John Clay's Sidelines

Plenty of athletes have become embroiled in twitter trouble, usually for making inappropriate or controversial comments on their twitter account. (Josh Harrellson comes to mind.) But ex-Duke star Kyrie Irving, the No. 1 overall pick in last month’s NBA draft, has found twitter trouble of a different kind.

Irving has filed a police report over threats he received from a Jessica Jackson, aka “Miss Hawaii” of the Bronx, New York, whom he allegedly has received threatening tweets from over twitter. A judge last week issued a no contact order against the 24-year-old Jackson. But Irving told police that on Saturday Jackson contacted the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first pick, violating the order.

Irving told police the two met over twitter, then talked briefly in a Charlotte hotel. Police said that after that Jackson posted (explicit) YouTube videos where she threatened to harm Irving. She also claims to have an embarrassing video of Irving which she has threatened to post on-line. There is no longer a twitter account for @misshawaii. Jackon’s twitter account is @RealMissHawaii.

Rumors run rampant the days and nights before every professional draft. This year’s NBA Draft is no different.

Since the night of the lottery drawing, when Daniel Gilbert’s courageous and young son ended up securing Cleveland the No. 1 pick, it was thought that Duke guard Kyrie Irving would end up being the first player selected by the Cavaliers.

Since then, especially this week, however, there have been reports that Cleveland might be waffling on Irving and could take Arizona’s Derrick Williams or even ex-UK student assistant Enes Kanter with the top pick. Jay Bilas says don’t believe it. He knows who the Cavs are picking.

(AP photo)

Despite some projection boards which have former Kentucky student assistant Enes Kanter rated as the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst says the Cavs are set to take Duke point guard Kyrie Irving.

Still think the Cavs will take Kanter with the No. 4 pick, if Cleveland can’t trad up to get Arizona forward Derrick Williams.

The key question is where will UK guard Brandon Knight end up? Word is some clubs do not like the way Knight has been handling the workout process, and it could end up dropping him a few spots. But today is a big day for Brandon. He has a private workout with the Utah Jazz.

As for Windhorst, he is a former Cleveland Plain Dealer who was hired by ESPN to concentrate on LeBron James, whom he has known since high school. Windhorst still has connections to the Cavs’ front office. The guess here is that he’s right about Cleveland targeting Irving.

(AP photo)

Duke guard Kyrie Irving missed last night’s win over Bradley because of a toe injury he suffered against Butler last Saturday. The question now is how long will the star freshman be out? There are rumblings that it could be quite a while, maybe even the year.

Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports:

Don’t be surprised if Duke star freshman Kyrie Irving doesn’t take the court for the next month.

The Blue Devils announced their point guard is out indefinitely on Wednesday morning, but sources indicate that Irving’s toe injury is more serious than first anticipated and could put him on the shelf for the next 3-4 weeks or maybe even longer.

Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski confirmed the news following the team’s win against Bradley last night when he said Irving “could be out a long time.”

Steve Wiseman of the Durham Sun-Herald:

Duke freshman point guard Kyrie Irving’s toe injury is serious enough that it could sideline him for the rest of this season.

After Duke’s 83-48 win over Bradley on Wednesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Coach Mike Krzyzewski revealed the complicated nature of Irving’s injury for the first time.

“Kyrie’s injury is a serious one. It’s being evaluated by our medical team here at Duke and other foot injury experts,” Krzyzewski said. “Some type of analysis should be done hopefully in a week to 10 days. A course of action will be taken based on that analysis. It is serious.”

Update at 5:40 p.m.: As expected Irving committed to Duke.

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

• Dan Wiederer of the Fayetteville Observer writes that Kyrie Irving only visited UK and Texas A&M as favors.
• Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline thinks Irving will pick Duke today at 5:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
• Bob Herzog of Newsday reports that Tobias Harris will announce Nov. 19 on ESPNU.
• Ken Tysiac of the Raleigh News and Observer writes it’s going to be an interesting week for Duke.
• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes on UK linebacker Danny Trevathan.
• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal also writes on Trevathan.
• B.W. Jones of the Kentucky Kernel writes on running back Alfonso Smith.
• Larry Vaught of the Advocate-Messenger writes that UK has a true Kentucky offensive line.
• My column on the seventh-ranked UK volleyball team, which was upset by Tennessee last night.
• T.J. Walker of the Kentucky Kernel reports on Tennessee’s upset of the volleyball Cats.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Irving announces today; Harris to announce Nov. 19′

