Quote:
Originally Posted by Braincase
Didn't we already play at MSG? Congrats to Mizzou on our sloppy seconds.
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I guess you did. Nice job. I think you mean Kentucky's sloppy seconds, though.
Kentucky outshines Kansas in Madison Square Garden
Season to season, the Kentucky Wildcats ooze flamboyancy and supremacy. Whether they win it all or not, any team coached by John Calipari consistently frightens opponents and amazes oglers.
"There's no kid on our team other than Tyshawn that's played a big boy game like this," coach Bill Self said.
On Tuesday night, Calipari’s high flyers matched the glitz of the shining hardwood at Madison Square Garden and trumped No. 11 Kansas 75-65. At first, the theatrics didn’t resemble a fairy tale. Shots were swatted, not celebrated. Crossovers led to tumbles, not easy baskets. Both Jayhawks and Wildcats hacked arms freely.
"We didn't take care of the ball like how we practiced," Taylor said.
In his team’s final possession of the first half, senior guard Tyshawn Taylor dribbled the seconds away, deked toward the hoop, then fell flat to that shining hardwood. By halftime, the score was tied at 28, but from there, all of Kansas’ momentum died and never returned. At the start of the second half, the Wildcats blocked, sprinted and dunked their way to an 8-0 run.
The Jayhawks either turned the ball over or watched their shots skip to the sideline following a block. Taylor drove to the hoop but repeatedly met the same fate in freshman forward Anthony Davis, who deflected nearly everything he could reach. Senior guard Conner Teahan, the team’s best shooter so far in the young season, went cold from deep. Junior forward Thomas Robinson fouled too often and missed layups that he usually dunks at Allen Fieldhouse.
"We got beside ourselves on a couple of plays," junior guard Elijah Johnson said. "We felt it."
Once the Wildcats got going, all normalcy dissipated. Any time the Jayhawks found a sliver of rhythm, their superior foe topped it with a 3-point swish or a powerful dunk.
Self was far removed from the glory of his 2008 national championship victory over Calipari, who then coached Memphis. Self tried to stall Kentucky with timeout after timeout, but the Wildcats never stopped running. He tried to find lineups that could score effectively against the length and speed of the defense, substituting players back and forth like boomerangs.
It just never worked. As a slowly increasing deficit tip-toed into the reality of a loss, Self could do nothing but stare at the dominance of some of the players he once failed to recruit.
Kentucky, flush with NBA talent, was meant for the glamour of the night. Kansas, still scattered with mystery, faltered under the lights in an early chapter of what may be an atypical ride.
