Rick Pitino kept waiting for John Wall to lose his cool.
Moments after Louisville quieted a record Rupp Arena crowd by
taking a one-point lead over No. 3 Kentucky midway through the
second half on Saturday, Pitino thought for a second maybe - just
maybe - the freshman superstar would finally blink.
Instead, Wall responded with six straight points to spark
Kentucky's gritty 71-62 win over its archrival - and win Pitino's
admiration in the process.
``When a game gets a little tight like that, with the game on
the line, it just shows you how great Wall is because it didn't
faze him,'' Pitino said.
Not much does.
Not the constant jawing with Louisville players. Not the
countless bumps, nudges and hits he took while trying to get down
the court. Not the pressure of playing in the spotlight while
trying to return the Wildcats to national prominence.
``He decided to take the game over,'' Kentucky forward
Patrick Patterson said. ``John got the ball and pushed it, blew by
defenders and made several big shots.''
Wall scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half as the
Wildcats (15-0) matched their best start in 40 years by breaking a
two-game losing streak to the Cardinals (10-4).
``I'm playing at another level I never thought I could play
at,'' Wall said. ``I always played good when I was in high school
but playing for (Kentucky coach John) Calipari, he's going to take
you to another level and get you better. I thought I was at the top
of my potential when I was in high school. I'm nowhere near it.''
It's a scary proposition for opponents, particularly after
the Cardinals did their best to frustrate Wall in one of the most
contentious meetings in the series' long history.
The jawing started in the tunnel well before tipoff,
continued through warm-ups then really got going once the ball was
in the air.
The teams combined for 51 fouls - including five technicals -
and had to be separated on several occasions.
Kentucky's Patrick Patterson added 17 points and teammate
DeMarcus Cousins posted his fourth straight double-double with 18
points and 18 rebounds, though he narrowly missed being ejected 45
seconds into the game after getting tangled up with Louisville's
Jared Swopshire.
The two were battling for a loose ball when Louisville's
Reginald Delk pushed Cousins from behind. Cousins appeared to swing
his right forearm at Swopshire's head as he tried to get up. All
three players received technical fouls but none was ejected.
Cousins said it was simply the cost of doing business.
``It was intense,'' Cousins said. ``I was just going for the
ball. They tried to get physical and we got physical with them.
They tried to rough us up.''
The Wildcats pushed back and dominated at times. Louisville
missed 18 of its first 19 shots and Kentucky built an 18-5 lead.
Yet Louisville hung tough behind the play of Edgar Sosa and
Jerry Smith. The senior guards finished with 11 points each and
helped the Cardinals rally to take a 42-41 lead on a free throw by
Terrence Jennings with 9:51 to go.
``I guess they tried to intimidate us from the beginning, but
it didn't happen,'' Sosa said. ``We wanted this game bad. They were
doing a lot but we didn't want to play dirty.''
Still, the Cardinals couldn't contain Wall when it mattered.
He started the game-turning 14-3 run with a tough leaner along the
baseline then added a pull-up jumper to extend the lead to three.
He stripped the ball from Louisville's Peyton Siva and knocked down
a pair of free throws after being fouled trying to finish on the
break.
In the midst of his run he even managed to get the first
technical foul of his college career after exchanging words with
Smith. Though Wall admits he came ``close'' to losing his temper,
he simply used his anger to fuel the Wildcats.
``We were saying everything,'' Wall said with laugh.
Perry Stevenson added a reverse layup, Ramon Harris drilled a
3-pointer and Patrick Patterson converted a three-point play to
give Kentucky a 55-45 lead with 5:35 to go.
Louisville kept scrapping but got no closer than seven the
rest of the way.
Pitino and Calipari shook hands briefly as the horn sounded,
both coaches only too happy to put one of the most anticipated
meetings in the series' long history behind them.
``This game was physical but neither team was going to give
an inch,'' Calipari said. ``You could come out and do that bravado.
It wasn't working in this game.''
Neither was much else in 40 heated minutes that made up for
in passion what it lacked in precise play.
The game was billed as the renewal of the simmering rivalry
between Pitino and Calipari, one filled with plenty of subplots.
Calipari was wary of how the crowd would behave toward
Pitino, who led the Wildcats to three Final Fours and a national
championship in the 1990s but has become Public Enemy No. 1 while
coaching the hated Cardinals.
Calipari urged fans to behave themselves, a veiled reference
to Pitino's troubled summer in which he acknowledged to having an
affair six years ago with a woman later charged with trying to
extort him for millions.
Security officials confiscated any signs they deemed
inappropriate, though during one timeout in the first half a group
in the upper deck chanted the woman's name.
Pitino was too busy yelling at Sosa to notice and afterward
laughed off the chanting as a distraction.
``I think two or three people missed me,'' he said
sarcastically.
Pitino didn't miss Cousins, who dominated his matchup with
Louisville center Samardo Samuels. Samuels finished with nine
points and nine rebounds, turned it over three times and was
muscled out of the way by Cousins.
After his early scrap, Cousins kept his emotions in check and
capped the victory with a thunderous dunk with 37.2 seconds left
that put the Wildcats up 68-57 as the crowd erupted.
The win matched Kentucky's best start since 1969-70. It also
kept hopes of a perfect season alive.
``It's going to be pretty tough but I think we've got a
chance,'' Wall said.
