John Clay's Sidelines

Now video from the two head coaches after Cats-Tide.

Kentucky’s John Calipari

Alabama’s Anthony Grant

Transcript of Alabama coach Anthony Grant’s post-game comments after loss to Kentucky.

Opening statement: “I thought it was a very good college basketball game. I thought you had two teams out there that really battled and fought hard. I thought our guys certainly gave the effort and played with the passion as a coach that you want to see. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make the plays that we needed to make down the stretch to win the game. Give Kentucky credit, they had a lot of guys that stepped up and made some plays to allow them to come out with the victory.”

On physical style bothering Kentucky: “I know a lot is being made about people trying to be physical but we just played the way we play. I don’t think we intentionally went out there and said we were going to do that. Kentucky is a very good team, they are obviously a physical team in their own right. We thought we had to do our best to take away some of the strengths of their team. Obviously, they have a lot of weapons when they can put six guys in double figures in the game, that’s pretty impressive.”

On Trevor Releford in the second half: “I think Trevor took what the defense gave him in the second half. He was able to create some opportunities off the dribble when we had late clock or broken floor situations. A couple of times he was able to knock down some perimeter jump shots just because the defense was focused on what our interior guys were able to establish. It allowed him opportunities on the perimeter and he took advantage of it.”

On free throw differentials in last two games: “We had 25 free throws in the game. We have to figure out a better way of defending without fouling and do a better job of making sure we get to the line. ”

On game plan of taking it into Anthony Davis: “I think Davis is a great player. For a freshman in this league to have the type of impact he has, I think our guys have a lot of respect for him and his teammates. We tried to neutralize some of the things that allow him to have the success that he has. He had 11 points, nine rebounds and four blocks, I think a lot of coaches in this league would take that.”

On game plan against Michael Kidd-Gilchrist: “We never set a plan based on individual players, it’s a team game so we’re going to do the things that we do from a defensive standpoint. I thought he had a great impact on the game in the first half, I think he had maybe eight points in eight minutes. He had a couple offensive rebounds. His footprint was all over the game. He affects the game for his team in a lot of ways. On the defensive end he does a great job of bringing energy and intensity and offensively he is an attacker, a playmaker. Again, a lot of good players on their team and certainly our guys have great respect for their team.”

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SEC links for Thursday:

• Florida captures controversial thriller over Arizona in overtime, reports Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun.
• Patric Young scores 25 points and grabs 10 rebounds in the Florida victory, reports Rachel George of the Orlando Sentinel.
• Festus Ezel’s return makes a difference as Vanderbilt wins at Davidson, reports Steve Reed of the Associated Press.
• Host Dayton spoils Anthony Grant’s homecoming by upsetting 16th-ranked Alabama 74-62, reports Geg Ostendorf of the Tuscaloosa News.
• Georgia Tech rocks host Georgia 68-56, reports Tim Tucker of the AJC.
• Having lost four straight, Georgia basketball needs a second-half solution, writes Chris White of the Athens Banner-Herald.
• Is Darrin Horn creating hope with South Carolina basketball? asks Darryl Slater of the Charleston Post and Courier.

Tuesday notes and Big Blue Links:

THE CALIPARI CONTRACT EXTENSION – More money, more pressure. Rick Bozich of the Courier-Journal writes: “Money will buy you headlines, such as the ones that the University of Kentucky stirred Monday by agreeing on an eight-year, $36.5 million contract with John Calipari. You’ll fly on more private planes, sign more recruits with five stars attached to their resumes and play in a Ritz-Carlton practice facility. You’ll have advantage after advantage after advantage. Then March will arrive – and Morehead State will outplay the University of Louisville and its $3 million-plus coach, VCU will thump Kansas and its $3 million-plus coach and Butler will outlast Florida and its $3 million-plus coach. It happens – and it’s going to keep happening.”

- If Calipari ever leaves for NBA, it won’t be about the money.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL’S MOST OVERPAID COACHES – Jason King of Yahoo Sports gives his list of the sport’s luckiest coaches in terms of dollar signs. Ex-UK guard and current Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford makes the list. Jason writes: “The former Kentucky guard is making $1.8 million per year in Stillwater, where he recently concluded his third season with a second-round loss in the NIT. Oklahoma State made the NCAA tournament the previous two seasons under Ford but failed to advance past the first weekend. From 2005-08 Ford was the coach at UMass, where he failed to lead one of his teams to the Big Dance. So tell me: Does two NCAA tournament trips in six seasons justify $1.8 million? I don’t think so either.”

