Skip to main content.

Archives

This is the archive for November 2008

Am I Funny? Does This Basketball Game Amuse You?

Is it just me, or is John Calipari slowly aging into Ray Liotta? Or maybe it's vice versa, depending on which one is older, but the resemblance is getting stronger and stronger as the years go on.

Tonight, as part of ESPN's Orgy Of College Basketball (not their title), he's coaching against his old team of UMass and he's just in full on Goodfellas mode. Or maybe I'm completely insane and just need more sleep. I haven't figured it out yet.

Do you guys see it too, or do I need to invest in some glasses and/or therapy?

Gardner-Webb 2.0

If I were some sort of hack PR rep, I'd say something like, "Late rally not enough as Cats fall to VMI 111-103." Fortunately for me, I'm not, so I can just toss out a reference to the worst Kentucky loss of my lifetime, their manhandling by Gardner-Webb last year. At least this time the Wildcats were competitive, even if they came up short.

At one point in this game, I turned it off. VMI was up by 26 at one point, draining three pointers and pressing the ball like they were a Rick Pitino-coached team from the mid-1990s. They're not, but their impression was good enough to bomb the superior, taller athletes of Coach Billy Gillispie. I guess they out Billy-balled Billy Clyde with the shooting.

I can only imagine how badly the local sports talk radio station is going to jump on Gillispie's case for this loss, but VMI was the best offensive team in the nation last year, and they remain year in and year out one of the best scoring teams in the nation. It SHOULD be easier to slow a team down than speed a team up, but Billy's Boys like to run too, and his prized recruits decided that they could run with the Keydets (Keydets? Really? That's quite possibly the lamest team name since the Gaels.) Given that Patrick Patterson got into foul trouble early (I forsee this happening A LOT this year), there wasn't much option to run the game in the half court, as Perry Stevenson is a shot-blocking broomstick and VMI shot the lights out.

Once again, the Wildcats have a team that can't really shoot the 3, and this year, at least thus far, they can't play defense either. At least DeAndre Liggins looked good, and Stevenson had a decent little double double against a team that wasn't big enough to push his skinny ass around. They just didn't look prepared, and that's Billy Clyde's fault.

I won't be calling for his head (yet), but Fire Gillispie might just join Fire Tubby and Fire Coughlin as the great rallying cries of the Sports Bastards.