John Clay's Sidelines

(H-L photo)

Big Blue Links for Friday:

• Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader reports that a barrage of threes led UK to easy victory: “Kentucky (33-2) assumed a 10-point lead less than seven minutes into the game, expanded the margin to 30 late in the first half and breezed into Saturday’s second-round game against Wake Forest. East Tennessee State (20-15) hoped to stay close and rattle Kentucky. UK wanted to crush the Bucs’ spirit quickly and decisively. “We did a good job of that today,” Daniel Orton said.”

• Mark Story of the H-L writes that Eric Bledsoe looked a lot Tony Delk: Before his first NCAA Tournament game ever, Eric Bledsoe sought counsel from his own personal Yoda. Tony Delk, star of Kentucky’s 1996 NCAA champions and current UK coach in training, told the freshman from Alabama that the first tourney game is the hardest one.”

• Herald-Leader photo slide show of UK’s 100-71 win over East Tennessee State.

• Tipton’s notes lead with DeMarcus Cousins and the marriage proposal: From her seat 14 rows from the court in the corner closest to UK’s bench, Woods had a chance for Cousins to see her sign. Then again, she could have been at the top row of the arena and been seen. Maybe heard, too. The upper bowl of The New Orleans Arena was mostly empty and the lower bowl included a good number of unoccupied seats.”

• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal on UK’s yawner of a victory: “To call this one a yawner would be understating things. Kentucky’s blowout of East Tennessee State in the first round of the NCAA tournament was so thorough that fans were sleeping in the stands-and not even the collective laughs of conscious spectators could awaken some of those caught snoozing on large video boards.”

• Matt May of the Cats Pause on UK’s first-round rout: “The Cats (33-2) used their almost unfair size advantage in the post to dominate the Buccaneers, most it coming from Patrick Patterson and Daniel Orton, an unlikely offensive source. By the end of the first half UK was staging its own alley-oop competition to complement the scorching three-point shooting of Eric Bledsoe. The trio combined for 38 points, 12 rebounds and four triples by the break and the Cats made 7-of-14 from beyond the arc for a balanced attack before cruising over the final 20 minutes.”

• Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader on UK’s Keyla Snowden: “It wasn’t because she couldn’t score. The 5-foot-7 standout from Lexington Catholic can definitely score. It wasn’t because she was too small or too slow to play in the SEC. It was because she wasn’t playing defense.“

• James Pennington of the Kentucky Kernel writes that inexperience and youth are two different things: “People will continue to say the Cats will falter down the stretch because of their youth and inexperience – terms which mean completely different things but are often tied together. But count me among those confused as to how one looks at a team that’s faced as many adverse situations as UK (and prevailed in just about every instance a winner) and the first thing that pops to mind is, “Wow, talk about inexperience!”"

• Metz Camfield of the Kernel on UK coasting to win over Bucs: “For a team not known for its 3-point shooting , the Cats bombarded ETSU with seven in the opening half and 15 for the game, one short of tying the UK team record for most 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game. The Cats said they’re still not a 3-point shooting team, but if they shoot the way they did Thursday night, they’re going to be a tough team to beat.”

• Tom Leach on ballin’ with Bledsoe: “Remember a few weeks back when coach Cal talked about the “dog days” of the season and having to push through till March Madness started. Well, the Cats last night looked like a team that got what they were waiting for–the big dance–and they relished the chance to step on that big stage.”

• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger wants to know what happened to the Big Blue Nation: “There was one big surprise here Thursday night when Kentucky played East Tennessee in the NCAA Region. The New Orleans Arena had a Big Blue tint, but at best only half of the 17,000 seats were occupied.”

(H-L photo)

• Trey Iles of the Times-Picayune on Bledsoe’s three spree: “Casual college basketball observers can probably name Kentucky’s top two players – point guard John Wall and forward DeMarcus Cousins – but there’s more to the Wildcats than those two. East Tennessee State and fans watching the first half of Thursday’s game saw that.”

• Thayer Evans of the New York Times reports that UK slammed its way to the second round: “Before halftime, top-seeded Kentucky had turned the game into a dunkathon. During a 54-second span against overmatched No. 16-seed East Tennessee State, the Wildcats had alley-oops on three consecutive possessions that caused their rabid fans to roar. The sequence left Coach John Calipari beaming like a proud father as the Wildcats cruised to a 100-71 victory Thursday in the first round of the East Region at New Orleans Arena.”

• Roger Rubin of the New York Daily News on UK’s big win: “The Wildcats (33-2) needed eight minutes to put the Buccaneers (20-15) in a 20-point hole. They led by as much as 30 before finishing the first half up 54-26. ETSU never threatened the rest of the way.”

• Chris Low of espn.com on Kentucky’s cruise to victory: “Kentucky played a bunch of players and shot lights out from 3-point range. They finished 15-of-33. Freshman Eric Bledsoe was 8-of-9 from behind the arc and scored a career-high 29 points. At times, the Wildcats have tended to turn it off and on this season because they’re so talented. But they were wide open Thursday from the outset and showed no signs of any tournament jitters.”