SouthEastern Wildcat Review

It seems like it was a lifetime ago that this Sports Illustrated cover came out and really hammered home the reality of what the University of Kentucky was about to face. The fans were in shock and completely heartbroken. Our new savior, King Rex, had jumped ship just ahead of this story to become the 8th overall and 1st ever draft pick of the new expansion Charlotte Hornets. Sad times were coming, and just the mention of Dwane Casey or Emery Air Freight was enough to send a shiver of dread running down the spine of any member of Big Blue Nation. Eddie Sutton and the entire staff was dismissed, Chris Mills, the best player on the team and still the only 'Cat to ever record a triple-double transferred to Arizona. It seemed like every day more bad news came out regarding the way that Sutton allowed the program to be ran, and the Commonwealth was sinking further and further into the abyss. Just when we as fans thought that it couldn't get any worse, Athletics Director C.M. Newton made THE best hire of his tenure at Kentucky. I know a lot of fans, myself included, really hate anything and everything about poor, extorted Captain Porcini including the ground he walks on dislike Benedict Rick now that he is the leader of the Dirty Cards. But, we cannot overlook the fact that Pitino saved the program and laid the foundation for what it is now. For that, we need to be eternally grateful to him, even though as a whole we can't stand him or his current team, justifiably so I might add.

Enough of that little rant, seeing the SI cover got me to thinking about teams past, and seeing as how Coach Cal's hire was similar to Pitino's in that he was tasked with salvaging BCG's mess in the same way Rick had to clean up Eddie Sutton's debacle, I got to wondering how Cal's squad stacks up against Clyde's from last year in terms of national rankings just to see what a difference he has made. Keep in mind Clyde's stats are for the entire season while Cal's reflect a little over half of this current season.

So what does this mean? I don't really know, but you can see an improvement in nearly every category, and I expect the gap to grow larger as the season progresses. You can draw your own conclusions as to if this will translate into overall team success, but I believe the signs are very good and pointing in the right direction. I know I sure am enjoying this roller coaster ride that I hope ends in Indianapolis in April.

A couple of really good UK articles out today:

NBC Sports.com on how Cal turned out to actually be the "Grand Poobah"

Cincinnati Enquirer interview with Dicky Beal comparing himself to John Wall.

Kentucky vs. Florida. Northernmost SEC team vs. Southernmost SEC team. 1st choice vs. 2nd choice. (Oh and by the way, how nice is it that the 2nd choice ended up with the job?!?) Eddie Munster vs. George Clooney. Of course, none of this really matters. What does matter is the fact that Kentucky has lost 8 of the last 10 in this series, and it's high time UK evens up that score. The 'Cats are back, and revenge is sweet. John Wall got a very quiet 19, while Eric Bledsoe was posting a very loud and eye-popping 25. Florida tried their best to take Wall out of the game, and Cal pulled out a first (for this year anyway) out of his hat and moved Eric to the point. I knew Bledsoe was a baller, but it really did my heart good to see the future of Kentucky's point guard position put on such a show. What a game!! The only disappointment being UK's inability to stomp on their neck once they had them down. All in all though, a great performance from all the guys (DeAndre had a little of a down game) and only greater things to come.