John Clay's Sidelines

College hoops headlines for your lunchtime reading:

• A link to the Sports Illustrated story on UCLA
• In his SEC awards, Andy Katz goes heavy on the Blue
• Indiana beats its third Top 5 team of the season, this time Michigan State
• Wake Forest rallies, but Duke comes out on top 79-71
• Xavier melts in second half, loses at Saint Louis 70-59
• Wisconsin hands Minnesota another loss 52-45
• Kansas State gets hot to beat Texas A&M 76-70
• Truck Bryant scores 28 points as West Virginia demolishes DePaul
• Missouri AD wants an SEC Tournament in St. Louis
• UConn is a very, very talented bubble team

Some late-night links:

• NEW: Nerlens Noel eliminates Providence and Florida from list, UK in final 5
• Word is Sports Illustrated is printing an expose on UCLA basketball program
• Ben Howland confirms SI story on alleged drug use within the  program  is coming
• John Calipari wants to clear up the great myth about his basketball program
• The Dagger compares UK’s Anthony Davis with KU’s Thomas Robinson
• Attendance has been a continuing problem for South Carolina basketball
• NCAA reinstates Miami’s Reggie Johnson, who will play on Wednesday
• The tweets you read from ESPN personalities could be changing
• Auburn’s Allen Payne is likely done for the season
• UK baseball beats Morehead 3-2 to run record to 7-0
• Injury knocks Algorithms off the Kentucky Derby trail

Ten after-work links:

• Syracuse Post-Standard does side-by-side comparison between UK and Syracuse
• Yahoo Sports’ Pat Forde thinks Kentucky should be the No. 1 overall seed
• Despite the praise for its defense, Kentucky’s offense is still really good
• Video: NBC Sports discusses who should be college basketball’s Player of the Year
• UK is No. 1, Ohio State No. 2 and Michigan State No. 3 in latest Pomeroy rankings
• Kentucky women’s basketball signee Janee Thompson had a huge game
• Lost Letterman tracks down the former student who got Bob Knight fired
• Huffington Post looks at possible NCAA Tournament bubble teams
• Grantland looks at how some NBA rookies are doing, including Enes Kanter
• Video: Bill Self does a dance after Kansas clinches the Big 12 title outright

Some lunch-time links:

• Kentucky appreciates “trust factor” in signing of Atlanta running back
• UK’s Joker Phillips takes a hard stand with discipline
• Danny Trevathan deserved a lot more attention than he received last season
• Transylvania men get at-large bid to NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament
• Natalie Novosel scores 21 points as Notre Dame women win at Connecticut
• Murray State clear OVC Tournament favorite, but don’t count out Tennessee State
• The greatest one-year wonder in the history of SEC basketball
• Golden memories of Wilt Chamberlain
• Sacramento reaches agreement to keep Boogie and Kings, but vote is next
• Martina Navratilova will be on the new season of Dancing with the Stars

Some night-time notes:

- Things are falling apart at Mississippi State, where the Bulldogs have lost five in a row, including that 13-point halftime lead over Kentucky last week. Bulldog forward Arnett Moultrie aired his complaints today. “Everybody’s got their own agendas,” he said.

- Despite what Michael Kidd-Gilchrist said Saturday, I would be surprised to see him in a UK uniform next season.

- First, assistant coach Tee Martin leaves for USC. Now Ridge Wilson is dismissed after being arrested on drug trafficking charges. This could not have been the off-season that Joker Phillips wanted.

Continue reading ‘Miss State meltdown, UK football, more night-time notes’

Some pre-lunch notes:

- Kentucky is holding a media opportunity at 1 p.m. to preview tomorrow’s UK-Vanderbilt basketball game. I’ll have video, notes, etc. after the interviews.

- Interesting that the only thing that could keep Kentucky women from winning the SEC title outright is Mississippi State, whose retiring coach Sharon Fanning-Otis is coaching her final home game on Sunday. Fanning-Otis was once the head coach at Kentucky.

- ESPN’s SEC blog has a spring practice preview, which includes Kentucky. An excerpt: “Maxwell Smith: With fellow quarterback Morgan Newton sidelined this spring as he recovers from shoulder surgery, all eyes will be on Smith. He struggled at times last year, but Kentucky’s offense was better when he was under center. Now, he’ll have to make even bigger strides this spring if he wants to create a sizable lead in the race before Newton returns. Smith needs to work on his consistency, clean up his mistakes and develop better chemistry with his receivers.”

- I still think Duke needs to beat visiting North Carolina a week from tomorrow to get a No. 1 seed, but the Blue Devils’ 74-66 win at Florida State last night sure put Coach K’s team in position. Andre Dawkins scored 18 in the first half and 22 for the game. Duke and Carolina are now both 11-2 in the ACC. Florida State is 10-3.

