John Clay's Sidelines

Steve Lavin and his wife Mary Ann Jarou (AP photo)

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

• In the Herald-Leader, Mark Story writes on the aftershocks of Kentucky finally putting a stop to its football futility against Tennessee. Jerry Tipton reports that John Calipari sees the Cats as being an even bigger target now that UK is No. 1 again. What’s bigger than being everybody’s Super Bowl? Jennifer Smith reports that the UK women have moved up to No. 12 in the AP poll.
• Andy Katz of espn.com reports that St. John’s coach Steve Lavin will not coach the Red Storm when it comes to Rupp Arena on Thursday to play the top-ranked Cats. Lavin is still recuperating from prostate surgery. He returned four straight games after having surgery Oct. 6, but now says his return was premature. St. John’s brings a 4-3 record into Rupp for the SEC/Big East Challenge.
• Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports that a committee will be formed to study the NBA’s minimum age rule, but that most believe it will be unchanged for next year’s draft. That means that UK’s four freshmen would all be eligible for the 2012 draft next summer. The age rule is one of several B-list issues the league and players association have agreed to settle at a later date.
• Zagsblog reports that Duke is making a run at a couple of prime prospects, which could affect Kentucky. One is the gem of the 2012 class, Shabazz Muhammad, who was there live in person to see Duke’s most hated rival, North Carolina, fall to UNLV in Las Vegas on Saturday. Kentucky would love to sign Shabazz, as well. Duke is also targeting Tony Parker.

(AP photo/Mark Humphrey)

About last night in college basketball:

• Shannon Russell of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports on Xavier’s 82-70 overtime win over Vanderbilt in Nashville. Tu Holloway scored 21 of his 24 points after halftime. Running mate Mark Lyons scored 15 of his 19 after the break as the Muskies stuck Kevin Stallings’ club with another pre-conference loss. Vandy is still playing without center Festus Ezeli, but Xavier has stamped itself as a definite team to be watched the rest of the season. X is 5-0 for the first time under head coach Chris Mack.
• C.L. Brown of the Courier-Journal reports on Louisville’s 79-66 win over visiting Long Beach State. The Cardinals battled foul trouble as Long Beach cut the lead to five points with eight minutes remaining. But Rick Pitino’s club held on, and did so without backup point guard Elisha Justice, who suffered a broken nose in practice. Given all of Louisville’s injuries, what exactly does go on in practice?
• Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun reports on Florida’s 96-70 win over Stetson before a crowd of just 5,843 at the Amway Center. It was the 400th win for Florida coach Billy Donovan. I get a chuckle out of those who say Donovan has had just one good team at Florida. That one good team, made up of largely underrated recruits, won two national championships. As well, Donovan reached the national championship game in 2000, and was within a basket of going to the Final Four last year.
• Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports on Tennessee’s 89-81 loss at Oakland. Reggie Hamilton scored 35 points for the winners. He was a perfect 15-of-15 from the foul line. Not that Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin was surprised. Martin recruited Hamilton when the UT coach was at Missouri State.

(AP photo)

Louisville basketball is on the tube tonight. Fresh off a 59-54 survival of Ohio University on Friday, Rick Pitino’s Cardinals meet Long Beach State tonight at 7 on ESPNU. Coached by former Gonzaga and Minnesota head coach Don Monson, the 49ers have an upset win over Pittsburgh, 86-76, back on Nov. 11 to their credit. But Long Beach lost at Montana 73-71 last time out to fall to 3-2.

Louisville is still dealing with a rampant injury bug. Point guard Peyton Siva did return Friday after missing two games because of a sprained ankle. The junior struggled, however, and missed all seven of his shots. Now Stephan Van Treese is out with an injured knee, joining Rakeem Buckles (knee), Mike Marra (knee) and Wayne Blackshear (shoulder) as missing from the U of L lineup.

Meanwhile, over on ESPN2, Kevin Stallings and Vanderbilt play host to a dangerous Xavier team led by guard Tu Holloway.

The TV schedule for tonight:

• Long Beach State-Louisville (7:00/ESPNU)
• Xavier-Vanderbilt (7:00/ESPN2)
• Stetson-Florida (7:00/Fox Sports South)
• Georgia-Colorado (8:30/Fox Sports)
• Tennessee-Oakland (9:00/ESPNU)

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

There’s no secret about what it takes for Kentucky football to claim victory. Run the football. Better still, have success running the football. Look at the numbers. The last 11 times the Cats have rushed for 200-or-more yards, dating back to the 2009 season, Kentucky has come out on top.

