John Clay's Sidelines

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

ESPN’s Andy Katz has picked John Wall as his Player of the Week on his Weekly Watch installlment.

An excerpt:

You could see his game develop over the course of the week, even if Kentucky’s defense faded. Wall committed a combined 11 turnovers in his first two games, but had only two in the win over Rider. The Wildcats won all three of their games last week and Wall was a major player in each of them.

Andy also gives some love to DeMarcus Cousins as he talks about the freshmen impact on college basketball.

Yes, Kentucky can clinch second place in the SEC East with a win over Tennessee on Saturday. The Cats and Georgia would be tied at 4-4, but Kentucky won the head-to-head. Same goes for Ole Miss if the Rebels can beat arch-rival Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. Even if LSU beats Arkansas, and the Tigers and Rebels tie at 5-3, Ole Miss gets the edge thanks to Les Miles’ horrible clock management at end of last Saturday’s game.

Here are the standings heading into the final week of the regular season:

I’ve updated the Excel file with the game-by-game stats for UK basketball through Saturday’s win over Rider.

Here’s a stat for you: Perry Stevenson’s minutes have gone from 14 to 6 to 5 to 1.

But then DeAndre Liggins’ minutes are stuck on 0.

Click here for the Excel file.

Updated with Gardner Webb-North Carolina game:

Over on YouTube, with the first video of Rich Brooks’ post-game press conference following the Georgia game, there is the following comment:

Raford146

The players are singing ” Ice Cream Paint Job ” in the background. Awesome

“Ice Cream Paint Job” is a song by the rapper Dorrough, though my youngest son informs me that Lil’ Wayne has done his own version, and may be doing another version. What struck me was the pure joy in the locker room after the game. In fact, when the Kentucky traveling media (the H-L’s Chip Cosby, the C-J’s Brett Dawson, the Cats Pause’ Darrell Bird, the Kentucky Kernel’s B.W. Jones, “The Mayor of UK Football” Lonnie Demaree and myself) arrived in the media room, we could hear Rich Brooks leading his team in cheers through the closed doors of the locker room next door. It was a terrific scene to witness, even if you couldn’t see it. Then in the press conference, you could still hear the players yelling, chanting, and, apparently, singing “Ice Cream Paint Job.” Here’s the video if you haven’t seen it.

Continue reading ‘“Ice Cream Paint Job” and the Cats’

(AP photo/John Amis)

Program note: I’ll be liveblogging from Rich Brooks’ final Monday press luncheon of season. The coach usually addresses the media around 12:10 or 12:15. So check back.
Big Blue Links for Monday:

• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes a follow on the UK football win: “A game where you get outgained 487-260 and still manage to pull out a win might be described by some as ugly. But to Kentucky Coach Rich Brooks, the Wildcats’ 34-27 come-from-behind win was a thing of beauty in its own way.”

• My column on how Brooks has chased away the ghosts of the past: These Cats no longer slip on the banana peel; they have the team speed and determination to fly right past it. See, it’s funny how suddenly the breaks start evening out, or even bounce your way when you have talent.”

• Jen Smith of the H-L reports on UK women basketball’s 4-0 start: “Kentucky’s defense held Chattanooga to just 13 points in the final 12 minutes of the game. The Mocs managed just one field goal in a nearly seven-minute span while UK went on a 13-2 run.“

• Nick Craddock of the Kentucky Kernel also reports on the women’s win: “The UK women’s basketball team’s torrid offensive start to the season turned tepid Sunday as UK looked for a solution. The answer was defensive intensity, and the result was a 65-55 victory over Chattanooga in front of 4,301 fans at Memorial Coliseum.”

• Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes on UK basketball’s front-line: “It also means this: After two seasons of having essentially nobody to ensure that it was dangerous strategy to double-team him, Patterson now has two frontcourt friends capable of forcing the defense to play him honest.”

