Kentucky’s coaching change has walk-on Landon Slone reluctantly looking to transfer from Kentucky.
Slone, an All-State player for Paintsville High, walked on for UK last year and became a fan favorite. Former Coach Billy Gillispie brought him to UK with the understanding that a scholarship might be available for the second year, Slone said on Tuesday.
“When we got to the NIT, Coach Gillispie started talking to me” about a scholarship, Slone said.
That talk ended when UK fired Gillispie. New Coach John Calipari told reporters a few weeks ago that he would not have as many walk-ons as Gillispie.
“I asked several times to speak to Coach Cal to see what was in my best interests,” Slone said.
That meeting never took place.
Of his best interests, Slone said, “I think it’s starting to get very obvious.”
A meeting with an assistant coach led Slone to believe he should explore options, the player said.
Slone said he’s spoken to Morehead State officials several times and hoped to make a decision within a week or two.
In his one season for UK, Slone epitomized the Kentucky native who reveres the Wildcats and felt it was a privilege to wear the uniform.
“It was a dream to play there,” he said. “When you finally get there, you want it to work. It was kind of shot down. It bothers me. It really does. . . . I don’t think anybody could probably love Kentucky basketball as much as I do.”
Slone said he regretted that he will not be part of next season, which bursts with promise after Calipari added the nation’s No. 1-rated recruiting class. “One of the harder parts,” Slone said. “My ultimate goal was to play in the NCAA Tournament.”
Now, Slone will either try to achieve that goal at another Division I school beginning as a transfer next season or attend a junior college and return to Division I a year from now.
Either way, his personal disappointment remains secondary to Kentucky basketball.
“As long as Kentucky’s winning, I’ll cheer for them wherever I go,” he said.
48 comments ↓
It is a shame that kids that really love Kentucky basketball are being shoved out. Coach Cal should have shown much more class towards Sloan. Best wishes to Landon!!
Sad to see a good boy like Landon have to leave but the players all know that scholarships are at the coaches discretion and for 1 year at a time.
He played really well when given the chance last year. While I realize we couldn’t give him a scholarship this year, I hate to see him go as a walk-on.
We need a human victory cigar when we blow away opponents next season… and Slone is it. All jokes aside, I love this guy for his heart, and if there’s any way Coach Cal, please let Slone on the team as a walk-on. It never hurts to have a teammate who can emphasize to the superstars what it means to wear this uniform. But if Slone needs a scholarship, I understand him leaving. Good luck Landon, I really was hoping your career @ UK would work out. On a bad team, your heart and hustle was a bright spot.
He is the PERFECT walk-on, come on! what are we doing rejecting players like slone?
Come On Calipari – lets keep Slone!
I liked ‘ol Red.
Im disgusted that John Calipari would not even sit down and talk with Landon Slone. Does he really believe that he is too important to do that or what? Slone deserved to have the chance to talk to the head coach. Sure he is a walk-on, but he practiced daily and worked hard and played hard. That does not mean he deserves a scholarship, but he did deserve the chance to talk to the head coach. I hope this is not a sign of yankee arrogance to come from Calipari.
Sure we will have good teams in the future I am sure, but if we have entire teams who could care aless about the jersey, and only care about the coach, this will wear thin and old quickly.
Kids like Landon Slone, who worked his butt off on the court when he played, loves Kentucky. The coach should have met with Slone and given him that much respect. I am very disappointed he did not.
Life with Cal and WWW folks. Get used to it. A trade off for wins. History will tell if it was worth it.
Coach Cal, you owe it to this young man to at least sit down and talk to him. He gave his heart and soul to the team, something that other players have not done in the past. I hope that you learn sooner than later that it is very important to the Wildcat fans that we have this type of player on the team. At least show him the courtesy of talking to him. He was a “CROWD INCITER” when he was in the game. HE IS THE PERFECT TYPE OF PLAYER FOR A WALK ON.
Cal not even sitting down with a kid to explain the situation. Shows how much PR and personality he has. Now Billy G worked with what he had so what makes this man so special? I hope the UK fans, boosters, and administration are happy. More heart breaks are still to come. I support Tubby and Billy G.
Im sorry to see Slone go. Buuuut… Has anyone noticed that caoch has been busy? I mean we all wanted the program to go in a different direction and it cant if we dont have the right personal for the job. Sad to say… Slone wasnt going to get it done for Cal. He may have been the crowd inciter but did it help win games? I think not. Cant have your cake and eat it soooo.. We lost a walk on. Didnt Cal say there were going to be players let go? I agree with coach. Its nice to have instate kids on the team (walk ons) but Im ready for UK to be UK. With or without a walk on. GO CATS!!
Come on guys, was he really going to play this season with all the talent coming? The days of mediocre players are over, he really was any good! Mark Halsell, Dwight Perry, and Mark Krebs should take a hint and leave as well!
