John Clay's Sidelines

(Hat tip All Kentucky Hoops)

MSU players Renardo Sidney and Elgin Bailey fight in stands in Hawaii. (AP photo)

SEC links for Friday:

• MSU teammates Renardo Sidney and Elgin Bailey fight in stands, reports the AP.
• Sidney scores 19 in Mississippi State’s win over San Diego, reports the Clarion-Ledger.
• Scotty Hopson’s drive gives Tennessee a 66-65 win over Belmont, reports Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
• Some timely holiday cheer just what Tennessee needed, writes Mike Strange of the News-Sentinel.
• Georgia hangs on to beat Mercer 56-53, reports Michael Lough of the Macon Telegraph.
• Colorado State holds off Ole Miss 68-61, reports the AP.
• Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News writes that Ohio State ruling by NCAA makes no sense.
• NCAA meets world, and world laughs again, writes Joe Medley of the Anniston Star.
• LSU awaiting NCAA’s response on Ridley, reports Scott Rabalais of The Advocate.
• Mark Richt on the hot seat at Georgia, writes Iliana Limon of the Orlando Sentinel.

Continue reading ‘SEC: Video of Mississippi St players fighting in stands’

A few team notes from UK’s win over Winthrop on Wednesday:

• Kentucky shot 52. 4 percent, its best shooting percentage since shooting 59.3 against Boston University.

• UK was 12-of-22 from three-point land for 54.5 percent. That was its best three-point shooting, when taking 20-or-more threes, since making 11-of-20 for 55.4 percent against LSU on Jan. 22, 2005.

• Kentucky grabbed just eight offensive rebounds out of a possible 32, for just 25 percent.

• Winthrop had 12 offensive rebounds out of 37 47 for 25.5 percent.

• Kentucky averaged 1.233 points per possession, best since 1.350 against Boston U.

• Winthrop averaged 0.740 points per possession, making it UK’s best defensive performance of the season. Previous low was Mississippi Valley State’s 0.762 last Saturday.

• The Cats forced just eight turnovers, the fewest by a UK opponent since Notre Dame committed just six turnovers in beating UK in the NIT quarterfinals on March 25, 2009. That was Billy Gillispie’s final game as Kentucky coach.

• The Cats have won their last 12 pre-Christmas games.

(Hat tip Nation of Blue)

(AP photo)

Big story of the day is the NCAA suspension of Ohio State football players for the first five games of next season for, as the Columbus Dispatch reports, “selling personal OSU memorabilia for thousands of dollars and receiving discounts on tattoos.”

The most controversial aspect of the suspension was that the NCAA allowed Ohio State the right to delay the penalty, meaning the players are allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl against Arkansas.

My argument is that trading the bowl game this year for a regular-season game next year is actually more harmful. The Sugar Bowl is all but meaningless to the Buckeyes. Ohio State wants to win conference titles and national titles. It can’t win this year’s BCS title. It can win next year’s BCS title.

But what about the NCAA’s rule against players being allowed to sell memorabilia, jerseys, etc., for their own personal gain? Is that right, or wrong? What do you think?

Near the end of his post-game press conference Wednesday, John Calipari took a question about Doron Lamb and Jamal Mashburn and veered off on a tangent about grades. You know Cal. He has a tendency to do that sort of thing. What made this interesting was Cal stood up as if to leave, and still kept talking.

Terrence Jones could be described as trigger-happy.

For example, in Wednesday’s win over Winthrop, the UK freshman played 25 minutes and took 16 shots.

That’s a shot every 94 seconds.

And that’s not too far off his season average.

In fact, I went back and looked at Billy Gillispie’s last two teams, plus John Calipari’s first team, and the team t his year, and Jones leads in field goal attempts/minutes played ratio. His average is a shot every 2.13 minutes per played. That’s about a shot every 128 seconds.

Over the past three-plus seasons, here’s the top 10 in that category.

Note: I cut out any player with less than 100 minutes.

Let’s say there is an NBA lockout next year, and in the process the draft is canceled.

Let’s say that the NCAA backs off its “permanently ineligible” stance with regards to Enes Kanter and rules the Turkish center as eligible.

In that dream scenario, here is what UK’s roster would look like for 2011-12.

Update: Jerry Tipton blogs that the NCAA says father’s comment no factor in Kanter case.

Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal just posted to his blog that the NCAA is not expected to hand down any decision on Enes Kanter today.

Brett says he received an e-mail from the NCAA that leads him to believe there will be no Enes under the tree for the Cats on Christmas.

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Eamonn Brennan of espn.com’s college basketball blog isn’t totally, absolutely, don’t-look-back, certainly ready to buy Enes Kanter’s father promise to Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News that his son will play college basketball at UK next year if the NCAA can find it in its heart to reduce “permanent ineligible” to a one-year suspension.

An excerpt:

Another problem is that we have to take Mehmet Kanter at his word. I don’t mean to cast aspersions; I’m sure Mehmet Kanter is a very trustworthy guy. But how often do college prospects and their families insist they’re returning for another year of school before eventually deciding to leave for the NBA? It happens all the time. It doesn’t mean such players are liars; it just means they’re smart enough (or dumb enough, depending on the player) to revise their beliefs in the face of a wildly alluring future. Kanter’s future, given his status as a likely top-five pick in next year’s NBA draft, is more alluring than most.

Finally, the NCAA doesn’t care what Mehmet Kanter’s father says. The point is worth no small measure of emphasis. All the NCAA cares about is whether Kanter was paid as a professional before he arrived at college. According to its initial finding, he was. Barring a reversal brought on by Kentucky’s “new information,” Kanter will still be considered a pro. That will be that.

My take: I don’t think Mr. Kanter’s “guarantee” will have any bearing on the NCAA decision. At the end of the day, it still comes down to the fact that Kanter received money above and beyond reasonable expenses for playing basketball. To me, it’s going to be tough for the NCAA to come off that stance. Anything’s possible. But it’s going to be tough.

More growing pains for DeMarcus Cousins. The ex-UK center has been fined and benched  for giving the choke sign to Golden State’s Reggie Williams as the Warrior was on the free throw line, reports Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.

You can see Cousins with a slight grin as he gives the gesture, but still.

Excerpt:

Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie regularly views the game near the visiting basket at Arco Arena in the second half of games. So Petrie had a clear view of Cousins making a choking gesture at Warriors guard Reggie Williams after Williams missed the first of three free throws.

Petrie was not amused.

“I was really surprised that he didn’t get a taunting (technical) foul for one thing,” Petrie said. “I just don’t feel that kind of behavior is professional, number one, and it doesn’t reflect well on him.”

Cousins didn’t get a technical foul, but coach Paul Westphal fined him an undisclosed amount and removed him from the starting lineup. Petrie said he agreed with Westphal’s punishment.