UK vs UConn: The Last Meeting
By Paul Jordan
On November 24th of 2010 it looked like the Kentucky Wildcat’s just may have a chance to take home the Maui trophy for the first time since the 1993 season. It would be the first of eight losses for the young Wildcats, and it would be a game that star junior guard Kemba Walker would toy with the Wildcat’s from the beginning.
Walker just killed the Wildcat’s over and over, flipping in runners and hitting jumpers. Dribbling up and drilling threes and smiling to the crowd while the UConn faithful chanted ‘MVP, MVP, MVP’ as Walker ran back down the court. Yes he was the story of this game, a game that had many storylines.
You wouldn’t have known Kentucky was a successful offensive team after watching them against UConn in the Maui, no, the Cats shot a dismal nine for 30 in the first half, and despite Terrence Jones scoring big with 24 and Darius Miller having a good game with 15 points, the rest of the starters combined for six-26 from the field. It was a game where Eloy Vargas was the leading rebounder with a whopping six boards and it was a game where Josh Harrellson and Brandon Knight were nowhere to be seen.
Coach John Calipari said of this game that it was a shellacking and that the Cats were out played, out coached and out everything—and he was right. Over and over again Walker would come down and score with ease, the big front line for UConn would come down the lane for countless two hand jams and all season the Wildcat’s at least made a run at the opposing team when down—not this time. They got it handed it to them, 84-67.
It’s now a whole different story.
Isn’t it amazing that only a couple of month ago we were playing a then unranked Connecticut team in a gym no bigger than most high school gyms in Kentucky. We were playing three games in three days in a pre-season tournament that we were expected to win, only to get ‘upset’ by a team that would soon go on a tear that would make history behind Walker.
Isn’t it amazing that instead of sighing of how Harrellson can’t grab a rebound, or score a bucket has changed and now we are screaming at the television when he isn’t in the game being that big presence that he is. A Harrellson who has been predicted to be outmatched by each and every big man he’s went up against in the tournament, a Harrellson who isn’t a mismatch anymore, but is the heart and soul of this Kentucky team.
Isn’t it amazing how Knight has transformed into his spot as point guard and his destiny in being one of Calipari guards that Cal is so famous for.
Oh my how things have changed.
To be honest, Kentucky could be playing the same team they did in Maui, no changes, no surprises. But you may as well throw out the other score last time, because this Kentucky team is way different than the team that UConn destroyed in Maui.
No longer can UConn expect to pound the Cats on the inside and no longer can Walker expect to take over because of Kentucky’s young guards because they aren’t young anymore, with 30 games under their belt, UConn is about to see a whole new backcourt from Kentucky.
In the game earlier in the year against UConn, Kentucky did not act as a team, when the score got worse for Kentucky, well they started trying to get theirs instead of setting up their teammates, and well, that’s changed. That is the LAST time we saw Kentucky play one on one basketball, now these team has fully meshed and has fully become the team entity that Calipari has wanted all year, defensively and offensively
UConn can have the Maui Invitational now, Kentucky has dished out the nice plate of revenge for every team that has beaten this year except Arkansas and UConn, and UConn may be eating that dish best served cold next.
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