John Clay's Sidelines

Elisha Justice in action last season. (AP photo)

Rick Pitino giveth, now he taketh away.

As part of a press conference on Tuesday morning, the Louisville basketball coach announced that three of his returning players (Kyle Kuric, Elisha Justice and Chris Smith) will be moved from scholarship to walk-on players next season so that U of L can meet the NCAA limit of 13 scholarships.

Pitino pointed out that Justice and Kuric were both recruited to be walk-ons, but then were awarded scholarships when Louisville had ones available. He said he told Kuric that sometime during his career, the program might need to shift the Indiana native to walk-on status. And Kuric told the Courier-Journal that he had no problem with giving up his scholarship for the good of the team.

Continue reading ‘Is Louisville’s “roster management” merely oversigning?’

(AP photo)

RELATED POST: Is Louisville’s “roster management” really oversigning?

At its press conference this morning, Louisville announced that basketball players Kyle Kuric, Chris Smith and Elisha Justice, all of whom were on scholarship last season, will be walk-ons in 2011-12.

To be fair, all three were recruited to Louisville as walk-ons, then received scholarships. To be fair, all three were part of a team that lost a first-round game to an in-state mid-major in the NCAA Tournament last March, a loss so devastating Rick Pitino talked of perhaps retiring.

Continue reading ‘Kuric, Smith and Justice knocked down to walk-ons’

UK basketball seniors Ramon Harris, Mark Krebs and Perry Stevenson throw out first pitch at last night's UK-U of L baseball game. (H-L photo/Charles Bertram)

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader reports that Elisha Justice tells UK no thanks:

Despite 11th-hour recruiting interest shown by Kentucky Coach John Calipari, Kentucky Mr. Basketball Elisha Justice has decided to stick with his commitment to walk on at Louisville. “They followed me all year,” Justice said of Louisville on Tuesday. “I know they’ve been loyal to me. I feel I was wanted more there.”

ESPN.com’s Chad Ford says Daniel Orton is moving up draft charts:

But as we first reported several weeks ago, Orton has caught the attention of a number of NBA GMs, the most prominent of which is the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Sam Presti. According to a source close to the process, the Thunder are sending signals that if Orton is in the draft, they’d take him with one of their two first-round picks. Currently that would put Orton in the early 20s. However, a few other GMs have told ESPN.com that they’d consider taking Orton even higher.

(Hat tip to DailyThunder.com and Spam’s Wildcat Page.)

John Canzano of the Oregonian reports that Terrence Jones is waiting on Oregon:

Terrence Jones, the McDonald’s All-American who plays at Jefferson High School, has narrowed his finalists to a list of five (UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Kentucky and Oklahoma). And, given a reason, he’d like to stay close to home. Said Jones on Tuesday: “I’m waiting to see who the coach at Oregon is going to be.”

(Hat tip to Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog.)

Kentucky Sports Network sent along this video of an interview with Doron Lamb:

Continue reading ‘BBL: Justice, Jones, Lamb, Orton and more UK news’

Big Blue Links for Sunday:

Seth Emerson of The State in Columbia on the relationship between former South Carolina assistants Joker Phillips and Charlie Strong:

They lived one house apart. So nearly every morning, Charlie Strong would walk to Joker Phillips’ house, or vice versa, and they would go for a run. Or sometimes, the run waited until the coaches arrived at their offices at the South Carolina football complex. In truth, there was more than the proximity of their homes that connected Strong and Phillips for that one year, 2002, they were together on Lou Holtz’s Gamecocks staff. They were both young, energetic and black – and working in a field in which opportunities for advancement seemed minimal.

From Twitter:

RT @Chandrathan: Daniel Orton just posted on FB he is indeed going to California tomorrow. Looks like he’s officially gone.

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader reports that Elisa Justice has heard from John Calipari:

Apparently, Justice had his own pre-conditions before more serious discussions could ensue. “The only way Elisha would be willing to go to Kentucky, I’d say, is if it’s on a full four-year scholarship,” Booher said.

Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes that UK football has a hitter in Qua Huzzie:

So needless to say, the UK coaching staff was disappointed last August when prized freshman Qua Huzzie, a 2009 signee from LaGrange, Ga., suffered an injury to his left shoulder in August that caused him to redshirt. Huzzie had shown enough early in fall camp that he would have likely seen backup action behind Micah Johnson at middle linebacker as well as being a key contributor on special teams.

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader on one-and-dones and Lee Todd:

Meanwhile, UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. sits uneasy at the head of an educational institution. “If you don’t recruit them, you’ll play against them very likely,” Todd said of one-and-done players in a recent interview. “It’s a system problem, I think.”

Continue reading ‘BBL: Strong, Phillips friendship back to South Carolina’