb and Kyle Wiltjer. Yes, Kyle Wiltjer. Lamb gives Kentucky the one ingredient they have been missing each of the past two seasons. A knockdown shooter from three point range. I firmly believe that he should’ve gotten the last shot in last year’s loss to UConn. I believe that had a play been run to get Lamb a look at a 3, we would’ve advanced and had banner #8 in Rupp this year. But things didn’t turn out that way, so maybe he’ll have his shot this year. And I say Wiltjer based on two areas: we have no bench save for Eloy, and Kyle can also be a knockdown shooter from long range. He showed that last night with the two 3’s he knocked down. As long as he doesn’t get scared of the big stage, can get on the floor with his improving defense and rebounding, I believe there will come a time when either Lamb or Wiltjer will be needed to knock down a big three. And I think they answer the call. My point being, if this team is hitting their shots from outside, nobody beats us. Syracuse poses a big challenge with their 2-3 zone, but if we are hitting shots, then that opens everything up.

So, in closing, I just wanted to state that I think about hanging banner #8 a lot. Maybe too much. I am trying to “enjoy the ride” as Calipari preaches, instead of concentrating solely on the outcome. I realize that we are not going to be blessed with Michael Man-Gilchrist, The Unibrow, Doron “3-goggles” Lamb, T Jones and Darius “Stone Cold Killer” Miller forever. In fact, this might be the last year we get to enjoy them on the floor. In the end, I do believe that this is our time. Kentucky has gone way too long without having won a championship, and Calipari simply is overdue. I would argue that he could have as many as three or four championships at this point. He was knocked off in 1996 by our very own Cats, yet his UMass team was a #1 seed. In 2007 his Memphis team was the best team left standing when they lost to Mario Chalmers answered prayer. In 2010, Calipari and the Cats were the clear favorite remaining when we couldn’t throw it in the ocean and lost to West Virginia. And last year, we were the Vegas favorite to win it all when we again went cold and lost by one point to Kemba and UConn. This is the year. This time, the last second shot by the other team rims out. This time, our guys make the shots they need to make. This time, the good guys prevail.

Let’s enjoy the rest of the season. And maybe we can all celebrate Banner Number Eight together. I’ll see ya’ll at the corner of Woodland and Euclid.

Go Big Blue!

Comments

SkyAntoine

Posted January 25, 2012, 11:30 pm

One of my biggest concerns is the Cats ability to dictate the flow of game. With the talent we should impose our will on our opponents. However, we're much too reactive to the opponent's play. It is one thing to have a "will to win" similar to Wall