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NEW YORK -- John Calipari sounded like a typical college student. He cant wait for finals to be over. Hes not thinking winter vacation, though. Hes thinking basketball. All basketball.I am so happy because Wednesday will be our last finals. I dont have to worry about anything academically, Calipari said after No. 6 Kentucky beat Hofstra 96-73 on Sunday.Well go 29 straight days, four-a-days. Nothing to worry about except basketball. Right now we got to get through Wednesday. Theyre off tomorrow, get through these finals, but we just have a lot of work to do.Malik Monk scored 20 points, Isaiah Briscoe had 19 and Kentucky took control with a 26-3 run spanning halftime to beat the Pride in the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival at Barclays Center.DeAaron Fox had 15 points and Bam Adebayo added 14 for Kentucky (9-1). The Wildcats closed the first half on a 12-0 run and opened the second with a 14-3 spurt to go ahead 62-36 with 16 minutes to play.We came out. We were playing good defense. The other team was making shots, Briscoe said. We kept calm knowing sooner or later well get into their legs and theyll start to get tired and well make our run. Right before halftime we did that.The Pride (6-5), who came in having won four of five, stayed with the Wildcats for 16 minutes, trailing 36-33 with 4 minutes left in the first half. Deron Powers had 18 points for Hofstra in the first meeting between the schools.When I walked off the floor to locker room, I said to my staff that Id love to have the last 3 minutes of the first half back, Hofstra coach Joe Mihalich said. The last three minutes of the first half and the first 4 minutes of the second half was a 26-3 run and that was the difference in the game.Monk had seven of the points in the 12-0 run and Adebayo had six in the 14-3 run. Kentucky started dominating inside, finishing with a 48-28 advantage in the paint, and on the perimeter, shooting 51.4 percent overall and 8 of 23 from 3-point range.This team has a long way to go. Were young. We show it. Were talented, Calipari said. We do some good things in stretches and then we do some bad things in stretches. We need to get in the gym and we need to get to the camp part of our season which is two- and three-a-days. They get time to sleep, to eat, well give video time, phone time. Theyve got to have that or theyll climb walls, but the reality of it is lets get down to getting better.Justin Wright-Foreman had 14 points for Hofstra and Rokas Gustys added 13.When the coaches shook hands after the game, Mihalich told Calipari he thinks Kentucky can win it all.BIG PICTUREHofstra: This game would have been a better matchup last season for the Pride. They had a senior-laden lineup that won the Colonial Athletic Association regular season title. ... Gustys came into the game leading the nation in rebounding at 13.5 per game. He had eight against the Wildcats. ... The Pride finished with 14 turnovers. They came in averaging 12.3 per game and Kentucky came in forcing 18.9 per game. The Wildcats scored 23 points off Hofstras turnovers.Kentucky: The Wildcats came into the game averaging 13.5 seconds per possession, fourth-best in the country. ... Monk has scored in double figures in all 10 games. ... The Wildcats are 3-1 all-time at Barclays Center. ... Through nine game Monk is on pace to beat Jamal Meeks season mark for 3-pointers and Fox is on pace to beat Tyler Ulis season mark for assists.BLUE NATIONAs usual, Kentucky fans were in the majority in a game played in the New York area. The crowd was announced at 7,514 and a good percentage wore Kentucky blue.SECOND CHANCEThe one stat that went Hofstras way was second-chance points. The Pride finished with a 24-7 advantage on second-chance points and they finished with 19 offensive rebounds, seven more than Kentucky.UP NEXTHofstra: The Pride host Stony Brook on Tuesday.Kentucky: The Wildcats change course in quality of opponents the next two games. On Saturday, they face No. 7 North Carolina in Las Vegas and then travel to No. 11 Louisville on Dec. 21.The games that were going to start playing are all going to be seven-, eight-point games, Calipari said. So theyre not going to be 30-point games where you could break off. Every game we play is someones Super Bowl. Cyber Monday Nike Air Max 97 . Robredo, ranked No. 16, bounced back from an upset loss to Leonardo Mayer in the second round of the Royal Guard Open in Chile last week to down Carreno Busta in 1 hour, 25 minutes. 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Ryan Riess emerged with the title after a session in which he started behind, but used expert skill to gather the chips to his side amid the unpredictability of no-limit Texas Hold em. Riess put his final opponent Jay Farber all-in with an Ace-King. For a disciple of Test cricket, the last few days have been heaven on the big screen. Vernon Philander and Kyle Abbott nipping the ball about in Hobart, the New Zealand and Pakistani fast bowlers doing likewise in Christchurch,while over in India, Haseeb Hameeds and Alastair Cooks brilliant defensive techniques provided a magnificent contrast to their dazzling, wristy strokeplay.It would be true to say that the last fortnight has provided as much breadth and variety as a Test purist could hope for in terms of pitches, techniques and skills.The unique beauty of Test cricket is that a tense draw can be as riveting as an outright result. So long as at least one team is trying to