John Clay's Sidelines

(AP photo)

Big Blue Links for Saturday:

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader writes that West Virginia wants to make it ugly:

When Kentucky and West Virginia played in the Las Vegas Invitational last season, the teams combined for 43 fouls, 39 turnovers and 4-for-23 shooting from three-point range. UK scored its second-fewest points in 2008-09. WVU scored its fewest.

No wonder WVU Coach Bob Huggins recoiled as a reporter asked what he remembered about that 54-43 loss. “I’m trying to forget,” he said in his signature deadpan delivery.

Chris Dufrense of the Los Angeles Times says UK-West Virginia a tenacious top two:

It’s crazy what’s been going on all over the NCAA tournament except here, in the East, where No. 1 Kentucky and No. 2 West Virginia have sidestepped all the obstacles.

No other regional was able to bring together the top two seeded teams in a final.

Kentucky dismissed Cornell, the cute story, and West Virginia answered Washington’s team speed with a physical beat-down.

Mark Story of the H-L writes on Patrick Patterson:

If having a Final Four berth at stake against West Virginia on Saturday wasn’t enough motivation, Patrick Patterson has a request for his Kentucky teammates.

Win one for the PatPat.

“If we don’t win this game,” said the Huntington, W.Va., product Friday with a smile, “you have no idea how much stuff I’m going to hear about it.”

Zac Berman of the Washington Post on Patterson:

Some of West Virginia’s veteran players such as senior forward Wellington Smith and fourth-year junior guard Joe Mazzulla remember Patterson visiting Morgantown and the hype associated with him. Smith believes Patterson would have been perfect for the Mountaineers.

Instead, Patterson went to Kentucky, where he starred for two seasons under former coach Billy Gillispie but never won an NCAA tournament game. He had career averages of 17.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game and considered leaving Kentucky for the NBA following last season.

My column on friendly rivals Bob Huggins and John Calipari:

“There was only supposed to be family in there,” said Bob Huggins. “But Cal being Cal, he talked his way back there. Cal came in, and Skip (Prosser) came in.”

Skip is gone now, himself the victim of a heart attack.

“I remember the paddles still had burns on them,” said Calipari of the Huggins visit. “It was pretty scary stuff.”

Continue reading ‘BBL: Kentucky-West Virginia preview links’

(AP photo)

SEC links for Saturday:

• J.P. Prince’s block of Evan Turner puts Tennessee in the Elite 8, reports Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

• Pat Forde of espn.com writes that the Vols got a Prince of an effort to hold off Ohio State.

• Defense puts Tennessee in the regional final, writes Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that Tennessee blocked out the critics.

• John Adams of the News-Sentinel previews the Lady Vols matchup with Baylor.

• Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch writes that Evan Turner deserved a better sendoff.

• Ole Miss is searching for a quarterback, reports David Brandt of the Clarion-Ledger.

• Florida has a quarterback quandry, reports Robbie Andreu of the Gainesville Sun.

• Class policy proves costly to a South Carolina football player, reports Seth Emerson of The State.

• Ray Melick of the Birmingham News writes that Eddie Fogler helped Auburn select a coach.

Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins, talking to the media today:

At his breakout session, UK’s Patrick Patterson talks about facing his home-state Mountaineers:

During the breakout session with reporters today, John Wall talks about his development:

Just finished up the Kentucky-West Virginia press conferences previewing Saturday’s NCAA East Region final. Here are 10 highlights:

• 1. Lot of questions about the John Calipari-Bob Huggins relationship, and how Calipari went to visit Huggins in the Pittsburgh hospital after Huggins had his heart attack back in 2002.

• 2. Lot of questions to Patrick Patterson about playing his home-state school, West Virginia. Patterson said he was recruited by John Beilein and then Bob Huggins then picked up the recruitment when Huggins got the WVU job. Huggins said that by the time he called Patterson, Pat was down to Kentucky and Florida. Couldn’t make up any ground.

• 3. Calipari: “We’re running the dribble drive about 30 percent of the time now.”

• 4. Calipari: “Every team has a leading scorer. If you’re 0-28, you have a leading scorer.”

