Another day, another SEC mercy kill for the Kentucky Wildcats.
Only twice this year has Kentucky put together a throat slash effort in conference play. One of them was Arkansas, and my message to the Arkansas fans is “you’re welcome.” The other one was yesterday. Don’t give me any crap about how LSU outscored Kentucky by two points in the second half. That doesn’t matter when you’re up by 28 at the half. It was a mercy kill, and if you watched the game, you had to feel for LSU.
One play really summed it up. Early in the second half, DeMarcus Cousins had a wide open dunk, but an LSU player fouled him to prevent the dunk. This “foul” sent the LSU player careening out of bounds into the photographers’ row. That is one team fully dominating another, just like Kentucky should always do in the SEC.
It was 6-1, then it was 10-10, and then it was 42-14. This is what good teams do to bad teams. I have about 97% of the UK games from 1992-2008 on VHS, and during the 90s, those teams went on big runs all the time. You could put very few of those runs up against what this team did to LSU yesterday. That was one of the best runs I’ve ever seen, and everybody contributed.
Let’s start with Cousins. I know Calipari will never do this because he’s smart, but it would be interesting to see Cousins play more in one of these blowout games, just to see how many records he could set. I think Trent Johnson is a good coach, but it was insanely stupid on his part to play man-to-man defense as long as he had his kids do. It was even dumber how he insisted on guarding Cousins straight up with no double teams as long as he did. Johnson ought to thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that he eventually switched up to double teams and later the 2-3 zone because if he hadn’t, Cousins would have gone for 50 and 30. It would have been a Wilt Chamberlain box score and he would have fouled out all of Johnson’s players. The man is a behemoth, and it has been a pleasure to watch him.
Of course, there are still frustrating moments with Cousins, but these aren’t even his fault. Did you see the offensive foul he had in the first half when he whacked that ginger with his elbow? For starters, it was hardly even a foul to begin with, and if another UK player had done this in Rupp Arena, there probably wouldn’t have been a call. But it was Cousins and it was a road game, hence the whistle. Secondly, who are the referees to watch that play as it happened and feel the need to check the monitor to determine the level of malice? Cousins wasn’t trying to knock the guy’s head off and he’s done far worse this season. He grabbed a rebound in traffic and tried to clear room. What’s he supposed to do when he lands on his feet with the ball and two guys are surrounding him? Bring the ball down and let them steal it? Doug Shows was desperate to call a technical foul for that one, but cooler heads prevailed. I’m happy that Calipari stood up for Cousins at the press conference.
Onto the other players, Patrick Patterson still doesn’t get enough touches in the set offense, but he has put together three very good efforts in a row after the terrible game against South Carolina, each one better than the last. He’s asserting himself more on both sides of the court and Calipari has said as much.
If you’re a Kentucky fan, no player’s success on this team should thrill you more than that of DeAndre Liggins. One of the reasons why Texas has struggled the last month is a lack of role definition on their roster. Aside from a couple guys, nobody on Texas knows what their main goal is for the betterment of the team, and so there’s clearly a case of too many alpha dogs that feel the need to take the ball in crunch time. That’s what I love about Liggins. He isn’t asked to do much, but he is very good at what he does. UK has always had a history of solid “energy guys” like James Lee, Heshimu Evans, Chuck Hayes and Ravi Moss. Liggins is just like that. He rebounds. He defends. He hustles more than anybody on the team. He finds himself in the right place at the right time on offense. He initiates the offense with the dribble drive. He’s developed a fairly reliable long-range shot. He plays so much more within himself compared to last year. What’s not to like?
Another guy that stood out for me yesterday was Daniel Orton. Sure, he fouled too much. What else is new? But when he was on the floor with Cousins, he had to play power forward, which meant that he had to guard Tasmin Mitchell, who most small forwards in this country can’t guard. Mitchell never scored on Orton. Every shot he took was contested and looked uncomfortable. Orton is also getting more comfortable on offense. He showed some nice touch when he got the ball.
Bama is a setup game. Calipari knows it. Just because Bama has blown leads in every SEC game doesn’t mean they’re terrible or untalented. They just don’t know how to win. With Tennessee and Gameday fast approaching, it’s essential that Bama doesn’t get overlooked.
Super Bowl prediction: Colts 39, Saints 37






