John Clay’s Sidelines

Update: Everyone under the sun is reporting that Payne is picking Michigan State — Scout.com may  have actually confirmed it first — but we’ll still Liveblog, anyway.

If Adreian Payne is indeed going to make his college choice at 5:30, then we’ll talk about it here. Payne is reportedly down to UK, West Virginia and Michgian State. Buzz this morning is the choice is Michigan State, but people were saying West Virginia last night. Anyway, we can always talk about the Blue-White scrimmage. We’ll start at about 5:15.

Update: And this from one happy customer — @jwh323: After the student only practice, all I can say is @UKCoachCalipari is no doubt the right man for the job and this team is going to be sick.

Update No. 2: This from former Kernel columnist and Facebook friend Jon Hale: “most interesting part was Wayne Turner, technically a student I guess, watching from the front row.”

UK students are at the student-only UK basketball practice — no media — and students being students, they know how to (a) take pictures with their phones, and (b) use Twitter.

BTW, my friends over at Kentucky Sports Radio also have some student-only practice pix.

Eric Lindsey at Cat Scratches, who did nothing to save me when I was nearly flattened at the UK volleyball match Wednesday, has more pictures from the student-only practice.

Photo by @chubbarth)

(Photo by @SIX_EIGHT)

(Photo by @justinmc44)

Continue reading ‘Twitter pix from student-only UK practice’

Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline has his point guard rankings out, with UK’s John Wall at No. 1, ahead of Kansas’ Sherron Collins.

And Collins doesn’t like it.

Collins tells Parrish:

“It bothers me a little bit,” Collins said when I asked about all the attention Wall is getting. “I think I’ve established myself, and he’s coming out of high school with a lot of hype. But I’m the old guy, and I ain’t gonna let no young boy get the best of me.”

Parrish ranks South Carolina’s Devan Downey fourth and Florida freshman Kenny Boynton eighth.

(Charleston Daily Mail photo used by permission.)

Click the “more” line for a couple of updates to this post.

At its own Madness celebration on Friday night, West Virginia basketball fans went all-out, and then some — illustrated here in a blog post by Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily Mail — to welcome top hoops recruit Adreian Payne, a 6-foot-10 center from Dayton.

Kentucky is also reportedly recruiting Payne, who is ranked as the 20th best player in America by Rivals.

West Virginia was not allowed to publicize Payne’s visit, or even acknowledge that he was there, but West Virginia fans certainly knew the center would be on campus for an official visit. They made signs, banners, etc. to welcome Payne.

An excerpt from Casazza’s blog:

Somehow, Bob Huggins was able to get Adreian Payne, only one of the best high school players in America, on campus for an official visit last night. This wasn’t a real secret, but rather a tremendous coup. Everyone had their version of Madness last night and Payne is a coveted prospect. WVU got him for the weekend. I left last night with the feeling if Payne went elsewhere, it was not fault of the Mountaineers. Or their maniacs.

Continue reading ‘Did West Virginia fans go too far for Adreian Payne?’

WLEX-TV is reporting that former UK basketball coach Billy Gillispie was arrested at 2:45 a.m. this morning in Anderson County on U.S. 127 and charged with DUI.

The NBC affiliate has video of Gillispie being led handcuffed into a van. He and 42-year-old Charles O’Connor are being held in the Franklin County jail, according to the station.

According to the report, Gillispie told police  he had been playing golf. Apparently someone called 911 saying a Mercedes with Texas plates was swerving on U.S. 127 in Anderson County.

WTVQ in Lexington also has a report on the Gillispie arrest.

As of 6:16 a.m., WKYT is gathering information on the story.

Here’s a Herald-Leader report on Gillispie’s previous two DUI arrests.

The 2-year-old named Calipari, owned by Vision Racing and trained by Todd Pletcher, ran fourth in his debut, a Maiden Special Weight race a little less than an hour ago at Saratoga.

Ridden by John Velazquez, Calipari was never closer than third but did finish “evenly” according to the Equibase chart.

A $175,000 sale as a 2-year-old, Calipari had been scratched out of a 7-furlong race on July 24.

John Wall

Update: Yahoo Sports, through Rivals’ Jerry Meyer, is also reporting that Wall has committed to Kentucky.

Update: Evan Daniels of Scout.com is reporting that Wall sent him a text message confirming his commitment to Kentucky.

Update: Andy Katz reports that Wall told Miami’s Frank Haith this morning that he wanted to play for Calipari.

SLAM magazine posted online at 1:11 a.m. Tuesday that its sources report that super guard John Wall, the indecisive one from Raleigh, N.C., has finally made up his mind and committed to UK over Miami and Duke.

As of this morning, there is no confirmation of that.

But here’s an excerpt:

Sources tell SLAM that John Wall, the nation’s top high school point guard, committed to the University of Kentucky tonight. Wall picked Kentucky over Duke, Miami and Florida, among other schools. The 6-4 senior from Word of God in Raleigh, N.C., is viewed as the missing piece for new Wildcats coach John Calipari.

With forward Patrick Patterson recently deciding to return to school (and high-scoring guard Jodie Meeks rumored to also be considering pulling out of the NBA Draft) and recruits like Alabama big man DeMarcus Cousins, as well as a talented core group of returnees, Kentucky is likely to be one of the favorites to win a national championship in 2010. While Alabama point guard Eric Bledsoe signed up to play in Lexington recently, in Calipari’s dribble-drive motion offense, multiple ballhandlers can play together in the up-tempo style. In addition, the recent SLAM co-cover boy is viewed as a one-and-done prospect.

Rachel Alexandra leaves Baltimore.

Yes, the on-site crowd was down by nealry 35,000 at Pimlico on Saturday, but the overnight TV ratings for the Preakness Stakes were the highest in five years, and second-highest in nearly two decades.

BloodHorse.com reports that Rachel Alexandra’s presence, Mine That Bird’s underdog story and the Calvin Borel switch drove NBC’s ratings up 24 percent over last year when Big Brown won the Preakness.

The overnight rating of 6.3 was second only to 1990’s 7.8, and 2004’s 7.2. Summer Squall beat Unbridled in the 1990 Preakness. Unbridled was coming off a Kentucky Derby remembered for trainer Carl Nafzger telling Mrs. Frances Genter that her horse had just won the roses. The 2004 Preakness was won by Smarty Jones, just after the highly-popular 3-year-old had won the Derby.

Saturday’s race portion of the broadcast was up 27 percent over last year.

Here at Memorial Coliseum for the Patrick Patterson and John Calipari press conference to discuss Patterson’s decision to stay at UK:

• That’s the end of the press conference.

• Asked about injuries. Said he thinks about it. “These past three years, I’ve had just an ankle injury, but it has played a thought in my mind. . . . I try not to think about it,” he said. “I’ll do whatever I can to keep my body 100 percent.”

• Said that Calipari told him that he was behind his decision, either way. Said Calipari told him what to expect if he did go on the workouts.

• “I can still come back and be me around campus, get all the love and attention from the fans like I always do,” he said. “That played another role in coming back.”

• Said being able to come back and still be a young adult was important to him, too. “Not being out there by myself,” he said.

• Asked if he would be coming back if there wasn’t a coaching change. “I don’t know,” he said. “But there was a coaching change and I am coming back.”

• “I know that the NBA is always going to be there. Hopefully, it will always be there for me,” said Patterson.

• Said he did talk to Eric Bledsoe a lot about staying when Bledsoe was on campus for his visit.

• Said he told Jodie Meeks in a text message. “I didn’t want my decision to weigh on his,” he said.

Continue reading ‘Liveblog: Patterson and (no) Calipari press conference’