UK Hoopin' it up

When I say 10-0 and Kentucky Basketball in the sentence what normally comes to mind? Well for most people they automatically assume I’m talking about the men’s team. But no this time it’s the UK Hoops lady wildcats, who have just went 10-0 for the first time in school history. They have reached this goal by defeating there inter-state rival, Louisville. They defeated the Lady Cardnials101-67 making this Coach Matthew Mitchell’s first victory over Louisville during his tenure at Kentucky. Louisville is coming off of a great year last season were they was the runner-up for the national championship. The cats played excellent ball and scored 39 points off of turnovers and scored 24 points on second chance shots. The leading scorer for the cats was Jr. Victoria Dunlap as she led the cats with 27 points. The cats have played a great season up to this point but have a tough schedule coming up and have a tough road ahead.

UK Hoops next 5 games
12/22 UT Martin
12/28 Middle Tennessee State
01/01 Mississippi Valley State
01/07 Georgia
01/10 Vanderbilt

Record Breaking Year

For Kentucky Basketball fans you mention the name Adolph Rupp you think of the great teams that he coached, the four championships he won and the 876 games that he won for the university. He also won more games as a first year coach at UK with his 10-0 start in 1930-31 season. That was a record that lasted 79 years until a coach by the name of John Calipari took over the coaching job this season. He is currently tied with coach Rupp, with a 10-0 start. He gets his chance on going down in Kentucky history on Saturday. Coach cal took over the job earlier this year following the firing of Billy Gillispie, after a poor season last year ending in the NIT. Coach Cal has a record of 445-140 and a winning percentage of .761, 13th highest all time. This Saturday against Austin Peay means a lot to the university because it will break the record for a first year coach but it will also put them one-step closer to there 2000th win. Kentucky is the all time winning team in Division-1 college basketball. They currently have won 1998 games following by the University of North Carolina with 1992 wins. With the race being so close between the teams every win counts if the Cats continue there winning streak they can make it to 2000 wins on Dec. 21st against Drexel that is if they continue there winning steak that they are currently on. On another note coach Cal as currently come under some press as Bob Knight at a fundraiser last night for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in his speech said:

“We’ve gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that’s why I’m glad I’m not coaching. You see we’ve got a coach at Kentucky, who put two schools on probation and he’s still coaching. I really don’t understand that”

What Knight is talking about is the two final four banners that go removed from the past two schools he has been. He lost a banner at UMass and at Memphis because of recruiting violations. It makes you wonder if Kentucky will come under these problems with Calipari at the reigns. While I feel it is wrong to break the recruiting rules I feel that the real problem is the one and done rule that the NBA has put in place to encourage kids to go to college. The problem there is you have all these AAU coaches playing agents getting these schools in trouble. But we will see what the future brings. The next five games on schedule for the cats are:

12/19 Austin Peay (7-4)
12/21 Drexel (5-5)
12/23 Long Beach State (5-4)
12/29 Hartford
1/ 2 Louisville (6-3)