Fine line of emotions brings out the best in UK

By Eric Lindsey on March 13, 2010 5:46 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
NASHVILLE -- The Tennessee Volunteers predicted that the team to throw the first punch would win Saturday's Kentucky-Tennessee semifinal game.

As it turns out, it was the team that didn't throw any jabs that will be advancing to the Southeastern Conference championship for the first time since 2005.

Kentucky walked a fine line of emotions and trash talking on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena in its 74-45 rout of Tennessee, Bruce Pearl's most lopsided career loss in the SEC. As it turns out, the emotions, verbal sparring and Melvin Goins jab at DeMarcus Cousins' groin was just the right formula to fully awaken a sleeping giant.

The Cats, to their credit, withstood the Goins cheap shot (he was immediately ejected) and held their composure just enough to ride a wave of emotions in the pummeling of Tennessee.

"I was a little heated after that (incident with Goins)," said Cousins, who thumped the Volunteers for 19 points and 15 rebounds, his 19th double-double of the year. "It was a good, competitive, clean game and that just changed the whole game."

It was just one of several altercations during a brutally physical, nasty rivalry game that featured four technicals, one ejection and a whole lot of R-rated vernacular. The teams not only trash talked and pushed each other but fired back at their own teammates and coaches.

Early in the first half, freshman forward Daniel Orton and UK coach John Calipari got into a very heated and visible argument that sent Orton to the locker room. A pair of UK assistant coaches quickly calmed him down and Orton returned to the court and the game with an apologetic hand shake with his coach.

"It was just emotions," Orton said. "Everybody got caught up in the moment. Basketball is a really emotional sport. I think everybody just got caught up in it. A few words were exchanged but we apologized about it."

Orton got in a war of words with Tennessee forward Wayne Chism in the second half for a pair of technicals before Goins hit Cousins with a jab to the midsection for two more Ts and an ejection. It was a dangerously fine line for both teams in a game that nearly got out of hand, but it was the perfect mix of motivation for a Kentucky team that possesses all the right skills for a championship run.

When push came to shove, UK unveiled its complete arsenal. Cousins went wild, John Wall was John Wall (14 points, nine assists and six rebounds), and Kentucky's perimeter shooters - gasp! - actually hit three-point shots (8-of-22 from behind the arc, including a career-high five trey from freshman guard Eric Bledsoe).

For a team that's had its fair share of lapses, UK finally put its foot on the pedal for an entire 40 minutes and showed what it's capable of when everything is clicking. The Volunteers pushed the wrong buttons and never knew what hit them.

"Just about any team we play, (if) we're making threes like that, because of the way we guard, because of how big we are, because we have a post presence, we become pretty good," Calipari said.

Bledsoe and sophomore guard Darnell Dodson broke out of a late-season three-point shooting slump to hit four big triples during a 29-6 game-ending run. It makes you wonder, if UK can find that type of emotion, get that type of production from Cousins and Wall, play that type of ferocious defense (UT shot 30.9 percent), and hit those types of outside shots, what's to stop them from title No. 8?

"The game is so much easier," Cousins said. "We're such a better team when we're knocking down shots. We can shoot the ball. We've just been struggling lately. When we're hitting, it's a lot more easy."

The three-point shots were big, but Saturday was more about the complete effort UK gave. When Tennessee (literally) punched, UK (figuratively) hit back.

The Vols presented the right type of nastiness and hostility to evoke the killer instinct and attitude everybody has been clamoring for. It's been the only missing ingredient on this 31-2 team.

"It's just because it's Tennessee," junior forward Patrick Patterson said. "I think it's one of our rivals, so whenever you play your rival, it's always going to be a lot more pushing, shoving, elbows and a lot more physical game.

But Tennessee certainly won't be there throughout the Big Dance to motivate the Cats like they did Saturday. In lieu of the Vols, maybe the Cats need more in-the-face altercations like the ones Calipari got into with Orton and Cousins.

Patterson said they thrive off the emotion their first-year head coach instills in them.

"It happens every day," Patterson said. "Whether you think you did the right thing or whether you didn't. You may have one thought in your mind but Coach Cal has a different one. As a coach he's right pretty much every single time. Everybody gets mad, everybody gets heated on this team."

But they never hold grudges, Patterson said, and judging by Saturday's game, they play better when they're mad. When it's channeled in the right manner - and not in the form of technicals - it makes for an ever better Kentucky team.

Remember the UK squad that fell behind 18-4 at Tennessee? The difference between that team and the one that bludgeoned Tennessee was all between the ears.

"I know this, if we play like we did today, we'll be fine, we'll march," Calipari said. "They want to win. They have a will to win. They refuse to lose. I've got to give it to the team."

He has to give them credit because the Cats finally unveiled their entire arsenal and full potential. All it took was a fine line of emotions to get there.