John Clay's Sidelines

When told that many appear to be pulling for No. 12 seed Cornell over No. 1 seed Kentucky, UK’s John Wall says the Cats have faced that thinking all year.

Here’s Patrick Patterson talking to a crush of media in the Kentucky lockerroom at the Carrier Dome:

Here’s the transcript of the Kentucky press conference, via asap.com sports, at the NCAA East Region today:

March 24, 2010

Eric Bledsoe
John Calipari
Demarcus Cousins
Darius Miller
John Wall

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. John, you guys are obviously maybe the most athletic team in the country. You’re going up against an Ivy League team. They shoot very well. But what’s your feeling about the difference in athleticism between your team and Cornell?
JOHN WALL: That’s not going to play a big part in the game. Basically go out there and play defense like we did the first two games. We know they’re a great three-point shooting team. A great team. They run their sets and they get in a rhythm, it’s going to be tough to stop them. Basically guard the three-point line and try not to let them get to the free-throw line. We have to go out there and play basketball.

Q. John, Louis Dale was just in here talking about how he didn’t have any scholarship offers coming out of high school and how he had to mail a videotape in to Cornell so they knew who he was. Obviously that’s different from your recruiting process where you had a lot of offers. Can you imagine what that’s even like for a guy not to have any offers like that and have to mail a videotape in? And can you just talk about a little bit about your process and how you whittled it down with your schools?
JOHN WALL: I know that’s pretty tough. He’s a basketball player. He want to have a chance to play in college. He picked the school. They gave him a scholarship. Now he’s doing good. He’s running his team and they’re winning games. My process was different. Like you said, I had a lot of schools recruiting me. Basically just getting out to the school I feel safe with, my relationship with the coach. I made my decision on what coach I feel safe with.

Q. For Darius: Can you talk a little about Ryan Wittman and how he gets open from what you’ve seen, and the challenges he’ll present to you and your teammates defensively tomorrow night?
DARIUS MILLER: We can’t let him have open shots. He’s a great shooter. I’ve seen a highlight of him. So I haven’t seen too many games of him. I’ve seen a few highlights. He shoots — has a quick release. We just got to have a hand up every time he touches the ball. We can’t give him any easy or open looks or he’s really going to kill us.

Q. As a team does his offensive stuff remind you of anyone you guys have played this year?
DARIUS MILLER: Not really. They did a great job of executing. They don’t seem like they make any mistakes. We’re just going to have to be ready to go the whole 40 minutes and be ready to pressure and not give them any open looks.

Q. For DeMarcus: You know you’re going to be going against a true seven-footer, a guy who has got some strength down there, and you don’t always get that. What’s your impression of him? And what do you think about that match-up?
DeMARCUS COUSINS: He’s a big body. I mean, I really haven’t had a chance to go against a lot of seven-footers this year. This should be a good match-up in the game.

Q. John, do you guys get anything, learn anything out of watching teams like Kansas, Villanova, Georgetown, teams that are expected to win a few games, lose to teams that no one expected to? And does that affect your mental preparation maybe for games like this one?
JOHN WALL: I think ever since the Tournament started, we started taking practice more serious. It’s one game and you go home. Coach told us anybody can lose. Everybody is coming to play. Most of these teams don’t want to go home. You have to try to get a team concept. The teams that lost, the other teams that beat them did a great job of running their offense. They played the pace they wanted to play in. We have to try to speed Cornell up and play to a fast pace, and not let them set up because they’re a great team at executing.

Q. This is for John or Eric: When you listen to a lot of the people, the pundits talk about this game, the things they say about Cornell is they are hard working, they execute well, they don’t make mental mistakes. Maybe the implication is that Kentucky can do those things or Kentucky only gets by on athleticism. Has the coach tried to motivate you with that? Or have you thought that maybe the national media is slighting Kentucky in terms of the compliments they’re paying to Cornell?
JOHN WALL: Like you say, they do a great job of executing. He just told us to go out there and play basketball. He said defense is going to help us win this game. Defense and rebounding. That’s where everything starts with our teammates. Defense and rebounding and we get our offense going. We guard the three-point line and don’t get them easy baskets or easy looks and let them get to the free-throw line. Just got to play the game out. You have to see what happens from there.
ERIC BLEDSOE: Like he said. This is a team that ain’t going to beat themselves. We have to come out and play defense and play the whole 40 minutes. Coach has been saying that to us the whole season.

