John Clay's Sidelines

SEC links for Saturday:

• Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun has Urban Meyer denying intrest in Notre Dame after Steve Spurrier’s comments about rumors the Florida coach was headed to Irish.
• David Climer of the Tennesseean writes that Meyer is lashing out at his critics instead of ignoring them.
• NEW: Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel writes that nobody seems to be Meyer’s buddy.
• Tim Tucker of the AJC reports that ex-Georgia basketball coach turned down an offer to coach the Nigeria national team.
• Mike Strange of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that Tennessee third baseman has left team after disagreement with coach.
• Tony Barnhart of the AJC gives his spring Top 25 for college football.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Meyer and Spurrier downplay comments’

ESPN’s Andy Katz writes that John Wall could make a decision this weekend, and believes the Raleigh, N.C. guard will choose between Kentucky and Miami.

Writes Katz:

A John Wall decision could come as early as this weekend, with Miami and Kentucky the two likeliest destinations for the top point guard in the Class of 2009. The Word of God Christian Academy (Raleigh, N.C.) playmaker could elevate either one of these programs to the NCAA tournament. But Wall does not have to sign by the end of the spring signing period Wednesday.

If Kentucky lands him, the drama was unnecessary (based on his original destination being Memphis when John Calipari was the coach). If Miami gets Wall, you can chalk this down as one of the top recruiting coups of the past 10 years. Hurricanes coach Frank Haith will have pulled off quite a feat if he gets Wall to replace Jack McClinton, making the Canes an NCAA team and ensuring Miami is a must-see destination for hoops for the next 10 months.

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

• Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader writes that John Calipari rolled out his plans for change during Wednesday’s press conference.
• Tipton reports that Calipari wants Patterson to lead.
• My column in which I say that the job is not big enough for Calipari.
• Jack Brammer of the H-L reports on Calipari being guest of honor at the capitol.
• Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News picks up on the UK talk of adding Texas to the schedule. (Hat tip to Spam’s Wildcat Page.)
• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal writes that Calipari wants big games in Louisville.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that Calipari doesn’t expect eligibility issues.
• Vaught also writes that Calipari thinks Meeks should stay in draft if a first-round pick.
• Jody Demling of the C-J points out that Brandon Knight now tops the new Rivals 150.

Continue reading ‘BBL: John Calipari is going big’

SEC links for Thursday:

• Nate Allen of the NW Arkansas Times gets John Pelphrey to confirm that Michael Washington is returning to Arkansas.
• In the Gainesville Sun, Kevin Brockway reports that Billy Donovan says Alex Tyus return is key to new Florida lineup.
• Mark Bradley of the AJC blogs on whether Georgia football’s recruiting hold has become slippery.
• John Adams of the Knoxville News-Sentinel writes that Lane Kiffin needs a game plan for apologies.
• Ray Melick of the Birmingham News writes on Bo Jackson.
• In the Clarion-Ledger, Kyle Veazey spent the day with new Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Washington returning to Hogs’

We’re at Memorial Coliseum for UK basketball coach John Calipari’s press conference.

• That’s end of press conference.

• Says Wayne Turner and Ron Mercer want to come back and get their degrees.

• Probably won’t get it done this year, but wants to have a fantasy camp that will include former players, etc. “Those are ways of getting those guys back,” he said. “We want to get the brand back to where it was 10 years ago, 15 years ago.”

• Says they are going back last 10-15 years to find former players who have not gotten their degrees, and encourage them to come back and finish. “This is going to be a players-first deal,” said Calipari.

• Says the minutes go down, the shots go down, but the efficiency goes way up, and makes them more attractive to the league. Says Meeks catch-and-release “is ridiculous.” Compares him to Ray Allen.

• Says his mentality is to change Jodie’s “catch-and-shoot” mentality to getting to the rim more. Says he gets to the foul line, but can get there more in this offense. Talking like Jodie is already coming back. The NBA looks at stats-per-minute. They don’t look at stats, per se.

• On Meeks, “Jodie is so much more of an athlete than I knew.”

• Says he will probably bring over 15 Chinese coaches to work with. Would also like to bring a Chinese coach over to spend with the team for a year.

• Says there are “a thousand seven-footers in China.”

