John Clay's Sidelines

At football practice on Thanksgiving Day, UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart turned down interview requests, just as he had done all week. But before Saturday’s Kentucky-Tennessee game, Barnhart went on the UK Network pre-game show with Dick Gabriel and addressed the Joker Phillips rumors, saying that the coach would be back for 2012. Then after the game in which UK snapped its 26-game win streak over Tennessee, Barnhart appeared in the media room for interviews.

On the basketball pre-game show last night, Barnhart again appeared and Gabriel asked him why the AD was on the field for the entire game, when usually Barnhart comes down on the field during the fourth quarter. “I thought it was important to show people I am firmly behind this coaching staff,” he said.

(Macon Telegraph photo)

SEC links for Sunday:

• Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News writes that Alabama punched its ticket to the BCS title game with a 42-14 win at Auburn. Only voter fraud could keep the Crimson Tide out of playing for the national championship. LSU must beat Georgia in the SEC title game on Saturday to keep its end of the bargain.
• Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean reports on Vanderbilt’s easy 41-7 win at Wake Forest. The victory pushed Vandy to 6-6 making the Commodores bowl eligible for the second time in 2008, but for the first time under coach James Franklin. Consider that Vanderbilt lost by five points to Georgia, three points to Arkansas and five points at Florida. A few plays here and there and Vanderbilt could have finished 9-3.
• Mark Bradley of the AJC writes that Georgia didn’t just outplay Georgia Tech in its 31-17 win, it outcoached the Yellow Jackets. Remember, Georgia started the season 0-2 with Mark Richt firmly on the proverbial coach’s hot seat. The Dawgs have run off 10 straight victories since and have a shot — a small shot, but still a shot — against LSU next Saturday in the Georgia Dome.
• Ron Morris of The State writes that South Carolina now owns the series with Clemson after the 34-13 Gamecocks win. Heard Steve Spurrier say on ESPN that he was going to give out 10 game balls, with one “going to me.” The victory clinched a rare 10-win season for the Gamecocks.
• Matt Watts of the Miami Herald reports on Florida State’s 21-7 win over Florida. The loss dropped the Gators to 6-6 and had first-year coach Will Muschamp lamenting the job he did in Gainesville this season. “We’re a soft football team,” he said.

So it will be Kentucky, not North Carolina, as the No. 1 team in college basketball when the two teams play next Saturday at Rupp Arena.

North Carolina just lost 90-80 to UNLV in the Las Vegas Invitational. The Rebels, under new coach David Rice, made 13 three-pointers to knock off the top-ranked team in the country.

The Tar Heels will try to rebound Wednesday night at home against Wisconsin in the ACC/Big 10 challenge. No. 2 (fir now) Kentucky, an 87-63 winner over Portland tonight, plays St. John’s on Thursday in Rupp as part of the SEC/Big East Challenge.

So here’s the question: Does North Carolina’s loss tonight help or hurt the Cats?

Video of the first 4:37 of the John Calipari post-game press conference tonight.

Click here to read the transcript.

Before he started his post-game press conference tonight, UK basketball coach John Calipari gave a shout-out to the football coaching staff for its 10-7 win over Tennessee today using a wide receiver at quarterback.

(H-L photo/David Perry)

Some notes and observations from Kentucky’s 87-63 win  over visiting Portland tonight at Rupp:

- The biggest thing that sticks out from the stat sheet is that Kentucky committed just four turnovers. The UK sports information department is going back through its record books and unofficially thinks that is the fewest by the Cats since 1992-93 in the NCAA tournament against Utah.

Marquis Teague had eight assists with no turnovers in 34 minutes. Teague didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, missing eight of 12 shots, but he ran an excellent floor game. He also had four steals. Over his last two games, the freshman has 13 assists and two turnovers.

- Anthony Davis had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, but afterward Calipari was not happy with his free throw shooting. The freshman was just three of eight from the foul line. He has had three bad free throw shooting games this year. He made just two of six against Kansas and one of four against Penn State before tonight’s showing. Calipari said he can’t post Davis up if the Chicago native isn’t making free throws.

- The Kentucky coach also was less than thrilled with his team’s three-point defense. Portland made 11 of 23 from behind the arc for 47.8 percent. That’s the best an opponent has hit threes against UK since Rick Stansbury’s Mississippi State team made 12 of 22 against the Cats last year in Rupp. Interestingly enough, Radford made just two of 25 from behind the line against UK on Wednesday, also on Rupp. Portland’s Nemanja Mitrovic hit six of 12 threes for the Pilots and finished the night with a game-high 20 points.

Continue reading ‘Some notes, observations from UK win over Portland’

The Saturday plan is to liveblog from both the Kentucky-Tennessee football game and the Kentucky-Portland basketball game. The football game starts at 12:21 p.m. at Commonwealth Stadium. The Kentucky-Portland basketball game starts at 7 p.m. at Rupp Arena. Two games. One liveblog.

Here we have video of the star of the game, senior wide receiver Matt Roark, who made his first start at quarterback. Roark didn’t just start at quarterback. He rushed for 124 yards on 24 carries as Kentucky beat Tennessee 10-7, snapping the 26-game losing streak and keeping the Vols from a bowl game.

Roark said he was told Sunday that he might have to play some quarterback. On Monday, he met with offensive coordinator Randy Sanders, who said he would keep his plan simple. On Tuesday, wide outs coach Tee Martin told Roark that he would more than likely be the starter. And he was — the starter who snapped the streak.

Video from the Joker Phillips press conference after Kentucky’s 10-7 win over Tennessee, the Cats first victory over the Volunteers since 1984. Phillips started with, “The injury report? There is none. What an amazing game. How many — if we lined up the last 26 years, how many quarterbacks have we had, probably 15? Who would pick out Matt Roark as the guy who broke the streak?”

And: “I was asked earlier about how much it meant to me to break the streak as the head coach. It doesn’t mean much to me, it doesn’t, to break the streak. What means more to me is the joy that those seniors, the memories that those guys will have, so that’s what means more than anything.”

On Kentucky’s pre-game radio show, athletics director Mitch Barnhart said that Joker Phillips will return as head coach for the 2012 season.

Barnhart told the network’s Dick Gabrile that UK will give Phillips a chance to get the football program “where we all want it to be.”

The AD said his thoughts on Phillips’ future have not changed since October when Barnhart said that the coach would “absolutely” be back in 2012.

There has been much speculation and rumor this week that Phillips might be replaced after today’s game with Tennessee, win or lose. Barnhart was at practice on Thursday but declined to talk to media. He told Gabriel that he felt he had addressed the issue and did not need to speak about it again.