Nick was in Rupp Wednesday night for the Blue-White Scrimmage, but I have a few things to say about the action. We’ll do this in note form since I am having some internet troubles.

-The teams tonight were not very fair, but that was not the idea. The game opened with the projected starters (Wall, Bledsoe, Miller, Patterson, and Cousins) matched up against reserves. I’m not sure about the first half score, but it was not close. Anytime you put the first, second, and third string point guards on one team in a scrimmage, it’s going to be trouble.

-You can’t really put any stock into stats gathered during an intra-squad scrimmage, but one judgment I can make based on what I watched tonight is that this team has a chance to be excellent defensively.

In fact, defense is the way that this UK team could be great. The shooting is going to come and go (and likely go most of the time), but the size, quickness, and hand speed of the ‘Cats are not going anywhere.

Both the Blue and the White team pressed most of the game, creating PLENTY of turnovers both ways. A lot of the play was sloppy, but against the pressure applied by Cal’s ‘Cats, I believe that most teams will look sloppy.

-In attendance for today’s game were top 2010 UK targets Terrence Jones and CJ Leslie and over 14,000 Kentucky fans, a record for a Blue-White Scrimmage. Jones had been long scheduled to attend, but Leslie’s visit came together very late. We should hear more about the official visits once they leave campus, but it’s a very good sign that Leslie came to visit after canceling earlier visits on multiple occasions.

-John Wall is unbelievable. Wall put up 25 points 11 assists and 7 rebounds and is really in a different class athletically. However, due to the lack of HD coverage in Louisville and the practice uniforms, it was really pretty difficult to tell the difference between Wall and Eric Bledsoe.

The fact that Eric Bledsoe is as good as he is makes it even more difficult to tell the two apart. Bledsoe had 14 points 9 assists and 4 rebounds and showed in the second half that the Wall-Bledsoe matchup is very possibly the toughest that either will face most of the year.

-Shooting is a major question mark for this team, and that remains so, but we are beginning get a better idea of who could step up on a game to game basis. Darnell Dodson was the leading scorer with 26 points and showed a nice stroke, plus, he gets it off very quickly.

Josh Harrellson also continued to show why Coach Cal wanted him on this team. He can hit an open shot and he can also hold his own on the boards (15 rebounds). Daniel Orton and Patrick Patterson also can be threats from the outside.

-DeMarcus Cousins and Darius Miller had peaks and valleys today. At times, they looked like the best players on the floor and the best fits for the dribble drive, at other times they completely disappeared.

Miller was non-existent during the first half, but I’m guessing he got a talking to during halftime, because he looked very good in the second half.

-These ‘Cats are going to make a lot of their offensive money on the boards. Wall, Bledsoe, and Miller can get to the rack anytime they want, and Patterson, Cousins, and Orton are going to attack all day long. The three big guys had a combined 54 points and 25 boards.

All in all, the action Wednesday night went down about as you would expect it to. There is no cause for any adjustment of expectations to the positive or negative. It was good to see John Wall play some basketball with issues swirling around. Hopefully we can get some resolution quickly.

Also, one more quick recruiting note: Adreian Payne is set to announce his college choice with UK, West Virginia, and Michigan State as finalists. Most think that West Virginia is the likely choice, but nothing would surprise me.

***Notes from Post-Game Press Conference***

Alright, I’m back from Lexington and have some updates from Calipari’s press conference and also have some quotes from Patterson and Wall.

After Alan Cutler asked Calipari twelve questions about Wall’s eligibility, while chugging some popcorn, we finally got to some talk about basketball.

Calipari started with some negatives, they hold on the ball too much, some guys are way too hard on themselves and that they have a long way to go defensively.

In regards to their defense being behind the offense, he said that his first priority is to always get the offense going right and then go to defense. If you go defense first, sometimes your offense can get demoralized because of their inability to score. They didn’t work on defense the entire month of September.

They are not conditioned well enough yet. They struggled getting up and down the court and couldn’t press longer than three minutes straight.

He laughed and said, “Thank goodness it’s still October. It’s still October, right?”

Yes, Coach Calipari it is still October.

He talked about Patterson and first said he needed to be more vocal. He talked about how he played away from the basket in the dribble drive but still got around the rim.

When asked about his thoughts on the biggest crowd (14,060) in Blue/White history, he mentioned how he is excited that the fans are excited. Now they just need to perform on the court. He said his players want to be coached and that they are very coachable.

One of the most interesting things was to see Wall and Bledsoe start together in the first half and then see them playing against each other in the second. Calipari said expect them to play together, but they also have to be ready to play without the other on the court. When Wall and Bledsoe played together, Bledsoe had six assists and zero turnovers.

Wall on his ability to play with Bledsoe
“Coach Cal just wants us to be competitive, you know Eric, he is a great player like me, most the time we are going against each other to make each other better and get us prepared for the season. Lately we have been on the same team in scrimmages.”

Wall on who is the point guard when he plays with Bledsoe
“Coach just said whoever has the ball, or whoever is closest to the ball is the point guard, the other one is running the lane. If you have one of us pushing and they (the defender) helps in and I kick it out to him. Then what are you going to do with him coming at you full speed.”

Wall on the original thought that he would start and Bledsoe would come off the bench
“Everybody thought I was going to come in and start and he was going to be the backup. I really didn’t know too much about him, but he is a better player than everybody said he was. Once I saw the way he plays, I was like what is the point of him being a backup when we can be on the court at the same time.”

Wall on the Dribble Drive
“There are so many different ways you can score from it. We are all moving, you can’t stop, we all have to keep moving. You can score so many different ways out of it.”

Wall on trying to get Mark Krebs to dunk at the end of the game
“We always try to get Mark to dunk, a lot of people think he can’t, but he can. But, he didn’t know that the crowd would like that, so he just passed the ball.”

Patterson on Krebs not dunking at the end of the game
“I was so dissapointed. I stood up and I was screaming, Mark dunk it. Dunk the ball, show these people that you can dunk. But, he just threw the ball back to John to get the assist. He said after the game that his legs were hurting and I was like alright, alright.”

Patterson on embracing the leadership role
“Everyday I’m trying to set the right example, doing whatever my teammates need me to do. I want to help them out in any way possible, especially out on the court where I try to keep them in the right situations. I just want to be the leader that coach wants me to be.”

Patterson on stepping out on the floor and shooting from perimeter
“It’s great, I’m going to shoot it as much as coach wants me to. If I’m open, I’m going to shoot it. Luckily I went 2-for-4 tonight (from 3-pt range) and my teammates kept encouraging me to shoot the ball.”

Patterson on why he looks comfortable away from the basket
“Just from being out there and practicing on the perimeter. Coach Cal wants me to play on the perimeter, he wants me to play like a guard. He wants me to drive and he wants me to shoot.”

Patterson on what was more satisfying, driving to the hole or knocking down threes?
“Threes, threes, definitely the threes. Dunking is dunking, but to be able to hit a three, something I haven’t done at Rupp Arena, you know I’ll take that anytime.”

Special thanks to DeWayne Peevy and the UK Media Relations Department for giving us the opportunity to attend the scrimmage and get some quality, quality quotes.