What went wrong for Rondo at Kentucky?

As Rajon Rondo looks to lead the Boston Celtics to their 2nd NBA World Championship in three years as he and his Celtics face the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals tomorrow night, Kentucky fans have to wonder what exactly went wrong for the Cats during his time here. Rondo has emerged as one of the best Point Guards in the NBA and could be named this year's MVP of the Playoffs. Although he still has a lot more to prove over an entire career, he's quickly putting together a resume that could put him in the Hall of Fame someday. If Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen retire anytime in the near future, the keys to the storied franchise could be given to Rondo, and perhaps he could ultimately be judged by how he is able to lead the franchise after that happens. But regardless to what the future holds for Rondo, it's impressive and mindboggling to think that the former Kentucky Point Guard whom led the Cats to a disappointing #8 seed and 2nd round loss to UConn in the 2006 season, his final year at UK, could only be one title short of what Larry Bird accomplished in his entire career in Boston after this season.

A lot of Kentucky fans will point their fingers at Tubby Smith and claim that Smith's offense slowed Rondo down and did not let him take control of the team like he probably should have. I was a huge fan and supporter of Tubby and I agree with those claims, but I think there's more to it than just placing the blame on Tubby for not getting it done in the 2006 season. In 2005, Rondo had an exceptional Freshman season and led the Cats to the Elite 8 and a foul call on Patrick Sparks away from the Final Four. Smith's offense didn't seem to prevent Rondo from having a great season that year. There was a specific event that I believe was a turning point for the bad in the 2006 season and eventually led to the demise of Tubby Smith at Kentucky. Before this event occurred, the Cats were a not so great 10-4. It included embarrassing losses to Indiana and Kansas, but it also included a very sweet win over #4 ranked Louisville in which Lukasz Orbzut somehow played like an All-American that day with the absence of another UK big man.

It was the anticipated return of that big man that I believe was the reason Rondo was not able to take over that team. Yes, the event that I'm referring to is the fax that Tubby discovered in the middle of that season that declared Randolph Morris eligible even after he stayed in the NBA Draft and was undrafted. The day that Tubby found the fax proving that Morris did not hire an agent, many UK fans were jumping for joy and believed that their season was now saved. Morris was now eligible to suit up for the Cats in the SEC opener against Vanderbilt. This was a game that I attended and remember very well all the excitement over the return of Morris.

The Cats lost that game to Vanderbilt and would only finish the remainder of the season at 12-9 with Morris on the team. His post presence caused the team to play a slower brand of basketball which simply didn't work that season. Not all of the blame should be put on Tubby, nor should it be put on Rondo and the perceived attitude problems that some believed he had. I think many of us forget that Randolph Morris did not live up to his expectations when he returned to the team and his presence simply was not a good fit for that team under Rondo. He did not run the floor well and Morris may have actually slowed down Rajon Rondo more than Tubby's offense did. The Cats may have been better off that year if Tubby had never found that fax.

Kentucky Basketball raises over $1 Million for Haiti Earthquake relief

There have been many great moments in the first 18 games of John Calipari's first season at Kentucky. It has been a season full of highlight reels, book signings, S.I. cover shots, milestone victories, and John Wall dance videos posted all over YouTube. The remarkable comeback of Kentucky basketball has been a wild and fun ride since last April. This incredible run has included 18 wins in 18 tries and a #2 national ranking after missing the NCAA Tournament last March, but possibly no win was more meaningful than the battle that was won on Sunday. The victory that was won on Sunday wasn't in Rupp Arena, nor was it in a hostile environment on the road. It was won through the telephone lines all accross this great Commonwealth.

"There have been many days since I took this job that I have been humbled and honored to be your coach," Coach Calipari said. "But none moreso than Sunday when your outpouring of support for our brothers and sisters in Haiti was displayed in full sight of the nation."

Coach Calipari had this idea just a few days ago after the disaster in Haiti occured and has come up with over $1 million in 24 hours. The players, our great fans, Ashley Judd, Lebron James, and Tubby Smith- yes, TUBBY SMITH, amongst many others were influential in the success of "Hoops for Haiti". Thank you to everyone for the support of this great project. The Commonwealth was represented very well today and should be commended for their efforts.

Check out the following ESPN video:

Hoops for Haiti

Yankees' dynasty reborn, are Cats next?

