North Carolina, Kentucky renew series

It's official: North Carolina and Kentucky will renew their basketball series, with a game in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Dec. 14 next season, and another at Rupp Arena in Kentucky during the 2015-16 season.

“I think it’s a great series for both schools and our fans as well as college basketball fans period,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said in a prepared statement. “North Carolina and Kentucky have great traditions and, regardless of who you pull for, fans mark this as a must-see game on the schedule.”

After 12 years, the schools did not play this season, citing the expansion of the ACC and SEC schedules.

UNC leads the series 22-13 and has won six of the last nine meetings.

Credit: ESPN

ESPN Tip-Off Marathon schedule is here

For the college basketball fan, there aren't many glorious July days, but this one definitely counts: the release of the 2012 ESPN Tip-Off Marathon schedule, set to take place for all 24 hours (and then some) on Tuesday, Nov. 13. I think you're going to like what's being offered.

First things first. The games are as follows (all times ET):

Midnight: West Virginia at Gonzaga
2 a.m.: Davidson at New Mexico
4 a.m.: Houston Baptist at Hawaii
6 a.m.: Stony Brook at Rider
8 a.m.: Northern Illinois at Valparaiso
10 a.m.: Harvard at Massachusetts
12 p.m.: Temple at Kent State
2 p.m.: Detroit at St. John’s
4 p.m.: Butler at Xavier
7 p.m.: Michigan State vs. Kansas (Champions Classic, Georgia Dome, Atlanta)
30 minutes following MSU/KU: Duke vs. Kentucky (Champions Classic)

Here's the thing: If you're a casual college basketball fan, someone who doesn't spend all summer reading College Basketball Nation in heated anticipation of posts like these, you might be somewhat nonplussed.

Davidson at New Mexico might not do anything for you. Harvard at UMass might not tickle your fancy. I get that. But for the college hoops fan -- the kind who knows how cool it will be to see a midnight game at New Mexico's Pit, the kind who recognizes UMass as a sleeper A-10 contender in 2012-13, the kind who knows how good Detroit guard Ray McCallum Jr. is, the kind who realizes what a tough early road test Kent State will be for Temple -- that schedule has a little bit of everything.

Although the Mountaineers-Zags NCAA tourney rematch is a tantalizing opener, the real showstoppers come late in the day. Butler-Xavier is a strange game, considering Butler's early realignment move to the Atlantic 10 this season. The two will actually be playing a nonconference game in the first week of the season before meeting again during league play. You don't see that often. If the basketball gods shine upon us, this will be the game that truly kicks off a heated Midwestern rivalry between two marquee March programs. They've had some good battles in the recent past -- no reason for that to stop now.

And of course, the Champions Classic, now in its second year, is just going to be flat-out awesome: Michigan State will play Kansas just four days (four days!) after opening its season against Connecticut at a U.S. military base in Germany. Last season, the Spartans flew from the Carrier Classic in San Diego to Madison Square Garden four days later. This year, they'll be making a trip from Germany to Georgia in roughly the same time. If Tom Izzo could schedule a game at the International Space Station, he would. The dude will literally play anybody anywhere.

Then there's Duke versus Kentucky. Two bluebloods. Two powerhouses. Two larger-than-life coaches. One unlikely but very deeply felt rivalry. It exists for one reason: March 28, 1992. It's something you notice as a college hoops writer: Both teams' fan bases go out of their way to tweak each other. They are in many ways cultural and basketball antitheses. There is real hate here.

With all this sturm und drang on both sides -- the trolling of opposition message boards is my personal favorite -- it's easy to forget that these two teams don't play, like, ever. The last time they met was Dec. 18, 2001, over a decade ago, at the Jimmy V Classic in New Jersey. Kentucky had Tayshaun Prince and Keith Bogans; Duke had Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Carlos Boozer, Chris Duhon, Dahntay Jones and future Barack Obama body man Reggie Love. The Blue Devils won 95-92 in an overtime classic.

Despite the huge gap in actual basketball competition, Duke and UK fans have only increased their mutual distaste in the Internet age. The run-up to the game -- not to mention the split Georgia Dome -- is going to be certifiably insane.

And there you have it: The early portions of the marathon may not do much for neophytes, but the hard-core fans will have plenty to chew on ... just before the final three games of the evening (hopefully) blow us away. I can't wait to live blog this thing for too many hours. More than anything, I can't wait for basketball. Only a few more months now. Consider that your new mantra.

