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Who: (4)Villanova @ (5) West Virgina
When: February 8th @ 7pm on ESPN
Why:Villanova just got done getting manhandled by Georgetown. Villanova made a run at the beginning of the second half with Scottie Reynolds scoring the first 7 points of the half. But Georgetown had an answer for each and every run that Villanova could muster. West Viriginia has become a hot bed of controversy lately. The fans seem to be taking things a little too far and that could be a direct reflection of the leadership (head coach). Even though he’s asked fans to tone it down a bit, they have taken on a mob mentality and could care less. West Virginia is coming off a tough road win against St. Johns. They were down 16 at one point but ended up blowing them out in the end. It will be a tough Big East battle to say the least. Should be a good game

TK’s Pick: I give the nod to WVU. They have a tall/fast lineup that will be able to hold keep up with a guard heavy Nova team.
Alan’s Pick: I’ll go with Villanova just to be different.  I think Nova will bounce back after their humiliating loss to Georgetown and be ready to play.  Just watch out for flying batteries.

Who:(1)Kansas @ (14)Texas
When:February 8th @ 9pm on ESPN

Why: Kansas struggled against a mediocre Colorado team and needed OT to put them away. Nebraska gave Kansas a game for a little while but Kansas put them away late in the 2nd half. Texas on the other hand, they’ve been struggling mightily. The Longhorns have lost 4 out of the last 6 and are coming off a lost on the road to an unranked Oklahoma team. They definitely aren’t looking like the team they were early on and I’m sure a lot of people are wondering what’s going on in Austin. Nonetheless, this is a huge rivarly game and I think Texas will still give Kansas a game.

TK’s Pick:Texas will bounce back and bounce Kansas from #1 once more. The merry go round of who is the best will continue to go around and around.
Alan’s Pick: Going with Texas here.  As the above says, Kansas struggles with mediocre teams, even on their home court.  Texas has something to prove after getting exposed.

Who: Alabama @ (3)Kentucky
When: February 9th @ 9pm on ESPNU
Why:Cats will move up after a Nova loss this past weekend. Cats must remain focused and not look ahead to the matchup this weekend against UT. Alabama is still a formidable opponent and shouldn’t be overlooked.

TK’s Pick:Cats by a lot. Hopefully, by playing bad teams, they can develop a killer instinct and keep teams out of the game. It will come in handy come March
Alan’s Pick: Kentucky, of course.

Who: (8)Duke vs UNC
When:February 10th @ 9pm on ESPN
Why:Despite the fact that UNC has lost 6 out of the last 7 games, this is still a rivalry that is a whole nother beast. Even though UNC may be having a down year, this one is always a barn burner and is worth watching. It’s given us a lot of memorable images (Psycho T’s bloody nose) to seeing puke fans crying. If you have nothing better to do, it’s worth watching

TK’s Pick:UNC is a terrible team, so nothing would give me more pleasure than to see a team that won’t make the tourney beat Puke.
Alan’s Pick: As much as it pains me, I’m going with Duke.  Although like TK says, nothing would give me more pleasure to see a pathetic UNC beat Duke at Cameron.

Who:(12)Tennessee @ (3)Kentucky
When:February 13th @ 9pm on ESPN
Why:Why not? Are you kidding me? College Gameday is schedule to be in Lexington that day. Bobby Knight won’t be able to make it, sad face. (Not really) Tennessee comes in with high hopes and Kentucky will look to bring them back down to earth. Kentucky native Scotty Hopson has been coming along nicely this season. It will be interesting to see Miller and Hopson go at it once again.

TK’s Pick:Kentucky wins this game and will once again be ranked #1 after Texas beats Kansas.
Alan’s Pick: Agreed.

Perhaps the Colts should take a page from another Payton’s playbook. For the past decade, the Colts have been nothing short of conservative. Always playing it safe and never taking chances. Being conservative has once again ended the Colts season in disappointments and a handful of what if’s.

I feel like I brought this upon myself. Watching the Colt’s defense, I can’t hate the choice that I made some years ago to be a Colt’s fan. Watching the defense bend and eventually breaking gives me horrific flashbacks of watching UK’s defense. Opponents are able to sustain long drives against a defense that doesn’t give up the big play and doesn’t give the offense a chance to get on the field. In the Colts case, you don’t let #18 do what he does best, control the game.

