John Clay's Sidelines

More of Calipari at the mercy of the media. Yeah, right. And according to the Urban Dictionary, “funsies” was first used on the TV show Scrubs.

The AP’s omnipresent Will Graves was at Rick Pitino’s press conference today previewing Cats-Cards. Here are highlights from his tweets:

• Pitino says Rakeem Buckles has spiral fracture in finger, miss a couple weeks.
• Pitino said injury came during a drill. He’ll have surgery soon.
• Van Treese called on to step up in that position
• Pitino on UK: “they’re a lot different because they shoot it so well.”
• Pitino on last year’s game: We weren’t chippy at all. I don’t think Swopshire was going to bully Cousins too much.

Continue reading ‘Tweets from the Rick Pitino press conference’

Three player videos of current Cats talking upcoming Cards. The first is of Josh Harrellson, followed by DeAndre Liggins and Darius Miller.

For iPhone and iPad users, click here to see this video on YouTube.

For iPhone and iPad users, click here to see this video on YouTube.

For iPhone and iPad users, click here to see this video on YouTube.

The first five minutes from John Calipari’s press conference today talking about tomorrow’s game against the team up the road.

And for iPhone and iPad users, click here to see this video on YouTube.

Update: Click here for the Calipari transcript.

News and notes from today’s Kentucky basketball media opp:

Before we get to the bullets, here is the best John Calipari quote today:

The passion and emotion of a tough, hard-nosed contest is one thing, but when it moves beyond that, when there’s a nastiness to it, whether it be in the stands toward the teams or coaches, or toward each other, it’s not good for what we do. Like I said before, this game should be one of those vicious, clean, everybody’s just playing hard, and playing to win, and then when it’s over, everyone who leaves the arena, or leaves their television set says, ‘Now that’s basketball. I enjoyed watching. That was the funnest game I’ve seen all year.

Now, the bullets:

• Judging by the media turnout, this is a big basketball game.
• Calipari said he is treating this game like any other game. It’s only a huge game “if we win,” said the coach.
• On the other hand, “The intensity of this game is going to be crazy,” he said. He also said that there will be bumps, that Louisville “will be up in you.”
• Calipari: ”This thing tomorrow, they’ll be bursting at the seams. We know that. I imagine they’ll have a nice cheer for me.”
• “This is not for funsies,” said Calipari.

Continue reading ‘News and notes from the UK basketball media opp’

Last Sunday, Eric Crawford over the Courier-Journal penned a column saying that the Kentucky-Louisville basketball game rarely follows script, and is rarely beautiful basketball.

Take last year’s game, which included 51 fouls, five technical fouls and saw Louisville miss 18 of its first 19 shots. That might be the extreme. After all, both sides had their engines revved-up, with it being the first Cats-Cards version of the John Calipari-Rick Pitino rivalry. It was more street fight than basketball game.

But, if you look at the shooting percentages the last five years, none of these games has been basketball beauty. Neither team has shot better than 48.1 percent from the field in any of those games. In three of the five, Louisville failed to reach 40 percent.

Last year, Kentucky won the game despite making just two of 14 three-pointers. The two teams combined were seven of 31 from behind the arc. Good defense? Or just bad basketball? That’s the problem with this game sometimes. Emotion hampers excecution.

(AP photo/Darron Cummings)

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

• On tap for today, UK has its pre-Louisville media opp with John Calipari and players at noon today. I’ll have a wrap-up and video evidence up on the blog this afternoon.

• Nation of Blue hates Louisville. There’s a lot of that going around. No offense, but every Kentucky blog hates Louisville. It’s Louisville Hate Day, and all that. Sort of a cliche by now, don’t you think? Shouldn’t we honor John Lennon’s 70th birthday by saying all you need is love? (Can’t wait to see how that goes over.)

• Card Chronicle thinks UK-U of L is the best rivalry in the nation. Dick Vitale would disagree, baby. Not that he doesn’t love the Cats and the Cards, baby. Their both awesome, baby. But Duke-Carolina is at the top of his list, baby. Always has been, always will be.

