* Better control from Jodie Meeks. I have no problem at all with Jodie Meeks taking a lot of shots. He’s the best shooter on the team, and the coaches have given him the green light to pull the trigger, which is usually good. But much like Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley this time last season, the ball sticks in his hands. I remember another shooter from Georgia who had this problem his entire career – Derrick Miller. Meeks has a higher ceiling than Derrick because he’s better in all other facets, but I see a lot of the same problems Miller had. When Meeks hit shots against Carolina, those shots came in the flow of the offense. When he was chucking and missing, he was forcing the issue way too much. I want to see the former tomorrow and not the latter.

* Communication on offense. Freshmen will make freshman mistakes, that’s a given. But when they do, their teammates need to be there to minimize the effects of those mistakes. Against Carolina, Darius Miller had a couple of bad turnovers where he picked up his dribble in no man’s land. Unfortunately, the other four guys bailed on him and left him for dead, which was the main reason why the turnovers occurred. This team has to start communicating better, or else this problem will never get fixed.

* Continued offensive aggression and execution from the second half of the Carolina game. I cannot stress this enough, DeAndre Liggins looked great in the second half. The team executed what should be their primary objective on offense (get the ball to Patrick Patterson every time down the court) when Liggins was on the floor. I don’t know anything about Delaware State except that their mascot is the Hornets and they’re in Delaware. But I can guess that if Patterson can play as well as he did against North Carolina, he should be able to do it against Delaware State. But this hinges on how many minutes Liggins gets in relation to Mike Porter’s minutes.

* Be in position instead of blocking shots. I love a good block as much as the next guy, and so do Perry Stevenson and Patrick Patterson. But when post guys go for blocks on every drive to the basket, it allows the guy penetrating to dump off to the guy underneath the basket with nobody near him. There’s a time and a place for a big block, but not every possession. And I guarantee that if the guys stay in position and force difficult shots, that will produce more defensive stops than going for blocks every time.

If I do anymore, my head will explode. My beloved New York Knicks made a trade today (Jamal Crawford to Golden State for Al Harrington) that does not please me. All due respect to Harrington, who I like and think will be a great fit in New York’s style, but Crawford was probably the least dispensable member on that team, and I wish they didn’t have to let him go. So I’m already seething. But hopefully we’ll have a comfortable win on a cold Saturday afternoon to ease the pain of eight days’ worth of every one of my teams (UK, Knicks, Minnesota Vikings) lose every game.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and these guys had best not fail me.

Does the name Patrick Hughes ring a bell? It should if you’re from this state. Patrick Hughes is the blind kid who plays trumpet in the Louisville marching band. He gets to go out on the field and march because his father pushes him in formation in his wheelchair. It’s one of the most inspirational stories you’ll ever hear, no matter who your favorite team is. His family even got a visit from the people at ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover. Hughes was the classic ambassador for the university, but now he no longer plays in the band. It would be hard for me to explain why this is, so I think I’ll let Hughes do it himself. This snippet is from his website, and you can read the whole piece HERE.

My relationship began to turn south with Athletic Administration shortly after the Pittsburgh game in 2006. An away game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, I really looked forward to sitting with my band mates at this pro football stadium and cheering on our CARDS!

By the way, Athletics was able to send their pep band to the Pittsburgh football game this past weekend and sit in the field level seats they sold out from under the marching band. I guess it’s only a matter of time before they replace the marching band, as well. The process is already happening.

The rest of the piece that I linked speaks for itself. The athletics department pretty much treats the band like garbage, but I quoted that piece for a reason. If you want to sell the band seats to fans, that’s your prerogative, but if one of the band members is in a wheelchair, you had best not put the band in an area of the stadium that is not accessible. As a fellow handicapped person, I have to say I was incensed at this. It’s just another reminder that people take their ability to walk for granted, and it happens way too much in life. I just hope it was worth the few extra bucks to make this kid feel inferior because he’s in a wheelchair. To the person responsible for this decision (safely assuming it is Tom Jurich), congratulations, you sorry sack of crap. Hope this site doesn’t get torn down like 93.9 FM did because somebody was critical of the department and its chair.

That’s all I have to say about that. Tommy Turtleneck and his Julius Caesar haircut can go suck one.

