John Clay's Sidelines

J.D. writes:

Dear Mr. Clay( Herald Leader Sports Columnist),

I find it very disturbing to get online today at the Lexington Herald Leader in hopes to see some positive talk on our #1 ranking……but no its a ridiculous posting of “When will loss No. 1 come for No. 1?” Seriously, it’s columnist like you who wear out UK sports junkies out like me. We are Kentucky, the land’s top program, 19-0 with the best 6 players in America, the NBA’s biggest Phenom, the nations top coach, with the country’s biggest fan base and your more concerned about who our first loss will be?!!!!!!!!!! I’m speaking on behalf of 40 emails i received this morning regarding you’re post from other irritated fans. I have waited since 2003 for this……and I certainly hope the herald leader has better and more significant stories then this one you created. Who cares???!?!!!!!!

Lay off the negative journalism, and be a true blue cat fan.

I am blind copying this to all my address inbox…whom are Kentucky fans.

My response: Thanks for the e-mail, but I get the question all the time, “Who left on our schedule do you think has the best chance to beat us?” That was the thinking behind the column. And it’s not my job to be a true blue fan.

With Kentucky ascending to No. 1 for the first time since 2003, here is a chart of the AP college basketball Top 10 so far this season.

Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson talks about life at No. 1.

Here’s a clip of John Calipari talking to the media before today’s practice.

Here’s the video of the aforementioned “Cutler to Clooney” remark at John Calipari’s meeting with the media today. The remark is at the end of this clip.

Here Calipari delights at giving ESPN’s John Buccigross, a native of Western Pennsylvania, that “jag-off,” as Cal calls him, a hard time. Actually, according to the Urban Dictionary, the term “jag-off” originated in Pittsburgh.

Five notes from Kentucky’s meeting with the media before practice today, in preparation for Tuesday night’s game at South Carolina:

• Bonus point: John Calipari said that with the team being No. 1, he will stress that people will look at them differently now. Some players will go from homely to handsome a hunk. “From Cutler to Clooney,” said one media member — think it was WTVQ’s Dan Rieffer — which brought a huge laugh.

• 1. Patrick Patterson said that it will take a team defensive effort to contain South Carolina’s Devan Downey. Eric Bledsoe, John Wall and DeAndre Liggins will get the man-to-man assignments in trying to stop the 5-foot-9 dynamo, but the rest of the team has to be concious of the way Downey gets the ball to the rim. That means big men have to help.

• 2. Zone? John Calipari says his team could play some zone on Tuesday night. Cal said that watching the tape he had seen other teams use a zone to try and keep Downey out of the lane. Calipari said don’t be surprised to see him use a litte of that, as well. But mainly Cal said he knows that Downey will get his points. The trick is to keep Downey from making the players around him better.

• 3. No. 1. Calipari repeated that the team wanted to be No. 1, and surely that explained some of the motivation behind the 101-70 rout of Arkansas. The trick now is to deal with the ranking. Calipari kept hammering home that the South Carolina arena will be full, that media requests will be through the roof, that the atmosphere will be charged. Daniel Orton said he didn’t think the atmosphere would be a lot different. Opposing crowds were charged up before, when UK was No. 2-4 in the rankings. Will No. 1 make that much of a difference? The Carolina crowd is a little different in that the students are right down near the floor. And they were camoflauge.

Continue reading ‘A 5-spot, plus a bonus, from UK basketball’

Two possible Final Four teams grace the tube tonight. Both games are on ESPN. Georgetown is at the Carrier Dome to play Syracuse, followed by Missouri at Kansas. The Jayhawks have won four in a row since that Sunday loss to a depleted Tennessee. Bill Self’s team is 4-0 in the Big 12 and 18-1 overall. Missouri is 3-1 in the Big 12 and 15-4 overall.

Digger Phelps dances to Kelly Clarkson when College GameDay visited Clemson Saturday. The GameDay crew comes to Lexington Feb. 13. Tickets are being distributed at Rupp, as UK wants a sell-out for that morning’s show.

(Photo by The State/C. Aluka Berry)

Things to know about South Carolina super-guard Devan Downey:

• Scored 36 of his team’s 56 points in 58-56 loss at Florida on Saturday.

• Made basket with 5.1 seconds left to give USC at 56-55 lead before Chandler Parsons drained a three at the buzzer to give Florida the victory.

• Made a turnaround jumper with three seconds left to give South Carolina a 78-77 win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena last year, just the Gamecocks second win in 23 trips to Lexington.

• Scored 19 points in the second half of that game.

• Scored 21 points and made five assists in Carolina’s 77-59 win over UK in Columbia last year, completing the Gamecocks’ sweep of the Cats.

• Is averaging 31.6 points per game in five conference games.

• Has scored 30-or-more points in three of South Carolina’s last five games.

Continue reading ‘Things to know about Devan Downey’