The week of rest...

Story by: Jesse Travis, Edited by: Stefan Poikonen

Sorry UK basketball nation. There are sadly no games in the middle of this week. But our boys could seriously use this much needed rest. As you all might know Joe Crawford was set back by an injury during the Tennessee game last week, causing plantar fasciitis. After hitting back-to-back threes, which helped spark the Wildcats to a memorable comeback in Rupp, Joe unluckily came down on Perry Stevenson's foot--yet another injury plaguing the Cats. Despite not being available for the SC game, the Cats could have used Joe. He represents another scoring threat with the ability to hit the three or drive inside and make a play. In spite of Joe's injury the Wildcats played well. Bradley and Patterson really stepped it up, scoring 26 and 22 points respectively. Bradley's clutch threes put the game on ice to lead UK to a 3-2 record in SEC play. I really cannot express how proud I am to see Bradley take the lead of this team. We'll have more on Bradley later.

The truth is we need Joe--he is a senior, and really beginning to step up. This week off should give him some time to heel. Joe hasn't practiced with the team this week and it is uncertain whether he will start against Georgia in Athens. Trainers think he should definitely be ready to go against Auburn on Wednesday.

This week off is also good for Meeks and Jasper as well. Jodie should be back near 100% and Jasper should be near full strength, but not quite--we'll say 85%-90%. It is apparent by Jaspers play that he has lost a step from the previous season, because of his nagging knee injury. He will be back slowly but surely. We all saw light of that against UT, where Jasper drove the baseline and went up and under on a defender to lay the ball in the basket. It was good to see, but not as exciting and explosive as his one step throw-downs that we saw last season. After his knee heals, he won't have to deal with the wait of a brace on his knee, he'll have that extra spring, and he'll get back up to full conditioning.

I'm ready to cheer on the Cats to another victory, but at this juncture of the season it is more important to see our boys healthy. By the end of the year with all the Cats healthy I expect us to make some noise.

So warm up your rowdy voices fans as Georgia hosts the Kentucky Wildcats live on CBS Saturday Feb.2,2008 @ 1:00 P.M. ET in the Stegeman Coliseum.



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