UK/UGA

Well, it's that time of year again, when the youthful, Calipari-led Cats set out to prove why an inexperienced team can never win a national title. It happened last Saturday at South Carolina, and it happened again today at Rupp Arena. Kentucky jumped out to a big lead in the second half of a game and then allowed its opponent to cut the lead nerve-wrackingly close but eventually finished them off.

If history teaches us anything, it is that teams that allow this to happen time after time eventually get burned. Good teams will usually pull out the wins once they open up a sizable lead; great teams will step on the throats of their opponents and blow them away. At this point in the year, it's obvious to see that the Cats fall into the former category.

And the kind of lackadaisical play we saw today from Kentucky is certainly not a sign of good things to come, especially once we have to face quality SEC opponents like Tennessee, Florida and Vanderbilt.

Doron Lamb had a huge game, but once Georgia adjusted and switched to a man-to-man defense in the second half, the Cats really had a difficult time making shots and creating opportunities off the dribble. Teams can't play zone against UK because they shoot the ball too well, and teams shouldn't be able to handle our speed and athleticism if they switch to a man-to-man, but for some reason that wasn't the case today.

Hopefully these games are just blips on the radar. Hopefully Kentucky will come out and absolutely obliterate Ole Miss on Tuesday. But I have a (tiny) gut feeling that these second half letdowns will eventually cost the Cats at least two or three games, in turn costing them a few seeds in the tourney, in turn leading to an early exit from the tournament.

But hopefully I'm dead wrong.

Hopefully.