Ballsy play-calling was the deciding factor in last nights game. The Colts were set to get the ball back to start the 2nd half with a 4 point lead. Had the Colts recovered that kick off, it could have changed the whole complexion and outcome of the game. Manning would have had excellent field position and could have potentially scored and had a 11 point lead. The moment definitely shifted and the Colts no longer had the lead like they are accustomed to having. The Colts team is built on putting up points and forcing teams to throw. Which allows the smaller, faster defense to pin it’s ears back and go after the quarterback. Indy has never been great about playing from behind. The Saints knew that something needed to happen to change the momentum of the game. You weren’t going to win by not taking chances and I commend the Saints and Payton for being aggressive against the Colts. They knew they weren’t going to turn the ball over 5 times like the Vikings did. They came out ready to play and earned their first Super Bowl Championship. Congratulations.

We all know Bobby Knight is a bully and a hypocrite.  Larry Vaught decided to point it out.  I’m glad someone with some reach in the media is saying something.

Maybe I’ve not always agreed with Bobby Knight’s words or actions, but at least I always believed he was courageous.

Guess what? I was wrong.

If Knight was courageous, he would still be coming to Rupp Arena Saturday as part of ESPN’s GameDay crew. Instead, ESPN is making a lame excuse for why Knight can’t come and face a Rupp Arena crowd of over 20,000 after blasting UK coach John Calipari earlier this year.

Someone decided to get creative on the LSU Rivals message board:

Tim Patterson *just* announced he is going to UK and signed his letter of intent.  The linebacker picked Kentucky over his hometown team Louisville.

Wow, InsideTheVille must be embarrassed:

By Mike Hughes Editor and Publisher Date: Feb 2, 2010 Tim Patterson narrowed his college choices down to Louisville and Kentucky. Wednesday morning, the three-star linebacker from Louisville (KY) Central chose the Cardinals over the Wildcats.

From UKAthletics.com, here is the latest information on UK’s football signees:

Name	Position	Ht.	Wt.	Cl.-Exp.	Hometown	High School/Last College
Josh Gibbs	DB	5-10	190	Jr-JC	Long Beach, Calif.	Valencia/College of the Canyons
Justin Henderson	DL	6-3	231	Fr-HS	Bamberg, S.C.	Bamberg-Ehrhardt
Tyler Brause	ATH	6-4	220	Fr-HS	Sycamore, Ohio	Wynford
Alvin Davis	DL	6-4	228	Fr.-HS	Jesup, Ga.	Wayne County
Mike Evans-Douglas	DE	6-4	225	Fr.-HS	Clearwater, Fla.	Largo
Brandon Gainer	RB	5-11	200	Fr.-HS	Miami, Fla.	Central
Jabari Johnson	LB	6-2	220	Fr.-HS	Stone Mountain, Ga.	Stephenson
Brice Laughlin	DL	6-3	280	Fr.-HS	Summerville, S.C.	Summerville
Miles Simpson	RB	6-2	210	Fr.-HS	Independence, Ky.	Simon Kenton
Alex Smith	TE	6-5	255	Fr.-HS	Cincinnati, Ohio	Lakota West
Norman Delic	DL	6-5	259	Fr.-HS	Dalton, Ga.	Northwest Whitfield
Joseph Mansour	K/P	6-2	181	Fr.-HS	LaGrange, Ga.	LaGrange
Malcolm McDuffen	LB	6-3	205	Fr.-HS	Hopkinsville, Ky.	Christian County
Eric Simmons	DB	6-0	185	Fr.-HS	Atlanta, Ga.	Westlake
Avery Williamson	LB	6-1	220	Fr.-HS	Milan, Tenn.	Milan

For the latest official signee information, visit the UKAthletics.com signing day live blog.

I think it’s a pretty terrible idea to be honest. The regular season will be a moot point. And who wants to see the NIT field in the NCAA tournament? Anyhow, I thought this video pretty much sums it up:

NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams

NCAA Expands March Madness To Include 4,096 Teams

Who: (9)Texas @ Oklahoma State
When: February 1st @ 9pm on ESPN
Why: The longhorns just dropped another tough game at home against a decent Baylor team that played Kansas close as well. People might be starting to worry that Rick Barnes has already peaked and this team is doomed for failure like all of his previous teams in the tournament. But it’s not tourney time yet and the season isn’t even half over. Can the Longhorns pull it together and make a deep run in March? It’ll be interesting to see how they rebound against a Oklahoma State team who went into the Octagon of doom and came out the victor. Oklahoma State didn’t last the 90 minutes of hell over the weekend but they may give Texas a good game

My Pick: Texas will rebound and win on the road to gain some of their confidence back.

