Kentucky passes first true test

After ESPN drooled, and slobbered over Coach K for breaking some kind of record, Kentucky took the floor in their first real test of the season. With the Empire State Building covered in a "Big Blue Mist" Kentucky got down to business.

The first half left a lot to be desired, as Kentucky looked like the young team that they are. We seen everything from, guys trying to go one on one when there was no way to make any kind of play, to Teague passing it to everyone in MSG except his teammates to collect 6 turnovers. But, as the old sayinging goes "there is two halves of basketball". Good thing too.


Kentucky came out in the second half, playing like the team everyone expected to start the game. Everything seemed to go their way as they built at one point a 17 point lead, and rolled on their way to a 10 point beat down of the Jayhawks. I call it a beat down, because, Kentucky done what they wanted during the second half (last 1:50 aside), and at times, made it look easy. But let's be honest here, this wasn't exactly the most talented Kansas team that Kentucky faced last night. Kansas lost a lot off of last years team to the draft, and graduation, and returned only one starter. Never the less, Kentucky showed why they are going to be hard to deal with once everything gets ironed out.


Cal was typical Cal with some of his post game comments, going with the usual we're not a good team:

CAL: "We don't believe we have to truly play together yet. It's not talent that wins, it's good teams that win. This is not a good team yet. We're not bad, but we're not a good team yet. We've got good players, but we broke off every play"

Now, usually I would say, that's just Cal blowing smoke. But if you watched any second of the first half, you would know what he was talking about. Careless turnovers, no sense of organization to the offense, and blown defensive assignments. But all these are things that can and will be fixed in the near future.

Cal went on to compliment his teams heart and determination.


Cal: "They had a will to win. That's what I wanted to see. That's the hardest thing to teach in what we do, a will to win. This team seems to have that"


That means a lot coming from a guy who said the team composed of the likes of John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, and Patrick Patterson "was not a good team". But once again, that was Cal just being Cal.


This team has a chance to do something really special, something the first two editions of team Cal wasn't able to do. Other people can see it as well, even the Kansas players...

Tyshawn Taylor when asked about Kentucky:


"Really, really, really talented one through seven, two or three games in, they're going to be really, really good once they get more practice and more reps. A lot of the guys are young still. I think they're going to be amazing. "


All in all, this gave us a look at what we can come to expect when this team gets everything figured out, and starts playing like a team. When they put two halves together, things could get ugly for some teams.