Just Some Thoughts

Good evening my fellow University of Kentucky Wildcat fans!  I hope everything is fine and dandy in your life today.  I am going to let off a little steam in this post and if you don’t like it, so be it.  Everyone writes on this site because they want to.  I personally have fun with it and enjoy sparking debate to see others opinions on certain issues.  I am not here to win a grammar award or spelling bee so please keep poking fun of my many typos.  I know what I write on hear is out of the ordinary for former basketball players but if I wrote what everyone was expecting me to write there would be no debate.  I respect the University of Kentucky and its tradition but that doesn’t mean I can’t express my feelings on certain issues regarding the program that I love and still feel part of.  So, let’s move on to the first topic at hand.

Michael Porter has taking a lot of heat this year for the amount of minutes he has played at the point guard position.  Some criticism has been just taking his performances thus far.  However, some actions have just gone too far.  During the Miami game I saw something I had never seen before at any sporting event.  Our fans (the greatest in all of sports) cheered when Michael Porter was disqualified for committing his fifth foul.  And no, it wasn’t a cheer for a job well done while playing, it was a cheer for thank the lord he is out of the game!  Wow!  For a second I had to look around and see if I was still at Rupp Arena.  People I understand most of us think Michael shouldn’t play half the minutes he does but he has no control over that.  Coach G is the coach and he makes the decisions on the floor.  Is Michael supposed to say coach, umm look people really don’t like me playing so I don’t think it is best for me to go in the game.  We label ourselves as the best fans in the country but yet we treat one of our own players like this?  This action was classless, rude and disgraceful.  If you were one of the few fans who did this you should be ashamed of yourselves.

The Christmas season is here but it feels a little different to the players on the team compared to everyone else.  This is a time of continues practice and wearing the same underwear for two weeks straight (j/k).  The truth is after finals next week it is like a ghost town around campus with little to do besides practice and spend time your teammates.  With everyone gone from campus it feels like boot camp all over again, without twenty hour practice limitations for the week coaches can practice their players as many times as they want for as long as they want.  This is a good time for the team to grow together and bond just before entering into conference play.  This year is real special considering the players will be practicing on Christmas morning.  DeAndre, Darius and the rest of the freshman are used to probably opening up presents and eating turkey on the day of our savior’s birth but this year they will taste their own sweat in practice preparing for Florida Atlantic.  The last four seasons everyone was able to go home for Christmas and spend time with their family.  I think this should be how it is every season.  AD’s and coaches can schedule around Christmas to allow this to happen.  My freshman year we played Louisville on the December 27^th at Rupp Arena.  I remember the feeling being in Rupp practice on Christmas morning.  I tell you it just didn’t feel right.  There are some things that are just more important and this day is without a doubt one of them.

We have a big-time rivalry game coming up on Saturday and we have a lot of work to do as a team to reach our full potential.  Indiana is coming in with less talent than normal but that doesn’t mean anything being a rivalry game.  I do feel a little comfort in the fact that any team they have played with any talent they have lost by an average margin of about 26 points.  If we get out to a good start at the beginning of this game we will be fine.  But if we let Indiana hang around or allow them to get a lead in the first half it could be trouble down the stretch.  This is one thing we have struggled with in the past few games.  I believe we get out of this funk by creating offense from our defense.  Our defense is worlds ahead of our offense right now.  When we are up pressuring and playing with aggression on the defensive end we play well.  When we allow dribble penetration and open threes we give teams a better chance at putting the ball in the basket making us inbound the ball which slows down our fast break offense.  When we create turnovers and defensive rebounds it alleviates the pressure of setting up a half court offense which we are struggling with also.  More than likely we will win this game but let’s not take anything for granted considering this still is a rivalry game.  The key to the game and for the rest of the season is getting off to a better start so we wont have to expend so much energy fighting back.