National Signing Day Recap

With the Cats playing against an LSU team tomorrow that is winless in the SEC, I think it's fair to say that the Cats should handle LSU tomorrow rather easily granted that Tasmin Mitchell doesn't go "Devan Downey" on us.

With that being said, it's time to talk some football. All off-season long, Mike Brown has kept us updated on Wildcat Wrap of the coaching carousal in college football. The biggest names taking over programs include Brian Kelly at Notre Dame, Lane Kiffin at USC, and Jimbo Fisher taking over for Bobby Bowden at Florida State. All of these coaches did very well on signing day, living up to their hype and huge contracts. The state of Kentucky has three new head coaches of their own in all three major college football programs and all are African American. Charlie Strong game to Louisville with the most hype, but could he deliver? Could Willie Taggard give the Hilltoppers any chance at all to finally win a game or two in D-1A (FBS) football? And could Joker Phillips continue the move upward for Kentucky football on National Signing Day?

Joker's first recruiting class as Head Coach of Kentucky was highlighted by a few surprising last second commitments. A few weeks ago, it wasn't looking very promising for the new coach- but he promised surprises, and he delivered. One of the biggest surprises was stealing Miami, FL Running Back, Brandon Gainer, away from Florida State and the Seminoles' new Head Coach, Jimbo Fisher. Gainer was also recruited unsuccessfully by new Louisville head coach, Charlie Strong. The Cats added another solid RB in Miles Simpson from Simon Kenton H.S. in Northern Kentucky. Simpson was also being recruited by Louisville and turned down a total of 11 schools including Cincinnati, Michigan, Nebraska, and Purdue.

The additions of both Gainer and Simpson at RB gives Kentucky's incoming backfield a ranking of 15th in the nation by Rivals.com. Both are SEC-caliber Running Backs that will more than adequately replace Derrick Locke as he graduates after the 2010 season. Look for one of these guys to also step up to be a 3rd down, short yardage option in their freshman seasons for the Cats. The Cats incoming linebackers are also ranked 3rd in the SEC only, behind only Auburn and Florida, and could see a lot of playing time as freshman. Other holes on defense should be filled by Junior College recruits such as DB Mychael Bailey from the Cats' recruiting pipeline from LaGrange, GA and South Carolina DL, Donte Rumph.

The highest ranked individual player for the Cats is TE Alex Smith from Cincinnati's Lakota West H.S. Smith is the 11th ranked TE in the country and will give the Cats an instant threat at the position that has been absent since the graduation of Jacob Tamme in 2007. He picked the Cats over the hometown Bearcats, Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. With two strong commitments from Greater Cincinnati, maybe last season's opener at Paul Brown Stadium paid off in Recruiting in the area the way that the Cats hoped that it would.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was taking away the #1 recruit in the state that appeared to be a "lock" for new Louisville coach, Charlie Strong. Louisville Central LB Tim Patterson was a self-proclaimed "life-long Louisville Cardinals fan" and the Cards were so confident that he would sign with them that it was reported in Louisville as a done deal less than 24 hours before Signing Day. Although Strong's first recruiting class at Louisville is better than it has been the last few years under Steve Kragthorpe, the hype over Strong's hiring didn't deliver the results that Card fans were hoping for in his first recruiting class as he was clearly out done by new Wildcats' coach, Joker Phillips. The basketball and football supremacy in the state is secure and unthreatened for the Big Blue Nation, at least in the near future..

This seems to be an example that supports the idea of naming a "Head Coach In-Waiting" as opposed to hiring out of the program and starting from scratch in recruiting. This class isn't by any means one of the best in the nation, nor in the conference, but Kentucky is taking more and more "baby steps" each year on the football field and also on the recruiting tails. The class as a whole is ranked around 10th out of 12 teams in the conference, which isn't bad considering that the Cats return A LOT of young talent from last year's team as it is- and 10th in the SEC is honestly sometimes good enough to be Top 15 or 20 in the entire country. Even with a new head coach, Kentucky continues to close the gap on the majority of the conference as this year's class looks to be about even with Bobby Petrino's class at Arkansas.

If the 2010 Cats can turn a few more notorious annual close losses into victories (Tennessee and South Carolina) and continue to make progress on the field in Phillips' first year as head coach, then recruiting will continue to improve. This staff has proven that they can compete with Top 40 recruiting classes that rank high in speed, length and athleticism (which is what this class is made of). If the Cats can close out on the close games this year and they bring the program to the next level that it is capable of this season, Top 20 recruiting classes will come to Lexington under Joker Phillips. If this staff is competitive with Top 40 classes, they can win (and win big) with Top 20 (middle of the pack SEC) Recruiting Classes. The Cats are slowly, but steadily, rising.

