4th and Blue Welcome Guest | Login or Register

Friday night turned out alot better for me than I had hoped, largely due to getting Geoff’s tickets to Madness. I went with my sister (exciting I know) and wound up in some of the most EPIC seats imaginable. Never before had I been able to see the metal framework on the roof of Rupp Arena up close, but the view from afforded by my seats in row GG of section 234 allowed me to inspect them thoroughly and they are definitely a work of art. The event itself was as full of excitement and anticipation that was subsequently drained dry by yet another year of boring fan contests, and horribly scripted UK Hoops segment, and some long waits. Ravi Moss did a decent job coming back to help MC the event but both Kristi Thomas and him had some embarrassing miscues that are seemingly a trend these pass few years. But enough on the critiques, lets talk about the basketball:

• Some many new faced, that was the first thing that jumped out at you. Josh Harrellson, Buddy Hallsel, Kevin Galloway, DeAndre Liggins, Darius Miller, Jarvis Walker, Matt Pilgrim, Adam Delph, Landon Slone, and Donald Williams. It is one thing to read about the on paper and a entierly different matter to see such a huge wave of humanity on the basketball court. Player introductions only took an hour or so for this bunch…
• Man we look like a big time basketball team! So much length and athleticism all over the court. If Coach G works these guys into shape we will be absolutely DOMINANT defensively. Guys like Meeks, Liggins, and Galloway in the back court will provide some excellent matchups for the Cats.
• It seems that some of the summer playground reports on rising star Ramon Harris were true. Harris looked strong, energetic, and in control out there. Some of his improved outside shooting was on display and things are looking up for him.
• Matt Pilgrim might not play this year if his very improbable appeal doesn’t work out but the guy can PLAY. What stood out to me most was the tireless way he applied himself on the inside especially on the offensive end. His most impressive play of the night was a 3rd effort put back over Patterson that had hustle written all over it.
• Jared Carter looked equal parts good and bad out there again. However he did seem a bit stronger and more in control during those good moments, if called upon he might be able to help us.
• Perry Stevenson definitely didn’t impress out there friday night but thats probably more due to having an off night than anything. Looks a little bigger.
• Both Liggins and Galloway appear to be very talented athletes and great passers. However we will need some patience as they adapt to the UK system and high level D1 play, this was pretty obvious last night when they followed up most eye-popping passes with a boneheaded one.
• The reports of Porter’s physical improvement are true. The guy looks stronger and faster out there. Hopefully he will be able to provide us with reliable backup minutes throughout the season.

More stuff to come tommorow as I add to this but for now its time to sleep and get ready for yet ANOTHER exam…

After his raucous visit, 5-star 2009 Center Daniel Orton has verballed to BCG ending his months of speculation whether his listing of UK as the lead was legitimate.  Great get and good job to all the UK fans at BBM.  There was a press conference at 4 pm at the Hyatt to make it official.  More comments later!

Tags: Daniel Orton

I admit that I was extremely upset by the end of the first quarter of yesterday’s game. Following a huge TD run by Alabama and a terrible fumble by Mike Hartline that resulted in another score some scary similarities to “old Kentucky” were starting to come to mind. But after what I saw in the 3 ensuing quarters I ended that game feeling vaugely O.K. about the Wildcats performance. We saw a defense that refused to crumble under pressure from an Alabama power rushing game and stymied Saban’s offense all day. We saw a quarterback making his 5th career start on the road against the nation’s #2 team step up to the plate and be productive enough to keep the Cats in the game, even with absolutely no rushing game. The is no doubt the we beat ourselves with mistakes yesterday and a loss it a loss. However, it is also true that we put ourselves in a good enough position that if a few dropped interceptions and a botched fumble recovery hadn’t happened it might have been a whole different story. All in all a very encouraging game for Kentucky that proved without a doubt that every game on our schedule is winnable but with our still struggling offense they might a tight, heart attack-inducing contests. Its now very important that the Cats work hard and get healthy this week and come out against USC and prove that what happened yesterday was no fluke but rather a harbinger of better play to come.

Some more thoughts:

-Can’t say enough about Hartline. The guy made me freak out a few times on some iffy plays but he played extremely well given the circumstances. This was the first game this year that UK has played from a deep whole and have no rushing game to speak of, given these circumstances Mike was basically asked to keep us in the game all by himself and by all accounts he did that in the second half. Sure there is no excuse for that stupid fumble and a badly read interception but the talent is there. I was also very excited about the fact that one the last throw of the game he basically eliminated all questions regarding his ability to throw the deep ball.