Most of these positives come from the interviews that Coach Gillispie did after the game, both with BBSN and ESPN. He had a great talk about the play of DeAndre Liggins in the second half, and it definitely warrants praise. Liggins played the final 13 or so minutes of the half, had five assists (seven assists total) and only one turnover. When Liggins was running the show in the second half, Patrick Patterson got touches and scored against anybody who guarded him. When Liggins was on the floor in the second half, he put a body on Ty Lawson and did a much more effective job at keeping him out of the lane than Mike Porter did. Coach Gillispie noticed these things, and was very complimentary of the freshman. Hopefully this means the Mike Porter experiment is on its last legs.

Patterson was another positive from last night. He was much more active in the post and on the glass in both halves. Only difference was that nobody could get him the ball in the first half because they were too busy turning it over. In the second half, he got it in position to score, and he did just that. I attribute that to both the play of DeAndre Liggins and the ability of the Kentucky halfcourt defense to slow down the pace and take a lot of time off the shot clock when Carolina had the ball. That created the flow that Pat needs to be successful, and he had a great second half.

I also enjoyed the play of Ramon Harris in the second half. He’s still shaky and looks flat uncomfortable on the drive, but I loved that he was aggressive. His attitude is in the right place. I’m happy he chased down Tyler Zeller on that breakaway and didn’t allow the dunk. It sucks that Zeller broke his wrist on the fall and he’s out for the rest of the season, but it was a clean play. It wasn’t like Kevin McHale unleashing a Stan Hansen Lariat on Kurt Rambis in the ’84 Finals. In fact, here’s a side-by-side for anybody who thinks it was a dirty play.

You can find the BBSN interview on either Yahoo or ukathletics.com. The interview Gillispie did with my boy Andy Katz is on the ESPN college basketball page.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, reminding everybody that IT ISN’T EVEN THANKSGIVING.

I still think that Billy Gillispie and his staff are the right people for this job. Recruiting is going exceptionally well, and I still feel like the program is on a general upswing because of that recruiting success. However, they were awful on Friday. I know Gillispie likes to prove points to his team, and I’m all for it. But I draw the line when proving points to his team comes at the expense of wins and losses in the record book. The coaches got steamrolled by the VMI staff. I can’t sugarcoat it either. It was that bad. I say it was worse than Gardner-Webb. It was as if they just decided to skip the scouting report for the week and thought they could win on pure talent. They didn’t bother to play defense, and the coaches made one fundamental error that cost the team the game – they insisted on playing two post players at the same time. VMI doesn’t even have one post player on their team. How are two post guys supposed to rotate and defend guys that are so much quicker than them? It would be hard enough for one guy to do it on his own, but asking both Patterson and Stevenson to do it was asking too much and pretty much impossible.

Another huge problem that won’t be fixed anytime soon is the point guard situation. I applaud Michael Porter for being an “effort guy” that earns the affection of Coach Gillispie in practice, but God willing, after the first five minutes of Friday’s game, the Porter experiment at point guard is over. Heck, I’m sure even Mike would argue that he’d rather be a spot-up shooter than a point. VMI didn’t even need to trap him to take the ball away from him. As for DeAndre Liggins, I’m not as concerned, but he is still a freshman. His mistakes are what we would call freshman mistakes. Most box scores don’t measure this for college games, but I’d imagine that Liggins and Darius Miller were the only two players on the team that had a positive +/-, meaning that when they were on the floor, we outscored them. However, sending a freshman point guard into that situation for his first game was a recipe for disaster. Scheduling VMI for the first game of the year was a recipe for disaster. When the point guard situation is as dire as it is, the one thing that doesn’t need to happen is having the first game against a team against whom it is very difficult to dictate the pace. Kentucky absolutely could not dictate the pace against VMI, and that’s why Patrick Patterson played poorly – that pace does not allow for the big guys to get the ball very often.

One good thing that came from the game was that Social Darwinism kicked in and the cream rose to the top. Six guys showed that they were worthy of playing many minutes – Liggins, Meeks, Miller, Patterson, Stevenson and Harris. When UK came back in the second half and took the lead, any combination of those guys were on the floor. Meeks in particular was amazing, and I’m glad he’s been given such a huge green light to launch. This loss was a total coaching breakdown, and while I would never say that these guys have forgotten how to coach (nothing could be further from the truth), I’m sick of losing these games. I’m sick of UK being the lead story on SportsCenter and watching those East Coast pricks laugh at us and throw the race card around. I don’t care if we win out, this will haunt us forever. With all of that said, though, here’s something crazy. I’m not predicting a win over Carolina on Tuesday, but if it were to happen, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Any offense and defense that isn’t the three-ring circus that VMI ran will be a welcome change for these guys, and I guarantee you they’ll look ten times better than they did in the last game.