Continue reading ‘Transcript of Kentucky press conference at East Region’

Here’s the transcript, courtesy of asapsports.com of the Cornell press conference today at the NCAA East Region here in Syracuse:

March 24, 2010

Louis Dale
Steve Donahue
Jeff Foote
Ryan Wittman

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK

THE MODERATOR: OK, Coach, congratulations on being here. Can we ask you to give an opening statement?
COACH STEVE DONAHUE: Thank you. Obviously we’re extremely excited, not only to be in the Sweet 16, but to be in Syracuse, New York, is exactly where we would love to be. Obviously I’m very pleased with what we’ve done so far in the Tournament. And I sense that the group isn’t done. That’s what we’re going to try to do, is just keep advancing.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach?

Q. Do you expect this to be a big home crowd for you, the Syracuse faithful who, you know, will watch their game first, obviously, will then come and sort of cheer you on and hope that the semi-local team does well?
COACH STEVE DONAHUE: You know, I sense from being in this area for the ten years that I have had, I always thought there was a great relationship between our program and the fans of Syracuse and vice versa. There’s a lot of Syracuse fans in Ithaca, New York. And I think our relationship with the program, Jim (Boeheim) and I being friendly, and I sense that they appreciate this team. I expect it to be very pro Cornell. I would hope so, anyway.

Q. When did you get a sense that this could be a special group?
COACH STEVE DONAHUE: I think if you look at us over the last three years, you saw it coming. When this group were freshmen, we would go to Northwestern, and at that time I don’t know if we had a winning season yet. We beat Northwestern at Northwestern starting two freshmen, obviously Louis and Ryan. Ryan gets 18 points. And I just had that feeling that I used to when I was at Penn when we had really good teams when their players were young. I sensed that this group is going to be pretty good. You added Foote and then I thought there was a couple of other big games in my mind that made us – one was at Duke when these guys were sophomores. I’m watching tape of Duke and they’re beating teams at our level by 35 and 40. We walk in there and we go toe to toe with them. And we lose a game down the stretch. But I felt great about our team, all those kids are actually sophomores for the most part.
Obviously the last piece was the Kansas experience. Playing in that environment, I wasn’t sure again. I just watched tape of them beat Temple by 35, not knowing exactly where we’re at. I guess I’m like everybody else. Now I’m believing during that game that this team is very good. As a coach, you’re always a little hesitant to believe in your group. But they really had to prove it to you. I thought that experience really did — even though we lost, in some ways I was OK with the loss. I want to know how we would have reacted if we won that game? Because we still had to win our league to get into the NCAA Tournament. Even though we beat Kansas at Kansas, we would have still had to win our league. And in my mind, I was more concerned with how we would play in the league, and then if we got the opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament, I think that Kansas experience really would help us.

Q. Coach, you’re going to be playing a team with all sorts of McDonald’s All Americans. Can you describe your recruiting experience and how you were able to find guys this good and get them to a school with no scholarships?
COACH STEVE DONAHUE: I guess I’m fortunate because I’ve been doing it for 20 years now. This is what I’ve been doing in recruiting. I think it’s made me a much better recruiter in that sense. I don’t think it’s that — it’s not as drastically different as you think. What we probably try to do is try to find kids that aren’t necessarily great as 18-year-olders, but have a little vision of what that young man will be when he’s 21 or 22. Mostly, it’s strength, it’s size, it’s quickness, that if can you anticipate someone like a Ryan Wittman growing three inches and putting on 25, 30 pounds, because that’s what he did, he would be a very good basketball player. Obviously the same thing for Jeff Foote.
The other part is we try to get kids that people overlook, and try to do it as hard as we can. These are easy things but these take hours and hours and hours of really trying to find guys that people overlook. And I think Louis Dale is a great example of that. For whatever reason, maybe size, maybe he went to a small school, maybe he’s such a nice kid maybe they don’t think he can compete, which is bull, but that’s how you end up with kids like him.

Continue reading ‘Transcript of Cornell press conference at East Region’

Cornell coach Steve Donahue (AP photo)

An excerpt from Cornell coach Steve Donahue’s press conference today at the Carrier Dome:

Q: A little bit of a lighter note, can you step back, even though you’re so immersed in this and appreciate this match-up, just the contrasts between the schools and the styles and everything that goes with it?

Donahue: “I can. I’m enough of a fan of college basketball to understand why this is so intriguing to everybody. I et that. I don’t know if our guys really understand it. They believe that they’re a good enough basketball team without all the other tings that go along with it, to play with anybody in the country. But obviously when you ahve three or four first-round NBA picks and you’re an Ivy League school with obviously different goals professionally afterwards, there’s a little different feeling with your teammates on how you’re going to approach this game.

