John Clay's Sidelines

CBS Sports’ Jeff Goodman is reporting that former Xavier guard Mark Lyons visited UK on Monday and is expected to be back in town tonight.

His tweet: “Xavier transfer Mark Lyons visited Kentucky yesterday and sources told CBSSports he is expected to return to Lexington tonight.”

Lyons started alongside Tu Holloway at guard last year for the Muskies, who reached the NCAA Sweet 16 before losing to Baylor, a round before Baylor lost to Kentucky.

Continue reading ‘Report: Mark Lyons to have follow-up visit with UK’

Kentucky’s next shot blocker could be Jimmie Taylor.

According to Garrett Tucker of Futue150, the 6-foot-10 center from Greensboro, Alabama has UK in his final five.

Tucker tweeted that “2013 big man Jimmie Taylor of the Alabama Challenge (AL) has a top five of Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Alabama & Tennessee.”

Continue reading ‘Shot-blocker Jimmie Taylor puts UK in final five’

Kenny Johnson

The trend toward college basketball coaches hiring assistant coaches with strong AAU ties is continuing.

Scout’s Evan Daniels, among others, is reporting that Indiana is hiring Kenny Johnson to take the place of Bennie Seltzer, whom athletic director and former UK director of basketball operations Martin Newton named as the new head coach at Samford.

Who is Kenny Johnson?

Continue reading ‘Indiana hoops hire continues AAU coaching trend’

In the rubber game of its baseball series today at Vanderbilt, Kentucky needs a win to avoid falling into a first-place tie with South Carolina.

After beating Vanderbilt on Friday night, Kentucky lost to the Commodores 4-3 on Saturday when Vandy came up with a run in the bottom of the eighth to break the tie before a crowd of 2,837 at Hawkins Field.

Meanwhile, South Carolina beat Alabama 9-1 for its 11th straight SEC win, the second-longest conference win streak in school history. Since being swept by UK in the teams’ SEC opening series, the Gamecocks have won five straight league series.

Continue reading ‘Surging South Carolina bearing down on UK baseball’

With Danny Trevathan and Winston Guy being selected on Saturday, Kentucky has now had 14 players taken in the NFL Draft over the past 10 years.

Of those 14, seven played their high school football in Kentucky. Two came to UK from Georgia and two from Tennessee. One came from Florida, one from Ohio and one from Wisconsin.

Here’s the chart.

Continue reading ‘UK’s 14 players drafted by NFL over past 10 years’

For John Calipari, the question could be James Young or Troy Williams? Or both?

The Kentucky coach is watching both Class of 2013 stars this weekend at EYBL tournament play in Hampton, Virginia.

Calipari and assistant Kenny Payne watched Young on Saturday. Reports this morning say they are back watching Young again today.

Steve Jones of Rivals tweeted yesterday: “Calipari and Payne watching James Young again. Definitely giving this guy, who called UK No.1 last week, a long look”

Jeff Borzello of CBS Sports tweeted: “John Calipari watching James Young — and Young is playing really well. Had him ranked like, 12 heading into last week. Too low.”

Continue reading ‘Calipari checking out Troy Williams, James Young’

(AP photo)

So now that Donnie Tyndall will be named head coach at Southern Miss on Monday, where will Morehead State turn now?

Not sure.

I am sure of this: The Morehead State job is a lot more attractive now than it was when Tyndall arrived six seasons ago.

The program is in better shape, thanks to Tyndall’s work and the exposure it garnered from Kenneth Faried and the Eagles’ win over Louisville in the NCAA Tournament in 2011. Before that, most believed Morehead was a dead-end job. It was considered difficult to get kids to come to the school, much less win there.

Continue reading ‘Donnie Tyndall proved you can win at Morehead’

Speaking to the Associated Press Sports Editors group, NCAA president Mark Emmert said that he wished that the NBA would go back to drafting players right out of high school, saying the following:

I don’t like the notion an athlete, a young man, would come to us and see us not as being a student at a university that is playing a sport, but as a necessary step that they’ve got to touch that bag before they move on. I think that makes it extremely hard with a straight face to say these are student athletes.

Speaking to a group at Samford in Birmingham last week, UK basketball coach John Calipari responded with this:

The NCAA president said let them go right out of high school? What? How many ninth graders will think, ‘I’m going right to the NBA?’ Five hundred? One thousand? Now those kids will be really focused on academics. How could you make that statement?

Continue reading ‘The John Calipari-Mark Emmert one-and-done duel’

ESPN’s Andy Katz reported today that Morehead State coach is weighing an offer to be head coach at Southern Miss.

Tyndall could decide by Saturday if he wants to leave the OVC school for Hattiesburg.

Tyndall coached Morehead to a first-round NCAA tournament win over Louisville in 2011.

Class of 2013 star Troy Williams says via twitter that he will commit by next weekend.

He has narrowed his choices to Kentucky and North Carolina.

Williams is ranked seventh in his class by ESPN.

Hat tip to All KY Hoops