Saturday’s Navy-Army game – as it always does, set the bar. In spite of a notch-down-in-talent and with no emphasis on time-in-the-40 … here is best game of the season.

Based on what? Tradition and patriotism to be sure as we looked into a sea of young lieutenants-to-be faces. More, it reminds us of discipline, passionate and honorable play governed by mutual respect and sportsmanship. Too many of us have forsaken the best in us as fans for selfish end zone celebration, macho targeting, brute force, show-off and gloat-over the vanquished in games across college football map.

Try and imagine Alabama and Auburn teams singing the school song to each the other’s fans after an Iron Bowl. These days, fans seem to enjoy more hating on each other.

Meanwhile, Army and Navy is about decorum, honor for winners, respect for the beaten, and let’s play again next season.

A SKAL STORY

A college professor was about to hand out papers for an examination. On each student’s desk he placed the test face down. When students were instructed to turn their papers over, all were the same. White sheet of paper with a single black dot.

“I want you to write about what you see,” he told them.

Near end of class time, the professor retrieved the papers and was not surprised to see his students had written about the same thing. The black dot. How big, how small, where it was positioned on the paper. The vast white area had been ignored.

“This is what we do in life,” the professor told them. “We have so much white space to observe and enjoy yet too often we concentrate on the black spot.”

The little anecdote brought to mind Skal Labissiere at Kentucky. Media’s woe-is-me analysis and Wildcat fans hand-wringing about the dot was all the rage last week. Trials and travails of one skinny 18-year-old while the team has nine wins in 10 games, ranked fourth headed to Christmas, and a premier six-man recruiting class signed for next year including four large one-and-done prospects to replace Labissiere the black dot, ready or not.

SKINNY KID REALITY

It is adequate to say, seems to me, that Labissiere has half dozen opportunities at hand to learn from during this period of his education.

1. Alex Poythress. Adjusted to inflated expectations, survived career altering injury, and over five years, learned to handle a middle aged man screaming into his face.

2. Derek Willis. Adjusted to how-high-the (prima donna)-bar, learned patience and being recruited over. Today, averaging 11.8 minutes playing time, and the middle age man screaming into his face is saying “shoot the ball!”

3. Bump-and-grind with Issac Humphries and Tai Wynyard.

4. Time to gain 30 pounds and chance to enjoy a walk across campus.

5. Time to let experts and wannabe(s) to clamor about money.

6. And, traffic jam. Reasons “ya better get it in gear, kid, ‘cause you’re gonna be expendable,” are spelled: Bam Adebayo, 6-9, Sachya Killey-Jones is 6-10, Wenyen Gabriel is 6-9, Issac Humpries is 7-0 and Tai Wynyard is 6-9.

KENTUCKY-LOUISVILLE

Little more than a week away from Cards-Wildcats at Rupp Arena day-after-Christmas.

To date: Kentucky is a collection of rookies who transition well, are not bashful about “puttin’ ‘er up!” but can’t shoot straight from field or foul line.

To date: Louisville, as is November-December tradition, has played a long list of nobody and mostly at home, along with a loss at Michigan State.

Beating the daylights out of ill-matched Hartford, Samford, Kennesaw State and others does nothing for its RPI and is not about padding Pitino’s win list, but is all about making UofL’s guard play more exquisite than it is already and Da Coach growing his Bigs, developing them for combat to come.

But one road game at East Lansing seems to be not adequate preparation for the Rupp Arena experience.

HEISMAN TROPHY

Derrick Henry is a worthy Heisman Trophy holder, I suppose. He was best player to receive a lion’s share of media ga-ga over five months.

Says here, three student-athletes with equally impressive on-field numbers, to go with academic achievement, who received virtually no national media ballyhoo compared to Henry, were quarterback Brandon Doughty at Western Kentucky University; running back Christian McCaffrey at Stanford and quarterback Keenan Reynolds at Navy.

Footnote. Doughty’s name was first on my Heisman ballot.

BEST IN THE COMMONWEALTH AT CHRISTMAS?

That Georgetown College takes a glossy record into Christmas break is less a surprise than statistical reality the Tigers have scored 100-or-more points mark eight times and 90s twice.

Georgetown is 13-0.

Coach Chris Briggs’ team is led by 6-8, 260-pound Deondre McWhorter who averages better than 19 points and nine rebounds; Noah Cottrill provides 17.5 points and shoots almost 50 percent from 3-point line (29 of 59).

PARTING SHOT

Keeping with the sweet spirit of the season, this: “The good man is the friend of all living things.” – Mahatma Gandhi.

And so it goes.

You can reach me at bob.Watkins24@aol.com