John Clay's Sidelines

When a picture, or in this case a video, is worth a thousand words. This is UK freshman DeMarcus Cousins, in his Peter Parker “swag,” so he said, complete with a Ushanka, after the Cats’ win over Austin Peay.

Before Friday’s practice, Kentucky’s Josh Harrellson talks Austin Peay, and what happened on that unsupervised practice that got John Calipari hot under the collar.

(Photo John Clay)

Big Blue Links for Saturday:

Ray Ratto writes for CBS SportsLine that Bob Kngiht was a little late: “Does this invalidate his points at the Hall of Fame? No, of course not. His principles speech is always on point. It is, however, a lot like going to a meeting of a mob family and complaining about rampant lawbreaking. You’re speaking about people who long ago figured out the price of a soul and use that number when amortizing its costs, and wondering aloud why they aren’t nicer people. They’re not, and in many cases they never were. They just crossed more lines with less care for the punishment, because there is none and never has been.”

Gary Parrish of CBS SportsLine says UK fans will have to live with this: “And this is how it’s going to be forever, UK fans, and why it was clear — even before Knight said what he said — that any success Calipari has going forward will be tainted regardless of whether it’s really tainted. Until the day he retires, the majority of observers will believe, fair or not, that every recruit Calipari gets is a product of his relationship with William Wesley even if Worldwide Wes has never met the recruit. All SATs will be assumed fake even if they’re legit, all future pros will supposedly have agents even if they do not.”

Mike DeCourcy says Knight got it wrong: “Knight always contended too many in the media wrote or talked about things they didn’t know or understand. Now he has done the same. The current Kentucky coach – yes, we know his name, John Calipari – did previously work at Massachusetts and Memphis, and both of those schools wound up facing NCAA sanctions for incidents that occurred while he coached there. However, Calipari was not implicated in either circumstance.”

Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal takes a different view of Knight’s comments: “Knight could talk about the way Kentucky essentially bought Memphis’ recruiting class for $32 million. He could talk about the way Calipari rigged the recruits’ letters of intent so they wouldn’t actually be bound to the school. He could point out that Calipari used that Memphis recruiting class to escape NCAA sanctions he knew were coming. He could say the things Dick Vitale and the rest don’t have the guts or objectivity to say.”

My column calling Bob Knight a washed-up bully, among other things: “Before a rapt audience Thursday night, Knight tried to make it sound as though he was the one too good for the game, when actually the game’s grown too good for him. The days of coaches abusively treating players and fans and administrators is coming to a close. Ask Mark Mangino, the former football coach at Kansas. He, too, has some time on his hands.”

Continue reading ‘BBL: Reaction to the Calipari-Knight reaction’

Three notes from John Calipari’s meeting with media before Kentucky takes on Austin Peay on Saturday at Rupp Arena:

• 1. Before Calipari met with the media, UK sports information director DeWayne Peevy told the media that Calipari would address Bob Knight’s comments from the night before. But Peevey wanted to “clear up” a couple of items of misinformation. He said that UMass was never on probation after Calipari coached there. And that the NCAA ruling on Memphis is under appeal.

• 2. When Calipari did meet with us, he tried as best he could to shrug off Knight’s comments. He said that he and his staff even went to Lubbock and spent time at a Texas Tech practice and how helpful that experience turned out to be. He talked about his respect for Knight and his coaching accomplishments. It was a “take the high road” response with a dash of “he’s been nice to me” thrown in.

• 3. Cal was asked a couple of Kngiht follow-ups and deflected both with a quick “next question.” He spent the rest of the time talking about how Saturday would be a tough game, and how badly his team has practiced this week. The team backed that up by saying one day Calipari allowed them to practice as a group on their own, without the head coach’s supervision. It didn’t get so well. Josh Harrellson said the team “went wild.” When Calipari saw the tape he hit the roof. On a scale of 1-10, Calipari’s anger was a “10,” said Eric Bledsoe. (That might have been Calipari’s real reaction to Knight’s comments, but he ain’t saying.)

Here are the videos:

Media Approval Ratings wraps up the week with the Herald-Leader’s Jennifer Smith, who counts covering UK women’s basketball and UK volleyball among her many duties at the paper.

What say you on Jennifer Smith, thumbs-up or thumbs-down?

Previously: Chip Cosby, Jerry Tipton, Mark Story, John Clay

UK women’s coach Matthew Mitchell is to meet with the media at 1 1:15 p.m. to preview Sunday’s game with Louisville.

At 1:30 1:45, UK men’s players are available, followed by John Calipari. So I should have video up on the blog later this afternoon.

Also, thankfull we’re back in Rupp Arena tomorrow, so I’ll have the Liveblog up and running as well. I’ll post the CoveritLive box later today.

Update: Gary Parrish says this is the way it’s going to be for UK fans. Get used to it.

Some Twitter reaction on the Bob Knight-John Calipari throwdown:

• @Bo memiles86er: “bob knight gets punished for his coaching style, the schools coach cal coaches get punished and cal gets off the hook” (mike and mike)

• @thskidmore: Good for Bobby Knight. I love that he called out John Calipari. NCAA should punish coaches like Calipari for rules that the coaches broke!

• @jschlitt: Bobby Knight called out John Calipari for having to vacate two Final Fours? He’s now my favorite person on ESPN not named Erin Andrews.

• @radar1408: @GreenyAndGolic really, Bobby knight questioning somone’s integrity(John calipari). He’s at least made me laugh 2day

• @PaulKatcher: Bobby Knight chides John Calipari in speech. And he’s right. Coach Cal illuminates the hypocrisy that is college hoops http://bit.ly/7LOIPC (expand)

• @VanillaVelvet: is wow… Bob Knight said Calipari doesnt have integrity.. i guess Calipari has to choke players and throw chairs to get integrity!!

• @petekoutoulas: Bobby Knight blasts John Calipari’s “lack of integrity.” My granny would say that’s like the pot calling the kettle black.

Continue reading ‘Twitter reaction to Knight calling out Calipari’