Patrick Patterson—Full of False Hope for Kentucky

"We are going to go to Detroit and get our trophy," Patrick Patterson told the media after the annual University of Kentucky Midnight Madness festivity of events.

Someone must have forgotten to tell Patterson the back story.  You know, the one about how Joe Crawford is gone, how his team performed better without him down the stretch last season, and about how earning an 11 seed again this year could be considered more of an accomplishment than a disappointment.

But you can't blame him.  Like the Kentucky fanbase, Patterson is, well, delusional.  It's definitely not a bad thing to have unreal aspirations, but taken the wrong way, one might get the impression that Wildcat fans are insane, ill-advised, and ignorant.  Patterson is going to make a great Kentucky fan when he moves on to the NBA.

At 6'8", 235 pounds, Patterson averaged over 35 minutes a game in the 2007-2008 season for the Wildcats.  He scored 16.7 points per game and pulled down 7.7 rebounds but averaged a feeble 1.7 assists. 

That was in 25 games, and most of them were non-conference gimmies.  Patterson's slight case of selfishness while on the court for 35 minutes a game might explain why teammates Perry Stevenson and Ramon Harris were able to break out after Patterson's foot injury sidelined him for the remainder of the year.

With Patterson on the bench, coach Billy Gillespie's team pulled Kentucky off the bubble and into the tournament on more than name alone (something former coach Tubby Smith wasn't always able to do).

Along with Crawford, guard Derrick Jasper is gone from the team.  Jasper transferred to UNLV at season's end, leaving freshman DeAndre Liggins a key role in the Wildcat's backcourt.

Outside of Patterson, Harris, Stevenson, and returning guard Jodie Meeks, Kentucky is a largely unheralded team full of youth and inexperience.

Patterson plans on claiming his prize Detroit, but North Carolina, Duke, Louisville, and UCLA—other traditional basketball powers with proven squads—might have something to say about that when the ball starts rolling.

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