John Clay's Sidelines

Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins scored 32 points last year when the Commodores beat UK at Memorial Gym. But he has one fan on the Kentucky team in UK senior Darius Miller.

The two played together on a USA team this summer. Miller said before Friday’s practice that the two stay in touch. “I’m still pretty good friends with him,” said the UK forward, adding that with Jenkins knock-down shooting ability he was an easy player to set up for the shot and was a good teammate.

As for playing at Vanderbilt, Miller said the bench configurations make the place unusual, but for UK going on the road is always a different experience. “It’s normally a great atmosphere, and fun to play in, especially when you’re doing good.”

Miller said Vanderbilt plays well at home, but that hasn’t always been the case this year. The Commodores are 11-4 at home, with losses to Cleveland State, Indiana State, Xavier and Mississippi State.

UK point guard Marquis Teague was one of the players made available at today’s pre-Vanderbilt media opp, and with good reason. The freshman will be experiencing something for the first time on Saturday, trying to run a team while his head coach is on the other baseline.

Teague said that John Calipari has told him to try and get the play calls at the free throw line when the other team is shooting free throws. He said that at this point of the year he feels comfortable enough to make some of the play calls himself. “It’s about half-and-half,” he said.

He also talked about feeding Anthony Davis lobs for dunks. The key is penetrating enough to make the defender commit. Sometimes, Davis gives Teague a signal. Sometimes, they both know the lob is there. “You just throw it up and he goes and gets it,” said the point guard.

Teague said that after the Florida game they were watching ESPN highlights in which they saw Davis go as high as “the top of the square” to get a lob pass before dunking it in.

“That’s crazy,” Teague said.

A three-spot from the just-completed John Calipari media opportunity:

1. Happy Birthday: The UK head coach turns 53 today, but he joked that two of his years had been vacated so he is actually 51. He said as is Calipari family tradition he received breakfast in bed this morning. That was about it for the birthday banter.

2. Vandy’s GameDay day: Told about a supposed UK fan movement to spoil Vanderbilt’s appearance on GameDay on Saturday morning, Calipari said he was hearing of this for the first time. After hemming and hawing a bit, he said, “If our fans are ruining their day, don’t do it. If that’s Vandy’s day, don’t do it.”

3. The late show: Calipari describes most every game “as a hard game,” but he may mean it a little more this time. One of the more difficult things may be the fact that this is a 9 p.m. away game on a Saturday. Cal said the team will visit Memorial tonight just to get a look around, then it will go together to a movie. There will be a short meeting afterward in Calipari’s room. He said he will let them sleep until 10 or so in the morning. The team will eat, have a shoot-around, have the pre-game meal (without the head coach) and then it’ll be gametime.

Some early afternoon notes:

UK basketball has a media opportunity starting at 1:30. Check the blog for video, notes, etc. later this afternoon.

The NCAA football rules committee has proposed moving kickoffs from the 30-yard line to the 35 and to limit the running start by players on the kicking team to 5 yards as a way of keeping players safer. NCAA says its injury data indicates injuries during kickoffs occur more often than in other phases of the game. The NFL moved up kickoffs 5 yards this past season and touchbacks increased dramatically.

If you haven’t heard, Murray State lost its first game last night, falling to visiting Tennessee State. Robert Covington scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds for TSU. Murray State was last unbeaten D-1 team. The Racers had won 23 straight games. Isaiah Canaan had 31 points for Murray in the loss.

Hail Mark Gottfried. In the announcement of the McDonald’s All-American team yesterday, North Carolina State has the most signees, with three. State has signed point guard Tyler Lewis of Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.), shooting guard Rodney Purvis of Upper Room Christian (Raleigh, N.C.) and small forward T.J. Warren of Brewster Academy (Wolfeboro, N.H.).

North Carolina State improved to 7-3 in the ACC with a win over Georgia Tech last night.

We should have mentioned this morning that Kentucky signee Janee Thompson was also named to women’s McDonald’s All-American team.

Continue reading ‘Football rule changes, Mark Gottfried and other notes’

Big Blue Links for Friday:

Despite those reports that Shabazz Muhammad is UCLA’s to lose, Muhammad says that he is a long way from deciding. “I don’t think I’m that close at all,” the 6-foot-6 Muhammad out of Las Vegas Bishop Gorman told ESPNU after he was named a McDonald’s All-American. “I really havne’t been looking at it. Just been working on this season for high school, but when I get down to it it’s going to be really stressful for me. But I’m just going to talk to my family and talk it over with them.”

