John Clay's Sidelines

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

Jim Rome says Calipari will eventually leave UK for the NBA: “I think he is happy at Kentucky. Just not as happy as he’d be coaching Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls. Or coaching Lebron James, for instance. Cal’s not spending his career coaching at Kentucky. He’ll do what he’s always done: recruit like a mother, win a ton of games, and then bust out when he finds a situation he likes better than the one he has.” (Hat tip to Tom Leach.)

Terrence Jones tells John Canzano of the Oregonian that he’s still committed to Washington: “Jones picked Washington, but didn’t sign a letter of intent. Key point. What followed this week was the revelation by those close to Jones that the kid walked into that news conference and chose the Huskies not because he was certain, but because he was tired of being squeezed by the pressure. ‘I’m still committed to Washington,’ Jones said on Wednesday, ‘but I’m not willing to sign anything at this point.’”

K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune on Calipari and the Bulls: “Pay no mind to Calipari’s denials based on semantics. “I’m not out searching for jobs.” or ‘You won’t hear about other colleges because I have the best job.’ Several NBA sources confirmed Yahoo! Sports’ original report that Calipari has interest. Whether it’s reciprocal is unknown. General manager Gar Forman said he won’t give updates, and team sources didn’t shed any light on the matter.”

Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader reports that Calipari wants an extension, not a raise: “Coach John Calipari made it clear Wednesday that he loves Kentucky and is interested in a long-term contract extension, but that he’s not in search of a raise. ‘I said I didn’t want the compensation to change,’ Calipari said, relaying his conversation with UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart, in an audio tweet on Lexy.com. ‘I’m doing fine.’”

My column saying Calipari’s contract is just fine the way it is: “Make no mistake, John Calipari did outstanding work his first year as Kentucky’s basketball coach. He schmoozed with sponsors, flooded his followers with tweets, pulled in top-shelf recruits, restored the rankings. He pumped vital air into a deflated program. In other words, he did everything outlined in the job description of his contract.”

Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal on the Calipari contract: “In an audio update at www.lexy.com, Calipari said he and Mitch Barnhart have been discussing a restructured contract since about 10 days ago. On Tuesday, Barnhart released a statement saying UK wants a contract that keeps Calipari at the school ‘until he retires.’”

Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches on changes for UK student tickets: “The most significant change this year is the introduction of online ordering, beginning June 1, eliminating the paper order forms we have used in previous years. Note that you must order a ticket during the initial ordering period to be eligible to participate in the group seating window described below.”

Mary Jo Perino of WLEX on money raised for Mark Krebs’ mom: “Patrick Patterson, Perry Stevenson and Ramon Harris sat along side Mark Krebs at the Paul Mitchell hair salon signing autographs to raise money to help Krebs’ mother in her fight against breast cancer. Hundreds of true blue fans lined up to get the autographs and all together, the players raised $7400 for their teammate’s mother.”

Wildcat Blue Blog says Memphis fans have been replaced: “Admit it Memphis Tiger fans. You know it and I know it …. but Memphis fans hating on John Calipari is so 2009. So come on Memphis, tell Dan Wolken to stop tweeting about John Calipari ad naseum, it’s become a tired act. Most relationship experts say it takes about a month per year to get over a long term relationship that went sour. Calipari left Memphis in April of last year, so Danny boy started getting officially “Fatal Attraction-ish/Single White Female like” around January … that was the nine month mark for the nine years Cal spent in Memphis.”

A Sea of Blue on Calipari contract rumors: “When was the last time a coach was interested in a contract extension without an increase in compensation? It may have happened, but if so, I have never heard of it. To me, this speaks volumes about what this job means to Coach Cal. It means he has arrived, and he isn’t even remotely interested in proving he could do what his rival 60 miles west could not.”