Kentucky Wildcat Basketball: Take It Easy, The Madness Is About To Begin

Well, I have always said that God has sense of humor.

If you listened to the haters two years ago, the hiring of John Calipari was supposed to be the final nail in the coffin that the University of Kentucky’s Basketball program had become. The NCAA would be knocking on our door not long after his hiring, we would be languishing in the depths of probation and no one would be able to recognize us with the exception of the occasional laugh at our being prodded and poked like a laboratory experiment. We would be outcasts with no one to turn to and finally be getting our come uppance in the world of college athletics.

Fast forward back to the present, we watched John Calipari win 30 games his first year here and now has gotten at least twenty this year in spit of the road struggles this team has had to deal with. And on the day he gets his 500th win as a college coach, and seals a revenge of the Cats trip down to the swamp earlier this year, who is the hero? Darius Miller. The kid who a few weeks ago was not even filling the gaps enough to keep his coach happy. He was playing, but holding back. He was working hard, but not working hard enough. And when the Cats started to slip and fall from the upper eschelon of the SEC, he comes up with the two biggest games of his career to give Coach Cal that 500th win and the team their 20th of the season, and keep the Cats in the hunt for 2nd place in the SEC East to boot. Two more wins in the last week of the season would give the Cats a bye in the SEC tournament and an even bigger hope of one of the top 4 seeds in whatever region they wind up in for the NCAA tournament in a few weeks.

Calipari is either a direct descendant of Houdini, or one of his best pupils. Every time someone is ready to throw dirt on him, he rises up and pulls another rabbit out of his hat. And now he is bringing Miller out of obscurity as well. When everyone looked at the Florida game on the schedule, you know they were not looking at Darius Miller and Josh Harrellson to lead the Cats to victory. Surely it would be Terrence Jones, or the amazing talents of Brandon Knight that would steal the show, right? Not this time. And on a weekend which saw Tennessee and Duke come up short in games that they were supposed to win, it was oh so lovely to see the Cats get it done against Florida.

I said last week that it was time for the Cats to roll up their sleeves and go to work, and it seems that they have taken that advice to heart. One more basket this last week in an overtime road game, and the Cats would be breathing even more heavily down the necks of the Commodores as they head north next week to Rupp. And they will be just the warm up act for the Cats and their trip to Knoxville on Sunday.

But the Cats cannot afford to look ahead. Calipari has got them looking straight ahead, away from the scoreboard, and right into the eyes of their opponents one at a time. Much like Cal has said time and time again, I like this team. I like their skills, and I like their approach to the game. So where a lot of people were ready to hit the panic button again this week, the Cats just keep rolling and putting the ball in the basket. We are a week away from Catlanta and two weeks away from another run into March Madness, and to quote the immortal Glenn Frey, “We may lose, and we may win, but we will never be here again. So open up I’m climbing in, Take it Easy”

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