LOUISVILLE – With its rival out of the house, Kentucky invaded Freedom Hall Monday night, giving Louisvillians a glimpse of the glam and jam John Calipari has assembled 80 miles cross state.
The Wildcats didn’t disappoint against hapless UNC Asheville, whipping out the ho-hum usual arsenal of reverse dunks, transition alley-oops and overpowering offense in a 94-57 win.
John Wall “The Pleaser” set the tone early for UK, getting his first points of the game on a reverse dunk then following a putback up with an alley-oop pass to Patrick Patterson in transition. Wall finished the game with 12 points and 14 assists, the latter mark setting a school freshman record.
“That’s John,” teammate DeMarcus Cousins, who didn’t have a bad night himself, said after the game. “He can do anything he puts his mind to.”
Thanks to a tweaked stroke from the foul line, Cousins sank 8-of-10 free throws and dominated around the rim to the tune of 24 points and 10 rebounds in only 17 minutes.
Kentucky led by 22 at halftime and 40 nine minutes into the second half. A final Wall dunk made it 94-54 with two minutes left in the game, soliciting an encore-caliber cheer from the 14,000 or so attempting to create Rupp Arena West.
It was a good show, but one has to wonder how much it helped prepare the Wildcats for the “real” UNC this Saturday. UNC Asheville entered the game with an 0-5 record having lost to the likes of Furman, Campbell and Tennessee by a whopping 75 points.
North Carolina, of course, is at an entirely different level of college basketball’s food chain.
The No. 10 Tar Heels, like the Cats, are young and talented, but they’re also a little more battle-tested than Kentucky is at this point in the season. They’ve already been upset by a surprisingly good Syracuse squad and will be coming off a stiff test after hosting tonight’s game against No. 9 Michigan State in the ACC/Big Ten.
In contrast, Kentucky will be 11 days removed from its last real competition, a 73-65 overtime win against Stanford in the Cancun Challenge.
If you don’t think that’s worth a 10-point run right there, you don’t follow college basketball.
It will be interesting to see how Kentucky fares against a team stocked with equally-talented players like the Heels. Of particular interest will be how Cousins matches up against adept big men like Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller.
Calipari, like he has all season, made it sound like he was leading a group of lambs to the lion’s den in this one.
“We are not near those guys, right now,” he said. “I don’t think so.
“You are talking about a well-coached team with terrific players. They have McDonald’s All-Americans and a bunch of them, not just one or two.”
But lest we forget, coach Cal also leads a team stocked with fast-food phenoms, “…and a bunch of them, not just one or two.” (OK, only two. As a fifth-year senior last year Wall was not eligible for the honor.)
My guess is there will be some growing pains early in that one, but – even if the Cats lose – Kentucky will be a better team at the end of the night.
With Connecticut slated to be played at Madison Square Garden after UNC followed by Indiana on the road, Big Blue Nation will quickly get a solid litmus test as to whether there’s any substance to the Cats’ style.
“This next 10 days we are going to find out exactly where we are,” Calipari said. “It is not bad if we lose all three, it is not bad as long as we learn where we are and what we need to work on.”
And in the long run that’s a lot more important than pandering to the crowd.