PAGE 3    THE CATS'  PAUSE,  JANUARY 22, 1577
Will The Real Wildcats Please Stand Up?
Tonight, we'll see what the Kentucky Wildcats are made of. They escaped with a pair of victories on the road this past weekend and now they'll be facing a strong test from LSU.
Many SEC followers counted the Wildcats out of the conference race following Tennessee's 71-67 overtime upset win when the loss was suffered here at Rupp Arena.
Most observers felt Kentucky had the impossible task of trying to sweep a pair from Auburn and Florida on the road. The Wildcats did that, but they shortened the lives of many followers by taking both to the wire.
Kentucky showed brief signs in both contests of regaining their old form, but most believe the Cats' downfall are the Cats themselves. They just can't stand prosperity.
Up to now, that theory has been proven correct.
Which brings us to tonight's game with LSU.
The Bengal Tigers, believe it or not, have never won a basketball game in Lexington against the Wildcats. Tonight will be their best chance ever.
Two high-scoring Kentuckians would probably trade the remainder of their schedule for a win here tonight. We don't have to mention names but they are Kenny Higgs and Durand Macklin.
Higgs wanted to come to Kentucky and wasn't asked. Macklin was asked and didn't want to. Nevertheless, a win over Kentucky would the season make.
LSU lost to Tennessee 108-102 despite Macklin scoring 40 and Higgs 17. But Dale Brown will have the Bengal Tigers at an emotional high when they hit the floor tonight.
Kentucky, which has been granted a stay-of-execution with wins over Auburn and Florida, now has a second chance to prove how good the Wildcats are. Will they blow it again"1
Kentucky's loss to Tennessee cost the Cats in the weekly UPI top twenty poll as the Cats fell to the seventh spot while Alabama became the SEC leader in the No. 4 spot.
San Francisco retained the top spot with North Carolina moving all the way up to No. 2 while undefeated Cincinnati (going into Wednesday's game with Louisville) in the third spot. Fifth place is held down by Michigan with Nevada-Las Vegas sixth, and Kentucky seventh. Tennessee, with three wins last week, jumped from 17th to 11th and Louisville is in the No. 16 spot.
A couple of UK players observed birthdays over the weekend as Jay Shidler became 19 on Saturday and James Lee became a man on Monday at the age of 21. Woooo, I wish I hadn't said that.
James Lee has been a man a long time and a lot of SEC opponents will testify to that. Anyway, Lee reached the legal age and celebrated with a 10-point exhibition, including a big dunk, in the 73-71 win over Florida.
While Jay didn't experience one of his better games Saturday against Auburn, he did rejoice, just on a delayed basis. The blonde bomber toed the free throw line with four seconds left to score the deciding points over Florida.
Drawn for BROADCASTING by Jack Schmidt "Next game, you interview the losing team."
Junior Jack Givens picked up the "Most Valuable Player" hardware for the second time this season with his 20-point, 13-rebound exhibition against Auburn Saturday as the Cats rebounded from the Tennessee loss for a 75-68 win over Bob Davis' Tigers.
Earlier, Jack won MVP honors in the Wildcats' 102-78 thrashing of Notre Dame in Louisville last month.
The award was presented by the UK Alumni chapter of Montgomery, Alabama. The award goes on permanent display at UK with each MVP being inscribed on the, trophy. A smaller personal trophy is given to the player.
There's only one catch, Kentucky must wrin before the award is given. Joe Hall won't kick about that condition. It was the first Kentucky win at Auburn in four years.
Well, the idea is catching on quickly. A new sports weekly will begin full-time operations in another Southeastern Conference city this fall. The news venture will cover the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Stark-ville, Mississippi.
Patterned after The Cats' Pause, the new publication is named Dawgs' Bite. A sample, pre-publication issue was published last month and Mississippi State fans will, no doubt, make it a great success.
Heading up the operation is Pete Sanders whose father-in-law happens to work for the printing plant where we publish our newspaper here in Kentucky. Pete talked with us about such project back in October after he had read a couple of issues of The Cats' Pause. Pete says Dawgs' Bite hopes to have a subscription list of 5,000 when it begins weekly publication on August 17 of this year.
The MS sports weekly address is: Bulldog Publications, Drawer NF, Mississippi State, Mississippi 39762.
Another similar publication may be hitting the newsstands in Alabama this fall. A group of Alabama and Auburn fans hope to launch sports weeklies this year.
By the way, the first issue of Dawgs' Bite was a good one, especially if you're a Bulldog fan. Remember, Wildcat fans can say they were first again.
HITS AND MISSES . . . There's been a slight change in the future for sophomore Bill Tolston, the former quarterback at UK. Tolston is in the
process of transferring to Western Michigan and plans to play football there. Earlier, we reported he was going to Central State in Missouri, but Bill  has  decided  on  the Michigan school which is much closer to his Chicago   home.   Tolston   spent the semester   break   in   California and friends say he is excited with the opportunity to attend Western Michigan .  .  . Where goes Bill Battle? Sources in Knoxville predict the axed head football coach of Tennessee will remain in Knoxville and go into private business. Battle, one of the game's true gentlemen, reported was offered the head job at Oregon and probablv could have had the job at Purdue had he been interested. Friends say Battle has apparently decided that 'coaching' isn't his best suit . . . The loss of Dwight Evans to Tennessee was a big blow to UK's football recruiting but it didn't   come   as   a   great surprise. Evans,   who   personally  wanted to attend Kentucky,  could never persuade his mother to sign her approval. The Franklin-Simpson product ended up in Knoxville because his mother likes Tennessee (some say she doesn't like UK) So happens, Evans also has an uncle who lives in the Knoxville area . . . But don't be so discouraged. Kentucky will have some pretty good signatures to release in a couple of weeks and the future still looks bright . . . A couple of interesting statistics were offered by Coach Joe Hall about his team's performance on the road as compared with Rupp Arena games. The Wildcats, prior to the Auburn game, were shooting 55 percent on the road as compared to-only 43 percent at home.   UK   has   experienced much difficulty in obtaining the Rupp Arena floor for practice since early December. Hall said the Cats have had only-two full-scale practices between the Kansas game in early December and the Tennessee loss last week. While the lack of practice time at the Arena shouldn't hurt Kentucky any more than visiting teams, it does eliminate that "home court" advantage that all other conference teams enjoy when you hit the road in the South . . . Three UK   players   were   involved   in an automobile accident on the way to Bluegrass Airport for the Auburn trip. Dwane Casey, Larry Johnson and Rick Robey all escaped what could have been a deathly tragedy. None of the three were seriously injured but the car was heavily damaged as it skidded off the pavement and overturned three times. All three played against Auburn the next day ... A free prediction service: The finals in Atlanta will pit two SEC teams in the championship game of the NCAA this March.