This is a step beyond “Make My Day.” I’ve gone past the point of wanting the team to make my day. I defend this staff to the death because of the incredible recruiting we’ve seen, but in the first three halves of this season, it’s been tough to defend their coaching ability. Now, in the second half against Carolina I saw some signs of life that I think will carry on throughout the season. The interviews Coach Gillispie did with Mike Pratt and Andy Katz after the Carolina game helped cement those feelings, so here’s what the guys need to do to keep from failing me.

* Better control from Jodie Meeks. I have no problem at all with Jodie Meeks taking a lot of shots. He’s the best shooter on the team, and the coaches have given him the green light to pull the trigger, which is usually good. But much like Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley this time last season, the ball sticks in his hands. I remember another shooter from Georgia who had this problem his entire career – Derrick Miller. Meeks has a higher ceiling than Derrick because he’s better in all other facets, but I see a lot of the same problems Miller had. When Meeks hit shots against Carolina, those shots came in the flow of the offense. When he was chucking and missing, he was forcing the issue way too much. I want to see the former tomorrow and not the latter.

* Communication on offense. Freshmen will make freshman mistakes, that’s a given. But when they do, their teammates need to be there to minimize the effects of those mistakes. Against Carolina, Darius Miller had a couple of bad turnovers where he picked up his dribble in no man’s land. Unfortunately, the other four guys bailed on him and left him for dead, which was the main reason why the turnovers occurred. This team has to start communicating better, or else this problem will never get fixed.

* Continued offensive aggression and execution from the second half of the Carolina game. I cannot stress this enough, DeAndre Liggins looked great in the second half. The team executed what should be their primary objective on offense (get the ball to Patrick Patterson every time down the court) when Liggins was on the floor. I don’t know anything about Delaware State except that their mascot is the Hornets and they’re in Delaware. But I can guess that if Patterson can play as well as he did against North Carolina, he should be able to do it against Delaware State. But this hinges on how many minutes Liggins gets in relation to Mike Porter’s minutes.

* Be in position instead of blocking shots. I love a good block as much as the next guy, and so do Perry Stevenson and Patrick Patterson. But when post guys go for blocks on every drive to the basket, it allows the guy penetrating to dump off to the guy underneath the basket with nobody near him. There’s a time and a place for a big block, but not every possession. And I guarantee that if the guys stay in position and force difficult shots, that will produce more defensive stops than going for blocks every time.

If I do anymore, my head will explode. My beloved New York Knicks made a trade today (Jamal Crawford to Golden State for Al Harrington) that does not please me. All due respect to Harrington, who I like and think will be a great fit in New York’s style, but Crawford was probably the least dispensable member on that team, and I wish they didn’t have to let him go. So I’m already seething. But hopefully we’ll have a comfortable win on a cold Saturday afternoon to ease the pain of eight days’ worth of every one of my teams (UK, Knicks, Minnesota Vikings) lose every game.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and these guys had best not fail me.

There’s nothing on the UK front today, so what else could I (or anybody else who cheers for Kentucky, for that matter) do for today than hate on Louisville? Specifically, the target of my rage is Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich. In terms of building his programs, Jurich has done a fine job, but that isn’t what this is about.

Does the name Patrick Hughes ring a bell? It should if you’re from this state. Patrick Hughes is the blind kid who plays trumpet in the Louisville marching band. He gets to go out on the field and march because his father pushes him in formation in his wheelchair. It’s one of the most inspirational stories you’ll ever hear, no matter who your favorite team is. His family even got a visit from the people at ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover. Hughes was the classic ambassador for the university, but now he no longer plays in the band. It would be hard for me to explain why this is, so I think I’ll let Hughes do it himself. This snippet is from his website, and you can read the whole piece HERE.

My relationship began to turn south with Athletic Administration shortly after the Pittsburgh game in 2006. An away game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, I really looked forward to sitting with my band mates at this pro football stadium and cheering on our CARDS!

