John Clay's Sidelines

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader reports on John Calipari defending his academic record: “In his first meeting with the media since the season-ending loss to West Virginia in the regional finals of the NCAA Tournament, Calipari pointed to his 80 percent graduation rate while the coach at Massachusetts and the fact he graduated 19 of his 23 players at Memphis as proof of his diligence over academics. He also noted he’s brought back players who left school without receiving their degree at every program he’s coached.”

Percy Allen of the Seattle Times on an interview with Terrence Ross, who thinks Terrence Jones is still coming to Washington: “(What do you know about Jones and Calipari?) ‘From what I heard, I’m just saying … Calipari was kind of disappointed … I don’t know why he would do that to a kid, but he’s going to do what he wants to do. I don’t know how it’s going to go. I haven’t talked to him since Saturday afternoon. I don’t know what’s going on with him.’”

Cosby also reports on Calipari saying Bledsoe and Orton are not likely to return: “‘I got another call today from a team that loves Daniel Orton,’ Calipari said Monday during a news conference. ‘That team is going to pick in the middle of the first round. There are teams all over that first round that say we really like the guy.’”

Gary Parrish of CBS Sports thinks DeMarcus Cousins could have problems in the draft: “Which is why I’m concerned about DeMarcus Cousins. He’s a knucklehead. And that’s precisely why he won’t be drafted where his talent suggests he should be drafted. It doesn’t matter that Cousins “never got in trouble while at UK.” He’ll still have issues of some sort in the NBA, guaranteed. I would bet my Super Saver winnings on it because, again, knuckleheads rarely change.”

Scott Coen of The Republican says Cal’s kids refuse to lose, and go to class: “He has also managed to get the old fish eye when it comes to the academic performance of his players. There was a grades issue at UMass on the road to the Final Four. While leading Memphis to the Final Four there were reports that someone other than Derrick Rose took his SAT test.”

Eamonn Brennan of espn.com on UK’s bad grade point averages: “That’s all well and good, but here’s the rub: Did anyone particularly expect John Calipari to field a team of SEC-leading academic minds? Throw out all the stuff about Calipari’s recruiting issues in the past, wherein he has been in close proximity to — but never implicated in — vacated seasons and academically ineligible players. Simply looking at Calipari’s preferred recruiting strategy works. The man likes one-and-done players.”

Brett Dawson of the C-J writes that Calipari wishes UK had done better in classroom: “The Herald-Leader – which obtained grades for UK’s varsity athletic teams through an open-records request – reported that four of Calipari’s players had GPAs at 2.0 or lower, while two were above 3.0. Among the paper’s other findings: UK players’ GPAs ranged from 1.667 to 3.59.”

Hal Morris of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports UK does not have an LOI from Terrence Jones: “John Calipari said Monday he had not received any letters of intent from Oregon forward Terrence Jones. Jones verbally committed to Washington Friday, then called Calipari later and said he may change his mind. Of course, Calipari could not mention Jones by name since he had not signed. And he said he would not recruit a player who had firmly committed to a school.”

Chris Littman of the Sporting Blog on Calipari’s classroom problems: “This, of course, will bring the John Calipari bashers back out. On the surface, it’d be easy to speculate that such a large contingent of one-and-done players were responsible, but they can only be partially blamed.”

Cat Scratches on Calipari’s Monday press conference: “Calipari expressed some dissatisfaction with the final average of the fall terms but stood behind his team, one largely made up of first-year players, for its performance both on and off the court during a year that was packed full of pressure and expectations – even for the Kentucky basketball program.”

Ira Combs writes for Kentucky Sports Network about conference expansion: “What is presently happening as we cruise through the summer of 2010 is the brain-trust in the SEC offices in Birmingham are laying their game plan out for when the Big Ten steals Notre Dame and whoever from another conference (probably the Big East) to jump to a 12 or 14 team conference. The SEC wants to have their ducks in a row to one up the boys from the north and still stay on top of the mountain as the elite conference of all NCAA sports.