John Clay's Sidelines

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

Jerry Tipton of the H-L writes game story on UK win over Austin Peay: “When cheerleaders later carried the giant flag with the interlocking “U” and “K” onto the court and the pep band struck up the theme to the movie 2001, this monolithic symbol of Kentucky basketball moved fans only to stand and clap as if required to sing Jingle Bells for the 2,000th time.”

Wildcat Blue Blog thinks Memphis writers are stalking Calipari: “If you think Tiger Woods is having a tough time from his ex-dalliances, you clearly have not met John Calipari’s bitter ex’s. If you thought that Lindsey Lohan and Samantha Ronson had knock down, drag them out breakups, you never witnessed the drama from John Calipari’s exes. If you thought that lady that kept breaking into David Letterman’s house was wacky, well that does not even touch the level of wackiness from John Calipari’s exes.”

Here’s the Herald-Leader photo slide show of UK win over Austin Peay.

Jennifer Smith reports that Victoria Dunlap is probable for today’s game with U of L: ” Victoria Dunlap, who suffered a concussion in practice a week ago, was upgraded from questionable to probable by Coach Matthew Mitchell on Saturday afternoon. The 6-foot-1 junior, UK’s leading scorer and rebounder, went through a full practice on Saturday.”

(H-L photo/Pablo Alcala)

My column saying UK is learning difference between arrogance and swagger: “Thing is, other teams, they could care less about that. They don’t care if you’ve been up all night studying for exams, or running sprints until you collapse, or focusing on something other than winning basketball. Especially if the opponent is Kentucky, the third-ranked team in the country.”

Eric Crawford of the C-J has the text of Seth Davis’ rebuttal to Bob Knight: “‘So now that he is commenting on these things, I’d like to see him own up to some of the things he did over the course of his career. Be as tough on Bob Knight as you were this week on John Calipari.’”

Brett Dawson of the C-J writes about UK’s 1,999th win: “But as late as the 15:45 mark of the second half, Austin Peay (7-5) was within 51-45, the product of some sharpshooting by the Governors and some sleepwalking defense by the Cats. When the game hit a TV timeout with 7:21 to play, Austin Peay remained within striking distance, trailing 70-61.”

Tipton’s notes lead with UK’s goal of going undefeated: “Although no one brought up the fact that Kentucky’s storied history includes only one unbeaten team (25-0 in 1953-54), it likely would not have given Patterson pause. He noted the motivational benefits of seeking an unblemished record.”

Bluegrass State Basketball has some encouraging recruiting tweets.

In the Chicago Tribue, Mark Heisler writes the NBA top pick has already been decided:

“‘I was sitting there with (a Western Conference general manager),’ said another Western team official of last week’s Kentucky victory over Connecticut in New York. ‘After five minutes, we just looked at each other and started laughing.

If New Orleans has the top pick, they would take John Wall, even with Chris Paul. That’s how good Wall is. You would just take him and then work it out later.’”

(Hat tip to Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog.)

Mike Marsee of the Danville Advocate-Messenger says AP was impressed with UK: “‘Both of them are tough players, they’re NBA-quality players,” (Channels) said. “John Wall is terrific. He’s fast, he can shoot, he’s unselfish. He’s a really good player.’”

James Pennington of the Kentucky Kernel writes no time to kick back for Cats: “Maybe under stacks of study guides and empty coffee cups, that memo to UK’s basketball players got lost. Because against Austin Peay on Saturday, the Cats were asleep. Perhaps daydreaming of their performances against North Carolina or Connecticut, the Cats clearly didn’t want to play against an Ohio Valley Conference team in front of a crowd as lethargic as is possible for 23,938 people.”

Metz Camfield of the Kernel has the UK game story: “Patterson, for his part, finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, but UK head coach John Calipari said he had never seen a “softer” 21-9 performance than Patterson’s on Saturday. Patterson said Calipari told him that he thought it would have been just six points and four rebounds had he not seen a stat sheet.”

Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches writes on Patrick Patterson: “It was a reminder of how important Patterson is to the Cats’ success. On a team riddled with youth, UK needs a leader to close out games, pick the guys up when they’re slow and fight back when their backs are against the wall.”

A Sea of Blue gives its thoughts on the Kentucky victory: “The badness was our team defense — it was pretty loathsome. I have not looked at the numbers yet (I usually don’t until I do the stat analysis), but I do know that Kentucky’s defensive eFG% was not as good as it should have been by a long way.”

Tom Leach has some post-game videos.

Kentucky Sports Network has some post-game video, as well.

(H-L photo/Pablo Alcala)

Kentucky Sports Radio develops a sudden love for Seth Davis: “Also, if you haven’t seen Seth Davis’ comments in response to Bob Knight’s jab at Coach Cal, they can be read here. It’s no secret that as far as Kentucky fans are concerned, Davis has been and will continue to be a goober. So maybe it’s the yuletide spirit or a little too much egg nog that’s got him defending Cal and the Cats, but whatever it is he took a step towards warming our Big Blue hearts today. Only 3,667,192 to go.”

Straitpinkie on the UK win over the Peay: “Other than the momentary panic that set in when Wall went down, it was another fun one at Rupp, as the ‘Cats used sporadic periods of stellar play to coast past the Governors. Unfortunately, UK did way too much coasting for John Calipari’s taste.”

Aaron’s UK Football Blog has some football recruiting notes.

Inner Circle writes on the softer side of UK win: “Even Patterson wasn’t safe from Calipari’s displeasure as Coach Cal noted that “I’ve never seen a softer 21-9 than I did in Patrick’s.” Ouch. Coach Calipari just called our man-child soft. As was noted earlier, maybe final exams did take a toll on the Cats against Austin Peay. However, I will take a 21 point victory anyday, especially when we play sub-par.”