Source: ESPN, College Basketball Nation Blog

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

UK fans already in line for tickets

There are a lot of sports franchises in a lot of places in the world, so this statement doesn't come lightly: Few fan bases anywhere support their teams as well as Kentucky's. Minus the political overtones and occasional deluge of riotous violence, Kentucky basketball fans are insane in the way South American soccer fans are insane, which makes them entirely admirable. And, yes, sometimes a little bit annoying. (For example, the Kentucky fan who has sent in the same mailbag question -- "Why do you hate Kentucky and love everyone else?" -- 20 times, reworded slightly each time. You know who you are, dude.)

Anyway, the latest example, as if we needed it, is this report from the Lexington Herald-Leader. Big Blue Madness tickets are being distributed Saturday morning on Kentucky's campus. Anticipating demand, school officials asked Kentucky fans not to camp for tickets until Wednesday morning. Kentucky fans complied. Which means there are hundreds of people sitting in tents in Lexington, Ky., in their second day of a four-day wait for tickets to a practice. See? Insane.

But, hey, at least the weather should be nice. Less insane that way, perhaps.

According to the Herald-Leader, Kentucky fans aren't just waiting in line; they're actively protesting on behalf of Enes Kanter's eligibility. "Free Enes" T-shirts and signs have overtaken the landscape. Supportive? Sure. Useless? Definitely. But you can't ask the folks waiting for practice tickets in tents to be all that rational about signage. Nor, um, would you want to.

Credits: Eamonn Brennan, ESPN

John Calipari visits 102-year-old fan

Here's a bummer about getting old: Until you get really, really, really old -- the kind of old that's so old you're not sure if you want to be that old -- people don't care. Being 80 is rarely seen as an accomplishment. But when you reach a certain threshold, people care more than ever. You get your photo on the "Today Show." Your relatives mention you in casual conversation. ("My grandpa is 104, and he still walks a mile every day!") People clap for you at weddings.

And, perhaps most importantly, high-profile college hoops coaches come visit you on your birthday.

At least, one does. Kentucky coach John Calipari, master of the positive public relations stunt (and, by all accounts, a genuinely caring and outgoing guy), visited Dr. Gifford Blyton, a 102-year-old Kentucky season-ticket holder for 62 years and a former professor under eight different presidents at Kentucky, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Calipari is traveling in support of his latest book, "Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life," but he stopped the book tour for the momentary visit with Blyton at Fat Boys restaurant in Georgetown, Ky. (Mmm. Fat Boys. I've never been there, but any restaurant named "Fat Boys" is bound to be delicious. I bet there's lots of gravy.)

In any case, Calipari left the meeting with a ready-made quote straight from the inspirational coachspeak handbook:

“You give money, and you're giving a fraction of what you have,” Calipari said last week. “But when you give your time, you're giving everything.”

Which, like all good inspirational coachspeak handbook quotes, has the benefit of being both hokey and true. Fans eat this stuff up, and it's no wonder why. Calipari is good at a lot of things -- recruiting, meshing teams together, coaching defense -- but creating a genuine sense of outreach and community in his adopted home might be his best, and perhaps most admirable, trait.

Credits: Eamon Brennan, ESPN

Kentucky leads nation in attendance again

The Kentucky Wildcats didn't win the NCAA tournament, but they are champions at the turnstiles this season thanks to Ashley Judd, Drake and the rest of the Big Blue Nation. According to a press release from the NCAA, the school led the nation once again in attendance.

"For 14 of the last 15 seasons and the fifth straight year, Kentucky led the nation in home attendance average at 24,111 fans per game. Syracuse was second at 22,152. One of those two schools has led the nation in each of the past 34 seasons. Kentucky’s total home attendance of 433,989 was the best for a school since 1993.

For all-game attendance – including home, road and neutral-site games – Kentucky was tops as 724,145 fans watched the Wildcats over 38 games. Ten teams played in front more than a half million fans this season."

Credits: Diamond Leung, ESPN

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:

"I was disappointed," UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. said recently.

"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.

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?

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

Marquis Teague picks Kentucky

Rick Pitino desperately needed to win the battle for Marquis Teague's commitment. He didn't.

