John Clay's Sidelines

SEC links for Thursday:

• Seth Emerson of The State reports on South Carolina’s 77-71 win over visiting Florida.
• Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun writes that turnovers hurt Florida’s cause in Columbia.
• The Advocate reports on Arkansas pushing LSU losing streak to 10.
• Chris Bath of Arkansas 360 on the Razorbacks’ 87-52 whipping of LSU.
• In the Birmingham News, Charles Goldberg reports on Auburn’s easy 82-63 win over Georgia.
• Kevin Scarbinsky of the News writes that if the NCAA expands, even Jeff Lebo might have a shot.
• Jay G. Tate of the Montgomery Advertiser reports that Lucas Hargrove led the way for Auburn.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Razorbacks keep rolling; USC clips Gators’

Lisa Benson, online managing editor of the Cincinnati Business Courier, writes about the new Kentucky Blue Box line of box wines. Excerpt:

The UK blue-inspired boxes come in five varietals that sell for about $20: Concord, Vidal Blanc, Tailgate White, Tailgate Red and Sweet Mellow White. Two more, Blue Box Chardonnay and Blue Box Cabernet Sauvignon, sell for about $30.

But it’s really the box that sells it.

By the way, you can click on the official web site, where Joe B. Hall and Denny Crum are the pitch men.

Here is a short clip of Kentucky coach John Calipari crediting freshman Daniel Orton with being the difference in the game last night.

Tennessee travels over Jellico Mountain to take on Kentucky in Rupp on Saturday. GameDay will be on hand. So will a pair of packed houses. The first will watch a studio TV show that morning on the floor of Rupp. The second will watch UK and Tennessee fight it out on the Rupp floor that night. But Tennessee tuned up for the trip by being the embarrassing end of a 90-71 whipping at the hands of Vanderbilt last night at Memorial Gym. Sort of a Memorial Gym massacre. IN white-out. (Read Stuart Hines’ hilarious tweet here.) Kentucky, in the Billy G. Error, was all too familiar with that term.

So what happened to the Vols?

Here’s what happened:

• Vanderbilt shot 43 free throws. That’s four more than any team has shot in an SEC game this year. Kentucky held the previous high of 39 in its win over Vanderbilt back on Jan. 30. Vandy made 37 of its 43 free throws last night for 86 percent. That’s pretty darn good. Behind early, no doubt Tennessee was fouling in hopes of catching up. Vandy kept making free throws.

• Tennessee’s offense has dipped a bit. The Vols have been under a point per possession in three of their last four games. They posted an 0.96 last night. Vanderbilt averaged 1.21 points per possession.

• Vandy is apparently just a bad matchup for the Vols. The Commodores posted a 1.18 points per possession average in their win in Knoxville on Jan. 27. That was followed by the 1.21 last night. Only one other SEC team has averaged over a point per possession against the Vols. Georgia averaged 1.175 in its win over Tennessee in Athens. The Vols held Alabama, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Ole Miss and South Carolina all under a point per possession.

• After scoring 30 points in beatdown of South Carolina on Saturday, Vols center Wayne Chism was held to 16 points last night. Chism made five of 12 shots, as opposed to his 11-of-17 night against the Gamecocks. In the two games against Vanderbilt, Chism scored just 24 points.

• Billy Hall grabbed 11 rebounds in just 18 minutes against South Carolina. He notched three rebounds in 20 minutes last night.

• Scotty Hopson made just four of 14 shots last night. Through Tennessee’s first four SEC games, Hopson was averaging 13.8 points per game. Now he’s down to 12 a game.

Glenn Beck

It’s John Calipari’s birthday. The Kentucky head coach turns 51 today.

Here are some other famous people born on Feb. 10:

• Actress Elizabeth Banks turns 36 today.

• Controversial Fox TV personality Glenn Beck, who turns 46 today.

• Host of CNBC’s Mad Money, the over-the-top Jim Cramer, who turns 55 with a big booh-ya today.

