John Clay's Sidelines

Kyrie Iriving, via Twitter, confirms report he will announce Thursday:

With reports that Kyrie Irving has committed to Duke, Scout.com’s Dave Telep is reporting (subscription required) that the New Jersey guard will announce his decision on Thursday.

Irving attended UK’s Big Blue Madness last Friday.

Meanwhile, both Rush the Court and Mike Miller of nbcsports.com believes the Irving-to-Duke news is true.

An excerpt from Rush the Court:

We know Zagoria doesn’t go around making things up, though, and he cited three separate confirmations from assistant coaches at rival schools who claim that Irving’s recruitment is over because Duke has locked him up. We’ll go with Zagoria on this one, as it’s more fun to speculate anyway, but we’ve been saying for a while that if Duke has plans on becoming Duke again, players like Irving and forward Harrison Barnes are must-gets.

An excerpt from Miller:

It could take a bit to shake out – he was just in Kentucky for Big Blue Madness and is slated to visit Georgia Tech and Seton Hall this month – but all signs apparently point toward the Devils.

His dad says Duke’s the favorite. Assistants are spreading the word. Irving admitted to “Dime” magazine that Durham was where he wanted to be, he just wasn’t ready to commit yet.

“I guess you could say that I’m leaning toward Duke,” he said. “I’m just not ready to commit. It was my first visit and of course I’m really high on them and like I said I have that feeling, but I think it’s only smart to compare it to something.”

Kyrie Irving

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

• Zagsblog reports that Kyrie Irving has committed to Duke, with an announcement to be made this week.
• Irving says via Twitter he has not committed, however.
• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes on UK quarterback Will Fidler.
• My notes column, leading with Rich Brooks being honest about being dishonest with the media.
• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal also writes on how Will Fidler supported Morgan Newton.
• James Pennington of the Kentucky Kernel writes that other UK teams can learn from win at Auburn.
• Tom Leach talks to espn.com basketball writer Dana O’Neil.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger writes on DeMarcus Cousins.
• A Sea of Blue says SEC officiating stinks.
• Mr. SEC compares UK’s football commitments with rest of the league. (Hat tip to Aaron’s UK Football Blog.)
• Wildcat-Den writes on UK freshman Jon Hood.
• Wildcat Blue Bog looks at Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones.

SEC links for Wednesday:

• Seth Emerson of The State writes that SEC basketball is rising up.
• Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean reports that Vandy’s A.J. Ogilvy is already battling injuries.
• Dave Hooker of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that Lane Kiffin has just signed his contract.
• Speaking of Kiffin, he says Alabama is better than Florida.
• Tony Barnhart of the AJC thinks it’s time to have a serious discussion about officiating.
• Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press asks if Tennessee is ready to rip Tide?
• Chase Goodbread of the Tuscaloosa News reports on Mark Ingram’s Heisman hopes.
• Mike Herndon of the Mobile Press-Register writes that pitfalls are still possible for Florida, Alabama.
• Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News writes that the real Gene Chizik is still standing.
• Gary Laney of The Advocate writes that LSU wants to go deep.

Here’s a chart showing how SEC quarterbacks having done this year throwing the ball game-by-game.

Notice how poorly passers have fared against Alabama. Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett completed just 12 of 35 throws against the Crimson Tide. UK’s Mike Hartline was 17-of-31, but threw three interceptions. Ole Miss’ Jevan Snead was dreadful, completing just 11 of 34 passes for 140 yards with four interceptions. Saturday night, South Carolina’s Stephen Garcia completed less than 50 percent of his passes, going 20-of-46 for 214 yards without a touchdown and with one interception.

Click on the “more” line to see the chart.

Continue reading ‘SEC passers game-by-game’

Orange Fizz, a Syracuse basketball blog, (great name for a blog, by the way) tracked Orange target Tobias Harris all the way to Lexington for Harris’ visit to Big Blue Madness.

The Fizz also couldn’t help but take a few shots at the competition.