By the way, Athletics was able to send their pep band to the Pittsburgh football game this past weekend and sit in the field level seats they sold out from under the marching band. I guess it’s only a matter of time before they replace the marching band, as well. The process is already happening.

The rest of the piece that I linked speaks for itself. The athletics department pretty much treats the band like garbage, but I quoted that piece for a reason. If you want to sell the band seats to fans, that’s your prerogative, but if one of the band members is in a wheelchair, you had best not put the band in an area of the stadium that is not accessible. As a fellow handicapped person, I have to say I was incensed at this. It’s just another reminder that people take their ability to walk for granted, and it happens way too much in life. I just hope it was worth the few extra bucks to make this kid feel inferior because he’s in a wheelchair. To the person responsible for this decision (safely assuming it is Tom Jurich), congratulations, you sorry sack of crap. Hope this site doesn’t get torn down like 93.9 FM did because somebody was critical of the department and its chair.

That’s all I have to say about that. Tommy Turtleneck and his Julius Caesar haircut can go suck one.

Yes, it can be done. Obviously, one would argue that it’s a stretch to point out any positives from a 77-58 loss that featured 28 turnovers, but if anybody can do it, it’s me.

Most of these positives come from the interviews that Coach Gillispie did after the game, both with BBSN and ESPN. He had a great talk about the play of DeAndre Liggins in the second half, and it definitely warrants praise. Liggins played the final 13 or so minutes of the half, had five assists (seven assists total) and only one turnover. When Liggins was running the show in the second half, Patrick Patterson got touches and scored against anybody who guarded him. When Liggins was on the floor in the second half, he put a body on Ty Lawson and did a much more effective job at keeping him out of the lane than Mike Porter did. Coach Gillispie noticed these things, and was very complimentary of the freshman. Hopefully this means the Mike Porter experiment is on its last legs.

Patterson was another positive from last night. He was much more active in the post and on the glass in both halves. Only difference was that nobody could get him the ball in the first half because they were too busy turning it over. In the second half, he got it in position to score, and he did just that. I attribute that to both the play of DeAndre Liggins and the ability of the Kentucky halfcourt defense to slow down the pace and take a lot of time off the shot clock when Carolina had the ball. That created the flow that Pat needs to be successful, and he had a great second half.

I also enjoyed the play of Ramon Harris in the second half. He’s still shaky and looks flat uncomfortable on the drive, but I loved that he was aggressive. His attitude is in the right place. I’m happy he chased down Tyler Zeller on that breakaway and didn’t allow the dunk. It sucks that Zeller broke his wrist on the fall and he’s out for the rest of the season, but it was a clean play. It wasn’t like Kevin McHale unleashing a Stan Hansen Lariat on Kurt Rambis in the ’84 Finals. In fact, here’s a side-by-side for anybody who thinks it was a dirty play.

You can find the BBSN interview on either Yahoo or ukathletics.com. The interview Gillispie did with my boy Andy Katz is on the ESPN college basketball page.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, reminding everybody that IT ISN’T EVEN THANKSGIVING.

How bad was this weekend? Let’s just say that when I turned on the water this morning to take a shower, I was a bit surprised when the water didn’t turn into blood.

I still think that Billy Gillispie and his staff are the right people for this job. Recruiting is going exceptionally well, and I still feel like the program is on a general upswing because of that recruiting success. However, they were awful on Friday. I know Gillispie likes to prove points to his team, and I’m all for it. But I draw the line when proving points to his team comes at the expense of wins and losses in the record book. The coaches got steamrolled by the VMI staff. I can’t sugarcoat it either. It was that bad. I say it was worse than Gardner-Webb. It was as if they just decided to skip the scouting report for the week and thought they could win on pure talent. They didn’t bother to play defense, and the coaches made one fundamental error that cost the team the game – they insisted on playing two post players at the same time. VMI doesn’t even have one post player on their team. How are two post guys supposed to rotate and defend guys that are so much quicker than them? It would be hard enough for one guy to do it on his own, but asking both Patterson and Stevenson to do it was asking too much and pretty much impossible.

