In case you missed it on LEX18, apparently Alan Cutler has been calling around to check Randolph’s status with some NBA teams. Well, you can just watch the video.
December 7th, 2006 by webmaster
Today kids, the word of the day is: capability
I purposefully haven’t read any coverage of the game so I don’t know what the general consensus is. Sometimes it’s good to just form your own opinion without knowingly or unwittingly assuming the herd mentality. So what do I think? I think that was some of the funnest Kentucky basketball I have seen in quite some time. Not the whole game of course, that brings us to our firetubby.com awards for the night.
The Acadamy Award for best Vlade Divac-esque performance goes to:
Kevin Bridgewaters
Best Supporting Actor in a Vlade Divac-esque performance:
The Ref
Those three or four horrendous calls including the Jasper technical killed Kentucky’s momentum in it’s tracks. Up to that point we got to see what looked to me like a truly angry Tubby Smith and a team that suddenly “got it”. They didn’t come away with my 30 like I asked them to but at the end of the night I still ended up a satisfied if not temporarily pacified fan.
Something else we did get a glimpse of is maybe what Ramel was talking about (see pregame). The intensity during the spurt was something that hasn’t been seen on the court by the Cats for a while now. Is that what the practices look like? It felt like they were giving it their all. The in-huddle reports by “I’m Rob Bromley”, as forced and somewhat embarrassing as they may be, show that Tubby is telling them to push the ball. I got a taste of something cool last night. It tasted like capability. I want to see more.
Tonight the Cats make one of their yearly trips to Freedom Hall for an away-home game. This for all intents and purposes should be an unadulterated blowout. Not speaking for anyone but myself, I want to see a game that ends up with a margin near double the current line.
That line is a hefty -16 1/2. So, I would like to see Kentucky win by around 30. I don’t think that’s to much to ask seeing as how Florida beat them by 49. I’m not looking at match-ups here. I can’t name one of their player’s, I haven’t even looked at their roster. Why such the strong stance? This article in the HL. In that article Tubby says there will likely be another lineup change to improve ball handling. What really stands out is the quote by Ramel Bradley.
“If we don’t turn the ball over, and make the right play at the right time, we win those games,” he said yesterday, “and we’re easily the No. 1 team in the country. We feel we’re the best team in the country, and we’re going to show it.”
I was amazed when I read that. I know Ramel may be a little cocky, but does he really believe that? Go back and reread that quote. He didn’t say that they could be ONE OF the best, he said they would easily be THE No. 1 team.
Then, two paragraphs later comes Tubby’s quote about the game against UT-Chattanooga.
“There are a lot of things we need to improve to intimidate anybody,” he said. “We know we have to play one of our better games.”
Who do you believe in this instance? The savvy veteran coach or the cocky veteran player. Myself being the eternal optimist will go with Ramel on this one. If we really do need “one of our better games” to beat UT-C it could be a scary season. See you after the game. Go Cats!
In case you haven’t heard already, Tubby has his own web site. Here are some highlights from the tour:
- On the main page, a little virtual Tubby Smith walks out from the left side and welcomes you to the site. The Flash chroma-key effect isn’t what I consider “professional web site design”, so I laughed.
- The ‘teacher’ section of the site starts out with a video showing Tubby chest-bump Brandon Stockton, which is one of my top-five Tubby Actions I’ve Ever Seen.
- If you head to the Catland -> Wildcat Lodge link in the top menu, you’ll see a Flash movie of Chuck Hayes doing a MTV Cribs-style tour of the Lodge. I believe the clip is from Tubby’s TV show originally. Anyway, there are few things about the movie, if you’ll watch the whole thing:
- Wildcat Lodge has to be next on the makeover list for UK Athletics. It is really showing its age. The bedroom windows are hardly big enough to sneak co-eds through.
- I’m surprised we didn’t get to see Shagari Alleyne’s room. I can imagine that the real reason Shagari had “academic issues” was because he was addicted to World of Warcraft; if we could have seen his room, telltale signs of WoW addiction would have shown, such as several discarded bags of Cheetos and a big orange-stained PC. (BTW, if you ever see a level 60 gnome by the name of ‘SwatMaster21′, we’ll all know its true.
- Chuck shows off Marquis Estelle’s old dorm room fridge. He also shows off his Dodge Ram named “Bertha”. I guess he can’t afford getting a pimped-out SUV due to all the shoes he has (which he shows off).
- There is an Ask Tubby page, where he will answer your questions you email in. I’d like to know the percentage of messages Tubby’s message handlers will get that are 1) letters attempting to get him to quit and 2) personal attacks. My guess is it will be at least 15%, maybe hovering close to 20%. You stay classy, Kentucky Wildcat fans!
- There’s also a Tubby’s Analysis page, where he breaks down happenings during the season. Currently only pre-College of Charlston analysis is up, where Tubby reveals that, “Bobby Cremins and I are actually good friends. We’ve known one another for some time and competed against each other annually when I was at Georgia and he was at Georgia Tech. It’s good to have Bobby back in the game, and I know he’ll have College of Charleston ready to play.”
Just ran across Chris Diggs’ post over at the Courier Journal. Down near the end of the post he’s talking about “some of the ignorant” parts of the Wildcat fanbase that are constantly “jumping on and off the bandwagon”.