• Says he is going to China for a week to do a clinic.

• Says he will have the women’s clinic first so “they will know the dribble-drive before any man. They’ll know it first.”

• Said he recently did a tape on motivating young players. Said things have changed. Brings up that if you used to call a recruit and it was busy, you called back. If they weren’t home, it rang, and rang. There used to be three channels, now it’s 300 channels. Kids, “haven’t changed, what’s coming at them has changed.”

• Defense, “What we’ve done defensively at UMass. We always wanted to be last in the league in steals. We didn’t want to take chances. Now we want to be first in the league in steals.” Mostly man-to-man, but we will play zone. Not much. “They’ll be people telling me we should be playing zone, I won’t listen to them.” Said he wants to be a man-to-man team that presses.

• Says will play either Viriginia or Stanford in Cancun next year.

• “If Patrick does what I think he can do, he made himself a lot of money in the end.”

Continue reading ‘Liveblog: Calipari press conference’

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

• In our Herald-Leader, Jerry Tipton talks to Rivals’ Jerry Meyer, who predicts that John Wall will not sign by the artificial May 20 deadline.
• In his SEC football preview, Robbie Andreu of the Gainesville Sun picks Kentucky to finish last in the SEC East.
• Barrett Sallee of College Football News rates Rich Brooks fifth among SEC football coaches. (Hat tip to Tom Leach.)
• In the Knoxville News-Sentinel, John Adams writes that John Calipari is good for the SEC.
• Dick Vitale writes that Calipari has Kentucky back on track.
• Dime Magazine writes that top prospects are lining up to try and lure John Wall.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Gainesville paper picks UK football last in SEC East’

UK basketball coach John Calipari will be available to the media at 10:30 this morning at Memorial Coliseum.

My plan is to be there with the liveblog on. Same as Patterson’s press conference on Monday. Wireless willing.

You can also watch video of the presser at Kentuckysports.com.

Lane Kiffin

SEC links for Wednesday:

• Dave Hooker of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that one Florida high school has banned a Tennnessee recruiter and wants an apology from Lane Kiffin.
• Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun reports that ex-Gator Allan Chaney is transferring to Virginia Tech.
• In the Tuscaloosa News, Cecil Hurt writes that Anthony Grant has slowed down, but hasn’t stopped.
• In Florida Today, David Jones writes that Jeff Demps is a double threat at Florida.
• Maurice Patton of the Tennessean writes on a Vandy basketball signee who will stay busy before school.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Florida high school wants Kiffin apology’

Luke Winn of SI.com has an interesting piece addressing three game-changing questions in college basketball.

The first deals with John Wall, in which the Raleigh guard’s advisor and former AAU coach says that is not inaccurate it is “accurate” to assume that Duke, Miami and Kentucky are the three finalists.

But Brian Clifton also makes some interesting comments about UK and the signing of Eric Bledsoe.

Excerpt:

Clifton, who met with Wall and his mother on Monday night, gave some insight into the schools’ respective situations, with the most interesting comments being about Kentucky, which has publicly been considered the front-runner since John Calipari jumped from Memphis on March 31. Wall has confirmed that he’s still considering the Wildcats after they accepted Bledsoe’s commitment, but, Clifton said, “The knee-jerk reaction, and justifiably so, would be to take a minute of pause to look further into it. Because I can’t imagine, to get a player like Eric Bledsoe, that [Kentucky] would tell him, we’re going to recruit over you immediately and not play you very much as a freshman.

“There had to be some assurances made to him about being able to share the ball, that would inspire him to commit despite the possibility of John still coming there. … So we have to revisit that situation and make sure it’s going to be great to have two of the top four point guards on the roster at once.”

By revisiting it, Clifton said hopes to talk to Calipari as well as Bledsoe’s camp, to see what their expectations are for next season at Kentucky. (Bledsoe has been quoted as saying that he and Wall can coexist on the court, and that, “I’m going to play my position either if [Wall does go to UK] or he don’t.”) Said Clifton, “It’s definitely not a deal-breaker, but I’d be remiss in my duty as a guy that’s helping John and his family if we don’t explore it fully.”

Winn also examines the impact of whether Jodie Meeks stays in the draft, or comes back to the Cats.