John Clay's Sidelines

SEC links for Wednesday:

• Tony Barnhat of the AJC blogs that the only league that can slow down the SEC is the SEC.
• Wally Hall of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette forecasts the Media Days as being partly funny, with hot air.
• Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger writes that SEC Media Days give the league priceless exposure.
• Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun looks ahead to Media Days.
• Gentry Estes of the Mobile Press-Register reports that the internet has sent recruiting news soaring.
• Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News writes on a poll that has Urban Meyer beating Nick Saban.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Only the SEC can slow the SEC’

I’ll be on with Dick Gabriel on WLAP-630 in Lexington during the 6 o’clock hour where we will, unsuccesfully no dobut, try to refrain from boring the listening audience with tales from our Kentucky Kernel days.

Cara Capuano

The SEC and ESPN have just announced the SEC Network, a regional network that will be in 73 markets, including Lexington, via WKYT.

An excerpt:

ESPN Regional Television, the new over-the-air syndication home for Southeastern Conference programming, and the SEC announced today a regionally syndicated college sports package that will air in more than 73 television markets, along with the branding of the syndication package as the SEC Network – all part of the groundbreaking 15-year agreement between ESPN, Inc., and the SEC.

Within the nine-state SEC footprint, the SEC Network will be delivered in markets by the local over-the-air carrier of SEC events. In markets outside the SEC footprint, the syndicated programming will air on either local, over-the-air television stations or regional sports cable networks.

Much like previous SEC rights-holders Lincoln Financial and Raycom, the SEC Network will carry a weekly football game, starting Sept. 5, with a 12:21 p.m. kickoff time.

Continue reading ‘SEC and ESPN announce new SEC Network’

Lunch break:

• Even George Mason coach Jim Larranaga is impressed by the new Kentucky coach. Here is a Larranaga tweet from this morning: “Cal is non-stop. Kentucky is #1 on ESPN Insider’s list of five teams on the rise next season in men’s basketball. http://bit.ly/QYbMJ”

• Brandon Phillips has drawn Dusty Baker’s ire for not hustling, this time on a first-inning single that should have been in a double in the fading Reds’ 7-5 loss at Los Angeles last night. Phillips’ fly ball to right surprisingly dropped in front of a confused Dodger outfield. Only Phillips didn’t see the play. He had his head down, moping, about not getting a hit, and by the time the Red realized what had happened he was late getting to second base and was thrown out. it was the first out of what turned out to be a three-run inning off the Dodgers’ Jason Schmidt. Only it should have been more than three runs. “That was a rally-killer for us,” said Baker. Phillips is a terrific player with an electric smile, but he sometimes allows his lesser instincts to get the best of him. (At Redleg Nation, they can’t believe that Dusty finally called Brandon out.)

• Kentucky Sports Network passes along a video interview it did with Joe Jackson, a 5-foot-10 guard out of Memphis that is being recruited by the Cats.

Continue reading ‘LB: Even other coaches are tweeting about Calipari’

UFL Access has an interview with former UK quarterback Shane Boyd, who has bounced around the NFL a bit and is now hoping for a shot in the new professional league.

An excerpt:

The UFL is a really good thing for the Quarterbacks. The exposure is key. People get to see players they know, former NFL starters, players who got NFL buzz. Players who have great skill set who now get the opportunity. A lot of the guys in NFL got their chance due to trades, or injuries happening and all of a sudden something happens. Look at Tom Brady or Matt Cassell. Cassell had a one year opportunity, Brady had a one year opportunity, then they proved themselves. This translates into an opportunity for guys with the skill set to play in the league. I have the skill set to be a starter in the NFL, that is the way I feel. Kurt Warner played in the Arena Bowl and bagged groceries and then ended up in the Super Bowl.

Since graduating from UK after the 2004 campaign, Boyd has been with the Tennessee Titans (2005), Pittsburgh Steelers (2006), Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe (2006), Arizona Cardinals (2006-07), Houston Texans (2007-08) and Montreal Alouettes of the CFL. He has never played in a regular-season NFL game, however.

Boyd was drafted by the San Francisco franchise of the UFL, which will play on Thursdays and Fridays, starting in October. The league has four teams — New York, Orlando, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

(Hat tip to Kentucky Sports Network.)

