Ira D. Combs Syndicated Columnist
Tri State Sports Media Service Inc.

For several weeks John Calipari has been shouting loud and often that his team is nowhere near as good as the national pollsters have them rated and to be quite honest, his thoughts and opinions on occasion did have some merit in my eyes, especially after a couple of close November games against mediocre college talent. But after last Saturday's effort against the defending National Champion Tar Heels, well let's just say we know another side of Coach Cal that we didn't before he arrived on April 1st.

The sandbagger side.

He is good at it by the way, at least he had me sold until halftime last Saturday that this team was a long ways from being classified as Top 10 status. I'm betting that 28-2 stretch that UK had the last 15 minutes of the first half was a first for Roy Williams since his arrival at Chapel Hill. Yes, the second half dilemma with John Wall's cramps almost created a near breakdown of gigantic proportions and it took a little smack out of the Wildcats first half smack down of the Tar Heels but rest assured, there is no more mystery as to how good this team is or whether it's good enough to be in the hunt for a Final Four appearance.

The CBS cameras revealed and documented to the college basketball world that UK is back and this team may have even more raw basketball talent, size, and quickness than either of the '78, '96, or '98 teams. However, even with the impressive outing Saturday there are still hurdles to be jumped before this team can be stamped March Madness and Final Four ready.

#1 - Can this team win on the road against a quality opponent in a hostile environment?
#2 - Can this team win without John Wall for an entire game or an extended period during a game?
#3 - Does this team have the chemistry to be consistent all season long?
# 4 - Does this team have the passion (will to win as Calipari says) to win a championship?
#5 - Does this team have a go to man for those intense late game possessions in March?

Question #1 will be answered after the U-Conn and Indiana games this week, hopefully, we'll never know the answer to #2 and we won't know until mid-February about #3 and #4 but I can answer #5 right now, they have two quality players for that role, John Wall and Patrick Patterson.

Cats Back In Music City Bowl
Get your guitars and banjos back out, the Cats are headed back to Nashville, Tennessee, better known as "Music City, USA", for another appearance in the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl. The game will be played on Sunday, December 27th with kickoff set for 8:30 p.m. EST and nationally televised on ESPN.
This trip, UK will do battle with a familiar postseason foe in the Clemson Tigers. This is the third time in UK's last seven bowl appearances that Clemson will serve as its opponent.

That alone will make it interesting to see how the UK football fan travels this particular year.

The date and time of day for the kickoff is fan friendly for travel purposes, but will the familiarity of the opponent and city hold the crowd down compared to the 2006 and 2007 bowl experiences?

Also, will everyone have recovered and re-energized over the disappointing Tennessee loss?

It says here Big Blue Nation will give a very good account for itself say in the 25,000 to 30,000 range but you can forget about blasting Nashville with the 50,000 blue bloods of 2006 and 2007, it just won't happen.

The good news is that no other bowl games take place this day and UK will be in the national spotlight for recruits as well as some much needed respect and recognition for the programs recent achievements.


Go to www.combsbrothersonkysports.com for more coverage of the Kentucky Wildcats and KHSAA Sports.