Burlison on Basketball

Frank Burlison | High School Basketball | College Basketball

It was a Blue Saturday night

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NEW ORLEANS – And then there were two . . .

Four and a half months after the fact, that Nov. 15 game played between the Kentucky and Kansas basketball teams in Madison Square Garden is now going to be a prime topic of conversation.

The Wildcats prevailed (75-65) in that one – something called the State Farm Champions Classic.

There will be a tad more at stake when the squads hook up for Round 2 Monday night.

And their national championship confrontation in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome has all of the makings of an honest-to-goodness Classic.

  Coaches John Calipari (Kentucky) and Bill Self (Kansas) have had one of these final-game-of-the-season face-offs before, when Self’s Jayhawks edged Calipari’s then-program – the Memphis Tigers – in overtime in San Antonio for the 2008 national title.

More on that Monday night game later – as in Sunday – but let me throw out some thoughts on the teams’ semifinal victories Saturday night, beginning with . . .

Kentucky got by Louisville, 69-61, in a game that stirred such passion in Lexington that a bunch of UK students started getting goofy, flipping cars over and igniting objects.

Gee, what to do for an encore if the Wildcats actually win a national title Monday night?

As had been anticipated, the Cardinals of Coach Rick Pitino made things a lot more difficult for the Wildcats than has been the case for a team that is now 37-2.

The Cardinals, down 13 points early in the second half, actually tied the score (at 49) on Peyton Siva’s 3-pointer with nine minutes to go.

Alas, what’s a team to do when it is trying to cope with the presence of the unanimous national Player of the Year and very-soon-to-be first pick in the NBA Draft?

As has been the case most of the season for the other Kentucky opponents, the Cardinals were mostly “hoping” against Anthony Davis – as in “hoping” he would not dunk everything within eight feet of the bucket and not swat every attempt they threw up against him.

Davis had just two dunks among his seven field goals (in eight attempts) but he threw in some dazzling jump hooks (with both hands), snatched 14 rebounds and spanked five Louisville shots silly.

The most telling evidence of Davis’ presence Saturday night? Louisville missed a combined 16 dunks and point-blank layups attempts.

Yeah, it’s difficult scoring against an opponent whose wingspan only seems like it covers sideline to sideline . . .

The other four starters were, for the most part, just so-so for the Wildcats Saturday although senior reserve Darius Miller was solid throughout while scoring 13 points.

Fortunately for Calipari and the Wildcats, though, Davis hasn’t been accused of being just “so-so” much at all this season, has he?

The Cardinals were limited to .348 shooting from the field but “defense” – as a concept and entity – didn’t take the rest of the night off once the Wildcats had earned their extra two-day stay in New Orleans.

The Ohio State Buckeyes broke out to their own 13-point advantage late in the first half against Kansas.

The deficit was still nine points at intermission.

When Self’s team took the floor in the second half, it went into lockdown mode against the Buckeyes.

The Buckeyes hit just eight of 33 shots from the field — .242 – over the final 20 minutes.

How many of though 33 were – at least relatively – uncontested?

Maybe or two but certainly none of those came within 15 feet of the iron when 7-foot Jeff Withey was on the floor.

He did his best Anthony Davis impression, blocking seven shots and causing at least that many to be rushed or altered.

Withey was the primary defender against All-American forward Jared Sullinger and, obviously, was the biggest reason Sullinger missed 14 of the 19 shots he put up.

Withey (who originally enrolled at the University of Arizona before transferring after Lute Olson retired) is from San Diego an another junior – guard Elijah Johnson, who had 13 points and 10 rebounds – is from Las Vegas.

So much for “the west” being down – it’s just that a lot of the west’s best players happen to be playing at schools only as far west as Lawrence, Kansas.

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