On to the Next One

Last night the scene in Rupp Arena looked all too familiar. After storming out to a significant lead at 38-23 everything started going downhill. The young Cats were playing on their heels, making every mental mistake possible. Countless turnovers, lackadaisical handling of the ball, bad decision making, and not hustling back on defense to prevent an easy layup. We watched as Kentucky let the lead vanish from 15 down to 4. Kentucky stormed back again and again, but as so often has happened this year, could not put the opposing team away for good. Then after a dominating first half performance, we watched as the bad guys from Vanderbilt took the lead with 6 minutes remaining.

Throughout this roller coaster of a season we have watched Kentucky take the lead in the final moments of the game, only to lose another heart-breaker. As Vanderbilt took the lead I could not have been the only guy to think " here we go again". After a thoroughly satisfying first half, I would have to watch as Kentucky lost yet again to a team that did not deserve to win. At the T.V. timeout I started to picture Kentucky losing another close game as a result of youth, rebounding, shot selection, or whatever the flavor of the week excuse was going to be. The "Unclutchables" would have drove me to wake up this morning, avoid the college message boards, ESPN, and even the Herald-Leader just so that I could escape the feeling that has been felt in the Commonwealth too many times this season.

But somehow this game was different. Whether it was the magic of Jorts' Senior day, the ghosts of Rupp Arena, the burrito I ate before tip off, or my now-lucky UK hat that is 2-0 so far, something changed. The game couldn't have ended in a stranger fashion however. Terrence Jones who seemingly could not make a positive play in the last 5 minutes of play, nailed two clutch free throws to put the lead for Kentucky at 3. Then after an earlier-than-necessary foul, the Cats had the ball up by 2. The same Terrence Jones that had given us the lead, was caught doing god knows what in the corner of the floor, and was called for traveling. Without a timeout, or any other break in the action, Kentucky blanketed John Jenkins aka "flop when I shoot" and Jorts denied a lob into Festus " the bestest" Ezeli. Then with a sigh of relief that could be registered on the Richter scale Kentucky finished another season undefeated at Rupp Arena.

Calipari was interviewed after the game and said that he had decided to make Ezeli beat the Cats instead of Jenkins, which is what happened in the first game they had played. I personally was hoping for a box and 1 which is basically a zone with Liggins staying on Jenkins at all times. Calipari's squad came out with a win though, so his plan worked to perfection, or at least was enough.

So today I awoke full of energy and life (maybe that was because of the 5 hour energy shot) and could not help but wonder if this win means that this young Kentucky squad has turned the corner. Losing close games has been our Achilles heel all year, 19 points is the difference between this team having 2 losses and a 1 seed locked up again. Even if what the Cats did on the court was no different from their previous losses, the confidence boost from beating a very good Vandy team in the last seconds has to be worth something right?

We will see if Kentucky has really turned the corner when the Cats visit Knoxville to play a Volunteer squad that just recently lost at home to Mississippi State in what was the ugliest game I have ever seen involving a tournament team. Its sure to be a rowdy crowd for the Vols as it may be the last home game for "the tan one". In a game thats vital for Tournament seeding, as well as momentum leading into the post season, we should find out what to expect from our young team. We've been awful on the road and in the last few games Tennessee has been awful everywhere. Hey somebodies got to win, and it looks like the luck might have just shifted to the good guys.