Continue reading ‘Fanning-Otis, Duke, Pat Knight and some pre-lunch notes’

Some mid-afternoon notes:

- Amile Jefferson, who still has Kentucky on his list, will visit Duke for the Blue Devils game with North Carolina on March 3. Dave Telep of ESPN reports:  ”Jefferson, No. 18 overall, heads to Durham for the Blue Devils game against North Carolina on March 3. Two years ago, Jefferson visited Duke for Midnight Madness so this is a return trip. Jefferson, a McDonald’s All-American, has his list down to five: Duke, NC State, Villanova, Kentucky and Ohio State. He’s had a difficult time making a decision and within the last few months, Duke re-entered the picture and further complicated the situation.”

- Over at Kentucky Sports Co, Jacob Kiper has some interesting numbers from ESPN comparing a team’s recruiting ranking in college basketball with its actual performance ranking. Spoiler alert: Rick Pitino is among those who, given these numbers, could be doing a better job.

- Joe Lunardi is the only expert among ESPN’s 16 that isn’t voting Kentucky No. 1 in its power poll. Lunardi has Syracuse on his top line.

Continue reading ‘Amile Jefferson, Lunardi; Pitino as underachiever?’

Some lunch-time (or almost time for lunch) notes:

- Shabazz Mummad tweet of the morning, which you may read into it what you will: “Watching sport center and Kentucky and unlv can possibly be playing each other that’s going to be a good one !!!!!”

- Former UK walk-on Steve Masiello has engineered the best turnaround in college basketball as the first-year head coach at Manhattan. Masiello was Rick Pitino’s top assistant at Louisville before taking over the Jaspers. He’s led them to 19 wins this year, 13 more than a year ago.  Sean Brennan of the New York Daily News writes writes on the Manhattan makeover.

“I’ve known for a long time he was going to be a coach,” Manhattan assistant Scott Padgett told Brennan. “I think the first time I knew he was going to be good at it was when I went to a Louisville practice in 2008 and I walked in and Coach Pitino came over and starts talking to me while Steve ran the practice. Coach talked to me for an hour and a half straight and Steve ran the practice and I was amazed at how good and thorough he was. I knew that day he’d be a great coach.”

- Tweet from Seth King: “John Calipari came by the new #StreetsMinistries building today. He may not be too popular in Memphis, but he’s done a lot of good here.”

- The Big Lead breaks down five teams it thinks can beat the Cats.

Continue reading ‘Muhammad, Masiello and more lunch-time notes’

As we continue the long wait until 9 p.m., some 5:00 notes and links:

- Officials tonight for Kentucky-Mississippi State, via @jerrytipton, will be Doug Shows, Ted Valentine and Bert Smith. That’s TV Ted Valentine. This is the third game Valentine has worked this season, but first SEC game. He also worked the Indiana and Arkansas-Little Rock games. This is the sixth UK game Shows has worked this year. The first five: Kansas, St. John’s, Loyola-Maryland, Alabama and Tennessee. This is Bert Smith’s third Kentucky game this year. He worked the Samford game and then the South Carolina game in Columbia.

- Word is there could be as many as 20 NBA scouts at Humphrey Coliseum tonight.

- USA Today talked to Anthony Davis, who says the team is not bothered by the pressure of being No. 1. ”We like the attention, but at the same time, we know we have to get out there and focus to win ballgames. There are always a lot of people at our practices. We don’t get bothered by it. (Calipari) always tells us, like when we had practice on ESPNU, ‘It’s just practice. We’re still running through all we do like it’s a normal practice. There’s no point in trying to do anything fancy or out of character just because there’s a crowd here.’”

- Willie Cauley talked to Nation of Blue about sharing a visit to UK with Nerlens Noel last weekend. A highlight quote: “”We can land Nerlens, Shabazz Muhammad, and Anthony Bennett for sure. We may could get another one, too. I think Kentucky will bring in four more players, but I think at least three.”

Continue reading ‘TV Ted Valentine, Willie Cauley and (not) Jimmy’s Jet’

Live from the Atlanta airport as we wait to change planes on way to the Golden Triangle Airport in Columbus, Mississippi. (I always wanted to spend my birthday in Starkville.) Should post the daily links later in the day. But there is time for a couple of quick thoughts.

I’m not buying Rick Stansbury’s “out of context” excuse for his Twany Beckham remarks. What he really means is that he did not intend them to be printed. Stansbury’s has been a coach for a long time. He’s no rookie dealing with the media. The mistake is on him.

Good win for the UK women, getting back on track by beating Vanderbilt. The 9 p.m. ESPN2 start was good for exposure, but bad for the crowd. TV wins again.

Speaking of TV, it’s Jimmy Dykes again tonight when UK plays MSU at 9 p.m. on ESPN.

I do agree with John Calipari about tonight. If State plays to its capabilities tonight, the Bulldogs can give Kentucky a game.