I still think that Rich Brooks and his staff are the right people for this job. Recruiting is going exceptionally well, and I still feel like the program is on a general upswing because of that recruiting success. However, they were awful last night. The big problem is the same problem these guys have had all year except against Louisville and Georgia – they don’t know that the game starts in the first half. Kentucky had one first down in the first half, and that was on a fake punt. That’s unacceptable. Joker Phillips completely deviated from the running game that was so successful, which put the game squarely in the hands of Randall Cobb and the greenest receiving corps in FBS. Even against Vanderbilt, this is a recipe for disaster. Look at the two passes that DJ Moore picked off. On both throws, Moore jumped the route while the receivers just waited for the ball to come to them. Those are errors of inexperience.

As for the defense, it’s the same play over and over: rush the front four, drop everybody else back. It’s the most vanilla scheme in the world, and the only reason why it looked so good in the first half of the season was because the personnel was so good and they were all completely healthy. Against Vanderbilt, they weren’t motivated until they had given up 17 points. Vanderbilt was motivated, and that was the difference in the outcome. Basically, Bobby Johnson executed his mission and Rich Brooks didn’t. Now there were some things that happened in the second half that were out of his control, like the personal foul penalty on Micah Johnson for roughing the passer. That was an abysmal call that killed all the momentum Kentucky had built in the second half, but it shouldn’t have mattered. Kentucky was talented enough to beat Vanderbilt, and they didn’t because they forgot to show up at the beginning. I’ll reserve judgment on the Tennessee game until I see what Tennessee does against Vanderbilt this week. I’m sure against us, they’ll turn into the Tennessee Titans instead of the Tennessee Volunteers.

The weekend isn’t over yet, so if you’re a Wildcat fan and have favorite pro teams, start worrying.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I fear for Adrian Peterson’s safety.

* Wrap up. Chris Nickson is starting for the Commodores instead of Mackenzi Adams. I’m sure you remember Nickson from the game in 2006 where Kentucky survived to become bowl eligible. Chris almost beat us by himself with his legs. Kentucky has significantly improved defending mobile quarterbacks since that game, part of the reason why they’ve been able to make consecutive bowls. The knock on Nickson is that he doesn’t throw it well. This has been true up to this point in the current season. Vandy is 5-0 in games started by Nickson and 0-4 in games started by Adams, but in several of those wins, Adams came in to relieve Nickson after slow starts. Jeff Jennings and Jared Hawkins are power runners and should be a lot easier to bring down than Knowshon Moreno last week. If Kentucky wraps up and makes Nickson throw, I have complete certainty that the good guys will prevail.

* Block like last week. Between the offensive line and wide receivers, that was the best blocking I had seen from Kentucky all year. I don’t know if Vandy is still last in the conference in total defense, but they have been for most of the year. Their blitzes should be easier to contain than Georgia’s, and the line shouldn’t be as massive as that of the Bulldogs either. If Kentucky blocks like they did against Georgia, Cobb, Smith and Dixon should all have field days running through the Vandy defense.

* I thought of one more. Play loose. UK has absolutely nothing to lose in this game, and I’m of the opinion that Vanderbilt doesn’t either because they should beat Tennessee next week. You can’t run an option-based offense with a tight sphincter. I don’t think this will be a problem with Cobb under center. It certainly wasn’t last week.

Before I end this, did any of you guys see UCLA last night? Miami (OH) plays the typical MAC style of ball, and Charlie Coles always keeps his team in the game with masterful coaching, but that style should have been right down UCLA’s alley. Instead, they had to hold on for dear life, and the way I saw it, got every single call in the last five minutes. My first upset special of the year is Michigan over UCLA in the finals of the 2K Sports Classic. I don’t like betting against John Beilein under any circumstances, and UCLA looks ripe. They’ll be okay in the long run, but they’re playing so many green guys that they’ll probably struggle early on like they did against Miami.

I’m Seth Stogsdill Stay classy, Cat fans.

BCS NATIONAL TITLE GAME  Miami, Florida   SEC team: FLORIDA

I think that the winner of the SEC Championship game between Alabama and Florida, if they both finish the season with wins, will go on to play in the BCS National Title Game in Miami against either Texas Tech, if they can continue their run to perfection or Oklahoma, who would have to knock off the Red Raiders to get here.  I think the Gators are the hottest team in the country right now and will beat the Tide in Atlanta to punch their ticket to Miami.  It would be an offensive juggernaut if they could face Texas Tech and who doesn’t like offense. 