• Ex-Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra, who turns 47 today.

• Golfer, and former spouse to Chris Evert, Greg Norman turns 55 today.

• The film director Alexander Payne, who made About Schmidt, turns 49 today.

• Gold-medal gathering Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz turns 60 today.

• Co-host of Good Morning America, George Stephanoplous turns 49 today.

• Actor Robert Wagner, once married to Natalie Wood, turns 80 today.

John Calipari just tweeted this in response to John Wall jersey spelling controversy:

This has the internet buzzing this morning: Is Kentucky spelled as K-E-N-T-C-U-K-Y on John Wall’s jersey in Calipari’s twit pic this morning? I blew up the picture, so you be the judge.

Updated: Poll question added at bottom of post.

John Calipari just sent out a twit pic of photo shoot for Slam Magazine, which apparently has UK players in the new uniforms.

By the way, if you read comments, some think Wall’s jersey reads: “KENTCUKY”.

Updates: Walter’s Wildcat World has some tight shots of the unis. So does Kentucky Sports Radio.

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

Jerry Tipton of the H-L writes that Wall and Cousins led the way over Alabama: ” DeMarcus Cousins posted his seventh straight double-double. And fellow freshman John Wall almost did him one better by flirting with a triple-double, not that he would have been proud of the achievement. Wall’s six turnovers marred an otherwise top-notch game as he led Kentucky to a 66-55 victory over Alabama Tuesday night.”

My column on Kentucky’s turnovers: “On the night, Kentucky shot 45.8 percent overall, made just three of 16 three-pointers and was just 19-for-31 at the foul line. That’s not good. More than anything, however, three words that John Calipari keeps repeating kept repeating as you watched the game unfold. Value the basketball.”

Herald-Leader photo slide show.

High School Hoop has C.J. Leslie’s coach saying it is wide open: “‘We honestly don’t even talk about it. He’s still wide open. There’re a lot looking at him, and some new schools starting to come around, and he will entertain and has entertained. He’s still wide open, and we’ve made a promise to each other that we wouldn’t deal with it until the season’s over.’” (Hat tip Bluegrass State Basketball.)

Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal says there were brilliant flashes and ill-timed turnovers: “Freshman John Wall had 22 points and a career-high 10 rebounds for the Cats (23-1, 8-1 Southeastern Conference), but his five first-half turnovers helped prevent UK from pulling away early.”

Gentry Estes of the Mobile Press-Register reports from Lexington that fighting effort not enough for Tide: “There was no extended locker room powwow after the toughest test of the season for Alabama’s basketball team. Crimson Tide coach Anthony Grant has made it clear he’ll never praise a loss, but tonight’s 66-55 defeat at third-ranked Kentucky may be the closest he’ll come to that point.”

Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News reports from  Lexington on the loss: “The University of Alabama men’s basketball team didn’t find the win it needed to break its Southeastern Conference losing streak on Tuesday night, but it did find something else at Rupp Arena. Truth in advertising.”

Mark Story of the H-L on new UK assistant football coach Tee Martin: ” Tee Martin says he hasn’t yet let himself contemplate what it will be like standing on the visiting sideline in Neyland Stadium. Now that Joker Phillips has named Martin wide receivers coach at Kentucky, the quarterback of Tennessee’s undefeated 1998 national champions will find out Nov. 27.”

Continue reading ‘BBL: For UK, an ugly win is still a win’

SEC links for Wednesday:

• Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean reports on Vanderbilt’s trouncing of Tennessee.
• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that pain for the Vols could continue Saturday.
• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel on the Vols’ fall to Vanderbilt.
• Mike Strange of the News-Sentinel looks ahead to Kentucky-Tennessee.
• Wes Rucker of the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes that Tennessee didn’t push back enough.
• Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun writes that Florida is looking to address its late-game issues.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Vanderbilt sweeps Tennessee’