John Clay's Sidelines

Missouri celebrates its win over North Carolina (AP photo)

SEC links for Tuesday:

• New SEC member rolls in Independence, reports Terez Paylor of Kansas City Star.
• Auburn arrives at Georgia Dome, reports Charles Bennett of Anniston Star.
• Auburn’s Wright still learning his way, reports Joel Erickson of Ledger-Enquirer.
• State gets its bearings in Nashville, reports Brandon Marcello of Clarion-Ledger.
• Vandy goes indoors for workout, reports Greg Sullivan of Tennessean.
• Samuel brings maturity to Georgia, writes David Paschall of Free Press.
• Georgia’s Jones remain humble, reports Chip Towers of AJC.
• Dogs looking to improve special teams, reports Marc Weiszer of ABH.
• Key Gator Bowl matchups, reports Rachel George of Orlando Sentinel.
• Nebraska fans fuel the Huskers, reports Jeff Hartsell of Post and Courier.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone who reads this blog.

Thanks again.

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s mother tweeted early this morning that she is home from the hospital.

You can follower her on twitter @vincin1.

Continue reading ‘Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s mother home from hospital’

Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie is giving away turkeys for the holidays.

Note: This is an auto-start video, which I can’t figure out how to turn off. So I’m putting the video after the jump.

Click the continue line to see the video.

Continue reading ‘Video: Billy Gillispie giving away turkeys for the holidays’

Georgia and Tennessee head into the holidays on a good note, with Georgia beating Furman and Tennessee rallying to beat East Tennessee in basketball. Auburn got into foul trouble and lost to Long Beach State in Hawaii. The 2012 SEC football schedule, which includes Missouri and Texas A&M, has started to leak out, but word is the full schedule will be released on Monday.

• Georgia cruises past Furman, reports Keith Farner of ABH.
• Vols battle back to beat ETSU, reports Mike Griffith of News-Sentinel.
• Good Christmas to be a Vol, writes Mike Strange of the News-Sentinel.
• Auburn loses to Long Beach State, reports Evan Woodbery of Press-Register.
• Part of 2012 Florida grid schedule confirmed, reports Pat Dooley of Gainesville Sun.

Big Blue Links for Saturday:

• Calipari makes his presence felt in Chicago, reports ESPN.
• Testy Rick Pitino knows Louisville needs work, says my column.
• Struggling WKU hints at new life, writes Rick Bozich of the C-J.
• Cats on Christmas break, reports Aaron Smith of the Kernel.
• Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has been UK’s glue, reports the AP.
• Some press box notes from Cat Scratches.
• Cats must improve to compete with best, says Big Bluegrass Blog.
• Austin Nichols visited UK for Loyola game, reports Nation of Blue.
• Tubby Smith’s contract extension talks on hiatus, reports ESPN radio.
• Jerry Meyer thinks Kentucky is leading for Shabazz Muhammad.

Rick Pitino was a tad testy in his post-game press conference after Louisville struggled to beat a 4-9 Western Kentucky 70-60. I’m guessing the head coach heard John Calipari’s comments about teams practicing on Christmas, which some took as a jab at the U of L coach. Pitino did say tonight that he was giving his team some time off before it played Georgetown next week. When asked how much time, Pitino said, “That’s none of your business.”

And read more comments about this post on my Facebook page.

I’m at the Yum Center in Louisville for tonight’s game between fourth-ranked Louisville (11-0) and struggling Western Kentucky (4-8). This is not U of L’s final tune-up before the Cards come to Rupp. The Cards have a tough Big East game with Georgetown here on Wednesday. You can get quick twitter updates from me during the game. I’ll also be posting updates and analysis here during the game.

- Louisville rallies from 13 down to beat Western Kentucky 70-60.

- Couple of questionable plays by Buckles, then Western hits a 3 and U of L lead down to 61-57 with 1:10 left.

- Western scores first basket in 6:27, trails Louisville 61-52 with 2:19 left.

- Louisville on a 12-0 run, leads Western Kentucky 59-50 with 3:54 left. Russ Smith has 20 points for Cards.

Continue reading ‘Updates from Louisville-Western Kentucky at Yum Center’

A total of 16 voters comprise the ESPN college basketball power rankings. A survey of the 16 has Syracuse at No. 1, Ohio State at No. 2 and Kentucky at No. 3.  Ten of the 16 voters put Syracuse at the top of their ballots. Five put Ohio State at No. 1. And one voter put Kentucky as the No. 1 team. That was Jason McCallum, crackerjack researcher for ESPN, who has the Cats in front of North Carolina and Ohio State.

Jay Bilas, Andy Katz, Myron Medcalf all put UK at No. 2. Rece Davis and Dough Gottlieb put Kentucky at No. 4. All other voters had the Cats at No. 3.

• ESPN Kentucky basketball page
• ESPN College Basketball Nation blog
• Follow Jay Bilas on twitter
• Follow Dick Vitale on twitter