Give it to Rondo, get out of the way

After dominating a glorified pick-up game last Saturday to the tune of 33 points, 8 dimes and a whopping 8 steals, Rajon Rondo seems prepared to take matters into his own hands this year for the Cats. While the annual Blue-White game is hardly battling Texas, Rondo's 3 threes were telling.

Rondo spent the summer beating out ESPN scribe favorites Darius Washington and Marcus Williams for the starting job on the Under 21 US National team. Rondo showed such great floor leadership and vision that (according to ESPN draft "guru" Chad Ford) NBA scouts were rocketting the young Louisville native to the top of their point guard draft charts.



But more immediately, and more importantly for us UK nerdz, Rondo represents something UK fans haven't had in two decades -- a nationally recognized star point guard. Wayne Turner, Anthony Epps et al were fantastic, and performed well in clutch situation. But since the days of Kyle Macy, Kentucky hasn't had an All-American point guard. Rondo is on his way toward reversing that trend.

The most impressive thing to me is Rondo's desire to improve. You could see last year how he soaked up Tubby's offensive schemes, often getting tete-a-tetes while teammates shot free throws. It's obviously paying off.

The thing the Wildcats have to avoid now is standing around and watching the magician do his thang.

And the rankings begin...

It's two days until the Big Blue Madness, and I am stoked. Yes, stoked. I can still remember attending Midnight Madness in 1992, as Jamal Mashburn came out to a hero's welcome and can't miss superstar Rodrick Rhodes walked out from among an army of blue-clad maniacs with a grin from ear to ear. Can't miss, baby...sigh.

In addition to CBS Sportsline's Gregg Doyel's dubious Top 10 point guards rankings, scribes the web over are beginning to piece together top 25 lists. My first reaction is that (Kentucky aside) too many have clearly paid too little attention to what's happened over the summer and have relied on what they see on paper. For instance, why is UCONN's Laptopgate seeming to have no effect on their preseason status? And I'm not talking ab out the fact that Coach Calhoun dropped the ball in disciplining his starting PG. No one honestly believes this will adversely affect the team at all? Sketchy.


"Can't miss" hoops blogger Yoni Cohen has done the hard work for us, compiling a list of prominent "experts" and their early top 25s. I'll concede it's very tough to judge how early season struggles/injuries etc will play out. Some teams will lose an early game or two and then catch fire, while others (Pittsburgh, Georgetown) will play no one for two months and then hit conference play like a teenager driving a stick-shift.

Suffice it to say, I happen to believe UK is a top 11 team (see below post), and that while Courier-Journal's Jerry Brewer may be a little optimistic with his #4 ranking, we're much better than Doyel wants to believe, if only because of Rondo and Sparks.

But only two more days until all the posturing becomes moot ... I, for one, cannot wait.

We'll show 'em again

One of my side projects is writing mostly college hoops/scouting for DraftExpress.com, a fine and hard-working web site devoted to the NBA draft. The site is run by a Florida grad, and he and I both know that we have a hard time coming to grips with (a) our Homerism and (b) the fact that Kentucky is just better than Florida.

Why do I mention this? Because I lost the battle, though not the war. DraftExpress' preseason college hoops rankings are coming out in bits, and after much discussion, I was unable to convince my colleagues (mostly one of them hint hint) that UK was better than Alabama and that UK was worthy of a top 11 position.
Now, I personally don't feel I was being a homer in this instance. Purely on talent and experience, Kentucky is one of the 11 best teams in the country. Here's 11 quick reasons why (there are many more):


(1) Rajon Rondo stealing the ball
(2) Rajon Rondo running the show
(3) Shagari Alleyne coming of age
(4) Rekalin Sims filling in for Hayes
(5) Joe Crawford playing more minutes
(6) Sheray Thomas playing healthy
(7) Bobby Perry doin' his best Allen Edwards impression
(8) Ravi Moss saving UK's ass over and over
(9) Patrick Sparks leaning in to draw fouls on Louisville
(10) Ramel Bradley scoring and shooting threes like a pro
(11) Tubby Smith Tubby Smith Tubby Smith

Why do I keep insisting on 11 and not top 10? Well, there are questions. Randolph Morris' impending suspension is one, Rondo's ability to grow without getting too big for his own head is another. Perry's go-to abilities, Sparks' shooting percentage and Shagari/Woo's usefulness are all on the table.

But we're better than Louisville and Alabama and several others, and it's just going to have to be up to Tubby & Co. AGAIN to show the world they are a top 5 team.

And Meeks makes it two...

Tubby Smith is fast making Kentucky "point guard U" ... Well, maybe "combo guard U."

At any rate, fresh off landing a committment from rising senior point guard Derrick Jasper of California, Tubby used his trump card (something many recruiting fans wish he'd try more often) and swooped into Norcross, Georgia, to land one of the country's better combo guards in Jodie Meeks.

Meeks, who was narrowing his choices to Bama and Florida, wasn't even on the Cats' recruiting radar for all intents and purposes until recently, when UK decided to pursue. A few weeks -- and a whirlwind official visit -- later, and Meeks was in the fold.

Meeks' verbal brings to three the number of guards in Tubby's 2006 frosh class (Modesto prep Michael Porter being the other). It's fair to say Coach must anticipate the possibility of losing Rajon Rondo to the pros, or is at least getting the stable full of thoroughbreds for when Rondo, Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley are no longer all on campus.

Film clips available of Meeks, while certainly of dubious and Zapruder-like quality, show a player similar in size and strength to former standout Gerald Fitch. Fitch was a diamond in the rough, however, while Meeks is actually ranked top 40 in most recruiting gurus' rankings. He's tall by college standards at 6'4", a serious leaper and has a man's body. While his shot is nowhere near as good, and I'm not comparing him gamewise at all yet, his style reminded me of Duke's Jason Williams, who was always strong to the hole.

All that's left now is for Reggie Hanson and Co. to reel in one of two big fish left on the UK wish list, Tennessee bigs Brandan Wright (consensus #2) and Thaddeus Young (#1 cool name). Disinformation has Young high on Arkansas while Wright is hearing sales pitches from Coach K. Meanwhile, Tubby remains cool and collected as ever.

I really have grown to love Tubby's recruiting style. It's nervewracking to the degree that it's not publicly done (a la Pitino), but he always seems to carry himself (and thus UK) with class, never begging or grovelling, and I think it's paying dividends. I'll be the first (not at all) to say that being an African-American coach in such a high profile job has to be a bonus for some of these kids. Young has said as much in interviews. But more than that, Smith doesn't panic and seems to have finally found his comfort zone between "good character" kids and McDonald's All-Americans.

And that bodes very well for Big Blue Nation.