The Day After

The day after perhaps the most physical battle of the UK-Louisville dream game, ever, I've had some time to digest everything that happened and here's what I think:

1. The Cousins play was way overblown and over exaggerated. How often do we see players get tangled up for a loose ball and a few kicks and shoves happen, both ways? It happens all the time, and is especially not uncommon in a rivalry game like this. And yes, Cousins took a knee to the head as well (as shown in the photo below). It was a good, physical game. If two other teams were playing and it wasn't involving Kentucky and a Calipari coached team, this would have been no big deal as far as the media is concerned. Period.


2. I believe that Louisville's players tried to instigate UK's young freshman and try to get them to lose their temper and control. From what I have heard and read from people at the game, Louisville's players were yelling obscenities, taunting UK's players and fans, and even crossing midcourt and purposely running through UK's layup lines before the game (which of course went unnoticed on CBS and the rest of the nation). For the most part, I think UK handled themselves very well.


3. I don't condone everything that UK did in the way that they handled themselves, but I do appreciate the fact that the incident with Cousins resulted because he was on the floor and fighting for a loose ball. I appreciate the physical game that he played, diving onto the floor for multiple loose balls, and grabbing 18 rebounds. Without that kind of physical play, UK losses this game. I also appreciate the fact that Cousins is physical on the court, and not off it, but I won't call out any other team in the state that has been involved in fights off the court recently.


4. Louisville fans need to move on. Instead of worrying about Kentucky and what we are doing 65 miles down the road, they should have some pride about their own team and realize there's still a lot to play for in the Big East and they have a team that can accomplish a lot. I attended the game last year at Freedom Hall and watched Edgar Sosa drain that shot to beat the Cats in the final seconds. I was surrounded by a sea of red Cardinal fans. But I walked out of Freedom Hall thinking that I might have seen one of the best UK/UofL games ever played. I took the loss with class and congratulated my UofL friends on the win. Why can't they act the same? .


5. It was a very sloppy game, by both teams. But in a game like this, all you can ask for is the "W" and Kentucky controlled their emotions enough to settle down and win this game. The Cats are now 15-0, their best start since the 1969-70 season.

The media will go out of their way to display UK's program in a negative image after even the smallest of incidents, like today's little scuffle between Cousins and Swopshire, but will let the actions of other coaches, players, and fans go unnoticed. The UK fans, by the way, couldn't have been classier, as there didn't seem to be a single reference to Karen Sypher the entire game. If a UK head coach was involved in a sex scandal, you better believe there would be chants in Freedom Hall as well as probably every student section in the SEC.

That's just the way it is though, and UK fans should probably just get accustomed from unfair treatment from the media and annoying, bitter rival fans. It also means one thing: the Cats are back! It has become "us against the world". And that's okay, says Coach Calipari, "We don't need anyone else. We have the Greatest Program in the World!"