Entries from September 2009 ↓

Kentucky Coach John Calipari told a group of high school coaches on Friday that star big man Patrick Patterson will be playing his final season for the Wildcats in 2009-10.

Speaking to the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches, Calipari said his first UK team’s experience consisted of “three seniors and Patrick Patterson, who will leave this year. Hopefully he’ll be a top 10 pick.”

That Patterson would leave after his junior season comes as no surprise. But it was also interesting that Calipari gave himself no wiggle room.

Patterson averaged 17.9 points and 9.3 rebounds as a sophomore last season. He recorded 15 double-doubles, topped the 1,000-poiint career scoring mark and made the All-Southeastern Conference first team.

Although projected as a first-round draft choice, Patterson chose to return to UK for this coming season. He said he wanted to improve his perimeter skills while acknowledging that at 6-foot-9 he would be unlikely to be a consistent scorer in the low post against NBA competition.

Calipari expressed mixed feelings about Patterson as a face-the-basket player.

“I better teach him how to play out (on the floor),” the UK coach said before adding, “But I’m trying to win, too.”

As he had said before, Calipari noted how Patterson would be stationed in the low post at the end of close games.

“I tell Patrick, ‘Play like a guard,’ ” Calipari said. “When the game’s on the line, (his teammates) will all be saying, ‘Get under the goal, Patrick.’ ”

Patterson, a native of Huntington, W.Va., came to UK as the long-sought-after power forward. He was a McDonald’s All-American after leading Huntington High to three straight West Virginia 3A state championships.

Patterson goes into this coming season still seeking to play in a NCAA Tournament. An ankle injury ended his freshman season. He watched from the bench as the Cats lost to Marquette in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

UK failed to receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament last season.

Calipari re-stocked Kentucky’s front line this off-season. He re-recruited Daniel Orton, who originally signed with former Coach Billy Gillispie. Calipari also brought in highly regarded freshman DeMarcus Cousins.

In his talk to the coaches, Calipari suggested that he might have some issues with Cousins regarding the big man being around the basket or on the perimeter.

In a recent scrimmage, Cousins had at least 20 points and 20 rebounds. That prompted Calipari to say he told the freshman, “You were a beast. . . . Are you that good? Because if you are that good, it’s starting to get scary.”

After Cousins thanked the coach, Calipari said he added, “But your body language (stunk).”

Cousins then explained. “It’s how you’re plaing me,” he told Calipari. “You know my skills are out on the floor.”

To which Calipari told the coaches, “He thinks that’s what people want to see from a 6-11, 270 (player).”

Calipari offered a compromise.

The UK coach told his audience, “I may tell him with every 10 rebounds, I’ll let you go to the top of the key and go crazy.”

The University of Kentucky is inviting the public to celebrate the creation of the Big Blue Sports Archives Endowment. A celebratory dinner is planned for Oct. 13 at Lexington’s Griffin Gate Marriott Resort.

UK Archives has collected more than 4,000 videotapes, 1,500 audiotapes, 1,500 films, 10,000 photographs, 30 scrapbooks, and 150 boxes of clippings, programs, and media guides related to UK athletics. That material will be available to the public.

The celebration will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will follow at 6:30 with the program set to begin at 7:30. Among is speakers is first-year basketball coach John Calipari.

More information on tickets or how to donate to the endownment can be gotten by contacting Esther Edwards at 859-257-1742 or via e-mail at eedwards@uky.edu.

Stacey Poole, Jr., a top 50 prospect and the son of a former Florida star, officially became Kentucky’s first recruit in the high school class of 2010 on Thursday.

Poole committed to UK over South Carolina..

Poole cited UK Coach John Calipari’s record of developing players, as a key factor.

“I love Coach Cal,” Poole said. “I think he’ll put me in the right situation. Where I want to be in a couple years.”

When asked where he wanted to be, Poole said, “In the league. I’m not playing this game for nothing.”
Poole draws comparisons to his father, also named Stacey, who came to Florida in 1989 as a McDonald’s All-American. Despite two torn Achilles’ tendons and a torn ACL, the elder Poole scored 1,678 points for the Gators, which ranked third on the school’s career list at the time.
F“He’s like his father,” recruiting analyst Brick Oettinger of the Prep Stars service said of the younger Poole. “He’s a terrific run-jump athlete.”
Oettinger, whose services ranks Poole at No. 56, saw the player as a driver well-suited for UK’s beat-your-man one-on-one offense.
“He’s got a great ability to get a lot of old-fashioned three-point plays,” Oettinger said.
Like his father, Poole is a 6-foot-5 guard/forward with long arms and quick first step to the basket.
The knock on Poole — as it was with his father 20 years ago — concerns perimeter shooting.
Oettinger noted that Poole’s shooting has improved. During the NBA development camp in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this year, Poole hit shots out to three-point range.
“There’s nothing unsound in his shooting (mechanics),” Oettinger said. “He just always been able to score the easier way: taking it to the hoop. My guess is he’ll end up a pretty good shooter.”
Poole acknowledges that driving to the basket is the strength of his offensive game.
“I can get by anybody,” he told The Gainesville Sun earlier this year. “I don’t care who it is. I can get past anybody at any time. It’s just my outside shot, getting confidence back in my outside shot.”
The elder Poole saw himself reincarnated in his son as a highly-toued swingman with several Division I scholarship offers to consider.
“I’m excited for him, to see that he’s doing it through hard work, through being prepared,” Poole Sr. told The Gainesville Sun earlier this year. “. . . I found that I had to pull away a little bit, kind of the empty nest, let him go through this process with the coaches and the schools.”
Poole Jr. was born during his father’s junior year at Florida. His mother also contributes to his athletic genes. His mother, Shelley, was a former standout athlete who ran track and played basketball in high school in Jacksonville.
The players’ parents were high school sweethearts and are now married. They own a private school in Jacksonville, the North Florida Educational Institute.