Continue reading ‘BBL: As Calipari gets raise, Ford among most overpaid’

(AP photo)

There’s a big game at Rupp Arena tonight. But there’s a big game in Gainesville tonight, too. And not just because it marks Anthony Grant’s return to the O’Dome.

Alabama and Florida meet in the O-Dome with a share of the SEC regular-season crown on the line. (It’s a 7 p.m. start on ESPNU.) Alabama is 11-3 in the league. Florida is 11-3. Both are coming off Saturday losses. Alabama blew a double-digit and dropped one at Ole Miss. Florida failed to snap Kentucky’s home win streak. Still, both have clinched the two No. 1 seeds for next week’s SEC Tournament.

And, oh yeah, Grant, the former assistant under Billy Donovan at Florida, is the second-year head coach of the Crimson Tide.

Sitting 12th in the RPI, Florida is a lock for the NCAA Tournament. At No. 89, Alabama’s resume may need more work. Yes, the Tide has dominated its division, but the SEC West is easily the weaker of the two.

Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News writes that if the Tide wins tonight, it should make the Big Dance. And Kevin finds an ally in ex-Alabama coach and former UK athletics director C.M. Newton.

“I think the hardest thing to do is achieve the consistency to win a regular-season championship,” Newton tells Scarbinsky. “Basketball, when you get to postseason play, is a tournament game. But the best team doesn’t necessarily win that. I guarantee you the best team wins over the long haul in the regular season.”

Related link: Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun writes that Florida’s seniors are set for the title tilt.

Toni Rich holds her son Gabriel, 5, as students and supporters gather to pay tribute to live oaks at Toomer's Corner on the campus of Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., Wednesday, after word spread that the trees were poisoned recently. (AP photo)

UPDATE: Arrest made in Toomer’s Corner tree poisoning case.

UPDATE: The man is wearing an Alabama hounds-tooth cap on his Facebook profile.

SEC links for Thursday:

• Oaks poisoned at Auburn’s famous Toomer’s Corner, reports Auburn’s Plainsmen.
• We all should feel ill about Toomer’s Corner, writes Mark Bradley of the AJC.
• NCAA expanding its Auburn investigation, reports Thayer Evans of Fox Sports.
• Alabama AD responds to poisoning story, reports Izzy Gould of the News.
• More on the poisoned oaks from Tim Chitwood of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
• Vanderbilt denies Georgia upset, wins 64-56, reports Telegraph’s Seth Emerson.
• An ugly loss for Georgia Bulldogs, writes Tim Tucker of the AJC.
• Tennessee ends skid by beating Carolina, reports Mike Griffith of the News-Sentinel.
• South Carolina drops its fourth straight, reports Beth Rucker of the AP.
• Ole Miss rips Auburn in Oxford, 90-59, reports Evan Woodbery of Press-Register.
• Grant says Bama-LSU rematch won’t be easy, writes Cecil Hurt of Tuscaloosa News.
• Arkansas hopes to sustain effort, writes Robbie Neiswanger of the Arkansas News.

Continue reading ‘SEC basketball results; poisoning at Toomer’s Corner’

Alabama coach Anthony Grant was not happy near end of Alabama's loss at Vanderbilt. (AP photo/Mark Humphrey)

At Thursday’s UK basketball media opp, John Calipari was asked how much of an advantage was it that Vanderbilt had to play a game on Thursday night before entertaining Calipari’s Cats about 36 hours later?

Ever the kidder, Calipari said, “I don’t think it gives them that much of an advantage.”

Ever the thespian, Calipari kept a straight face. When informed the question referred to Kentucky owning an advantage in the calendar discrepancy — the Cats did play on Tuesday, after all — the coach said, “We took (Wednesday) off,” before starting Thursday’s practice.

Vanderbilt did more than practice Thursday, edging Alabama 81-77 in a bare-knuckles battle at Memorial Gym. The Commodores made 22 of 27 free throws and nine three pointers on the way to overcoming a 77-76 Crimson Tide lead with 25.8 seconds left.

Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean wrote:

Brad Tinsley always tries to get his shot on the rim after being fouled.

“You never know what could happen,” he said. “It could rattle in.”

Or simply swish.

Vanderbilt’s junior point guard peeled off a screen, sank a 17-footer while taking contact from Trevor Releford and completed the three-point play to lift the No. 23 Commodores over Alabama 81-77 in an SEC men’s thriller on Thursday night at Memorial Gym.

Continue reading ‘Vanderbilt tunes up for UK by beating Alabama’

(AP photo)

SEC news for Tuesday:

With a 7-1 record, Alabama making noise, says Don Kausler of the Birmingham News.