SUGAR BOWL  New Orleans, Louisiana  SEC team: ALABAMA

The loser of the SEC Championship has to settle for a Sugar Bowl berth instead of a National Title Shot.  Since I picked Florida to play for the title, Alabama is my pick for the Sugar.  I look for them to face off either Utah or Boise State, both BCS at-large selections.  Both are undefeated right now and inside the top ten in the BCS standings.  We saw what Boise State did to Oklahoma a couple of years ago so if I was Bama I wouldn’t take either school for granted.

CAPITAL ONE BOWL  Orlando, Florida  SEC team: GEORGIA

I think Georgia will represent the SEC in the Capital One Bowl this year based on the SEC getting two teams in the BCS games.  The Dawgs will play a Big Ten team and at this point it looks to be either Ohio State or Michigan State.  Ohio State still has a chance of making the BCS and if they do then that moves the Spartans into this game. 

COTTON BOWL  Dallas, Texas  SEC team:  LSU

Based on their down season, for LSU standards, and the re-emergence of Alabama, the Tigers have been forced to play in the Cotton Bowl this year.  Their opponent will come from the Big 12 and probably be Texas unless Oklahoma or Texas Tech has a complete breakdown and doesn’t make the BCS.

OUTBACK BOWL  Tampa, Florida  SEC team:  SOUTH CAROLINA (UK POSSIBLE)

Now this is where things get interesting.  Right now South Carolina controls it’s own destiny.  If it can beat Clemson in the final game of the season it will be 8-4, yeah I went ahead and determined that they would lose at Florida this weekend.  If the Cocks finish 8-4 they will likely get the Outback nod.  If they lose out, I look for Kentucky to possibly move in to this slot.  Iowa looks to be the likely opponent. 

CHICK FIL A BOWL  Atlanta, Georgia  SEC team:  KENTUCKY (USC POSSSIBLE)

Based on what happens in the last three weeks of the season, I think the former Peach Bowl is the likely site of the Cats 2008 bowl game.  If they can beat Vandy this weekend they will almost guarantee this bowl bid.  Two wins and then it puts the pressure on the Outback Bowl committee if USC wins another game.  They will have to pick between UK and USC.  Possible opponents include Georgia Tech and Wake Forest from the ACC.

MUSIC CITY BOWL  Nashville, Tennessee  SEC team:  OLE MISS (VANDY POSSIBLE)

The Kentucky Wildcats Bowl, as it has become recently, will be missing it’s main attraction this year and the crowds will once again return to normal size for the game.  I look for Ole Miss to get at least one more win on the season and become bowl eligible with 6 wins.  They have games with Louisiana-Monroe, LSU, and Mississippi St left this year and could possibly win all of them if the right things happen in the LSU game.  If that happens, they could be considered for the Chick Bowl but I think UK would win out due to the masses that flock to Atlanta whenever the Cats are there.  If Ole Miss can’t get their sixth win or only get to six, the Music City people may decide to take the hometown Vanderbilt Commodores over the rebels, if Vandy can get to six wins.  They’ve been stuck on 5 for a while now with games remaining against UK, Tennessee, and Wake Forest.  Opponents could be Maryland, Georgia Tech, or Virginia Tech.

LIBERTY BOWL  Memphis, Tennessee  SEC team:  VANDERBILT  (OLE MISS POSSIBLE)

This pick will end up being the team not picked by the Music City Bowl.  I suspect it will be Vanderbilt based on the fact that the MCB people will want to have a team from outside of Nashville in their bowl.  And it’s only fair that the Dores get to travel a little for their bowl game.  The opponent will probably be Tulsa, the C-USA Champion.

Now, this is where it gets difficult.  The SEC has bowl tie-ins with two more bowls, the PapaJohns.com Bowl and the Independence Bowl.  If the league only gets one team in the BCS then the teams listed above will probably just move to the next bowl in line and the league will only have one empty bowl slot.  Here’s the problem though.  Right now, Auburn is 5-5, Arkansas is 4-6, and Mississippi State is 3-6.  Getting to that elusive sixth win is going to be tough for all of these teams.  Auburn has games against Georgia and then at Alabama for the final game of the regular season.  Arkansas plays at Mississippi State and then hosts LSU for their regular season finale.  Mississippi State, needing three wins, goes to Alabama, hosts Arkansas, and then travels to Ole Miss to end the year.  By process of elimination, Arkansas and Mississippi State cannot both become bowl eligible.  Auburn has the best shot of getting eligible becuse they only need one win, but even that will be a tall task.  It pains me to type this but TENNESSEE will be visiting the family this holiday season because they have already been knocked out of bowl contention.