Instead, after years of Louisville recruiting, close ties to Pitino through his father Shawn, and a common assumption that Louisville would be his choice -- until John Calipari arrived at Kentucky and changed everything, that is -- the No. 4-ranked player in the 2011 class defied long-held consensus and selected the University of Kentucky as his collegiate basketball destination. The commonwealth's latest heated recruiting war is over, and Calipari is the victor. Again.

At his news conference (which immediately followed the NCAA's teleconference on its new rights deal; talk about overshadowing the kid's big moment) Teague gave unsurprising reasons for his choices. He told reporters he thought Kentucky was a good fit for him. He believes Calipari coaches guards well, an opinion his brother Jeff Teague, a former point guard at Wake Forest and a current NBA rookie, shared. He isn't worried about the NBA, Teague said, instead saying he wanted to win, get an education, and build a "dynasty." Alongside Michael Gilchrist, the No. 1 overall player in ESPNU's class of 2011, who has also committed to Kentucky, that dynasty is eminently plausible.

The on-court impact is simple: Teague and Gilchrist will headline another elite Kentucky team built around an insane Calipari recruiting class. Many observers will pick the Wildcats to win the 2011-2012 title before either player steps foot in Lexington. They'll be that good.

As fun as that will be to watch, the off-court intrigue might be the most interesting part of this story. For years, Teague was Rick Pitino's recruit. When John Calipari entered the equation, Teague wavered, and now Calipari has pulled off the sort of recruiting heist that will make Pitino's hair whiter than the suit he wears for home white-outs. Neither coach likes the other. Neither program, or their fan bases, get along very well. Pitino not only needed Teague to get the Cardinals back to the lofty levels they've enjoyed for much of Pitino's tenure, he needed Teague to prove that he is every bit the recruiting force and program-building monster that Calipari is.

That reputation took a major hit today. Rick Pitino is a legendary coach, and losing one recruit doesn't change that. But it does tilt the balance of power in the Commonwealth's intense basketball universe. Maybe for good.

Credits: Eamonn Brennan, ESPN

Brandon Knight commits to UK

Not only was Brandon Knight's announcement that he would play at UK terribly exciting news for the University of Kentucky  and its basketball fans but then in paragraph three Brennan dropped in a West Wing reference. UK Basketball + Big Recruits + West Wing = A VERY HAPPY ME!!! (That reminds me, I have a West Wing DVD that I need to get started on from Netflix.)

Back in the fall, ESPNU's No. 1 overall player Harrison Barnes sat in Ames, Iowa, live on ESPNU, where he surprised many by choosing North Carolina over Duke, Iowa State, and pretty much every other school in the country (any of which would have happily taken him).

Fast forward a few months, when the No. 4-ranked player, Brandon Knight, had his moment in the ESPNU sun. Cue the suspense? Not quite. In one of the least surprising recruiting decisions since, well, John Wall's, Knight just announced his decision to play his college basketball at Kentucky under John Calipari. Shocker.

This has become par for the course for Calipari. Wall was last spring's major recruiting coup. This year's is Knight, the best remaining uncommitted player in the late signing period. The major implication is obvious: Kentucky fans will hope Knight can step into the backcourt role recently vacated by the NBA-bound Wall and fellow guard Eric Bledsoe. That might be a bit of a stretch -- Knight is a very good point guard, but Wall was a once-in-every-five-years kind of player. Asking Knight to replace Wall is like asking Matt Santos to replace Josiah Bartlet. Both guys are great, but come on. (West Wing reference, anyone? No?)

There are also implications down the rest of the ESPNU 100 board. Point guard Josh Selby, ESPNU's No. 5 overall guy, will announce his decision Saturday. It's unlikely Selby will want to risk being Knight's second-fiddle at Kentucky, which will please the other schools (Kansas, Arizona, Tennessee, and Connecticut) on Selby's list. Although to be fair, the same was said before Bledsoe's decision last year.

How the rest of the recruiting field will shake out will have a lot to do with those two players. But no one can say they didn't see this coming. Brandon Knight is at Kentucky. John Calipari landed another blue-chip point guard. The surprises just keep on coming.

Credits: Eamonn Brennan, ESPN.com

Mountain-topped

Yesterday, the University of Kentucky basketball team capped off it's 2009-2010 season with a loss in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA Tournament to the Mountaineers of West Virginia. It was a very disappointing end to what had been a very victorious season.

