John Clay's Sidelines

Alfonso Smith is among UK

Big Blue Links for Friday:

• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes on UK’s senior football class: “But as Smith and 25 other seniors prepare for their final home game against Tennessee, they’ll leave as one of the most successful senior classes in Kentucky history. They’re the first to go to four straight bowl games and, if they can pull off the win, they’ll finish an unprecedented second place in the SEC East and win eight games in the regular season for the first time since 1984.”

• Mark Story of the Herald-Leader writes that Alcoa, Tennessee is split: “Yet, this week, the most talked about face on the wall is the one who supplies a speck of blue amid the orange. Go Cats! is the salutation Randall Cobb signed on the picture of himself in his blue No. 18 Kentucky jersey that hangs in the main lunch spot of his hometown.”

• Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader writes on DeMarcus Cousins: “ky Coach John Calipari kept emphasizing that the victory would not have come without DeMarcus Cousins’ contributions. The problem was, Stanford came close to being able to say the same thing.”

• Dexter Castro of Coaches Aid gets Brandon Knight’s thoughts on UK: “‘Something I don’t like is that they’re just trying to rebuild their program. I’m not quite too sure where they could end up going with it. Something I do like is they have a good new coach, a lot of good new recruits and it looks like they’re headed in the right direction.’” He could think of no cons for Florida. (Hat tip to Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog.)

• CBS SportsLine’s Gary Parrish continues his man-crush on John Wall: “It was an awesome display of talent and poise, and it’s what allowed Kentucky to ultimately escape with a 73-65 victory over Stanford in the championship game of the Cancun Challenge. Wall finished with 23 points and five assists in 45 minutes. The freshman point guard is now averaging 19.8 points and 6.6 assists per game.”

• Jody Demling of the Courier-Journal reports that C.J. Leslie will play in Lexington: “On Jan. 8, LexCath will host Word of God Academy from Raleigh, N.C., which features top University of Kentucky target C.J. Leslie before hosting the six-game Dunkin Donuts National Classic and playing North Oldham on Jan. 9.”

• Michael Grant of the Courier-Journal writes on Tennessee tight end Luke Stocker, a native Kentuckian: “Before Stocker’s senior year in high school at Madison Southern, he was mulling football scholarship offers from the University of Louisville and UK. He had not received one from Tennessee until he went to Knoxville for a summer basketball camp.”

• Cats Pause has video of John Wall talking about Cancun trip.

• Tom Leach has a video scouting report of UK-Tennessee.

• For Kentucky Sports Network, Ira Combs writes about the headliner weekend: “Forget about Shreveport, Louisiana and cold weather, think either Tampa, Florida and sun or the bright lights of Catlanta and the comfort of the Georgia Dome.”

• Inner Circle writes on the Big Blue Bubble: “Surrounding the state of Kentucky is a huge Big Blue Bubble. Filled inside are die-hard Cat fans who love their bourbon, live for UK basketball, and bet their wages on horse racing. When other teams are playing in holiday tournaments the stands are half-empty at best, with a few scattered fans cheering on their respective schools.”

• Wildcat-Den writes that Morgan Newton is taking advantage of his opportunity: “Since then, Kentucky has compiled a 5-1 record and has won three Southeastern Conference games, with all of those coming on the road. The Wildcats will take a three-game winning streak into Saturday’s regular-season finale against Tennessee in Knoxville. The game will be televised on ESPNU at 7 p.m.”

• Kentucky Sports Radio has a Patrick Patterson/fan encounter: “When Patrick plays his last game, we will not only be losing our favorite player, but a friend. We will miss going to the games and seeing Buster and Tywanna. We will miss the high fives and the hugs.”

• Wildcat Blue Blog previews UK-Tennessee: “Brook’s unofficial motto at UK has been ‘We’re doing things that haven’t been done around here before.’ And Brooks has had success doing a few of those things this season: establishing a three game winning streak over Louisville, breaking a 16 game losing streak to Auburn, and winning at Georgia for the first time since 1977.”

• Straitpinkie writes about the UK football seniors: “This class doesn’t quite measure up to the Woodson, Tamme, Little, Burton, Johnson, Woodyard group, but it is one of the better groups we have seen, particularly on the defensive side. It’s not going to be easy to replace these guys, but for now, let’s think about celebrating their careers in a game that I am very, very excited about. I really believe that the ‘Cats are going to parlay their second half performance in Athens into a great all around game this weekend.”

• Wildcat Wrap on the Cardiac Cats: “Overtime belonged to the Cats as Eric Bledsoe stabbed the dagger on the Cardinal with a devastating NBA-range three pointer with 33 seconds left in OT to seal the deal for the Cats as they escaped Cancun with an unblemished 6-0 record, only seven wins away from becoming the nation’s first program to reach 2,000 all-time victories.”