Cats Earn All The Tostitos And More Wednesday Notes

In case you ever had dreams to grow up and be a sports announcer, take a lesson from Brent – it’s really not that hard.  Just say the dumbest thing you can think of with a straight face, and you’ll be fine.

The Cats took care of business tonight winning 78-54 against Auburn and notched their first SEC conference win.  Some quick notes from the game and various other things – because that’s how we roll:

-The biggest takeaway from tonight was the play of Terrence Jones.  It has seemed like Calipari has been searching for ways to motivate Jones lately, and perhaps coming off the bench is what did it.  While Cal said it was about him being sick more than a motivational tool, either way it worked as Jones broke the freshmen single game scoring record by dumping in 35 off the bench.  The same record which was set earlier in the year by Doron Lamb, also off the bench.  Expect Knight to come off the bench against LSU this weekend.

—While Terrence had a great game, most everyone else was fairly mediocre to bad. Only Knight and Miller scored in double digits with 13 and 10 respectively, with Miller and Liggins playing consistent games.  Both Harrellson and Vargas had rough nights, but that’s going to happen – we were just lucky it was against Auburn.  The Cats did jump out to a great start this time, opposed to the last few games, but after securing a lofty lead just coasted to the win.  Nothing entirely wrong with that, as it was what you might expect against a team like Auburn the day before classes start back.

—Auburn on the other hand is pretty awful.  Had the Cats played with the intensity of the first ten minutes throughout the entirety of the game the awkwardness would’ve ranked with some of the last couple seasons of the Office.  As the announcers put it “Cam Newton is most likely the best basketball player on the Auburn campus.” The NCAA immediately ruled him elligible to play this year.

—While most fans looked at Terrence Jones and said ‘what’s up,’ not so for Head Coach Calipari.  Cal commented about his displeasure with Terrence’s scoring after the game – not because of the numbers but how it happened.  “But to be honest with you, I’m sitting on the bench saying, ‘We’re not winning with him shooting 3s.’ He may shoot one, two or three, but that’s not why we win. We’ll win because he’ll rebound and score around the goals, he’ll score on drives, stick backs.” And he brings up a good point.  Just as great as it was to see TJ light up the score board, if he falls in love with the three it could spell trouble down the line.  Isn’t Coach Cal the smartest?

—On the post game show, Matt had a bit of information to share that he gathered from talking to the NBA Scouts he always gets set next to at the games.  Apparently they had this to say:

1.) Jones – A lot of criticism on how he plays down low.  He is able to score in creative ways in college that they don’t believe will be possible against NBA big men.

2.) Knight – Both agreed that he would likely be a strong contributer and able to put points on the board, but were a little worried about his size.

3.) Lamb – Apparently there was some disagreement on this front as one scout claimed he would light it up at the next level, whereas the other said he wasn’t big enough.  But if Stephen Curry is big enough to make it to the league, surely Doron Lamb is too.

4.) Harrellson – Matt didn’t offer too much other than he has heard scouts mentioning him as a possibility, but as one caller put it, “If Harrellson even gets invited to a camp, there won’t be a slow white bearded kid in the country that won’t want to come play for Cal.”

—On the non-basketball side of things Joker Phillips held a press conference before the game for the media already there.  The running theme seemed to be ‘everybody calm down, we are going to be okay.’ According to Phillips, both Newton and Moss are ahead of where Andre’ Woodson was at this point in his career, which is interesting if true.  Newton certainly looked pretty shakey in his one game this season, but I suppose we will have to wait and see what the summer brings for both of those kids.

—My selfish post of the night.  Boston Rob and Russell look to be on next season’s Survivor.  I cannot be more excited.  I mean sure, we just got done watching them, but the more the better in my opinion.  And if someone gets me on that show I’ll split the million with you after I win.  #RealTalk #NoButSeriously #ImNotKidding

-Speaking of winning money, stay with us all day tomorrow as we will be announcing a contest to take us through a couple weeks, the winner of which could receive prizes of money, excessive benefits, a date with BTI or all three.  But seriously, apparently there are cash prizes.  The contest could come at any time (really, I don’t know much else about it,) so stick around because it will operate slightly on a first come first serve basis.

Have a safe day everybody, don’t get frost bitten.