* Less than six turnovers from the point guard position. This to me will be the difference between a comfortable win and a dogfight. VMI loves trapping all over the court, and it will be up to Mike Porter and DeAndre Liggins to handle those traps with poise. If they do, Kentucky should score 100 points no problem because it’s really the last resort in the VMI defensive playbook. There will be guys open all over the place if the point guards maneuver the ball past the traps.

* Get the ball to Patrick Patterson every single time down the court. VMI doesn’t have a player taller that 6’7”. They were already the worst scoring defense in the country because of the style they play, but I’d imagine that skilled post players would be the team’s kryptonite. Patterson hopefully learned his lesson after picking up a few un-Patterson-like fouls in the last exhibition game. This game is set up for Patrick to have a monster performance.

* Continued domination on defense and on the glass. OBC made a bunch of threes that were the result of broken plays and mental lapses. VMI plays an offensive style that does not allow for mental lapses to happen. Defensively, there’s no doubt that the guys aren’t where Coach Gillispie needs them to be so far, but at the same time, I’ve thought that the help defense has been great with tons of opportunities for blocks. VMI shoots threes at a high clip, so the guards will have to grab their fair share of long rebounds. I have confidence in the forwards to get rebounds on the inside, but the missed threes that take long bounces are the responsibility of Meeks, or preferably one of the other guards, so Meeks can break for the basket.

* Don’t act your age. This is an extremely young team, and young teams can get rattled, especially in unfamiliar environments. Since VMI plays a style unlike any other team, that presents an unfamiliar environment. This team is a reflection of its best players, so Patterson and Meeks need to set the example early so that the freshmen will have that same kind of confidence when they first come into the game.

That’s all I’ve got. It’s hard to come up with a big checklist for the first game.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I should have done this on Tuesday: If you’re a veteran and you’re reading this,you’re awesome.

It’s hard to lose Andre’ Woodson, Rafael Little, Keenan Burton, Steve Johnson, Jacob Tamme and Wesley Woodyard, then come back the next year with one of the nation’s greenest offenses and possibly finish with a better record. It’s even harder to consider this possibility when the two best offensive weapons, Derrick Locke and Dicky Lyons Jr. go down with season-ending injuries in consecutive games.

This program is still on the rise. It takes time to bring a program up from out of the depths. Look at Vanderbilt as an example. The media has been slurping Bobby Johnson for the last three years, as if Johnson has taken Vanderbilt to the SEC title game and the BCS. All he has done is recruit and coach well enough that the Commodores’ status as a pushover has significantly diminished. Rich Brooks has done the exact same thing at Kentucky. Bobby Johnson hasn’t won more than five games in a season at Vanderbilt. Rich Brooks has won eight in consecutive years at Kentucky. It takes time.

Rich Brooks has a team with this young offense and battered defense playing with the attitude of a top ten team. That’s been the biggest problem with Kentucky football – attitude. Kentucky football used to find ways to lose every close game they played. I remember Marty Moore not falling down. I remember Brandon Sanders missing a chip shot field goal in the Lightning Bowl against Louisville. I remember Chase Harp fumbling against Tennessee. I remember the Hail Mary by LSU. I remember running out of gas against Arkansas in the 7th overtime. I remember Jared Lorenzen throwing the pick against Florida.

These losses still happen, last week being the prime example, but they don’t happen every time now. They didn’t happen against Georgia, Central Michigan, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State or UL-Monroe in 2006. They didn’t happen against Louisville, LSU, Vanderbilt, Arkansas or Florida State last season. They didn’t happen against Arkansas and Mississippi State this season.

This team has found an identity on offense. It has finally figured out how to get things going on the ground, which I believe was the objective of Joker Phillips all along. They just needed Randall Cobb at quarterback to make it work. I don’t fear Vanderbilt, especially not at home and at night.

