John Clay's Sidelines

Aaron Craft. (AP photo)

Some Big Blue Links for a Wednesday:

CRAFTY OHIO STATE – Morehead coach Donnie Tyndall tells Jerry Tipton of the H-L that Ohio State is a very complete team. ”The only question mark they possibly could have is point guard play,” Tyndall said. “Craft reminds me of a poor man’s Bobby Hurley. He’s tough, heady. He’s probably much better than people give him credit for.”

Of course, Kentucky has a freshman point guard of its own in Brandon Knight. The fluid Floridian went from a two-point game against Princeton to a 30-point explosion against West Virginia. But Ohio State coach Thad Matta sees a lot of similarities in Craft. “It’s very advantageous to have a guy who thinks the way he thinks,” the Ohio State coach said. “The other thing you can’t ever lose sight of is he’s a competitor, and he’s a winner. He’s going to do whatever needs to be done. He’s going to study and watch film and scouting (reports) to gain every advantage to help him in the course of the game.”

Remember, Craft was the prospect involved in the allegation that led to Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl lying to the NCAA about a picture that was taken in Pearl’s home.

He also had 15 assists and two turnovers in that Sunday night slamming of poor George Mason.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Defending the Buckeyes won’t be easy’

(H-L photo/Joseph Rey Au)

Full transcript of Joker Phillips’ press conference today, previewing the start of spring practice:

March 22, 2011 An interview with: COACH PHILLIPS

COACH PHILLIPS: I am rested and ready to go. Last week my wife kidnapped me and took me to Arizona to a spa. That’s what I said too (laughing). That’s what I said. I did get a man’s pedicure, but I didn’t let them mess with my hands. And it was relaxing and just something that I needed to get my juices flowing, to get ready to come back here and get ready for spring ball that we’re excited about.

We had a really good off season winter program. Our kids responded to some of the challenges that we put in front of them. One of the goals that we have for this spring is we want to continue to play fast. We want to continue to try to be as physical of a football team as we can possibly be.

The last thing, which I think at times we were inconsistent at, is playing smarter. Our teams want to be known as a tough, physical program. Sometimes being tough and physical they don’t really understand what being tough is. Tough sometimes is walking away from things walking away and not retaliating. We have way too many penalties and retaliation penalties. So we have got to be a much smarter football team this year.

Some of the things we put our players through, we really liked how they responded to some of the challenges that we gave them throughout the winter program. It was really a short winter for us also. Having played in the bowl game on the 8th, January 8th, and taking a couple of weeks off. We only had about five weeks of the off season program. So it’s a really short winter for us.

Continue reading ‘Transcript of Joker Phillips press conference’

Update at 10:30 a.m.: Comcast has changed the original caption. But here’s the screen shot:

An alert e-mailer alerted us to this link from Comcast. net, in which the website ranks the Sweet 16 matchups of the NCAA Tournament, and takes a shot at John Calipari in the process.

In a slideshow, here is the caption under Kentucky-Ohio State:

1. Ohio State (1) vs. Kentucky (4)

Two power programs. The top team in the tournament. Two of the nation’s best freshman with the Buckeyes’ Jared Sullinger and Kentucky’s Brandon Knight. One of college basketball’s slimiest coaches, John Calipari, against one of its clasiest, Thad Motta. This matchup has it all.

Continue reading ‘Comcast calls Calipari one of “slimiest” coaches’

(H-L photo/Pablo Alcala)

Big Blue Links and morning notes for a Tuesday:

- On tap for today: Kentucky canceled the men’s basketball media opp scheduled for today. There will be no media availability until Thursday in Newark. Kentucky football coach Joker Phillips is holding a press conference today to preview the start of spring practice.

- The Kentucky women are knocked out of the NCAA Tournament in the second round by North Carolina. It’s a disappointing finish for Matthew Mitchell’s team, which reached the Elite Eight last year before bowing out to Oklahoma. The loss of point guard Amber Smith for the season with a knee injury turned out to be too much for a team that had hoped to reach the Final Four.

