UK Sports Info» brian

Izzo, PAC 10 and the SEC

brian — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:26:22 +0000

Everyone will be sitting and wondering what will take place over the next few days with Tom Izzo and the conference re-alignments. I think it is pretty apparent that Tom Izzo will take the Cleveland job if Lebron remains there. With everyone feeling that Lebron is leaning one way or another, only he knows. Izzo has reached out to a lot of folks including Coach Cal. If he does decide to leave Michigan State then you can expect schools to going hard after their incoming freshmen. Adreian Payne is a name that was floating around the UK message boards when he surprisingly chose MSU over UK and West Virginia. Payne is a good offensive player but looks very lost on the defensive end of the court. He is very athletic and does have the ability to block shots and if he can ever become focused enough to play defense then he could be a great player. Russell Byrd is a shooting guard from Indiana that is 6′7″ and can flat shoot the ball. Byrd has perfect build to shoot from deep and to mix it up a little if needed. Alex Gauna is a big body that you all have seen over the years that Izzo has been at MSU. He always has that one big banger down low that does not impress you with athleticism but he just gets the job done. Keith Appling is a shooting guard who can score and has some quickness. I look for Appling and Gauna to remain at Michigan State if Izzo leaves because of their Michigan background. Byrd may be a player who will jump ship and head to another Big 10 school. Payne will be a mystery much like his decision to head to Michigan State in the first place.

The PAC 10, Big 10 and SEC will be moving to much larger areas of the country as the PAC will likely add Texas tomorrow then Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State will follow in the coming days or weeks. The SEC will add Texas A&M first which will increase it’s number to 11. The big mystery will be who else will the SEC extend invitations to? Seeing that none of this has to do with basketball because football pays the bills it will be interesting. Kansas seems to be the big loser in all of this unless something drastic changes. If the SEC does decide to go into the ACC and pick it apart then you can only imagine what will happen to the remaining teams there. The ACC has been one of the best basketball conferences around and arguably the best for some time, but they have little to offer as far as football goes. They are made up of football teams that are that used to be big players but are no longer in the mix. All of this said, I can’t wait to see what will happens when all of the adjusting is finished. UK will likely suffer more losses in football but will only be adding wins in basketball.

Magic Comes to Rupp

brian — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:37:00 +0000

Magic Johnson made his way to Rupp Arena tonight while he was in town meeting with the governor and the first lady about unemployment and keeping young black males in school to finish their education. Magic has always been a big part of promoting the betterment of peoples lives. Magic spent some time with Dick Gabriel tonight before the game talking about John Wall and this years team. Magic also discussed when he played here back in 1978 against Kyle Macy and Jack Givens.

Before the game started Johnson went into the UK locker room to give them a pep talk. Magic told the team to continue to be strong on defense and everything will be fine. The players were very encouraged by his words and put on a great defensive effort against South Carolina holding them to 38% field goal shooting and 20% three point shooting.

When it was time for the famous “Y” in Kentucky, Magic came out on the court and was like no other “Y” Rupp Arena has ever seen. Magic played to the crowd like no other has ever played to the crowd. First he turns towards the scorers table and raises his arms up then goes into the John Wall Dance. Next he gets the crowd going encouraging them to stand up and cheer louder. As he turns to the other side of the Arena he again displays the John Wall Dance. When he finishes with the “Y” he then continues to get the crowd going by pointing at the UK bench and holding up one finger, saying UK is number 1.

Magic left a lasting impression on the players as well as Big Blue Nation. He greeted fans all that he could, signing autographs and taking pictures. Magic missed a lot of the second half of the game due to his willingness to mingle. He has said before that he loves to watch this team play and tonight was no disappointment. John Wall did not have his most impressive performance but when he is not at his best Wall is still better than 95% of the other point guards in the country.

Video of John Wall Block

brian — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:26:42 +0000

John Wall has been getting lots of ink after the huge game saving block against Vandy last night. There was no doubt that the block by Wall and the three pointer by Patterson were the two biggest plays of the game. Enjoy the video provided by Wildcat World.

