John Clay's Sidelines

Florida is losing star point guard Nick Calathes is pulling his name out of the NBA draft.

But the Gator isn’t returning to Gainesville.

He’s headed to Greece.

Chris Harry of the Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Calathes has decided to play professionally in Greece.

An excerpt:

Calathes, the state’s two-time “Mr. Basketball” from Lake Howell, agreed to terms Friday to play for powerful Panathinaikos, the reigning Euroleague Basketball champion club based in Greece, according to sources close to the former Gators playmaker.

Neither Calathes nor his family would comment on the development, pending announcements from Panathinaikos and UF. Gators Coach Coach Billy Donovan apparently was informed of his player’s decision Friday night, with at least one source saying a contract was signed.

The deal, sources said, will pay Calathes around $1.1 million per year, in addition to providing him with a home, car and tax credits, making for a total package commensurate to what the NBA rookie salary scale provides a late-lottery selection. Golden’s State forward Anthony Randolph, the final lottery pick of 2008 at No. 14, made $1.424 million as a rookie.

If you are among the 80,000-plus following John Calipari’s Twitter account you may be caught up in the new Kentucky coach’s first problem with the new form of communciation.

Earlier today, Calipari sent out a tweet that read:

Can u resend me the transfer release in an email?

That was followed by:

Sorry, that wasn’t meant for you guys. More on that later.

Calipari is actually at UMass, attending his daughter’s graduation. He later sent out three explanations:

Continue reading ‘John Calipari’s accidental Twitter trouble’

Here is Jeremy Jarmon’s statement today:

“Today I am here to announce that I will no longer participate in athletics at the University of Kentucky. Ever since I was six years old I knew that I wanted to attend the University of Kentucky and that dream has come true for me. I knew I wanted to graduate from high school and attend the University of Kentucky. This has also come true for me. This is something that I will never forget. This dream has come true for me and I have attended and graduated from my dream college. I will never forget Coach Brooks and Coach Ortmayer sitting down in my home and offering me an opportunity to come to the University of Kentucky and help turn around a program that has been struggling. On that day when Coach Brooks offered me a scholarship to the University of Kentucky, I accepted his offer to be a part of his program. With an extremely dedicated coaching staff and strong-willed guys that were alongside myself, we turned around a program that has seen three consecutive bowl game wins and this is something that I am proud of and will never forget. Today I am not here to discuss the name of the substance that I took nor the place that I got it from. Instead I am here to discuss the choice that I made to live a healthier life, how I attempted to do this, and the decisions that I made to reach this point. However, one poor decision has cost me my collegiate eligibility. An NCAA appeals panel consisting of representatives from member institutions decided my fate on Thursday May 21, 2009 at approximately 6:00 p.m. During an NCAA drug test given on February 24, 2009, I tested positive for a banned substance. Based on precedence, the appeals panel found that I was responsible for testing positive. Had they ruled that I did not have significant fault then I would have received a half year suspension or been restored my complete eligibility. The information that I am telling you today is the truth, documentation supports the claims that we made to the NCAA Appeals Panel and personnel from the university will concur that this is case as well.

Continue reading ‘Jeremy Jarmon’s statement on NCAA ruling’

Jeremy Jarmon

UK has released a statement from Rich Brooks on Jeremy Jarmon being ruled ineligible:

“My first concern is with Jeremy and his family and what a devastating blow this is for them. There was no intent by Jeremy to do anything improper, it was an error in judgment in not checking with our staff (before taking the supplement). Jeremy has been an outstanding individual on and off the football field, and I hope that people understand the class act he has has been.”

Why was the press conference held today? Because Jarmon said he wanted to address the situation publicly, and explain his actions. Apologize and explain. He is also leaving for France next week to study abroad as he works toward a second major. Jarmon has already earned a degree in political science.

Here’s the audio from press conference this morning announcing that Jeremy Jarmon’s football career at UK is over after testing positive for a banned substance taken in a dietary supplement.

Note: The audio is 29 minutes long. It includes Jarmon and UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart.

Mitch Barnhart and Jeremy Jarmon. (Photo by John Clay)

In a nutshell, UK defensive end Jeremy Jarmon has been ruled ineligible after testing positive for a banned substance he was taking in a dietary supplement. The suspension is for one year. Because Jarmon is a senior, his career at UK is over. Kentucky appealed the decision but was informed by the NCAA on Thursday that the appeal was denied.

Here is the official release from UK on Jarmon:

Jarmon Ruled Ineligible for Senior Season

LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Kentucky defensive end Jeremy Jarmon has been ruled ineligible for his senior season after inadvertently taking a dietary supplement that contained a substance banned by the NCAA.

At Jarmon’s request, he discussed the situation at a news conference Saturday morning on the UK campus. He began taking the supplement in early February with a goal of becoming leaner, but did not have the supplement approved in advance by the UK strength and conditioning staff, which is the proper procedure. He later asked about the supplement, which he discontinued taking after being advised to do so.