-Derrick Locke is really become a legitimate receiving threat out of the backfield. We saw flashes of it last year but inconsistent hands held him back some. This year he has slowly improved and it all seemed to come together and he was very effective in Kentucky’s screen game. Some of that deadly speed was on display when he gashed the Alabama defense up the middle on an excellent call in the 4th quarter.

-Maurice Grinter had a big game of his own Saturday and given the flashes the TC Drake has shown we might be on the verge of having an awesome set of tight ends who can be very effective in the passing game.

-Nothing spoke more to Kentucky’s depth on defense than all the players that weren’t while the D delivered another solid performance. Missing key contributors like Micah Johnson, Matt Lentz, Ashton Cobb, and Ricky Lumpkin other guys like Mike Schwindel, Calvin Harrison, and Shane McCord stepped up to fill the void and keep the guys performing at a high level. Perhaps the only criticism of the defense lies in its propensity for making assignment mistakes that lead to some fluke big runs these past few games.

-Really would like to see more out of Alfonso Smith. He looked like a real contributor in the spring and is currently play a bit role. I doubt Coach Brooks has something against the guy so he probably needs to step up the effort.

-SO MANY DROPS! Once again we saw E.J. Adams, Matt Roark, Kyrus Lanxter, and Eric Adeyemi all drop catchable passes. Often those dropped where on 3rd downs with UK driving into Alabama territory and nothing really gets more headpoundingly-frustrating than that.

I’ll be adding more tomorrow but for now, college papers call..

Back again to take a look at all that happened in this great conference of ours this week:

Ole Miss 31 - #4 Florida 30

Perhaps the most enjoyable game I managed to watch this weekend, especially cause it ended with the mighty Gators getting knocked down a peg. Its undeniable that Huston Nutt is making good use of all the previously uncoached talent that Ed Orgeron left behind. However if anything, Saturday’s game in the Swamp simply served to highlight some of Tim Tebow’s struggles this season where he has not been the elite playmaker of last year. He was sacked 3 times and committed one of the Gator’s 3 costly fumbles. Perhaps the most amazing thing to me was that at the end of the ball game Florida need half a yard to keep a potentially game winning drive going and Tebow simply could not get it. So all in all things are not rosy at Florida where the offense is still not clicking and the defense though better, is still giving up some questionable plays. Huston Nutt however is looking very comfortable in his new job, already has some talented players, and will probably be making waves in the SEC West sooner rather than later.

#15 Auburn 14 - Tennessee 12

The Auburn Tigers, though laughable on offense, continued to help put and end to the Fulmer-era in Knoxville. Kodi Burns did just enough for the Tigers at the end of the game to allow his team to run out the clock on an offensive suckfest that saw all 3 quarterbacks who played fail to lead their teams effectively. Sure both of these teams have talented defenses but when it comes down to it there is NO WAY that 2 teams with so much talent on both sides of the ball should only have 221 and 191 yards of offense respectively for the whole game. The end result of this game however is that Auburn continues to be a team that is scraping out victories with a defense while the offense flounders, and Tennessee is a troubled program on the verge of collapse that has been turning out consistently lower quality product with the same talent as ever these past few years.

#7 Texas 52 - Arkansas 10

Not gonna say much here, Arkansas sucks…We got a 2 week reprieve from watching this ceremonial embarrassment of the SEC for the year but the game finally came around and the result was not unexpected. Colt McCoy played well and Arkansas played bad. So bad in fact that they needed a fumble return to get into the endzone.

(Should be Ranked) Kentucky 41 - Western Kentucky 3

Regardless of the continued litany of “bang your head against the wall”-style dropped passes, I have to say that all in all I was VERY satisfied with Saturday’s performance by the ‘Cats. One of the marks of a good defense is consitency and while UK has not been tested by any high level opponents the fact that they have maintained their high level of success over 4 games is very promising. As the weeks go on Mike Hartline continues to reassure me that he will be successful at the helm of the Kentucky offense. I like his intelligence with the ball in his hands, the fact that he has SOME escapability, and that he is fairly accurate passer at short range. He has all the tools needed to move the Kentucky offense if things continue to gel and while we will not have 2007 style production, if some of the recievers begin to come through and develop some in game chemistry we might see a few heartning big plays before the year is out. I though it was hilarious that so many people though that WKU was going to come in and compete, in years past maybe but things have changed and there is far too much talent at Kentucky for this game to have been competative.

South Carolina 26 - UAB 13

USC-East played a very bad UAB team on Saturday and managed to come away with less points than an inept Tennessee offense did 2 weeks ago. Freshman troublemaker (convict?) Stephen Garcia played most of the game at QB, did some decent stuff but had an awful long ball throughout the game. Its definitely not good for the Gamecocks to be juggling a 3 QB controversy right now and things aren’t looking good right now in Columbia. Man that defense is tough though.

