John Clay's Sidelines

(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

(AP photo)

Hate on Duke and North Carolina all you want but last night’s thriller in Chapel Hill was the best college basketball game of the season – so far. In a sport too often dominated by over-coached, slow-down, 50-49 games, this one had running and scoring. Final score was 85-84 Duke in fact.

It also had the dramatic ending with freshman guard Austin Rivers hitting that rainbow three-pointer over North Carolina’s 7-foot Tyler Zeller at the buzzer to cap a furious Duke comeback and give the visitors the win.

But truth be told, North Carolina lost it at the free throw line. Up 79-70 with 3:35 left, Harrison Barnes missed one of two free throws. Up 82-80 with 44 seconds left, Zeller missed one of two free throws. Up 83-82 with 13.9 seconds left, Zeller again missed one of two free throws. Had Zaller made the second foul shot, Rivers’ buzzer-beater would have merely sent the game into overtime.

Actually, the game may have said more about the Tar Heels than the Blue Devils. North Carolina has been hurt by the loss of Dexter Strickland to a torn ACL. And Roy Williams’ team just doesn’t seem to have the necessary mettle. First, there was that head-scratching blowout 31-point loss at Florida State. Now comes UNC blowing a 10-point lead on its home floor to its arch-rival.

Continue reading ‘Duke-North Carolina was the game of the year — so far’

(H-L photo)

Check out the Herald-Leader fans gallery from the UK-Florida game.

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

• Players stepping up as Cats are clicking, writes Aaron Smith of Kernel.
• Kidd-Gilchrist a virtuoso again, writes Matt May of Cats Pause.
• MKG excelling in all areas, writes Jordan Schultz of Huffington Post.
• Davis making case to be nation’s No. 1, says Jake Curtis of Chronicle.
• This is Calipari’s best team, says my notes column.
• After flattening Florida, UK looks for challenge, writes Jerry Tipton of H-L.
• Basketball stats to get ready for Vandy, from Herald-Leader.
• Kidd-Gilchrist gives Davis a soothing feeling, says Sun’s Keith Taylor.
• Teague now knows UK is “my” team, writes Larry Vaught of A-M.
• Teague keeps improving, writes Jon Hale of KyForward.

SEC links for Thursday:

• Vandy puts away LSU 76-61, reports Jeff Lockridge of Tennessean.
• Ezeli leads Commodore win, writes Jerome Boettcher of The Advocate.
• Georgia whips Arkansas 81-59, reports Chip Towers of AJC.
• Bulldogs end slump, reports Roger Clarkson of ABH.
• Tennessee fends off USC 69-57, reports Mike Griffith of KNS.
• Hall makes sure all screws are tight, writes KNS’ Mike Strange.
• Ole Miss confident facing State, reports Hugh Kellenberger of C-L.
• Road wins may help SEC basketball’s case, writes Doug Segrest of News.

(Photo by Chet White of UK Athletics)

As of 8 p.m., I counted 138 limited edition Anthony Davis posters for sale on E-bay.

The highest bid for one of the posters is $152.50.

The poster, designed and shot by Chet White of UK Athletics, was placed on each seat for last night’s game with Florida. Because of their limited nature, they have been quite the topic of conversation, and the objects of desire.

Not everyone is happy, however.

David writes:

I am emailing all of you at the same time because I have hopes one of you will give voice to those of us out here that aren’t the ‘fat cats’ or the very fortunate who attended last night’s game vs. Florida and were able to walk away with a poster of Anthony Davis that is an obvious keepsake (I can already picture having it framed and hung on my office wall).

Why would UK do this “special favor” to just the 24K fans attending this game. What about the several million of us out here that can’t afford to make the game?

Are we supposed to buy ours via eBay for $50 to $150??? Further I understand they printed 30K of them – what happens to the other 6K?

My response: It shouldn’t be a surprise that UK would take care of those who buy the tickets.

Paul Daugherty, sports columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, writes a popular morning blog entitled The Morning Line, or TML for short. Thing is, Paul is currently on a leave of absence to finish a book he is writing on his daughter, Jillian, or J The M for Jillian the Magnificent, as she is known to TML readers.

In his absence, guest bloggers have been taking a crack at TML. One each weekday.

This morning, former Herald-Leader colleague and huge Kentucky fan Jennifer Scroggins, a former Enquirer editor, was the guest blogger and gave TML a definite Kentucky blue hue.

In fact, the headline reads: The Morning Line, 2/8 (Big Blue Nation Edition).

In no surprise to her friends, Jennifer lets us know exactly how she feels.

An example:

In other news, I hate Duke. I loathe Duke. This is a surprise to no one, but that’s OK. I’m Doc today, so I get to do whatever I want, and what I want to do is to document for all eternity that I hate Duke. It feels good. A friend of mine — a great Michigan sympathizer in his own right — once told me he thought I enjoyed Duke losses more than Kentucky wins. At the time, I was wildly offended by that. In hindsight, he’s probably right. And I’m cool with that.

Thought that was timely what with Duke playing North Carolina tonight at 9 p.m. on ESPN.

Check it out. It’s an entertaining read.

At the post-game press conference last night, Florida’s Billy Donovan was asked about Kentucky and the rest of the league. Now 10-0, the Cats still have two games with Vanderbilt and one each with Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Florida remaining.

Two terrific matchups on the televised college basketball schedule tonight. Kansas is at Baylor at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. Then it’s Duke vs. North Carolina at 9 p.m. on ESPN. Duke is coming off that surprise home upset at the hands of Miami on Sunday.

Related links:

• This rivalry merits the hype, writes Scott Fowler of Charlotte Observer.
• Barnes’ ankle prime storyline, says Jack Daly of News and Observer.
• Kansas hopes to avoid second straight loss, says Star’s Blair Kerkhoff.