Another huge problem that won’t be fixed anytime soon is the point guard situation. I applaud Michael Porter for being an “effort guy” that earns the affection of Coach Gillispie in practice, but God willing, after the first five minutes of Friday’s game, the Porter experiment at point guard is over. Heck, I’m sure even Mike would argue that he’d rather be a spot-up shooter than a point. VMI didn’t even need to trap him to take the ball away from him. As for DeAndre Liggins, I’m not as concerned, but he is still a freshman. His mistakes are what we would call freshman mistakes. Most box scores don’t measure this for college games, but I’d imagine that Liggins and Darius Miller were the only two players on the team that had a positive +/-, meaning that when they were on the floor, we outscored them. However, sending a freshman point guard into that situation for his first game was a recipe for disaster. Scheduling VMI for the first game of the year was a recipe for disaster. When the point guard situation is as dire as it is, the one thing that doesn’t need to happen is having the first game against a team against whom it is very difficult to dictate the pace. Kentucky absolutely could not dictate the pace against VMI, and that’s why Patrick Patterson played poorly – that pace does not allow for the big guys to get the ball very often.

One good thing that came from the game was that Social Darwinism kicked in and the cream rose to the top. Six guys showed that they were worthy of playing many minutes – Liggins, Meeks, Miller, Patterson, Stevenson and Harris. When UK came back in the second half and took the lead, any combination of those guys were on the floor. Meeks in particular was amazing, and I’m glad he’s been given such a huge green light to launch. This loss was a total coaching breakdown, and while I would never say that these guys have forgotten how to coach (nothing could be further from the truth), I’m sick of losing these games. I’m sick of UK being the lead story on SportsCenter and watching those East Coast pricks laugh at us and throw the race card around. I don’t care if we win out, this will haunt us forever. With all of that said, though, here’s something crazy. I’m not predicting a win over Carolina on Tuesday, but if it were to happen, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Any offense and defense that isn’t the three-ring circus that VMI ran will be a welcome change for these guys, and I guarantee you they’ll look ten times better than they did in the last game.

I still think that Rich Brooks and his staff are the right people for this job. Recruiting is going exceptionally well, and I still feel like the program is on a general upswing because of that recruiting success. However, they were awful last night. The big problem is the same problem these guys have had all year except against Louisville and Georgia – they don’t know that the game starts in the first half. Kentucky had one first down in the first half, and that was on a fake punt. That’s unacceptable. Joker Phillips completely deviated from the running game that was so successful, which put the game squarely in the hands of Randall Cobb and the greenest receiving corps in FBS. Even against Vanderbilt, this is a recipe for disaster. Look at the two passes that DJ Moore picked off. On both throws, Moore jumped the route while the receivers just waited for the ball to come to them. Those are errors of inexperience.

As for the defense, it’s the same play over and over: rush the front four, drop everybody else back. It’s the most vanilla scheme in the world, and the only reason why it looked so good in the first half of the season was because the personnel was so good and they were all completely healthy. Against Vanderbilt, they weren’t motivated until they had given up 17 points. Vanderbilt was motivated, and that was the difference in the outcome. Basically, Bobby Johnson executed his mission and Rich Brooks didn’t. Now there were some things that happened in the second half that were out of his control, like the personal foul penalty on Micah Johnson for roughing the passer. That was an abysmal call that killed all the momentum Kentucky had built in the second half, but it shouldn’t have mattered. Kentucky was talented enough to beat Vanderbilt, and they didn’t because they forgot to show up at the beginning. I’ll reserve judgment on the Tennessee game until I see what Tennessee does against Vanderbilt this week. I’m sure against us, they’ll turn into the Tennessee Titans instead of the Tennessee Volunteers.

