John Clay's Sidelines

(H-L photo)

Check out the Herald-Leader fans gallery from the UK-Florida game.

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

• Players stepping up as Cats are clicking, writes Aaron Smith of Kernel.
• Kidd-Gilchrist a virtuoso again, writes Matt May of Cats Pause.
• MKG excelling in all areas, writes Jordan Schultz of Huffington Post.
• Davis making case to be nation’s No. 1, says Jake Curtis of Chronicle.
• This is Calipari’s best team, says my notes column.
• After flattening Florida, UK looks for challenge, writes Jerry Tipton of H-L.
• Basketball stats to get ready for Vandy, from Herald-Leader.
• Kidd-Gilchrist gives Davis a soothing feeling, says Sun’s Keith Taylor.
• Teague now knows UK is “my” team, writes Larry Vaught of A-M.
• Teague keeps improving, writes Jon Hale of KyForward.
• Donovan says UK has talent to win it all, reports Kyle Tucker of C-J.
• Pearl likes what he sees from Cats, reports WKYT.
• No reach to see Davis near top of draft, says NBA.com’s Chris Dortch.
• UK cements itself as title favorite, says Yahoo’s Jeff Eisenberg.
• Feldhaus unforgotten in Kentucky lore, writes Ken Howlett of CoachCal.
• UK women’s soccer going nowhere but up, writes Guy Ramsey of Cat Scratches.
• Cal says Cats need someone to go nutty on them, reports A Sea of Blue.
• UK softball opens season at UCLA, says H-L staff report.
• Worth saying again that we should enjoy this one, says Big Bluegrass Blog.
• Nashville alumni planning Occupy Memorial, says StraitPinkie.
• Is UK peaking too soon? asks Kentucky Sports Network.
• National media finally opening eyes, says Wildcat Blue Nation.

SEC links for Thursday:

• Vandy puts away LSU 76-61, reports Jeff Lockridge of Tennessean.
• Ezeli leads Commodore win, writes Jerome Boettcher of The Advocate.
• Georgia whips Arkansas 81-59, reports Chip Towers of AJC.
• Bulldogs end slump, reports Roger Clarkson of ABH.
• Tennessee fends off USC 69-57, reports Mike Griffith of KNS.
• Hall makes sure all screws are tight, writes KNS’ Mike Strange.
• Ole Miss confident facing State, reports Hugh Kellenberger of C-L.
• Road wins may help SEC basketball’s case, writes Doug Segrest of News.
• UGA president expects playoff by 2014, reports Seth Emerson of L-E.
• Slive says BCS changes couple of years away, reports AP.
• LSU lineman gets sixth year, reports Glenn Guilbeau of Times.
• Texas A&M juggling first SEC football schedule, reports AP.
• Whirlwind for Sumlin coming back to A&M, reports Chris Low of espn.
• Let tweet freedom ring, says Cecil Hurt of Tuscaloosa News.
• UT football plans to mix up defenses, writes Austin Ward of KNS.
• New coaches set to revamp Vols, writes Patrick Brown of Free Press.
• Tennessee brand still impressive, writes Mark Wiedmer of Free Press.
• Brantley smiling at NFL prospects, reports Shannon Owens of Sentinel.
• LSU women eager to build on win, writes Rowan Kavner of Times-Picayune.

(Photo by Chet White of UK Athletics)

As of 8 p.m., I counted 138 limited edition Anthony Davis posters for sale on E-bay.

The highest bid for one of the posters is $152.50.

The poster, designed and shot by Chet White of UK Athletics, was placed on each seat for last night’s game with Florida. Because of their limited nature, they have been quite the topic of conversation, and the objects of desire.

Not everyone is happy, however.

David writes:

I am emailing all of you at the same time because I have hopes one of you will give voice to those of us out here that aren’t the ‘fat cats’ or the very fortunate who attended last night’s game vs. Florida and were able to walk away with a poster of Anthony Davis that is an obvious keepsake (I can already picture having it framed and hung on my office wall).

Why would UK do this “special favor” to just the 24K fans attending this game. What about the several million of us out here that can’t afford to make the game?

Are we supposed to buy ours via eBay for $50 to $150??? Further I understand they printed 30K of them – what happens to the other 6K?

My response: It shouldn’t be a surprise that UK would take care of those who buy the tickets.

Paul Daugherty, sports columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, writes a popular morning blog entitled The Morning Line, or TML for short. Thing is, Paul is currently on a leave of absence to finish a book he is writing on his daughter, Jillian, or J The M for Jillian the Magnificent, as she is known to TML readers.

In his absence, guest bloggers have been taking a crack at TML. One each weekday.

This morning, former Herald-Leader colleague and huge Kentucky fan Jennifer Scroggins, a former Enquirer editor, was the guest blogger and gave TML a definite Kentucky blue hue.

In fact, the headline reads: The Morning Line, 2/8 (Big Blue Nation Edition).

In no surprise to her friends, Jennifer lets us know exactly how she feels.

An example:

In other news, I hate Duke. I loathe Duke. This is a surprise to no one, but that’s OK. I’m Doc today, so I get to do whatever I want, and what I want to do is to document for all eternity that I hate Duke. It feels good. A friend of mine — a great Michigan sympathizer in his own right — once told me he thought I enjoyed Duke losses more than Kentucky wins. At the time, I was wildly offended by that. In hindsight, he’s probably right. And I’m cool with that.