Wing prospect Stacey Poole, Jr., plans to announce his college choice Thursday afternoon on ESPNU’s Recruiting Insider show. The show airs at 5:30 p.m. EDT.

Poole, a 6-foot-4 perimeter player from Jacksonville, Fla., is the son of Stacey Poole, Sr., who played for Florida in the early 1990s. The younger Poole is expected to choose either Kentucky or South Carolina.

UK announced on Wednesday that it will distribute Madness tickets on Oct. 3.

Here’s the release:

Tickets for the 2009 Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena will be available Saturday, Oct. 3, at 6 a.m., at the Memorial Coliseum ticket windows on Euclid Avenue and online at UKathletics.com and Ticketmaster.com. Madness, the first open practice opportunity for Kentucky’s 2009-10 men’s and women’s basketball teams, is Friday, Oct. 16, at 7:30 p.m. Fans will be allowed to enter Rupp Arena beginning at 6 p.m. the night of Big Blue Madness.

Tickets are free again this year, and there will be a limit of two tickets per person at Memorial Coliseum.  Online orders will have a minimal service fee attached, and there will be a limit of two tickets per household.

At the request of campus public safety officials, fans wishing to line up ahead of time at Memorial Coliseum are asked to do so no earlier than 8 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 30. The Athletics Department will provide portable restroom facilities, but safety concerns will prohibit the use of permanent, wooden-type structures, and propane tanks or other open flames used in cooking.

All indications suggested that Stacey Poole, Jr., a top 50 prospect in the high school class of 2010, would commit to Kentucky on Wednesday.

“He’s about to commit,” his father, Stacey Poole, Sr., said early Wednesday afternoon. “. . . Everything will be official by the end of the day.”

However, by the end of the day, a commitment had not been announced. The elder Poole said he planned to “sit down and finalize things” with his son Wednesday evening. “Make sure I know where his head is at and why he wants to do” what he wants to do.

Later Wednesday night, the elder Poole noted that no decision could be confirmed. He noted how his son faced a “big life-changing” decision.

The younger Poole, a 6-foot-4 wing from Jacksonville, Fla., is a consensus top 50 national prospect. He’s reportedly narrowed his list to Kentucky or South Carolina. He visited UK last weekend.

The player’s father played for Florida, where he arrived in 1989 as a McDonald’s All-American. Injuries cut short his career.

Recruiting analysts see the younger Poole as a similar player to his father — that is to say, a driver and a scorer around the basket. That makes him seem well suited for the attack-the-basket style being brought to UK by new coach John Calipari.

Evan Daniels of the Scout.com recruiting service noted that Poole will need to improve his perimeter shooting.

We made a mistake earlier today saying Georgia president Michael F. Adams would be named interim president of the NCAA. Actually, Adams introduced the new NCAA president at a teleconference Tuesday morning.

Here’s the start of a NCAA news release on the new interim president:

James L. Isch was named interim NCAA president today, succeeding Myles Brand who died of pancreatic cancer September 16. University of Georgia President and NCAA Executive Committee Chair Michael Adams made the announcement in Indianapolis following a meeting by the committee’s administrative subcommittee.

Isch will be responsible for providing daily oversight and strategic direction to the organization until such time that the executive committee names a new president.

Previously, Isch served as senior vice president and chief financial officer in the national office and has been with the NCAA since 1998. Prior to coming to the NCAA, Isch was vice chancellor for finance and administration at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Prior to that, he was vice president for administration at Montana

Lexington will be among the sites for the historic 2013 NCAA Tournament.

That year will mark the 75th anniversary of the NCAA Tournament. To commemorate the occasion, the Men’s Basketball Committee selected sites that had a historical significance to the tournament. Or as a NCAA news release on Monday put it, the sites had “great tournament moments.”

Lexington, which will play host to first- and second-round play, was where Villanova upset Georgetown in the memorable 1985 NCAA Tournament championship game.

The University of Kentucky cannot play in the Lexington rounds. If a team plays more than three games in an arena during the season, the team cannot play in that arena during the tournament rounds.

Kentucky figures in another of the 2013 sites. Another of the first- and second-round sites is Philadelphia, where UK lost to Duke in the 1992 East Region final, the so-called Christian Laettner game.

The NCAA released the sites for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 tournaments. Louisville was selected as a first- and second-round site for the 2012 NCAA Tournament. That will mark the 13th time Louisville has been a host city, and the first time since 1991.

