Good Weekend to be a Cat Fan

Well after the lackluster past two weekends for Kentucky sports the Cats righted the ship a little with their football win over Vanderbilt in Nashville and the got an opening season victory over Morehead St. in basketball. OK, granted the basketball team looked more impressive then the football team, but at this time of the year in football a victory is a victory. Especially considering that the victory gave UK 6 wins and a fourth straight year of bowl eligibility, which has never been done at the University of Kentucky. The game was not the prettiest to watch, but UK's two playmakers came up big again. Both Locke and Cobb had over 100 yards from scrimmage with Cobb scoring twice and Locke once accounting for all three of the UK touchdowns. Newton looked like he is getting more and more comfortable with the offense, yet it still seems like the offensive play calling is still centered around protecting him from making mistakes instead of trying to make plays. UK rarely attacked the center of the field with the pass and threw way two many 5yard outs.
The defense did hold Vanderbilt to just 13 points but Vanderbilt (2-9) did score their most points of the season against an SEC opponent so it is hard to be real impressed with stopping mediocrity. But that being said the Cats are still bowl eligible for the fourth straight year which is hard to ignore, and if they can pull of a victory against either Georgia or more importantly Tennessee then it will be hard to argue that the Cats had a successful year at 7-5. Yes they should have beat South Carolina and yes they should have beat Mississippi State but woulda, coulda, shoulda is part of the culture here at UK and has proven to be harder to replace then the losing culture that was here before Coach Brooks came onboard.
Now there is that other sport here at Kentucky, Basketball, wow as I have mentioned before it is amazing what 7 months has done to the tradition rich program Kentucky Wildcats. Coach Cal has the fans going nuts talking about Final Fours and National Titles. When was the last time the Wildcat nation could be so excited before the season started. HMMMM maybe the '05-'06 season when the Cats had Rondo, Crawford and Morris whom never seemed to gel under "Tubby Ball". But that is all in the past now with the Cats loaded with veterens Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, Ramon Harris (who should be a junior if Tubby hadn't blown a year for him) and Perry Stevenson hoping to come together with the talented Freshman John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton, John Hood, Eric Bledsoe along with JUCO transfer Darnell Dodson. After one regular season game against Morehead St. the expectations were probably enhanced as the Cats showed that although they haven't mastered the offense yet that they have the talent to play full court and above the rim with anybody in the nation including maybe the LA Clippers (OK I might have gotten too excited there). In the first half the Cats looked too pumped up and tried to do much Sportcenter plays, but in the second half the Cats came together as Bledsoe took over on his way to 22 second half points and a game high 24 points. Patrick Patterson also proved why he has gotten so many pre-season accolades with his 22nd career double-double on his way to a 20 point 12 rebound performance in 31 minutes. All this done without YouTube sensation and pre-season All-SEC PG John Wall who was sitting out due to his AAU coach being a former agent and the coach paying for two trips. I won't even get started on the AAU coaches and shoe companies being involved in the high school ranks! I will save that for another blog. But in all in all it was a good first game and showed Big Blue Nation just a peak of what is to come in the following months and with the football team most likely going its fourt consectutive bowl game this could be the best winter and early spring for UK since the late '70s. So Big Blue Nation sit back and enjoy because it is going to be a fun time in the Bluegrass!