John Clay's Sidelines

Drexel coach Brusier Flint. (AP photo/Mel Evans)

Big Blue Links for Monday:

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader says UK near 2,000-win finish line: “Like fame, milestones can be so fleeting. That’s how it felt to reporters who had less than four minutes on Sunday to talk to Kentucky players about the chance to achieve the program’s 2,000th victory on Monday against Drexel.”

Jennifer Smith of the H-L reports on UK women’s pasting of turnover-prone Louisville: “The Kentucky coach and his players did their best to keep the post-game talk quiet and low-key. Even though they had just ended five years of frustration and beaten Louisville by the second-largest margin in series history, 101-67, the Cats kept the chatter to a minimum.”

Mike Fields of the H-L reports on a junior lineman from Bryan Station that has committed to UK football: ” Bryan Station junior offensive tackle Darrian Miller has committed to play college football at Kentucky. Miller called UK assistant Chuck Smith on Sunday night to tell him he wanted to join the Cats for the 2011 season.”

David Ramey of Examiner.com reports that ex-UK assistant Chris Hatcher will be named head coach at Murray State today: “Sources close to the situation confirmed to Examiner.com Sunday that Hatcher agreed earlier this weekend to take over a struggling football program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2004.”

Tipton talks to Drexel coach Bruiser Flint about his old friend Cal: “‘I know we didn’t go on probation at UMass because I took over after he left,’ said Flint, who succeeded Calipari as Massachusetts coach in 1996. ‘One of the things we talk about a lot is how people perceive him. As you’ll find out, he’s a lot different from what people write about him.’”

UK’s Mark Krebs talks about going for 2,000:

Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal on why 2K: “Now the Cats are knocking on the door, and they’re favored to celebrate the program’s 2,000th win tonight at the expense of Drexel (6-5) and coach Bruiser Flint, a longtime friend and former assistant coach of Calipari’s.”

Tom Leach has video of Rich Brooks talking about quarterbacks.

Bluegrass State Basketball thinks Jodie Meeks could be headed to the D-League: “I hope not, but there is speculation that Jodie Meeks could be in line for relegation to the NBA D-League. Meeks has showed signs of a promising future, but he has been very inconsistent.”

Wildcat Blue Blog has been tracking this 2,000 race to the end: “UK should continue their roll and have no problem with the Dragons. The Dragons are one of the worst shooting teams in the country and they have nowhere near the size to compete. In the pre-season, Coach Cal tried to talk up Long Beach State as a tough game. The 49ers have undertaken a murders row schedule of big names this season and UK will be their 4th ranked team this season. This could be a trap game with a Christmas Break on looming, the fact UK has win 2000 under their belt and possibly looking ahead to Louisville on January 2.”

My column saying UK women might just be for real: “It would have been difficult to argue against that point Sunday afternoon in Memorial Coliseum when the Cats were forcing a ridiculous 38 turnovers, building up a 23-point halftime lead and stretching it into the 30s in the second half – “Pedal to the metal,” said head coach Matthew Mitchell. All on the way to snapping a five-game losing streak to their arch-rivals by crushing the Cardinals before a happy crowd of 7,323 at Memorial Coliseum.”

Kentucky Sports Radio claims ESPN’s Jemele Hill apologized (sort of) to UK over comments she made on a show that KSR says no one watches: “According to two sources close to the situation who I spoke with this weekend, ESPN personality Jemele Hill was forced to apologize to UK on Friday after she took a shot at Calipari and the UK fanbase on the awful show ESPN “First Take.” On the show, Jemele Hill said (and I am paraphrasing) that UK fans would be fine with “Charles Manson as coach”, so long as he won. Not surprisingly, the powers that be at UK were upset with the comment and the two or three fans that actually watch that show were outraged as well.”

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)Kentucky Sports Radio says that an ESPN personality apologized to UK: "According to the sources, Hill called Barnhart and actually said very little, instead listening to an irate Kentucky Athletic Director go into detail as to his problems with her comments and that of other ESPN personalities in general. She was then forced to call the SEC office and apologize (or as another source put it "explain") the comments to them as well."Metz Camfield of the Kentucky Kernel on UK's chance at 2,000 wins: "With such a rich tradition and history in the program, Calipari said his role in the mark is minimal, but he said he feels a sense of responsibility to the not only the former players and coaches, but also the state and university. 'The responsibility was, ‘Here's your part. You better get us to 12 before (UNC) gets to 16.'"

Nick Craddock of the Kernel on UK women’s rout of Louisville: “Christmas came early for the Cats. On Sunday the UK women’s basketball team (10-0) notched its 10th consecutive victory to start the season, which breaks the previous school record of 9-0 set in 1980-81, with a resounding 101-67 victory over the Louisville Cardinals (6-5). It was UK’s first win over the Cards since 2003.”

Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches on the UK victory over the Lady Cards: “A recap: (insert player) stole the ball, (insert player) raced the length of the floor, (insert player) laid it in. That happened more times than Louisville head coach Jeff Walz wanted to think about. It was enough to cause nightmares.”

Straitpinkie does a UK by the numbers: “t was finals week at the University of Kentucky, so we only got to watch the ‘Cats one time this week, as they took down Austin Peay 90-69. UK had a bit of trouble jumping right back into action after their longest break of the season on Saturday, but they won’t have a chance to gather any rust in the coming days, because UK plays on Monday and Wednesday.”

Aaron’s UK Football Blog has some notes on football commitments.

Wildcat-Den looks at some of the biggest wins in UK history.