The previous season (2008-09) was a very dismal one for the Cats. They finish the regular season 19–12 with an 8–8 SEC record. With an unimpressive regular season and quick elimination in the SEC tournament, UK missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in 18 years and instead received an invitation to the NIT tournament where the team was defeated in the quarterfinal round against Notre Dame.

To come from that to where UK finished this season was unimaginable and I am more than proud to be a True Blue Fan this morning. However, the guys did not play the game that they were more than capable of playing yesterday and that is what adds salt to the wound. The following is a story written by Mark Story and published by the Lexington Herald Leader which portrays my feelings exactly.

In the end, Kentucky picked the biggest game of the year to play its worst game of the year.

In the end, Kentucky's wondrous freshmen, who had been so mature, so poised, played so young.

In the end, a great and wondrous season that had taken the Wildcats so far, came up short.

What was it that Bob Huggins said Friday about you had to be lucky to make the Final Four?

This Kentucky team may not have had many weaknesses, but in the East Regional finals, Kentucky was unlucky enough to have all of them laid bare in a 73-66 loss to West Virginia.

■ Inconsistent three-point shooting: Kentucky missed its first 20 three-point attempts and ended up 4-for-32 from beyond the arc.

"It gets a little demoralizing when you miss the shots that we missed," said UK Coach John Calipari afterward.

■ Spotty foul shooting: The Cats made just 16 of 29 from the foul line for 55.2 percent.

"We kept missing free throws," said Calipari. "Oh my goodness."

■ The task of trying to win it all starting three freshmen: Huggins' older, more experienced Mountaineers got into the heads of the Cats, employing a tricky 1-3-1 zone on defense and knocking down big shots on offense.

"They outplayed us," said Calipari, "but I think there were times when our inexperience hurt us."

But then Calipari said this: "It also got us where we are today."

He's right about that. A year ago, Kentucky was losing to Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of the NIT. There was no John Wall, no DeMarcus Cousins, no Eric Bledsoe, no Daniel Orton. There was a different coach.

All that was magically swept away nearly the day Calipari took the job. He sold the program. He mended the fences. He brought in unbelievable talent. He won an SEC regular-season title, an SEC Tournament title. He attained a No. 1 ranking and a No. 1 seed. He took the program back to that seat at the head table.

Then, in the biggest game of the year, he ran up against a savvy old friend with an air-tight plan.

Give Huggins credit. His 1-3-1 zone defense bothered the Cats. It cut off penetration. It forced the Cats to settle for three-pointers. Kentucky settled. And missed. And missed. Kentucky missed its first 20 three-point attempts, before DeAndre Liggins hit a triple with 3:28 left.

You knew West Virginia would play well defensively. Huggins' teams always play well defensively. What you didn't know is that Huggins' team would make shots. While Kentucky was throwing up bricks, WVU was finding nothing but net. The Mountaineers made 10 of 23 three-pointers.

Point guard Joe Mazzulla, pressed into action when starting point guard Darryl Bryant broke his foot earlier in the week, averaged 2.2 points on the season. Saturday, he scored 17.

"He hit some layups that were backbreakers," said Calipari.

There will be those who say this was a backbreaking loss. Kentucky basketball has high standards. And this was the program's fourth straight Elite Eight loss. Calipari's team extended the string that started in 1999 with Tubby Smith and continued twice more. Kentucky still hasn't been to a Final Four since 1998, the longest gap in the program's storied history since Adolph Rupp reached his first Final Four in 1942.

If the game was a near-epic failure, however, the season was a near-epic success. In the moment, though, that was of little solace to the team on the losing end at the Carrier Dome.

With 51.3 seconds left, not long before the West Virginia band struck up Country Roads, John Wall fouled out. He walked off the floor rolling up the front of his Kentucky jersey, probably the last time he'll wear that jersey in a college game.

"I didn't want it to stop here," Wall said afterward. "I wanted to make it all the way."

In the end, Kentucky picked a bad day to have its worst day.

Credits: John Clay, Lexington Herald-Leader

Noteworthy Games - Edition: 3.13.10

I love my Wildcats, LORD knows I do, but I cannot help but start off with Tubby Smith and the tenacious Golden Gophers of Minnesota. Minnesota held the Boilermakers(#5) to the worst first-half in Purdue's record books and rolled to a 69-42 victory in the Big Ten tournament semifinals.. It was the fewest points by Purdue in a half since the school started keeping track in 1950. Only a late layup by Patrick Bade allowed the Boilermakers to avoid the worst defeat ever in a Big Ten tournament game. Minnesota led 37-11 at the break and by as many as 34 points in the second half.

