John Clay's Sidelines

Here are the first five minutes of John Calipari’s media opp today, where he is asked about being No. 1.

Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari was asked today if the basketball program could be the “gold standard” with merely a renovated Rupp Arena. His answer was a long and winding road. Here’s the video.

The second and final night of the ACC/Big 10 Challenge features North Carolina-Wisconsin, thus a chance to put together your own scouting report on the Heels, who set foot on the Rupp Arena floor come Saturday. After night one, the Big 10 enjoys a 4-2 lead over the ACC. You might also want to check out Indiana-N.C. State. Kentucky travels to Indiana on Dec. 10.

ESPN’s Ric Bucher reports that his sources say that the NBA age limit isn’t likely to change in the near future.

The current rule states that a player cannot enter the draft until he is 19, or out of high school for at least one year. The agreement reached over the weekend between the NBA and the players ending the lockout did not address the age limit issue. Instead, it has been placed with other “B-list” issues to be decided at a later date. A committee is expected to be formed to study the issue.

An excerpt:

While it has been widely held that the NBA would like to push the age limit to 20, sources familiar with the dialogue between the two sides now say it is expected to remain at 19 for at least the first two years of the new deal and possibly beyond that.

Continue reading ‘Sources say NBA age rule not expected to change’

(News and Observer photo)

North Carolina star Harrison Barnes, who turned an ankle in the Tar Heels’ loss to UNLV over the weekend, is expected to play tonight against Wisconsin.

The ACC pre-season Player of the Year practiced Tuesday and should be on the floor in Chapel Hill when Roy Williams’ team, which fell from first to fifth in the AP poll, will be on the floor against the Badgers for a 9:30 p.m. tipoff in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game on ESPN.

Excerpt:

Barnes, the fifth-ranked Tar Heels’ leading scorer and a preseason All America, rolled his ankle while scrambling on the sideline for a loose ball during UNC’s 90-80 loss to UNLV in the Las Vegas Invitational title game. He immediately flashed the tired signal and went to the bench. Although he waived off the trainer, he had a towel over his head for several minutes, before eventually returning to the game.

He left Orleans Arena on crutches — a move, a team spokesman said at the time, that was a precautionary measure. Sunday morning, when the team left Las Vegas, the crutches were gone. Coach Roy Williams said Tuesday that X-rays were negative.

Continue reading ‘Harrison Barnes expected to play tonight for UNC’

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

• In the Herald-Leader, Jerry Tipton writes on seasoned-veteran Mike Dunlap, the St. John’s assistant who will be subbing for the missing Steve Lavin when the Red Storm play UK at Rupp Arena on Thursday night. Meanwhile, I rank the SEC football coaches on job performance for this season. Plus, Beverly Fortune writes on a task force report that says a renovated Rupp would meet UK’s needs and save the city money. Cats Stats looks at UK being No. 1.
• Kieran Darcy of ESPN New York writes that St. John’s is determined despite Lavin’s absence. Six of the seven players in St. John’s rotation are in their first year of college basketball. In fact, Dunlap said that he won’t even give his team much of a scouting report on the top-ranked Cats. He’s more worried about his own team knowing what to do.
• Steve Jones of Cats Illustrated visits UK signee Alex Poythress in Clarksville, Tennessee and finds that the 6-foot-8 forward works part-time at Wendy’s. He’s making $7.25 an hour.
• Jody Demling of the Courier-Journal reports on Louisville women’s easy 105-62 win over Murray State as the Lady Cardinals tune up for Sunday’s game at Kentucky. Louisville scored the game’s first 16 points and held Murry ato 17.9 percent shooting in the first half. The Kentucky-Louisville women’s game is a sell-out, by the way.
• Guy Ramsey of Cat Scratches writes that the UK volleyball team wants to bring fire to its trip to the NCAA Tournament. UK plays Dayton on Thursday in College Station, Texas in the first round. UK coach Craig Skinner and Dayton coach Kelly Sheffield are natives of Muncie, Ind. and Ball State graduates.