The weekend isn’t over yet, so if you’re a Wildcat fan and have favorite pro teams, start worrying.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I fear for Adrian Peterson’s safety.

Kentucky doesn’t have to do much to make my day tomorrow. It comes down to two things, really.

* Wrap up. Chris Nickson is starting for the Commodores instead of Mackenzi Adams. I’m sure you remember Nickson from the game in 2006 where Kentucky survived to become bowl eligible. Chris almost beat us by himself with his legs. Kentucky has significantly improved defending mobile quarterbacks since that game, part of the reason why they’ve been able to make consecutive bowls. The knock on Nickson is that he doesn’t throw it well. This has been true up to this point in the current season. Vandy is 5-0 in games started by Nickson and 0-4 in games started by Adams, but in several of those wins, Adams came in to relieve Nickson after slow starts. Jeff Jennings and Jared Hawkins are power runners and should be a lot easier to bring down than Knowshon Moreno last week. If Kentucky wraps up and makes Nickson throw, I have complete certainty that the good guys will prevail.

* Block like last week. Between the offensive line and wide receivers, that was the best blocking I had seen from Kentucky all year. I don’t know if Vandy is still last in the conference in total defense, but they have been for most of the year. Their blitzes should be easier to contain than Georgia’s, and the line shouldn’t be as massive as that of the Bulldogs either. If Kentucky blocks like they did against Georgia, Cobb, Smith and Dixon should all have field days running through the Vandy defense.

* I thought of one more. Play loose. UK has absolutely nothing to lose in this game, and I’m of the opinion that Vanderbilt doesn’t either because they should beat Tennessee next week. You can’t run an option-based offense with a tight sphincter. I don’t think this will be a problem with Cobb under center. It certainly wasn’t last week.

Before I end this, did any of you guys see UCLA last night? Miami (OH) plays the typical MAC style of ball, and Charlie Coles always keeps his team in the game with masterful coaching, but that style should have been right down UCLA’s alley. Instead, they had to hold on for dear life, and the way I saw it, got every single call in the last five minutes. My first upset special of the year is Michigan over UCLA in the finals of the 2K Sports Classic. I don’t like betting against John Beilein under any circumstances, and UCLA looks ripe. They’ll be okay in the long run, but they’re playing so many green guys that they’ll probably struggle early on like they did against Miami.

I’m Seth Stogsdill Stay classy, Cat fans.

Bowl Season is just around the corner and if you’re like me you’ve already started making hotel reservations in cities across the southeast in case the Cats would be selected to play there.  With that in mind I thought I would give my opinion on where I think the schools of the SEC will be headed for the holidays. 

BCS NATIONAL TITLE GAME  Miami, Florida   SEC team: FLORIDA

I think that the winner of the SEC Championship game between Alabama and Florida, if they both finish the season with wins, will go on to play in the BCS National Title Game in Miami against either Texas Tech, if they can continue their run to perfection or Oklahoma, who would have to knock off the Red Raiders to get here.  I think the Gators are the hottest team in the country right now and will beat the Tide in Atlanta to punch their ticket to Miami.  It would be an offensive juggernaut if they could face Texas Tech and who doesn’t like offense. 

SUGAR BOWL  New Orleans, Louisiana  SEC team: ALABAMA

The loser of the SEC Championship has to settle for a Sugar Bowl berth instead of a National Title Shot.  Since I picked Florida to play for the title, Alabama is my pick for the Sugar.  I look for them to face off either Utah or Boise State, both BCS at-large selections.  Both are undefeated right now and inside the top ten in the BCS standings.  We saw what Boise State did to Oklahoma a couple of years ago so if I was Bama I wouldn’t take either school for granted.

CAPITAL ONE BOWL  Orlando, Florida  SEC team: GEORGIA

I think Georgia will represent the SEC in the Capital One Bowl this year based on the SEC getting two teams in the BCS games.  The Dawgs will play a Big Ten team and at this point it looks to be either Ohio State or Michigan State.  Ohio State still has a chance of making the BCS and if they do then that moves the Spartans into this game. 

