For Christmas this year, Big Blue Nation got itself a basketball team.
The holidays came three days early for worrying Kentucky basketball fans, heads full of doubt after watching their favorites suffer that opening-night slashing at the hands of Duke. The perfectly-wrapped present wasn’t under the tree, however. It was on the floor of the United Center, where John Calipari’s Cats came through with a keepsake.
Keldon Johnson scored 21 points, Reid Travis added 20 and Ashton Hagans was a 94-foot menace, recording seven outrageous steals, as 19th-ranked Kentucky took down ninth-ranked North Carolina 80-72.
“I hope you guys have a better Christmas than I’m going to have,” cracked North Carolina Coach Roy Williams to open his postgame press conference.