Coach Cal may be busy, but it seems he’s spending a lot of time making public appearances. I realize this was one of the knocks on coach Gillispie that he didn’t do the PR thing enough, but it seems to me Slone could have been retained as a walk-on. At the very least coach could have taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk to Landon.
All this talk about the coach. Same people jumping up and down the last month Im sure. Like I said. Yes he should have talked with Slone but how many other coaches have done the same thing? When your busy thats when the assistant coach steps in. Look at your own jobs. Poeple you work with .. Im sure theres things everyone should have done but couldnt or didnt do at their job that others talk ill about.But of course you have an excuse and no one should question you.. Or are you just lucky enough that no one says anything about it?Just be glad you arent judged by the public like Cal is. Bet all is forgotton after the first tip off this year. Say all you want about me. I could care less. Just makes me sick to see 2 faced followers making opions then turn around and kiss the same persons *ss!! Dont like my opion? So what! Like I give a sh*t! With me I understand.. NOT JUDGE!! GO CATS!!
[...] that it affects the scholly’s but: Slone looks to transfer from UK — Jerry Tipton on UK basketball "If they get John Wall and Jodie Meeks comes back, they’ll be ready to take on the Atlanta [...]
Marion County – Your post lost all credibility with “Yankee arrogance.” Are you serious?
Hey, Marion County….”yankee arrogance”? Your post was fairly lucid until you used that 19th century reference to describe a man that has spent his last 9 years in Memphis, in the deep South. Ignorance shouldn’t shout “arrogance”.
I am disappointed that Cal didn’t talk to him directly, and I would have preferred that he be given walk on status if he wanted it. That said, Sloan apparently got an audience with an assistant coach, and while hearing it from Cal would have been nicer, given his travel and recruiting schedule, an assistant coach is all that I think is required. He wasn’t ignored – he just wasn’t told the bad news by the CEO. He got it instead from a human resources manager.
Again – I really liked Sloan. Given the way some of us played last year, and the way he played for those 4 games Billy gave him significant minutes (including UofL game) I thought he earned more playing time that he got.
hey This Slone kid is from my home town. Coach Cal has a lot on his plate at the moment. Do you really expect him to take time off from the recruiting class he just landed to keep Landon happy? What was he gonna say? Landon you’re not good enough, not strong enough, not quick enough, for the type of team KY is now?? I’m sure coach Cal will help Landon get another school more suited to HIS abilities.
i would like to see slone stay. he played hard, and played good defense for his quickness. had a nice 3 point shot. He loves playing for UK, it was his dream and atleast he did get to live it for one season. I would like to see him say to. but if cals getting paid the amount of money he is to bring in new players, and get rid of the ones he finds less need for, then so be it.
Get used to it. Calipari is the biggest sleezeball scumbag in college sports. He has lied to Memphis and now he has been caught repeatedly lying to Kentucky.
He’ll lie, cheat and steal his way near the top. NEAR the top, because he will NEVER bring Kentucky a championship…unless its another NIT.
Who is looking out for the best interest of these young men. UK made committments and now opps we changed our mind. I sure there is no major in ETHICS offered or practiced. The Big three Lee Fraud, Barnyard, and John Con
I think we have just heard the first negative about Calipari. Sloan worked hard all year as a walkon and Calipari cannot even give him the time of day. Sounds like a first class jerk.
I realize it’s been about 2 months since UK fans have had anything to complain about, but let’s try not to have a mini controversy about this. Assistant coaches and head coaches have their roles and part of the assistant coaches roles are dealing with the walk ons. I understand you are upset Cal did not take the time to do this but he does not need to handle every personel thing himself. Like a previous person said, we don’t get to talk to the CEO about everything … and Cal is keeping two walkons. Nothing to see here.
Good luck, Landon
Better for Slone to go somewhere and play for free than to pay to sit the bench.
Who cares if he transfers. I don’t think anybody will miss him. I hope it didn’t take him this long or Coach Cal to tell him where he would fit in. Did he really think he might get a scholarship on team where the returning seniors should hardly crack the line up? We don’t need 30 walkons now like the last coach did.
Hey jack who is sloAn? LOL
Of all the walkons Kentucky had last year, Slone was by far the most exciting and most appreciated by the fans. I hope Coach Calipari reads some of the letters written, and takes the time to talk to Slone. The Rotary Club and all the other PR missions on his schedule are not as important as sitting down with a Kentucky boy who worked so hard with the only reward being that he LOVED the Wildcats. Billy G made some PR mistakes, but I can’t think of any bigger mistake than ignoring Slone would be. I’m hopeful Coach Calipari will get the message, and take the time (5 minutes) to meet with him.
