Big Blue Links for Friday:
Michael Carvell of the AJC reports that Marcus Thornton has eliminated Kentucky: “Georgia Tech and UGA are among the four finalists for the AJC’s Mr. Basketball, Westlake High’s Marcus Thornton revealed on Thursday night. Alabama and a surprise school (Texas) are among in Thornton’s short list of finalists. He eliminated Clemson, Kentucky, and Michigan from consideration, and plans on signing by May 21.”
Jody Demling of the Courier-Journal on a new UK recruiting name: “Word started to break over the weekend that the UK staff had hosted an unknown prospect and earlier today Scout.com national analyst Evan Daniels reported that was Remi Dibo. The 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward from Beckley (W. Va.) Mountain State Academy made a visit to Lexington last week and currently only has offers from St. Bonaventure, Drexel and Duquesne. He’s a three-star prospect by Scout.
Mr. SEC reports that UK had lowest attendance of (almost) all SEC spring football games: “Vanderbilt did not supply official attendance numbers. (As if any of these numbers are officials. Heck, the last four digits of MSU’s attendance this year just happen to match the score from last year’s Egg Bowl win. Coincidence?)”
Zagsblog writes that Brandon Knight is not going to Europe: “The bogus story quoted Knight saying he would spend next season in Italy, following in Brandon Jennings’s footsteps, instead of going to Kentucky. Jennings skipped college at Arizona and played a year of pro ball in Italy before getting drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, whom he helped lead into a Game 7 against the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the NBA playoffs.”
Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald writes that John Calipari is not going to the Bulls: “Can everyone please stop writing about John Calipari and the Bulls? It’s not going to happen and these stories exist only to coax Kentucky into giving him a raise. The guy is an excellent recruiter of high school talent, not an NBA coach.”
Nick Friedell of espn.com says Calipari makes a lot of sense for the Bulls: “Now that the Vinny Del Negro era has come to its expected conclusion, it’s time for the Bulls to find a new coach. Could that coach be Kentucky’s John Calipari? There are a lot of reasons why that might make sense.”
Greg Wallace of the Anderson Independent on Thornton: “Here’s guessing Brad Brownell has had better days than Thursday. First, he finds out that potential transfer Murphy Holloway would not be released to transfer to Clemson by Ole Miss. Then, former Clemson signee Marcus Thornton trimmed down his list of finalists to four schools – and Clemson was not among them, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”
J. Brady McCollugh of the Kansas City Star writes that Kansas is better off without Terrence Jones: “Sometimes, though, you can just have too much, and Jones’ presence would have just confused the situation. Releford and Little already sacrificed by redshirting last season, and after seeing KU flame out early in the second round of the tournament, you had to wonder if either of those players could have made a difference. They’ve earned their time to shine. Morris evolved into KU’s most consistent performer near the end of last season and needs to play 30 minutes a game in 2010-11.”
John Berkowitz of the Dawg Pound on Jones: “What it simply means is that Jones isn’t 100% sure yet and wasn’t when he sat down to make his choice at a school assembly. Most of the insiders around Jones feel that he will ultimately sign with Washington.”
I think cal and uk would be better served to stay with our people we have now, if cal can’t get jones to sign. i don’t think there is a basketball player that hasn’t signed, better than what uk has now.
donald