LeBron James and Dwayne Wade were on hand for Duke-Ohio State. (AP photo)

About last night in college basketball:

Ohio State 85, Duke 63

Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports on the Buckeyes blowout of the Blue Devils. Afterward, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said, “I’ve gotten our butts kicked before. We’ve kicked some butt. Tonight, my butt is sore.” Ohio State raced to an 11-0 lead and never looked back. Writes Bonnell, “The Blue Devils (7-1) allowed the Buckeyes to shoot 59 percent in this game. Duke became so ineffective defensively that Krzyzewski — a man-to-man advocate — tried sprinkling in some 2-3 zone late in the first half. Didn’t matter how they lined up, the Blue Devils had no answer for burly forward Jared Sullinger. The 6-9, 265-pound Sullinger scored 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, but that doesn’t fully convey his effect on this game.”

Syracuse 84, Eastern Michigan 48

Dana O’Neill of espn.com reports from Syracuse that while the game was a normal blowout for the Orange, the situation was anything but normal. Head coach Jim Boeheim got a standing ovation when he walked out onto the court. And the post-game press conference dealt, at least somewhat, with the firing of assistant coach Bernie Fine and the molestation allegations. ”I do my job,” Boeheim said. “What happened on my watch, we will see. When the investigation is done, we’ll find out what happened on my watch. Right now there are no charges, no indictment, no grand jury and no action has been taken. When that’s done, we’ll see what happened on my watch.”

Side note: Our old friend, Victoria Sun, who covered UK for the Cincinnati Post, is now director of basketball operations at Eastern Michigan.

Continue reading ‘With LeBron watching, Duke takes a butt-kicking’

(AP photo)

In his Hoops Thoughts column on Monday, CBS and SI.com’s Seth Davis wrote a jarring sentence:

You are aware that Baylor forward Quincy Miller has been the nation’s best freshman, right?

Really? Is the Chicago native having a better freshman year than the other Chicago native, Kentucky’s Anthony Davis?

Well, the 6-foot-9 Miller, out of Chicago by way of North Carolina is averaging 15.2 points and 5.6 rebounds as the seventh-ranked Bears are off to a 5-0 start. Miller has made six of 12 three-pointers for an even 50 percent. He’s played 28 minutes per game. He was held to five points last week by South Carolina State, but bounced back to score 17 points and grab 11 rebounds in BU’s 75-65 win over Texas-Arlington. Miller made 11 of 12 free throws that night.

Meanwhile, UK’s Anthony Davis is averaging 12.7 points and 8.2 rebounds. Davis has struggled at the foul line, making just 16 of 30 attempts for 53.3 percent, but the 6-foot-11 forward/center  is fourth in the nation in blocked shots, averaging 4.3 per game. Davis had 13 points and 12 rebounds in Kentucky’s easy win over Portland on Saturday.

Continue reading ‘Has Quincy Miller really been the nation’s best freshman?’

Hat tip to SI.com for this YouTube clip of Kristi Malzahn, wife of Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, being interviewed at a Christian Leadership Summit. Let’s just say, she’s a lively interview.

(AP photo)

The ACC-Big 10 Challenge tips off tonight on the ESPN family of networks. Six games are on tonight’s docket. The best is the nightcap between No. 3 Duke and No. 2 Ohio State. Duke is coming off a title in the Maui Invitational. Ohio State has a home win over Florida to its early-season credit. But as J.P. Giglio reports in the Charlotte Observer, “Three weeks into the season, it has been a rough start for the ACC, which has collected losses to Harvard, Coastal Carolina, Iona and Holy Cross and can’t get Big East refugees Syracuse and Pittsburgh into the fold fast enough.”

Bob Baptist of the Columbus Dispatch reports that the Duke-Ohio State game will be a major measuring stick for the Buckeyes. “Very similar to what I said before the Florida game. You come out of this game, and you’re going to know a lot about your team, and you’re still in November,” said OSU coach Thad Matta. “That’s kind of the beauty of what we have here. I think these games (are) a gauge to get you ready for what’s coming, (and) what’s probably most important, down the road.”