Not Jerry Tipton's Friday Basketball Notebook

The 2013-14 season is almost over, and Kentucky is still 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 a whole bunch of teams, 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: *It's Never Alright: Florida made history this year by becoming the first team in SEC history to go 18-0 in the regular season. Kentucky likes to bill itself as the “greatest tradition in the history of college basketball,” but the Wildcats have never, in over 100 years of playing the sport, gone 18-0 in the SEC regular season. While excuse-makers will point out that UK has gone undefeated in league play 14 times in the past, the fact of the matter is that none of those regular seasons consisted of 18 games. 16, yes, but not 18. Huge difference. Also, it isn’t like this is the first year in the modern era that the league has had 18 regular season games (it’s the 2nd), so it’s not like UK can use this as an excuse. Also, the SEC is stronger this year than in the past. After all the league boasts both the preseason #1 team and the current #1 team. No other conference in America can say that this year. This UK team hoped to make history, and unfortunately, it did just that. It’s the first team in the history of college basketball to start the year as #1, only to finish it unranked while another team in the conference went 18-0. *Rock It All Away: At the outset of this season, Kentucky was #1, and had designs on a perfect season. John Calipari even went so far as to guarantee a spotless record when he said "we want to win every game." However, the wheels soon came off, and UK now finds itself unranked. Will this cause the current batch of Kentucky commits to rethink their decision to play college basketball in Lexington? To find out, a reporter recently called each one of them to ask. Though the reporter was unable to speak to any of the recruits themselves, Devin Booker’s 6th grade coach said Booker was “upset, probably” that the Cats are no longer in the top 25. Will this cause Booker to try to get out of his letter of intent? Probably. In what can only be seen as a bad omen, he has yet to show up on campus. Similarly, the middle school bus driver of Tyler Ulis said that while he doesn’t remember Ulis, it is fair to assume that Ulis would prefer that UK be ranked 1st in the country as opposed to not. Likewise, Karl Towns said that he was “saddened” that the Cats had lost 9 times already. (This is not the same Karl Towns who committed to UK, but rather a 49 year old mailman in Peoria, IL who said he considers it sad when anyone loses. One must assume, however, that the other Towns feels the same.) Finally, Trey Lyles previously said his goal was to win a national title in Lexington, so if one does the math, it is clear that he was outraged by the team’s failures this season and in all likelihood feels he made a mistake in pledging to Calipari. Buckle up, Cat fans. This figures to be a bumpy offseason. *Dim Lights, Thick Smoke: Lately, former UK players have been on a rampage in the NBA, putting up big points, rebounds, assists, and basically dominating. This does not bode well for Kentucky. By garnering so much attention in the professional ranks, players like Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Rajon Rondo and Jodie Meeks, among others, are doing their best to force people to associate them with their pro careers rather than their college careers at the University of Kentucky. In 2012, had you asked any basketball fan which team he or she associated Anthony Davis with, the answer would have been “Kentucky.” Now, thanks to recent 30 point and 10 rebound performances for the New Orleans Pelicans, you’ll get a different answer. Likewise, if you ask the average Sacramento resident which team comes to mind when you say the name “DeMarcus Cousins,” it is doubtful that many of them would say UK. And how many Laker fans associate Jodie Meeks with Kentucky any more, especially after performances like his 42 point outburst last Sunday? Not many, that’s how many. Finally, were any Celtic fans saying “Go Big Blue” as Rajon Rondo was dishing out 18 assists and no turnovers in a game a few days ago? Doubtful. The bottom line is that as long as these former Cats continue to put up gaudy numbers, people will continue to forget about Kentucky. * On this date: On this date in 2010, the Kentucky basketball program was embarrassed and humiliated in the SEC Tournament finals when DeMarcus Cousins hit a game-tying shot at the buzzer and mistakenly thought it was a game-winner.