Kentucky Kernel -- January 28, 1997

<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF LINK=#0066ff ALINK=#0066ff VLINK=#660000> <BLOCKQUOTE>    <CENTER> <FONT SIZE=6> <B>Brown and Cocks looming</B><P> </FONT> </CENTER>    <TABLE CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT> <TR> <TD> <IMG SRC="/art/97/spacer.gif" ALT="" HEIGHT=1 WIDTH=20><BR CLEAR> </TD> <TD> <IMG SRC="bball.gif" ALT="Photo" WIDTH=159 HEIGHT=230 BORDER=1><BR CLEAR><P> </TD> </TR> </TABLE>    <FONT SIZE=4><B>by Chris Easterling</B><BR></FONT>Sports Editor <HR> A few rants and ramblings as I work off my Super Bowl hangover:<P> Sunday's win over Arkansas, in the hostile environs of Bud Walton Arena, showed how good this team really is, despite losing the Southeastern Conference's best player for the season and the SEC's second-best player for 40 minutes.This performance, short of the dismal free-throw shooting, has to give those Cat fans who were near suicide following the news that Derek Anderson was gone for the season hope that this team can still make it to Indianapolis for the Final Four, without having to buy tickets. <P> The Pack is officially back. And it's good to see former Michigan standout and Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard finally break through whatever jinx he was cursed with during the first four seasons in the NFL. <P> Is South Carolina for real? <P> This year's Senior Day game against the Gamecocks could end up being one of the biggest conference games to be played at Rupp Arena in a while - possibly even dating back to the very first visit by Arkansas as a member of the SEC. <P> By the time these two teams square off on March 2, the conference championship could rest on who ends up winning the game. The teams play a week from today in Columbia, which, should the Cats win, tie the two at the top of the SEC. <P> A quick glance at the schedule shows that it could be a very long time, barring upsets, before either team loses again. <P> Feb. 12 is going to be somewhat of a bittersweet day in UK basketball. On one hand, it will likely notch yet another win against LSU. <P> But it will be the final Cat-Tiger clash with one of college basketball's most colorful coaches of all-time sitting on the LSU bench. <P> Dale Brown has decided, after 25 years in Baton Rouge, that he is fed up with all the crap he has to put up with in the game these days. <P> Brown has been part of some memorable moments in UK history, including the little altercation which he and Rick Pitino got into on Pitino's first visit to Tigerland as the Wildcat coach. <P> Then there was the return visit that same year to Rupp Arena, which may go down in history as the biggest upset the program has ever had. <P> Bernadette Mattox's women's basketball team will finally get a reprieve from the schedule from hell on Wednesday when it travels to Columbia to face unranked South Carolina. It will be the first game the Cats have played against an unranked opponent in six games. <P> This bring up the obvious question: Exactly who does the scheduling for the team, and when will his replacement be named? <P> Could Billy Packer be any more anti-UK, pro-North Carolina/Atlantic Coast Conference? <P> Of course, these are only my opinions. I could be wrong. <P> <P> <CENTER><i>Sports Editor Chris Easterling is a journalism sophomore.</i></CENTER> <P>    <HR> <B>Photo: </B><b>STEPPING IT UP</b> Wayne Turner played his best game as a Wildcat Sunday against Arkansas. Will he be ready if South Carolina is for real though? <FONT SIZE=2> <B>File Photo</B> <BR> </FONT>       <HR> <P> <CENTER> <FONT SIZE=5> [ <A HREF="welcome.html">Contents</A> | <a href="http://www.kykernel.com">Home</A> | <A HREF="/archive.html">Archives</A> | <A HREF="/feed.html">Feedback</A> ]<BR> </FONT> <P> <B>© Copyright 1997, Kernel Press Inc. All Rights Reserved</B><BR>  </BLOCKQUOTE> </BODY>