Not Jerry Tipton's Friday Basketball Notebook

The 2013-14 season is here, and Kentucky will spend the entirety of it trying to atone for the disaster was the 2012-13 season. John Calipari’s team is trying to do something that no team in the history of college basketball has ever done: Win a national championship relying primarily on 6 freshmen who were McDonald’s All Americans. With disappointing losses to Michigan State, Baylor (lol) and North Carolina, the team will fail to reach its ultimate goal of perfect season, and will instead try to console itself with a national title. To stay apprised and educated, follow me on Twitter @NotJerryTipton. Here’s the weekly notebook: *You Were Right: In his weekly top 25 ballot last Sunday, noted expert Seth Davis dropped Kentucky from 12th to 15th on his ballot. Of course, many UK fans took offense to this, arguing that UK shouldn’t have dropped at all since they didn’t even play last week. But of course, he was right. For one thing, North Carolina lost, which makes Kentucky look bad because they lost to UNC a month ago. Also, Robert Morris lost, which makes not only the current UK team look bad, but it also sheds a negative light on last year’s UK team. And I’m not sure why Cat fans insist on pointing out the fact that Davis never played sports in support of their argument that he’s not an expert. His father was special counsel to Bill Clinton, for crying out loud. I’m not sure what other qualifications he needs. And the fact that he went to Duke doesn’t make him biased. He has the Blue Devils ranked #12. If he were truly biased, he’d have them ranked #1. *Made-Up Dreams: On Wednesday, North Carolina lost to Miami, bringing the Heels’ record to 10-5, and 0-2 in the ACC. Kentucky fans must absolutely hate to see that. For UK to get into the NCAA Tournament, the Cats will need to end up with an impressive “strength of schedule.” (This is a metric that measures a team’s schedule strength.) Earlier in the season, Kentucky played North Carolina. So every time the Heels lose, Kentucky loses too. Also, with UNC’s profile continuing to plummet, the UK/UNC rivalry doesn’t look as good as it once did. For that reason, I suspect Big Blue Nation will be putting its collective weight behind North Carolina the rest of the year. The same reasoning applies to Louisville. For that win to mean anything, Louisville will need to get back in the top 10. As such, there are probably Kentucky fans all over the Commonwealth saying “Go Heels!” and “L1C4!” at this very moment. *Out of Site: When UK pulled away from Louisville to win, they did so with star freshman Julius Randle on the bench with cramps. This does not bode well for Kentucky. All season long, announcers and media folk have been touting Randle as a “superstar” whose otherworldly talent, strength and skill could very well carry the Cats to the national championship. But apparently, he’s not that good at all. If he were, would UK have been able to somewhat easily defeat a top 10 opponent without his help? Of course not. And to anyone who says “well, this just shows how good his teammates are,” remember this: Those same teammates were 0-3 against ranked opponents before the Louisville game. Exactly. * On this date: On this date in 2036, Louisville fans will still be blaming the refs for losing to Kentucky last month.