Intentional Upset: Kentucky Beats Tennessee
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 amBy Chris
This is weird territory for a University of Kentucky fan… Normally, when you are talking about upsets and Kentucky basketball, it’s UK that’s on the receiving end.
However, this has not been a normal Kentucky basketball season and with that in mind, when Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee Volunteers entered Rupp Arena as the 3rd ranked team in America (as opposed to UK’s 7-9 record), you have the makings of an upset.
And UK did not disappoint… unless you are a Vols fan… or perhaps you don’t like UK.
Riding the play of super-freshman Patrick Patterson and his 20 point, 8 rebound performance, the Wildcats beat the Vols by the score of 72-66. Kentucky also used some sterling defense to derail the Volunteers and after giving up 14 first half points to marksman Chris Lofton, UK held him scoreless in the second half until the closing minutes of the game.
Again, being the “upseter (as opposed to the “upsetee”)” is foreign territory for University of Kentucky fans, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying it. Over at the CatsPause.com basketball forum, there were well over 3000 fans still around at 1am EST to celebrate UK’s signature win.
Coach Gillispie had these thoughts about last night’s win:
“We’re really getting tough,” Gillispie said. “I’m telling you they were tired going into the game [but] our guys really fought hard. They dug as deep as they possibly could.”
Does this win mean UK is back on track and ready to make some noise the rest of the season? That’s a good question. Currently, they are 8-9 and that’s not necessarily the most deserving record in the world. Besides, games like these make you wonder just what the hell was going on when UK played Gardner-Webb and San Diego… Anyway, congrats are in order for Billy Gillispie’s new team.
The question becomes, can they sustain what they accomplished last night?
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 am
[...] Intentional Upset: Kentucky Beats Tennessee [...]
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 am
Tennessee completely forgot about the post, and their lights-out three point shooting couldn’t bail them out this time.
The booger-eater and Perry Stevenson aren’t going to combine for 34 points, 15 boards, and 8 blocks each night out, but hopefully they’ll log more minutes together in the future.
It was certainly good to see Meeks show a glimpse of the explosive quickness that makes him such a threat with the ball, and Jasper played a solid game. Not to blame this season on injuries, but it this team has a completely different chemistry when those guys are on the court.
I don’t think this game will make as much of a Selection Sunday splash as the guys from College Gameday do, however, because Tennessee rarely wins at Rupp. Either way – the Cats finally have a signature victory of which to be proud.
January 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
The question is, what are they going to do with said victory? Are they going to piss it away and lose to South Carolina and Georgia or will they move forward and actually win some games… on a consecutive basis?