Who: (25)Mississipi @ (4)Kentucky
When: February 2nd @ 7pm on ESPN
Why: Kentucky beat Vandy convincingly at home to rebound after their first loss of the season. Kentucky had to go deep into the bench because of foul trouble early and still held off Vandy to win by a large margin. Ole Miss also went into the Octagon of Doom and won so this team isn’t a team to sleep on. They could very well upset Kentucky at home if the cats aren’t helpful. There are some grumblings that Wall isn’t happy, so it’ll be interesting to see how UK responds.

My Pick:UK wins…by a lot.

Who:(22)Pittsburgh @ (6)West Virginia
When: February 3rd on ESPN Fullcourt
Why:Pittsburgh recently lost at home against a Georgetown team on the rise and a Seton Hall team on the road. Although the filthy cards played both of these pretty close, I figured Pittsburgh was a better team than they seem to be. West Virginia was down against the cards but pulled it out in the end (that’s what she said). It will be a classic Big East bruising battle. Pittsburgh needs a win to stay relevant and West Viriginia needs to keep winning to show they are worthy of a top ten ranking

My Pick: West Virginia will be too much for Pitt at home. It will be a close one but WVU will win in the end.

Who: (21)Georgia Tech @ (10)Duke
When: February 4th @ 7pm on ESPN2
Why: Round 2 of an underwhelming ACC battle. Georgia Tech already beat Duke at home and must take their show on the road. Duke was embarrassed over the weekend by Georgetown as the President looked on. It will be interesting to see how the Dookies respond after getting trounced at Georgetown.

My Pick: Get out the brooms!

Who: (4)Kentucky @ LSU
When: February 6th @ 4pm on ESPN Fullcourt
Why:The cats are playing, that’s why

My Pick:Kentucky wins on the road in a close one.

Who:(2)Villanova @ (8)Georgetown
When: February 6th @ 12pm
Why:Personally, I think Villanova is a bit overrated. Scotty Reynolds is a dynamic player and can get it done in a number of ways. But I don’t think they can hold off a rising Georgetown team that may be hitting their stride in time for March. Monroe has been coming on as of late and they are getting good guard play from their young players. This will be an interesting one to watch to see if Nova really is the #2 team in the nation

My Pick: Georgetown will be too much for Nova. They win it in a close one at home.

Alan Cutler lets us know that John Wall is frustrated.  Apparently he’s not been having as much fun over the last couple of weeks, which is to be expected from time to time.

Now it seems as though ESPN has picked up on the frustration of Wall with an insiders only article.  I’m not an insider so I can only assume it comes from the above article.

Recently, to ease criticism of Patrick Patterson having a bad game at South Carolina, John Calipari brought up that Wall had a bad game as well.  Which is likely what led to this quote from the article:

“I didn’t think I played that bad. I don’t know what to expect. He’s probably going to say I played bad today too so. I don’t know. I just try not to listen to him and go out and play basketball and try and help my team win.”

So John Wall doesn’t listen to Calipari?  Not likely.  Let’s make a small change to the quote and see what happens:

“I didn’t think I played that bad. I don’t know what to expect. He’s probably going to say I played bad today too so. I don’t know. I just try not to listen to him take it personally and go out and play basketball and try and help my team win.”

There.  Now it’s a non-story.  Sorry media.

Here is a good read from CNNSI.  It focuses on John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, and has its funny moments.  One of which is:

“Goofy,” Bledsoe says of Wall. Bledsoe says Wall occasionally speaks a language no one understands. Not long ago, some players paid a visit to a local chicken joint named Indi’s. Wall ordered “oysters.”

“You at a chicken spot,” he was told. “Ain’t no oysters here.”

Wall insisted that any decent chicken place in the South would offer a side of oysters. Turns out, what Wall wanted was okra. Wall plays a better game than he talks. Bledsoe and his teammates found this amusing. “They did have okra,” Bledsoe says, still laughing on Wednesday.

It goes on to talk about Beldsoe’s coach worrying about how the guard would find minutes at Kentucky.  It also has Bledsoe’s thoughts on the situation.

“I was tired of being The Guy,” he says. “I wanted to put myself with a bunch of other talented people. I want to win a championship and you can’t win it by yourself in college.” Being Robin to Batman is OK, then?

But the article also brings up South Carolina and Devan Downey  Just ignore that part.