• 5. West Virginia’s De’Sean Butler came to the press conference with an ice bag wrapped around his right hand. He said it was no big deal, that he shot the ball well in practice. “We’re just trying to make sure nothing bad happens.”

• 6. Huggins on Calipari: “When coaches are down, he’ll pick up the phone and call. John’s always been good about that.”

• 7. Huggins said that very few coaches could have meshed the young talent Kentucky has the way Calipari has meshed it this year.

• 8. Huggins on what would happen if West Virginia made the Final Four: “They’d be dancing in the strets. They’d probably shut things down for a day and have a big time.”

• 9. Huggins on the media: “Half of you aren’t paying attention now. You’ve already got your stories written. You’re just waiting for me to say something stupid so you could put it in there.”

• 10. Huggins on Kentucky and the possibililty of a physical game: “I was sitting pretty close (Thursday) night and I certainly don’t think they shy away from contact.”

Some daily randoms from Syracuse, where the sun is out, but not the warmth:

Shameless plug: I’ll be on WVLK-590 with Larry Glover at 7:05 tonight.

Woke up to Lexington’s own Shelvin Mack on the cover of USA Today – front cover, A-1 – after Butler’s win over Syracuse last night. Great stat: Butler has committed 23 turnovers in three NCAA Tournament games.

It was interesting being in the Carrier Dome as Syracuse was losing as a No. 1 seed way out in Utah. Not many Syracuse fans, of course. But when the score updates of the game were announced, there were audible reactions from the fans. Some groans. Some cheers.

I wasn’t all that impressed with West Virginia on Thursday night. The Mountaineers play that Huggy ball. They grab, and hold, and fight on defense. They’ll no doubt try to make Saturday a grinder. But, as with a lot of Huggins’ teams in tournament time, I can’t see West Virginia scoring enough points to beat Kentucky on Saturday.

If WVU wins, will Huggins be the first Final Four coach to coach in a track suit?

I’ve heard conflicting reports on the Huggins-Calipari relationship. The press conferences later today at the Carrier Dome could be interesting.

The only bad thing about being at an NCAA Tournament site is that you don’t get to see what’s going on at the other NCAA Tournament sites. Kept receiving reports on the Xavier-Kansas State thriller, but did not see a second of the Kansas State-Xavier thriller. Paul Daugherty writes the classic for the Cincinnati Enqurier.

After a morning planning breakfast with cohorts Jerry Tipton and Mark Story, made the now daily walk across the street to Starbucks.

There were several great lines last night on the liveblog. I stole one – “the NBA kids beat the MBA kids: — for my column. Full disclosure. Another one said that Kansas State coach Frank Martin looked like the villain in a Dick Tracy movie.

Continue reading ‘More random notes from a sunny but chilly Syracuse’

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Big Blue Links for Friday:

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader on the Kentucky win over Cornell:

Kentucky held the Big Red scoreless for more than 7 minutes stretching from the first half to the second. In that stretch, the Cats built a 17-point lead and seemed headed for a repeat of the breezes past East Tennessee State and Wake Forest last week.

But UK got sloppy in the second half. Cornell got as close as six points down the stretch. Then UK went to DeMarcus Cousins, who delivered five points in a two-minute span to easy the growing tension.

Mark Blaudschun of the Boston Globe writes that Kentucky made the grade:

Calipari preached patience and defense to his young team, and the Wildcats went on a 19-3 burst and by the end of the first half, they had a 32-16 lead.

The Wildcats controlled the boards (a 41-28 edge), cut off the lifeline of 3-point shots for the Big Red (5 of 21), and controlled the second half.

Cornell managed to cut the deficit to 6 points with 5:42 remaining when senior guard Louis Dale (team-high 17 points) popped in a 3-pointer.

Herald-Leader photo gallery on the Kentucky win over Cornell.

Mark Story’s column saying Big Cuz doomed Big Red:

A basketball game, not a spelling bee.

That was DeMarcus Cousins’s pre-game description of Kentucky’s showdown with the brainiacs of Cornell in the NCAA Tournament East Region round of 16.

