Kentucky Wildcats 5 for Friday: Kentucky/Louisville will be a "yummy" showdown
By Paul Jordan
Are you ready to rumble???
At first, I complained about this game being on a Friday, but now it is at the point where I could not wait for another day for this game. So let’s get to “the 5” as the countdown to gametime reaches three hours.
The Voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leach, weighs in on the game and predicts that this will be a “yummy showdown” but in the end, Cal should go 2-0 against Pitino at Kentucky:
I tend to agree with Leach and I am predicting a solid 11 point UK win.
"To me, Kentucky has the edge in overall talent and Louisville’s edge in depth has shrunk because of injuries. The Cardinals have been red-hot at the three-point line but remember that UofL’s success this season has come against an incredibly soft and home-laden schedule.The looks won’t come as freely against the long arms of guys like Miller and Deandre Liggins. In its two losses, Kentucky’s defense could not contain Kemba Walker and Tyler Zeller. I just don’t think there’s a guy on the UofL side who can hurt the Cats the way those two guys did."
Doron Lamb tends to agree with myself and Mr. Leach that we will see a Wildcat victory today. Larry Vaught asked Lamb about the possibility of hearing from the Kentucky fans should the Cats fall to the Cards today. Lamb stopped short of guaranteeing a win but said:
"“We will get the win though, so we don’t have to worry about that talk from our fans”"
This is of course, yet another chapter min the John Calipari/Rick Pitino saga. CBS’s Gary Parrish recognizes this and he hits the nail right on the head concerning this coaching rivalry:
"There are lots of reasons why the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry is excellent, and I’ve detailed most of them before. But the main reason — at least in the year 2010 — is because Calipari coaches one team and Pitino coaches the other, and those two men just don’t like each other. Stuff like this is often overblown, but it’s really not in this case. Calipari does whatever he can to get under Pitino’s skin, and Pitino generally just rolls his eyes at Calipari. It’s fun stuff, and the nation got another example of it earlier this month when Calipari held a press conference to talk about how great the NBA would be in Louisville. Why did Calipari do this? Because days earlier Pitino held a press conference and explained why the NBA wouldn’t be great for Louisville. Seriously. I couldn’t stop laughing when I watched the YouTube clip of Calipari’s press conference, which is not to suggest what Calipari said about Memphis, the University of Memphis and the NBA is a lie. Everything he said is true. The Grizzlies haven’t hurt the Tigers at all. But, knowing Calipari, he didn’t spend five minutes talking about Louisville and the NBA simply because he thinks the NBA would be great in Louisville, and he certainly isn’t interested in “helping” Pitino’s program (that’s what Calipari said the NBA in Louisville would do). More than anything, Calipari just wanted to contradict [and poke] Pitino, and this is the nature of their relationship. Honest to God, if Pitino said the Taliban would be bad for Louisville, I believe Calipari would assemble the local media and explain the Taliban’s positives, and he’d be pretty damn convincing while doing it. So know all this when you watch Friday, and pay special attention to the pregame and postgame handshakes."
I really don’t get the trend of the “Kentucky beat writers” turning tail and picking Louisville in this game. Here, Jerry Tipton offers a breakdown of the game and picks the Cards to win. Ugh. I’ll say it again. Kentucky by 11.
UK Hoops finished off their back-to-back game schedule with a convincing 68-47 win over Tennessee-Martin. Keyla Snowden had 17 points and freshman Samantha Drake recorded her first double-double with 14 points and 13 boards as the UK Hoops squad improved to 11-1 on the season.
Keep following www.http://wildcatbluenation.com for the best in Kentucky basketball and football news, rumors, and opinions. By Kentucky fans for Kentucky fans