In a routine, random test by the NCAA on Feb. 24, Jarmon tested positive for a banned substance. The penalty for a positive test is the loss of one year of eligibility, in effect ending the collegiate career of the Wildcat senior. His appeal for reinstatement was denied Thursday night.

“My first concern is with Jeremy and his family and what a devastating blow this is for them,” Coach Rich Brooks said. “There was no intent by Jeremy to do anything improper, it was an error in judgment in not checking with our staff (before taking the supplement). Jeremy has been an outstanding individual on and off the football field, and I hope that people understand what a class act he has been.”

Jarmon played in 38 games during the last three seasons, including 31 starting assignments. He made 38 tackles as a junior, including 10 for loss and 4.5 quarterback sacks, along with six pass breakups. He was named second-team All-Southeastern Conference by Phil Steele’s College Football. In 2007, he was first-team All-SEC by Rivals.com and second-team All-SEC by the league coaches when he had 62 tackles, including 13.5 TFL and nine sacks. He has 17.5 sacks in his career, third in school history.

Jarmon has completed his degree in political science and is studying abroad this summer as he works toward a second major.

Continue reading ‘Liveblog: Jeremy Jarmon ruled ineligible over supplement’

SEC links for Saturday:

• Mark Schlabach of espn.com writes that new Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox has a dawg of a task.
• Ian Rapoport of the Birmingham News writes that it’s time for Major League Baseball to foot the bill for wooden bats in college baseball.
• Beth Rucker of the AP writes that UT athletics director Mike Hamilton doesn’t have a problem with Lane Kiffin’s high profile.
• Dave Hooker of the Knoxville News-Sentinel writes that Tennessee has identified a target for strength coach.
• Randy Rosetta of The Advocate reports on LSU’s 4-1 win over South Carolina.
• Neil White of The State reports on South Carolina being eliminated from the SEC Tournament.
• Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun reports on Arkansas’ win over Florida, which eliminated Gators from SEC Tourney.
• Evan Drexler of the Tennessean reports that Vandy baseball was happy to have an off day Friday.

By the way, I’ll be liveblogging from the 10 a.m. press conference.

UK sent out the following release late this afternoon:

University of Kentucky Athletic Association (UKAA) Press Conference

WHEN: 10 a.m. Saturday, May 23, 2009

WHERE: Memorial Coliseum Media Room

SUBJECT: Will be announced at the news conference

That has led to a night full of rumors about every possible thing under the sun, and moon, or so it seems. A little earlier tonight, UK did put out a release saying the press conference would not be about men’s basketball. That’s just led to more speculation.

Still, the rumors persist.

Among them:

• Rich Brooks is retiring as football coach because of health reasons.
• John Calipari will discuss those players he is not bringing back next year. (This would be tough to do at 10 a.m. considering Coach Cal will be attending his daughter’s graduation at UMass at 9 a.m.)
• A Kentucky football player is being suspended for steroids.
• Jodie Meeks is pulling his name out of the NBA draft.
• Martin Newton, son of C.M. Newton, is being named director of operations for basketball.
• UK will announce it has reached a settlement with former coach Billy Gillispie.
• Mitch Barnhart is retiring as athletics director.
• Barnhart is announcing a new facilities proposal.
• UK women’s basketball coach Matthew Mitchell is resigning.
• UK rifle coach Harry Mullins is retiring.
• Kentucky will be the 31st team in the NBA next season.
• The NCAA is canceling next basketball season and handing Kentucky the national championship.
• UK just wants to personally wish us a good holiday weekend.

Guess we’ll find out tomorrow morning.

Photo by Shane Bowman.

Update: Jerry Tipton is reporting that A.J. Stewart has been told he will not be on the team next year.

UK coach John Calipari told ESPN’s Andy Katz on Thursday night that he has already talked to three players who won’t be coming back to UK next season.

Excerpt:

Kentucky coach John Calipari said late Thursday that he has already talked to three players who will not be returning in order to get the Wildcats down to the NCAA maximum of 13 scholarships.

UK went over the maximum with the high-profile signings of John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe — coupled with the return of Patrick Patterson from the NBA draft. Calipari wasn’t ready to name the players who are affected.

But Kentucky officials had previously acknowledged that under former coach Billy Gillispie one reserve knew that he was on a one-year scholarship, another had already graduated but had a year of eligibility remaining while a third was apparently not talented enough for the SEC. There could be more attrition to come, according to Calipari. The Wildcats will need to come up with one more scholarship if Jodie Meeks withdraws from the NBA draft by June 15.

Calipari also said that Darius Miller will try out for the USA Basketball 19-and-under team this summer.

Here’s what I’ve heard from local radio call-in shows:

• WVLK-590: I’ll be on with Larry Glover in the 6 o’clock hour. Larry has CBS Sportline’s Gary Parrish in the 7 o’clock hour.