John Clay's Sidelines

Big Blue Links for Friday:

UPDATE: HARTLINE ARREST – More details from Chip Cosby of the H-L.

HARTLINE SACKED FOR ALCOHOL – WLEX-TV has the Mike Hartline arrest news, plus the mug shot. Also arrested was Ashley Kathleen Karnes, a 20-year-old, who appears to be a UK cheerleader, at least on her Facebook page. WKYT also has the Hartline report, as does WTVQ.

Now it’s up to head coach Joker Phillips to hand down a punishment. When Matt Roark received a DUI, the wide receiver was suspended for one game. Phillips said he would handle such arrests on a case-by-case basis, but after I wrote about UK’s change in alcohol policy from previous years, the school said it does have a department policy that athletes are suspended for 10 percent of their season for a DUI. Not sure if that applies in this case, since it was not a DUI. But we shall see. This isn’t what you want out of your quarterback before a bowl game.

UK spokesman Tony Neely said that Phillips is aware of Hartline’s arrest.

POLL QUESTION -- How should Joker Phillips handle Mike Hartline for the bowl game? Vote here.

STUDENT KNOW-IT-ALLS – Nathan Hart of the Indiana Daily Student pens a column saying that John Calipari’s recruiting strategy ultimately doesn’t work. Writes Hart, “But UK will never be an experience-laden squad with Calipari. The good-but-not-great players that stick around and fill out the roster aren’t there. Consider the Big Ten, which is widely regarded as the strongest conference in college basketball this season. Why? Because Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Minnesota are experienced groups.” (Hat tip Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog)

INDIANA BASKETBALL – Michael Marot of the AP writes that an Indiana basketball revival is under way. Excerpt: “Indiana has not recovered completely, but Crean is clearly making progress. For the first time since 2002, Indiana started 6-0 – the longest winning streak of the Crean era. The Hoosiers have now won eight straight home games, another best under Crean, and take a 7-1 record into Saturday’s game at No. 17 Kentucky. What really excites Indiana fans is Crean’s ability to win over recruits.”

Continue reading ‘Hartline arrest; Indiana student paper knocks Cal’

(AP photo/James Crisp)

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

Paul Kuharsky of espn.com: “Jacob Tamme is not Dallas Clark, but six catches for 64 yards and a touchdown is a pretty good tight end contribution. (He’s the 27th player to catch his first-career touchdown from Peyton Manning.) . . . Said Manning of Tamme: “It was nice to see a guy that had a calm, cool look to him the entire night. That is encouraging to see.”

Phillip B. Wilson of the Indianapolis Star: “Tamme, who entered with six career catches for 47 yards in his two-plus seasons, had six catches for 64 yards. Both were personal bests, and that TD was the first score of his NFL career. “That’s kind of the neat thing about being a part of this team,” Tamme said. “Whether you’re on the second team, third team, fourth team, you feel like you can go out there and make a play.”

Herald-Leader photo gallery from Kentucky-Pikeville basketball.

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader: “John Calipari tried to see a 97-66 exhibition victory over Pikeville College on Monday night as the metaphorical glass as half full. And if his team had tried that hard in the game, the Kentucky coach might have been happier with the result. “We really had no fight or viciousness to our game,” he said.  ”We didn’t really rebound. We couldn’t make a three. ”Other than that, I thought we showed some good signs.”

Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader: “The prospect of facing FCS opponent Charleston Southern wouldn’t appear to bring UK out of the doldrums. CSU is 2-6 on the year, 0-4 in the Big South, and was smashed 66-7 by Hawaii in its only matchup with an FBS program. Despite all that, assistant head coach David Turner said Kentucky better be prepared to take the Buccaneers seriously.”

Michael Grant of the Courier-Journal: “UK ripped Pikeville College 97-66 in an exhibition game at Rupp Arena on Monday night before a crowd of 21,127. Coach John Calipari is attempting to build a contender on the fly with several new additions for the second consecutive season. The most high-profile newcomer, Brandon Knight, played as well as advertised.”

Video of Pikeville coach Kelly Wells’ post-game comments.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Tamme shines for Colts; UK’s uneven exhibition’

Kentucky freshman Stacey Poole says this team is laid-back and loves to “chill.”

Click here to see this video on YouTube.