There was a lot of talk floating around Big Blue Nation during this World Series that included some interesting facts, but not exactly true. I heard someone say in my section at the football game Saturday night that the Yankees have won a World Series every year that UK has won a National Championship in basketball. Close, but not quite. I've also heard someone say that the Yankees have won World Championships each October of the previous year before the seven times that the Cats have won it in April, which also isn't exactly true. In fact, that hasn't even been true the last two times the Cats have won. The Braves beat the Indians in the 1995 World Series, just before the Cats kicked off their 95-96 campaign that ended with a victory over Syracuse in the Meadowlands. Then, the Marlins went on to win it in 1997 as Tubby Smith was getting prepared to lead the Cats to the 1998 National Championship. Ok, so there goes that theory that since the Yankees won, it's now destined that the Cats will do the same...

The Yankees did, however, win in the same year as the last six times the Cats have won titles (1949, 1951, 1958, 1978, 1996, and 1998 were championship years for both the Cats and Yanks). The only year when the Yankees did not win a title in the same year as the Cats was when Rupp won his first title in 1948. But the Yankees did win it in 47, so I suppose that each year the Yankees have either won it in the same year as the Cats, or the year before, or both. My point is, whenever the Yankees win, the Cats win. Whenever the Yankees struggle, the Cats struggle too. It's almost amazing how similar the two teams' successes have been mirror images of each other. Yeah, you can bring up all those Yankees championships in the 20's and 30's that the Cats didn't have, but the NCAA didn't even crown championships until 1939.

Especially since 1996, the two teams' successes have been even more similar to each another. The last World Series appearance for the Yankees before this year was 2003. That may have also been the closest the Cats have come to a title in this decade as they rolled on a 26 game winning streak and #1 ranking as they looked unbeatable until the high ankle sprain of Keith Bogans (and some guy named Dwayne Wade stood in the way as well). You could also say that the departures of Joe Torre and Tubby Smith are also very strikingly similar. Both men led their teams to championships early in their tenures for each team, but were both facing title droughts that are rare and frusterating for the very demanding fans of both teams. Torre and Smith both have new teams now and they're both doing very well with them. However, the Yankees have finally revived their dynasty under Joe Girardi and John Calipari hopes to do the same in Lexington in 2010. Heck, I just realized another similarity....Girardi, Calipari...both are Italian, AND thier names even ryhme. Heck, maybe it is destiny.

Our Staff

John, Charlie, Mike, and Cox

At this time, I would like to introduce our staff here at wildcatwrap.com. You are already familiar with myself, but to make this thing work and make it big...it will take more than just myself.

Charlie Hunter, Mike Brown, and Christian Cox are also all alumni of Eastern Kentucky University and all have a great interest and knowledge for sports.

It's kind of interesting how I first met Charlie. He started a facebook group called, "Fire Tubby Smith". I was a HUGE Tubby supporter. I would get on the group and bash him and everyone else on it. We ended up having a class together in the spring semester of Tubby's last season and ended up becoming friends. Like many Cats fans, Charlie was frustrated with the job Tubby was doing. Also like many of Big Blue Nation, I was unhappy with the last few years under Tubby but supported him and respected what he had done here and wanted him to stay. The fan base was split and remained split under Gillispie. It's awesome to see now how Calipari has once again united the entire Big Blue Nation. Charlie has been added to the site as a contributor and was going to write about the debate over the black uniforms for the football game on Saturday night (as you can see by his black basketball jersey, he likes black uni's)....but then it was made known by Mitch Barnhart that the uniforms would still be blue for the blackout game on Halloween night....so hopefully Charlie finds something to write about soon, haha.

Mike Brown gives this site a really interesting perspective because he IS NOT A UK FAN. A lot of people say that I am too biased, so...to make this site the best it can be, I've hired my fraternity brother, Mike Brown, to give us weekly college football predictions each Thursday (starting tomorrow). Brown is a big Cincinnati Bearcat fan and now attends graduate school at Clemson. He is currently first place in our Yahoo College Football Pick'em league, so he will be sharing his "non-biased" predictions each week on the site, including UK predictions of course. He will also make weekly pics during basketball season and contribute to national stories as well and follow the NFL, NBA, and MLB on the site.

Christian Cox, an IT Major and my roomate, is the "Director of Information Technology and Advertising" for wildcatwrap.com. He will make this website eventually look a lot better than it already does with his savvy computer skills and figure out the kinks to adding advertisements to the site.