John Clay's Sidelines

I’m in Cincinnati today for the Reds and Pirates. It’s a 12:35 p.m. start. Cincinnati is 5-1 on this home stand after losing to Pittsburgh 5-0 last night. Johnny Cueto is on the hill for the Reds. He’s not given up an earned run in his two starts and 13 2/3 innings since coming off the disabled list. James McDonald is pitching for the Pirates. He is 2-3 with a 6.20 ERA. Cincinnati is 1-4 against the Pirates this year. Scott Rolen is not in the lineup today. Miguel Cairo is playing third base.

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Continue reading ‘Live from Cincinnati and Great American Ball Park’

(Miami Herald photo)

Notes and links for Monday morning:

HEAT MELTS IN CHICAGO – Watched the Bulls batter Miami 103-82 last night. Miami led 58-57 with 7:35 left in the third quarter, then managed just 24 points the rest of the way. LeBron James scored three points in the final 19:35. I’m sure Colin Cowherd will think of some excuse, and will be sure to point out that James sells more jerseys than Derrick Rose.

- It was a Windy City blowout, writes Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald.

- Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel says come join the Heat Haters of America.

UK BASEBALL — Kentucky couldn’t pull off the sweep of Georgia, losing to the Bulldogs 7-6 on Sunday at Cliff Hagan. Gary Henderson’s team did fight back, closing to within a run after trailing 7-2. And Thomas McCarthy had a huge weekend,

- Meanwhile, my Monday column is on Henderson and his three years as head coach here. Talked to the UK coach after the game in the dugout. It’s always tough to talk to a coach after a close loss, especially when my questions dealt more with the season and the program than the game that was completed. After I was back home, writing, my cell rang and it was Henderson. He wanted to talk some more, thought that he had not given his best answers to the questions. I told him I thought they were fine, but he wanted to expound some more on the subject matter.

- Baseball America projects UK ace Alex Meyer as the sixth overall selection in this summer’s MLB draft.

Continue reading ‘Heat melts, Reds sweep, Tony Woods and more notes’

Notes and links for a Thursday morning:

- Ricardo Ledo says Kentucky is one of his suitors. He tells ESPN’s Adam Finkelstein, “”UConn is recruiting me hard, Kentucky is coming hard, and Providence hard. West Virginia, Texas, Florida, UCLA, and Louisville too.” Ledo said he definitely wants to check out UK.

- Ryan Harrow tells Seth Emerson of the Columbus Ledger-Enqurier that Georgia is on his list. For what it’s worth, did receive an e-mail yesterday from someone who claims they saw someone they believed to be Harrow with Tony Delk around town on Tuesday. Or at least it could have been Harrow.

- Andy Katz on Harrow: “Ryan Harrow’s transfer from NC State won’t be a crushing blow. Harrow never lived up to the lofty expectations under Sidney Lowe. I remember talking to him after the home loss to Duke when he said he was a bit in awe of the Blue Devils. He might improve elsewhere, but he just didn’t seem like the right fit for new coach Mark Gottfried.”

- Several sources reporting that Trevor Lacey will visit Kansas this weekend.

- An N.C. State website claims that Joseph Uchebo is down to Florida State, Wake Forest and UK.

- Next Cats compares the final recruiting rankings.

Continue reading ‘Ledo to check out UK; Lacey to visit KU; Uchebo’s three’

The Reds dropped two out of three in St. Louis over the weekend. The reason? Cincinnati couldn’t hit. The Reds scored just seven runs in three games. They were four-hit by Cardinals’ starter Jake Westbrook last night on Sunday Night Baseball. Here’s the breakdown on how the Reds hitters did in St. Louis:

Some morning notes and links for a Friday:

- Writing for SI.com, Sam Amick reports that NBA teams are looking at more international players what with more college stars electing to stay in school. And to prove his point, Amick quotes one general manager saying:

“I guarantee you, if this was next year’s class, with the guys who are going back to school and the incoming freshmen, nobody would feel the need to spend months of time in Kaunas, Lithuania [Motiejunas' hometown],” one general manager said. “But you start staring at Kemba Walker and [Kentucky guard] Brandon Knight and [Kentucky forward] Terrence Jones and Kawhi Leonard in the lottery, and you start going, ‘Oh, my God, I’d better get on a plane and go find somebody.’ “

- Brandon Knight’s mother tells Larry Vaught it would take something “unexpected” for her son to pull out of the draft.

- Caught a little of Mitch Barnhart on Larry Glover Live last night. The UK athletics director was a little defensive concerning the question about spending for football, which you would probably expect. It’s a sore spot on both sides. UK football fanatics feel they are on the short end of the financial stick. Their grumbling has grown louder. Meanwhile, Mitch claims that Kentucky’s accounting methods, compared to those of other SEC schools, give a skewed picture of their financial priorities.

Mitch didn’t say this, but it’s just a fact that there are more people willing to donate to the basketball team than there are willing to donate to football.

Continue reading ‘Does Jones and Knight in lottery prove a weak draft?’

Michael Gilchrist (Charlotte Observer photo)

Morning notes and links for a Saturday:

- Tonight is the Jordan Brand Classic in Charlotte, which features Kentucky signees Anthony Davis, Michael Gilchrist, Kyle Wiltjer and Marquis Teague. In fact, Ron Green, Jr. of the Charlotte Observer writes, “The Jordan Brand Classic All-American game Saturday night could almost be mistaken for a Kentucky Wildcats intrasquad game.”

