Joe Mansour (H-L photo/David Perry)
Big Blue Links for Tuesday:
My column with impressions from a pair of Kentucky basketball practices, as Cats get ready for Canada: “Ah, but he’s learning. At one point, Lamb drove the lane and missed a contested shot. Calipari blew his whistle for another teaching point.’You thought you were going to get bailed out,’ the coach told Lamb. ‘You’re at Kentucky now. The officials are not going to bail you out.’”
New kicker Joe Mansour has a big leg and lots of swagger, reports Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader: “Mansour’s résumé as a place-kicker isn’t too shabby, either. He was a three-time All-State selection and was named the place-kicker on Georgia’s All-Decade Team. He also made a 59-yard field goal his senior year, the third-longest in state history. With his team leading by 35 points late in the game, LaGrange Coach Steve Pardue took two penalties to move the kick back to 59 yards, and said if he had known at the time that the state record was 63 yards he’d have taken another penalty to give Mansour a shot at it.”
Brett Dawson of the C-J gives his observations from Kentucky’s basketball practices: “The first thing that struck me is that these practices aren’t entirely different from the ones we saw last April as Calipari first installed his dribble-drive motion offense for players returning from the 2008-09 team. True, there’s considerably more talent on the roster now than then (remember, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, etc., weren’t on campus yet at that time), but the talking points are much the same.”
Eric Lindsey of Cat Scratches gives his observations from Kentucky’s basketball practices: “First of all, this won’t be last year’s team in any way shape or form – good or bad. This is simply a different team made up of different players. For one, this team isn’t as big. It’s not lacking on height by any means, but the team is thinner (that’s what happens when you lose two beasts like DeMarcus Cousins and Daniel Orton). The team is also much quieter. There are not nearly as many eccentric personalities. Every guy, at least in the hour that I watched, seems to go about their business quietly. Again, don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.”
Tom Leach gives his observations from Kentucky’s basketball practices: “This looks to be a better perimeter shooting team; Lamb has a big-time rep for his stroke but I was impressed with Knight and Poole as perimeter shooters, too–and Liggins’ jumper looks better than ever. Terrence Jones has a high arc on his shot but can hit it from beyond the three-point line at times.”
Continue reading ‘BBL: B-ball practice reports, Joe Mansour, Ridge Wilson’