Here’s a portion of the news release dealing with 2013:

Recognizing that 2013 is the 75th anniversary of the championship, the committee selected venues and cities which have served as the backdrop to great tournament moments such as North Carolina’s triple-overtime win in the 1957 championship game in Kansas City, Villanova’s upset of Georgetown in Lexington in the 1985 title game, the Duke-Kentucky classic in the 1992 East Regional final in Philadelphia, and hundreds of other plays, players and games that are deep-seated in tournament history.
Auburn Hills, Austin, Dayton, Kansas City, Lexington, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and San Jose were selected to host first- and second-rounds, and Indianapolis, Los Angeles and North Texas were chosen for the regional rounds. Auburn Hills and San Jose both earned bids for the fourth time since 1997, while Austin was selected for the sixth time since 1981. Los Angeles has hosted the championship 11 times, including two Final Fours, but has not served as a host city since 1994, while North Texas will prepare for the 2014 Final Four with a regional at Cowboys Stadium.
Kansas City, which has served as host to 28 tournaments, including 10 Final Fours, was also selected for 2013. With Indianapolis, Lexington, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Final Four host Atlanta having each staged more than 75 tournament games, the 2013 championship will feature seven of the top nine cities for most tournament games hosted of all time.
Dayton, which has hosted the opening round game since its inception in 2001 and will do so through 2013, has hosted 23 times in the tournament’s history. One regional site will remain unnamed while details are being finalized.
The 2013 Final Four will be played in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.
“It’s no accident that cities which have been part of the rich history of this championship were selected to return in 2013,” said Dan Guerrero, the athletic director at UCLA and chairman of the Men’s Basketball Committee. “The 2013 championship will be a nationwide celebration of ‘March Madness,’ its tremendous history and the fan following of one the world’s best sporting events.”

Blue Ribbon magazine — the, uh, blue ribbon pre-season publication in college basketball, has made Kentucky No. 7 in its rankings going into the 2009-10 season.

Kansas was an unanimous selection as the No. 1 team.

No UK player made the Blue Ribbon first team All-America team. Forward Patrick Patterson made the second team.

Kansas returns its top nine scorers, including all five starters, and more than 94 percent in every statistical category form last season’s 27-8 team.

Kansas fans will be happy to know that Blue Ribbon named eventual national champion North Carolina as its pre-season No. 1 team going into the 2008-09 season.

Here’s the Blue Ribbon top 25 and All-America teams:

1. KANSAS

2. Michigan State

3. Texas

4. Villanova

5. North Carolina

6. Purdue

7. Kentucky

8. California

9. Duke

10. Tennessee

11. Butler

12. West Virginia

13. Georgia Tech

14. Minnesota

15. Syracuse

16. Ohio State

17. Oklahoma

18. Connecticut

19. Dayton

20. Maryland

21. Oklahoma State

22. Michigan

23. Washington

24. Georgetown

25. (tie) Siena

25. Illinois

BLUE RIBBON COLLEGE BASKETBALL YEARBOOK

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAMS

Player of the Year - COLE ALDRICH, 6-11, JR, Kansas

Newcomer of the Year - DERRICK FAVORS, 6-10, FR, Georgia Tech

2008-09 Blue Ribbon All-America Teams

FIRST TEAM

COLE ALDRICH, Kansas, 6-11 JR

KYLE SINGLER, Duke, 6-8 JR

LUKE HARANGODY, Notre Dame, 6-8 SR

SHERRON COLLINS, Kansas, 5-11 SR

EVAN TURNER, Ohio State, 6-7 JR

SECOND TEAM

PATRICK PATTERSON, Kentucky, 6-8 JR

DAMION JAMES, Texas, 6-7 SR

GREG MONROE, Georgetown, 6-11 SO

WILLIE WARREN, Oklahoma, 6-4 SO

SCOTTIE REYNOLDS, Villanova, 6-2 SR

THIRD TEAM

TALOR BATTLE, Penn State, 5-11 JR

TYLER SMITH, Tennessee, 6-7 SR

TREVOR BOOKER, Clemson, 6-7 SR

ROBBIE HUMMEL, Purdue, 6-8 JR

Craig Brackins, Iowa State, 6-10 JR

FOURTH TEAM

GREIVIS VASQUEZ, Maryland, 6-6 SR

JARVIS VARNADO, Mississippi State, 6-9 SR

RAYMAR MORGAN, Michigan State, 6-8 SR

JAMES ANDERSON, Oklahoma State, 6-6 JR

ED DAVIS, North Carolina, 6-9 SO

The recruiting service Scout.com is reporting that Chane Behanan will be visiting Kentucky this weekend of the football game against Louisville.

Behanan, a 6-7 power forward, transferred to Bowling Green High School this year. He will be a junior this coming season. He played for Cincinnati Aiken High last season.

Scout.com rates Behanan among the nation’s top 100 players in the high school class of 2011.

Two highly regarded high school seniors from Florida are expected to make official visits to UK this weekend. The two are guard Brandon Knight and wing Stacey Poole. Knight is a consensus top five national player. Poole is regarded as a top 50 prospect.