#1. SF Richard Jefferson (SA) 14.3 PTS 3.3 3PM 3.3 REb 1.1 AST

With Manu Ginobli going down, Jefferson has seen a increase in both his minutes and his role on the team. San Antonio’s front line is old and brittle so Jefferson’s production should be safe.

#2. PG Ima Shumpert (NY) 12.5 PTS 1.5 3PM 3.5 REB 3.5 AST 2.0 STL

With Shumpert being named starter in New York you can expect him to be a productive fantasy contributor until Baron Davis gets healthy.

#3. SF Jared Dudley (PHO) 11.7 PTS 1.0 3PM 3.9 REB 1.9 AST 1.0 STL

What’s not to love about a guy who plays in Phoenix’s up tempo offense and is getting 30 plus minutes of action?

#4. SG Ben Gordon (DET) 15.6 PTS 1.6 3PM 3.4 AST 2.9 REB

Gordon has always had the ability to score. It looks like Detroit is finally giving him the ball enough to be that player.

#5. C Marcus Camby (POR) 3.3 PTS 9.0 REB 3.1 AST 1.4 BLK

If you are in desperate need of rebounds and blocks, look no further than Mr. Camby. The only drawback is the lack of points.

Trends to Watch

1). It might be  a perfect time to grab Demarcus Cousins in a trade. Owners could be looking to sell and his production should be safe with Westphal gone.

2). If I had Stephen Curry, I would sell high on him after he plays a couple games. His lingering ankle problems are enough to scare me away.

3). Either hang on to or go get Lamar Odom. His production so far has been less then stellar, but you can’t expect this to continue.

John Wall has had a decent start to his UK career, huh?

After an opening three game stretch to be remembered, Andy Katz has named John Wall the national player of the week in his Weekly Watch column:

Wall ushered himself into Kentucky lore with his game-winning shot to beat Miami (Ohio) 72-70 in his first collegiate game. He finished the game with 19 points, shooting 10-of-14 from the free throw line. But Wall didn’t stop there. He scored 21 points in each of Kentucky’s next two games — wins over Sam Houston State and Rider — including 11 assists in the win over the Broncs.

You could see his game develop over the course of the week, even if Kentucky’s defense faded. Wall committed a combined 11 turnovers in his first two games, but had only two in the win over Rider. The Wildcats won all three of their games last week and Wall was a major player in each of them.

Teammate DeMarcus Cousins joined him as another honoree:

DeMarcus Cousins, Fr., F, Kentucky: Yes, one of those other freshmen faces on the Wildcats made himself known this week with 27 points and 18 boards in the Wildcats’ close call against Sam Houston State. He followed it up with 18 points, six rebounds and five blocks in UK’s win over Rider.

Oh yeah, and while we’re on the subject of stand out performances by Wildcats, Sam Maxwell has been named SEC Defensive Player of the Week for his showing against Georgia in which he made a career high 11 tackles and the game sealing interception.

It has been a joy to watch Maxwell step up during his senior year, getting his first chance to start. All the kid has done is make plays, and in the process has likely earned himself a chance at the next level.

This is from Jeff Goodman’s blog on Foxports.com. Some really interesting stuff about a couple of UK’s heralded freshmen:

I just found out the Preseason AP Poll will be released on Thursday. Kansas will be the clear-cut No. 1 team in the land, but it’ll be interesting to see who gets the nod at No. 2.

Personally, I like Kentucky – especially with the rave reviews coming out of Lexington about freshman point guard John Wall.

One NBA executive who was at practice recently raved about Wall’s leadership.

“I’ve never seen anything like it from a freshman,” the NBA executive told FOXSports.com. “You can tell he’s all about winning.”

Supposedly, Wall stood at midcourt and every single player on his team came over and slapped his hand.

The NBA guy also said that freshman big man Daniel Orton had his way on that afternoon with fellow frosh DeMarcus Cousins.

“He tore his #$% up,” is what he told me.

I know this will be viewed as Patrick Patterson’s team, but John Wall is clearly going to be a key leader.  Also, John Calipari has been looking for Daniel Orton to come out of his shell post-knee surgery, and this is the most positive news I have heard on this front.  If Orton can push Cousins this way as the season goes on, it will force Cousins to improve his inconsistent effort.

