Just 70 miles apart, Lexington and Louisville are worlds apart when it comes to college basketball. Come Saturday when the Cardinals and Wildcats meet at the Final Four in New Orleans, a berth in the national title game is just the beginning. Here, the game is likened to a civil war. Pick a side: Wildcats…
This Bluegrass State rivalry runs deep, and the divide is wide
Doron Lamb takes lead from father Calvin Lamb
When Doron Lamb was 3, it was hard to find him without a basketball in his hands. His father, Calvin, made sure he was always dribbling, no matter where he was in lower Manhattan. “Every time I wanted to go to the corner store, he had me dribble the ball in my left hand,” Lamb…
Doron Lamb can’t even eat a piece a chicken without being approached by a Kentucky fan
Doron Lamb has seen it firsthand. Everywhere he goes, whether it’s a walk to class, a meal or a simple trip across the street to the Joe Craft Center, the message from fans is the same. Beat Louisville. “We’re walking on campus and people are talking to you, stopping you to take pictures and sign…
Kentucky-Louisville is no ordinary rivalry
The door to the den at the Duncan house on Goldsmith Lane has a hole in it. It’s been there for decades, a battle scar from the great Louisville-Kentucky Cold War of the 1970s and ’80s. Jeff Duncan put the divot in the door by throwing the phone book at his older brother, Steve, during…
John Calipari and Rick Pitino reverse roles for a Kentucky-Louisville Final Four showdown
You can already hear it in their comments. You can already easily read it between the lines. John Calipari‘s Kentucky Wildcats and Rick Pitino‘s Louisville Cardinals don’t meet until Saturday in the Final Four, but the signs are evident that this isn’t just the latest flare-up of their long-simmering rivalry, or even just an historic,…
Kidd-Gilchrist leads Kentucky to Final Four; named the most outstanding player of the South Regional
Kentucky is headed back to the Final Four. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 19 points and Anthony Davis added 18 as the Wildcats defeated Baylor, 82-70, in front of 24,035 in Sunday’s South Regional final at the Georgia Dome. As a result, top-seeded Kentucky (36-2) advanced to its second consecutive Final Four and 15th overall. It will…
Kentucky beats Baylor 82-70 to advance to it’s fifteenth Final Four to face Louisville
Top-seeded Kentucky cruised into the Final Four for the second year in a row, blitzing Baylor with a dominating first half on the way to an 82-70 rout at the South Regional on Sunday. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 19 points and the Wildcats (36-2) took control with an early 16-0 run. Kentucky led 42-22 at halftime…
Kentucky moves to No. 2 in AP poll; Louisville drops to No. 11
Syracuse is No. 1 in The Associated Press’ Top 25 for a fourth straight week and Pittsburgh is out of the poll for the first time since the middle of 2009-10. The Orange received 60 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel. Kentucky, which moved up one spot to second, got the other five.…
Kentucky moves to No. 2 in coaches poll; Louisville drops to No. 10
It wasn’t the prettiest of games or the most impressive of wins, but Kentucky beat Louisville 69-62 in a top-five matchup Saturday, bringing the Cats’ record to a sparkling 13-1. And after then-No. 2 Ohio State lost to Indiana later that day, the Buckeyes got bumped from the No. 2 spot in the USA TODAY/ESPN…
That was a true Bluegrass Battle
Rupp Arena sounded like an aviary after the refs whistled an astounding 51 fouls (plus two technicals). Neither Kentucky nor Louisville are consistently sharp in half-court execution as is, but the constant whistles took any semblance of flow out of the contest. The result was a ton of scrappy possessions, missed shots and over-the-back fouls.…