Last night's Jordan Brand Game at Madison Square Garden was a good opportunity for Kentucky fans to see signees Daniel Orton and Demarcus Cousins as well as prospects John Wall and Xavier Henry.  

I was quite impressed with Cousins, who is very athletic.  He works well inside, but showed that he ought to be able to knock down threes as well.  He runs the court well and likes to push it up himself.  Kentucky fans will love him, but I can see him as a one and done.

Daniel Orton also has good skills for a big man.  He didn't seem to have quite the motor or scary athleticism that Cousins showed.  He moves well and made some very nice passes in the paint.  He appears to have a good basketball IQ.  I think he needs to build his body up a bit.  He seemed fatigued at times.  Maybe this is from recovering from his injury.  He'll need at least two or three years in college to bring his body up to NBA standards.

Xavier Henry has a great body for basketball although I didn't see him use it the way I would have liked.  He's a slasher and supposedly has an outstanding outside shot. I would have liked to have seen him mix it up in the paint a bit.  I'm sure John Calipari would love to have him.  He worked well with John Wall.  I don't think that he would be a one and done.

John Wall is super fast and can get it to the hoop anytime he wants.  His passing was excellent, although a bit showy at times.  He showed no indication of an outside shot (Derrick Rose didn't at that point either).  He defended well enough for a game like this.  I thought he was a little slight in build and would benefit from adding a little weight.  I think his body is more than adequate for college basketball, but wonder how resilient it would be in the NBA.  There's no question that he would be the ideal point guard for Calipari's game.

As a little carrot to dangle in front of UK fans, Jimmy Dykes was doing the color for the game and said that he thinks the most likely scenario is that Wall and Henry follow Orton and Cousins to the Bluegrass.  Somebody pinch me.

After having left two coaches swinging in the wind over the past two years, I wonder if Mitch Barnhardt is the right person to be in charge of the selection of Kentucky's new basketball coach.  His maladroit handling of yesterday's news conference certainly leaves you wondering about his competency.  Whether or not you agree with the University's firing of Billy Gillespie you cannot be happy with the path which has taken us to this point.  I think the University should appoint a small selection committee chaired by someone like Joe B. Hall or C.M. Newton.  Simultaneously, the school needs to make a review of Barnhardt's performance over the past several years.  If we're going to fire Gillespie after so brief a tenure, we need to review why he was put in that position in the first place.  

Maybe a review would completely exonerate the athletic director of mismanagement, but I think his actions over the past couple of years should be scrutinized nonetheless.

Sadly, Kentucky basketball is not even relevant right now.  Outside of Kentucky, the program gets practically no coverage and what they do get is usually negative.  At this point, the rebuilding of Kentucky's basketball fortunes is going to be a long and arduous process.  Finding the right person for the job is going to be the keystone for everything that follows.  I'm not sure that Mitch Barnhardt is the right person to guide Kentucky basketball into the future.