Hat tip to AllKYHoops.com for the find.

However, it’s just not UK basketball. Nothing approaches UK basketball.

For my money, the debut of UK basketball on Big Blue Madness is a holiday eclipsed in magnitude by only Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter…and the Final Four if UK is playing. I know that much of madness is just pomp and circumstance with little substance and too much women’s basketball, but there’s just something about the anticipation of the beginning of basketball season that I can’t quite describe.

…and that’s in a normal year.

In case you haven’t been paying attention the past 5 and a half months, this is no normal year for UK basketball. John Calipari has created an excitement around the program that I would call unmatched since the late 1990′s, without even taking the court.

That excitement is going to come to a head just a few days from now when UK takes Rupp by storm for its first official practice. In case I haven’t made it clear enough, I’m kind of looking forward to Friday night, so much so that I’m struggling to figure out how I’m going to pass the time between now and then.

I have, however, figured out the first way I’m going to spend some of that time: I’m going to list the top 10 things that I just can’t wait to see at Big Blue Madness on Friday:

10 – The Dancin’ Dude Darren Moscoe

I know it’s not a regular game with TV timeouts, but if the people organizing Big Blue Madness remember anything about last season, they will play “Mony, Mony” so that Rupp Arena fan favorite Darren Moscoe can do his thing.

You see, since Calipari has arrived at UK, one of his constant messages has been that his team and the fans will have fun. Fun was missing in a big way from the last couple seasons and the one thing that was always dun about watching UK games in Rupp was the first or second TV timeout of the second half when we got to watch the Dancin’ Dude make us forget about what we were watching on the court.

9 – The Dunk Contest

In theory, the dunk contest should be awesome. Every year I get excited about it and convince myself how good it’s going to be. This year I’m going to temper my expectations.

The dunk contest always ends up being kind of clunky and flat even though there is a good dunk from time to time.

There is reason to think it could be different this season between rumored guest judges and a certain player who has been known for his fair share of YouTube moments (he’ll remain unnamed for now…I’ll get to him later).

8 – Battle of the Bigs

Arguably the best competition that UK post players will face most of the season will come on the practice court. They are already learning each other’s tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses in pick-up games and workouts, but the intensity is about to be turned up a notch.

Playing time is not going to be handed to DeMarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton, Josh Harrellson, Perry Stevenson, and even Patrick Patterson. Every one of those guys is going to have earn their keep to earn time and for the first time, we will get to see how they stack up with one another.

The distribution of playing time among the bigs will be a topic to watch all season. It begins on Friday.

7 – Seeing why the capacity of Rupp for Madness is only 18,000

Only 18,000 tickets were distributed to UK fans for Friday because of a stage that is to be set-up for the event. I’m guessing that the fans that are there will more than make up for the 6,000 missing from the normal capacity.

The question on my mind is “what are they going to do with that stage?”. Coach Cal has said that Madness will be about the players and about basketball, but I’m pretty sure that the stage won’t be used for basketball. Will there be a performer? What kind of theatrics are going to take place? You know that UK Athletics is going to do everything possible to make Madness memorable, so anything is possible.

6 – KY-rie IR-ving

We’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple weeks obsessing over the ridiculous group of recruits slated to attend UK’s Big Blue Madness. Coach Cal knows exactly what kind of recruiting opportunity Madness will be, so he’s done everything he can to turn the seats behind the bench into a who’s who of top 2009 and 2010 recruits.

What I was getting at with the title of this one was the chants that UK fans have been to known to start for recruits in attendance. There are going to be plenty of options for chants, but I mention Kyrie Irving specifically because of the nature of his recruitment. Irving is a well publicized Duke lean and if he sways in UK’s direction after seeing the craziness of Big Blue Madness, it will be a perfect representation of the power of the combination of Coach Cal, the dribble drive, and everything that UK is all about.

Irving confirmed to ZagsBlog that he will make the trip along with teammate Michael Gilchrist.  We will be discussing more about the recruits in attendance as the week goes on, but for now just know that the list will be long.

