Digger Phelps Comments on Sportscenter just now

[ukgrad]

When asked who the most under the radar team is: Kentucky!

Talked about Morris getting it done, and how he LOVES Joe Crawford.. and how stout our defense is... also said Kentucky is a team NOBODY wants to play come March Madness...

Picked Florida to repeat at this point in the season, and says Gonzaga is the most dissapointing team of the year..

I know a lot of people don't like Digger, but at least he gives credit when credit is due

[LiveBlue]

Also said that Joe Crawford is the leader of this team. Digger's had some uncharacteristically high praises for our Cats this year.

[Will Lavender]

Digger was praising the Cats again last night on College Gameday. When asked what his most important thing of the day was, he said, "There's this little team called the Kentucky Wildcats..." He went on to talk about how well we were playing and how we were going to compete for an SEC title. Reece Davis said, "He's going to be selling that team high for a long time."

:thumbup

[kevinlw1974]

ukgrad wrote: When asked who the most under the radar team is: Kentucky!

Talked about Morris getting it done, and how he LOVES Joe Crawford.. and how stout our defense is... also said Kentucky is a team NOBODY wants to play come March Madness...

Picked Florida to repeat at this point in the season, and says Gonzaga is the most dissapointing team of the year..

I know a lot of people don't like Digger, but at least he gives credit when credit is due


Even a blind squirrel can stumble on a nut. It doesn't take a genious to see that UK is underrated right now. And Digger is no genious.

[Wildcatcrazy11]

kevinlw1974 wrote: ukgrad wrote: When asked who the most under the radar team is: Kentucky!

Talked about Morris getting it done, and how he LOVES Joe Crawford.. and how stout our defense is... also said Kentucky is a team NOBODY wants to play come March Madness...

Picked Florida to repeat at this point in the season, and says Gonzaga is the most dissapointing team of the year..

I know a lot of people don't like Digger, but at least he gives credit when credit is due


Even a blind squirrel can stumble on a nut. It doesn't take a genious to see that UK is underrated right now. And Digger is no genious.


I agree, the media in general tends to point out very obvious things... if our game wouldnt have been on TV last night, this thread wouldnt exist. We'd be just as highly touted by ourselves without Digger's hype.

[catfanintn]

Nevertheless - it is NICE to blow someone away (even if it is a weak SC team) on ESPN. Too many timesin the last couple of yearswe've been embarrassedon prime time national TV.

[bigbluelife]

catfanintn wrote: Nevertheless - it is NICE to blow someone away (even if it is a weak SC team) on ESPN. Too many timesin the last couple of yearswe've been embarrassedon prime time national TV.
To me- the best thing about last night that it was a sustained effort even in the second half and particularily surprising since for a while we had 5 freshmen on the floor. It seemed like everyone contributed.

[Will Lavender]

Apparently Andy Katz doesn't share Digger's enthusiasm.

I saw on another board where he was asked if the Cats were underrated on an ESPN chat earlier today.

Katz said, "Not really," citing the fact that we had only beaten "the bottom of the SEC." (I would argue that Mississippi State, while they may lose a few games in this conference, would not be at the bottom of any other league in America; and Auburn has beaten Arkansas, who beat Alabama by 30-some, and nearly beat LSU. But anyway.)

Then he predicted that the Cats would have a gaudy win-loss record but lose in the second round of the NCAAs.

Which is such a made-for-TV comment. College basketball is so dependent on match-ups that predicting the tournament in January is pretty dimwitted. There's not a team I've watched who's not capable of losing in the second round.

Katz, let's remember, picked UK to lose in the second round two years ago -- in January. (On his blog, he gave us what he dubbed the "Stanford award": the team that had a lot of wins in-season but always flamed out in the tournament.) That particular team nearly got to the Final Four.

My favorite Katz story:

He'd raved about Wake Forest's team two years ago for months. He predicted them to win the national championship. When they lost to West Virginia in the second round, a WVU fan saw him in the parking lot after the game and shouted, "Nice prediction, Katz!" :D

[Mark Blueblood]

Right or wrong, Andy Katz is an idiot.

[TrueblueCATfan]

for once I agree with Digger and that does not happen often..............We are very underrated

[bcbaxter10]

I think Digger is still trying to make up for the fact the last time he was at Rupp, the Cats fans demoralized him.

Good to hear the props, it was a heck of a game. Looks like we're gelling, but I don't think we've peaked. There's still improvements we can make, which is a good sign for us.

[tubbythegreat]

Yeah, I've always hated Andy Katz. He's considered an "expert," yet he always screws up on his picks. Like you mentioned, he picked Stanford and Wake Forest in consecutive years to win the NCAA title, with both being No. 1 seeds. And...both lost in the 2nd round. LOL, good job buddy...

