Kentucky tops in-state rival Louisville

In two games vs. Louisville, he has totaled 35 points, 10 assists, one turnover (65 minutes) and made 6 of 9 on 3-pointers.

WDRB.com columnist Rick Bozich wrote that Calipari topped Pitino again, both on the scoreboard and in “Miss Manners’ competition”. If Louisville screened or crossed, the Wildcats would switch. He has to get it going.

Afterward, Calipari was claiming the trap was a dumb idea. “So thank God they didn’t pick and roll because someone would have made a three and we would have lost by one”.

The switch, though – that worked spectacularly. U of L went to Damion Lee, who led all scorers with 27 points. That’s a 9-inch height gap. His second Kentucky team (1991) had the best record in the league (14-4) but was ineligible for the championship due to the Eddie Sutton-era probation.

-Louisville’s 134 victories over the last five years are the second-most wins in the nation in that stretch.

After Louisville’s 75-73 loss at Kentucky on Saturday, video surfaced on the Internet of Pitino gesturing to the crowd as he walked up the runway to the locker room. In my 50 years of writing about big-time college basketball and football, he is the most entertaining, thoughtful and quotable coach I have ever been around in any sport.

This is not the exclusive difference, though.

NOTES: Kentucky and Louisville came into Saturday’s game heading in opposite directions. Here’s what Calipari’s teams have done through December and where they finished the season. Instead, the Wildcats were clocked twice. “We played with a lot more enthusiasm from the start”.

“We’ve got things that we’ve got to do”, Calipari said. Did you see the block he had coming down in front of our bench?

Lee, the only player on either team to log all 40 minutes of action, said he also got encouragement from Anas Mahmoud, Mangok Mathiang and other teammates.

You have to give credit to good defense.

Calipari is the second-fastest coach in Division I history to reach 200 wins at a school, hitting the mark in his 240th game at Kentucky.

This isn’t to suggest that Kentucky was a one-man show, of course, against a gritty Louisville team that cut a 52-36, second-half United Kingdom lead to 65-64 with 5:34 left. They face an 11-1 Louisville squad with something to prove as well, and Kentucky junior guard Dominique Hawkins believes that beating another quality opponent provides more motivation than the rivalry.

Freshman Jamal Murray had 12 points, his 10th consecutive double-figure game. “‘You’re a great basketball player”.

He also responded to heckling fans with a gesture that brought much debate online. However, the Wildcats had the answers they needed on Saturday. That evened out the technical he earlier called on Calipari. Was that how Calipari figured it would go?