My old buddy Scott Fowler of the Observer writes that the game will also give a peek into North Carolina’s future, thanks to participants James McAdoo and P.J. Hairston. Scott was covering UK for the Courier-Journal back when I first started covering UK football. That’s a side note.

Harry Pickett of the Observer has some more Jordan Brand notes.

And Ron Green, Jr. again, this time on Austin Rivers.

- The game will be televised by ESPN2 at 8 p.m.

Continue reading ‘Jordan Brand, Blue Grass Stakes and more on tap today’

(AP photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Some random Reds notes:

• The Reds scored six runs with two outs in the 11^th to beat the Padres 8-2 on Tuesday.
• After going zero for his last 10, Drew Stubbs had two hits and drove in four runs Tuesday night. Stubbs has 8 RBI in 11 games. And that’s batting lead-off.
• Stubbs hit a two-out, three-run homer in the 11^th on Tuesday.
• Jonny Gomes has six hits in 15 at-bats (.400) over his last four games. His batting average has jumped from .133 to .267. He’s also driven in seven runs in those four games.
• Chris Heisey has three hits in six at-bats over the last three games. He’s driven in four runs during that span.
• Scott Rolen went 0-for-5 on Tuesday, but made an unbelievable throw from his knees in foul territory beyond third base to nail a Padre at home plate.
• Edgar Renteria has seven hits in his 12 at-bats.
• Sam LeCure allowed just one hit and one run in six innings. In his two starts, he’s allowed three runs in 11 innings.
• Bill Bray gave up his first hit in 3 2/3 innings on Tuesday.
• Nick Masset continues to struggle. He was credited with a blown save on Tuesday, and has allowed six runs in four innings over his last three appearances.
• On the flip side, Logan Ondrusek has yet to allow a run in 6 2/3 innings and is now 2-0.

Morning notes and links:

- Not to be labor the Nike Hoop Summit from last weekend, but stumbled across a good write-up and analysis from Michael Visenberg for nbadraft.net. He comments on several individual players.

On Anthony Davis:

Next year at Kentucky, Davis will play the 4/5 and should definitely have an instant impact. The comparisons to Kevin Garnett seem to be a stretch, however despite the appearance of a lack of bulk, he shows a willingness and ability to mix it up in the post. His upside is intriguing, as you do not see athletes move with his type of fluidity, not to mention that his frame will support more weight. At this point, he to be the best NBA prospect of the 2011 HS class and should be the early favorite for #1 pick in the 2012 draft.

On Michael Gilchrist:

While the USA eventually crushed its International counterparts, they got off to a somewhat sluggish start. Just as it seemed like it was going to be a back and forth contest, Gilchrist entered the game and completely changed the USA’s energy. His effort on both ends of the court was relentless and it really never stopped. For someone to play defense at the level Gilchrist did in this All-Star setting was incredibly impressive. He finished with 5 blocks, including a block on Lucas Nogueira and a monster chase down block on Neto. What he had against the Brazilians, I have no idea.

Continue reading ‘More player reviews of Davis, Gilchrist and Teague’

(H-L photo/David Perry)

Morning notes and Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

- Have to admit, after spending most of Sunday in Chicago airport — misfortune of flying Southwest this weekend; got to Louisville at 12:30 a.m., home at 2:30 a.m. on Monday — had a hard time keeping awake through second half of UConn’s 53-41 win over Butler in national title game last night. From a purely artistic standpoint, it had to be one of the worst NCAA finals of all time.

- Mark Story of the H-L stayed behind and covered the final in Houston. He writes that Butler’s dream season became a nightmare.

- Lexington’s own Shelvin Mack did lead the losing Bulldogs with 13 points. But he made just four of 15 shots, and he was four-of-11 from three-point land. Butler shot 18.8 percent for the game.

- Poor Matt Howard missed 12 of his 13 shots for the Bulldogs.

- Pat Forde of espn.com writes that you have to remember the greatness of the entire tournament, not the poor play in the final game.

Continue reading ‘Some morning notes after a sleepy NCAA final’

Big Blue Links and morning notes from the great state of Texas:

- The Final Four teams are all here in Houston and today they will be at Reliant Stadium for press conferences, break-out rooms and shoot-arounds. Butler is first up, followed by VCU, Connecticut and then Kentucky.

- Games Saturday night start at 6:09. Butler-VCU is up first. Then Kentucky-Connecticut starts about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.

- Kentucky signee Anthony Davis scored 14 points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked four shots in the McDonald’s All-American Game last night in Chicago. There was a record crowd of 20,019. Mike Helfgot of the Chicago Tribune writes, “The Kentucky-bound Davis gave the throng of scouts on hand a glimpse of the all-around ability that has him projected to be the No. 2 pick in the 2012 NBA draft by NBAdraft.net. He made his first five shots, including a tomahawk jam in the early going, and there wasn’t a more active big man on the defensive end. ‘It was excellent to play in front of my hometown,’ Davis said. ‘With Wayne (Blackshear) not playing, only playing eight minutes, I put a lot of pressure on myself to step up and represent Chicago.’”

-Another UK signee, Michael Gilchrist, was named co-MVP along with North Carolina signee James McAdoo. Gilchrist scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

- Next Cats has all the links you need about the all-star extravaganza.

- All business for Kentucky as it arrives in Houston, reports Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle.

Continue reading ‘Gilchrist, Davis shine in Chicago; Cats arrive in Houston’