The Morning After: Was it Good for You?

Cornell students after a vigorous "Study Session".

There was a great amount of anticipation built up around this game. Jocks vs. Geeks. Smart Kids vs. Dumb Kids. The NBA vs. The MBA's. The NBA players vs. the future NBA owners. When it came down to it in the end, one team was clearly dominant over the other.

Kentucky wins 62-45.The story here is Kentucky's defense. The Cats continued their stellar work on the defensive side of things in the game last night. They held Cornell to 5-21 (24%) from the three point line, 16-48 (33%) from the field and 45 points. All season lows for the Big Red. The offensive powerhouse was completely shut down last night. UK guarded the perimeter like their lives depended on it and they were just too big and too strong in the middle.

It wasn't like Kentucky didn't show some flaws. They let Cornell jump to a quick 10-2 lead. They shot 44% from the field, a terrible 13% from the three point line and, in my opinion, a really bad 62% from the charity stripe. It would have been a lot lower if Bledsoe would not have caught fire from the free throw line late in the game.

But what UK lacked in shooting ability they made up for it with hustle, speed and athleticism. The Cats were diving for loose balls, out rebounding the Big Red and out running the Big Red. To me, DeMarcus Cousins looked like he wants a championship more than anything in the world. He was diving, jumping, scrapping and pounding his way to the rim. He played like the dominant force that he is. He ended the game with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals.

Another player that really stepped up was Darrius Miller. This was his second game in this tournament of playing well. He didn't light up the score board but ended with workman like numbers: 9 points, 3 steals and 4 assists.

John Wall may have seen like he had an unspectacular game and if you assumed that you would be wrong. Wall went from scorer to facilitator. He finished with 8 points, 8 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 steals and only 3 turnovers. Extremely solid numbers that bordered on a double-double. He did everything right and did what it took to win the game.

And let's not forget Patrick Patterson. Kentucky's workhorse added 9 points, 3 blocks, 2 steals ad 12 rebounds. No one player stood out among them. This was a team effort all the way. The team played well and did all of the little things that they needed to do to ensure victory. The effort was amazing.

The stunning defensive effort gave UK 6 blocks, 12 steals and 28 defensive rebounds. Cornell had a total of 28 rebounds. So much for experience.

Now for the bad news: The Cats missed a lot of open three pointers and they missed a lot of free throws. That is not going to cut it against Huggy Bear and his boys. The offensive firepower that was on display the first two games of the tournament was lacking against Cornell. I chalk this up to a few things: the crowd was very pro Cornell, the refs were doing everything in their power to slow the game down even more and keep Cornell in the game. I am usually the last guy to blame anything on refs. I hate it when people do it but it was obvious. A Louisville fan texted me last night saying how it was obvious. Jay Bilas, who picked Cornell, saw it was obvious, even going as far as to openly chastise the refs for missing a blatant intentional foul on Cornell's 7 footer. Anytime a UK player barely bumped a Cornell player the whistle blew but Cornell was allowed to bang and scrap away.

The refs can't be blamed for the poor free throw and three point shooting. The Cats needs to get their shot back against WVU, a team that is notorious for it's poor shooting.

And now on to the Elite Eight, somewhere the Cats haven't been since 2005. Just the fact that they made it there is just as good as a national championship according to Louisville's standards. Not to Kentucky's. We want banner #8. The team looks hungry. The team looks focused. The team looks like they are ready to Land the Plane. The Elite Eight just got a little more elite.