The Providence College students newspaper thinks that Nerlens Noel could join his friends on the Friars. James Kirby writes, “Without a doubt, Cooley has already made an impact that is yet to be felt in Friartown with the acquisitions of Kris Dunn and Ricardo Ledo, both of whom are in ESPNU’s Top 25.  . . . And now, Cooley wants even more. Enter Nerlens Noel. . . .  In fact, reports that have neither been confirmed nor denied state that he may be leaning to team up with his good friends, Ledo and Dunn, and bring the Friars back to the forefront of college basketball.” (H/T Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog)

Greg Kocher of the Herald-Leader reports that UK has asked people to stop selling those Anthony Davis wingspan posters on the internet. UK can ask all it wants. It can send out a cease-and-desist order. But it can’t stop people from selling them. I have the poster. There is nothing printed on it that says it cannot be re-sold. This appears to be a simple case of the school trying to cover itself in case the NCAA gets its nose out of joint.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Shabazz, Nerlens Noel and that Davis poster’

(AP photo//Mark Humphrey)

The Kentucky women picked up a game in the SEC standings and didn’t have to play to do it.

Vanderbilt upset visiting Tennessee 93-79 last night in Memorial Gym to drop the Lady Vols to 8-3 in the league, two full games behind 10-1 Kentucky. Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina and Vanderbilt are now all tied for third at 7-4.

Dan Fleser of the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that UT fought back from a 12-point deficit to take the lead, only to fall victim to another Commodores run:

Tiffany Clarke led four double-figure scorers with 23 points for Vanderbilt (19-5, 7-4 SEC), which reached a program high for points against its instate rival. Clarke, who was in foul trouble in the first half, had 19 points in the second half.

Guard Christina Foggie scored 22 points. Her 3-pointer gave the Commodores the lead for good with 11 minutes, 12 seconds left. Stephanie Holzer and Jasmine Lister each scored 19. Lister had 13 assists.

“Vanderbilt was better than us,’’ UT associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “They were stronger. They were smarter. They wanted it more.”

Off this week, Kentucky travels to Tennessee on Monday night for a 7 p.m. game on ESPN2. A win at Thompson-Boling Arena and Matthew Mitchell’s team would have a three-game lead with just four games left to play.

Continue reading ‘Loss drops Lady Vols two games behind UK women’

(AP photo)

SEC links for Friday:

Mississippi State’s Dee Bost scored 15 points and dished a career-high 13 assist as No. 20 Mississippi State beat visiting Ole Miss 70-60 last night.

State hit nine of 25 three-pointers, compared to three-of-nine for the Rebels, and outrebounded Ole Miss by five. Arnett Moultrie led all scorers with 18 points. Ole Miss’ Reginald Buckner did have 15 points and nine rebounds.

Rick Stansbury’s Bulldogs are now tied with Vanderbilt for third place at 6-3  in the SEC. Of course, Kentucky leads the league at 10-0. Florida is second at 7-2. UK travels to Vanderbilt on Saturday for a 9 p.m. ESPN College GameDay event, and the Cats travel to Mississippi State on Feb. 21 for a 9 p.m. ESPN Super Tuesday affair.

• Dee Bost lets his game do his talking, reports Brandon Marcello of the Clarion-Ledger.
• These Dogs have a world of potential, writes Rick Cleveland of the Clarion-Ledger.
• Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham argues that college basketball should start and end its season later to escape college football’s shadow.
• Austin Rivers’ shot to beat North Carolina is the reason he picked Duke over Florida, writes Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel.

Ole Miss at Mississippi State is the SEC Thursday night game on the tube tonight. Both teams are future opponents on the Kentucky schedule. Ole Miss comes to Rupp on Feb. 18. UK goes to Mississippi State on Feb. 21.

A pair of good Big 10 games on television tonight, as well. Wisconsin is at Minnesota at 7 p.m. on ESPN. Illinois is at Indiana at 8 p.m. on the Big 10 Network.

Mike Nance

Updated: Earlier version had same officials working both Tennessee games.

Do you know the name Mike Nance? If you are a Kentucky basketball fan, you should. Nance has worked more UK games than any other college basketball referee this season. Nance leads the list with seven six. Five Four of the seven six have been at Rupp Arena. Doug Shows is second with five.

Here’s the list of officials who have worked UK games this year:

• Mike Nance – 6 - North Carolina, Chattanooga, at Auburn, at Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama
• Doug Shows – 5 - vs. Kansas, St. John’s, Loyola (MD), Alabama, Tennessee
• Joe Lindsay – 4 - Chattanooga, South Carolina, Arkansas, at South Carolina
• J.B. Caldwell – 3 - Marist, Lamar, at LSU
• Tom Eades – 3 - at Indiana, South Carolina, at Georgia
• Tony Greene – 3 - North Carolina, Louisville, Arkansas
• Anthony Jordan – 3 - Portland, at Tennessee,  Florida