Entries from January 2009 ↓

Georgia plans to announce Dennis Felton is no longer its men’s basketball coach. The announcement will come at an 11 a.m. news conference.

Felton joins Alabama’s Mark Gottfried as Southeastern Conference coaches who were dismissed at mid-season.

Felton made his biggest splash last spring when he guided the underdog Bulldogs to the SEC Tournament championship.

However, Georgia never finished higher than fifth place in the SEC Eastern Division in his six seasons.

On Monday, Gottfried resigned as Alabama coach amid growing complaint.

UK wing Ramon Harris will wear No. 5 in Tuesday night’s game at Ole Miss.

He had been wearing No. 22 this season. Harris decided to switch in order to change his luck, UK spokesman DeWayne Peevy said.

Harris has been involved in two medical scares this season. He sustained a neck injury in a head-to-head collision with teammate Michael Porter in the Lamar game. Then he fainted at halftime of UK’s game at Alabama last weekend.

Harris chose the No. 5 in honor of his five siblings, Peevy said.

Changing numbers is nothing new for Harris. He originally wore No. 22. Then he switched to No. 34. Then he gave up No. 34 to freshman DeAndre Liggins this season.

Ole Miss has sounded what it calls a “red alert” for Tuesday night’s game against Kentucky.

The Rebels got permission from the SEC office to wear red uniforms. Plus, the school asked fans to wear red at the game.

In Andy Kennedy’s three seasons as coach, Ole Miss has a 40-5 record in home games.

Ole Miss did not answer the call for a “red alert.” The Tad Smith Coliseum (a.k.a. the “Tad Pad”) was hardly half filled, if that, at tip off.

UK made the top 25 this week and the dastardly media can take a bow.

The Associated Press has not released this week’s media top 25 poll. But I’ve been told that Kentucky has received enough votes to be in the top 25 (probably at No. 23 or No. 24).

That’s a first for this season and surely reflects the Cats’ steadily improving play after opening the season with losses to Virginia Military Institute and North Carolina.

The USA Today coaches’ top 25 poll did not include Kentucky this week. UK finished 28th in the coaches’ balloting. Florida and Utah State finished 26th and 27th in the vote. That means that no SEC teams made the coaches’ top 25.

As for my ballot, I placed Kentucky at No. 17.

Here’s my complete ballot:

1. Duke

2. Connecticut

3. Pittsburgh

4. North Carolina

5. Wake Forest

6. Oklahoma

7. Louisville

8. Xavier

9. Michigan State

10. Texas

11. Marquette

12. Clemson

13. Butler

14. Arizona State

15. Syracuse

16. Minnesota

17. Kentucky

18. Villanova

19. Memphis

20. Illinois

21. Florida

22. Washington

23. West Virginia

24. UCLA

25. Gonzaga

UK doctors cleared Ramon Harris to play at Ole Miss, the school just announced.

Harris had a fainting spell at halftime at Alabama on Saturday.

Here’s the one-sentence UK release:

After undergoing extensive testing on Monday morning, Kentucky junior guard/forward Ramon Harris has been cleared for practice and the Ole Miss game on Tuesday.