And yes, he's always been anti-UK. But whatever. And this may sound terrible, but one of my faves is Jay Bilas. Yes, he's a Dukie. But he usually commentates un-biased(for the most part) and has a lot of knowledge about the game in general. And he has given praise on our part when we deserved some. So yeah, he's prob one of the better ones. Katz though...LOL what a goof-ball

[Will Lavender]

tubbythegreat wrote: Yeah, I've always hated Andy Katz. He's considered an "expert," yet he always screws up on his picks. Like you mentioned, he picked Stanford and Wake Forest in consecutive years to win the NCAA title, with both being No. 1 seeds. And...both lost in the 2nd round. LOL, good job buddy...

And yes, he's always been anti-UK. But whatever. And this may sound terrible, but one of my faves is Jay Bilas. Yes, he's a Dukie. But he usually commentates un-biased(for the most part) and has a lot of knowledge about the game in general. And he has given praise on our part when we deserved some. So yeah, he's prob one of the better ones. Katz though...LOL what a goof-ball

The idiocy of that Wake Forest prediction is rooted in the fact that that particular Demon Deacons team was the worst defensive team in the ACC -- and it wasn't even close.

While other analysts were saying that Wake Forest's lack of defensive effort was going to eventually bite them, I saw Katz on television the night before the tournament started saying that the Demon Deacons were easily the best team in the field, and that he didn't think they'd be tested until they reached the Final Four.

[lribookend]

I always look forward to hearing Katz's Final Four Predictions, so I can ensure that I haven't picked any of the same teams. If so, I change my pick.

:P:P:P

[AndyPopCat]

Will Lavender wrote: ....Auburn has beaten Arkansas...



And now Tennessee.

[Classof93]

Bilas is about the only talking head I respect on ESPN.

[Gunsmoke]

I agree with the comments about Bilas. The rest of the ilk at espn have axes to grind and agendas to peddle.

[poodoo]

Count me in with those who really like Jay Bilas.

Too, someone mentioned how the freshmen played those last few minutes. I kept hoping that one of the ESPN announcers would notice that we had all freshmen on the floor for the last few minutes AND that we had continued to perform well.

[bigbluelife]

At times 5 freshmen and also a freshman walk on.

[bigbluelife]

Poodoo it's amazing I was thinking the same thing- how good it would be if Nesslar or Dykes mentioned the freshmen but I'm sure all they wanted to do was get the massacre over- kinda felt sorry for Dave Odom- what could he do?

[UFWildcat]

All Brad Nessler and Jimmy Dykes wanted to do was get out of there by the time all the freshman came in. It was 'Student Spirit' week and we were crushing the Cocks by 30. That game completely back fired ESPN's vision and planof spirit week. They weren't paying attention at all. They were telling the viewers to switch games and righfully so!!! It was a barn burner on ESPN2.

Doesn't take away from the fact that it was glorious to see the Cats crushing an opponent. Only Cat fans thought that game was entertaining.

[UKhoov]

speaking of Bilas.....

A couple years back when college gameday came to town ( we played Miss. St. if I remember correctly) I went down to Rupp early that morning to watch it.

The crowd gave a ton of crap to Digger Phelps, but what really surprised me was hopeople were getting Bilas to sign hats and shirts and stuff.....I mean I like the guy too but he was a dUKie....

Just thought that was funny!

[poodoo]

bigbluelife wrote: Poodoo it's amazing I was thinking the same thing- how good it would be if Nesslar or Dykes mentioned the freshmen but I'm sure all they wanted to do was get the massacre over- kinda felt sorry for Dave Odom- what could he do?
I, too, felt for Coach Odom, bigbluelife. As happy as I was for us and our performance, and especially how the freshmen performed at the end, I could not help but feel for him and for Tre Kelley, too.Of course, then again, I'm just too much of a softie sometimes.

[LiveBlue]

Digger, AGAIN, on the 3-man weave segment on ESPN picked us as a team on the rise. He picked The Gators as the best team in the nation and Washington as a team that needs a win most.



Digger's definately trying to suck up to us for some reason, he's got some pretty high praises for this particular Cats team.

[bigbluelife]

LiveBlue wrote: Digger, AGAIN, on the 3-man weave segment on ESPN picked us as a team on the rise. He picked The Gators as the best team in the nation and Washington as a team that needs a win most.



Digger's definately trying to suck up to us for some reason, he's got some pretty high praises for this particular Cats team.

Just caught the same segment and if I hadn't seen the actual words come out of his mouth I would not have believe he said it