[Cactus Jack]

They didn't look good by any means at all, but they were still up 20 late in the 3/14 game-- that's more than we'd gotten from Cal in most of his late years.

Kentucky's narrative flips from here though.

Think Illinois will be favored against Kentucky and that they'd be a slight favorite against Xavier. Will be much less pressure with the first one out of the way and will be playing with nothing to lose if we get matched up with Illinois.

Could actually see Kentucky/Illinois becoming a bit of a committee favorite as long as Pope and Underwood are both there. Have to imagine that it'd be a game that would get a lot of eyeballs and the schools aren't that far apart. This year they'll have the Orlando Antigua and Will Riley angles at least.

Seems like we're moving away from the Marquette and Wisconsin pairings a bit, so Illinois would fill that void nicely, especially if the conferences reach a scheduling agreement (like they're trying to do with football) and the SEC and Big Ten keep leveraging their power over the other conferences.