Today I am thankful for Joker Phillips and his many contributions to the University of Kentucky and it's football program, first as a student-athlete and then in several capacities on it's football coaching staff.
Phillips released a statement earlier this evening after the news broke that he would not be returning as head coach next season. It read in part: ''I am very appreciative of Mitch Barnhart and Rich Brooks for providing the opportunity to have been the head coach here. I appreciate the Big Blue Nation and encourage the fans to stay behind their team going forward.''
Joker, you are a true class act and will always be a part of Big Blue Nation and UK Football lore. Thanks for the memories!
Showing posts with label SEC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEC. Show all posts
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
Kentucky likely to dominate 2013 draft, too
The 2012 NBA draft was a familiar scene.
Kentucky players heard their names called in suitably historic fashion -- Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist became the first teammates of the modern era to be selected Nos. 1 and 2 overall -- en route to an expected six total selections, four of which came in the first round. As during his Memphis tenure, and as in 2010 (when John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins both went in the top five) and 2011 (when Brandon Knight led the way) John Calipari was on the draft floor, smiling and hugging and soaking up the countless brand-oriented benefits that come with being at the center of yet another massive NBA draft haul.
This has become the routine for Calipari: Recruit some of the best prospects in the country, accelerate their cohesion and development, make a run at a national title, send them to the NBA draft, rinse, repeat. Whether you believe Calipari can claim credit for developing NBA players or merely recruiting them (I tend to fall on Jay Bilas's side of the argument, but there is some gray area there) the process has become an annual tradition.
There's no reason to expect anything different in 2013.
This morning, I planned to do a more in-depth, listy look at the teams who could challenge Kentucky for most populous draft classes in 2013 -- but, as usual, the pool of challengers looks slim. As Chad Ford wrote in his 2013 lookahead this weekend , Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel is the early favorite to be the No. 1 overall selection in next year's draft. Even if that doesn't pan out -- scouts already really love Indiana's Cody Zeller, and Zeller should only improve as as sophomore -- it's unlikely we'll see Noel drop much further than the top five. Meanwhile, incoming Kentucky freshman Alex Poythress is ranked No. 5 in Ford's 2013 top 100 , while classmate Archie Goodwin comes in at No. 17 overall. Throw in power forward Kyle Wiltjer, and point guard Ryan Harrow, both of whom could have big seasons in starting roles, and while the Wildcats' talent won't come anywhere close to 2012's heights, it's clear they are still the leaders in the 2013 NBA draft clubhouse.
The closest any squad comes to matching the breadth and depth of UK's potential draft offerings per Ford's top 100 is UCLA. Shabazz Muhammed is a top-five talent, fellow freshman guard Kyle Anderson is ranked No. 15, and there are mock drafts that list forward Joshua Smith as a potential lottery pick (provided he can slim down and harness all the potential in that massive frame).
That's the closest challenger. Those UCLA players (and coach Ben Howland) have much to prove before that comes to fruition, and elite draft picks have not always thrived in Howland's traditional downtempo system. That's true of everyone in next year's draft, of course, and obviously it's much too early to start counting up draft picks. We're still an entire year, and an entire college hoops season, away.
But as of now, it would appear that what's been true of Kentucky under Calipari since he took the job will remain true next summer, too. If any other program matches UK's concentrated draft accolades, it won't just be an expected random blip. It will be a major surprise.
Credit: ESPN
Kentucky players heard their names called in suitably historic fashion -- Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist became the first teammates of the modern era to be selected Nos. 1 and 2 overall -- en route to an expected six total selections, four of which came in the first round. As during his Memphis tenure, and as in 2010 (when John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins both went in the top five) and 2011 (when Brandon Knight led the way) John Calipari was on the draft floor, smiling and hugging and soaking up the countless brand-oriented benefits that come with being at the center of yet another massive NBA draft haul.
This has become the routine for Calipari: Recruit some of the best prospects in the country, accelerate their cohesion and development, make a run at a national title, send them to the NBA draft, rinse, repeat. Whether you believe Calipari can claim credit for developing NBA players or merely recruiting them (I tend to fall on Jay Bilas's side of the argument, but there is some gray area there) the process has become an annual tradition.