And in case you were wondering, WKU new head coach, Willie Taggart, has recruited the #1 ranked recruiting class in the Sun Belt Conference, a very impressive feat for a first year coach taking over a team that was winless in their first two seasons of D-1A (FBS) football. The Cats have a 4 year series scheduled with the Hilltoppers, playing two games in Nashville and two in Lexington.

Just how big were the last 2 wins?

Since falling to South Carolina and losing the #1 ranking in the country, the Cats have bounced back with solid wins over #20 Vanderbilt and Ole Miss, who just barely dropped out of the rankings this week by just a matter of a few votes. Vandy and Ole Miss might just be the best 2 teams the Cats have played all year.

Before the season started and even through the month of December, the best teams and biggest wins on UK's schedule appeared to be UNC, UConn, and Louisville. All three of these teams have been major disappointments and all three of them will have to step it up just to make the NCAA Tournament. The Cats had counted on those three victories to be major factors in earning a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Now that those aforementioned wins aren't considered as big as they once were, the last 2 wins have been crucial.

In fact, if the season ended today, Vanderbilt and their 17-4 overall and 6-1 conference record would be the highest seed on UK's schedule to this point. If the Cats had lost to Vandy, they would've been 2 games behind the Commodores for 1st place in the SEC. Especially considering how hard it is to win on the road at Vandy and already down a game in the SEC Standings, beating Vandy at Rupp was a must win, and the Cats responded well to the loss in Columbia with a much needed win, and with Lebron James in attendance (just days after receiving a phone call from President Obama- and losing that night)!


Ole Miss would likely be seeded the 2nd highest on UK's schedule so far, with a 12 point win over Kansas State and "good" losses against Villanova, West Virginia, and in overtime at Tennessee. The Rebels feature one of the best players and NBA prospects in the league in Terrico White. White, from Memphis, TN, was recruited by Calipari to be a Memphis Tiger before he chose to attend Ole Miss, so you know the guy is for real. He attracted more NBA scouts to Rupp than any game this season but the Cats were up for the challenge. Much like Vanderbilt, the game was never really in doubt even though they never really pulled away and kept a large lead. In the end, however, it was another nice double digit win for the Cats which could end up being a factor in earning their #1 seed, if it ever is in doubt.

As they stand right now, the Cats are a lock as a #1 seed, but you never know what could happen the rest of the way with 2 games left against Tennessee, a rematch with South Carolina, and road games against Mississippi State, Vandy, and Florida. Even f they lose a few of those games, the last 2 wins have put the Cats on solid foundation to still get a #1 seed.

Battle for First Place in the SEC: UK vs Vandy

I know what most UK fans are probably thinking about tomorrow's game- Vandy's pretty good, but, there's no way UK will lose 2 games in a row. Well, just ask the Texas Longhorns what happened to them in back to back games after being ranked #1. Vandy's more than pretty good. They are VERY good. The Commodores have won 11 in a row and are coming off a win over Tennessee. They're undefeated in the SEC, and the winner of this game tomorrow takes claim to 1st place in the conference with a head-to-head tiebreaker. They are probably the most underrated team in the country. Calipari has commented that he thinks Vandy will be the best team his team has faced so far this year and that they should be ranked in the top 10. It will be interesting to see how the Cats respond to Tuesday's loss in Columbia. Tomorrow's game is HUGE and a very big test for the Cats! Luckily it is at home in Rupp, where I don't think the Cats will lose this year.

It had to happen sometime. Time to move on for the Cats.

The first loss of the Calipari era took a lot longer to happen than almost anyone thought it would. Looking at the schedule before the season, I thought we would have two or three losses at this point with such a young team. If someone would have told me before the season that we would start out 19-0, I would have been thrilled and taken that record in a heartbeat!

Take a deep breath Cats fans, we're 19-1, not dropping out of the top 5, almost a lock at this point for a #1 seed, and will probably return to the #1 ranking before the season is over.

It would have been very special to have an undefeated season, however, that is A LOT of pressure on such a young team. I'm actually kind of relieved that the streak is over. A loss now is much easier to take than a loss in March! This team's goal is to win a National Championship, and no matter what the rankings will say next week, there is not a team with more talent. It is up to the Cats, themselves, of what they will accomplish this season. They are just too talented compared to the rest of the field, and the only way they can lose is if they beat themselves, as exhibited last night. As amazing of a performance that Devan Downey had (the only player in college basketball that will really challenge John Wall this year), the Cats still had the game won if they had rebounded better on the defensive end and converted on more open layups on transition.

The young cats are now humbled and will hopefully be more focused the rest of the season, each and every game. I think that you can learn all the same things in a win that you can in a loss and the Cats exhibited this in poor performances early on this season in games in which they were still able to come out with a win, however, a young team like this might have needed the loss. Silly plays, easy missed layups, and letting a smaller South Carolina team dominate the offensive boards lost this game.