Big Blue Links for Friday:

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports that DeMarcus Cousins has an agent:

Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins has hired an agent who’s delivering a bold message to the NBA: The No. 1 pick in the draft could come out of Kentucky, but it won’t necessarily be point guard John Wall. “There are teams that have done their homework on DeMarcus, and if the lottery ball bounces right, he could be the No. 1 pick in the draft,” agent John Greig told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday.

Mark Story of the Herald-Leader writes on new UK offensive line coach Mike Summers:

An offensive line coach makes his living teaching mammoth-sized gladiators football’s version of hand-to-hand combat. Yet Mike Summers, Kentucky’s new O-line coach, brings almost a professorial air to this manly task. It’s not just his spectacles, either.

Bluegrass State Basketball on Jarrod Polson’s pickup game:

He demonstrated good athleticism, an ability to score and great ball-handling skills in pickup action against several current and former Kentucky players.

Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader has an update on C.J. Leslie:

Hatchett said that Leslie tentatively planned to announce his college choice at the Jordan Brand Game in New York City on April 17. Although the coach also noted that Leslie might announce the choice earlier than that or, perhaps, someimt after the game.

Tipton reports that Stacey Poole is looking forward to Derby Festival:

Poole acknowledged that he will bring a relatively modest profile to UK. He’s not the kind of mega prospect like John Wall or DeMarcus Cousins. And UK Coach John Calipari said after Poole committed that he told the player the program would pursue other guards.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Agent thinks Cousins is better than Wall’

This is UK coach John Calipari at the day-before press conference today talking about basketball signee Stacey Poole.

Calipari in Nashville on Wednesday.Big Blue Links for Thursday:

Big Blue Links for Thursday:

• Joe Biddle of the Tennessean writes that John Calipari has connected with Kentucky fans.
• The Tennessean also has video of Calipari’s trip to Nashville.
• Jeff Elliott of Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union reports that Stacey Poole is expected to announce for UK today.
• Phil Kornblut of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports that Poole has made his decision.
• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes on UK’s plan to play John Conner some at tight end.
• UK has changed time on ticket pickup for Madness.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Calipari big hit on trip to Nashville’

(AP Photo/ James Crisp)

Big Blue Links for Wednesday:

• Chip Cosby of the Herald-Leader writes that UK secondary is trying to live up to the hype.
• My column saying that, outside of natural rivals, SEC fans hate Florida the most.
• Ex-Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith is out pushing health-care reform.
• Kenny Colston of the Kentucky Kernel reports that Landon Slone is still at UK.
• B.W. Jones of the Kernel reports that UK defensive line looks for improvement.
• Chris Rodgers of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports that Stacey Poole’s mother wants him close to home.
• Mary Jo Perino of WLEX thinks Poole to Kentucky may have already leaked.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Landon Slone is back at UK, but not for hoops’

Rivals.com National Hoops Report is reporting that Stacey Poole will make his college choice announcement between UK and South Carolina at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on ESPNU.

It’s confirmed by his AAU team.

Big Blue Links for Tuesday:

• Herald-Leader’s Valarie Honeycutt Spears reports that UK is paying $30,000, plus monthly fees, for John Calipari to join Lexington Country Club.
• Chip Cosby of the H-L reports that Kentucky must avoid early KO against Florida.
• H-L’s Mark Story on Kentucky’s uphill battle.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that Stacey Poole could be a Cat soon.
• Chris Rodgers of Palmetto Sports reports that Poole will make decision very soon.
• Seth Emerson of The State reports that South Carolina knows it trails on Poole.
• Lawrence Journal-World reports that Adreian Payne will visit Kansas on Oct. 31.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Stacey Poole could make choice today’

Note: I’ll be liveblogging the Rich Brooks weekly press conference today, which starts around 12:15 p.m., if not a bit before.

Big Blue Links for Monday:

• Chip Cosby of the H-L writes that high-powered Florida is trying to contain the flu.
• My column saying that both Florida and Kentucky will have plenty to prove on Saturday.
• Jody Demling of the C-J reports that Stacey Poole is down to UK and South Carolina after his visit to Lexington.
• Zagsblog reports that Tobias Harris plans to cut list to five after Wednesday.’
• Eric Crawford of the Courier-Journal has some fun stats after a fun UK-U of L game.
• Brett Dawson of the C-J writes that Rich Brooks wants no blue flu.
• Larry Vaught of the Danville Advocate-Messenger reports that UK can’t make same mistakes against Gators.

Continue reading ‘BBL: Stacey Poole down to UK and South Carolina’