Midterm report: Cards, Cats seem to be 'getting it'

Fans of the universities of Louisville and Kentucky have endured tons of trepidation with their respective men's basketball teams this season. Put aside the injuries to key players for the moment; more worrisome has been the appearance that many times the team has not been hearing/listening to what the coaches were saying.

Happily, it appears the message is starting to get through. Louisville has begun playing like a team with a working knowledge of the scouting reports. Kentucky has begun playing like a team with a backbone. Both trends coincided with the return of experienced players from injury, significantly U of L's Juan Palacios and David Padgett and UK's Derrick Jasper and Jodie Meeks.

Louisville

At 11-4, it would appear the Cards have little room for complaint, but a neutral-court loss to Purdue and home defeats by Dayton and Cincinnati set the faithful to grumbling, not without reason.

However, the loss to Purdue, I believe, started the turnaround for U of L, particularly sophomore center Derrick Caracter. Suspended for that game, Caracter appeared almost to squirm watching on the bench as in his and Padgett's absence, the Cards had no inside presence whatever. Third-string senior center Terrance Farley, while an adequate defensive presence, contributed nothing on offense, while willowy forward Earl Clark proved himself totally unsuited to playing with his back to the basket. Purdue owned the paint, and with it, the game.

The message from head coach Rick Pitino to Caracter: You are not bigger than this team, and if you do not abide by team rules, we will play without you, win or lose.

While Caracter's playing time has suffered with the return of Padgett, his attitude has not. While he remains foul-prone and slow to recognize when he cannot overcome a double- or triple-team, the rest of his game is improving. His passing has begun resulting in open shots, and at 63.6 percent for the season, he has become much less a liability at the foul line.

For the rest of the team, the light bulb appeared to go on in the second half of the Kentucky game. The Cards blitzed the Cats with the first nine points of the period enroute to a 32-9 run, and for the final 18 minutes there was no indication UK had any chance of winning. U of L shredded UK's defense with backdoor cuts and crisp inside-out passing, cruising to an 89-75 win that could have been more decisive save for atrocious free-throw shooting down the stretch.

At this writing, U of L has won seven of its last eight games, holding six of the eight opponents to 65 or fewer points, five of them to less than 60. Palacios and Padgett's senior leadership has the Cards playing much more intelligent basketball, and though no one expects them to run the table in the Big East, it appears the eventual champion will probably suffer four or five losses by the end of league play. A 13-5 BE record certainly seems within reach.

Kentucky

UK, on the other hand, still puzzles me. Which are the real Wildcats -- the bumfuzzled bunch that lost to Gardner-Webb and San Diego, or the gritty, never-surrender unit that survived the loss of a 16-point lead to dump previously unbeaten Vanderbilt in double overtime?

I for one believe (and hope, even in my Cardinal-loving heart) it's the latter.

Against Vanderbilt, for the first time all season, senior guards Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford appeared to play the game the way UK head coach Billy Gillispie wants it played. While rough spots and warts remained aplenty, starting with more than 20 turnovers, there was no questioning the Cats' effort, particularly on defense. Vandy entered last Saturday's contest averaging over 80 points a game; even with 10 extra minutes of play, UK limited the Commodores to 73.

A huge question: will UK's improved act play as well on the road? One wonders how much the collective will of 24,000-plus screaming blue-clad faithful helped carry the Cats to Victory over Vandy, but I believe the steel in UK's spine will travel adequately; the impending game at Mississippi State will tell volumes. It is somewhat troubling, though, that UK may be without Meeks and Jasper; the two, Jasper especially, have done much to stabilize UK's oncourt psyche.

What kind of Southeastern Conference record the Cats will achieve, I cannot predict without seeing a few more games. It would not surprise me at all, though, to see UK contend for yet another SEC East title.