Now when he shoots those hook shots, you might think you hear violins. It is he who steals the next cross-court Indiana pass. Soon Cameron Mills was open around screens for four three-point shots. I don't think so. By the end of the 21 points, the 12 rebounds, the alteration of a short and open Indiana shot with six seconds to play, it is Mohammed drawing the rave from Bob Knight, the Indiana coach and basketball sage.
Knight brings up the Punjab elephant trainers of northwest India and northern Pakistan.
I wish I could have heard it with my own ears. This is the team that plays as hard as any Kentucky team has, that turned Indiana into gelatinous mulch yesterday during the most exhilarating sequence of the year to date, early in the second half. This is the team that slapped on a defense so tight that Indiana had one shot-clock violation and three other times threw up basketball prayers because the clock was just about drained. Add in that his wife, Donna, found herself with a row of available tickets before the game, so she explored the nose-threatening rafters of the RCA Dome, found herself six perfect strangers wearing Wildcat regalia and invited them to the front row. All appeared exuberant after Kentucky held on to become 6-1, to secure a frenetic Eastern Time Zone win to go with its recent Central Time Zone, Mountain Time Zone and Hawaiian Time Zone wins.