5 – Coach Cal

Coach Cal has already proved to us all that he loves everything about the UK job that Billy Gillispie hated. I can think of no better embodiment of that “everything” than the craziness of Big Blue Madness.

Coach Cal has also said that he doesn’t typically like to speak at these things and take the focus away from the players, but that won’t fly for his first. He’s going to talk and he’s going to have us eating out of the palm of his hand.

4 – Patrick Patterson

Patrick Patterson has played a constant level of effory and enthusiasm over the past 2 years when he’s had every reason to do anything but play with effort and enthusiasm has been a pleasure to watch. Now, Patterson has every reason TO play the way he always has.

This is going to be Patrick Patterson’s team and the ovation reserved for him by UK fans is going to be unbelievable. As great as the UK freshmen will be, they won’t be Patrick Patterson. This is going to be the season where Patterson goes from a great player to one of the all time UK greats. It begins on Friday.

3 – The Crowd

In the past, Rupp Arena has been called a “basketball cathedral”. Part of that description is reverential, but part of that also speaks to the fact that the crowd at times has not been as intimidating as some other home crowds.

I think that changes this year. UK fans have an appetite for some great basketball and they have an appetite to be a part of a great season. UK fans always take ownership of the ‘Cats, but I think we will take it to another level this season. It begins on Friday.

2 – Seeing the interaction of the team

We’ve heard about intense, yet fun pick-up games. We’ve heard about the Three Amigos. We’ve seen pictures of the ‘Cats delivering breakfast to fans waiting for Big Blue Madness tickets. Every indication thus far is that the ‘Cats have embraced what it means to play for UK, and what it means to play for this UK team.

The talent of this team is beyond question, but there are obstacles to this season being a great one, foremost among which are outside shooting, how quickly this team picks up the dribble drive, and team chemistry. One glorified practice won’t tell us much about the first two, but we can definitely begin to gain an idea of how this team will interact, how the newcomers are mixing with the veterans, and who the leaders will be.

1 – John Wall

I know there are probably things I should be more excited about than watching John Wall for the first time, but I couldn’t even begin to quantify the amount of time I have spent thinking about seeing John Wall play for UK. UK has never had a player like him before, a player that will make any basketball fan stop on a dime and watch when he has the ball or is featured on the SportsCenter Top 10.

I know UK fans have missed being the center of gravity of college basketball over the past few years. Jodie Meeks brought UK into the spotlight with his explosive scoring, but that was fleeting. John Calipari will bring UK into the spotlight in the long term at UK, but this UK team will take some time to get ready for prime time.

John Wall will take no time to get ready for prime time. John Wall is going to have some highlight reel plays during Big Blue Madness, which will be featured on ESPNU. Casual college basketball fans don’t know his name right now, but that is going to change very quickly. It begins on Friday.

The event itself of Big Blue Madness will likely fall short of everything we have built it up to be, but it will be something we always remember, because we are about to witness the start of something special. And it begins on Friday.

This photo from The Cat’s Pause has been everywhere I’ve looked this morning, but in case you haven’t seen it, I needed to make sure you did. 

It’s nice to see these guys in UK uniforms.

Jason King posted a great article this morning about Kentucky freshman DeMarcus Cousins. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but below is an excerpt from the beginning.

It’s an impartial look at some of problems Cousins has had in the past, but it quotes DMC at length and presents him favorably. Cousins also told King that he weighed 290 pounds when he came on campus a couple months ago, but has slimmed down to 270. He’s still got some conditioning to do, but he’s on the right path.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Before he ended his official visit and left DeMarcus Cousins’ home last spring, Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari wanted to make one thing clear.

“No one,” Calipari told the nation’s second-ranked recruit, “is going to average 30 points for me. No one.”

Cousins was fine with that.

Heck, following the Wildcats’ first practice last week, the 6-foot-11 forward said he won’t even care if he fails to average 20.

“Some players go to a school where they can score a bunch of points and put up big numbers,” Cousins said. “But when the season is over, they’re the same player as they were when it started.

“I’m not going to be like that. I came here to get better. I came here to learn.”

As I was writing last night about how UK’s 2010 class is shaping up, little news from the Harris family’s visit to Lexington had yet emerged. That changed late last night and this morning.

