North Carolina at Kentucky

The first half was mostly nervous and jittery, with lots of whistles and fouls, with Carolina taking the lead. The second half was the Danny Green show, and he was the one that broke the game open for the Tar Heels. Tywon Lawson came back and his presence on the game was felt by both teams. Hansbro once again had a relatively quiet game against Kentucky as he was held to just barely above a modest 10-10.

This game also showed that perhaps Carolina is one forward short, and that the two California forwards are under-performing given their reputation when they came in. While this team is loaded with talent, it just doesn't feel like the 2005 North Carolina team on the court where you knew that they could beat any team they played, regardless of time and score. I just don't see that with this team so far.

And one of my 2007-2008 UNC pet-peeves: why do they play Q-Thomas, Stepheson and Ginyard together? Do they not want to score any points? :)

Growing pains can best describe the Kentucky Wildcats. A new coach, new system, new players, and lots of injuries have derailed Billy G's impressive off-season. He too had some strange defensive line-ups with Harris and Coury both on the floor at the same time. Ramel Bradley is clearly the type you want to have as the first guard off the bench, not your starting point guard. Crawford, just like his HS teammate Malik Hairston, are under-performing based on their reputation. The incoming players need time to figure things out, but they have talent and promise. Patrick Patterson will be huge but not in a flashy way like Beasley or Rose or Gordon or Big Love.

Billy G secretly tried to "Georgetown" a win at the end by slowing the game down, but the real effect was to eat away at the margin and make the W less pleasant for UNC, and the L less unpleasant for the home crowd.


Quick Hitters
And speaking of which, can Jay Bilas please teach the ESPN announcers, play-by-play guys, Sportscenter and news anchors the definition of an upset? Kentucky beating #2 UNC at Rupp arena wouldn't have been an upset. These people are looking at the polls, and if the team with a lower seed loses, they call it an upset. Which makes me wonder who hired them? :) Now if Kentucky beat #2 UNC at the Dean Dome, that would be more of an upset. Gardner-Webb beating Kentucky at Rupp is a good example of an upset.

Meanwhile Vitale would have more credibility in getting people to donate their hard earned money if he wasn't flying around the country in a private jet like a televangelist rock star.

With Ole Roy continuing to pile up wins, and Kentucky entering a new era with Billy G, how long will it take Ole Roy and North Carolina to win 31 games more than UK and become the winningest college basketball program?

Why does Vitale talks about the Yankees, Notre Dame football, and Duke during competitive games? He sure does love the teams people love not to love :)

It looks like Dave O'Brien's ability to work well with Majerus, earned him a spot to "box out" Vitale as well.

Remember this is Jimmy V week, if you want to donate, check jimmyv.org or call 1-800-4-Jimmy-V.

Jimmy Dykes said he doesn't know how to text message during the half time show. I assume he doesn't have a blog either. Perhaps if he spent less time doing dog and pony shows and spelling bees, he would have learned how to use high tech gadgets ;-)