Big Blue All Stars vs. Kentucky Wesleyan Notes

Just got back from the Big Blue All Stars vs. Kentucky Wesleyan game and it was one entertaining show.  I graduated from Kentucky Wesleyan and live in Owensboro but I of course was decked out in UK blue like most in the stands.  I root for KWC but UK is of course where the heart is.

Anyone else in attendance please comment on your thoughts on what you saw and thought.

Representing the Kentucky All Stars were the following: Demarcus Cousins, Brandon Knight, Josh Harrellson, DeAndre Liggins, Ravi Moss, Kenneth Faried (Morehead St./Denver Nuggets) and Shelvin Mack (Butler/Wizards).  Although Butler is not a Kentucky school, Mack is from Lexington and played at Bryan Station. 

The place was sold out and packed, no empty seats in the place.  They had to announce a note from the fire marshal for fans to stop sitting on the steps.  Part of the issue were fans not sitting in their assigned ticket seats, which is a no no with sold out games.  We had to have some people move out of our seats which took longer than it should.  You can get away with this in a seat with tons of open seats but not a sell out.  What ends up happening is not only do you make it more difficult for people to find a seat, you end up having gaps in the seats here and there.  This causes a group of people to not be able to sit with their group when they bought tickets together.  So a note to all, sold out events like this, just sit in your assigned spot to avoid causing issues.

As for the game it was of course like games you see at Madness, very little defense...just all for show.  Of course the most entertaining player all night was Demarcus Cousins.  He did his typical crazy throw down dunks and just dominating inside but it was his antics that stole the show.  Several times refs called phantom calls on him which allowed him to show some good humor hate towards the ref.  One time he showed the needs glasses sign with his hands on his eyes towards the crowd.  The crowd cheered in agreement.  I have never seen a player pay so much attention to the crowd in the middle of a game like that.

Coming out at one point after a foul he went and picked up the ref and shook him around.  The ref just laughed.

One time a Kentucky Wesleyan players shoe came off in mid action.  Once play was stopped, Harrellson bent down and was trying to tie his shoe for him as a joke.  Cousins ran down the court and bumped into Harrellson and stole the guys shoe off him.  Cousins then preceded to act like he was going to throw his shoe into the crowd.  He didn't and gave his shoe back to the KWC player.  The KWC took his shoe back to the bench, never smiled...he didn't seem to find the event as funny as the rest of us.

One play, Harrellson was in-bounding the ball to Knight and KWC did not press, so we had the rest of the players on the opposite side of the court waiting.  Cousins runs down and guards Knight, trying to prevent him from receiving the ball, of course an odd thing to do to your own player.

Once KWC did get the best of Big Cuz. One of their guards, who couldn't be taller than 6'2 came down the court and just tommy hawked jammed it over Cousins from half way from the free throw line.  It was a crazy monster dunk and did it right over Cousins.  He was posterized that even had Cousins speechless. The KWC player showed hops out of nowhere.  The guard trash talked Cuz after this and then ran back down on defense. While he was running back on defense, Cousins in bounded the ball and threw the ball at his back and then picked it back up and dribbled down the court.

We had thought Cousins was done with 10 minutes still left in the game.  Cousins fouled again and Harrellson came in and subbed for him, motioning with hand that was his fifth foul.  There wasn't the standard double buzzer sound that we know to mean a foul out and the refs never indicated that he was fouled out. When he went out he went over to the KWC student section behind the basket and posed with them and took pictures.  He stole the show even when he wasn't in the game.  One fan tried to put a KWC hat on him and he took it off and looked at it and threw it back at him.  This was even more entertaining since their student section threw some hate at Cousins earlier by chanting air ball air ball at him after he shot a wild three. 

Cousins despite being fouled out came back into the game and immediately fouled again.  I guess if you can come in after fouling out, might as well continue to foul.  At one point after a Cousins foul the announcer stated that Demarcus Cousins with his 17th foul.  Cousins just laughed and continued to foul. 

Cousins threw up a ton of threes and nailed most of them, he also shot well from the line.  He did miss one free throw when he jokingly threw up a granny shot.  Harrellson grabbed the rebound and scored and was fouled. 

When it wasn't the Cousins show, it was the Kenneth Faried show.  Faried first was announced before the game as the guy who helped Morehead knock off Louisville in the tourney last year.  This of course received a big cheer from the UK crowd.  He is crazy athletic for a big guy.  On one alley oop he jumped up, caught the ball in mid air, then after catching it, still had air time to do a reverse dunk. 

Knight did ok.  He struggled from three but he could finish at the basket whenever he wanted.  He didn't do much point guard duty thanks to practically everyone electing to bring the ball up the court themselves.

Harrellson was Harrellson.  Did well cleaning up the garbage down low. I was disappointed Knight and Harrellson did not do any of their hand off passing on offense, they became known for this in the tournament last year. 


Liggins key feature of hard nose defense didn't show up since it wasn't a defensive mindset type of game.  He did shoot well from three and had one nice steal for a dunk. 

Moss and Mack didn't do a whole lot, no one played bad, they just passed the ball most of the time when out there.  Mack hit a few threes.

Rex Chapman who coaches the Kentucky squad spoke to the crowd.  He discussed how he hadn't been back to Owensboro for twenty years and how he felt like he was home again and was glad to be there.

Jeff Sheppard who is organizing the Big Blue All Stars spoke to the crowd and thanked Kentucky Wesleyan for helping to put on the smoothest event yet. 

Overall a good show with a great crowd.  The lock out in the NBA is unfortunate but for UK fans it has been a lot of fun being part of the various events that have included the pro players.

Go Cats!