John Clay's Sidelines

Big Blue Links and morning notes from the great state of Texas:

- The Final Four teams are all here in Houston and today they will be at Reliant Stadium for press conferences, break-out rooms and shoot-arounds. Butler is first up, followed by VCU, Connecticut and then Kentucky.

- Games Saturday night start at 6:09. Butler-VCU is up first. Then Kentucky-Connecticut starts about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.

- Kentucky signee Anthony Davis scored 14 points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked four shots in the McDonald’s All-American Game last night in Chicago. There was a record crowd of 20,019. Mike Helfgot of the Chicago Tribune writes, “The Kentucky-bound Davis gave the throng of scouts on hand a glimpse of the all-around ability that has him projected to be the No. 2 pick in the 2012 NBA draft by NBAdraft.net. He made his first five shots, including a tomahawk jam in the early going, and there wasn’t a more active big man on the defensive end. ‘It was excellent to play in front of my hometown,’ Davis said. ‘With Wayne (Blackshear) not playing, only playing eight minutes, I put a lot of pressure on myself to step up and represent Chicago.’”

-Another UK signee, Michael Gilchrist, was named co-MVP along with North Carolina signee James McAdoo. Gilchrist scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

- Next Cats has all the links you need about the all-star extravaganza.

- All business for Kentucky as it arrives in Houston, reports Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle.

Continue reading ‘Gilchrist, Davis shine in Chicago; Cats arrive in Houston’

Mike Krzyzewski

This from UK:

NEW YORK – March 29, 2011 – The next edition of Basketball and Beyond with Coach K, the weekly SiriusXM show hosted by Duke University and U.S. Men’s National Team coach Mike Krzyzewski, will debut Wednesday, March 30 (7:00 pm ET/4:00 pm PT) on Mad Dog Radio (Sirius channel 123 and XM channel 144).

On this week’s program, Coach K’s guests will include two of this year’s Final Four coaches – Butler coach Brad Stevens, whose team is seeking its second consecutive appearance in the National Championship game, and Kentucky coach John Calipari. Coach K will also be joined by Hall of Famer John Thompson, Jr., the legendary former Georgetown head coach who led the Hoyas to the 1984 National Title and three Final Fours.

After Wednesday night’s debut, Basketball and Beyond with Coach K will replay several times including:

· Wednesday, March 30 (11:00 pm ET), and Friday, April 1 (11:00 pm ET) on SiriusXM College Sports Nation (Sirius channel 122 and XM channel 143).

· Saturday, April 2 (7:00 am ET), and Sunday, April 3 (7:00 am ET), on Mad Dog Radio (Sirius channel 123 and XM channel 144).

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

On CoachCal.com, John Calipari makes a request of the Big Blue Nation.

An excerpt:

“If we take care of our business, there will be plenty of time to get autographs and personal photos beginning next Tuesday,” Coach Cal said. “We have the greatest fans in America and we want to reward them with our players’ undivided attention, focus and peak physical condition.”

“You can scream at them, cheer for them in the open practice and take pictures from afar – but in order to make sure they – and our staff – don’t get worn down by thousands and thousands of requests at the hotel and in public, I’m just asking that you’ll give us all our space while we’re in Houston,” Coach Cal said. “I mean no disrespect at all and I know you all understand that we take pride in being The Commonwealth’s Team. But this is a business trip for these young men and our program. Let’s take care of business first and then we can have some fun later.”

(AP photo)

Update: People want to know when this will be investigated?

Ken Berger of CBS Sports is reporting that the NBA is planning to investigate Jay-Z’s visit to the Kentucky locker room after the Cats’ win over North Carolina in the East Region final in Newark on Sunday.

Berger writes:

The NBA plans to investigate contact between Nets part-owner Jay-Z and members of the Kentucky basketball team after the Wildcats beat North Carolina Sunday to advance to the Final Four, a person with knowledge of the situation told CBSSports.com. The hip-hop mogul’s visit was documented in photos and video showing him congratulating players in the Kentucky locker room, which happened to have been occupied by two potential lottery picks — Brandon Knight and Terrance Jones. As noted here, this offense would seem to be comparable to Celtics GM Danny Ainge sitting with Kevin Durant’s mother during the 2007 Big 12 tournament. Ainge was fined $30,000, a slap on the wrist in exchange for the opportunity to schmooze a top prospect’s mom. But given that standard, Jay-Z should be docked $30K for each college player who was in the locker room.

Continue reading ‘NBA to investigate Jay-Z’s trip to UK locker room’

Some Big Blue Links and notes before heading out to Houston:

- The UK basketball team will leave the Craft Center for Blue Grass Airport at 3:45 p.m. today. The team is scheduled to arrive at Hobby Airport in Houston at 5:30 p.m. Central Time.

- The McDonald’s All-American game is tonight at 10 p.m. on ESPN. Michael Gilchrist, Anthony Davis, Marquis Teague and Kyle Wiltjer, all UK signees, all will be playing. Next Cats has all your links.

- Nation of Blue reports that a Kansas assistant visited with Stan Simpson on Tuesday.

- Pinch-hit for Larry Glover on WVLK-590 in Lexington last night, and somehow the second hour turned when one caller knocked the paper for running stories about the university planning to examine how it handles athletics. That prompted a call from noted politician and former Republican candidate for Governor Larry Forgy. Hopefully, it was an entertaining hour.

- Brandon Knight was on the Dan Patrick Show yesterday. You can here the audio clip by clicking here.

- At Kentucky’s basketball media opportunity yesterday afternoon, the players fielded several questions about the effect Enes Kanter has had at practice. When you look back on it, one of John Calipari’s better accomplishments was having Kanter deemed a student assistant so he could participate in team activities, such as practice. To a man, Brandon Knight, Josh Harrellson and DeAndre Liggins praised Kanter for how the 6-foot-11 center had helped the team prepare this year.

Continue reading ‘McDonald’s game tonight; Cats leave for Houston’

In the last video clip from today’s media opp, UK’s DeAndre Liggins talks about Connecticut’s Kemba Walker, Josh Harrellson, Enes Kanter and his own development.

Click here to see this video on YouTube.

Kentucky center Josh Harrellson was among the three players that Kentucky basketball brought to the podium for a media opp this afternoon before the team leaves Wednesday for the Final Four. As a side note, Pedro Gomes of ESPN is in town and is apparently working on a piece about Harrellson.

Click here to see this video on YouTube.

Kentucky held a media opp this afternoon with players Brandon Knight, Josh Harrellson and Deandre Liggins. Brandon was first up. Here’s the first four-plus minutes, in which Knight talked about the team’s development, the team meeting, the affect of Enes Kanter on practice, and other subjects.