Excerpt:

The Blue Grass State doesn’t do anything unique for the event (like an Ashley Judd strip-show), despite some Wildcat crazies spend as much as $175 for tickets to this jamboree (that’s like three batches of Meth for most of the state!). No worries, then. Tobias just spent the weekend doing just that (minus paying for anything the entire weekend, we’re sure) and going to a few practices.ere’s the kicker: he wasn’t alone.

In a purely Caliparian coincidence, heavily recruited point guard Kyrie Irving was also in Lexington for a little tour.

The Shiver is reporting that it received an e-mail from Terrence Jones’ mother saying the Portland big man is no longer considering Kansas and Arizona.

Jones’ mother said her son will pick from Oklahoma, Washington, UCLA, Kentucky and Oregon.

An excerpt:

“I wish both Arizona and Kansas the best of luck,” said Mashia-Jones. “We still plan on taking our official visits to UCLA on November 6th and Kentucky on October 27th for their blue and white game. We will also take an unofficial visit to University of Oregon on October 31st,” added Mashia-Jones.

By the way, Jones attended Washington’s Madness on Oct. 16.

Chris Low

ESPN blogger Chris Low is doing a mid-season review of all 12 SEC schools. He just checked in with his Kentucky review. Randall Cobb is his UK offensive MVP. No surprise there. Micah Johnson is his defensive MVP.

An excerpt:

Just when you thought Kentucky might be toast, the Wildcats (3-3, 1-3) come back swinging and pull off their biggest win of the season. Their 21-14 win at Auburn last week is just what they needed for a little momentum heading into the second half of the season. Rich Brooks and his staff have done a bang-up job of keeping this team together despite several key injuries and a three-game losing streak.

So Louisville fans have their noses out of joint because John Calipari omitted Rick Pitino’s name during last Friday’s KISS concert, er, Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena.

As Dana O’Neil reported for espn.com: “On Friday night, the introductory video included a montage of images, from black and white to color, from old legends to new, while Calipari’s speech invoked beloved late manager Bill Keightley and the great line of coaches — Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall and Tubby Smith, noticeably skipping over Eddie Sutton and Rick Pitino.”

But as the Courier-Journal’s Eric Crawford rightly points out on his blog, Calipari would no doubt have received a negative reaction (i.e. monstrous booing) had he mentioned the former coach. And as Eric also points out, Pitino has played his own game of revisionist history. Rick did it at UK, acting as if the program didn’t truly begin until he set foot on campus. He’s doing it at Louisville. As Eric points out, there are pix of Antoine Walker and Jamal Mashburn on the wall where U of L practices, not Rodney McCray or Pervis Ellison.

My friend Clay Travis missed college football Saturday and Kentucky is to blame. Travis is a blogger for FanHouse and the author of two excellent books, Dixieland Delight and On Rocky Top. I say we’re friends even though we’ve never met, but I feel safe in saying we’re both related to Henry Clay. (In my case, distantly related.)

Anyway, Travis wrote that he did not see a single snap of his beloved college football this past weekend because he was serving as an usher at the wedding of a UK graduate. In fact, the entire wedding had a UK-Auburn flavor, quite a coincidence considering the two teams met that night.

Excerpt 1:

The wedding featured a bride who had graduated from Auburn and a groom who had graduated from Kentucky. Are the alarm bells going off yet? The two teams played Saturday night. Seven of the 11 groomsmen and ushers graduated from Kentucky, all of the bridesmaids went to Auburn. The result was a near riot. But that comes in the future. First, the beginning.

Excerpt 2:

The groom says there will be no televisions at the reception because the bride believes they would be a “distraction.”

The Kentucky grads all groan.

Question: If millions of people choose to do something, i.e. attend or watch a football game, and 125 do something else, say, attend a wedding, doesn’t that make the wedding the distraction?

Excerpt 3:

We begin to drink inside the reception.

Heavily.

At some point, I learn that it’s 14-7 Auburn at the half. “Should be 10-7 Kentucky,” says Tardio.

Excerpt 4: Well actually, you have to read the rest. (Sneak peek: “The C-A-T-S, CATS, CATS, CATS” cheer is included.) If you’re a Kentucky fan, it’s definitely worth it.