Eye, if not bite, of the Tiger

There were times in last night's 71-62 bludgeoning of the Auburn Tigers that Kentucky looked quite possibly the best it has looked offensively all season. It was not, however, in the final 12:00 of the game, when Tubby Smith and his boys seemed to take their foot off the pedal and wait for Jeff Lebo's hack-a-whomever strategy to end the game. Was the game encouraging given the offensive struggles of recent weeks? Yes, it was. Was it a perfect win? Not by a long stretch.

I don't often find myself pining for the Days of Rick, and the reasons have been spelled out here in much more detail previously. To sum it up, while Rick Pitino was a fantastic coach, and was the perfect mix of bravado and coaching skill that a bankrupt Kentucky program and fanbase needed at the time, he made his choices, ran things his way and left town on his terms. Thus, I'm over him.

Additionally, the personality differences between Pitino and Smith being vast, the stamp Tubby has put on the program -- specifically exuding class, teamwork and good sportsmanship -- are much preferred to me over the used car smell of Pitino.

But there is one thing in particular that has always been maddening about the Tubby Smith era at Kentucky that did not exist in Pitino's Big Blue world, and though it ties in directly with those things that I like and respect about the man, it hampers the program at times: He simply refuses to blow people out.

As a general rule, this is, of course, a good thing. Running up the score for show is a useless and demeaning enterprise, something I would equate with a Billy Tubbs or Tom Penders. This is not the BCS we're talking about here, and 7 times out of 10, a comfortable 7-point win is no different than a 21-point win except to fans who like to puff their chests out on opposing teams' message boards or some such uselessness. However ...

One thing that a big win does give a team is confidence and swagger and a little intimidation factor, things that even Smith himself has to admit this year's edition of the Cats could use in droves.

Granted, Lebo's young, awful Tigers took any of the edge out of the game by fouling so often and with so little realistic chance of winning that Mr. Wildcat Bill Keightley probably caught a few ZZZs on the end of the bench in a second half that was eerily reminiscent of a Big Ten 7 PM matchup (SIDENOTE: It was nice to return the favor after years of missing the first 5 minutes of SEC contests while Purdue karate chopped its way to a 9-point loss to some "rival" ... ). But it was abundantly clear that Tubby and his team pulled back and went into dribbling mode to shorten the game.

Now, Smith knows more about coaching basketball than I -- or anyone who reads this -- will ever know. I'll accept that he's neither reading nor caring. But even a fan knows there is something to be said for (a) instilling your future opponents with some sense of fear or hesitancy after a wimpy SEC start and (b) providing the media with something to chew on when your team is unranked and is barely being covered.


This isn't to say that I favor running up the score. Far from it. Were Auburn to have gone into a spread zone last night, then by all means wait for the fouls. But they weren't. They were trapping and playing defense without fouling for a good three minutes late, and Tubby still sort of avoided the goal. Some of this points to a Tubby trait that I guess we just will have to grudgingly accept is not part of his makeup. The man is media unsavvy.

He (most likely) does not care what anyone thinks of his team except himself. And while that may be admirable in a personal sense, it's aggravating from a fan's perspective. Even at a name school like Kentucky there is such a thing as "selling the program," and where Pitino probably goes overboard in this regard, Tubby stubbornly refuses to even come above deck. So long as the wins pile up, it remains a semantic argument, I suppose. But I don't think I'm alone is believing that winning is very much a state of mind, and that uber-confidence of the sort that puts the Wildcats back in the tournament picture may require more than competent victory. It may require a little edginess on the part of Smith and his Cats. Something tells me that his team would love to bury a few people after suffering embarassing losses to Kansas and Indiana.

But after watching his teams generally coast with big leads now for going on nine years, I'm sorry to report that it appears that edginess simply is not part of Tubby Smith's universe. Oh, well.

None of this should detract from what, ultimately, was a satisfying win. Continuing with a theme I began a few games ago, this team keeps showing its potential in fits and starts. Despite allowing 50% shooting in the first half, the Wildcats played good all-around defense in forcing already error-prone Auburn into 11 first-half turnovers and holding them to just 28 points. Kentucky shot 71% (17-24) on free-throws in the second half when Auburn tried to (and did) get back into the game by fouling incessantly. The Cats also held Auburn to 36% shooting in the second frame. Getting outrebounded 35-34 for the game, however, is unnacceptable. Morris' illness probably contributed to his 0-rebound performance, though it probably didn't contribute to Sheray Thomas or Patrick Sparks' nils.


Joe Crawford had perhaps his best game as a Cat, tallying 23 points on 4-6 three-pointers and a whopping 9-of-11 at the charity stripe. Such is the sort of potent scoring that Crawford is both capable of and expected to provide. It marks the second consecutive game (and win) in which Joe C. led the team in scoring. For Kentucky to have any sort of SEC and/or NCAA tournament future, it will be imperative that Crawford continue to develop into a reliable 15 points a game man. With Sparks running the point (5 assists), Rajon Rondo providing the glue (12 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists), Randolph Morris giving the Cats something in the paint (8 points in a foul-plagued, playing through sickness performance) and Ramel Bradley and a suddenly effective Bobby Perry (7 points, 4 rebounds), a dangerous and hot shooting Crawford could elevate UK's overall strength tremendously and, as my optimistic side has stated on these pages before, have the Cats as a potentially nightmarish mid-seed opponent in the tournament. I, for one, thought that Perry infused last night's start with some much needed energy, and believe that Tubby should consider that starting five again, as it was the best start energy-wise since Louisville.

Nearly everyone -- many Cats fans included -- is writing off the Cats' chances after the 0-2 league start. While a run of the table the rest of the way seems impossible, there is no such thing as a loss until a loss happens. As it stands right now, Kentucky is exactly one-half game behind the SEC East leaders, and with 11 more league games remaining (12 for West-leading LSU), the title is still there for the taking. I, for one, don't have any belief that John Brady can go undefeated in the SEC. And Billy Donovan's Gators still have to beat UK twice to win the East. It says here that Kentucky is in the hunt and, after the league start it had, that in itself is something to build on.

It's good to see Kentucky growing some fangs. The 18-point bulge at the beginning of the second half was the sort of thing everyone expected in annointing the Cats a top-10 team to start the year. That it has taken such a circuitous route to get there is immaterial in the long run. But winning effectively is just one part of the equation -- just as Crawford's scoring and hopefully some improved UK defense are -- and no UK fan will truly feel relaxed and confident in this team until, for one full game, the Cats can put all these pieces into a whole.

I, for one, am encouraged by the signs. I'm just itching to see when, not if, things come together.