If coach Cal has time to go to Ky. football practice and I do not know how many others fuctions not pretaining to basketball. A trip to UMass. then tell me why he could not give Mr.Sloan five minutes of his time. I am all for KY. basketball getting back on top and as soon as possible. But coach Cal you dropped the ball big time with your handling of Mr. Sloan.
I’ve enjoyed having Slone as a member of our Wildcat family. I hope we can continue to get players that “Always wanted to play for the Kentucky Wildcats”. That is a special group kids that want to be a part of the team. I know Slone has the talent to get a scolarship at many other schools. He showed us last year, in his limited play, that he has the talent.
I’m sure Landon is a good kid and he will find the right fit. That being said the program is moving forward and that is what we all want. To move forward changes have to be made and some we won’t understand. If coach doesn’t want walk ons then coach doesn’t want walk ons. I’m good with that. Now, some folks are upset that coach didn’t meet with Landon personally. I’m not because that is why he has top level assistant coaches…to fill in the gaps when he can’t be there. Coach Cal can’t do everything himself and that has to be understood. Would he have met with a scholarship player face to face? Yes, he probably would have…but it is what it is. Go Big Blue!
Let the walk-on stay.
Ru-dy! Ru-dy!
I wish Landon the best, he makes us all proud to root for UK. He epitomizes the hopes and dreams of all the youngsters in Ky. I wish Coach Cal could find a way to keep him involved with the program, he definitely deserves a meeting (then I think all would be fine). Landon would move on and the fans will continue to support both. Respect is all the fans of the bluegrass want for Landon.
Really people? He wasn’t that good. We lost the Georgia game at home because Billy left him and other 2nd rate players in the game for too long. Sorry to see him go. Great to see a player who loves the Blue as much as we do. Really tried hard, but so did I in my freshman year of high school and I still didn’t make the team. Tough and good luck
Landon is a class kid and he is the type of walk on you want on a team. He is a guy that can contribute on many levels and he will do that at a different school now. Which makes me sad as well as happy for him since now he will get to see much more clock. Here he would have been a human victory cigar and he is worth more than that. I wish him well in all that he does and he will always be a kid that I cheer for regardless of what school he ends up at.
Landon, hate that it has come to this, but if you want to stay in state and have a chance at playing in the NCAA tournament, ck out WKU.
he is a walk on. I like him cause he plays hard and is a KY kid. It is in his best interest to transfer somewhere to play cause he can play.
Walk-ons aren’t “owed” anything. They’re walk-ons. This is a new team with a new coach, he’s doing things his way and it’s his team.
we get all the pros and cons. lets find time for the two to sit down. slone came in as a walk on. if they haven’t talked, how do we know coach cal won’t keep him as a walk on? before all this jibberish gets going, lets get the two together and see what the options are??? if slone wants more playing time then the right thing to do is transfer. if he wants to wear that uni and not play much as a walk on then go sit down and talk to the coach. obviously he is talented, we’ve all seen that. we don’t need 5 star players that never see the floor.
It would be a mistake to let Slone go.
Coach needs to talk with all the players not just the stars.
Where is the respect, the common courtesy.
I do not agree with this and I will not forget it.
Boo Coach, Boo.
It is easy to bask in the sunshine and gladhand with the rich and famous. A measure of the coach as a man in this case may come from what he has not yet done. Hootie
Not to put the kid down at all, but we all know deep down that he is better off somewhere else. He can easily start at about 100 other Div. 1 schools.
Everyone wants Kentucky to be the best – well, it takes the best players, and as hard as it is to say – Slone is not one of those.
I wish him well, and hopefully we will all get the chance to cheer for him another day..!!!
Yes sloan was a nice kid.. but did we bring in coach cal to get us nice kids? i think not.. he will get us the best of the best(as is proven with this incoming recruiting class).. you people want championships well no disrespect to players like sloan but that will not get that done for us. if u people want “nice kids” who play hard then we should have just kept coach gillespie and stayed as a mediocre basketball team
he should give Pelphrey at Arkansas a call—both from Paintsville—that will probably be his best chance to play at a big Div. 1 school—and I don’t mean Morehead———and it is against NCAA rules for them to contact him… I bet they are hoping he will call!! somebody should tell he to call
Or go to Union College and be the “Big Man On Campus”——-they were in the top 10 in NAIA last season and he could play straight away
He sounds like a whinner to me! Not very good to begin with and didn’t deserve an explation from Coach Cal! Should have been very obvious to him 1st practice with real basketball talent! Good ridence and hope we never get to point where we need his caliber of talent again!
All I have to say to coach Cal is this,,,, remember ,,, Cris Loft,, he made UK staff look ridiculous by not recruiting him and he went to TN and came to Rupp and shoot the lights out and whooped our A,,es. So Coach Cal dont make the same mistake that Tubby did and let a player like Slone walk away and then later come back to bit you in the butt!
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