With Downey being a neutralizer and somewhat containing Wall and Bledsoe, the Cats needed big production from their big guys. It looked like it was a huge mismatch for the Cats in the post. Demarcus Cousins had a big game offensively, but Patrick Patterson and Daniel Orton had their quietest games of the season and the smaller Gamecocks somehow grabbed 20 offensive rebounds. The Cats needed to know that they can't just rely on John Wall to take over and save the game every single time in the final minutes when they get down. They've known all season that their mistakes have put them in jeopardy of losing games, but they've always relied on Wall to bail them out. Now, they know that a lack of focus can not just put a game on the line, but it can actually lose a game, especially on the road in the SEC. My hope is that the Cats will start to have that killer instinct and put teams away at the 10 minute mark, instead of the 2 minute mark. Give them all the credit in the world for being clutch in every close game but one this season, but their talent needs to start taking over way before the game is in jeopardy.

One thing's for certain: I would not want to be Vanderbilt on Saturday. Coach Cal will have this team as focused and hungry as they've ever been in these last 11 regular season games. We will be #1 again this year. You can count on that.

Downey vs. Wall

As we celebrate the Cats #1 ranking today, take a minute to watch this week's segment of "This is Kentucky Basketball" featuring the Hoops for Haiti telethon.



As awesome as being ranked #1 is, the effort that this team gave to raise all that money is even more awesome. The more I watch this video, the more I love this team.

I am also pleased to announce that I was able to get 8 tickets to the ESPN College Gameday show. I logged on and tried to get tickets right at 10am, and of course, the server was down. At 10:12, I was able to get my tickets and the lower arena was ALREADY sold out. Big Blue Nation never ceases to amaze me. I wasn't sure if Rupp would be able to completely fill up or not, and there ARE still tickets left, but the fact that the whole lower arena was gone in 12 minutes tells me that it should be a packed house by the 13th. One thing is definitely certain: whatever the previous attendance of the show was, it's probably going to be about tripled at Rupp. I hope ESPN is prepared for this!

Note to Bobby Knight: I recommend you don't even show up. Knight wasn't in Clemson this weekend. Maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist, or maybe if he didn't show up to a couple of Gameday shows it wouldn't make him look like a coward when the only one he missed was in Rupp...

News and Notes

• Another Cat won SEC Freshman of the Week (I know- shocker, right?). This week it was Demarcus Cousins. UK has already set an all-time season record for 10 SEC weekly awards this season- and there's still 12 conference games left.
• Calipari became the first coach in history to coach three different schools to a #1 ranking.
• The Downey vs. Wall/Bledsoe matchup tomorrow night is one that we have waited for since the start of the season. This game features, in my opinion, the three best point guards in the nation...all on the court at the same time. It should be a very entertaining game and very tough atmosphere for the Cats on the road.
• Downey is averaging 35 ppg in SEC play and the Gamecocks are coming off a heartbreaking loss at Florida, but big man Dominique Archie will be sidelined. The Cats will need to push it down low. Downey could be good enough to contain UK's guards, but Patterson, Cousins, and Orton will need to have big games if the Cats want to improve to 20-0.
• Seth Davis picked the Cats to lose this game a month ago to be our first loss. Hopefully the Cats prove him wrong, again.

Cats back in rightful place

At Big Blue Madness, Coach John Calipari's "Domination Proclamation of the Big Blue Nation" promised that he would bring the Cats "back to their rightful place atop the mountain of College Basketball". Three months later, and about ten months since Kentucky was eliminated from the NIT, they now stand alone as the only remaining undefeated team and will be ranked #1 in the country tomorrow in both polls, likely a unanimous pick. It will be the first time the Cats have been ranked atop of the polls since 2003, and after the last few years, #1 has never felt so good!

Many rolled their eyes at Coach Cal's pledge in November that when this team comes together and plays as a team that they would be "unbreakable and unbeatable", but after their 31 point win over Arkansas to improve to 19-0, nobody is laughing anymore. Just a regular win would have given the Cats' a #1 ranking, but Saturday's dominating performance made them a no doubt #1. Conversations around the college basketball world have changed from "When will they loose a game?" to "WILL they loose a game?" We're almost into the month of February, and with a few more consistent performances like Saturday, the conversations will start to begin about this team's place in history as possibly the greatest college basketball team, ever.