That part isn’t actually what I wanted to talk about, that’s just the part that will light up his email inbox and the message boards. The part I wanted to discuss is where he believes we will win the next 10 to 14 games. That is a mighty brave statement. Man I hope he’s right. That’s all from me for now. Back to football. Did you see that 60 yard game winning kick against Indy? Wow.
After game thoughts:
It never felt like they could get within striking distance in this game. They were always just playing to stay in it. Randolph Morris was an absolute beast though. 21 points 7 rebounds. This is the type of game it would be nice to see every time out from him, but would it kill him to dive for a ball once in a while?
I was extremely glad to see that we shut down Hansbrough. I haven’t really seen any extended interviews with him, but I swear it looks like there isn’t much going on above the shoulders for that guy. He has that blank look in his eyes, just odd.
Joe Crawford wasn’t the reason we lost but his turnovers stood out the most to me.
We ended up outrebounding Carolina and were dominating them on the boards early in the game. It was nice to see some second chance opportunities at the basket instead of one and done.
You won’t find to much Tubby bashing just for the sake of bashing on this site, but I said from the beginning that we wouldn’t be defending him just for the sake of defending him either. At one point during the game Kentucky fans favorite announcer/commentator Billy Packer said that “Tubby has done a good job of taking the fans out of the game” or something to that effect. My only thought when I heard that was, “yeah, for both teams”.
This is a game I look forward to every year. For several reasons. Games against the Duke’s, Indiana’s, North Carolina’s, and to a lesser extent the UCLA’s of the college basketball world represent benchmarks. In much the same way that the University of Kentucky as a whole compares itself to other benchmark institutions regarding employee health benefits, the basketball team can get a reading of where they are or where they want to be.
On the other hand, I had a buddy in high school who was a huge, obnoxious, ass of a Carolina fan. I’m sure some of you can relate when a friend or family member roots for a team that just happens to be one of the biggest rivals on the schedule. All out verbal war ensues in the days leading up to these games. From whatever the hell the spot on Rasheed Wallace’s head was to how Roy Williams still hasn’t won a championship since he did it with Matt Doherty’s players. Hmm wonder where I would have ever got a crazy idea like that?
Go Cats!
After what is mostly regarded as disastrous transcontinental/transoceanic road trip the Cats touch home base with a 3-2 record. As always, Monday brings new rankings. Kentucky has dropped out of the top 25 in both the ESPN and AP polls. The ESPN/USA Today Poll ranks them 33rd and the AP 31st. Also something else I like to take a look at is the projected draft for next year. It’s early, but so what. Kentucky currently has no players in the mock draft over at nbadraft.net. If it makes you feel any better, Duke only has one right now. All it takes is a few good games by someone like Jasper and he could easily jump into this list.
Changes are a comin’ though Tubby says. Never fear cat fans our savior(s) are here. Perry Stevenson who had a couple of Shagari Alleyne vs Kentucky Wesleyan performances (hereafter known as the Alleyne Indication) his first two games but has shown to be a little to weak against tougher competition will be replaced with either the returning Jared Carter or Sheray Thomas. I’m not saying Stevenson is going to turn out like another Alleyne, quite the contrary. It looks like Perry could be a hell of a player with his abilities. I just wanted to find a way to introduce something to be like the Sports Guy. He’s the coolest. See you tomorrow for the pre-game.
The rumors of our demise may not have been exaggerated.
I myself on this very page broke out the phrase “statement game”. They made a statement alright. They’re not very good right now. Apparently I missed the release from the University of Kentucky athletics department where Mike Archer has taken over the defensive coaching responsibilities. Oh how I miss the “ball line defense” of years past right about now. Memphis was able to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. It also didn’t hurt that they were singeing the nets in the second half.
As bad as this game was, I don’t want to head into Thanksgiving on such a sour note. Randolph Morris had a more than decent game. He wasn’t standing around as much and called for the ball quite often. He was quite effective when he got the touches and looked more like “one of the best big men in the country” that the commentators like to mention.
Update:: A small consolation prize for the night:
North Carolina lost to Gonzaga.
That’s all I’ve got for now. Have a good Thanksgiving everybody.
The battle for 3rd place in this year’s Maui Invitational tips off today in what I was hoping would be the match up for the championship game. Memphis got here by collapsing in the second half against Georgia Tech, and Kentucky rolls in after fumbling away a winning opportunity. The Cats are +3 according to Bodog. If you happen to be the gambling type and took the 4 1/2 points yesterday vs UCLA you are a none-to-happy camper today.
Ohhh those clever bookies and line makers, how do they get so close? Makes you wonder doesn’t it. The last two games have been within a half point of the final margin. Myself, I don’t gamble. Besides the occasional poker game, a Powerball ticket when it gets sufficiently high enough, NCAA tournament pool(s), and fantasy football league. Ok, I gamble. But not on a game to game basis. I do enjoy checking out the lines and guesstimating though. That’s why you see them in all the pregame posts. Here’s hoping we can enjoy the game. Even this early in the season, the game today feels like… Well you know. The old tried and true cliche:
A statement game. Go Cats.