(AP photo/John Amis)
Program note: I’ll be liveblogging from Rich Brooks’ final Monday press luncheon of season. The coach usually addresses the media around 12:10 or 12:15. So check back.
Big Blue Links for Monday:
- Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes a follow on the UK football win: “A game where you get outgained 487-260 and still manage to pull out a win might be described by some as ugly. But to Kentucky Coach Rich Brooks, the Wildcats’ 34-27 come-from-behind win was a thing of beauty in its own way.”
- My column on how Brooks has chased away the ghosts of the past: These Cats no longer slip on the banana peel; they have the team speed and determination to fly right past it. See, it’s funny how suddenly the breaks start evening out, or even bounce your way when you have talent.”
- Jen Smith of the H-L reports on UK women basketball’s 4-0 start: “Kentucky’s defense held Chattanooga to just 13 points in the final 12 minutes of the game. The Mocs managed just one field goal in a nearly seven-minute span while UK went on a 13-2 run.“
- Nick Craddock of the Kentucky Kernel also reports on the women’s win: “The UK women’s basketball team’s torrid offensive start to the season turned tepid Sunday as UK looked for a solution. The answer was defensive intensity, and the result was a 65-55 victory over Chattanooga in front of 4,301 fans at Memorial Coliseum.”
- Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes on UK basketball’s front-line: “It also means this: After two seasons of having essentially nobody to ensure that it was dangerous strategy to double-team him, Patterson now has two frontcourt friends capable of forcing the defense to play him honest.”
- Tom Leach thinks it’s the power of the blune pants: “For Saturday’s game at Georgia, the Cats donned blue pants with their white road jerseys–the same look they wore to victory in the Liberty Bowl after the players lobbied Brooks for the change. Only, this time, it wasn’t done because of player requests. Brooks made the move himself, to try and put a little spark in his team.“
- H-L’s Jen Smith does double-duty, covering UK’s volleyball loss to Florida: “Behind a balanced attack with four players putting up double-figure kills, the Gators dropped UK in four sets (31-29, 25-23, 24-26, 25-21) in front of a rowdy 2,841 at Memorial Coliseum on senior day. Florida also avenged two straight losses to the Cats.”
- T.J. Walker of the Kernel also covered the volleyball loss: “Memorial Coliseum was all set for a historic day on Sunday, but the history the No. 10 UK volleyball team (27-3, 17-2 Southeastern Conference) expected will have to wait. The No. 13 Florida Gators (21-5, 15-4 SEC) have won the SEC title for 18 straight seasons. This year the Gators played another huge role in the SEC title, albeit not one they are familiar with.”
- Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches on UK volleyball: “The Cats suffered a key loss after the second set when last year’s SEC Player of the Year and senior setter Sarah Rumely went down with an illness. Rumely tried to come back out briefly in the third set, she was unable to finish the set and was on the sidelines in her warm-ups the rest of the match.”
- Fabian Lyon of the Miami Herald reports on Brandon Knight: “Knight, ranked No. 1 in the 2010 Class by Rivals.com, scored 22 of his 28 points in the second half to rally two-time defending Class 3A state champion Pine Crest from a 13-point deficit, but Fredrick Conner’s steal and free throws with eight seconds left gave Ely an exciting 59-54 victory.” (Hat tip to Bluegrass State Basketball.)
- Rob Gidel of KSR gives his thoughts on Kentucky’s historic grid win: “While my kudos to Joker this past week had people cursing my name during the first-half of the Georgia game, how bout my special teams unit – again – coming through for the Wildcats? From punter Ryan Tydlacka to Matt Lentz to Moncell Allen, the game changed because of the play of the special teams.”
- Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that physical Tennessee worries UK: “Rich Brooks had a warning for his Wildcats Sunday. . . he wants his team focused solely on Tennessee.”
- UK Football Fan basks in the glow of the football win: “Major credit in this game has to go to Sam Maxwell. This year’s defense was supposed to be led by three stars. Jarmon never played a snap. Trevard missed half the season and, lets just be honest here, has struggled since returning from injury. Even Micah has been slowed by nagging injuries of his own and been quiet the last two or three weeks. Maxwell is not only the team’s second leading tackler, he is second in the SEC in interceptions with five. He was all over the field Saturday, and sniffed out another big INT at crunchtime. Major credit.”
- Kentucky Sports Network talks about win at Athens: “A couple of things stood out to me specifically. First of all, the QB stretch, QB sweep, and QB off-tackle plays were not working. Newton is very athletic, but I’d be hesitant to say he’s fast. These types of plays work with Cobb because of his speed. Newton runs like a fullback and is better off not running any plays that stretch the defense out. When the game plan opened up a little more in the second half and allowed Newton to get comfortable passing, we saw the offense move the ball much more consistently. I hope the staff sees this in film review and the game against UT is called more aggressively.”
- Wildcat Blue Blog has a 2,000 wins update: “I know some Blue Bloods were a bit nervous last week when the Tar Heels had cut the all time wins margin down to a measly TWO games but UK actually had a good week with three wins and as I had hoped earlier, UNC did stumble, and UK is back at that four win margin.”
- Wildcat Wrap discusses bowl options: “Win or lose, however, I believe the Cats are a lock to at least play in Atlanta on New Years Eve in the Chick-fil-a (formerly the Peach) Bowl for a number of reasons. Even if we lose to Tennessee, the overall records of UK, UT, and UGA will be identical, with UT having a one game edge in conference play, assuming that Georgia losses to Georgia Tech. This could propel the Vols ahead of the Cats in the bowl pecking order with the Vols in Tampa and the Cats in Atlanta, but as long as Georgia losses, the Cats will have one of the top two bowl spots in the SEC East (with Florida obviously playing in a BCS game).”
- Straitpinkie runs down how UK and U of L connections are doing in the NBA.
