Some late night notes

I apologize.  I made the mistake of trying to watch some show called “Man Caves” featuring Tony Siragusa and fell asleep on my couch. Maybe Mr. Photogenic was right. I am just a hillbilly. Anyway, here are a few notes before you put on your moisturizing mask and hit the sack…

 – It seems like we’ve said this several times so far this season, but it seems as if this game will again provide a better answer as to what type of team John Calipari actually has this season.  The Ole Miss game was as bad as it gets and despite some apparent regression from the beginning of the season, that performance does not appear to be reflective of where this team is at this point.  But, are they the same team that scored the big non-conference wins?  They haven’t appeared to be during SEC play.  How they perform in Gainesville in what will probably be the harshest road environment yet can go a long way in determining expectations for the remainder of the season.  Calipari spoke Friday about an opportunity to bounce back in a big way.  This team needs to show the urgency they’ve seemed to lack all season in grabbing that chance and running with it.

 – One thing to follow Saturday night is how Darius Miller responds to a terrible performance against the Rebels and the fallout and subsequent apology that came with him passing up the shot at the end of the game.  After stringing together the best stretch of his career leading up to the loss in Oxford, the Miller’s ability to shake off the bad outing and continue to move forward is as important as any storyline for the Cats.  Calipari has pushed to get Darius to make the step forward for a year and a half now after Billy Gillispie seemed to have damaged his psyche and you have to hope that one bad game and a poor decision did not fracture his confidence again.  As Cal has said all year, he has the ability to be an All-SEC type of player.  He just needs to believe it. 

 – For those of you fired up about GameDay, Coach Cal and Billy Donovan will be on at 11am with ESPN’s talking heads to discuss the game.  Also, if you’re in Gainesville, the gates to the O’Connell Center will open at 8:30 and I saw online that they’ll be serving breakfast to fans in attendance.  If they don’t, pretend like I didn’t say that.  If they do, you’re welcome.

 – If you haven’t gotten beaten down yet with hearing about how Brandon Knight and Kenny Boynton played together during AAU in high school, you surely will be by Sunday morning.  Based on Tweets and reports of the media attending UK’s media session Friday, Knight appears beaten down with it already.  ESPN will surely talk about it plenty.  I know what you’re thinking.  No love for Eloy returning to Gainesville?

 – UK announced Friday that Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke have been invited to the NFL Combine and Todd McShay of ESPN announced that they are both rising in their draft statuses.  McShay puts Cobb at #29 on his Big Board and rates Locke ahead of the greatest high school player in the history of YouTube, Noel Devine.

That’s it for now.  I’m going to bed and, hopefully, not dreaming about Tony Siragusa.  Stick around all day as we get you set for the Gators and the Cats and make sure you check out the Live Blog at 8:30pm.  In the meantime, think about sharing a scent with your significant other.

 

See you in Gainesville…