Yet in what proved to be an ugly game played at a hyper level of intensity, Kentucky spelled survival B-I-G C-U-Z.

Brian Delaney of the Ithaca Journal writes that UK defense silences Cornell:

The mobility of Kentucky’s big men, 6-11 DeMarcus Cousins and 6-9 Patrick Patterson, enabled Calipari to play the perimeter so aggressively. At one point, Cousins hedged Louis Dale on a screen at the key, swiped at the ball, stole it and fed a teammate for a fast break down the floor. That’s not the type of play Cornell has seen opposing big men from higher-level conference teams make against them.

“We hadn’t played against length like that all season,” Dale said.

My column saying the “dumb kids” played smart defense:

Instead, Kentucky showed its chops on the defensive end. Its size and length got to the Ivy League champs. After a confident 10-2 start, Cornell struggled the remainder of the first half, scoring just six more points. By halftime, Kentucky led 32-16.

Cornell turned it over twice in the first half in its win over Wisconsin last weekend. The Big Red turned it over 12 times in the first half against the Cats.

Matt May of the Cats Pause says the villain prevailed:

“We’re supposed to lose, we’re the bad guys, the dumb kids,” freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins said of UK’s public persona. “Just keep coming with the names and we’ll keep coming out and playing basketball. It’s just trash but we’ve handled it all season. We expect it. It doesn’t bother us, if anything it helps us play better.”

While America may have lost its sweetheart the Cats returned to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2005, pushing past the gutsy Ivy League school despite a horrid offensive second half. Defense, as it has done throughout the postseason for the Cats, carried the day.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Kentucky spells out trip to Elite Eight’

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Quick player notes from Kentucky’s 62-45 thumping of Cornell:

• I know, I know, Patrick Patterson had only nine points. But he was outstanding all night. He grabbed 12 rebounds. He was very active on both ends. He blocked three shots. His shooting eye was off. Pat was 3-of-12 from the floor, and just 1-of-3 from three-point land. If he had hit shots, Patterson would have had a monster night.

• DeMarcus Cousins was the leading scorer for UK with 16 points. He had seven boards. He had four steals. He did turn it over four times. And he kept his cool when Cornell’s Jeff Foote wrapped him up and took him to the floor. It wasn’t malicious on Foote’s part, but it should have been an intentional foul. Cuz hit the floor several times, and appeared to be holding his back a lot. He’ll be sore Friday morning.

• Eric Bledsoe made free throws down the stretch. He ended up hitting eight of 10, which helped the Cats wind up 16 of 26 at the foul line after starting 2-for-10. EB also had another highlight scoop shot on a drive to the basket. He finished with 12 poins, his seventh straight game in double figures.

• I wrote a column before the tournaments about how the Double-Ds of Darius Miller and Darnell Dodson would be x-factors in the post-season. Dodson, not so much. He played one minute, made Calipari mad, and that was that. But Miller has really come up big. He scored nine points, had four assists, and played excellent defense against Cornell. Miller has not turned the ball over in four straight games, spanning 81 minutes on the floor.

• John Wall had eight assists to go with his eight points. He was 0-of-3 on threes, but 4-of-6 on twos. He had a couple of steals. He ran the team well, for the most part. Oh yeah, he also had seven rebounds.

• DeAndre Liggins gave the team quite the energy boost. Liggins played 12 minutes, and though he didn’t record a steal, he sure seemed disruptive on defense. His length could play a key role off the bench against West Virginia on Saturday.

• Daniel Orton hit a nice shot and blocked two shots. Orton played 12 minutes. He’s actually made 10 of 13 shots over his last four games. His goal-tend looked like a good call, but the TV watchers on my live blog thought it to be questionable, at best.

• This isn’t a player stat or note, but one big key was the way Kentucky turned Cornell over. The Big Red was turning the basketball over on just 18.5 percent of its possessions. Against UK, the Big Red turned it over on 24.1 percent of its possessions. That’s the best job Kentucky has done in that department since it turned Tennessee over 24.2 percent of the time when College GameDay came to Lexington on Feb. 13. Maybe the presence of Jay Bilas has something to do with it.