Kentucky wing Ramon Harris attended the UK women’s game against LSU on Sunday. Besides watching the action, he also signed autographs.
That suggested no serious aftereffects from his fainting spell at halftime of Kentucky’s game at Alabama on Saturday.
The school issued a released on Sunday saying Harris had suffered “no further complications” from the incident. He did not participate in Sunday’s practice, UK said.
His status for Tuesday’s game at Ole Miss will be determined after Harris undergoes further testing on Monday, UK said.
His mother expected Harris to be available to play against the Rebels.
“I think he’s going to be fine for Tuesday,” Carmen Bowles said Sunday. “They didn’t tell us anything (to suggest otherwise).”
Bowles did not attend UK’s game at Alabama. She works every other Saturday, and last Saturday was a day on the job.
Harris’ mother said she watched the first half, then went back to work during halftime.
When she came back to the television for the second half, she learned something was wrong.
“All I heard was that there was a player who collapsed,” Bowles said. “After that, I was scanning the huddle. When (the announcers) use the word ‘collapse,’ it makes you think of something worse.
“Then I realized, oh, boy, that’s Ramon.”
Even while watching the first half, Harris’ mother sensed something was wrong. “I thought he was playing kind of odd,” she said. “You just know your kid and how he plays.”
Bowles was under the impression that “a bug or something” caused the fainting spell.
Of course, it wasn’t the first medical problem requiring hospitalization for Harris this season. He suffered a neck injury in a nasty head-to-head collision with teammate Michael Porter during the Lamar game on Dec. 3. Medical personnel had to carry Harris off the court on a stretcher.
“Oh my goodness,” Bowles said when reminded of the earlier incident. “I am just ready for them to play well and move on.”

Although Kentucky is the lone unbeaten team in Southeastern Conference play, Coach Billy Gillispie pooh-poohed the idea of being in the best position for a championship.

“We’re not in any driver’s seat,” he said. “I feel great about it. . . . (but) it means nothing to Alabama or us.”

Gillispie noted that the SEC schedule is only one-quarter played as Kentucky heads to Alabama for a game Saturday afternoon.

Alabama faces the difficult chore of replacing point guard Ronald Steele at mid-season. Steele announced earlier this week that he would not play the rest of the season because of a foot injury.

“Nobody wants to lose a main guy,” Gillispie said. But the UK coach suggested teams can rise to the occasion as Kentucky did last season when an ankle injury sidelined Patrick Patterson.

“You never know,” Gillispie said. “You never know. That’s what happens in the course of a season. Different things trigger enthusiasm.”

I mistakenly wrote that Tom Hammond and Larry Conley would call the Kentucky-Auburn game for the SEC television network Wednesday night.

So imagine my surprised when I arrived at Rupp Arena and saw Joe Dean Jr. at the table used by the TV crews.

The information distributed to the media on Tuesday included Hammond and Conley as the announcers. It turns out a switch had been made. Conley is working the Florida-South Carolina game in progress.

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that the Louisiana Supreme Court dismissed a defamation suit brought by UK assistant coach Glynn Cyprien. The suit came out of Cyprien being hired by Louisiana-Lafayette as its coach and then fired for falsifying his resume.

When asked before UK’s game against Auburn about the court action, Cyprien said UK basketball publicist DeWayne Peevy would be issuing an official reaction.

After the game, UK distributed a statement from Cyprien.

“I am totally focused and committed to the Kentucky basketball program,” it read. “We are working hard to achieve our goals. My attorneys will continue their efforts to resolve this case. To that end, I have no further comment.”

Here’s the wire service story:

The Louisiana Supreme Court throws out a defamation suit brought by a college basketball coach fired months after he was hired.

It says Louisiana-Lafayette had a valid reason to fire Glynn Cyprien and did not defame him when it accused him of resume fraud.

The school hired Cyprien in May 2004. It fired him after a news report that his degrees were from an online school — and he had not graduated from Texas-San Antonio, as a resume claimed.

Cyprien said he was defamed because he gave the correct information in another form, and hand-delivered a correct resume before a student worker at Oklahoma State faxed the inaccurate one.

The high court ruled that since he did submit a false resume — and never explained why it was in his files — he had no case.

Cyprien, now an assistant at Kentucky, spent the 2006-07 season at Arkansas.

The SEC named Kentucky guard Jodie Meeks its Player of the Week for last week.

Was there any other choice?

Meeks set a school record with 54 points at Tennessee on Tuesday. That marked the second-highest scoring game for a SEC player since 1971.

Meeks also added 22 at Georgia on Sunday.

For the week, he averaged 38 points and made 23 of 38 shots.

Meeks has been the SEC Player of the Week three times. Patrick Patterson won it once to give Kentucky four award winners in the 10 weeks of play.