The Best Two Days in Sports: Day 1

• The Big East is 1-3 in the tournament, with losses to the 7th place team in the MAC and Old Dominion and their only win being a #2 seed over a #15 seed in overtime. Surprised? Nope, not me. You heard it here first: most overrated conference in history.
• The SEC didn't have a great day either, but not bad. Florida lost to a higher seeded team and Vandy lost to a 30 win team that I think has a very good chance to go to the Sweet 16. Congrats Murray!
• Kentucky made 15 three's today (Bledsoe making 8 of them) and continue to show that they CAN shoot from outside. When they do, they're nearly unbeatable.
• The Cats showed the focus of a veteran team tonight, and they clearly look to be on a mission.
• Wake Forest will certainly be a challenge, but I'm very glad we've avoided Texas. Wake is good, but if we shoot and play like we're capable of we'll be just fine. Texas is talented enough to beat anyone even on a good night, and the Cats are lucky to avoid them.
• Is the NCAA serious about this 96 team expansion? That's the worse idea, ever. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Please, do not mess with the best 2 days in sports!

Wilmhoff's Picks

The highlights of my completed bracket include Murray State, Xavier, Richmond, and Baylor in the Sweet 16.

• I've got Murray State over Vandy
• Murray State also over Butler in Round 2
• Xavier in the Sweet 16
• Richmond over Villanova in Round 2
• Baylor over Richmond to advance to the Elite 8
• Kansas State over Syracuse to join top seeds Kansas, Kentucky, and Duke in the Final Four
• Kentucky vs. Kansas in the Championship Game with the Cats bringing home #8

My bracket generally reflects my opinion that the Big 12 is the best conference, the Big East is the most overrated conference, and the Atlantic 10 is the most underrated conference. I think the SEC is better than what my picks show, but the SEC has some bad match ups. Tennessee is capable of a big run, but will face Georgetown in the second round. Then, even if they would upset the Hoyas, they'd play Ohio State in the Sweet 16. The Vols might have the toughest drawl in the tournament and were deserving of much higher than a 6 seed. Vanderbilt is another capable team but is playing one of the scariest teams in the field- the Murray State Racers, who had the nation's longest winning streak until losing to defending OVC Champion, Morehead State, in a late regular season contest. I'm picking Florida to lose in the first round to BYU because another SEC team should have their spot (Mississippi State), and I would have likely picked that team to make a run.

Shout out to the Colonels!

Let me give a much deserved shout out to my Alma Matter: the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. The EKU Men's Basketball team has had a very impressive start (definitely more impressive than a certain school 65 miles west of Lexington), and if you get the chance, you should go see them play.

After losing Adam Leonard a few years ago and now losing Mike Rose last year, the Colonels were not expected to do much in the OVC this year. Especially since OVC Defending Champion, Morehead State, returned all key players from their NCAA Tournament team from last year. It also didn't look good for the Colonels when Murray State opened up at #12 California and only lost by 5 points.

But the Colonels have started off with a 7-3 record, including a pair of hard fought 11 point losses at Pittsburgh and at Maryland. The Colonels also fought hard on the road in a 2 point loss to Murray State on the road. EKU is undefeated at home, including a 14 point win over Isiah Thomas' Florida International squad. Justin Stommes has led the way so far for the Colonels with 15.1 ppg. Make no mistake, the Colonels have withstood the departures of key players over the last few years and will remain a contender for an OVC Championship this spring in Nashville. The Colonels will try to defeat the Ohio Bobcats for the 2nd straight year in Athens on Saturday.

Audio: John Calipari in post-game

Audio: John Calipari in post-game

And for the haters out there (I'm sure there's a lot of them tonight), Kentucky is not overrated. They actually proved a lot tonight in a great learning experience, and still came out with a win. Good teams get better and learn while still finding ways to win. And it's even more promising for such a young team to win a game like this in November against a team that shot 15 of 26 from behind the three point line and could likely win their conference and go to the NCAA Tournament (like all of the team's Calipari schedules early on). Everyone's predictions are right on. Yeah, they'll probably struggle a few times along the way early on...but should be as good as anyone when it's all said and done. Coach Calipari agrees, and I think he knows more than you do.

Mississippi State is not overrated either after LOSING to Rider (another solid future UK opponent)

Neither is 12th ranked Cal after beating Murray State only by five. It's November.

North Carolina also was not overrated when they LOST to Santa Clara in November in Roy Williams' first National Championship season with a young Tyler Hansborough. They did okay, UK will too.

And Louisville was not overrated last November after three or four early losses and almost losing to Georgetown College in exhibition play...they ended up a #1 seed.

You know things are going good when a freshman scores 19 and makes the game winning shot, another freshman has a double-double in basically one half of play, another key freshman gets 7 stitches and comes back in the game to contribute, you have only one upperclassman that plays significant minutes, it's November, you have a new coach and offense, and you come back to win from 18 points and people are STILL disappointed in your performance.

And you know the funny thing is, it's not the so called "delusional" Kentucky fans that are screaming about this game. It's the "rational" fans of that other team in the state...

The same people that would turn around and call us impatient if we said the same things about our team that they're saying.

I'm thinking about dedicating a post tomorrow to my text messages during and after the game...their obsession with us is absolutely hilarious. The only problem with doing that is that I received so many that I lost space in my phone and had to delete a bunch of them. I know, amazing isn't it? I don't think I've EVER sent a text to a UofL fan during one of their games, because I don't really care, unless it's against us. I bet half the people texting me don't even know who UofL is playing their opening game against. Anyway...

Enjoy the postgame audio!

News and Notes

• Be sure to check out tomorrow's edition of "Brown's Pick's" for this week's college football games (and maybe even a few basketball picks).
• A UofL basketball preview will also be appearing soon on the site.
• You can also expect NFL picks sometime soon, maybe this week.
• And at some point (maybe tomorrow evening), I will break down the College Hoops Top 25 and give you my most overrated and underrated teams.
• Then of course, Friday is GAMEDAY! A busy weekend may prevent me from the necessary coverage that should be given to the first regular season game of the Calipari era, but hopefully someone else can step up.
• Also, a BIG game for Bengals fans on Sunday! The Wildcat Wrap of the Vandy football game will also include a wrap up of the Bengals-Steelers game and will be posted either Sunday night or Monday morning.
• Next week we'll also start to cover the KHSAA State Football Playoffs.

A few other points of interest:

1. Every college basketball game I've watched so far, they have EXTENSIVELY talked about the Cats. It's great to be back!
2. UNC has now come within 2 games of UK in All-Time wins, however, the race to 2,000 still appears to be the Cats' race to lose.
3. The Cats were picked on the insanely premature edition of ESPN's Bracketology as a #1 seed facing an in-state team in the first round, the Murray State Racers.
4. Murray State only lost at 12th ranked California by just 5 points the other night. Way to go Racers, representing the state very well!
5. Last but not least, the Morehead game isn't going to be that easy...they're very good. I feel bad for Eastern as they appear to be well behind their other 2 in-state conference rivals this season.