News and Notes: 12-14-09

• Kentucky has now reached all-time win #1,998. They face Austin Peay on Saturday and then the December 21st matchup with Drexel will likely be win #2,000. Any ideas on finding tickets, anyone?
• John Calipari was contacted by Madison Square Garden officials about playing an annual home game there, after UK arguably had more fans than UConn and St. Johns combined, in their own backyard at the SEC/Big East Invitational last week against UConn. I would personally love to see a UK/Duke matchup at MSG, since Coach K won't come to Rupp.
• UK moved up to 3rd in both polls today and received one first place vote. #2 Texas faces UNC on Saturday, which could push the Cats into the #2 spot with a Tar Heel win.
• #1 ranked Kansas plays Michigan and California the next two games, then plays a solid Belmont team, then Temple (who just knocked off previous #3 Villanova), and then faces Tennessee on January 10th. Look for the Cats to be ranked #1 after these stretch of games for the Jayhawks.
• John Wall received SEC Freshman Player of the Week honors for the fourth consecutive week. This is a streak that might not last the entire season by John Wall, but I wouldn't be shocked if Cousins and Bledsoe contribute to this award being won by a UK freshman every single week of this season. Which is really, simply amazing.

Last but not least, I want to thank Kentucky Sports Radio for this Youtube video they posted. Really, really funny stuff!

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!

College Hoops is Officially Here!

It feels so great to be able to sit in the comfort of my home and watch some college basketball on ESPN U in high definition. Sorry Rob Bromley and the Big Blue Network, but I will not miss you once games start to matter and the Cats are playing on CBS and ESPN. It's currently halftime of the infamous 2K Sports Classic tournament opener (the same one in which Gardner Webb officially ended the Billy Gillispie honeymoon in his second game as UK's coach 2 years ago).

Tonight's most intriguing game is featuring the defending National Champion, North Carolina Tar Heels, and a Florida International team led by Isiah Thomas in his first game as a college head coach (who will visit fabulous Richmond, KY on November 28th to face EKU in Alumni Coliseum). Internet rumors all around have been claiming that UNC played a "secret scrimmage" on Sunday against Vanderbilt and lost by double digits. It's no rumor that the scrimmage occurred, that is a fact. But it's against NCAA violations to sell tickets to these scrimmages or publicize them in any way. We will never really know what the official results were, but word on the street is that the Commodores won comfortably. The Tar Heels have looked okay so far tonight with a 16 point lead at halftime, but they're nowhere near where they were a year ago and quite frankly I don't think they're anywhere near Calipari's Cats. Nonetheless, they should pick up a game on us tonight in the race to 2,000 victories.

As the week concludes and gets closer to the Cats' regular season opener against Morehead State on Friday, I will give you an official Wildcat Wrap preview of the much improved Southeastern Conference. I'll specifically break down the SEC East (the best division in all of college basketball this season) and I will break down the top 25 polls and give you my most overrated and underrated teams.