I think it’s fun for fans. I think it’s great that people are intrigued by the match-up. We’re going to to do what we have to do, and John (Calipari) is going to have his kids do what they do on the basketball court. I think both teams play great basketball. I think the styles are obviously extremely different. But I think they’re obviously a very talented and solid basketball team. They can have all those athletes they want, but if they didn’t play the game the right way, they wouldn’t be where they’re at right now. And I hope we play the game the right way. And obviously we’re going to try to do that and try to be successful against their style.”

Video of Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins talking about the Kentucky-Cornell matchup, which he says people are calling “the smart kids against the dumb kids.”

Videos from Syracuse of John Wall, Patrick Patterson and DeMarcus Cousins.

Will update this as day proceeds. Updated at 3:25 p.m.

• Updated at 3:25 p.m.: Kentucky is out on the floor practicing now. As the Cats came out, some Syracuse fans in the house began chanting, “Go Big Orange! Go Big Orange!” Some Kentucky fans tried to answer with cheers of their own. But there are not a lot of Kentucky fans here. Truth is there are not a lot of fans at today’s open practices.

• Kent Spencer of Channel 36 got Mark Krebs to do some more of those player impersonations. You might look for the video upcoming on WTVQ.

• Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua, who tore his achillies heel earlier in the year, is now scooter-less.

• Cornell got the smaller visitors lockerroom. Kentucky got the “home team” lockerroom normally used by the Syracuse football team. There are advantages to being the Bo. 1 seed.

• John Calipari sent out a tweet today asking his followers to check out a story by the New York Times on Calipari sending out tweets.

• Will be interesting to see the crowd on Thursday considering that Syracuse is playing at 7 p.m. on Thursday out in Salt Lake City.

• Cornell seemed very comfortable in its public practice. Then again the Big Red played on this floor back in November. At one point during its practice, Cornell players caught a pass at halfcourt and tried to beat the buzzer with a shot. Four players swished the net. One was Mark Coury. At an earlier point, Cornell players alternated taking shots, and then team counted off each made shot.

• Among the media here at this region today: Tim Layden of Sports Illustrated, John Feinstein of the Washington Post, Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News, Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News, Pete Thamel of the New York Times, Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.net and Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog. Just to name a few.

• Ex-Seton Hall and NBA coach P.J. Carlesimo is here to do the game for radio. Remember, Carleismo turned down the UK job after Eddie Sutton was hired and before Rick Pitino was hired. He had just taken Seton Hall to the national championship game where the Pirates lost to Michigan.

Continue reading ‘Liveblog: East Region practice/press conference day’

Mark Coury (AP photo)

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

H-L staff report on Enes Kanter’s commitment to UK: “Enes Kanter, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center from Turkey, committed to Kentucky on Tuesday, Scout.com’s Evan Daniels reported. Kanter came to the United States last August and played for Stone Ridge Prep in Simi Valley, Calif. “He’s not the typical European big man,” Daniels said of Kanter. “He’s physical, strong and a real good rebounder.”"

Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe on UK-Cornell culture clash: “You can have Kentucky. You can take Ashley Judd, Adolph Rupp, Sam Bowie, Pat Riley, Coach Cal, Refuse to Lose, the one-and-done freshmen bound for the NBA, and all the bags of cash needed to make the Wildcats run. I’ll take Cornell and the Ivy League, which has long been a joke in college basketball.” (Hat tip to Walter’s Wildcat World.)

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader writes that Mark Coury is eager to face Kentucky: “Former University of Kentucky player Mark Coury was asked Tuesday whether it’s special to be playing against his old school. “Of course,” he said. “It’s extra special” because he’ll get to see his former teammates. “It will be a great battle,” Coury said. “I think it’s going to be a great game. I can’t wait.”"

Dave Telep of Scout.com reports that Florida is no longer recruiting Brandon Knight: “We can’t tell you where No. 2 Brandon Knight is going to attend college, but as of Tuesday, we can tell you the list shrunk by one school. Scout.com, according to a source, learned that Florida took itself out of contention for Knight’s services. The move will do nothing except fuel the theory that Kentucky is in the driver’s seat for Knight.”

