Another quick turnaround for the Cats as they finish their pre-Christmas schedule with their 3rd game in 5 days.  The players should be fairly rested for the game as no one played more than 26 minutes against Drexel.  What kind of effort will we see after the dominating performance against the Dragons, the elation of 2000 victories and with Christmas on the horizon?  Long Beach St has played some tough opponents already including Texas, West Virginia, and Clemson.  They've also played a not-so-good UCLA and Notre Dame and a pretty solid Utah St team.  Because of their tough non-conference schedule, this could be one of those games that at the end of the season ends up as an RPI 50-100 win for UK should they get it.

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UK faces a quick turnaround from Saturday's thwacking of Austin Peay to face a Drexel team that has the dual honor of honor of a cool nickname (the Dragons) and a head coach with a cool name (Bruiser Flint).  Seriously, how cool of a name is Bruiser Flint?  Would you mess with someone with that name?  I wouldn't.  As for the game, this is an otherwise thoroughly standard late-December contest with no special significance what-so-ever.  Nope, none what-so-ever.  Just another chance for a win that is no different than any other win.

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UK enters the semester break portion of its schedule with a string of home games beginning with Austin Peay.  I will be very interested in how the team performs in this game.  The Cats are coming off their best game of year and after a week of practice and with exams behind them the players should really be ready to get on the floor and play.

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UK will play its first (and only) true road game of the non-conference season Saturday as it takes on a still-rebuilding-but-better-than-last-year Indiana team.  I watched most of their game against Pitt and came away impressed by how well they played.  UK should still win, but this is a much better team than last year and that combined with it being a true road game and the Cats coming off a big win makes this a dangerous game.

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Kentucky travels to Madison Square Garden to play UConn Wednesday night.  For some reason, playing Connecticut always makes me think of this.  Anyway, UK is 9-3 in the Garden, but hasn't been there since the Coaches vs Cancer classic in 2000.  Of course, the Cats would have played UConn there 2 years ago, if it weren't for a pesky little team whose name sounds a bit like Wardner-Gebb.  In fact, this is only the second ever meeting between the two schools, the first coming in the 2nd round of the 2006 NCAA tournament.

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After winning the first 4 games of this annual series, UK has dropped 5 straight to the Tarheels.  It's time to reverse that trend and UK has the personnel to do so.  UNC is similar to UK in many ways, namely they have a big, talented front line and turnover problems.  UK has the best player on the floor in Patrick Patterson and maybe the second best player too, although it's a close call between John Wall and UNC's Ed Davis.

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The Cats look to shake off the tryptophan in Louisville for a neutral (*snort*) court game against the Bulldogs of UNC-Asheville.  The Bulldogs are still seeking their first win of the season having lost to, among others, Tennessee by 75 points (ouch!)

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The Cats take their show on the road (well, neutral court anyway) after a decisive win against a good Rider team.  Cleveland State is a good squad out of the Horizon Conference that is coming off a trip to the NCAA Tournament that included a convincing drubbing of a good Wake Forest team.  In their second game the Cats will get their first crack at a BCS-conference opponent facing either Virginia or Stanford.  Personally, I am hoping for Virginia as the Cats owe them for that loss in Maui 6 years ago.  Also, even though Virginia will be pretty mediocre, the ACC will be much better than the Pac-10 this year which helps that RPI SOS ever so slightly.

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So here's a question for you.  If UK were to ever run one of those half-time contests where a student gets to take a half-court shot to win a million dollars or some such, is he allowed to have some players on the floor to guard him to improve his chances of making it?  Just wondering.

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Well, that Miami game was more exciting than I think most anyone not name John Calipari wanted to see.  The Cats now face an experienced Sam Houston St team which should prove to be another solid opponent and a good opportunity for the Cats to learn more about themselves.

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