John Clay's Sidelines

(H-L photo)

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

Scott Powers of espn.com: “Ten years have passed since the Chicago area claimed the consensus No. 1 senior in the country. Simeon’s Derrick Rose, Proviso East’s Shannon Brown and Homewood-Flossmoor’s Julian Wright all reached the top 10 in the last decade, but only Thornwood’s Eddy Curry earned the top spot. Perspectives’ 6-foot-10 senior forward and Kentucky recruit Anthony Davis is now on the verge of giving the area the No. 1 player again. Davis remained at No. 2 in the Class of 2011 when ESPN Recruiting released its new rankings on Tuesday, but he has a great shot at being No. 1 when the final rankings are updated in the spring.”

Jody Demling of the Courier-Journal: “There has been a lot of Jon Davis talk in recent weeks. The Eastern High School standout is ranked as the state’s top college football prospect by ESPN.com – and the No. 138 prospect nationally – and has been committed to the University of Kentucky since Dec., 2009. Davis, who moved to the Bluegrass State from New Jersey in middle school, has been looking at three schools in recent weeks. UK, Louisville and Illinois are the schools. It appears all the speculation will end on Wednesday.”

Garrett Tucker of Nation o f Blue: “After a 32-point performance tonight with John Calipari in attendance, junior Archie Goodwin (Sylvania Hills, Ark.) received a scholarship offer from Kentucky. Goodwin has been reported to love the ‘Cats and this should be one of his personal favorite offers. ‘I got the offer from Kentucky,’ he told me via text.”

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader: “Lexington Mayor Jim Gray on Tuesday called for a study to determine the feasibility of redesigning and renovating Rupp Arena and the Lexington Center. He did not mention building a new downtown arena. ‘There are many people who believe the civic center’s arena and the convention complex need a total redesign and renovation to bring the facilities up to competitive standards,’ Gray said. ‘It needs to be the best – state of the art. Making it the best is a responsible investment in our Lexington brand.’ Gray said he will appoint a task force in the next two weeks and charge it with conducting a study ‘to get our arms around what is possible’ at the civic center, which houses the arena used by the University of Kentucky basketball team and the city’s convention center.”

Ron Higgins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal: “t was just a couple of games ago in an eventual 68-66 loss at Alabama that Kentucky coach John Calipari trotted out his tried and true motivation tactic that University of Memphis fans know so well. A snoopy ESPN camera caught Cal at a timeout in his huddle screaming an expletive at star freshman forward Terrence Jones. While some of the Big Blue Nation was horrified, somewhere before an NBA game, former University of Memphis stars Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans probably heard about the incident and wanted to text Jones, ‘Welcome to Cal’s Cuss Club.’”

Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger: “Question: Why does Tennessee always beat Kentucky in football? Fulmer: ‘That’s one of those freaky things that happens. I had streaks I enjoyed and a few I wished were not there. You can’t identify like that. I do like Joker Phillips and what he is doing with the program. Randy Sanders and Tee Martin are there and are two of my closest friends and I wish them well. It will eventually get broken, but I couldn’t begin to answer the question any better now than when I was coaching.’”

Tom Leach for Cat Scratches: “Some of the rival coaches in the Southeastern Conference have suggested that this year’s Kentucky team is harder to guard than the one that stormed through league play with only two losses last season. ESPN analyst and former Alabama coach Mark Gottfried doesn’t buy it. ‘When you’re coaching, even if you’re playing a team that’s 0-20, they look like the Lakers, but I don’t think so (that Kentucky is harder to guard),’ Gottfried said last week on “The Leach Report” radio show.”

Nick Craddock of the Kentucky Kernel: “Following a long and arduous search, Darius Miller was finally found in South Carolina on Saturday. For a player that has been accused by UK men’s basketball head coach John Calipari of completely disappearing from games not only this season, but also last season, Miller’s 18 points against the Gamecocks-two shy of matching a career high-could be the breakthrough Calipari had wanted to see from Miller.  I hope so,’ Miller said with a chuckle.”

Wildcat-Den: “Kentucky coach John Calipari knows his team’s next encounter against Georgia won’t be an easy task. ‘Georgia has already beaten us and they beat us good down there,’ he said. ‘The game was close for a little while and they spread it out and we got back in it and they spread it out again.’ The Wildcats have somewhat of a bye week leading up to Saturday’s contest, while the Bulldogs played Southeastern Conference rival Florida Tuesday night in Athens, Ga.”

Paul Jordan of Wildcat Blue Nation: “We all know that John Calipari is a master of recruiting since he arrived at the University of Kentucky. In just under two years on the job, he has delivered three top rated recruiting classes to Lexington. The ironic thing is that his success this season may be dictated by players that he did not even recruit at Kentucky. We are talking of course, about the “Billy G holdovers” of Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins, Josh Harrellson, and Jon Hood. We already know what the talented freshman can do. Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight, and Doron Lamb all seem to have a lock on the SEC Freshman of the Week award. And while opposing teams may focus on the freshman, the players that were there when John Calipari arrived may be the key to a SEC title.”

Ken Howlett of A Sea of Blue: “Statistics. Some live by them, some aren’t interested in them. But, there is no denying, in college basketball today, there is considerably more tracking of various types of statistics than ever before. It is not quite to “baseball level” yet, but when one considers only 32 years ago blocked shots were not kept by the scorekeeper, the explosion of roundball stats in the last 15-20 years is quite evident. And due to the all-encompassing nature of statistics today, they can be a great gauge of how ones team is performing, telling us why they are winning, or why they are losing.”