Your University of Kentucky WILD CATS!

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times …

The basketball team was on a bit of a tear winning 9 out of its last 10 heading into the Tennessee game on Sunday. Unfortunately, they got some bad news over the weekend. The CATS lost freshman standout Patrick Patterson for the remainder of the season. He is one of the top 5 freshmen in the SEC and has been a ray of sunshine in the darkness that is UK scoring (or lack thereof). His point production and rebounding will surely be missed during this critical time of the year. All looked lost going into the final 3 games of the regular season. A trip to TN followed by another to South Carolina and ending the season at home against Florida looked like the formula for 3 straight Wildcat losses. And that’s why they play the games. The CATS started off pretty weak against the VOLS getting down by 15 early in the 1st half. They gained their composure and slowed down the game, taking each offense possession down to the last few seconds of the shot clock. They also did a much better job on the boards that prevented second chance points and on defense to cause TN to commit turnovers. I thought KY would be lost without Patterson to anchor the middle, but Perry Stevenson ended the game with 13 points and 14 rebounds. It also helped that Ramon Harris had 12 points and Derrick Jasper ended with 8 rebounds. The second half was as good a ball game as you can ask for. The CATS tied the game with 14 minutes remaining in the game and scraped the rest of the way. The lead went back and forth until 4 minutes left in the game. TN scored on a dunk and KY responded with back to back turnovers. The VOLS went up by as much as 6 points and the CATS were able to keep it close with some clutch 3 point shooting, but couldn’t get a 3 to drop at the end of the game to send it to overtime. It would have been nice to have Crawford in the game, but foul trouble limited his contribution. The way the Wildcats played gives me some hope for the final 2 games and even a run in the SEC tournament in CATlanta.