"I thought it was a very impressive and dominating performance," Smith said. "It's as good a half as I think I've been a part of as a coach."

The Golden Gophers will play Ohio State(#7) on Sunday for the Big 10 tournament championship.

Going into the SEC tourney, UK had two losses in the course of the regular season. One to South Carolina which they were able to avenge in late February. The second loss came at the hands of Tennessee in the two teams second match-up of the season. Both contests were decided by less than twelve points. Yesterday UK got a chance to avenge that second loss of the season in the semifinal round of the SEC Tourney. This time, it wasn't even close. UK handed the Volunteers their most lop-sided loss under Coach Bruce Pearl.

Of the loss, Pearl, said "We got outplayed at every position, and Kentucky's the No. 2 team in the country for a reason. They're a really, really good team. We just did not have the energy after playing two games and coming back and playing this third game. We just didn't have it."

The Vols fought tooth and nail but in the end, the Cats were just too much. Final Score: 74-45

Kansas State(#9) has not won a Big 10 tournament title in 30 years. After yesterday, make it 31. Kansas(#1) continued it's dominance winning its seventh Big 10 tournament title. Final Score: 72-64

Ohio State(#7) needed two overtimes to come away with the win and advance to the Big 10 final on Saturday. The Fighting Illini of Illinois put up a strong battle, but it in the end, they had no match for Ohio State's Player of the Year contender Evan Turner. Final Score: 88-81

Duke (#$) had to fend off an extremely pesky Miami of Ohio team to advance to the ACC Tourney final where it will meet Georgia Tech. Final Score: 77-74

More later!

- b

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

Quick thoughts: UK vs. GA

Sorry...due to a few procedures earlier today at St. Joseph, I was not up to posting pre-game notes. Saw these on ESPN.com and Lex18.com.

-- Kentucky improves to 28-2, 13-2 SEC on the season. Georgia falls to 13-15, 5-10.

-- UK is 112-24 against the Bulldogs and 39-15 against UGA in Athens.

-- With a win, Kentucky claims a share of its 44th SEC Championship and the top overall seed at next week's SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. at Bridgestone Arena.

-- With an SEC Championship in his first season as head coach at UK, John Calipari joined Tubby Smith and Eddie Sutton as UK coaches to win an SEC Championship in their inaugural season.

-- Calipari has won five straight conference championships and six in his last seven years.

-- Kentucky will play its final regular season game on Sunday, hosting the Florida Gators on Senior Day. Tip-off is scheduled for Noon with the game being televised on CBS.

Team game notes

-- The Wildcats used the starting combination of Eric Bledsoe, DeMarcus Cousins, Darius Miller, Patrick Patterson and John Wall for the 22nd time this season. Kentucky is 20-2 with that starting five.

-- DeAndre Liggins was the first sub off the bench for Kentucky. It was Liggins' ninth time this season to be the first Wildcat off the bench.

-- Kentucky extended its streak of game with a three-pointer to 741 games, the third longest streak in the country.

-- Kentucky led 40-36 at halftime. The Wildcats are now 24-1, 12-1) when leading or tied at halftime.

--The Wildcats shot 48.5 percent (16-of-32) in the first half, its highest first half percentage since shooting 51.6 pct. at LSU (2/6).

-- Finished with eight three-pointers, the most since hitting nine against Ole Miss (2/2).

-- Kentucky also shot 83.3 pct. (10-of-12) from the free throw line, its highest percentage since shooting 89.5 pct. against Drexel (12/21).

-- The Wildcats have shot 79.5 pct. (31-of-39) from the free throw line over the last two games.

My post game rant

The Kentucky Basketball team that we have all had the pleasure of watching this season is not the same team that showed up to play the Tennessee Volunteers yesterday. As I commented earlier this morning on a Facebook page:

"In order to win games at this point of the season, especially on the road, you have to go into every game as though it could be your last. I think that we have a young team that has a hard time realizing that they cannot go into an atmosphere like yesterday not ready to play. You cannot go into an atmosphere like that and let the home team get that much momentum and expect to pull out a win when you FINALLY decide to start playing late in the second half. Tennessee's players came into the game ready to play and their fans came into that arena ready to cheer their team on to win. In my opinion, and I bleed blue, Tennessee was the better team yesterday."

