I was looking over the standing for a few different conferences when I noticed something quite surprising. Kentucky is in 2nd place in the SEC at 8-3. Actually, 8-3 is the record of the 1st place SEC West team, Mississippi State. Overall, Kentucky is 14-10, not bad after a terrible start under 1st year coach, Billy Gillispie. The Wildcats must be getting comfortable with him and his system because they’ve reeled off 7 of 8, including a home win against current #2, Tennessee. The only loss in this stretch was a horrible 41 point beatdown at the hands of #19 Vanderbilt. I thought Gillispie pretty much hit the nail on the head when he said, “it’s just one game”.

What is promising about the near future of UK is the upcoming schedule. The Wildcats have a return date at #2 Tennessee, but beyond that, they play no other ranked team. Kentucky has 3 home games and 2 on the road to finish up the regular season. There is still a very real possibility that UK could be playing in a postseason tournament, especially now that there are three. What once looked like an absolute embarrassment has suddenly become a legitimate season, albeit well below Kentucky-fan’s standards.

Kentucky will lose 2 of it’s top 3 scorers in seniors Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford, but hopefully they’ll not lose their big gun, freshman Patrick Patterson. If he declares for the NBA, it could be another very difficult year for the Bluegrass State as Gillispie will have to continue rebuilding his team without it’s strongest cog. This year’s NBA class will be very deep as opposed to next year, but Patterson could definitely go if he wanted. Any freshman who averages over 16 points and 7 rebounds in the SEC should be able to bolt if they choose, but if he sticks around, he’ll be able to help Kentucky immensely and probably improve his draft position by 5-8 slots.

Next year, Gillispie and the Wildcats will replace the 2 outgoing seniors with 2 very good freshmen; 5-star PG, DeAndre Liggins and 4-star SF, Darius Miller. Liggins could definitely team with junior-to-be, Jodie Meeks and form a decent to pretty good backcourt. Patterson will most definitely benefit by sticking around.

Well, maybe it was the midseason transfer by Alex Legion to Illinois that got the ball rolling. Whatever it was, Kentucky is putting together a respectable season. It is not up to the usual standards, but if there are no surprises in this unstable time, Kentucky will be Kentucky soon enough.