There's no reason to expect anything different in 2013.
This morning, I planned to do a more in-depth, listy look at the teams who could challenge Kentucky for most populous draft classes in 2013 -- but, as usual, the pool of challengers looks slim. As Chad Ford wrote in his 2013 lookahead this weekend , Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel is the early favorite to be the No. 1 overall selection in next year's draft. Even if that doesn't pan out -- scouts already really love Indiana's Cody Zeller, and Zeller should only improve as as sophomore -- it's unlikely we'll see Noel drop much further than the top five. Meanwhile, incoming Kentucky freshman Alex Poythress is ranked No. 5 in Ford's 2013 top 100 , while classmate Archie Goodwin comes in at No. 17 overall. Throw in power forward Kyle Wiltjer, and point guard Ryan Harrow, both of whom could have big seasons in starting roles, and while the Wildcats' talent won't come anywhere close to 2012's heights, it's clear they are still the leaders in the 2013 NBA draft clubhouse.
The closest any squad comes to matching the breadth and depth of UK's potential draft offerings per Ford's top 100 is UCLA. Shabazz Muhammed is a top-five talent, fellow freshman guard Kyle Anderson is ranked No. 15, and there are mock drafts that list forward Joshua Smith as a potential lottery pick (provided he can slim down and harness all the potential in that massive frame).
That's the closest challenger. Those UCLA players (and coach Ben Howland) have much to prove before that comes to fruition, and elite draft picks have not always thrived in Howland's traditional downtempo system. That's true of everyone in next year's draft, of course, and obviously it's much too early to start counting up draft picks. We're still an entire year, and an entire college hoops season, away.
But as of now, it would appear that what's been true of Kentucky under Calipari since he took the job will remain true next summer, too. If any other program matches UK's concentrated draft accolades, it won't just be an expected random blip. It will be a major surprise.
Credit: ESPN
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
UK's grades slip in Calipari's first year
Kentucky had a fantastic season in John Calipari's first year. The Wildcats energized the faithful. They re-established UK as one of the nation's elite programs. And they showed off Calipari's unique ability to not only recruit the best talent in the country but to mesh that talent in ways that produce results on the basketball court.
The only problem? The stuff that happened off the court.
More specifically, the problem here is what happened when those talented Cats got into the classroom. According to an open records request by the Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky hoops posted a GPA of 2.025 in the fall semester of Calipari's first year. For those of you who can't remember what the GPA scale is, that's barely better than a C average. If the Kentucky men's basketball team were your average student, that student would be fighting hard to graduate, his parents would be wondering if their son needs a "change of scenery," and that son would probably start thinking about changing his major to one of the few professions whose prospective employers don't care about your GPA. (Hello, journalism!) In other words, it's not very good.
The GPA was the lowest of any of Kentucky's 20 athletics teams and the worst among the nine SEC teams that released their average GPAs to the Herald-Leader. Two UK players (only their scores, and not the individual names, were released) had GPAs lower than the 1.8 needed to be eligible for the spring semester. That penalty doesn't take effect until the second year, meaning two of the lowest GPAs -- D+ averages -- belonged to freshmen. The highest GPA was 3.59, which totally screwed up the curve for everyone else. Way to go, anonymous smartypants.
Before we get to the fallout here, it's important to note that Kentucky's administration and athletics department are already making their disappointment clear:
There's no incentive here. It stands to reason that the more one-and-done players your program has, the less serious your program is going to be about academics. (Of course, not only the one-and-dones had bad grades here; the entire team is responsible. But the correlation seems fair.)
With that in mind, it's a little difficult to criticize Kentucky, because the truth of the matter is that this is 2010's college basketball system. The NBA doesn't care about grades. The NCAA does. And the longer the NCAA goes along with the NBA's rule, the more often we'll see teams like Calipari's -- brilliant on the court, apathetic off -- post GPAs low enough to make their university president squirm.