• Jerry Tipton of the H-L writes about UK assistant Kenny Payne bracing to meet his alma mater, Louisville. I covered Payne when he played for the Cards. Really nice guy. He told Jerry he wonders if he will be booed on Friday, but hopes the U of L fans will embrace him the way his ex-teammates have embraced his job at UK.

• My Thursday column compares where the two coaches are a year after John Calipari arrived on the scene. Turns out the gap between Cal and Rick Pitino is not as wide as we might have originally thought.

• Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal follows the same theme, writing that Calipari’s presence has been good for Pitino.

Continue reading ‘BBL: For the blogs, it’s all about the hate’

(AP photo/Mark Humphrey)

SEC links for Thursday:

• Vanderbilt could not have worked a better late-game play, getting an Andre Walker bucket with 4.1 seconds left to beat visiting Marquette 77-76 last night at Memorial Gym, reports Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean. It was also fun watching the bald Kevin Stallings match wits with the bald Buzz Williams.
• Tennessee men’s basketball team held off UT-Martin 68-62 last night, reports Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel. The Vols needed to hit nine of 10 free throws down the stretch to win it. Scotty Hopson led the way with 17 points.
• Meanwhile, LP Field has become Knoxville West for tonight’s Music City Bowl game between Tennessee and North Carolina, reports Bryan Mullen of the Tennessean. It’s a 6:40 p.m. kickoff on ESPN. Remember the bowl days when it was Lexington South?
• Back to basketball, where Mike Strange of the News-Sentinel writes that close scares are the norm for Tennessee hoops. Bruce Pearl said afterward, “”I was hoping all the media was in Nashville with the football team. “Unfortunately I’m disappointed to see you guys.”
• Mississippi State’s long nightmare of a road trip finally ended with a 94-72 loss at St. Mary’s, reports the AP. Rick Stansbury may be ruing the day he laid eyes on Renardo Sidney.

Continue reading ‘SEC: Vandy gets big win, but Tennessee takes Nashville’

Eammon Brennan of espn.com takes a look at the NCAA’s release this afternoon defending its rulings in the Cameron Newton and Ohio State cases, and sees something that may not bode well for Enes Kanter.

In the release, the NCAA says:

Put simply, had Cam Newton’s father or a third party actually received money or benefits for his recruitment, Cam Newton would have been declared ineligible regardless of his lack of knowledge.

Brennan’s take:

Why does this matter for Kentucky and Enes Kanter? Because Kentucky’s current case for Kanter’s eligibility is based on the idea that Kanter is just like Newton: His parents may have been organizing and/or receiving benefits for their son’s talent, but the son didn’t know about it, and that makes it OK. That’s the “new information” Kentucky presented to the NCAA to land a second hearing and a second chance at getting its all-important Turkish big man eligible.

With the quoted portion above, the NCAA seems to have squashed that notion, albeit indirectly. Kentucky, the Kanters and the NCAA have all agreed to the basic fact that Kanter did receive about $30,000 for his time with a club team in Turkey. Whether he knew about that monetary exchange or not doesn’t seem to matter. All that matters, apparently, is whether money was exchanged at all.

(Hat tip Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog)

(AP photo)

Ex-Kentucky tight end Jacob Tamme is catching passes, and praise, during his stint with the Indianapolis Colts.

Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star writes:

Jacob Tamme is happy enough to be in the lineup, and now he’s in the record book.

He had a team-leading seven catches for 78 yards and a touchdown Sunday to help the Indianapolis Colts beat the Oakland Raiders 31-26. In so doing, Tamme ran his season total to 60 receptions. That’s the third-best season total of any tight end in Colts history, and Tamme has achieved it in only nine starts.

He had caught only six passes in 21/2 NFL seasons and none this season when Pro Bowl tight end Dallas Clark went out for the year with a wrist injury in Game 6. Projected over 16 starts, Tamme’s 60 receptions, 564 yards and four touchdowns compute to an NFL tight end-record 107 catches for 1,003 yards and seven scores.