Usually on bright, clear, cool fall mornings like this one I am too concerned with work to get overly excited about the first game of the season. Fall makes me cautiously optimistic when………waitaminit!!!!!….. It ain’t fall!!! It is the Dog Days Of Summer. They are still playing baseball for crying out loud, why are we discussing basketball???
All last night while I was trying to savor my Wildcats beating up on those boys from up north, my bestest friend who is a UT fan that I can still give grief to, kept calling and hounding me about it being too early for basketball, I think just so I could not get into the rhythm of the game. Thanks, by the way Trent, and good luck with those Vols this year buddy, you are gonna need it. I just could not get it through to him that basketball is a year round sport here in Kentucky, the NCAA has just been slow to expand the season. It has been a wonderful respite from my Reds struggling mightily to keep up with St. Louis in baseball, and a distraction from this absolutely miserable heat wave we have been suffering from. And Cal’s Cats did not disappoint last night. They played a little sluggish at first, but with some prodding and frequent time outs from Cal, they quickly got themselves upright and in high gear. I have to say this now though, and with no reservations nor concerns. Brandon Knight has replaced John Wall. I am not saying Knight is better, nor am I saying he is not, I am simply saying he has brought the skill set to Kentucky that will allow the Big Blue Nation to forget about John Wall for a time.
Knight looked smooth(sorry Ramel Bradley, but yes, smoother than you), he looked cool and confident, in spite of what Coach Cal called pre-game jitters, almost to the point of wanting to throw up. He made really smart decisions with the basketball, and did not play beyond the ability of his team, which John Wall did some last year, mostly out of necessity until they caught up with him. Knight is not as fast as Wall, but I would not want to have to live off of the difference. And in the end, Camelot has another superstar replacement for the former King of The Bluegrass. Knight seemed to do a much more complete job of running the DDMO last night, mostly I would say due to the lack of height that the Cats took to Canada. But the 2790 Cats fans who were there last night (there had to be at least 10 Windsor fans), were more than impressed when they left the arena last night. Knight was not perfect mind you, but a 31 point debut is more than enough ammo for me when you consider the one thing he did NOT do. He did not have a single turnover. That means that the young man is not going to beat himself. You may find a way to beat him, but he will not do it for you. And folks, we have to keep reminding ourselves that it is AUGUST. Big Blue Madness is going to have to be pretty amazing for me to not get bored after seeing the show from last night.
Knight is going to be another of Calipari’s special point guards, and even more than that, he is going to be a special Wildcat. While appearing unfamiliar to me and a lot of others minus the long braided hair, he didn’t leave anything else behind when he arrived in Lexington. He is fast, smart, sneaky, and unafraid. A deadly combination for a freshman point guard. And he will be another guy who makes the guys around him better too. We didn’t see those signature alley-oop passes to a towering center in the paint, because he is not there yet, But you give Brandon Knight two more weapons in his arsenal to beat you with and he will beat you, as my father used to say, like a red-headed step-child. John Wall, enjoy the NBA, and we love you dearly. The King is dead, long live the Knight.
Keep following www.http://wildcatbluenation.com for the best in Kentucky basketball and football news, rumors, and opinions. By Kentucky fans for Kentucky fans