Five Wildcats Declare for the NBA Draft

John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Daniel Orton and Eric Bledsoe declaring for the NBA draft today was no surprise, and coach John Calipari couldn't be more proud.

Calipari might be losing all of them to the pros, but he should have little trouble reloading now that he can sell a program that has recaptured rock-star status.

The Wildcats already signed small forward Stacey Poole Jr. and have a commitment from Turkish center Enes Kanter, who previously had pledged to Washington.

Credits: Diamond Leung, ESPN.com

Noteworthy Games - Edition: 3.12.10

There were a few noteworthy games yesterday. A game with a really exciting ending, a couple where the higher seed team had to make a come-back to win, and one stunner!

I have to start off with former UK coach, Tubby Smith and the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. The un-ranked Gophers had the stunner of the day with a win over #11 Michigan State. Final Score: 72-67 I will certainly be rooting on he Gophers as they continue Big 10 semifinal play today against #5 Purdue.

The #1 Jayhawks from Kansas had to fight off a pesky Texas A&M squad who led by as many as nine early in the second half. Texas A&M went eight minutes without scoring a field goal in the second half. Final Score: 79-66

The Kentucky Wildcats were one of the teams that had to put up a comeback effort to win. UK(#2) played Alabama in the SEC semi's Friday. Most of the credit for the win went to SEC Player of the Year, UK freshman John Wall. In my opinion another freshman, Eric Bledsoe made several clutch plays and bought a lot of enthusiasm to the court. Final Score: 73-67

In the Big Ten tourney, it took a three-pointer at the buzzer by National Player of the Year contender, Evan Turner to give Ohio State(#7) the win over Michigan. Final Score: 69-68

Best of luck to these teams as they continue on in tournament play today. To those who fell yesterday, hopefully your efforts up until this point were enough to get you into the NCAA Tourney.

SEC Tournament Notes

As I type this, South Carolina and Alabama are tipping off in the first game of this year's Southeastern Conference Tournament. The team picked to win, (and my favorite also) the Wildcats from the University of Kentucky do not take the court until tomorrow at one o'clock. UK is the number one seed overall and number one in the East side of the bracket.

The following is an excerpt from UK's athletic website and is a demonstration of UK's unequaled dominance in the Southeastern Conference.

"The Wildcats have enjoyed unparalleled success in the league’s postseason tournament. In the 49 years the event has been held, Kentucky has captured 25 titles and has won 84 percent of its games in the tourney. Next in line among the schools in tournament titles is Alabama with six. Since the tournament was renewed in 1979, 10 different schools have captured the trophy. Only Vanderbilt and South Carolina have failed to win the event. Kentucky is the only team to win the event 12 times since 1979, including titles in seven of the eight years in the 1990s. During that decade, the Wildcats lost only one SEC Tournament game in 24 tries."

With the conclusion of the regular season on Sunday, UK won it's 44th regular season title with the last coming in 2005. If they were to pull out a win in this year's tourney, it will be their 26th overall title and the first since 2004.

The Southeastern Conference unveiled its men’s basketball coaches postseason awards Tuesday. Four UK players garnered honors. John Wall was named SEC Player of the Year. DeMarcus Cousins won the title of SEC Freshman of the Year. Cousins, Wall and junior, Patrick Patterson were all voted First Team All-SEC by league coaches, while Cousins, Wall and Eric Bledsoe were all named to the SEC All-Freshman team. Patterson was also selected to the league's All-Defensive team.

Notably absent from these honors was UK's head coach, John Calipari. SEC Coach of the Year honors went to Kevin Stallings of Vandy. Not to take anything away from Coach Stallings, after all he did lead Vandy to a second-place finish in the SEC, but let's have a look at what all Coach Cal has done at UK: (via rivals.yahoo.com)

"In the four seasons before Calipari took over at Kentucky, the Wildcats lost an average of 13 games a season, produced just two NCAA tournament victories and even stooped to play in the NIT. Calipari instantly turned that around upon taking over for Billy Gillispie, blending a star-studded recruiting class with a solid group of returnees to transform Kentucky into a Final Four contender.

• Kentucky won the SEC East; Vanderbilt finished two games back.
• Kentucky (29-2) has already won seven more games than it did last year; Vanderbilt (23-7) has won four more.
• Kentucky played Vanderbilt twice in the regular season and won both times."

I am gonna wrap this post up now. It is just after two o'clock and I have been writing this post and watching the first-half of the SC/Alabama for about an hour now. South Carolina is up at the half. Obviously, watching the game a little more than typing but for good reason. The winner of this game is the one that UK will play tomorrow afternoon.

More later this afternoon!

- b