No different Saturday. Surprise quarterback Matt Roark led the way with 124 yards on 24 carries. And, overall, Kentucky rushed for 202 yards on 56 carries to beat Tennessee 10-7. The Cats through a grand total of six passes for a grand total of 15 yards. Didn’t matter. By being able to run the football at least a little bit, UK got 71 offensive snaps, which kept the defense off the field long enough to keep Rick Minter’s side of the ball fresh.

A lot of the credit has to go to Mike Summers and his offensive line. Beset by injuries the first half of the season, the O-Line played better down the stretch. It was at its best Saturday, especially considering that Tennessee knew what was coming.

Continue reading ‘For UK football, 200 yards rushing is a magic number’

(H-L photo/Jonathan Palmer)

Big Blue Links for Monday:

• In the Herald-Leader, Jerry Tipton writes that John Calipari is not happy with his team’s sloppy starts. Through all the Matt Roark mania, my Monday column tries to throw a little love Rick Minter’s way since the UK defense played a huge role in Saturday’s streak-snapper.
• MaxPreps reports that Duke has become more involved with the Harrison twins, Aaron and Andrew, who are on UK’s list. ”Maryland, Texas, Kentucky, Baylor and Villanova are highly involved, and Duke has become more serious,” says the article. “The Harrisons plan to soon visit Villanova, which is 90 minutes away from where Aaron Sr. grew up in East Baltimore, Md., and where the twins’ grandparents still live.”
• Jennifer Smith of the H-L reports on the UK women’s 90-51 win over Mississippi Valley yesterday at Memorial Coliseum. Now comes the hard stuff. No. 11 Louisville comes to Memorial Coliseum next Sunday. The following Thursday, seventh-ranked Duke plays Matthew Mitchell’s team in Rupp Arena. After that, UK travels to fourth-ranked Notre Dame.
• Aaron Smith of the Kentucky Kernel says let the week as Kentucky at No. 1 begin. With North Carolina going splat in Vegas, losing 90-80 to UNLV on Saturday night, Kentucky should jump up a spot and assume the No. 1 ranking. Is that good? Is that bad? Either way, it will still be a marquee matchup next Saturday when Roy Williams brings his team to Rupp.
• KSR leads its late-night notes package with Hank Ellington, pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington, who promised to shave his beard the next time Kentucky beat Tennessee in football. Well, 26 years and a wide receiver turned quarterback later, Ellington is without facial hair.

(AP photo)

SEC links for Monday:

• Don Kausler of the Birmingham News reports on Alabama’s 72-64 win over VCU last night. That’s the same VCU that made last year’s Final Four, the same VCU where current Bama coach Anthony Grant used to coach. JaMychal Green was the Crimson Tide star last night, scoring 21 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
• Seth Emerson of the Macon Telegraph reports that Georgia may feel home in SEC title game, but the Bulldogs will be a huge underdog.  What if Georgia wins? A Georgia win would give the Bulldogs the automatic SEC bid and a spot in the Sugar Bowl. But ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, among others, predicts that LSU and Alabama would still play in the national championship game. Even a loss would not knock LSU out of one of the top two spots.
• Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution thinks that Georgia has a shot to upset Les Miles’ men. He writes, “No. I’m not drunk on the Kool-Aid. Something changed in Athens. Maybe the 33-28 escape at Vanderbilt was a wake-up call. Maybe it was just a case of a young team slowly gaining confidence. At the very least, we know players reaffirmed that they believed in — and would follow — their head coach.”
• Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports says that Urban Meyer’s credibility has taken another hit. The former Florida coach has retired twice saying he wanted to spend more time on his health and with his family. Both those things are apparently overrated. By all reports, Meyer will un-retire this week to be the new head coach at Ohio State.
• It isn’t like Meyer left behind a juggernaut at Florida. Matt Watts of the Miami Herald reports on the Gators’ problems in 2011, a season in which the proud football program went 6-6 under first-year coach Will Muschamp. “We’re doing all we can do. Doing all we can do with what we’ve got right now,” Muschamp said after Florida’s loss to FSU on Saturday.

Sad to say, but ex-Kentucky wide receiver Stevie Johnson tried to have a little fun but ended up being the goat in Buffalo’s 28-24 loss to the New York Jets today.

Johnson caught a touchdown pass and then did a celebration mocking Jets’ receiver Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg. Then Johnson mocked the TD dance of Jets receiver Santo io Holmes, which earned Johnson a 15-yard penalty for excessive celebration.

The penalty gave the Jets a short field and New York drove to what turned out to be the winning score with under a minute to play.

It was the winning score in part because Johnson dropped a wide open pass that could have been a TD on Buffalo’s final drive.

Johnson admitted after the game that he made a stupid decision.

The AP photo at top is Johnson’s second-quarter touchdown.