In the meantime, it's safe to say most Kentucky fans won't much care about this sort of thing. They want to win. College basketball fans might be idealistic at heart, but they get it. It's the NCAA that does its best to maintain the illusion that these are student-athletes, and not just athletes, even if the reality has long proved otherwise. If Calipari keeps churning out 35-3 seasons, 2.025 GPAs will be met with little more than lip service and a collective shrug.
None of this excuses Kentucky, of course -- there were plenty of other programs with one-and-done players this season, and none of them appears to have performed this poorly in the classroom. A 2.0 would be embarrassing for that average college student. It's even more embarrassing when it's an average culled from a team of players with limitless academic resources focused on ensuring that embarrassing GPAs don't happen in the first place.
Throughout 2009-10, Calipari consistently touted Wall's 3.0 average as a measure of accomplishment. Turns out, Wall's excellent leadership on the floor didn't extend to the classroom. Neither, apparently, did Calipari's. Cynicism aside, that's a bad sign for any coach, especially for one as high-profile as Kentucky's. But don't say you didn't see it coming.
Credits: Eamonn Brennan, ESPN
The only problem? The stuff that happened off the court.
More specifically, the problem here is what happened when those talented Cats got into the classroom. According to an open records request by the Lexington Herald-Leader, Kentucky hoops posted a GPA of 2.025 in the fall semester of Calipari's first year. For those of you who can't remember what the GPA scale is, that's barely better than a C average. If the Kentucky men's basketball team were your average student, that student would be fighting hard to graduate, his parents would be wondering if their son needs a "change of scenery," and that son would probably start thinking about changing his major to one of the few professions whose prospective employers don't care about your GPA. (Hello, journalism!) In other words, it's not very good.
The GPA was the lowest of any of Kentucky's 20 athletics teams and the worst among the nine SEC teams that released their average GPAs to the Herald-Leader. Two UK players (only their scores, and not the individual names, were released) had GPAs lower than the 1.8 needed to be eligible for the spring semester. That penalty doesn't take effect until the second year, meaning two of the lowest GPAs -- D+ averages -- belonged to freshmen. The highest GPA was 3.59, which totally screwed up the curve for everyone else. Way to go, anonymous smartypants.
Before we get to the fallout here, it's important to note that Kentucky's administration and athletics department are already making their disappointment clear:
"I was disappointed," UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. said recently.That's all well and good, but here's the rub: Did anyone particularly expect John Calipari to field a team of SEC-leading academic minds? Throw out all the stuff about Calipari's recruiting issues in the past, wherein he has been in close proximity to -- but never implicated in -- vacated seasons and academically ineligible players. Simply looking at Calipari's preferred recruiting strategy works. The man likes one-and-done players. He signed them at Memphis. He won with them at Memphis. The same happened in his first year in Lexington. And a one-and-done player has little, if any, reason to care about his grades. He's going to be playing in the NBA in eight months; why on Earth would he study extra hard to get that B?
"It's not something we're happy with, I'll tell you that," said Sandy Bell, UK's senior associate athletic director and the person in charge of student services. "And we'll be working on it to get it up. We certainly anticipate that going up in the spring" semester.
There's no incentive here. It stands to reason that the more one-and-done players your program has, the less serious your program is going to be about academics. (Of course, not only the one-and-dones had bad grades here; the entire team is responsible. But the correlation seems fair.)
With that in mind, it's a little difficult to criticize Kentucky, because the truth of the matter is that this is 2010's college basketball system. The NBA doesn't care about grades. The NCAA does. And the longer the NCAA goes along with the NBA's rule, the more often we'll see teams like Calipari's -- brilliant on the court, apathetic off -- post GPAs low enough to make their university president squirm.
In the meantime, it's safe to say most Kentucky fans won't much care about this sort of thing. They want to win. College basketball fans might be idealistic at heart, but they get it. It's the NCAA that does its best to maintain the illusion that these are student-athletes, and not just athletes, even if the reality has long proved otherwise. If Calipari keeps churning out 35-3 seasons, 2.025 GPAs will be met with little more than lip service and a collective shrug.
None of this excuses Kentucky, of course -- there were plenty of other programs with one-and-done players this season, and none of them appears to have performed this poorly in the classroom. A 2.0 would be embarrassing for that average college student. It's even more embarrassing when it's an average culled from a team of players with limitless academic resources focused on ensuring that embarrassing GPAs don't happen in the first place.
