Wall Saves Wildcats in Kentucky Debut

When John Calipari accepted the Kentucky coaching job, he warned that there are no easy solutions in college basketball. At the time, it was like telling a state full of lottery winners about the value of sound investment strategies.

Thank Miami University for proving your point, Coach.

And thank John Wall for reminding Wildcats fans just why they were so darn excited in the first place.

Wall scored 19 points, including the biggest two of the season, a 15-foot jumper with less than a second left that lifted the No. 4 Wildcats to a 72-70 win over the Redhawks, narrowly avoiding the first major upset of the college basketball season.
"It felt good to make a shot like thatand I just have to have confidence to make those and I did," Wall said.

For the freshman point guard, who was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for Kentucky's regular-season opener, it was a debut that lived up even to the addled expectations of Kentucky basketball. The Raleigh (N.C.) point guard led the team in points, handed out five assists and pulled down five rebounds in a game-high 38 minutes.

But the Wildcats still had to sweat the finish.

Miami jumped out to a 36-18 lead 13 minutes in, before an 18-3 Kentucky run trimmed the margin to three points heading into halftime. But the Redhawks didn't turn blue in front of a nervous Rupp Arena crowd. Kentucky couldn't't regain the lead until 7:24 remaining, 54-52, and could never pull away. A 3-pointer by Miami's Kenny Hayes -- one of four long-range hits for Hayes -- tied the game with six seconds left before Wall darted up the left side of the court for the game-winning jumper.

Unlike Friday night, when the Wildcats shot 4-19 from 3-point range in a 75-59 win over Morehead State, the problem wasn't connecting from beyond the arc, it was defending behind it. The Redhawks hit 15-of-26 3-pointers, including eight by Nick Winbush, a Rupp Arena record for a UK opponent.

"For us to win a game when they go 15-for-26 from the 3-point line, I can't believe we won the game," Calipari said to open his press conference, once again staging a rout at the dais even if his team didn't on the floor.

And through it all, Calipari couldn't help but be smile, at least a little. Even if Kentucky fans bit through every fingernail in the BIg Blue Nation.

"We were down 18 with a freshman team," Calpiari said. "And every time that we did something they just took the air out of our sails by making a shot. We still won the game.

"I think that any time that you can be tested like this is good for your team."

Calipari will have no trouble finding things to work on. His team shot just 56 percent from the free throw line -- an eery echo of his best Memphis teams -- and he blamed much of the early deficit to passive defense.

And it was entirely expected -- if not necessarily against the 0-2 Redhawks -- even for a team that has star recruits keeping the Gatorade company. With a seven-man rotation made up of four freshman, two sophomores and graybeard junior Patrick Patterson, the Wildcats will occasionally struggle. And they'll be brilliant. And by March they'll have as good a chance as anyone to bring home another national title.

All of which will make Calipari's original goal of keeping expectations in check still awfully difficult. The dribble-drive motion might've replaced evolution in Kentucky school books, but tamping down expectations in a basketball mad state is a trick that's probably beyond even Calipari.

Fortunately for the coach, who narrowly avoided the same type of ill-fated home upset that plagued his predeccessor Billy Gillispie -- Gillipsie lost to Gardner-Webb in 2007 -- all that talent ensured he at least didn't have to explain a loss as well.

There was Wall and backcourt mate Darnell Dodson scoring 27 in the backcourt. Frontcourt stars DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson both added double-doubles for the Wildcats.

And Calipari made the game's final point. In college basketball, there are no easy answers.