John Clay's Sidelines

(H-L photo/David Perry)

Big Blue Links for Saturday:

• Jennifer Smith and Jerry Tipton of the H-L report that UK Board of Trustees chairman Britt Brockman says there is no move to replace Joker Phillips as head coach. Unconfirmed word is the athletics department will issue a post-game statement today saying that Phillips will return as head coach for the 2012 season.
• Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader writes that UK’s seniors are hoping to stop the 26-year losing streak to arch-rival Tennessee. Today is the Cats’ bowl game, for lack of an actual bowl game. A Kentucky victory today would ease this year’s disappointment.
• John Adams, columnist for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, writes that if the sun rises in the East, then Tennessee will beat Kentucky. He’s taking the Vols today 27-10, which would make Derek Dooley’s team bowl eligible for the second straight year.
• Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes that Charlie Strong’s success has put the onus on Joker Phillips. And he’s right. Louisville beat South Florida 34-24 yesterday to finish 7-5 and the Cards still have a shot at the Orange Bowl. Plus, Louisville has done with more than a healthy dose of true and redshirt freshmen.
• Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Times Free Press came to Lexington and talked to former Vols Randy Sanders and Tee Martin, both now assistants for UK. Both coaches said it has been a rough year, but a win today would help ease the pain.

College football TV schedule for today.

(AP photo)

SEC links for Saturday:

• Les East of The Advocate reports that LSU proves its the best in the West by beating Arkansas 41-17. The undefeated Tigers will now face SEC East champ Georgia in the Georgia Dome for the conference championship next Saturday.
• Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports writes that LSU left no doubts in its rout of the Razorbacks. One of the highlights was Tyrann Mathieu’s 92-yard punt return for a touchdown. Mathieu says he doesn’t want to hear Heisman talk, however.
• Robbie Neiswanger of the Arkansas News writes that LSU buried Arkansas’ BCS dreams in the rout. Bobby Petrino’s club folded after pulling to within 24-17. And Arkansas had an early 14-0 lead at Tiger Stadium before giving way.
• Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News writes that we are now one win away from an Alabama-LSU rematch in the BCS title game. Two wins, actually. Alabama must beat Auburn today. LSU must beat Georgia next Saturday in the SEC title game.
• Michael Casagrande writes from the Montgomery Advertiser that Alabama has a painful score to settle today at Auburn. The Tide led Auburn last year in Tuscaloosa only to see Cam Newton stage a comeback and lead the Tigers to the BCS title.

More video from today’s Kentucky basketball media opp. First up is point guard Marquis Teague, who said he felt more comfortable and under control in the Cats’ easy victory over Radford on Wednesday night. Teague cut his turnovers down to two in that game.

After the jump is fellow freshman Kyle Wiltjer, who is working on his defense and rebounding. Wiltjer is also from Portland, and UK plays the University of Portland on Saturday night.

Continue reading ‘Videos: Marquis Teague and Kyle Wiltjer’

Two videos of John Calipari talking to the media today in preparation of Saturday night’s game against Portland.

Continue reading ‘Videos: Calipari talks offense, schedule’

Sam Malone was trending on twitter on Wednesday. No, not Diane’s Sam Malone. Kentucky’s Sam Malone. The freshman walk-on, who as John Calipari said today “tries to score everytime he gets it,” took it to the hole on a crowd-pleasing move for a basket in the Cats’ 88-40 win over Radford.

This gave him six points in seven minutes of action thus far in the young campaign. It also has given him celebrity and “trending” status.

He talked about these things before Kentucky’s practice today.

Continue reading ‘Video: The folk hero in the making that is Sam Malone’

A few  notes from the UK basketball media opp today in preparation for Saturday night’s game at Rupp Arena against Portland:

- John Calipari continues to say he needs to find out how his team should play. “This may be a team that probably needs to play a little more random,” he said today. By random, he means not running plays on offense. It doesn’t mean going one-on-one, everybody gets his own points, etc. To Calipari “random” means getting into the flow of the game for the Dribble Drive Motion and also to run some pick and rolls.

He said that running plays is usually done to hide a player or two. When a team plays “random” it can’t hide players, and Calipari thinks this team does not have players he needs to hide. Instead, it has players that need to be involved, and he thinks he needs to scrimmage more in practice so that the team can learn to play that way.

- Cal on the schedule: “Last year we played a ridiculous schedule and we were a four seed.”

- The coach admitted that potentially this team’s is better offensively than the last couple of years. (An Alan Cutler question.) “Here’s what I would say,” said Calipari, “you can guard plays, but you can’t guard players.”

- He was also asked about Terrence Jones – don’t think I have that on video – and Cal said that you would have expected the sophomore to come back and take every shot. He has not done that, said the coach. Cal said Jones is a team player who knows he can be on a really good team – “maybe the best team he will ever play on.”

Continue reading ‘Random notes on UK basketball playing “random”’

As everyone knows, Kentucky has a 26-game losing streak in football against Tennessee, the longest streak in the sport between two teams that play on an annual basis. And the two teams meet Saturday at 12:21 p.m. (SEC Network) at Commonwealth Stadium.

Here a few recent trends, plus a chart on the streak:

• Last 2 games in Lexington have gone to overtime – UK lost 30-24 in OT in 2009; 52-50 in overtime(s) in 2007.
• Last five games in Lexington, UK lost by an average of 8.6 points. The last five games in Knoxville, UK lost by an average of 12.6 points.
• This is the first time UK has entered the game with a losing record since 2005. The Cats lost 27-8 at home that year.
• Kentucky outgained Tennessee 564-520 in 2007, yet still lost.
• Since the 2007 game, Kentucky has gained 193 yards (2008), 261 yards (2009) and 390 yards (2010) against the Vols.
• Tennessee has thrown at least one touchdown pass against Kentucky in each of the last 19 years.
• The Vols rushed for just 76 yards last year against UK and still won.

Lost in the sea of speculation concerning Saturday’s Kentucky-Tennessee football game is that it’s the final college game for UK’s seniors. Two of them are Danny Trevathan and Winston Guy. They just happen to be the Cats’ two leading tacklers and best defensive players. In fact, flying home from Connecticut on Sunday, a UK fan from Breathitt County who sat beside me on the plane, had a question: “Who is going to make tackles for us next year?”

Here are videos of Trevathan and Guy talking Wednesday about Saturday’s final game.

Continue reading ‘Videos: Trevathan and Guy talk about Saturday’s finale’

They are getting up early at South Florida as Louisville is in town for an 11 a.m. kickoff on ESPN2. This is actually a pretty full Friday of college football on tube. Iowa at Nebraska and Pittsburgh at West Virginia are not bad Friday tilts. But the game of the day has to be No. 3 Arkansas at No. 1 LSU in a game which has major SEC and BCS implications. But then, these days, isn’ the SEC the same thing as the BCS?

Here’s the chart of this weekend’s TV games.

Continue reading ‘U of L-USF and Arkansas-LSU highlight TV offerings today’