John Clay's Sidelines

UK sophomore Terrence Jones talks to media after scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds in UK’s win over Penn State.

Kentucky freshman Kyle Wiltjer played just three minutes Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden as No. 2 UK was beating No. 12 Kansas. After the game, John Calipari said he wished he had played the rookie from Oregon more, and Saturday he made good on that promise. The 6-foot-9 Wiltjer scored 19 points in 28 minutes as Kentucky beat an overmatched Penn State 85-47.

Kentucky coach John Calipari and sophomore guard Doron Lamb talk to the media after UK’s 85-47 win over Penn State at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Lamb scored a game-high 26 points as the Cats ran their record to 3-0 on the season.

Don’t worry about all the confusion concerning the television/radio outlets for this weekend’s plethora of Kentucky sports. I’ll be I’m in Connecticut for the UK-Penn State basketball game at Mohegan Sun. That means I’ll be liveblogging. Gametime is 12 p.m. Blog stars at 11:30 a.m. Thanks, as always, to everyone who tunes in.

John Calipari and his Cats are making the rounds in Bristol, with Cal going through the ESPN Car Wash. Here is Cal on SportsCenter this afternoon.

It’s the next-to-last weekend of the regular football season for most conferences. So there are not an overabundance of great matchups this weekend. All CBS could find for its afternoon SEC game was Mississippi State at Arkansas, the latter still clinging to a possible shot at the division title and a BCS berth.

One of the better games of the day figures to be Nebraska at Michigan, noon on ESPN. Meanwhile, USC at Oregon is an attractive Saturday night matchup. ABC has that one at 8 p.m.

Here’s the chart of this weekend’s college football games on television.

Continue reading ‘College football on television this weekend’

(AP photo)

Good hoops for a Friday. The consolation tilt of the 2K Sports Classic features Texas A&M against a St. John’s team that will be coming to Rupp Arena next month. St. John’s youngsters gave Arizona all it wanted in last night’s semifinal at Madison Square Garden.

Meanwhile, Arizona will play Mississippi State in the tournament final at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. After that one’s decided, you can see Alabama play Wichita State in Puerto Rico.

Here’s the chart of games today and tonight on television.

Continue reading ‘College basketball on television today and tonight’

Thanks to an alert twitter follower, who passed along this link to former Herald-Leader staffer Ryan Alessi, now with cn/2′s Pure Politcs, who reports that former UK basketball stars DeMarcus Cousins and Josh Harrellson were at a Mitt Romney fundraiser last night.

Ryan’s story has a picture of the two with the Republican presidential candidate.

Romney’s Kentucky finance co-chair is Joe Craft. Yes, that’s the Joe Craft of the Joe Craft Center, where UK basketball practices, and the man behind the Wildcat Coal Lodge, where the UK basketball players will soon live.

Continue reading ‘Cousins and Harrellson attend Romney fundraiser’

(H-L photo/Joseph Rey Au)

UCLA has stumbled and fallen out of the chute this college basketball season. Ben Howland’s Bruins are bad, or at least have been bad here in the early, early part of the season. And the school from Los Angeles is one of Kentucky’s chief competitors — maybe the chief competitor — for the services of Shabazz Muhammad, the consensus No. 1 player in the 2012 recruiting class.

You might think that UCLA’s struggles would hurt its chances of signing the superstar. One respected recuriting analyst thinks exactly the opposite.

• UCLA’s losses could help with Muhammad, writes ESPN’s Dave Telep.
• TV, radio for a confusing UK weekend, writes Scott Sloan of H-L.
• Ex-UK defensive end gets suspension, reports Enquirer’s Joe Reedy.
• Cats capable of grinding it out, reports H-L’s Jerry Tipton.
• UK’s Smith continues his crash course, writes Mark Story of H-L.

(AP photo)

Good night for SEC basketball. LSU lost, but we’ve come to the point where  it’s pointless to expect a Tiger turnaround, especially this early in the season. Meanwhile, two nights after Kentucky beat Kansas in Madison Square Gardne, Mississippi State knocked off No. 19 Texas A&M in the Big Apple. Rick Stansbury’s Bulldogs meet Arizona in the 2K Sports Classic finals tonight at MSG. Down in Puerto Rico, Alabama crushed Maryland by 20 points. And Florida bounced back to dispose of North Florida in Gainesville.

• State knocks off No. 19 Texas A&M in New York, reports AP.
• Bama basketball trounces Maryland 62-42, reports News’ Don Kausler.
• Florida rebounds to whip UNF, reports Sun’s Kevin Brockway.
• LSU basketball loses again, reports Kyle Leath for The Advocate.
• Vols land in Hawaii for Maui Invitational, reports Mike Griffith of KNS.