The Kentucky Wildcats gut out another Sluggish Start

1. Double Digit win is Deceptive

The 68-53 win at Auburn is not what it appears to be. The Wildcats struggled with Auburn’s intensity and hustle until the last few minutes of the game when Doron Lamb and Darius Miller came through with some key three pointers and three point plays. John Calipari played soothsayer before the game and predicted that Kentucky would have to battle with Auburn; and he was exactly right. Lately the team has been prone to slow starts against inferior teams (Arkansas Little Rock, South Carolina, Auburn). This needs to change before they go head to head with the best in the SEC. Granted, Auburn was undefeated at home, but their best win came against South Florida, one of worst teams in the Big East.

2. John Calipari Post-Game

Coach Cal is joined by Doron Lamb and Anthony Davis, the co-leading scorers of the game with 14 each. Needless to say, Cal wasn’t too please with the lackluster offensive performance.

3. Gene Wojciechowski and Tony Kornheiser Discuss Pitino

Gene Wojciechowski wrote a fantastic book about the epic game between Duke and Rick Pitino’s Unforgetables and is doing a bit of a tour. Paul Jordan is currently reading it, so expect a book review in the future. Gene had a discussion with PTI’s Tony Kornheiser about Rick Pitino and his current position at Louisville. You can read the transcript here, thanks to the Courier Journal’s Eric Crawford.

But to tide you over, here is a little snippet of their discussion. This is Wojciechowski talking about Louisville and their “basketball legacy” compared to Kentucky’s:

“…Louisville is semi-commuter campus. I’m not saying it’s not a fine school by it’s own right, but it’s not Duke. And while it has a great basketball legacy, it’s not Kentucky either.”

Thoughts, Pitino?

4. Auburn Chants were the worst Ever

The student section chanted at Kentucky players during free throw attempts in order to make them miss. They sang “Mary had a Little Lamb” while Doron Lamb was at the line and “Pick a Last Name” when Michael Kidd Gilchrist was at the line. The Cats shot 83% from the charity stripe. Epic. Fail.

5. Kentucky in the lead with UNLV for Shabazz Muhammad and Anthony Bennett

It has been said that top targets Muhammad and Bennett would like to ply at the college level together. How realistic is it that it happens and that it happens at Kentucky? Only those two know exactly what will happen but it is nice to be in the mix.