Goodbye Jodie you will be missed

[Brian Shannon]

Here is what he said:

“I want to thank the fans and the city of Lexington. They have been great and I will always be a Kentucky Wildcat,” said Meeks. “I feel comfortable with my decision and I’m confident in my ability. My family and I talked over the weekend and decided this was the best decision.”

Well I guess playing for a title and the chance of actually having a good season at UK weren't enough to draw Jodie Meeks back to UK. Hopefully he has something more solid than a guy saying "yeah we might take you in the second round". My fear is we are looking at Kelena all over again. Might be picked up in the second round without any guaranteed money. In turn he will have to work his way into the league the hard way. Rather than coming back and playing in a more pro-style set which one would think might make it easier than D-League. But I can't blame him at all. He is so close to his dream and it might be the right decision. Playing off the high of a pretty good season where everyone saw him score 54 points. So good luck to Jodie where ever you end up wish you nothing but the best.

Now what does this do to UK? Leaves us with only 12 on the roster and a lot less experience. It will, however, give more playing time instantly to Miller and Dodson. I think it transforms the line up a bit. I really thought that we might see a lot of Cousins, Miller, Patterson, Meeks and Wall. Sure it is a little small but good size in Cousins and Patterson but Cousins can bring out the defense further. Now we might see a healthy dose of Orton, Patterson, Miller, Cousins and Wall. Still not a bad line up and with Dodson, Bledsoe, Harris, Stevenson, Hood, Harrellson and Liggins. Certainly it will take us out of the top 5 teams argument but lets be real, we weren't/aren't going to be at that level at the beginning of the year next year......but you never know by the end of the year how this team will respond. They aren't short on talent but it sure would have been nice to have Meeks along with them to make the argument easier for us in the top 5.