Kentucky sports and beyond.
Erving Walker
Former Florida guard Erving Walker plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of stealing a taco from a street vendor and must pay court costs.
Price of the taco: $3.
Court costs: $301.
Walker allegedly stole the taco in Gainesville on March 30, not long after his final game as a Gator, Florida’s loss to Louisville in the finals of the West Region. Once the court costs are paid, the charges will be dropped from Walker’s record.
(AP photo)
The news on Wednesday that Tennessee legend Pat Summitt was stepping down as women’s basketball coach was both heartbreaking and unsurprising. If you watched a UT women’s game this year, with the sight of Summitt sitting on the bench rather than up and coaching, you knew the end of her career was near, cut short by early-onset dementia.
The tributes and retrospectives came pouring in after the announcement.
UK coach Matthew Mitchell, who worked for Summitt at Tennessee, says the departure leaves a void.
Here’s a roundup of other Summitt stories this morning.
Continue reading ‘Reaction to Pat Summitt stepping down at Tennessee’
Zeke Pike
While Kentucky awaits the arrival of Highlands’ quarterback Patrick Towles in the fall, Auburn was happy to have Dixie Heights quarterback Zeke Pike in spring practice.
Pike completed four of eight passes in the team’s spring game, then met with the Auburn media for the first time.
“I’m making progress,” he said. “It’s just about getting better.”
Pike graduated from high school early so that he could enroll at Auburn in January. Upon arrival, he found that holdover Barrett Trotter had decided to skip his senior year. That thrust Pike into the quarterback battle with Clint Moseley and Kiehl Frazier.
Continue reading ‘Zeke Pike happy to get in first spring at Auburn’
(AP photo)
Update: Anthony Hickey says he’s staying at LSU.
LSU introduced its new head basketball coach on Monday, and Johnny Jones promised to make the Tigers exciting again.
“We’re going to push it,” Jones said in the press conference announcing his hire. “But it is going to be organized and not just chaos. We’re going to make sure that we take good shots, and be under control, but we will play fast and we will do that with a passion. On the other end, we will defend the rim. We will get after it, and it will be a style that my players enjoy playing and the fans will embrace because they enjoy watching it.”
The 51-year-old Jones was head coach at North Texas the last 11 years, but before that was an assistant under Dale Brown for 13 seasons.
Continue reading ‘LSU’s Jones promises return to glory days’
(AP photo)
At Kentucky, John Calipari takes the NCAA national championship trophy on tour around the commonwealth.
At Alabama, the father trips on a rug, falls into the crystal BCS national championship trophy and shatters it.
Andrew Gribble of the Birmingham News reports, “Alabama’s 2011 BCS championship trophy — the exact one Nick Saban and Crimson Tide players lifted above their heads after their 21-0 victory over LSU — shattered into thousands of tiny pieces Saturday, the result of what Crimson Tide officials are dubbing an unfortunate accident.
Continue reading ‘Alabama’s crystal BCS trophy shatters into pieces’
Update: Kentucky still No. 3 in Baseball America poll.
After taking two of three games at Arkansas over the weekend, Kentucky baseball holds a two-game lead in the SEC East.
Florida beat Tennessee 8-1 on Sunday to pull back to within two games of the Cats. South Carolina beat Mississippi State 6-4 on Sunday and is game behind Florida in third place.
Kentucky was off on Sunday after playing a doubleheader on Saturday. Gary Henderson’s team plays host to Cincinnati on Tuesday at Cliff Hagan Stadium. First pitch is at 6:30.
Click the continue line for SEC baseball results and standings.
Continue reading ‘SEC baseball update: Kentucky’s lead two games’
Mike Hlas of The Gazette from Cedar Rapids, Iowa pulled together the attendance figures for the eight SEC teams that held their spring football games last Saturday.
Alabama led the way with 78,526.
Vanderbilt drew 8,500.
Kentucky’s spring football game is this Saturday at 6 p.m. at Commonwealth Stadium.
Continue reading ‘SEC sets the bar high for spring football game attendance’
Dwayne Schintzius
The Tampa Tribune reports that ex-Florida center Dwayne Schintzius has died at age 43 from cancer complications.
The Tribune reports, “He was surrounded by family when he died at approximately 2:45 p.m. on Sunday at the Moffitt Cancer Center, where he was first admitted in 2009 after being diagnosed with Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML), an uncommon blood cancer that affects only three in 100,000 individuals in the United States each year.”
Schintzius, known for his mullet when playing, was a Gator from 1986-1990. He remains the only SEC player with more than 1,000 points, 800 rebounds, 250 assists and 250 blocked shots.
Two big issues this SEC weekend, starting with LSU basketball. The Tigers will introduce former Dale Brown assistant and North Texas head coach Johnny Jones as their new head coach on Monday. The hope is Jones will be able to do a better job of tapping Louisiana’s talent than did his predecessor Trent Johnson, who left Baton Rouge to become the new coach at TCU.
The other league news came from several spring games held Saturday. Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Vanderbilt all held their spring football games. Vanderbilt continues to gain momentum. The Commodores drew 8,500 to Vanderbilt Stadium for their spring game on Saturday. Josh Grady, a quarterback-turned-receiver, ran for one score and threw for another.
Click on the continue line for today’s SEC links.
Continue reading ‘SEC: LSU turns to Jones, plus spring football roundup’
UPDATE: Randy Rosetta of Tiger Sports Digest tweets: “Sources close to #LSU and Tubby Smith tell me there is a “legitimate conversation” about the job and that something could happen quickly.”
Jeff Goodman of CBS Sports is reporting that LSU is talking to former Kentucky coach Tubby Smith about the basketball opening in Baton Rouge.
Smith just finished his fifth year as the coach at Minnesota, the second straight in which the Gophers failed to make the NCAA Tournament. Smith led UK to the NCAA title in 1998, but did not have another Final Four appearance and left after the 2006-07 campaign. He previously coached at Tulsa and Georgia. He is 103-64 at Minnesota, but just 38-49 in the Big 10.
Continue reading ‘Report: LSU talking to Tubby Smith about opening’