John Gasaway of Basketball Prospectus on the East: “So the case for Kentucky, in this game or indeed in this tournament, can be stated pretty succinctly. They already defend. Between DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, and Daniel Orton, they already tell you to forget about making twos. And they already make their own twos (Cousins and Patterson) while absolutely dominating their offensive glass (Cousins). If the Wake Forest explosion is repeatable and John Calipari starts to get dependably accurate shooting from John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, well, good luck rest of the field.”

Thayer Evans of the New York Times on Calipari’s social media: “When Kentucky Coach John Calipari was talking to a group of 15 Chinese basketball coaches at his home last November, one pointed to Calipari’s hulking German shepherd, Dash. Through an interpreter, she asked Calipari, “Is that the mean and nimble one?”"

Jennifer Smith of the H-L writes UK women not satisified yet: It had the sounds and sights of a championship. The band played as cheerleaders jumped up and down and fans screamed. Some Kentucky players got a little misty-eyed after the Cats busted through the second-round NCAA Tournament ceiling for the first time since 1983 with their 70-52 domination of Michigan State.”

Tipton also writes that Cornell excels at chemistry: “Consider Ryan Wittman, the sharpest of Cornell’s three-point sharpshooters and the son of former Indiana star Randy Wittman. Cornell Coach Steve Donahue has noted how lucky the Big Red were to get Ryan Wittman. That good fortune started when the player sustained a deep thigh bruise that hindered him throughout his senior year of high school. Big Ten schools doubted his athleticism, so Wittman fell into Cornell’s lap.”

Tom Leach talks to ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes.

Stewart Mandel of SI.com says UK is better than the rest: “Still, the Big Red be considerable underdogs against the Wildcats, and understandably so. Their first two opponents were slow-down defensive teams with limited options offensively. Wall and Cousins are two of the most athletic scorers in the country. Cornell is more experienced (four senior starters), but the Wildcats’ reliance on freshmen hasn’t slowed them down to date.”

Continue reading ‘BBL: Boston writer takes Cornell over UK’s “bags of cash”’

SEC links for Wednesday:

• Mike Strange of the Knoxville News-Sentinel writes that Tennessee and Ohio State are much different this time around.

• Tennessee is poised to make an Elite Eight run, writes David Climer in the Tennessean.

• Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes that Dane Bradshaw feels good about UT.

• Ray Shipman will transfer from Florida, reports Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun.

• Billy Donovan was never offered the St. John’s job, a Florida official tells Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel.

• Jim Kleinpeter of the Times-Picayune reports that LSU has delivered report on recruiting violations to NCAA.

• AP report on Mississippi State women upsetting Ohio State to reach NCAA’s Sweet 16.

• John Erardi of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports on Xavier’s second-round win over Vanderbilt women in the NCAAs.

• David Brandt of the Clarion-Ledger reports on Ole Miss’ quarterfinal win over Texas Tech in the NIT.

• Rick Cleveland of the Clarion-Ledger writes that tenacity helps Ole Miss overcome its streaky ways.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Ole Miss advances; Shipman leaving Florida’

(H-L photo/David Perry)

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader on UK women whipping Michigan State:

Instead fourth-seeded Kentucky used its fast-paced style and its pressuring defense to make its way to Kansas City with a 70-52 win over a much bigger Michigan State team on Monday night.

“Everybody played with confidence tonight,” Mitchell said. “I told them I was scared this would be the last game we would play together. … They played remarkably confident tonight for this situation. I was very impressed with that.”

Mark Story of the H-L writes that UK showed no fear in taking next step:

Amber Smith got obliterated, flat dropped to the floor, by a first-half Michigan State pick. On a later play, A’dia Mathies had not one but two shots stuffed right back into her face by the taller Spartans.

Poor Lydia Watkins took such a beating from a stout MSU front line that they were checking her for a concussion behind the Kentucky bench.

Trips to the NCAA Tournament’s round of 16 aren’t given; they have to be taken.

Monday night, for the first time since 1982, the Kentucky Wildcats took one.

Herald-Leader photo gallery from Kentucky’s win over Michigan State at Freedom Hall.

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader writes that Darius Miller is stepping up:

When someone told Darius Miller after the game that he scored a career-high 20 points against Wake Forest, he was surprised.

That made it unanimous.

Rick Bozich of the C-J writes that UK fans should overlook Cornell at their own peril:

Then there is the leading scorer, Ryan Wittman. His father, Randy, started next to Isiah Thomas on Indiana’s 1981 NCAA title team. Decent pedigree. Better shooting stroke.

How many times did IU call, Ryan? Or Minnesota, your hometown school?

“They didn’t,” he said.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Kentucky doubles up the Sweet 16′