The dish was served cold, just as they planned it. Revenge, redemption, payback and all that good stuff went down in Rupp Arena on Thursday night. UK (27-1, 12-1 Southeastern Conference) avenged for its first and only loss of the season with an 81-62 rout of South Carolina. The Cat killer, Devan Downey, did what he always does and scored a ridiculous 26 points, but the Cats won the battle of the boards this time, 47-31, and limited the rest of South Carolina’s scorers.Did revenge feel sweet? Sure, you could say that.  From the 7-0 get-go, UK clearly played with an energy it lacked in Columbia, S.C. Eight blocks, another DeMarcus Cousins double-double and one emphatic one-hand alley-oop from John Wall to Cousins said all one needed to know about how much revenge was on the players’ minds.But for all the respect Kentucky felt it need to reestablish Thursday night, payback was by far the least important goal. No, Thursday night was about the continued blossoming of Patrick Patterson.It’s safe to say, the Cats have their veteran leader completely back.Patterson continued his best string of the season with 23 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. The junior forward hit 10-of-12 shots from the field and continually found himself underneath the basket for timely dunks.”I’m just being more active,” Patterson said. “I’m just doing whatever coach wants of me. I’m doing whatever my teammates need me to do out on the court. I’ve been more comfortable and taking my time in the post. Luckily the ball has been dropping the basket. My teammates have been believing in me and hard work in practice and extra work with coach is starting to pay off.”I wrote and raved about Patterson’s game last week after the Mississippi State win in Starkville, Miss. At the time, I felt it was his best game of the season. Then he went into an intimidating Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday and played with the coolness and calmness UK will need around tournament time. He finished that game with 13 points and 13 rebounds.And then Thursday night rolled around, and Patterson topped everything he’d done this season. Against the very same opponent that he scored just five points against a month ago – which brought about a collective outcry of panic from the UK fan base – Patterson dominated the game. 

Twice when the score was cut to six points in the second half, Patterson answered, once with a dunk and then with an old-fashioned 3-point play.”I think Patrick Patterson is terrific,” South Carolina head coach Darrin Horn said. “He is one of my favorite players in the league and country. I don’t know why anybody has ever said anything about him all year long not playing well. He does all of the little things and he is tough. I’ve never seen that kid not play hard – ever. He is capable of doing what he did tonight in terms of offensive production. I think the fact that he hasn’t done that a lot is a credit to the depth and strength of this team.” “Anybody that has complained about him at any point this year, shame on all of you for that.”Over the last three games, Patterson is averaging 18.3 points and 10.3 rebounds, including 63.9 percent from the field. “I know I have to perform well,” Patterson said. “I have to go out there with a lot of energy and just play basketball. I have to come in every game, every night and play ball, play hard and play tough. I know I need to put up some points. I know I need to rebound, block shots, play defense and just have a great game. I feel like I have to do that being that I am one of the veterans out there on the court. I should be doing that.”That, more than anything, is the importance of Patterson’s revival. On a team made up largely of first-year players, he was expected to offering a leadership presence; a scorer the Cats could go to in times of desperation.When Patterson hit a wall around the first South Carolina game, frustrations grew high. Why wasn’t Patterson scoring as much, some wondered. Other wanted to know why he was so timid. Did he make a mistake in coming back?Well, it turns out his demise was greatly exaggerated.For the third game in a row, he was efficient and multi-faceted. He scored from the outside, from the baseline and from the paint. After a few months wait, we’re witnessing the much heralded full package from Patterson.  “When you have Patrick playing the way he’s playing, it takes the heat off of everybody else,” head coach John Calipari said. It allows someone like Cousins – who notched yet another double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds – to have a little more room to operate.Patterson’s play in the first game was by no means the reason Kentucky lost. It was just one of many. But think about this: What’s the difference when Patterson goes from five points to 23 points?It should serve as no coincidence that UK won handily with his presence.”There’s going to be a gap in the scoring (when Patterson plays like that) so it’s not a two-point game now to where a young kid’s got to make a play on national television,” Calipari said. “Now it’s a 15-, 16-point game because our other guys have done their thing.”Nor is it a coincidence that it’s Patterson’s time to do his thing at this point in the season. “This is kind of like the dog days of the season,” Calipari said. “We’ve got three games left. You’re just trying to get this done. You’re playing for the (No. 1) seed. You’re understanding that we’re not the only team that’s like ‘Let’s get on with the other tournament.’ And I’m not talking about that tournament in Nashville.”No, he’s talking about that four-lettered acronym tournament; that six-game waltz. After taking Patterson under his personal tutelage, Calipari told us he was 30 percent away, then 20 percent away and then 10 percent away. Has he finally hit his full stride at 100 percent?”(Coach) hasn’t said anything to me yet,” Patterson said. “He said, ‘Patrick, you had a good game tonight. You’re getting there.’ Hopefully I’m at 90 percent now. I think one day I’ll see (100). Hopefully it will come soon.”Just in time for the NCAA Tournament.