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

• Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman reports that UK is in the mix for four top point guards.
• Herald-Leader’s Mark Story on 10 things to ponder as football looms.
• H-L’s Chip Cosby blogs that it’s football time.
• H-L report on UK’s Megan Broderick winning at Fifth Third Tennis tournament.
• Steve Moss at WKYT writes on former UK baseball star Michael Bertram, who is living his dream.
• The Courier-Journal’s Brett Dawson on what John Calipari really thinks of Louisville.
• The C-J’s Jody Demling reports that Mychal Parker is interested in UK.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger writes that Patrick Patterson will be UK’s leader.
• Kentucky Sports Radio says Josh Selby is the newest “it” name.
• At A Sea of Blue, Ken Howlett writes on Josh Selby.
• And Truzenzuzex at A Sea of Blue writes that John Calipari, the Godfather, made Selby an offer he could not refuse.

Continue reading ‘BBL: UK in mix for several point guards’

SEC links for Tuesday:

• Jay Greeson of the Chattanooga Times Free-Press writes that expected crowd at SEC Media Days is proof of league’s No. 1 status.
• David Paschall of the Times Free-Press gives five storylines for Media Days.
• Kevin Scarbinksy of the Birmingham News wants to know if Urban Meyer will live up to his promise not to go to Notre Dame.
• Paul Finebaum writes in the Mobile Press-Register that Georgia’s Mark Richt is teetering on the hot seat.
• John Adams of the Knoxville News-Sentinel writes that SEC coaches are fired up about freshmen.
• Scott Hotard of The Advocate writes that the SEC West could be best.
• David Brandt of the Clarion-Ledger reports that CT scan shows that Ole Miss’ Greg Hardy is ready to go.
• Also in the Clarion-Ledger, Kyle Veazey reports that MSU’s Anthony Dixon is apologetic over arrest.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Expected crowd shows SEC is No. 1′

Ex-Louisville quarterback Dave Ragone told the C-J’s Rick Bozich that Ragone’s former school will win nine or 10 games this season.

Said Ragone,

“I’ll go 9-3. Best case scenario is 10 wins. Worst case scenario 7. They’ll win more games than Tom Crean won with the Indiana basketball team last year.”

That’s a terribly opptomistic forecast from the former Cardinal signal-caller, who now co-hosts a TV show in Louisville, and also told Bozich that U of L would be UK at Commonwealth Stadium.

As Bozich points out, most if not all of the pre-season magazines now on your bookshelves have parked the Birds seventh out of eight Big East teams. And popular wisdom has embattled head coach Steve Kragthrope looking for another job after the upcoming campaign.

But who knows, maybe Dave Ragone is really Sage Ragone.

Gentry Estes of the Mobile Press-Register has done some digging for dollars work to rank just how the 11 SEC public schools rank in money spent on recruiting in football, basketball and baseball.

(Vandy doesn’t count since as a private school, VU doesn’t have to make its documents public.)

Kentucky ranked 8th of 11 in average football recruiting budget from 2005-08. UK was fifth of 11 in money spent on basketball recruiting for the same time period. And UK was second of 11 over the same period for money spent on baseball recruiting.

Here’s a chart to make comparisons:

Notes on Josh Selby, who has decomitted from Tennessee and said to be very interested in Kentucky:

• Selby is a 6-foot-1 point guard, rated as the seventh-best prospect in the 2010 class by Rivals.
• He’s from the Baltimore area, and played at DeMatha, but either left or was dismissed from the team — coach said a “minor infraction” had occurred, but Selby would return; he did not. He’s now at Baltimore Lake Clifton.
• Selby actually committed to Tennessee last September.
• Selby’s cousins, Will and Antonio Barton, have both committed to Memphis.
• Based on what he saw at the LeBron James’ skill camp, SportsIllustrated.com’s Seth Davis called Selby “the best of the bunch” among the point guards there. “Physically, he is just a lot stronger and faster than the other players in this class, and he really knows how to use his strength to get to where he wants to go.”
• Writing for the New York Times’ The Quad blog, Zach Hillesland named Selby was the most athletic player at the King City Classic.
• On his Facebook page, Selby goes by “Josh J-Smoove Selby.”
• Highschoolhoop.com has video of Selby winning a dunk contest.
• Knox Animal wants to know what’s going on with the UT de-commitments.