COTTON BOWL  Dallas, Texas  SEC team:  LSU

Based on their down season, for LSU standards, and the re-emergence of Alabama, the Tigers have been forced to play in the Cotton Bowl this year.  Their opponent will come from the Big 12 and probably be Texas unless Oklahoma or Texas Tech has a complete breakdown and doesn’t make the BCS.

OUTBACK BOWL  Tampa, Florida  SEC team:  SOUTH CAROLINA (UK POSSIBLE)

Now this is where things get interesting.  Right now South Carolina controls it’s own destiny.  If it can beat Clemson in the final game of the season it will be 8-4, yeah I went ahead and determined that they would lose at Florida this weekend.  If the Cocks finish 8-4 they will likely get the Outback nod.  If they lose out, I look for Kentucky to possibly move in to this slot.  Iowa looks to be the likely opponent. 

CHICK FIL A BOWL  Atlanta, Georgia  SEC team:  KENTUCKY (USC POSSSIBLE)

Based on what happens in the last three weeks of the season, I think the former Peach Bowl is the likely site of the Cats 2008 bowl game.  If they can beat Vandy this weekend they will almost guarantee this bowl bid.  Two wins and then it puts the pressure on the Outback Bowl committee if USC wins another game.  They will have to pick between UK and USC.  Possible opponents include Georgia Tech and Wake Forest from the ACC.

MUSIC CITY BOWL  Nashville, Tennessee  SEC team:  OLE MISS (VANDY POSSIBLE)

The Kentucky Wildcats Bowl, as it has become recently, will be missing it’s main attraction this year and the crowds will once again return to normal size for the game.  I look for Ole Miss to get at least one more win on the season and become bowl eligible with 6 wins.  They have games with Louisiana-Monroe, LSU, and Mississippi St left this year and could possibly win all of them if the right things happen in the LSU game.  If that happens, they could be considered for the Chick Bowl but I think UK would win out due to the masses that flock to Atlanta whenever the Cats are there.  If Ole Miss can’t get their sixth win or only get to six, the Music City people may decide to take the hometown Vanderbilt Commodores over the rebels, if Vandy can get to six wins.  They’ve been stuck on 5 for a while now with games remaining against UK, Tennessee, and Wake Forest.  Opponents could be Maryland, Georgia Tech, or Virginia Tech.

LIBERTY BOWL  Memphis, Tennessee  SEC team:  VANDERBILT  (OLE MISS POSSIBLE)

This pick will end up being the team not picked by the Music City Bowl.  I suspect it will be Vanderbilt based on the fact that the MCB people will want to have a team from outside of Nashville in their bowl.  And it’s only fair that the Dores get to travel a little for their bowl game.  The opponent will probably be Tulsa, the C-USA Champion.

Now, this is where it gets difficult.  The SEC has bowl tie-ins with two more bowls, the PapaJohns.com Bowl and the Independence Bowl.  If the league only gets one team in the BCS then the teams listed above will probably just move to the next bowl in line and the league will only have one empty bowl slot.  Here’s the problem though.  Right now, Auburn is 5-5, Arkansas is 4-6, and Mississippi State is 3-6.  Getting to that elusive sixth win is going to be tough for all of these teams.  Auburn has games against Georgia and then at Alabama for the final game of the regular season.  Arkansas plays at Mississippi State and then hosts LSU for their regular season finale.  Mississippi State, needing three wins, goes to Alabama, hosts Arkansas, and then travels to Ole Miss to end the year.  By process of elimination, Arkansas and Mississippi State cannot both become bowl eligible.  Auburn has the best shot of getting eligible becuse they only need one win, but even that will be a tall task.  It pains me to type this but TENNESSEE will be visiting the family this holiday season because they have already been knocked out of bowl contention.