- It was there for Vanderbilt to take. The game was at Memorial Gym. It was a prime time ESPN televised game against top-ranked Kentucky.
The Commodores rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to take a 63-61 lead over the ‘Cats with 4:10 left in the game.
But there would be no Memorial Magic on this night. Kentucky turned up the defensive pressure, forcing Vanderbilt into bad shots and the Wildcats closed out with an 8-0 run to win, 69-63.
Vanderbilt playmakers Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins could not get clean shots off over a more athletic Kentucky team that earned everything it got.
Despite Vanderbilt having a senior laden team, it was the freshman-sophomore dominated Kentucky squad that showed more poise under pressure. Vanderbilt, a preseason No. 7 pick that is no longer in the top 25, dropped to 17-8.
While it should have been Vanderbilt showing a killer instinct in crunch time, it was Kentucky that proved it is deserving of its No. 1 ranking.
And if Kentucky freshman phenomenon Anthony Davis isn't the national player of the year someone please tell me who is.
- The night before NBA superstar Kobe Bryant's Lakers played the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Bryant confessed to reporters that he wasn't that aware of Jeremy Lin.
Why should he be? Lin was a star in high school, but failed to get a scholarship offer from any college. The first NBA Asian American player went to Harvard, but only after an assistant coach there had second thoughts and asked him to enroll at the Ivy League school that does not have athletic scholarships.
Former Vanderbilt and Tennessee assistant coach Kerry Keating was a UCLA assistant at the time and offered Lin a chance to walk on there. Keating later admitted he could have been a starting point guard there.
Golden State owner and Stanford booster Joe Lacob was astonished the Cardinal failed to sign the 6-3 Californian, who was born in Palo Alto.
It "was really stupid,'' Lacob said. "The kid was right across the street. If you can't realize that, you've got a problem.''
No NBA team drafted Lin out of Harvard and he got a tryout with the Warriors in his home state. He failed to stick last season, playing with the D-league Reno Bighorns, before landing with the Knicks this season.
Coming out of nowhere, Lin recently got a chance to get on the court. He got 25 points against the Nets, 28 against the Jazz, 23 points and 10 assists against Washington.
It was the birth of "Lin sanity.'' Against Washington he put a crossover move on former Kentucky star John Wall and finished with a You Tube worthy dunk.
Against the Lakers, Lin pumped in 38 points and dished seven assists in his team's 92-85 win. Lin jerseys have been flying off the shelves at the Knicks store in the Garden. They can't keep them in stock.
I would think Lin has seen the last of Reno.
- Good people make bad decisions in life. Some of them get away with it. Others don't.
I would like to think that former Franklin Road Academy and Christ Presbyterian Academy head football coach David Pack fits that description.
Pack was arrested and booked with soliciting prostitution last week after allegedly offering a policewoman posing as a prostitute $150 to have sex with her at a hotel room on Dickerson Pike.
Anyone would have to be desperate to even go near Dickerson Pike, a noted location for prostitution and widely known as a location for undercover police stings.
Pack has always had a solid reputation as a coach and mentor with high school students. He ruined that with a horrible decision, losing his job, embarrassing himself and his family. It will be close to impossible for him to ever get a coaching job in this state.
I was shocked when I heard the report. You could have given me 100 names of people I know who would have done what Pack is accused of doing and his name would not have been on my list.
I hope in time he re-builds his reputation. It won't be easy. Even good people who make bad decisions have to pay a price.
- Leave it to Donald Trump. The multi-millionaire plans to create a cemetery adjacent to his Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.
Trump will offer club members (entry fee of $300,000) the opportunity to make it their final resting place, for an added fee of course.
If the project becomes reality, Trump will include himself and family members as cemetery residents.
- A Sports Illustrated NHL players poll asked, "Who is the toughest goalie to beat in a shootout?''
Predators goalie Pekka Rinne came in second, gaining 26 percent of the votes. Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist edged out Rinne with 29 percent.
Lundqvist leads the NHL in save percentage and won the All Star Skills Competition, stonewalling six of seven shootout attempts. Rinne ranks first among active NHL goalies in career shootout save percentage (.784).
- It wasn't a fluke that Tennessee State became the first team this season to beat OVC rival Murray State.
To make the upset more impressive, the game was played at Murray, where the Racers rarely lose. It was the biggest win in TSU Coach John Cooper's time on campus.
- Super model Gisele Bundchen took the words to the country standard, Stand By Your Man, literally. The New York media took pleasure in blowing up Bundchen's naughty retort to some Giants fans that piled on at the end of the Super Bowl.
While waiting on a Lucas Stadium elevator, Bundchen stood up for her husband, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Bundchen took their lip for a few minutes before asking the knuckleheads if they expected her husband to make the passes and also catch the ball. She inserted a little spicy South American language in her response, thus grabbing all the New York City tabloid headlines.
Me thinks ‘twasmuchto do about nothing.
- Look for the NCAA to raise the number of football games required to win in order to become bowl eligible to seven.
It's long overdue, ever since they went to 12 regular season games.
Most BCS conference teams can schedule six wins. Vanderbilt won its four non-conference games,needing only two SEC victories to become bowl eligible this past season.
- No sooner did Memphis agree to move to the Big East Conference than Memphis Coach Josh Pastner called for canceling the home-and-home non-conference contests against Tennessee.
Former Memphis Coach John Calipari wanted to cancel the series when he was there, but was unable to make it happen.
It's a game that should be played. The two highest profile state universities should meet in football and basketball.
Memphis is adding San Diego State and Boise State, two Big East football only schools. The Memphis-Tennessee basketball contract expires after next season.
- Who can forget Whitney Houston's stirring rendition of the National Anthem before Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium?
Now, she is dead at 48.
The news Saturday night was stunning, but given Houston's past troubles with drug abuse and addiction, it was not totally unexpected.
That day in Tampa, our country was in the early days of the Persian Gulf War and security was the heaviest in history up to that point.
Football and broadcasting legend Frank Gifford called Houston's Super Bowl performance "the most electric moment in sports.''
It was emotional. The country was at war. I didn't see a lot of dry eyes in the stands as she sang the anthem like an angel.
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