Both Vanderbilt and Kentucky have lost to Florida and Georgia. Kentucky’s other losses were to Alabama and South Carolina, ranked #1 and #25 respectively. Vanderbilt’s other losses were to Mississippi State and Duke. In the last 25 years, every time Vanderbilt has played a game where a win would have made them bowl eligible, they have lost.

There is far more pressure on Vanderbilt than Kentucky because Vandy is not bowl eligible yet. All Kentucky has to do is come out with the same attitude as they did against Georgia and they’ll come out with a victory. I’ll delve more into this with “Make My Day” on Friday, but let’s just say I have a great feeling about Saturday.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, reminding all of you to go to the dentist, no matter how much you might hate it.

College basketball vs. Baseball

Baseball still has the label of America’s pastime, but for me, it officially ceased to be America’s pastime after the strike of 1994. Those guys took away a season and a half from baseball fans and denied my beloved Chicago White Sox from making another postseason run with Frank Thomas, Black Jack McDowell and the rest of those guys. Since then, the Yankees and Red Sox have dominated the game, which is good for media and money, but it sucks if you’re a fan of another team. The Yankees and Red Sox payrolls dwarf those of most of the rest of the teams in MLB. The money situation prevents teams with superior farm systems like the Twins to become major players in the league because the teams with big payrolls can form their own all-star teams. And even though you had good stories this year like the Rays and Phillies making the World Series with homegrown talent, baseball still has a long way to go.

Baseball is not as good as college basketball because of the season. People say baseball is a marathon and not a sprint. Well, 162 games make it a dragging marathon, a war of attrition. Teams can fall out of playoff contention by the end of the first month. If that were true in college basketball, Kentucky wouldn’t have made the Tournament last year, but Syracuse would have. Baseball minimizes the chances of there being a Cinderella season because of the 162-game season. Only in rare cases, like last year’s Colorado Rockies, can a baseball team get hot at the end of the season and parlay that momentum into postseason success. That happens all the time in college basketball. The baseball playoffs can be extremely boring, especially with late start times like the World Series games. College basketball has the best postseason in all of sport.

College basketball vs. NBA

Whether or not this is fair (it isn’t), the NBA still has an image crisis that has existed since Magic Johnson and Larry Bird retired. This is the image of a game dominated by Michael Jordan and the defenses that had to stop Michael Jordan. These defenses had to ugly up the game and remove the aesthetic pleasure of the Magic/Bird era, resulting in a lot of boring, 89-85 games where referees called illegal defenses 7-8 times per game. The rough play was incorrectly labeled “thug ball,” climaxing with the brawl between the Pistons and Pacers. People still think that the league is chock full of thugs when all evidence points to an upswing in character guys. Then there was the holdout that took away a good portion of the 1999 season. Anytime pro athletes hold out because of money disputes, it sours them to casual fans.

College basketball is better than the NBA because the regular season is better. There aren’t rivalry games in the NBA anymore (at least not in the regular season) because David Stern had to clean up the league’s image after the brawl. In college basketball’s regular season, there are rivalry games every week, even during the OOC schedule. You get to see the best teams in the country play against each other at their peak in some of these preseason tournaments. NBA regular season games lack the passion of NBA playoff games. You’ll never see that in college basketball.

College basketball vs. NFL

With the NFL, it comes down to one thing: Making the postseason isn’t entirely based on merit. A team from the AFC West has to make the playoffs this year because every division winner gets to make the playoffs. However, it is starting to look like the division winner, either the Broncos or Chargers, will barely have to crack .500 to win the division. At the same time, at least two among the Jets, Dolphins, Ravens and Colts won’t get to make it because there can only be two wild card teams. All four teams I just listed could win the AFC West in a walk. Any one of them deserves to make the playoffs more than the Chargers or Broncos, but the system won’t let that happen. 12 teams make the NFL postseason. 65 teams make the college basketball post season. Advantage: College basketball. Also, while the NBA has the image of a “thug” league, the NFL really is one. The league has a huge disciplinary problem that has existed for years, and Roger Goodell can only do so much. Disciplinary problems in college basketball can be handled by the individual schools, unless it’s a corrupt program like Indiana under Kelvin Sampson, and only then will the NCAA step in and take action.