Click here for the video of Stevie’s touchdown and penalty.

(H-L photo)

Were you a sour soul, you could make the argument that we are all making too much of Kentucky’s offensive performance in the Cats’ 10-7 history-bending win over Tennessee on Saturday. (“Our worst fears realized,” said the losing coach, Derek Dooley, afterward.)

After all, Kentucky gained a grand total of 217 yards of offense. The Cats threw for a ridiculous total of 15 yards. And the Cats still won the game.

Unless you live in a cave, you know that Kentucky did so with a wide receiver playing quarterback. That would be Matt Roark, who may have songs written about him in the near future.

But Roark had three men behind him. One was head coach Joker Phillips, who signed off on the plot. One was Randy Sanders, the offensive coordinator, who devised a game plan. One was wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator Tee Martin who helped guide Roark, who he had coached in high school, through the week.

My one regret from my Sunday column was I did not include the Sanders quote:

I told our guys yesterday and again today: The one thing that can’t be taken from you is memories. You can lose your health, you can lose your wealth, you can lose a lot of things, but you never lose your memories. So we had a chance to go out and make a memory today, and it’s a memory I’m going to remember for a long time.

Click the continue line to see the post-game videos of Sanders and Martin.
 
Continue reading ‘The architects behind UK’s offensive game plan Saturday’

(AP photo/Julie Jacobson)

So what happened to No. 1 (until Monday) North Carolina in its 90-80 loss at UNLV on Saturday night:

• Andrew Carter of the Charlotte Observer reports that the Heels went bust in Vegas. He reports, “North Carolina’s defense, which was so dominant at times on Friday night during a 25-point victory against South Carolina, failed the Tar Heels (5-1) on Saturday. It failed the Heels especially on the outside, where UNLV (7-0) time and again used 3-pointers to quell Carolina’s efforts to rally. The Rebels made 13 3-pointers, seven of which came in the second half.”
• Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review Journal reports that North Carolina coach Roy Williams gave credit to the UNLV defense. ”Their defense was really aggressive,” Williams said of the Rebels, who ran their record to 7-0. “We needed to be stronger with the basketball.”
• Adam Lucas of Tar Heel Blue says there are some immediate answers to what went wrong. He said shot selection was poor, writing, “Carolina shot 30.6% in the second half, well below the season’s previous low of 42.1% for a half. Some of that percentage was due to being forced to chuck up desperation shots late, but even 12 minutes into the period, the Tar Heels were already shooting just slightly over 27 percent.”
• Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo’s college basketball blog says that North Carolina must patch things up quickly.  One Eisenberg point: “They need to match their opponents’ intensity. Because North Carolina entered the year as the national title favorite, every opponent will be even more revved up than usual for a chance to topple the Tar Heels. UNLV seemed to want it more on Saturday night, playing with energy and effort that erased its size disadvantage and resulted in a 48-39 advantage on the glass and a 20-6 edge in second-chance points. (It also didn’t help North Carolina that center Tyler Zeller played just 24 minutes as a result of foul trouble).”

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

• Plenty from the Herald-Leader on UK’s big day yesterday. Mark Story called it a day like no other for a Kentucky fan. I wrote on the heroic performance of make-shift quarterback Matt Roark. Jennifer Smith chronicled UK’s first win over the Volunteers in 26 years, highlighting the number of big plays the seniors made on Saturday afternoon. Jerry Tipton wraps up the feel-good day with his report on the basketball team’s win over Portland. And there’s plenty more if you click here.
• John Adams of the Knoxville News-Sentinel writes that this is not the worst Tennessee football team ever. But after UT’s first loss to Kentucky since 1984, the columnist would put it in the top three. It’s safe to say that Derek Dooley’s orange pants are now occupying a hot seat after a season in which the Vols failed to earn bowl eligibility and lost to a Kentucky football team playing a wide receiver at quarterback.
• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that Dooley has a big job ahead of him, starting with repairing the attitude of his players. If you are a Tennessee football player, apparently losing to Kentucky in football can really hurt your self-esteem. Climer said the Vols were “so inept, so uninspired and so utterly hopeless.”
• Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes that UK finally wins one for Joker Phillips. By the way, Phillips played on that 1984 team that beat the Vols in Knoxville 17-12. He coached as a grad assistant under Jerry Claiborne and a full-time assistant under both Bill Curry and Rich Brooks, so he had seen many of the defeats in that 26-year streak.
• Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes that it was a first-in-a-lifetime thrill for a lot of Kentuckians. One was senior offensive guard Stuart Hines, from Bowling Green, who said afteward, “”Coach Phillips can say it wasn’t about the streak, that he didn’t talk about the streak, and he didn’t. But for me it was 100 percent about the streak.”