John Clay's Sidelines

For what it’s worth, my Preakness picks from here in Baltimore:

1. Went the Day Well – Bad break ruined colt’s chances at Derby. Trains close to home. Graham Motion nearly won Preakness last year with Animal Kingdom.
2. Bodemiester – May be most talented colt field, but coming back off two weeks could be tough after draining effort in Kentucky Derby. Then again, he could run away with it on the lead.
3. I’ll Have Another – He’s three-for-three this year after winning the Bob Lewis, the Santa Anita Derby and the Kentucky Derby. Can he come up with another successive big effort. The guess here is he will run well, but not well enough.

Now make your bets accordingly, i.e. against mine.

(H-L photo/Jonathan Palmer)

The week before the Kentucky Derby, I wrote on the jockey Kent Desormeaux and the support he had received from trainer Dale Romans and owner Jerry Crawford. Desormeaux then guided Dullahan to a third-place finish in the Derby.

Here is a look at the SEC baseball standings heading into today, the final day of the regular season.

You can follow the UK-Mississippi State game on the Clarion-Ledger’s blog today.

As Rob Dauster writes for College Basketball Talk, Virginia Tech is trying to wait out Montrezl Harrell.

The 6-foot-7 forward wants out of the letter-of-intent he signed now that Tech has fired Seth Greenberg, the coach who has recruited him. If Harrell gets his release, it is believed that the Top 100 recruit will consider Kentucky, among other schools.

While Virginia Tech has not said it is holding Harrell to his letter-of-intent, it has not given him his release, either. As Dauster writes, “Because Virginia Tech has a 30 day wait period they are allowed to utilize. Tech’s associate athletic director Tom Gabbard said he ‘doesn’t anticipate we won’t give [Harrell] a release. It just hasn’t happened formally yet because of the process.’”

Continue reading ‘Virginia Tech is making Montrezl Harrell wait’

Kentucky tennis coach Dennis Emery and star No. 1 player Eric Quigley, ranked third in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, talked with the media this morning about the team’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 match on Friday against Stanford in Athens, Georgia.

This is UK’s third straight appearance in the Sweet 16. After these interviews, the Cats got on a bus for Athens, where they will play the 11th-ranked Cardinal at 4 p.m. on Friday. Stanford beat UK 4-1 back in February of this season.

Kentucky lost to No. 2-ranked Southern Cal in the national quarterfinals last year.

Click the continue line to see the video.

Continue reading ‘Video: Kentucky tennis previews Friday’s Sweet 16 match’

Mike Summers

ESPN’s SEC Blog is wrapping up each member’s spring football drills, with Kentucky’s wrap being posted this morning.

In the view of blogger Edward Aschoff, Kentucky’s No. 1 fall question is its offensive line.

Excerpt:

1. Offensive line: Three starters up front had to be replaced this spring and the Wildcats ended practice knowing that the offensive line is still a work in progress. There is leadership and experience in Larry Warford and Matt Smith, but after that there’s a lot of inexperience. Behind Warford and Smith, rising sophomore Darrian Miller and junior-to-be Kevin Mitchell combined for three starts last year. There were bright spots here and there this spring, but the inexperience up front is still a concern for coaches heading into the offseason.

Continue reading ‘ESPN says O-line will be top UK football fall question’

Gary Henderson

In its latest NCAA Tournament projections, the baseball website Perfect Game has Kentucky as the overall No. 7 seed and host of a Regional and possible Super Regional.

The site has UK’s Cliff Hagan Stadium as home to a regional that would include Clemson, Missouri State and Austin Peay.

It also has Kentucky (41-11) as possible Super Regional host to the winner of the Stanford Regional, which it projects to include Stanford, Miami, Long Beach State and Monmouth.

The top 8 seeds: 1. Florida State, 2. Florida, 3. Oregon, 4. North Carolina, 5. Baylor, 6. UCLA, 7. Kentucky and 8. South Carolina.

Continue reading ‘UK baseball projected No. 7 overall seed in NCAA Tourney’

The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Rules Committee has recommended that those ugly decals be taken off of courts.

You know those decals. They are especially prevalent in tournaments or special events, i.e. the SEC/Big East Challenge, etc. They often contain advertising for event sponsors.

The committee said it is not referring to painted decals that are “consistent” with the surface of the court.

“While this is a non-rules change year, committee members believe this change should be effective for the 2012-13 season for student-athlete safety purposes,” reports Greg Johnson of NCAA.org. “The committees have asked NCAA staff to work with appropriate facility managers and court manufacturers to provide resources and best practices to the membership.”

Continue reading ‘Rules committee recommends eliminating court “decals”’

WLEX-TV is reporting that former UK basketball player Michael Porter has been arrested on sex charges.

He allegedly had sexual contact with a 14- and a 15-year-old while serving as a group leader at a church function. He is charged with six counts of sodomy and two counts of sexual abuse.

Porter played at UK from 2006-07 through 2008-2009. He played in 90 games, averaging 2.7 points per game. He left UK with one year of eligibility remaining saying he wanted to spend more time with his wife and family. A native of California, he played one year for Tubby Smith and two for Billy Gillispie.

(AP photo)

The Cleveland Browns have cut Armond Smith, the former Union College running back who made the Browns as an undrafted free agent last season.

Smith appeared in three games, rushing three times for two yards. He caught a pass for no yards. He spent the last 11 games of the season on the Browns’ practice squad.

Smith attended a pair of junior colleges before transferring to Union, where he averaged 125.1 yards per game. He set a Union single-game rushing record with 312 yards and a single-season rushing record with 1,376 yards.