Restore the Roar: A night of Dykeisms and other oddities

If there is one word I can use to describe last night it is this: Bizarre. That is how I will break this article down; the good, the bad and the bizarre.

The Good:
-Darius Miller came off of the bench due to a groin injury and gave an inspired performance. His inspiration came from MSU coach Rick Stansbury. Stansbury instructed his player, Riley Benock, to let Miller shoot. Miller responded by draining a three. He then came down the court and drained another one. He then looked Stansbury dead in the eye. Miller ended up with 13 points. And some of those points came at critical moments in the game. I hope Miller can keep this fire burning. Here is some added inspiration for Darius: "All opposing coaches instruct your players to let Darius Miller shoot. He sucks." I don't mean it. It's a psychological thing.

-The Freshman were again outstanding. Knight and Jones have been great even during the recent losses, Lamb had somewhat disappeared until last night. Jones had another double-double, Knight had 24 points and Lamb ended up with 20. The one knock I have against those guys...Well, I'll get to that during "The Bad" portion.

-30 wins in a row at Rupp. Only one school has a better streak going at home. And I won't mention their name at this time. Going for 31 against the Gamecocks on Saturday.

-The Cats shot a very good 57% from the field in the game. One of their better offensive performances as of late.

-When Calipari walked away from one of those stupid in-game interviews I about lost it. You could tell by the look on his face that the last thing he wanted to do was talk to one of the many ESPN lady sideline talking heads. The man has a team to coach. Can we stop doing these stupid interviews already?

-Jorts was clownin' on Sidney. I stole that from Monster mash.

The Bad:

-After a stellar game against Tennessee, DeAndre Liggins has been awful in the past two games. What is with this inside shuffle pass that he keeps feeding Jorts that is constantly stolen? STOP! Can we please have one game where both Liggins AND Miller play well? That would be awesome!

-The perimeter defense was garbage. MSU put up 22 three's and made 12 of them. We have seen that teams can shoot the three on the Cats. They could last year and they still can this year. Please fix it.

-The freshmen could not hit free throws down the stretch. And we wonder why they can't win close road games. Not only were they blowing free points, they were also turning the ball over at an alarming rate in the last 3 minutes. This game should have been a 17 point victory as Vegas had predicted. Missing: Killer Instinct. Possible Location: Somewhere in Lexington.

The Bizarre:

-The Skycam that ESPN insisted on using was possibly the worst camera angle in the history of television. I couldn't follow what the hell was going on. I felt like I was watching Inception for the first time only this version sucked. I hate how ESPN shoves garbage like the camera angles and in game interviews down our throats. Why do they do it? Because they are the World Wide Leaders and they can. Any organization that allows a degenerate like Chris Berman to work there for as long as he has has to be semi-evil.

-Renardo Sidney is still out of shape and it's February. He walked up and down the court the entire game and played ZERO defense. This guy is a waste of ability and is the second coming of Derrick Caracter.

-The whole Rick Stansbury meltdown was weird. He was yelling at everybody in sight, got a technical, kept yelling, and then started yelling at John Calipari as if he made the call. Cal shrugged his shoulders and said "What did I do?"

-The officiating was horrendous. There were bad calls left and right and the officials looked lost at many points during the game.

-Last but not least, the Dykeisms. Jimmy Dykes came up with some of the dumbest catch phrases known to man last night. "Toknight is the knight for Brandon Knight", "The Wildcats need to Restore the Roar", "Talk about a Lamb in sheep's clothing." And that was just a sampling. I could go replay the game on my DVR but I don't have the energy or the patience at this point.

All in all I am glad for the win but this team hasn't been inspiring as of late. I expect a win against South Carolina at home on Saturday. An away game against Arkansas SHOULD be a win, but this team is in a funk when it comes to road games.

And then the last three games are bruisers. At home against Vandy and Florida and then the last game is away at Tennessee. One of those games against the Gators or the 'Dores could prove to be the first home loss. And at Knoxville will be brutal. It always is.

Let's see how this team finishes the season and let's see how they fare on a neutral floor in the SEC tournament. Those tests will be a great indicator on how March will look for these Cats.