Kentucky 81 - 59 St. John's (No. 2,059)

This was honestly one of the strangest games I've ever seen. For one thing, there was never any question about who was going to win. St. John's fell behind early, but insisted on holding the ball for enormous stretches of time. They had five -- five -- shot clock violations in the first half, which means that almost three minutes of the first 20 consisted of possessions in which St. John's held the ball but did not take a shot.

Still, the Redmen (I realize they changed their name, but I think their new name is silly) stuck to the same strategy for the first 30 minutes or so of the game, even as they slowly fell further and further behind. It was like watching a scrimmage, almost. St. John's looked like they were more interested in practicing certain plays than in scoring, and Kentucky looked like they were practicing their zone offense. Both teams looked like they needed the practice -- the Cats only scored 31 points in the first half, although they went to the locker room with a 31-20 lead. Their lead was due largely to the fact that Anthony Davis had effectively stopped the Johnnies' offense -- St. John's lacks good outside shooting, and anyone who got near the basket had his shot blocked or altered by Davis. He put on a performance that was simply dominating: 15 points, 15 rebounds, and 8 blocks.

Anyway, thanks to Davis and Terrence Jones (who also had a great game -- 26 points and 9 rebounds) Kentucky pretty much had the game under control. Then in the second half, the referees suddenly started blowing their whistle all over the place, and both teams started shooting free throws. For the game, the Cats went 20-30 from the line, while the Johnnies were 19-27. That's a lot of free throws for a game where neither team ever fouled to stop the clock, but the referees wanted to get their money's worth.

Finally, with about six or seven minutes left, the Johnnies apparently decided that they had practiced enough, and the rest of the game looked like an AAU game, with both teams racing up and down the floor. This part of the game featured some really cool dunks, including a one-handed jam by Darius Miller off of a lob pass that was just spectacular.

And then the game was over. Interestingly, despite all the weirdness, the final looked pretty much as expected -- Ken Pomeroy had picked UK to win 82-57, and the final score was 81-59.

So what have we learned through seven games? I think we can say that this team is very, very good -- so far they've played better than the John Wall or Brandon Knight teams through this portion of the year. The defense has been solid. And we've never had a team that throws down so many lob dunks. (On SportsCenter tonight, three of the top 10 plays were dunks by UK players in this game.) So far, the biggest weakness has been a fairly mediocre half-court offense. Teague is not making as many turnovers (he had only two tonight) as he was a few weeks ago, but he is still not much of a scoring threat (he was 2-9 with only 5 points tonight). As for Kidd-Gilchrist (1-7 from the field, 5 points) and Wiltjer (1-5 from the field, 2 points), I pretty much assume they will miss every shot they take. So for now, we are being carried by Davis and the old heroes: Jones, Lamb (16 points), and Miller (9 points, 6 assists).

Still, we have already beaten the number two team in all-time wins (Kansas) and the number seven team (St. John's). Let's hope we can take down number three on Saturday.