John Clay's Sidelines

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’

Josh Selby (Photo by Henry Ray Abrams)

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

Jennifer Smith of the Herald-Leader on Oklahoma eliminating UK women in NCAA Tournament:

Kentucky was one win away from making a special season even more special with a trip to the Final Four. But Oklahoma and its speedy guard duo of Nyeshia Stevenson and Danielle Robinson ran away with a 88-68 win over the Cats on Tuesday night in the Sprint Center.

Mark Story of the H-L writes that there is still plenty of hope for the UK women:

An enchanted women’s basketball season that began with Kentucky picked to finish 11th in the SEC ended in the Sprint Center with UK one victory short of making its first-ever trip to the women’s Final Four. In spite of 31 points and 13 rebounds from SEC Player of the Year Dunlap, UK suffered its worst loss of the season, 88-68, to Oklahoma.

H-L photo gallery from Kentucky-Oklahoma.

Jerry Tipton of the H-L talks to Josh Selby:

When asked about recruiting talk that he’s waiting for Knight to sign so he can go to another school, Selby said, “That’s not true at all. (Knight’s choice) is not going to stop me. If we go to the same school, we’ll just have to fight for playing time.” Selby said he watched how Wall and Bledsoe prospered for Kentucky this season.

David Harris of the Dallas Morning News reports on a North Carolina star who has UK in his final five:

Luke Cothron, a 6′ 8″ forward from North Carolina, has changed his commitment from North Carolina State and has narrowed down his choices to five schools: Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida and Texas A&M.

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

Kentucky Sports Network sent along this video of Doron Lamb and C.J. Leslie talking Cats:

Continue reading ‘BBL: Selby, Leslie, Lamb and Luke Cothron updates’