There’s such a blizzard of information out there about basketball recruiting, it’s hard to keep it all straight. So here’s a roundup of what we know, or what we think we know, about UK basketball recruits to this point. (Feel free to add any additional information.) In alphabetical order:

Tobias Harris

• Attended Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness on Oct. 16.
• Says he will visit Georgia Tech at some point.
• Reports are he will also visit Louisville, West Virginia and Maryland.
• May visit Louisville on Nov. 1.
• Made official visit to Tennessee, which painted his image on a rock.
• Has visited Syracuse.
• Ranked as No. 5 player in Class of 2010 by Rivals.
• A 6-8 forward from Glen Head, New York.

Kyrie Irving

• Confirmed that he will make his choice on ESPNU on Thursday.
• Will choose between Duke, Texas A&M and Kentucky.
• Dave Telep of Scout.com reports that Irving will make announcement on Thursday.
• Zagsblog reports on Oct. 20 that Irving has committed to Duke with an announcement coming this week.
• Irving denies Zagsblog report via his Twitter account.
• Attended Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness on Oct. 16
• Has already visited Texas A&M and Duke.
• Has said he will visit Georgia Tech at some point.
• Has said he will visit Seton Hall.
• Was thought to be a lean toward Indiana at one point, but eliminated Hoosiers.
• His family is close to UK assistant coach Rod Strickland.
• Ranked No. 9 in Class of 2010 by Rivals.
• A 6-3 guard from Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Continue reading ‘Where UK basketball recruits stand to this point’

Kyrie Iriving, via Twitter, confirms report he will announce Thursday:

With reports that Kyrie Irving has committed to Duke, Scout.com’s Dave Telep is reporting (subscription required) that the New Jersey guard will announce his decision on Thursday.

Irving attended UK’s Big Blue Madness last Friday.

Meanwhile, both Rush the Court and Mike Miller of nbcsports.com believes the Irving-to-Duke news is true.

An excerpt from Rush the Court:

We know Zagoria doesn’t go around making things up, though, and he cited three separate confirmations from assistant coaches at rival schools who claim that Irving’s recruitment is over because Duke has locked him up. We’ll go with Zagoria on this one, as it’s more fun to speculate anyway, but we’ve been saying for a while that if Duke has plans on becoming Duke again, players like Irving and forward Harrison Barnes are must-gets.

An excerpt from Miller:

It could take a bit to shake out – he was just in Kentucky for Big Blue Madness and is slated to visit Georgia Tech and Seton Hall this month – but all signs apparently point toward the Devils.

His dad says Duke’s the favorite. Assistants are spreading the word. Irving admitted to “Dime” magazine that Durham was where he wanted to be, he just wasn’t ready to commit yet.

“I guess you could say that I’m leaning toward Duke,” he said. “I’m just not ready to commit. It was my first visit and of course I’m really high on them and like I said I have that feeling, but I think it’s only smart to compare it to something.”

Big Blue Links for Monday:

• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes that Rich Brooks saw progress, but not perfection in UK’s 21-14 win at Auburn.
• My column saying we should recognize the offensive line.
• Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader reports on UK women hoops landing a top recruit.
• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal writes that win breates life into UK football.
• Dana O’Neil of espn.com writes about Big Blue Madness.
• Zagsblog writes on Tobias Harris and Kyrie Irving’s visit to Madness.
• James Pennington of the Kentucky Kernel writes on the quarterback rotation.
• B.W. Jones of the Kernel has the game story on Kentucky’s victory at Auburn.
• Tom Leach gives his take on the Kentucky win.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Could Harris and Irving both end up at UK?’

(H-L photo/Charles Bertram)

Program note: I’ll be live-blogging from the Rich Brooks portion of UK’s weekly press luncheon, which starts around 12:10-12:15.

Big Blue Links for Monday:

• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader reports that UK is awaiting the full report from Mike Hartline’s MRI.
• My column saying that UK should not move Randall Cobb to quarterback full-time.
• Brett Dawson of the Courier-Journal writes that UK is expecting the worst for Hartline.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that Rich Brooks thinks Cobb is a better receiver than quarterback.
• Vaught also writes that Hartline’s injury changes plans for Newton.
• Bill Bryant of the Huntsville Times writes that flattened Auburn must prove its resiliency.
• Andy Bitter of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer writes that Auburn cites lack of focus as its problem.

Continue reading ‘BBL: UK not optimistic about Hartline’s knee’