Throughout 2009-10, Calipari consistently touted Wall's 3.0 average as a measure of accomplishment. Turns out, Wall's excellent leadership on the floor didn't extend to the classroom. Neither, apparently, did Calipari's. Cynicism aside, that's a bad sign for any coach, especially for one as high-profile as Kentucky's. But don't say you didn't see it coming.
Credits: Eamonn Brennan, ESPN
Monday, March 15, 2010
Noteworthy Games - Edition: 3.14.10
There were four games yesterday. All four were conference championships. In one game a team was playing not only for a conference championship but for its only chance to get into the NCAA tourney, an automatic bid. Another game featured a team that had beaten three teams, one of them unranked, and the #11 and #5 ranked teams in the nation to reach it's conference championship. By the way, did I mention the team doing so was unranked? Next up, you have a team that is always on the national radar. Finally, a team that has been a NCAA tourney bracketbuster on numerous occasions.
I know that I have had a bit of a love affair for Minnesota lately. I also realize that the last two days, I have started off talking about them. So...why should today be any different? The Golden Gophers took on Big 10 powerhouse Ohio State yesterday and got their asses handed to them in the championship game. Final score, 90-61.
In all fairness though, this was their fourth game in as many days and they had overcome some huge obstacles to make it into the championship game. Those obstacles being the #11th (Michigan State), and #5th (Purdue) ranked teams in the nation. Did I mention that they did all of this as unranked team? Coach Tubby Smith and company, to you I tip my hat. You have nothing to be ashamed of!
Next up we have the nail-biting, barn-burner that featured the University of Kentucky and Mississippi in the Southeastern Conference final. Words really could not do this game justice, and so here are the highlights from ESPN.com.
In short, Kentucky(#2) rallied from five down with 2:28 left in regulation to beat Mississippi State. Final Score: 75-74
Temple beat Richmond to win its 3rd straight Atlantic 10 title. Final Score: 56-52
In a ACC tournament filled with upsets, it took a gritty effort from Duke to hold off a determined comeback from the (tournament) seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets from Georgia Tech, who were trying to become the first team in tournament history to win four games in four days. In the end though, there was just to much Duke. Final Score: 65-61
I know that I have had a bit of a love affair for Minnesota lately. I also realize that the last two days, I have started off talking about them. So...why should today be any different? The Golden Gophers took on Big 10 powerhouse Ohio State yesterday and got their asses handed to them in the championship game. Final score, 90-61.
In all fairness though, this was their fourth game in as many days and they had overcome some huge obstacles to make it into the championship game. Those obstacles being the #11th (Michigan State), and #5th (Purdue) ranked teams in the nation. Did I mention that they did all of this as unranked team? Coach Tubby Smith and company, to you I tip my hat. You have nothing to be ashamed of!
Next up we have the nail-biting, barn-burner that featured the University of Kentucky and Mississippi in the Southeastern Conference final. Words really could not do this game justice, and so here are the highlights from ESPN.com.
John Wall scored 7 of his 17 points in overtime as the Wildcats won their 26th SEC tournament title and first since 2004. UK is now 8-0 in games decided by five points or less and/or OT.
Eric Bledsoe led the Wildcats with 18 points and has scored in double figures in four straight games.
DeMarcus Cousins, whose tip-in at the buzzer in regulation sent the game to overtime, finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds for his 20th double-double of the season.
In short, Kentucky(#2) rallied from five down with 2:28 left in regulation to beat Mississippi State. Final Score: 75-74
Temple beat Richmond to win its 3rd straight Atlantic 10 title. Final Score: 56-52
In a ACC tournament filled with upsets, it took a gritty effort from Duke to hold off a determined comeback from the (tournament) seventh-seeded Yellow Jackets from Georgia Tech, who were trying to become the first team in tournament history to win four games in four days. In the end though, there was just to much Duke. Final Score: 65-61
Thursday, March 11, 2010
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.
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 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."
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)
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."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."
More later this afternoon!
- b
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