• Tom Leach thinks it’s the power of the blune pants: “For Saturday’s game at Georgia, the Cats donned blue pants with their white road jerseys–the same look they wore to victory in the Liberty Bowl after the players lobbied Brooks for the change. Only, this time, it wasn’t done because of player requests. Brooks made the move himself, to try and put a little spark in his team.“

Continue reading ‘BBL: Kentucky football day-afters, and other links’

SEC links for Monday:

• Mark Bradley of the AJC makes a very short post about a very big topic – Georgia coaching.
• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that UT basketball is in Paradise Jam final.
• Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes that Wayne Chism is UT’s MVP.
• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that Tennessee scored feel-good story on extra point.
• Evan Woodbery of the Mobile Press-Register writes that Auburn’s Gene Chizik plans to draw on his past Iron Bowl experiences.
• Tommy Hicks of the Press-Register writes that the Iron Bowl is big no matter what.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Tennessee reaches Paradise Jam final’

With the season finishing its long and winding regular-season road, the bowl projection season in full swing.

If Nate Silver were analyzing the polls, I’d feel much better about the whole business.

But I do side with Chris Low of ESPN, who projects Kentucky headed to the Chick-fil-A in Atlanta, and Tennessee to the Ourtback Bowl.

That’s if the Vols win on Saturday at Commonwealth. If Kentucky wins, those spots could easily reverse. An 8-4 Kentucky could be headed to the Outback, while a 6-6 Tennessee could fall to the Liberty, or even the Independence.

Forget the Papajohns.com and the Liberty Bowls, though a Liberty representative exchanged a warm hand-shake and greeting with Rich Brooks after Kentucky’s big win last night. Both those bowls are played the same day as the UK-U of L basketball game. And the word is the Liberty would love an Arkansas-Houston matchup.

Meanwhile, the Independence is salivating over the possibility of a name team like Georgia, even if the Bulldogs wind up 6-6 with a loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday, or Tennessee.

Click Chris’ link to read his bowl predictions.

(H-L photo/David Perry)

Updated with this from ESPN’s Chris Low: “If Kentucky does this coming Saturday what it’s failed to do every year since 1984 – and that’s beat Tennessee – the SEC Coach of the Year Award this season should take its rightful place in Lexington, Ky. The more you watch this team play, the more respect you gain for what Rich Brooks has done with this team.”

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader reports from Athens on UK’s football win over Georgia: “But in the final two quarters, the Wildcats morphed into a team that looked ready to make a trip to Tampa or Atlanta for bowl season.”

• My column from Athens saying Rich Brooks was proud of the second-half win.

• Herald-Leader’s Mark Story writes on John Wall: “Wall’s arsenal of new-age weaponry was on full display in Kentucky’s 92-63 spanking of cold-shooting Rider on Saturday in Rupp Arena. Yet the 6-foot-4 freshman’s ability to wow was not the most encouraging aspect of his third college game.”

• The H-L’s Jerry Tipton reports on UK’s win over Rider: “Offense. Defense. The Cats put on a five-star performance in its last warm-up before going to the five-star Moon Palace resort for the Cancun Challenge semifinals Tuesday.”

• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal was also in Athens for the UK football win: It was UK’s first win in Athens since 1977 – the year the Cats’ current coach, Rich Brooks, took Oregon to Sanford Stadium in his first game as a collegiate head coach. In that game 32 years ago, Brooks’ team held a late lead and lost.”

• Darrell Bird of the Cats Pause was at Sanford Stadium for UK’s breakthrough: “It took exactly one play for the tide to turn. On the opening kickoff of the second half, Moncell Allen delivered a crushing tackle that jarred the ball loose and Matt Roark recovered. Two plays and 14 yards later, Kentucky had made it a ball game at 20-13 less than one minute into the second half.”

• My old Lexington Leader friend C. Ray Hall, of the Courier-Journal, covered UK’s basketball win: Basketball can be a funny game. Even at Kentucky. Preparing for Saturday’s game against Rider, the University of Kentucky men’s team watched film of its recent defensive lapses. It could have been a horror show for the players. It turned into a comedy.”

• B.W. Jones of the Kentucky Kernel also made the long drive to Athens: “The noise was deafening. It came through concrete walls and steel doors, a beat on a metal locker loud enough to march armies and chants so earsplitting they could have woken the dead. Hearing the UK football team celebrate in the locker room after its 34-27 upset win over the Georgia Bulldogs, a nervous police officer gripped the doorknob, as though he had to physically keep the chaos inside from escaping into the outside world.”

Continue reading ‘BBL: What they said from Athens on the UK football win’

Kentucky’s Joker Phillips talks about his team’s comeback — UK outscored host Georgia 28-7 in the second half.