The Cats Squeek Past Vandy

brian — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:46:54 +0000

UK Wins The Close One
Kentucky won a close very physical hard fought game. On a day that John Wall was not at this best he came up with the biggest block of his young college career. Cousins overcame an evening where he got beat up on the boards and whenever he touched the ball around the basket. Besides the block that Wall had at the end of the game there was one other huge play in my mind that stands out. The basket interference call at 7:56 with UK down 44-43 was big. From my view of the call, which was basically looking right down at the basket, there was no doubt that it was a bad call. However, I will also say that UK deserved to have a call go there way. This was a game that I felt the ref’s let many easy calls go and made a lot of questionable calls that hurt UK.
Key to the Game
The biggest key to the game in my opinion was UK’s ability to put together a great defensive plan and communicate at a level that they have not done all season long. The team talked helping each other find the open three point shooters with only a few getting wide open looks. Bledsoe for the first time all season long did an excellent job not giving up the back door. Bledsoe has had a very bad problem of relaxing when the ball swings away from his man and giving them an easy look at the basket. Today he stayed in his stance and made sure that he covered all cuts towards the basket.
Patterson
Patrick Patterson had another big day and made another big 3 to push UK to victory. For most of the middle part of the schedule Patterson did not play at the level that Coach Cal and everyone else thought he should be playing at. South Carolina was his low point of the year and since then he has gradually brought himself back into All-American form. Patterson finished the game with 13 points and 13 rebounds which is one of his better rebounding games of the year. Coach Cal said in his post game comments that he has been telling Patterson to just play, he wants him to get 25 points and 15 rebounds every game. Cal also added that Patterson needs to quit deferring to the other players and go get his.
Bad Offensive Stats
In a game that UK had pretty bad numbers in all aspects of shooting they were able to pull out the win. Coach Cal said that he loves this kind of game. UK shot 35.8% from the field, 18.8% from 3 point range and 56.7% from the line. On top of the bad shooting today the Cats were out rebounded 40-36 and only managed to get 10 offensive rebounds (2 in the first half). Needless to say, this was not UK’s best game of the year, but I have to totally agree with Cal that it is a great win. To see UK play defense at the level they did in order to get the win is very encouraging. They are going to need a lot of that Thursday when Devon Downey comes to town. I will say that Downey is over rated beyond belief and that if John Wall, Bledsoe, Patterson or Cousins took as many shots as Downey they would probably average 40 points a game.
The Haters Continue
As I am sitting in the suite here at Memorial Gym, I am listening to the national media bash UK and how “it is an unwritten rule that you do not blow the whistle on UK at the end of the game”. Directly in front of me there is also a very well known member of the national media talking about how full of crap Calipari is and that he never gets his facts right. I will agree that Coach Cal does see things a little different than those in the media, but I must add that there are a lot in the media that have a very skewed view of the game as well. I will not mention individuals names, because I don’t do that, but CBS and ESPN do have some serious UK haters. That is part of the being UK and I welcome it with every insult or complaint.
Great Day
Today was a great day to be a UK fan as we closed out another very close game. I got to meet some of my favorite people in the college basketball world and will remember this day for a long long time.

UK at Vandy Live Blog

brian — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:44:16 +0000

UK at Vandy…Battle for First Place in the SEC

Boogie vs Vernado Live Blog…Go Cats!

brian — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:23:47 +0000

UK at Miss St, Boogie vs Varnado

Video: DeMarcus Cousins receives interesting voice mail

brian — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:04:14 +0000

Video: DeMarcus Cousins receives interesting voice mail.

Pictures From ESPN GameDay

brian — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:44:44 +0000

Here are just a few pictures from ESPN GameDay…

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First Live Blog

brian — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:01:09 +0000

We are going to give it a shot tonight. We are going to have a live blog and see how it goes. Here is the link to join the blog tonight.

Cousins Takes on Varnardo

brian — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:42:46 +0000

Tonight DeMarcus Cousins takes on Jarvis Varnado in a match up I have been waiting for all season. Before the season started I was somewhat frustrated about the level of press that Cousins was getting. In fact I had many discussions with people about Cousins being the best big man in the country. The biggest argument that I got in return was Cole Aldrich and the second was that Cousins attitude would keep him from becoming the elite big man int he country.

Cousins is coming off of his worst performance of the season against Tennessee in which he only had 5 points and 12 rebounds. He played most of the game extremely frustrated with the zone that UT was throwing at the Cats. Cousins did not get many touches and when he did he was getting a lot of contact and not able to do much. There was one big play in which Cousins took the ball away from JP Prince off a rebound and dunked it. His other basket came from a tip in when he was falling down and managed to get one hand on the ball and finese it through the basket.

Even with his worst game of the year he still grabbed rebounds showing that he can dominate a game on the glass even if his offense is struggled. The only part of the game Saturday night that is concerning was the technical foul. From my point of view it looked as though Bledsoe and Maze got into a battle of words following Maze pushing off several times. What I did not see, and according to Bledsoe was Maze taking cheap shots on Cousins including a knee to the back at one point. Bledsoe had even stopped guarding Maze at one point to look him in the face and tell him what he thought. Just seconds later there was a dead ball and Cousins got involved in the talking as soon as the ref walked up which meant Cousins was going to get the technical foul.

I do agree with Coach Cal that this is just another learning point and 100% agree with Cal that when you do anything in life mad you are not at your best. That being said, tonight is going to be a big challenge for Boogie. I believe Cousins will be back and show why he is the best big man in the country. Top to bottom there is no big in the country who can score, pass, rebound and move as well as him.

Varnado has had his way with UK since he has been at Mississippi State blocking shots with ease. Tonight is going to give Varnado a much different look than he has seen at UK and different than any other player he has ever faced. I do believe that if any player in the country can pose legitimate problems for Cousins one-on-one it will be Varnado. I do expect Cousins to rise to the occasion, because he is the best player in the country right now and that is what big players do. Tonight’s game is the game that I have been talking about all year long and I believe this will be one that UK shows its true power and the rights to own the over all number 1 ranking in the country.

Cousins talking about his match up with…..