win the match, a pitch that produces a draw is not necessarily a poor one. And a pitch that produces a fourth- or fifth-day result is arguably better than one on which a game finishes on the third day.Lets look at the two most recent Tests in Asia and the two in Australia and New Zealand as examples. Which of these pitches, on a statistical basis, provided more balance between bat and ball and between different bowling styles?The Hobart Test was effectively a two-day affair, allowing for the washout on the second day and some rain interruptions on the third. Fewer than 194 overs were bowled, and 572 runs were scored, with one century. Of the 30 wickets that fell, 29 went to fast bowlers, zero to spinners (there was one run-out). So of all the wickets claimed by bowlers, 100% of them were taken by one type of bowling (fast).In Christchurch, another Test that finished before the halfway point (if you count the washout on the first day), New Zealand won easily against Pakistan, who looked incapable of batting in seam-friendly conditions with extra bounce. A total of 612 runs were scored; no centuries. Of the 32 wickets that fell, seam bowlers claimed 31. The only wicket that fell to a spinner (part-timer Azhar Ali) was at the very end of the game, with victory just one run away. So thats close to 100% in favour of seam.In the first Test in Rajkot against England, India were under some pressure to save the match on the last day before it petered out in the final minutes. A total of 1457 runs were scored, with six centuries. More revealingly, the split between seam bowlers (seven) and spinners (22) suggested the pitch conditions were more balanced.In Visakhapatnam, 1072 runs were scored, with two centuries. Fourteen wickets to fast bowlers and 25 to the slow men. Again, a significantly more balanced snapshot than the matches in Australia and New Zealand.Even if you go back to Australias recent tour of Sri Lanka or New Zealands tour of India, the numbers look more balanced than the ones from Hobart and Christchurch. In Sri Lanka, the three Tests finished on day five, day three and day five respectively. Fast bowlers took 36 wickets and spinners 80 through the series.In India, the Tests against New Zealand lasted five, four and four days respectively. The seam-spin split was 37-62. In both India and Sri Lanka, the fast bowlers took approximately 33% of the total wickets that fell in the series. Thats significantly more balanced than heavily pace-favouring Hoobart and Christchurch.dddddddddddd.Imagine the raised eyebrows if the spin v fast stats in the Tests played in Asia had been as heavily skewed in favour of spinners as they were for seamers in the Antipodes.Theres no question that weather conditions played their part in Hobart and Christchurch, but the same could also be said about the impact of weather on Asian pitches. Dont forget that in Hobart 15 wickets fell for 256 runs on the first day. This was the best pitch the groundsman could serve up for Bellerive Ovals marquee event of the summer. Christchurch was similar - 13 wickets for 237 runs on the first day of actual play. That can sometimes happen on any pitch that offers too much to the bowlers anywhere in the world.The success of Mitchell Starc in Sri Lanka and of Englands seamers in India proves that fast bowlers can do well on Asian pitches, contrary to some of the mutterings from Starc about how much better it was to be back at the WACA. His figures in Perth and Hobart were less flattering than the ones he got in Sri Lanka! At least his style of bowling was allowed to succeed on the Asian pitches, whereas it can hardly be claimed that the same tolerance was shown towards spinners in Hobart and Christchurch.Sure, Australias, New Zealands and Englands batsmen may be less comfortable against better spin bowlers, so it is only natural that the Asian spinners will be more successful against them. And it is worth pointing out that the Asian fast bowlers took more wickets in Asia than the spinners did in Hobart or Christchurch. More to the point, the Hobart and Christchurch Tests did not last long enough to allow the spinners to come into the game.It ultimately boils down to the strengths, weaknesses and unique characteristics of each team in different conditions. It should be no surprise that most teams are more skilful in conditions that they are familiar with, but the doctored pitch accusation should not be thrown around carelessly.Watching Pakistan bat on that second morning against New Zealand was as fascinating as watching England trying to survive in the fourth innings in Visakhapatnam - fascinating contrasts in technique, temperament and skill. I watched every ball of both those innings and it reminded me why I love this format above all else. One run per over in Visakhapatnam was as exciting as David Warner or Quinton De Kock teeing off.Its not always the case that the home team is guaranteed to win because the odds have been unfairly stacked against the visitors. Australia were all over Sri Lanka at times before they squandered winning positions; England had much the better of the Rajkot Test and might have won if Cook had been more adventurous with his declaration.For all those who argue that the toss can sometimes decide a Test match, look no further than Perth, Hobart and Christchurch. Theres talk of the toss being hyper-crucial in Adelaide too, so there goes the theory that its only in Asia that the game is done and dusted before the first ball is bowled. The numbers dont lie. ' ' '