(AP photo)
Big Blue Links for Thursday:
Tom Leach talks to Ashley Judd, who says she has been suffering from the flu, but hopes to be in Rupp on Saturday.
B.W. Jones of the Kentucky Kernel reports on the controversy surrounding UK pitcher James Paxton: “Senior pitcher James Paxton is suing UK, according to a New York Times blog post. According to the post, the lawsuit was filed in state court on Wednesday. The lawsuit alleges Paxton was approached by a university official in October and told he would have to meet with an NCAA investigator, though no one would tell Paxton what allegations had been brought against him.”
Cat Scratches has a letter from the brother of a former UK football commitment, who died in a car crash: “Chris Mosby’s family received that uniform during halftime of Saturday’s Tennessee game. Chris Mosby, who would have been a senior this season, was honored during Senior Day festivities as one of the 27 seniors in this year’s class. Mosby’s family received a framed jersey in his honor.”
My column saying that Saturday is why UK hired John Calipari: “Not every year, and not every game, perhaps, but if you’re the UK coach, you have to beat the Heels, who visit Rupp Arena on Saturday. You have to beat them in recruiting off the floor. And you have to beat them in points on the floor. Not every time. But you have to beat them enough times to make it competitive.”
Aaron’s UK Football Blog on Derrick Locke and the NFL: “Derrick Locke has the Big Blue Nation wondering if he will return for his senior season. After his Facebook comment yesterday, I started thinking that Derrick Locke should call Jodie Meeks for some advice.”
Chip Cosby of H-L reports that UK’s Music City Bowl foe has not been decided: “Then comes the Music City Bowl. The Music City is contractually obligated to take the loser of the ACC championship game if that team is still available. But if the Champs Sports Bowl passes on Miami and takes the loser of the ACC championship game instead, that would free the Music City Bowl to take either the Hurricanes (9-3) or North Carolina (8-4).”
Bluegrass State Basketball finds a handicapper who hates the Cats: “A “self-proclaimed” professional handicapper lists his nine most overrated teams in college basketball. He names Kentucky the most overrated team of all and basically unloads on the Wildcats.”
Brett Dawson of the C-J writes on UK’s upcoming schedule: “UK’s seven opponents to date had a combined record of 20-25 entering Wednesday’s action, and only one of them had come from the six major conferences – Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific-10 and Southeastern.”
The Cats Pause hotline podcast is here.
Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger writes that North Carolina will be a reality check: “Kentucky coach John Calipari knows Saturday’s game with No. 10 North Carolina is going to be special for UK freshman John Wall, a North Carolina native. However, he also thinks it might be a reality check for his unbeaten Wildcats (7-0).”
James Pennington of the Kernel writes on how UK is playing: “On one hand, you can tell the Cats, especially Wall, weren’t using their athletic advantage to drive the ball in the lane. If they had, neither Wall nor Patrick Patterson would have gone the entire game without a trip to the free-throw line. Instead, UK used its length to shoot jumpers and throw alley-oops over the Bulldog defense.”
Kentucky Sports Network looks at Antonio Andrews: “Andrews has only received one Division-One scholarship offfer to this point from the Air Force Academy, but is starting to receive interest from Kentucky, Louisvlle, and Vanderbilt, among others. The Wildcats have had very good success with Fort Campbell recruits in recent years with Marcus McClinton and Micah Johnson both having very solid careers at Kentucky.”
Ken Howlett of A Sea of Blue grades the basketball Cats: “With the “soft” portion of the Kentucky schedule now in the rear-view mirror, and dates with No. 10 North Carolina, No. 14 Connecticut, No. 20 Louisville, and Indiana looming large in Big Blue’s headlights, it’s time to cast a critical eye toward the progress of this youthful edition of the ‘Cats.”
Wildcat Blue blog looks at Cats and Heels: “There they sit … number 1 and number 2 on the all time wins list. It’s been a bitter rivalry that thanks to the race to 2000 wins, has to be the biggest matchup in college basketball this season until, oh, these teams possibly hook up again in April. Let’s take a look at the last few meetings in this rivalry.”
Inner Circle looks at how it used to be considering UK’s chances Saturday: “I seriously doubt that we can play with North Carolina. The gap in talent level between the Cats and the Tar Heels is huge. This team of Wildcats consists of only one or two players who would actually see the court for UNC.”
Well, Ashley — I see the “weather” is a little more “fair” so you can start coming to games again. Haven’t seen you in a while…..
Drake – Ashley is anything but a fair wather fan….remember she went to the UNC game LAST year and sat with the UNC students decked out in UK Blue. She went knowing what we all did…UNC was going to beat us pretty good and still she sat yelling for the Big Blue. Ashley comes to big games and not so big as well. I remember her coming out to finish off spelling Kentucky in the 2nd half when we were playing College of Charleston during Tubby’s last year. She is a die hard fan and most die hards know that.
She’s a die-hard fan and I don’t think she wanted to deal with Billy G. He didn’t offer the most inviting of environments after all. She disappeared during his tenure with the exception of an AWAY game. All signs point to Billy.