Oh well, better a loss now than in the SEC or NCAA Tournament's. UK's next game will be against Georgia on Wednesday, March 3rd at 8:00pm on CBS. On Jan. 9th, UK held off the Bulldogs for a 76-68 win in both teams SEC openers. The win also gave the Wildcats their first 16-0 start since 1965-66. For Lexington Insight customers tune into channels 9 or 912.

- b

Quick thoughts: UK vs. TN

• The game will air today at 12:00 on CBS.


• UK beat Tennessee earlier this season (2/13/10) at home with a final score of 73-62.


• UK also played host to ESPN's College GameDay that day and set a record for the largest crowd ever to witness a basketball “GameDay” broadcast — 22,144 officially.


• A win by the cats today would assure themselves of at least a share of the SEC regular season championship. They would get the championship outright if Vanderbilt also loses at Arkansas.


• In this article from ESPN.com, read why winning that championship means, "Nothing" to Coach Cal.


• Last season when UK traveled to Thompson Boling Arena, Jodie Meeks broke Dan Issel's 39-year-old UK record for points in a game.

With about half an hour left til tip-off, I better go and get a few things done so that I can sit down and enjoy the game along with the rest of Big Blue Nation!

C-A-T-S, CATS, CATS, CATS!!!

- b

Life's curveballs!

"Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans!" - John Lennon

This quote is actually a verse in John Lennons song "Beautiful Boy." However, considering the trials of the past several days, it seems incredibly appropriate. These past couple of days were nothing as I expected them to be. On Tuesday evening when I got off from work, I had this vision of having two restful days at home leading up to my Neurologist appointment on Friday (more about that in a later post).

On Wednesday morning, I had to get up and take my wife to work. This was planned because I had to take my mom and sister's car back to them. They have been very generous in allowing us to borrow their car for extended amounts of time since we lost ours. Anyway! The plan was to get up, take my wife to work and then come back, get the kids snuggled back in the bed with me, and go back to sleep for a few hours. Then came curveball number one! Both of my children, for whatever reason, woke-up (Lauryn at 4:30am and Ben at 5:15am) with no intention of going back to bed. So I got them dressed, got myself dressed, got them loaded in the car and headed out the door to take my wife to work. I stopped at McDonald's and got a quick breakfast for my wife and I. My children favor the biscuit and gravy from Dairy Queen with scrambled eggs on top, so I decided that I would wait until I got to Richmond and stop and get them breakfast that way I could feed them at my moms. I dropped my wife off at work and was en route to Richmond!

While in Richmond, my dad called and let me know that my step-mom's brother, Larry was in the hospital at the local VA. A few months ago, they discovered that Larry had cancer. I told my dad that I was in Richmond, but as soon as mom and Brandy finished running their errands, they would be brining me and the kids back to Lexington and before they left for Richmond with their car, I would come to the hospital. I asked him what he was going to do with the girls, my step-brother's children which he and my step-mom have custody of. He said that was going to take them to Daniel and let him keep him for the next few days. Insert curveball #2, and this is where my "two days of rest" disappeared. Dad said that he had not yet been able to get hold of Daniel, and might Angenette and I be able to watch the kids. Avoiding the question, I told him to keep trying to get hold of Daniel and rushed off the phone. Of course, he was unable to get hold of Daniel and asked if we could watch the kids. Of course, I did not mind. That is what family is for. Especially in time of need. So, he bought the girls to my house and we had for slightly less that forty-eight hours, we had, COUNT THEM, four children under the age of four-years-old at our house. WHAT AN ADVENTURE!

For the past several weeks Larry had been under the care of Hospice at his home in Paris, KY. His Hospice nurses decided on Wednesday that he needed to go back to the hospital to see if anything more could be done to help with the pain and possibly prolong the inevitable. A few minutes after two o'clock in the morning on Friday, February 26, Larry lost his brief but very courageous battle.

In the interest of time, and because my two-year-old just said, "Dad, I'm hungry! Let's eat!" I am going to have to bring this entry to a close. More on these topics later today:

• My doctors appointment from yesterday.
• Some quick notes on UK's game today at Tennessee.
• My pick for the news stories of the week.
• A rundown of the best comic strips of the week because you are never too old to have a good laugh!

Remember to take the time out to hug someone and let them know how much they mean to you! You never know when it might be your last chance!

More later,

- b