(Tennessean photo)
Big Blue Links for Monday:
KENTUCKY WOMEN WIN AT VANDY – Travelin’ Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader made the trip from Athens to Nashville and chronicled Kentucky’s rare 80-71 win over Vanderbilt on Sunday. It was the Kentucky women’s first win in Memorial Gym in 13 tries.
Writes Smith, “That wall came crashing down late in the second half on Sunday when the Cats (20-7, 9-5 SEC) turned a 50-50 tie game into a 60-50 advantage in less than two minutes. “We pulled together as a team and we played for each other,” said Dunlap, who scored five of her 10 points in that span. The Nashville native also had eight rebounds, three blocked shots and three steals.”
Greg Sullivan of the Tennessean writes, “While the loss ties Vanderbilt with Kentucky (20-7, 9-5), the Lady Wildcats would be seeded ahead of the Commodores if they finish the season tied because of two head-to-head wins. Much like the first meeting this season, when Kentucky used a full-court press to go on a 30-5 run and beat Vanderbilt, the Lady Wildcats turned on their pressure in the second half to pull out a victory Sunday.”
RECRUITING NEWS – Nation of Blue has a couple of updates, one on Kentucky’s interest in Illinois junior college star Stan Simpson. Simpson sent a tweet saying UK is coming to see him this week. Meanwhile, Trevor Lacey has updated his list after his unofficial visit to Kentucky on Saturday. Lacey does plan to make an official visit to Kentucky and four other schools once his high school season is complete. Anthony Davis was at Saturday’s game, as well. But his name is already on Kentucky’s dotted line.
UK target Shabazz Muhammad will visit Louisville for the Cards’ game with Pittsburgh next Sunday.
ROAD MAP – Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes that the Kentucky men now have to do it on the road. After shellacking South Carolina on Saturday, John Calipari’s team packs up and heads to Arkansas on Wednesday night. Bozich writes, “For Kentucky, it is the primary show-me game for the rest of the regular season. The world knows UK can cruise in front of the faithful 24,338. Couldn’t win at Mississippi. Couldn’t win at Alabama or Georgia. Couldn’t win at Vanderbilt or Florida. This team needs to win at Arkansas, where the Hogs have been defeated by Georgia and Ole Miss.”
Meanwhile, Tom Leach saw Saturday’s performance as an encouraging sign.
Aaron Smith of the Kernel writes that Calipari keeps pushing for perfect. “UK is taking the criticism to heart. Josh Harrellson said Calipari was delivering the same message to the team as he was to the media. They understand it comes from a coach’s standpoint, but that he wants UK to be perfect. ‘The coach got to say something about somebody,’ said DeAndre Liggins. ‘You got to expect that. He’s not going to say, we all played perfect. He’s a coach. He’s just trying to get us better.’”
Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger writes that UK must play like it’s tournament time now.
Ryan Clark of the Big Bluegrass Blog says UK needs a spark for the rest of the season.
Brian Rickerd of the State-Journal says it was a perfect storm that destroyed South Carolina.
ROUGH START FOR UK BASEBALL – Kentucky is off to an 0-3 start after losing 3-1 to Miami of Ohio on Sunday in Charleston. The Cats lost to College of Charleston on Friday, then Marshall on Saturday. Alex Meyer struck out 13 in seven innings for UK on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to get the win. Gary Henderson’s team will try to pick up its first win when it travels to Morehead State on Tuesday.
CONFERENCE BATTLES HEATING UP – Eric Crawford of the C-J writes that this is the time of year for conference battles to the end. Eric writes, “So what’s the deal? Is the SEC as soft as University of Louisville fans say? Is the Big East as overrated as UK fans say? This won’t be popular, but both may be right – at least as far as tournament results are concerned. The SEC hasn’t produced a Final Four team since Florida cut down the nets in 2007. And aside from Florida’s three trips to the title game (and two titles) and LSU’s Final Four in ’06, the SEC hasn’t had a Final Four team since UK won it all in ’98, though the teams it does get to the tournament, outside of UK in the past decade, have tended to overachieve.”
Kentucky baseball fans need to get out and see Alex Meyer pitch this season. He can throw some heat! UK just needs to find some offense.
Having attended Illinois I’m somewhat familiar with their team, even though I could never really root for them. Simpson was a three star recruit who did not live up to that hype. I wouldn’t expect anything more than what Eloy Vargas offers. I’ll have to go read the article to see how he is doing now.