Staying in the merry spirit of Christmas, I am determined to write something nice about the Kentucky-Louisville game in the KFC Yum! Center. So here it is: It was better than I expected. Not by much, mind you, but it a bit.
The Cardinals won, 62-59, because it was better-coached and has a guard combination, sophomore David Johnson of Louisville Trinity High and Carlik Jones, a transfer from Radford, who seem like they know what they were doing most of the time.
They give Louisville what Kentucky needs – a steadying influence and leadership. They are the Cards’ go-to guys. The Cats have none, unless you want to count freshman Davion Mintz, who had 19 points, seven rebounds, and two assists against the U of L backcourt.
The final score actually should have been 64-57 because, in the first half, Johnson tipped a rebound into his own basket. That was fitting, of course, for another game where air balls, rim-clangers, bad shots, and sloppy passing were abundant.
Billy Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award three times. Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades and is perhaps one of the most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby. His book “Last of a BReed” is available on Amazon.
It was just that U of L did a little bit less of those things than UK, who dropped to 1-6 for the first time since the Earth cooled (actually, it was 1926-’27, when UK opened the season 1-8 on the way to a 3-13 record; the wins were over Florida and Centre twice).
“You gotta play games you can win,” Calipari said after the game. “This was the stupidest schedule I’ve ever put together.”
That was an odd statement for a UK basketball coach, but maybe it’s a sign of the coach’s state of mind. Like the soon-to-be-gone President of the U.S. he loves conspiracy theories.
He even saw something sinister in ESPN’s decision to move the game from ESPN2 to the main network because it needed to fill time slots due to the cancellation of scheduled bowl games.
If he had any complaint about ESPN, it should have been that it assigned Dick Vitale to be the analyst from his home. Typically, Vitale plugged his latest book, babbled about the storied pasts of both programs, sucked up to both coaches and even sang the Notre Dame fight song.
He loves Notre Dame because one of his daughters played tennis there and he was showing support for the football team before its playoff game against top-ranked Alabama. Naturally, this has nothing to do with the UK-U of L game, but no telling what will come out of Vitale’s mouth when he starts babbling.
Maddeningly for UK fans, Calipari insisted again that he has a good team and that it will improve dramatically. He said the “true fans” would understand and not waver, a slap at the loyal fans who are expressing their displeasure in various ways.
Of course, U of L fans are happy as they can be. They will take a win over UK any way it comes. It doesn’t have to be pretty or impressive. They will take it and savor it like a Christmas turkey.
A “crowd” of 3,000 or so was in the stands, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, so there was no homecourt advantage for the first time in the series. Former U of L coach Denny Crum was there, wearing a mask and probably wonder whatever happened to the game he loves.
Still, it could have been worse. That is what you call damning with faint praise, my position of choice. I saw enough good plays from U of L to think they’ll get better.
I wish I could say the same of UK. But there is something terribly wrong with this team’s chemistry, not to mention its fundamentals, and I don’t get the feeling that Calipari has a clue about how to fix it.
Man, Billy is all over the place with this column/story. But just like 2020 and the UK basketball team, I guess he, too, is allowed to have a bad one now and then.