Kentucky Wildcats Farmer's Almanac for Sunday (1/23/11)

So is anyone else still celebrating last night’s road win? Richie and I are still going strong, so let’s get to it.

The 67-58, road win over the Gamecocks had almost everything you could ask for out of this group of guys. It had what I like to call the three keys to victory that I believe every team must have.

First key to victory is veteran leadership, the three veteran guys had a decent game but the stand out of this group was Darius Miller with his 18 points and five rebounds. This is the kind of game that Cal has been looking for out of Miller all year and went to say.

“Today Darius looked like one of the best players in our league. That is who I see him as. I believe in him, maybe more than he believes in himself sometimes.”

Last night he stepped up and hopefully we will continue to see that kind of play out of him for the rest of the season. One thing that Coach Cal preached before the game was the older guys needed to close out the game and not rely on the young players as much I still do not believe this happened but it was much improved.

Second key to victory is freshmen teamwork and stepping up in big moments. Last night had that for sure as Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight burned the house down. Jones started the game with some of the most powerful dunks I have ever seen from a freshman. His play on the court confirms that he deserves to be a starter on this team as last night was his first start in four games. He put down 14 big time points in a fashionable way. He also showed his strength a little before half time, as he had a dunk were the threw the ball down the goal so hard it beat him to the ground and he landed on it what could have been a serious injury lead to a quick stint on the bench and he was back on the court.

But the star of the game was Knight with his 23 points and seven rebounds. Last night he showed why he was compared to the great John Wall coming in this year. Knight tied Wall for most 20+ point games as a freshman with eight games and second on the all time list to only Patrick Patterson and Rex Chapman who have nine.

Third and final key is knocking down the free throws. Last night the team did that hitting 24-of-29 attempts at the charity stripe. Doron Lamb was the leader of this last night knocking down four late free throws to put the nail in the Cocks coffin. Lamb was 7-8 on the night.

Since we brought up Mr. Wall I would like to congratulate him on winning the 2010 Kentucky Sportsman of the Year award from the Lexington Herald. He received 369 votes and 14 first place ballot votes. The runner up for this award was Randall Cobb who is a true wildcat and would have been just as deserving of the award.

Enough about the men’s team as it looks like Coach Matthew Mitchell and the UK Hoops squad has landed former UCONN freshman Samarie Walker for next season. Walker will be a great addition to the squad and has signed up for classes this spring she has 3 ½ years of playing time left since she did not make a start in the spring for UCONN.

Last I would like to encourage everyone to get out and watch the Hoops team today or watch on ESPNU as they take on Vanderbilt. Today the Hoops will be celebrating Alumni Day as well as the 25th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day. The first 1000 fans on hand will receive a commemorative poster. Over 30 former players will be on hand as they honor Ceal Barry with the third annual “Susan B. Feamster Trailblazer Award” so it should be a special day at Memorial Collesuem. The game is about to start so you should flip it on over and watch.

This has been an eventful 24 hours for the Cats and hopefully it will continue but for now Richie and I are signing out and will be back with you soon.

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