#5 Louisiana State 34 - Mississippi State 24

MSU played solid defense and had enough success running the ball to give LSU some trouble. In the end however LSU played some solid if not spectacular football and outtalented a less than stellar MSU team. Jarrett Lee looked solid again at QB for the Tigers and the Bulldogs gave their own Lee, Tyson Lee his first start, and while he did not cost them the game he definitely did not win it for them either. Another pair of teams where QB controversies will abound once Andrew Hatch (LSU) and Wesley Carroll (MSU) are fully healthy, man what a trend…

#8 Alabama 41 - #3 Georgia 30

Nothing scared me more the weekend than when I was sitting there enjoying the 3rd Quarter of the WKU game at Commonwealth only to look up and see that the Crimson Tide were some how steamrolling UGA to the tune of 31-0 at then end of the 1st half. Even after calming down some and watching an encouraging performance by the Cats the fact reamains that this will be an extremely tough test for Kentucky come Saturday. Alabama is extremely strong on both lines and use them to frustrate Georgia both offensively and defensively to no end. The Tide offense is starting to become more effective throwing the ball as Julio Jones comes into his own and this is a dangerous trend, even for a good Kentucky defense, as the Bama running game is already one of the best in the country. UK should be able to hang with Alabama if they don’t turn it over and I’m sure the defense will be glad that they will be able to be more effective playing against the first team in a month that does not use some type of spread and have an athletic QB. Talent, the homecrowd, and Saban are on Alabama’s side this coming week and it is going to be a tough but by no means impossible test for a solid UK team.

More to come but thats all for now

Links Away is 4th and Blue’s daily link dump and roundup.

Bring the noise, we’re ready for the Bama crowd.

We’re gonna have our walk away from home.

We gotta stop the beast, Terrence Cody.

Scared of Derrick Locke huh?

Alabama amazement at us and Vandy.

Don’t take me there again, Nick Saban.

Have enough stories on Bama letdowns, Alabama newspapers?

What is the UK/Bama game offering?

More Bama notes.

Interesting Bleacher Report post related to the NABC/BCG.

IU recruiting is really hitting it.

WKU scores ex-UK recruit Ed Hazlett.

ROFL.

Wii HD?

Tags: Derrick Locke

Micah Johnson, Ricky Lumpkin, and Randall Cobb all did some light drills and it seems that they may play a few snaps especially Ricky Lumplin.  This bodes well in case of necessity, but Micah and Randall still don’t move well and that really limits their effectiveness.  Rich Brooks said that if Randall were to play, it would only be at QB.

Ashton Cobb pleaded not guilty to charges of stalking and terroristic threatening.  He returns to court on October 24 for a preliminary meeting.  He is currently suspended from UK, but is applying for reinstatement.

Justin Jones decomitted yesterday and hopes for an offer for Alabama.  Interestingly, he will visit Alabama for this Saturday’s game against the Cats.

Newspaper articles about the upcoming game: UK D wants the Alabama offense challenge, UK offense needs positive plays, Saban opinion article, Are the Cats ready for primetime SEC, Q&A with Brett Dawson, Alabama site really liking Rich Brooks quotes, Cats are first letdown opportunity for Tide, Another guard against letdown

Tags: Ashton Cobb, Justin Jones, Micah Johnson, Nick Saban, Randall Cobb, Rich Brooks, Ricky Lumpkin

Read it about at the following places:

ESPN

Fox

Rush the Court

All I have to say is hey…if you find any loophole / competitive advantage, you gotta take it.

Tags: Billy Gillispie

If anyone else is struggling to get through the day like I am here is a good 3 minute read full of absolutely HILARITY at the expense of Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow, enjoy.

Links Away is 4th and Blue’s daily link dump and roundup.

A nice Q&A with Garry Williams.

Courier Journal’s article on Ryan Tydlacka.

Matt Lentz and his rise to starting strong safety.

Sporting News on the UK v. WKU game.

A Sea of Blue’s preview of the UK/WKU game.

Craziness at the BBM line for tickets.

Keenan Burton could be back by the October 12th game against the Redskins.

My most favorite team EVER and my most favorite QB…right.

Tags: Garry Williams, Keenan Burton, Matt Lentz, Ryan Tydlacka

Again, USC flops to Oregon State…yes that Oregon State who lost to Penn State and Stanford.  I have to rejoice about this since the school I attend, Stanford, was a 41-point underdog to USC last year and managed to pull out the victory AT USC.  USC who always has crazy NFL packed talent never manages to amaze me with their chokes in these games.  Now, this loss (I guess) further legitimizes how bad the Pac-10 is this year and makes Ohio State really look crap.  I really can’t believe this happened again this year.  Go SEC!