John Clay's Sidelines

SEC links for Monday:

• AJC report on a war of words between Tennessee and Georgia signees.
• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel on Tennessee’s Steven Pearl.
• Dan Fleser of the News-Sentinel previews tonight’s Tennessee-Vanderbilt women’s basketball matchup.
• Randy Rosetta of The Advocate reports on Ole Miss’ three-overtime win over the host LSU women.
• AP report on South Carolina women’s win at Georgia.
• Roger Clarkson of the Athens Banner-Herald writes that the Lady Dogs went cold again.
• Don Kausler, Jr. of the Birmingham News reports on Alabama women beating Auburn.
• Spencer White of the Tuscaloosa News writes on the Bama victory.
• Ray FitzGerald of the Gainesville Sun reports on Lady Gators winning a double-overtime thriller.
• Clarion-Ledger report on Florida’s win over Mississippi State women.
• Ray Melick of the News wants to know, in recruiting, when is early too early?

(H-L photo/David Perry)

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

• Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader reports from Baton Rouge that Kentucky made quick work of LSU in 81-55 win.
• Tipton’s notes lead with Calipari taking up for DeMarcus Cousins.
• My column from Baton Rouge says the Cats made dat look easy.
• Tipton’s Sunday notebook reports that Bob Knight will not be with GameDay in Lexington next Saturday.
• Chip Cosby of the H-L reports that Joker Phillips is looking ahead.
• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal reports from Baton Rouge on Kentucky’s convincing win.
• Darrell Bird of the Cats Pause reports from Baton Rouge on UK throttling the Tigers.
• Metz Camfield of the Kentucky Kernel made the trip to the PMAC to report on the Kentucky victory.
• Gary Laney of the Baton Rouge Advocate writes that Kentucky was just overpowering.
• Laney’s sidebar says the tide turned quickly against LSU.
• Jim Kleinpeter of the Times-Picayune writes that LSU was no match for Kentucky.
• Randy Rosetta of The Advocate reports on the emotional ceremony for Rudy Macklin.
• Jerit Roser of the Alexandria Town Talk writes that the heckling didn’t get to the Cats.

After Kentucky’s 81-55 win over LSU, Patrick Patterson talks about holding Tasmin Mitchell to 10 points.

After UK’s easy 81-55 win over LSU, DeMarcus Cousins talks about how he keeps being targeted by officials, and how an LSU coach gave him a “nasty” look before the game.

Here’s the whole thing, John Calipari’s press conference after his Kentucky basketball team trounced poor LSU 81-55 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Thumbing through the LSU notes, the sports information staff has used the NBA player efficiency numbers to figure which Tiger is the most efficent. That prodded me into using the same formula to calculate UK player numbers.

It’s a plus-minus formula. The plus number is points + rebounds + assists + steals + blocked shots. The minus number is ((field goal attempts – field goals) + (free throw attempts – free throws) + turnovers). Take minus from plus, then divide by the number of games played for the average efficiency rating of each player.

Here’s the chart:

Here are the two final videos from John Calipari’s meeting with the media today. The top one talks a little about Darius Miller, and a lot about the three questions the coach is asking his team. The bottom video talks about whether the UK freshmen will hit the February wall, and why Cal is more worried about Kentucky than LSU.

A few highlights from John Calipari’s meeting with the media before today’s practice as Kentucky gets ready to meet an SEC-winless LSU on Saturday in Baton Rouge.

• 1. The head coach is a little under the weather. If you noticed Tuesday night, Calipari was doing some coughing and didn’t quite seem 100 percent in the post-game press conference. He was a little worse today, and before he met with us, sports info director DeWayne Peevy mentioned that Calipari was a little under the weather. Nothing a good performance in Baton Rouge wouldn’t help, of course.

• 2. Calipari said he put three questions on the board for Thursday’s practice: (1) Am I playing as hard as I can play? If not, why not? (2) Am I making the easiest play I can make? If not, why not? (3)Am I doing what he’s asking me to do? If not, why not? “Those three questions being answered in a positive make us really, really good,” said the coach.

• 3. Calipari said that LSU may be winless in the league, but the Tigers have had chances to win “three or four games.” He said he would show the team some tape of LSU’s 59-54 loss last night to Tennessee to prove that the Tigers are capable.

Here is video of the first 4:15 of Cal’s press meeting. (I’ll have the rest up shortly.)

Continue reading ‘A 5-spot as Kentucky prepares for LSU’