Off the Wall

I went down to the Garden last night to see the Kentucky vs. UCONN matchup and I have to tell you, this kid John Wall is the real deal.

He was dominant on both sides of the ball, his athleticism was unmatched and he appeared to have all the makings of a good outside shooter.

Wall has hops and had one of the most outrageous blocks in transition I've ever seen by a guard. He took over the game late and showed superb upper body strength late in the game when he was hammered taking it to the hole, hit three times and still managed to convert the conventional 3-point play.

The one drawback for Wall was that he had 7 turnovers. He appeared sloppy at times, especially in the middle stages of the game, but he clamped down at the end that that's what mattered most. Keep in mind he also had 6 steals, plus the block.

As far as the game was concerned I did not like what I saw out of UCONN. They play solid defense, but the shooting was dreadful.

Calipari out coached Calhoun in my eyes. After Wall picked Dyson's pocket 33 seconds into the game, Calhoun had a coronary, called time out and removed his leading scorer from the game. You have to give him more than 33 seconds and what's worse is that a similar situation occurred shortly into the second half with Dyson again. You have to trust your stars.

Conversely, I thought Calipari did an outstanding job limiting Wall's minutes in the first half so that he was fresh for the stretch run and it paid off. Even as UCONN came back from Kentucky's 12-0 run to start the game, Calipari did not feel the need to force Wall into the game. Instead he wisely weathered the storm, kept his young phenom fresh and it paid off as Kentucky won BECAUSE of Wall.

This kid's the real deal, and mark my words, Kentucky will be a contender come March. I don't think that will be true of the Huskies.

--Notes

* I couldn't believe how many Blue jersey's there were at MSG last night. Certainly more than there were UCONN jerseys and more than triple (I'd guess) than St. John's jerseys (the Red Storm played in the first game against Georgia).

* Both Mike Francesa and Pat Riley were in attendance last night. This afternoon Francesa said on his radio show, Mike'd Up, that when he asked Riley about Wall, Riley's response was "he's like a 6'3" LeBron."