Noteworthy Games - Edition: 3.13.10

I love my Wildcats, LORD knows I do, but I cannot help but start off with Tubby Smith and the tenacious Golden Gophers of Minnesota. Minnesota held the Boilermakers(#5) to the worst first-half in Purdue's record books and rolled to a 69-42 victory in the Big Ten tournament semifinals.. It was the fewest points by Purdue in a half since the school started keeping track in 1950. Only a late layup by Patrick Bade allowed the Boilermakers to avoid the worst defeat ever in a Big Ten tournament game. Minnesota led 37-11 at the break and by as many as 34 points in the second half.

"I thought it was a very impressive and dominating performance," Smith said. "It's as good a half as I think I've been a part of as a coach."

The Golden Gophers will play Ohio State(#7) on Sunday for the Big 10 tournament championship.

Going into the SEC tourney, UK had two losses in the course of the regular season. One to South Carolina which they were able to avenge in late February. The second loss came at the hands of Tennessee in the two teams second match-up of the season. Both contests were decided by less than twelve points. Yesterday UK got a chance to avenge that second loss of the season in the semifinal round of the SEC Tourney. This time, it wasn't even close. UK handed the Volunteers their most lop-sided loss under Coach Bruce Pearl.

Of the loss, Pearl, said "We got outplayed at every position, and Kentucky's the No. 2 team in the country for a reason. They're a really, really good team. We just did not have the energy after playing two games and coming back and playing this third game. We just didn't have it."

The Vols fought tooth and nail but in the end, the Cats were just too much. Final Score: 74-45

Kansas State(#9) has not won a Big 10 tournament title in 30 years. After yesterday, make it 31. Kansas(#1) continued it's dominance winning its seventh Big 10 tournament title. Final Score: 72-64

Ohio State(#7) needed two overtimes to come away with the win and advance to the Big 10 final on Saturday. The Fighting Illini of Illinois put up a strong battle, but it in the end, they had no match for Ohio State's Player of the Year contender Evan Turner. Final Score: 88-81

Duke (#$) had to fend off an extremely pesky Miami of Ohio team to advance to the ACC Tourney final where it will meet Georgia Tech. Final Score: 77-74

More later!

- b

Cool nights, mild days, non-stop basketball! Spring has arrived!

Watching SportsCenter on ESPN and catching up on some news on the net this morning. Gosh, how I love this time of year. Between the cool nights, the mild days, and the non-stop basketball, I am in heaven.

Want a quick run-down of yesterday's conference games? Sure! Got it! Can do! But first I would be amiss if I did not start off by mentioning Kansas beating Texas Tech in their Big 12 Tourney opener yesterday. You might ask why this is noteworthy. After all, Kansas is the number one team in the nation and the top seed in their conference tournament. This win is worth mentioning because it is the Jayhawks 2,000th win. Only two other teams have reach that point; North Carolina and of course, Kentucky. Congrats Jayhawks!

The biggest shocker of the day yesterday was Syracuse (last weeks #1 team) losing it's second game in 4 days. Loss number one came to Louisville on Sunday and loss number two came yesterday in the quarterfinal found of the Big East Tournament when they lost to the Georgetown Hoyas. Final Score: 91-84

The unranked Marquette Golden Eagles beat Villanova the #10 seed in the country and the #3 seed in the Big East Tournament. Final Score: 80-76.

Staying in the Big East, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame knocked off #16th ranked Pitt, the #2 seeded team in the Big East. With this loss, only one of the top four ranked teams (#3 West Virginia) in the Big East remains in the conference tourney. Final Score: 50-45

In SEC play, Tennessee (#13) cruised to a win over LSU. Final Score: 59-49

Hope that gave you your basketball fix for the morning!

- b

My post game rant

The Kentucky Basketball team that we have all had the pleasure of watching this season is not the same team that showed up to play the Tennessee Volunteers yesterday. As I commented earlier this morning on a Facebook page:

"In order to win games at this point of the season, especially on the road, you have to go into every game as though it could be your last. I think that we have a young team that has a hard time realizing that they cannot go into an atmosphere like yesterday not ready to play. You cannot go into an atmosphere like that and let the home team get that much momentum and expect to pull out a win when you FINALLY decide to start playing late in the second half. Tennessee's players came into the game ready to play and their fans came into that arena ready to cheer their team on to win. In my opinion, and I bleed blue, Tennessee was the better team yesterday."

Oh well, better a loss now than in the SEC or NCAA Tournament's. UK's next game will be against Georgia on Wednesday, March 3rd at 8:00pm on CBS. On Jan. 9th, UK held off the Bulldogs for a 76-68 win in both teams SEC openers. The win also gave the Wildcats their first 16-0 start since 1965-66. For Lexington Insight customers tune into channels 9 or 912.

- b

Quick thoughts: UK vs. TN

• The game will air today at 12:00 on CBS.


• UK beat Tennessee earlier this season (2/13/10) at home with a final score of 73-62.


• UK also played host to ESPN's College GameDay that day and set a record for the largest crowd ever to witness a basketball “GameDay” broadcast — 22,144 officially.


• A win by the cats today would assure themselves of at least a share of the SEC regular season championship. They would get the championship outright if Vanderbilt also loses at Arkansas.


• In this article from ESPN.com, read why winning that championship means, "Nothing" to Coach Cal.


• Last season when UK traveled to Thompson Boling Arena, Jodie Meeks broke Dan Issel's 39-year-old UK record for points in a game.

With about half an hour left til tip-off, I better go and get a few things done so that I can sit down and enjoy the game along with the rest of Big Blue Nation!

C-A-T-S, CATS, CATS, CATS!!!

- b