College basketball vs. College football

This was the hardest one because I think college football is outstanding, and despite all of the flaws in the system, they usually work themselves out. However, there are still some flaws, and it has everything to do with the postseason. The ACC and Big East do not deserve to have teams make the BCS this year. The BCS is supposed to represent the ten best teams in the country, and I can say without hesitation that if I had to list who I felt the best ten teams in America, my list would not include a team from either of those conferences. The BCS allows teams who don’t win their conference (Nebraska in 2001, Oklahoma in 2003) to play in the national championship game. It is very difficult to describe how unfair this is. Imagine if Texas Tech somehow beats Oklahoma, but loses the Big XII title game. If that happened and Alabama won out, Alabama would play Texas for the championship because Texas has the next highest ranking in the BCS. This would not be fair for a person who feels teams should win their conference titles in football to make the national championship. College basketball’s postseason is my favorite time of the year other than Christmas. I can’t say that about other sports. That’s what puts college basketball over the top for me.

It all starts with the whistles, like it always does. I heard that Gerald Boudreaux, head of SEC officiating, was in the house on Friday. The guys in the stripes must have been trying to impress Gerald, because there were WAY too many fouls in this game. Rupp Arena typically has one of the most basketball-savvy crowds in the country. You know officiating is getting out of hand when the home crowd boos a call made against the opposing team. And that’s exactly what happened on Friday. The tight whistle sent Patrick Patterson to the bench with four fouls, which triggered all hell breaking loose in the first half.

Kentucky was doing fine before Patterson picked up two offensive fouls within about two minutes of each other. This team is a reflection of its leader, which is Patterson. Without Patterson, there can be no gestalt. The whole was not greater than the sum of its parts, which is the worst possible thing to happen in team sports. The result of the team’s leader not being on the floor was a slew of turnovers, most of them unforced. The freshmen who looked wise beyond their years against UMSL made freshman mistakes. Coach Gillispie couldn’t fine a constant with the lineup other than Perry Stevenson. Remember the Porter-Slone-Krebs-Stevenson-Carter combination that went out there for about five minutes in the first half when OBC hit a bunch of threes and tied the game? Do you think Coach Gillispie would ever in his right mind consider putting that lineup out there in a game that counted? It looked like a lesson in humility for guys like Meeks, Harris, Miller, Liggins and Patterson, all of whom played much better in the second half.

Let’s talk some more about Stevenson because this is something on which I take a bit of an issue with the coach. Stevenson had 20 rebounds, played the most minutes and was all over the court, yet Coach Gillispie was much harder on Perry than any of the other players. I realize that I don’t watch the same game from my TV as the coaching staff does from the bench, but that’s a lot of rebounds. Exhibition or not, there hasn’t been a 20 rebound game since Jared Prickett against Arkansas in 1994. Stevenson was the only guy who was consistently beating guys to loose balls. He didn’t get shoved around in the post like he did against UMSL. I watched the Extreme Access program Saturday, and I saw Coach Gillispie getting on his players. I saw him telling DeAndre Liggins to push it every chance he got. I saw him telling Patterson to go after every rebound. I saw him reminding Stevenson where he needed to be on defense every trip down the court. This team is a meritocracy, it’s Social Darwinism at its finest. The cream will rise to the top. The guys that play are the ones that do what the coach wants. That’s why Josh Harrellson didn’t get many minutes against OBC despite playing so well in the first exhibition.

This team is not as good as they looked against UMSL, but they are also not as bad as they looked in the first half against OBC. Remember, the margin of victory was only 22 points because OBC started launching and making threes with a couple minutes to go after Kentucky emptied its bench. Had the normal rotation guys stayed in, the margin would have been in the 30-40 range.I’d be lying if I said VMI didn’t have me a little concerned. They have no size, but when you run the gimmicky, Grinnell-style offense they run, that chaotic pace could cause some problems, especially with point guard play. Michael Porter had a rough game against OBC and Liggins wasn’t that much better, though I thought both guys did get better as the game went on. I’m under the assumption that the rotation will look something like this, in terms of points, wings and post guys.

Porter
Liggins

Meeks
Harris
Miller

Patterson
Stevenson
Harrellson

And depending on the opponent, the 9th man will be one of Galloway, Stewart and Carter. Point guard play is the key to getting through the early part of this season without any major setbacks. If the guys respond well to the pace dictated by VMI (who can dictate pace against ANY team because they only know one style), these first couple months will see UK look great. If not, then the kinks need to be worked out of the system as soon as possible.

Finally, if you’re looking for a college basketball fix, Duke opens its season against the Presbyterian Blue Hose tonight on ESPNU.

I’m Seth Stogsdill. Go Blue Hose.