ZagsBlog reports that Tobias and his father Torrel met with University President Lee Todd, whom Calipari has not been afraid to use as a resource for on campus visits:

“No. 1, he (President Todd) was just talking about when you get a degree from Kentucky, the degree is gonna help you throughout life,” Torrel said. “The network that Kentucky has can help their graduates in life. That’s one of the things he stressed. He also stressed that they’re putting in a good infrastructure. They encourage the players who go to the NBA to come back and get their degrees.

“No. 2, he stressed that he wanted to get Kentucky back on the elite level where the tradition is known as Kentucky basketball and that’s why they brought in Coach Calipari.

“And they wanted to bring in good, high-character kids and that’s why your son is here, Tobias.”

Torrel also spelled out Calipari’s recruiting strategy for 2010: 4 scholarships, 1 point guard to replace Wall, 1 wing player, 1 big man, and then one more player who fits well, which is about what I said last night.

Also, Tobias spoke with Dustin Rumbaugh of Kentucky Sports Radio and said that the visit definitely solidified UK being in the mix.  Harris enjoyed seeing the facilities and having John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins to show off doesn’t hurt:

One familiar face Tobias noticed while on his visit was that of UK’s former top recruit and another former hot name from the AAU circuit. “I knew John Wall because we were on the same team at Reebok U. two years ago,” he said. Demarcus Cousins also greeted the Harris family in Lexington. The facilities and the fans are always big selling points for any recruit that UK is trying to attract and while describing what really stuck out to him on the visit, one could tell that this was point was not lost on Tobias, who said, “The facilities are all top of the line. The campus is nice and they have good fan support. They’ve got a great program.”

This is from a different angle that part 1 and part 2 so you can get a closer view of John Wall’s ridiculous athleticism. Wall is going to be a terror on the offensive glass with the way he attacks the ball from the wing.

Darius Miller also throws in a couple nice highlights.

-First and foremost among today’s happenings was the viral debut of the YouTube video of a pickup game in Lexington during UK basketball camp. In it, John Wall and Eric Bledsoe looked great, playing very well together. The reports are out there that the two are getting along very well, which is great news.

DeMarcus Cousins also looked solid in the video, although he was guarded by Perry Stevenson, a guy who he outweighs by probably 50 pounds. However, Cousins ball skills were the most impressive. part of his game.

Neither Stevenson nor Harris looked very good at all and Darius Miller was quiet but solid.

Joe Crawford also reminded us how good he really is, as he torched Eric Bledsoe for much of the first 4-5 minutes of the video.

-The other news (well, not really news) was the emergence of Larry Vaught’s report of a source indicating that commitments from five star rising seniors Brandon Knight and Adreian Payne were forthcoming. The report first appeared on the Kentucky Sports Report Premium message board before being grabbed by basically everyone.

I’m not going to be holding my breath, but UK is definitely strong with both players. The speculation about Knight, in particular, is interesting to me. Knight has just seen a fellow top ranked player in his class who plays a very similar game to him get a bunch of attention for decommitting from Tennessee. The player I’m referring to, of course, is Josh Selby and you can hardly read an article about him without seeing UK or John Calipari. Knight may be motivated slightly to commit to UK if he indeed favors the ‘Cats knowing that Selby is out there.

-The final piece of basketball news of the day was Matt Jones post saying that UK had finalized its basketball schedule at long last and would announce the schedule in a made for TV special on the Big Blue Sports Network.

Calipari has been said to be pursuing a marquee opponent for the last open spot on the schedule (Andy Katz mentions neutral site games against Kansas and Duke). That has been the delay in the announcement and apparently Calipari has now either landed that game or decided to move on and settle for a smaller name.

-Believe it or not, there was some football news that grabbed a headline or two today as well. UK has scheduled a four year series with Western Kentucky. Two of the games will be played in Lexington and two of the games will be played in the Tennessee Titans home, LP Field in Nashville, as home games for recently promoted to Division I Hilltoppers.

Games in Nashville bring back fond memories for me of UK’s two recent Music City Bowl wins over Clemson and Florida State. I’m sure UK fans will make the trek and it should be a good time.

Check it out and post your favorite part in the comments section below: