Give Me Liberty and Give me East Carolina?

That's right Cats Fans! All indications are that the Kentucky Wildcats have bypassed going to the Music City Bowl in Nashville for the third straight year in order to go to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.

This will mark the first appearance for the Wildcats in this bowl game. The Liberty Bowl is full of history, as they are celebrating thier 50th Anniversary. The Liberty Bowl is also the 7th oldest bowl game around.

The opponent? Well, after the Conference USA championship victory over Tulsa, the Cats will play a East Carolina team on the rise. Coached by the son of Hall of Fame Coach Lou Holtz, Skip has created quite a program and resume at East Carolina. Before the Pirates were devastated by injuries mid-season East Carolina climbed to 14 in the polls by beating both Virginia Tech and West Virginia in succession.

East Carolina finished the season at 9-4 and healthy. This should be quite an opponent for the Cats as they have yet to beat a team with a winning record ALL SEASON...

Nothing is official until tomorrow, however as the seconds and minutes tick it does appear all the more likely that the Cats are heading to Memphis. The official announcement will be made at 430 p.m. est Sunday, December 7.

Kentucky Prepares to Take on #22 Miami Hurricanes

Kentucky hopes to pull an upset at Rupp Arena tonight as they take on ACC foe the Miami Hurricanes.

The Cats enter the game without starter Ramon Harris who was hospitalized during the Lamar game Wednesday. Harris' leadership will be missed, as the Cats are forced to turn to a mixture of freshman at the shooting guard position.

KEYS TO KENTUCKY VICTORY-
1) DOMINATE DOWNLOW- Talking with the radio voice of the Miami Hurricanes this week, Joe Zagacki said that being powerful down low is what this Hurricane team prides itself on. For the Cats to contend and pulll the upset, they must be out physical the Hurricanes on the boards.

2) FRESHMAN MUST STEP UP- It's been 7 games and the freshman now are going to be called on more than ever to step up, make plays, and be collegiete basketball players. Junior Ramon Harris is out for the game and so DeAndre Liggins, Kevin Galloway, and Darius Miller must fill his roll as a consitant scorer and solid defender.

All in all, this is a HUGE game for Kentucky. After losing to VMI at home, they will need some BIG TIME wins to get into the tournament in March. A win today will help in the RPI and give the team confidence heading into the rest of December and on through the season.

College Week 15 Projections

WOW! What an experience it was to cover Phil Fulmer’s last game as Tennessee’s head coach. Neyland Stadium was also quite a sight to see, 107,000 seats, the stadium looks as if it reaches the sky and is truly a pilgrimage any college sports fan should make. Broadcasting such a memorable game was quite an amazing experience for me personally as a broadcast journalist…Here is just one story that might appeal to Cats fans as they anxiously await Bowl Selection Sunday---

Sitting in the Press box, surrounded by the Tennessee media I struck up a conversation in regards to the Bowl process and which SEC school should land where when all is said and done. From behind me a man asked to see what I was projecting. He was quite surprised as he said that my projections were all dead on and that Kentucky was going to pick the LIBERTY BOWL since they have been to the Music City Bowl two years in a row and want something different. I looked up at him and noticed he was wearing a Liberty Bowl Patch. He was apart of the selection committee. This inside information made me ecstatic because for the past month I have been projecting every possible scenario and to know that I was pretty much right on is quite a good personal feeling….

Though its still not certain and I have been tossing around the idea that the Cats might still accept the bid to Nashville because of the bad economy, I must say I am anticipating as eagerly as the rest of Big Blue Nation to see which bowl we will be attending for the 2008-2009 Bowl season….

Now here are my regular season game selections…

Last Week- 10-3

Overall- 75-43

Big East- Cincinnati o Hawaii

Pac 10- USC o UCLA

ACC CHAMPIONSHIP- Boston College o Virginia Tech

SEC CHAMPIONSHIP- Florida o Alabama

UPSET SPECIAL

-BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP-

Missouri o Oklahoma

SEC Bowl Projections- December 5, 2008

December 5^th, 2008

Pre-SEC Championship Bowl Selections

NATIONAL TITLE- Florida Gators

FLORIDA- The Gators are going to a BCS Bowl regardless of what occurs in the SEC Championship game. With the dominant play Florida has shown for the past few months, the Gators should have NO PROBLEMS with the Crimson Tide. A win in the SEC title game will put the Gators in the National Title for the second time in 3 years.

SUGAR BOWL- Alabama Crimson Tide

ALABAMA- After a blow out first half over the then #1 Georgia Bulldogs, the Crimson Tide have not looked all that great. They have won all their games, but by too narrow of a margin to have any confidence in them against Florida. Since they are unbeaten to this point and the National Title taking the Top SEC school, the Sugar Bowl will select the Alabama Crimson Tide to represent the SEC in their bowl game.

CAPITAL ONE BOWL- GEORGIA BULLDOGS

GEORGIA- Although the Bulldogs have looked less than impressive in the last month of the season, they get the next best SEC bowl selection because of only having three losses. This is NOT what the Bulldogs expected this season, however they must make due because this should be the last game for so many Bulldog players: Mathew Stafford and Knowshown Moreno are as good as gone and next season will be a rebuilding year for Georgia.

COTTON BOWL- Ole Miss Rebels

Ole Miss- What an amazing story for college football. First year coach Houston Nutt led his Rebels to 2^nd in the SEC west by beating Florida and LSU. Since the Cotton Bowl will take the best available SEC West school, the Ole Miss Rebels should be heading to Dallas for the Cotton Bowl. This will be the Rebels first bowl appearance since 2003 when they again played in the Cotton Bowl.

OUTBACK BOWL- SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS

SOUTH CAROLINA- Although the Gamecocks have been embarrassed back-to-back weeks by both the Florida Gators and rival Clemson, the Gamecocks will reach their first New Year’s Day bowl in the Steve Spurrier era.

CHIC-FIL-A BOWL- LSU TIGERS

LSU- A year removed from the National Title, the Tigers fell to 7-5 and have lost 3 straight games and land in the Chic-Fil-A Bowl. This will not be the first appearance in the bowl, as they did face Miami a few years back in a memorable beat down(via score and they actually fought before the game) 40-3. A step back for the Tigers? No, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year and next year, they should rise to the top of the Western Conference again…But for this year, Chic-Fil-A representatives will be ecstatic to get such a top notch program in its bowl.

MUSIC CITY BOWL- VANDERBILT COMMADORES

VANDERBILT- Vanderbilt’s first bowl appearance since 1982 and they won’t even take a trip out of their city. If Kentucky hadn’t been here for the past two years, I would put the Cats to Nashville and the Commodores to the Liberty Bowl, but with the economy the way it is, it might be better to have a hometown team playing in the Music City Bowl.

AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL- KENTUCKY WILDCATS

KENTUCKY- In college athletics it is ALL ABOUT PROGRESS. Kentucky has been to the Music City Bowl two years in a row and a third year shows no progress to recruits, fans, and the nation. ALSO, during the game with Tennessee I spoke with someone from the Liberty Bowl selection committee. He told me that Kentucky has been to the Music City Bowl for the past two years and given the choice, which they likely will get, they will choose Memphis over Nashville. Nothing is final and in the end it comes down to the pay out, but early indications are Cats to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis….it is the 50^th Anniversary of the bowl don’t ya know? At least that’s what I was informed of…

Kentucky Continues Winning 103-61 over to Lamar

There was no prevalent jet-lag following the Las Vegas Tournament over the weekend as the Wildcats started quick and never looked back.

Right out of the gate both Ramon Harris and Jodie Meeks made 3 pointers to give the Cats a 6-0 lead in less than a minmute of regulation. The offensive show was highlighted by sophomore Patrick Paterson whom accumulated his best collegiate game of his two year career by scoring 31 points and being near flawless from the field by hitting 11 of 12 from the field.

Kentucky’s offense can also continue to boast the best field goal percentage in the SEC with a 64.4% marking on the field.

The main hinderance that has bothered the Cats this year and caused issues for Gillespie’s team last year was turnover margin. Before Lamar the Kentucky Wildcats were turning the ball over to their opponents 23 times per game. Against Lamar, the Kentucky Wildcats played a little more carefullt with the ball and decreased their hideous turnover margin to just 16.

“We just have been working really hard in practice and trying to improve. We have had a good week of practice and I thought we should improve on the turnovers,” said Bully Gillespie.

With the win, Kentucky has now won five straight games and has scored in the 100’s twice. The Wildcats will now face a BIG challenge Saturday night when the nationally ranked Miami Hurricanes come into Rupp at 5 p.m.

Basketball Night in the Bluegrass!

Following an impressive weekend in Las Vegas the Kentucky Wildcats are back in Rupp Arena to take on an undefeated Lamar Cardinals team.
After a rough 1-2 start, the Kentucky Wildcats have ripped off three impressive wins in a row. The win streak is mainly a testament to junior guard Jodie Meeks who is 10th in the nation in points per game with 25.5 points per game.
Kentucky hopes to continue their winning ways before a SHOWDOWN with top 25 Miami of Florida Saturday night.
KEYS To Cat Victory-
1) Improve-- Kentucky is STRUGGLING in the area of turnovers. The Cats are turning the ball over 23 times a game on average! This statistic MUST change if the Cats are to make some noise this season.
2) Find a Leader-- Entering the season, leadership was and still is a HUGE question mark. The Cats lost both Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford to graduation last year and Derrick Jasper to transferring. Michael Porter was expected to be the leader at the point and but has yet to make an impact. His failures at finding the open man and being a court general has led Coach Billy Gillespie to inserting freshman DeAndre Liggins and Darius Miller more and more in hopes that they can skip the collegiate learning faze and be a leader on the court.

Kentucky should be able to handle the Lamar Cardinals handily, however we have said this before and been wrong: VMI...But, none the less, Kentucky's strong play in the Las Vegas Invitational over the weekend should give this team something to build on in the coming nights...
Updates through out the game...