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More of John Calipari’s press conference after today’s win over Louisville.

A few quick thoughts about the Kentucky win:

• It was Kentucky’s best rebounding performance of the year. The Cats grabbed 44.8 percent of its available offensive rebounds, a season-best. UK had a 44.2 in that category in the win over Washington in Maui, and a 44.0 against lowly Boston University. This was different. This was Louisville. This was also Josh Harrellson grabbing 14 boards, including six off the offensive glass.

• What in the world is going on with John Calipari? His teams are supposed to be horrific free-throw shooting teams. Yet this team has made 27 of 32 free throws over its last two games.

• Brandon Knight’s 25 points are the most by a UK freshman against Louisville since King Rex dropped 26 on the Cards, prompting Eddie Sutton to give the thumbs-up sign back at Freedom Hall in way back when.

• Knight is averaging 19.1 points per game over his last eight games.

• DeAndre Liggins went 1-of-7 and scored a season-low two points, but may have been the difference in the game with his defense on Peyton Siva.

• Eloy Vargas played a season-low two minutes. No other UK player needs to get better as quickly as Vargas does over this holiday break.

• After all the talk — some from me — about teams not shooting well in this series, Kentucky made 50.9 percent of its shots, including 68.2 in the second half.

• I think Pitino is a great coach, but there is a certain amusement in watching him become so frustrated he just sits down in his seat as if he can’t stand it any longer.

• Terrence Jones said there were times in practice earlier this year in which Harrellson was so bad he caught himself thinking, “I sure hope Enes can play.”

Post-game videos of first Brandon Knight and then Terrence Jones at the KFC Yum Center. Jones is particularly funny talking about Harrellson.

First UK coach John Calipari and then U of L coach Rick Pitino after Cal’s 78-63 win over Pitino.

Big Blue Links for Friday:

Louisville will win a frenzied game over Kentucky, writes Jay Bilas at espn.com.

Rakeem Buckles’ absence will hurt, but the Cardinals are a deeper, play more people and will force the tempo that they want, rather than the tempo that Kentucky wants to play at. Louisville is a blue-collar, no-ego team that works hard and will come at you in waves. The Cards were the only ones this season that were able to speed up Butler and make the steady Bulldogs play at the Louisville pace.

Fan pressure on both Kentucky and Louisville is palpable, writes Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader.

Former Louisville player Derwin Webb now works as an attorney in the Derby City. Even with grown-up responsibilities, he can’t escape the pull of the Kentucky-Louisville game. Earlier this week, he said he had made a bet that will require him to wear blue in court should UK win Friday’s game. Webb declined to say with whom he’d bet. When asked if it was a judge, he laughed and said, “I cannot confirm nor deny.”

Rash of injuries tests Louisville’s strength, reports Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader.

The whole of Rick Pitino’s Louisville squad during its 11-1 start has been greater than the sum of its parts. That theory has been tested severely the past couple of weeks, and it took another blow with Pitino’s announcement Thursday that sophomore forward Rakeem Buckles would miss the next two weeks with a finger injury suffered in practice.

The rivalry has gone a little stale, writes Mark Story of the H-L.

Yo, guys. When Kentucky and Louisville renew our state’s marquee basketball rivalry Friday, can we finally have an honest-to-goodness, well-played game? Please. For all the sound and fury that Cats vs. Cards produces in our hoops-mad state, our dirty little secret is that Kentucky vs. Louisville in recent years has not yielded very good basketball.

Story also writes about Pike County’s dilemma thanks to Elisha Justice.

New Year’s Party starts early here, writes Eric Crawford of the Courier-Journal.

They may drop a big ball in New York City, as always, at midnight. But here in Kentucky, we will drop ours at noon. And it will be a basketball. This is how we (pick and) roll. Have you noticed? With the annual hoops renewal between the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville scheduled for New Year’s Eve, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say “Happy New Year.”

Continue reading ‘BBL: Bilas picks Louisville to beat Kentucky’

(News-Observer photo/Robert Willett)

SEC links for Saturday:

• Tennessee hits a sour note in the Music City Bowl, losing to North Carolina in overtime, writes Mike Strange of the Knoxville News-Sentinel. It’s the second time this year where the Vols lost a game when their were too many men on the field at game’s (regulation’s) end. Only this time, it was too many Heels.

• Speaking of which, the loss recalls the trauma of LSU, writes the News-Sentinel’s John Adams.

• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that the Vols couldn’t beat the clock.

• The replay booth brings down Derek Dooley’s team, writes David Paschall of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

• One team’s bitter loss is another team’s joyful victory, writes Luke DeCock of the Charlotte Observer.

• South Carolina seeking a 10-win season with win over Florida State in Chick-fil-A Bowl today, writes Travis Haney of the Charleston Post and Courier.

• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel says Central Florida must beat Georgia in the Liberty Bowl to avenge a high crime that took place in Athens in 1999. It has nothing to do with anyone stealing UGA.

Continue reading ‘SEC: Replay booth boots Tennessee in Music City Bowl’

The final part of Cal’s press conference today. In this clip, he says what the UK-U of L rivalry should be.