Earlier in the week, ESPN's Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon had a serious conversation about who would win if the Cats faced the NBA's New Jersey Nets. They actually both agreed that John Wall would easily be the best player on the court. NBA scouts have also tabbed backup point guard, Eric Bledsoe, as the 2nd best point guard in the country and a possible lottery pick behind his teammate, Wall. Like most of Calipari's teams, this one is very talented, but greatness didn't happen right away, either. Veterans were learning a new offense and freshman were adjusting to the college game, as they barely escaped teams like Miami of Ohio and Sam Houston State, but still managed to keep winning while learning to play together. The same team that gave up 15 three pointers against Miami in November, including 8 from some guy named Nick Winbush, limited one of the best shooters in the nation (Arkansas' Rontei Clark) to only 2 of 9 shooting behind the arc.

A team that was thought to have a relatively weak bench (at least compared to the production from their starters), saw scoring from 12 of 13 players on Saturday, including 18 points from Darius Miller and electrifying sparks off the bench from Daniel Orton, Perry Stevenson, Josh Harrelson, and DeAndre Liggins. Liggins, who hadn't appeared in the Cats' first nine games of the season for disciplinary reasons, is now proving to be a key player off the bench along with Daniel Orton. Both Orton and Liggins look poised to take over next season in much bigger roles, that is, if they can earn a spot in the starting lineup after Calipari probably signs another #1 recruiting class.

The progression of Liggins, a former McDonald's All American who would probably start on any other team in the country, has adjusted his attitude to become a key part of the Cats' success this season. Wall, Cousins, Bledsoe, and Patterson make this team the best team in the country this season, but players like Liggins, Orton, Miller, Harris, Harrelson, and Stevenson could all contribute to this team achieving their ultimate goal and becoming one of the best teams in history if they step up more consistently and take off the pressure of the aforementioned more consistent top scorers.

Yes, this team is very talented, but the coaching job that John Calipari has done this season is very under appreciated. He has molded a team of 6 newcomers and 7 returning players to create one heartbeat. He's taught an 18 year old kid on the cover of Sports Illustrated how to keep his focus and stay humble. He demands perfection of his team and in his standards, they're only about 10-9, not 19-0. Calipari's high demand and high standards is exactly why he hasn't let them slip up in 19 games and may not let them slip up all season. He's minimized the roles and playing time of starters on last years team, but they've accepted and embraced their new roles and are having a blast, more fun then they ever did playing 30 minutes a game on an NIT team. From Wall, to Patterson, to Liggins, to Stevenson, and all the way down to Mark Krebs, every player is just thrilled to be a part of this team. It's not easy making so many talented players happy and satisfied while playing so well together, which is why this has so far been one of the best coaching jobs the game has seen.

The Cats have remained undefeated longer than any team since Illinois in 2005. That team also probably deserved some consideration as one of the best team's college basketball has seen, but will never be remembered as one of the greatest teams because they didn't win the National Championship game against North Carolina. Especially for a Kentucky team, winning it all is what will ultimately define this team's success. The Cats could very well lose at South Carolina on Tuesday, a game that Seth Davis picked about a month ago to be the Cats' first loss of the season. Winning on the road at Vandy is always tough too, and ESPN's College Gameday comes to town on February 13th along with Bruce Pearl's Volunteers. Plenty of challenges await the Cats. It's not inconceivable to think this team could be 40-0 National Champions, but it's also very possible they could lose a game soon, or two, or maybe even three. Either way, if they want to be compared with the '96 Cats as possibly the best team in history, they need to win the big one in April. Coming from the NIT to #1 in 10 months has been a very wild ride, but there's still a long ways to go, so buckle up...and enjoy the craziest ride Kentucky basketball has ever had!

P.S.- Just a reminder to everyone that College Gameday tickets for the 13th go on sale tomorrow at 10 AM on Ticketmaster! Tickets are free with a shipping and handling fee, and as many as 8 can be purchased by one person. Let's pack the house!

Pelphrey's Hogs stand in Cats way of #1 Ranking

With a win today vs. Arkansas, UK moves up to the #1 spot in the rankings for the first time since 2003. The key to the win is stopping, or at least containing, the 3-point shooting of Rontei Clark. We saw what Miami of Ohio and a few other sharp shooting teams were able to do against the Cats early on this season. We will see just how much their three point defense has improved today against one of the best outside shooters in the nation. Ronei's weakness, however, is his speed and defense which should be greatly taken advantage of and exploited by John Wall and Eric Bledsoe. If the Cats play their way, up and down the court at a fast pace, the Hogs' only hope is an unbelievable shooting performance by Clark.

However, don't judge Arkansas too much by their 8-10 overall record. They have had an additional 15.8 ppg from Marshawn Powell since he and additional players have returned from suspension and have put together impressive performances in a 9 point loss to Texas, a 2 point loss at Mississippi State, a 12 point win over Alabama, and a 5 point loss against Florida. Today should be no different as Wildcat Legend, John Pelphrey, takes his talented team into Rupp Arena.