Now it is starting to get some attention. It isn’t ranked yet in the Associated Press poll or the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, but for the first time this season, it has received votes in each poll. It would rank 31st in the AP poll and 34th in the coaches’ poll.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi projects Alabama as a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Bama basketball continues to grow, reports Michael Casagrande of the Anniston Star.

According to RealtimeRPI.com, Alabama ranks 97th nationally trailing No. 57 Arkansas – the only conference foe to beat the Tide – in the West Division. Alabama also lags behind teams it beat including Tennessee (21) and Kentucky (12), but they are the only two wins the Tide has over a top-100 team. Both have top-10 schedules while the Tide ranks 146th according to the formula that helps decide who plays for the NCAA title and who stays home.

Tide hires Louisville coach Mike Groh, reports Chase Goodbread of Tuscaloosa News.

Mike Groh has been hired to replace Curt Cignetti on the University of Alabama football coaching staff. Groh, who was a graduate assistant under head coach Nick Saban at Alabama during the 2009 season, spent last season as quarterbacks coach at Louisville.

“We are excited to have Mike join our staff,” Saban said. “He did an outstanding job here a year ago and when he left, he was one that I hoped we could bring back to Alabama at some point.”

Ravern Johnson still in MSU doghouse, reports Clarion-Ledger’s Brandon Marcello.

Johnson violated the university’s class attendance policy, Stansbury said, prompting him to extend the suspension. Johnson didn’t play in last Saturday’s 58-57 win at LSU after sending “inappropriate tweets” on his Twitter account, criticized the coaching staff and fans following a 75-61 loss at Alabama.

After the loss Wednesday, Johnson “just disappeared,” Stansbury said, and missed practices Thursday and Friday. “After Thursday and Friday, he had no conversations with anybody.”

Chandler Parsons leading Florida, writes Gainesville Sun’s Kevin Brockway.

Parsons, who was named Southeastern Conference player of the week on Monday, has made his opponents’ dreams unpleasant of late. Going into Wednesday night’s game at South Carolina, Parsons had put together a string of five straight games with 10 or more rebounds. He’s averaging 12 rebounds per game during that stretch.

The 6-foot-10 Parsons posted the 11th and 12th double-doubles of his career in Florida’s back-to-back wins over Vanderbilt and Kentucky. The No. 17 Gators beat two straight ranked teams for the first time since 2007.

Continue reading ‘Bama basketball making noise; football hires U of L coach’

(AP photo)

Terrific story by Jason King of Yahoo Sports on how personal loss keeps Billy Donovan, Anthony Grant and John Pelphey connected.

I did a column on Donovan after his wife, Christine, lost their fourth child during pregnancy. But Jason ties that together with the losses experienced by two of Donovan’s former assistants, and how the three lean on each other for support.

An excerpt:

The text arrived two days after Halloween, well before Billy Donovan got to the cemetery.

“Thinking of you,” it read.

For almost a decade, it’s never failed. Every year, on Nov. 2, Arkansas coach John Pelphrey - along with Alabama’s Anthony Grant – have reached out to their former boss at Florida. A phone call, an e-mail, a card or text. Just something to remind Donovan how much they care. And how they can relate.

“No staff,” Grant says, “has ever experienced what we experienced. What happened with all of us … I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.”

Long before they were all head coaches in the SEC — long before they became competitors – Donovan, Pelphrey and Grant helped Florida blossom into one of the country’s most dominating programs during the early and mid-2000s. Still, the moments the three of them remember the most — the three precise dates that spurred one of the strongest, most unique bonds in all of sports — have nothing to do with winning NCAA titles and conference championships.

Instead, they involve the loss of life, and the strengthening of friendship.

SEC links for Tuesday:

• South Carolina just one win one away from NCAA baseball title, reports Neil White of The State.

• Top Tennessee basketball prospect cuts list to Florida, Alabama, Vandy and Memphis, reports Chip Cirillo of the Tennessean.

• Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger reports that MSU guard Dee Bost is looking for slack from the NCAA.

• Ole Miss has released a list of new mascot ideas.

• Carolina pitcher Blake Cooper finds way to ruin the Bruins, writes Ron Morris of The State.

• UCLA digs itself a hole in CWS final, reports Shandel Richardson of the Los Angeles Times.

• Cooper strikes out 10 in eight innings, reports Travis Haney of the Charleston Post and Courier.

• Rick Cleveland of the Clarion-Ledger thinks its puzzling how Phil Turner and Rick Stansbury failed to connect.

• SEC basketball coaches pondering early scholarship offers, reports Kevin Brockway of the Gainesville Sun.

• Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News reports that Anthony Grant is comfortable with current Bama basketball roster.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: South Carolina one win away from NCAA title’