Thought that was timely what with Duke playing North Carolina tonight at 9 p.m. on ESPN.

Check it out. It’s an entertaining read.

At the post-game press conference last night, Florida’s Billy Donovan was asked about Kentucky and the rest of the league. Now 10-0, the Cats still have two games with Vanderbilt and one each with Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Florida remaining.

Two terrific matchups on the televised college basketball schedule tonight. Kansas is at Baylor at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. Then it’s Duke vs. North Carolina at 9 p.m. on ESPN. Duke is coming off that surprise home upset at the hands of Miami on Sunday.

Related links:

• This rivalry merits the hype, writes Scott Fowler of Charlotte Observer.
• Barnes’ ankle prime storyline, says Jack Daly of News and Observer.
• Kansas hopes to avoid second straight loss, says Star’s Blair Kerkhoff.

Bruce Pearl at last night's UK-Florida game. (H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

More notes on Kentucky-Florida:

- Former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl was at the game, sitting in the big-money seats across from the Florida bench.

- Remember, Florida scored the game’s first six points. Erik Murphy hit an outside shot — at first I thought it was three — at 18:19 to make it 2-0. Kenny Boynton scored on a fast break at 17:35 for a 4-0 lead. After a John Calipari timeout, Patric Young scored on a baby hook at 16:34 and the Gators led 6-0. Florida was outscored 78-52 the rest of the way.

- UK’s Kyle Wiltjer hit the game’s first three-pointer. The freshman came off the bench to hit one from the left of the key, which gave the Cats a 9-6 lead at 14:22.

- Kentucky missed nine of its first 13 shots. After that, the Cats made 25 of 42 shots for 59.5 percent.

- A key stretch came when the score was tied at 17. The Cats went on a 10-2 run to take an eight-point lead. An unlikely contributor during that spurt was Eloy Vargas. The former Gator came off the bench to play good defense on Young. In fact, when Vargas came out he got a big hand from the crowd.

- Florida’s first made three-pointer came at the 11:22 mark. Murphy did the honors. Florida’s second made three came at 2:44 mark when Boynton cut the Kentucky lead to 27-22.

- Kentucky somehow manages to string together three-pointers. Marquis Teague hit a three at 1:34 to make it 32-22 UK. With 45 seconds left in the half, Doron Lamb rang the ball from three to make it 35-24. Then just before the halftime buzzer, Lamb did it again for a 38-26 Kentucky lead. Then after Florida scored the first four points of the second half, Teague (18:40) and Darius Miller (18:14) nailed triples to push the home team’s lead back out to 44-30.

- Florida was two-of-17 from three before hitting four of its last 10.

- Florida’s Erving Walker had not been held scoreless in a game since Dec. 30, 2008.

Continue reading ‘A Pearl and some more notes from Kentucky-Florida’

After producing the first double-double of his collegiate career, Kentucky’s Marquis Teague talks to media about his improvement and Saturday’s game at Vanderbilt.

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Herald-Leader photo gallery from UK-Florida

Updated at 10:38 a.m. with Luke Winn link.

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

• NEW: Teague looks like floor leader UK needs, says SI.com’s Luke Winn.
• Kentucky assumes role of favorite, writes Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports.
• UK teaches Florida a hard lesson, reports Mike Decourcy of Sporting News.
• Kentucky looks unstoppable, says Gary Parrish of CBS Sports.
• Florida throttled in Rupp, reports Kevin Brockway of Gainesville Sun.
• Gators completely outclassed by Cats, writes Rachel George of Orlando Sentinel.
• Top-ranked Cats just too much for Gators, reports Chris Harry of GatorZone.
• Florida cold from three-point land, writes John Boothe of Daily Alligator.
• UK is No. 1 with a bullet, says Brian Bennett of espn.com.
• Florida no match for Kentucky, reports Jerry Tipton of H-L.
• Gilchrist comes up big in biggest games, writes Tipton in notes.
• Davis’ defense just tip of UK’s spear, says my game column.
• UK answers questions with win, says Matt May of Cats Pause.
• Cats leave no room for doubt, writes Kyle Tucker of C-J.
• Davis wasn’t the only Gator gobbler, writes Eric Crawford of C-J.
• UK flips the script on the Gators, writes Eric Lindsey of CoachCal.
• Lamb proves an added plus, writes Keith Taylor of Winchester Sun.
• UK crushes Gators by 20, writes Brian Rickerd of State-Journal.
• Cats make a believer out of Donovan, reports Larry Vaught of A-M.
• Cats continue their dominance, reports Aaron Smith of Kernel.
• Teague says Cats made a statement, reports Brett Dawson of Cats Illustrated.
• UK beats Florida at its own game, says Guy Ramsey of Cat Scratches.
• Hot shooting, stifling defense leads UK, reports Jon Hale of KyForward.
• Postmortem on Cats and Gators, from A Sea of Blue.
• Former UK player Jim Dinwiddie dies, reports Karla Ward of H-L.

Florida coach Billy Donovan was asked last night to size up Kentucky against Syracuse and Ohio State, two teams the Gators played earlier in the year. Florida lost at Ohio State 81-74 on Nov. 15. The Gators lost at Syracuse 72-68 on Dec. 2.