Kentucky Wins SEC Tournament in Houdini Fashion

Andy Lyons - Getty Images

I reported yesterday that Saturday’s UK-Tennessee game was the most enjoyable ‘Cats games I had attended this season. With the way UK escaped with a victory over Mississippi State and the SEC Tournament title in front of an absolutely raucous crowd, I think I’ve got a new favorite.

John Calipari and his players admitted it to a man: UK had no business winning this game. Mississippi State played a phenomenal game. They realized their season was on the line. A loss would likely leave them on the outside looking in on the NCAA Tournament, and they played like it. Frankly, with the way the Bulldogs twice had the second ranked ‘Cats up against a wall this season, it’s pretty dumbfounding to me that they went just 9-7 in conference play. They should be a much better team than that. If you look at them this weekend, they are a Tournament team. Unfortunately for them, the Selection Committee looks at the whole season.

With about two and half minutes left, it was looking like Mississippi State would be able to relex when watching the Selection Show. Ravern Johnson had just hit a three pointer to extend their lead to five points. John Calipari called a 30 second timeout to try settle things down. His team had missed multiple opportunities to extend their lead or cut into State’s. Front ends of one and ones were clanging all over the place and UK’s most battle tested player, Patrick Patterson, blew an assignment that allowed Johnson’s three.

UK, though, decided they didn’t want to lose and it’s not the first time they’ve done that. Kentucky got defensive stops and benefitted from a few missed free throws by State, eventually getting the ball down one with 30 seconds left. John Wall got a pretty good shot up and surprised everyone by missing it. With eight seconds left, UK fouled and sent Dee Bost to the line. He put his team up three and Rick Stansbury made the call to foul with 4.8 seconds left. There turned out to be just a little bit too much time on the clock.

Eric Bledsoe drained the first free throw and missed the second very effectively. A loose ball ended up going to John Wall, who put up a potential game winning three. It fell short, but DeMarcus Cousins managed to get the ball on the rim and make the shot as the clock expired. I know I lost track of things. I thought UK had won, and so did John Wall. He went all Goldberg and speared DeMarcus Cousins in celebration.

As we all know, it was overtime though. UK’s freshman, particularly Wall, took over and carried UK to victory. Wall’s three pointer with 26 seconds left put UK up four and a DeMarcus Cousins free throw cinched it.

Wall, Cousins, and Eric Bledsoe were all named first team all tournament. Wall was at his best all weekend, showing why he’s the class of the conference. Shots weren’t falling for him today, but he scored 17, dished out 9 assists, grabbed 6 boards, and made 5 steals. Say what you want about any other player in the country, but at money time, I want John Wall, and that makes me feel pretty good about the Tournament.

This recap is going up pretty late, so I’m guessing there’s little interest because most people will be thinking about the just released brackets. That’s exactly what I’m going to do right now, and I’ll try to get some initial thoughts up this evening.

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