Jen Smith of the H-L reports from Albuquerque, “Victoria Dunlap’s Kentucky career didn’t end in tears as she gleefully cut down the championship nets in Indianapolis. It ended with a stoic face and a long embrace with her head coach after the No. 17 Cats fell to No. 14 North Carolina 86-74 in The Pit on Monday night. . . . Behind its senior leader, UK fought back from a 15-point deficit in the second half and cut it to two points three separate times, but each time Carolina had an answer.”

Chandler Howard of the Kentucky Kernel was also in Albuquerque. He has this Mitchell quote: “”It was one of the most disappointing performances I’ve ever seen from our team here at Kentucky. I just feel terrible that somehow I couldn’t get us more inspired to play in the NCAA Tournament, I feel really bad about that.”

Continue reading ‘UK Hoops’ loss, Pearl’s pink slip and more morning notes’

A nice e-mail from Mark in Kandahar, Afghanistan:

Good afternoon Mr. Clay.

Just wanted to say I continue to enjoy your stories in Lexington. I am from Lexington myself(born and raised) and read www.kentucky.com frequently now that I am deployed as a DA Civilian here in Afghanistan. Thank you for keeping me updated. I have attached a picture of a couple other UK fans here in my Battalion. We are keeping up with the Cats as much as possible and will be cheering them on when they take on OSU.

Go Cats!!

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports is reporting that Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton this morning and that an announcement saying Pearl has been fired could come this afternoon.

Hamilton threw his coach under the bus last week by letting it slip during a radio interview that he did not know if Pearl would be the Vols’ coach next year.

There are reports that Hamilton turned on his basketball coach when he learned that Pearl did not inform him of an alleged recruiting violation four days after a Tennessee press conference in which the school acknowledged that the basketball coach had misled NCAA investigators. Pearl cried at that press conference. But in the NCAA report, it was alleged that four days later Pearl violated the rules by having contact with a recruit at a camp.

Continue reading ‘Report: Bruce Pearl could be out by this afternoon’

This is from last night when Louisville coach Rick Pitino was in the TNT studios talking about the NCAA Tournament. Rick said Notre Dame would not lose to Florida State. Sir Charles said the Irish would lose.

(Hat tip to Nation of Blue.)

Continue reading ‘Rick Pitino and Charles Barkley debate the Big East’

(AP photo)

Some morning notes and Big Blue Links as we get ready for Kentucky-Ohio State on Friday:

- Cats-Buckeyes game time has been set for approximately 9:45 p.m. on Friday in Newark. CBS will be showing the game. That means North Carolina-Marquette will tipoff at 7:15 p.m. from Newark on CBS. UK-Ohio State will be 30 minutes after the conclusion of that game.

The East Region gets top billing on Friday. The two Southwest games will both be shown on TBS. Kansas-Richmond tips off at 7:27 p.m. VCU-Florida State follows 30 minutes later.

- As for Thursday, San Diego State plays Connecticut at 7:15 on CBS. Florida meets BYU at 7:27 on TBS. Duke plays Arizona at 9:45 on CBS. And Wisconsin plays Butler at 9:57 on TBS.

- As for tonight, the Kentucky women also get a late-night tip, playing No. 5 seed North Carolina at 9:45 in Albuquerque. The game will be televised on ESPN2. Matthew Mitchell has his team visualizing success, reports Jennifer Smith of the H-L from Albuquerque. Guy Ramsey of Cat Scratches writes about UK’s versatility heading into the North Carolina matchup. Plus, Chandler Howard of the Kentucky Kernel is in Albuquerque, following the UK women.

- John Calipari tweeted that he was out recruiting. He was courtside to watch DaJuan Coleman score 22 points and 16 rebounds in the New York Boys State High School Championships. Coleman is a 6-foot-10 center in the Class of 2012 from DeWitt, New York. Rivals ranks him as the 8th best player in the class.

Continue reading ‘Ohio State, UK Hoops, Dajuan Coleman and more notes’