Entries from December 2009 ↓

Former UK guard Alex Legion is transferring from Illinois, the Detroit News reported on Wednesday.
Legion played one semester for UK in the 2007-08 season before transferring to Illinois. It’s not yet known where he’ll go.

Here’s the story from the Detroit News:

Alex Legion, who played high school basketball at Detroit Country Day and at one point signed with Michigan, is leaving the Illinois team.

Illini sports information spokesman Derrick Burson said Legion is transferring, but Burson didn’t know where.

Legion originally signed with Michigan but got his release when former U-M coach Tommy Amaker was fired. Legion then signed with Kentucky and played the first half of the 2007-08 season with the Wildcats before transferring to Illinois.

Legion is a 6-foot-5 junior guard who played 33 games for the Illini this season and last season, totaling 107 points. He scored a career-high 15 points last year against Michigan State and had a season-high 11 points against Presbyterian on Nov. 21. He was averaging 2.7 points this season.

“He worked hard during his time here and gave great effort,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said in a statement. “We wish him the best and we’ll do whatever we can to help him in his transition.”

Kentucky will have to play Hartford withlout one of its four double-digit scorers. Freshman Eric Bledsoe will sit out the game to rest an injured ankle.
No word on his long-term availability, but the smart money would have him playing against Louisville on Saturday.
Bledsoe is UK’s fourth-leading scorer, averaging 10.1 points. His 18 three-point baskets rank second only to Darius Miller (21) among UK players.
In the last two games, Bledsoe had a two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio (eight assists, four turnovers).

Kentucky expects a large number of media and NBA scouts at Saturday’s game against Louisville.
But as far as NBA scouts go, it won’t be a record number.
As of Tuesday, UK had set aside nine seats for NBA scouts at the game. That’s well short of the 19 seats reserved for scouts at the Cats’ game against North Carolina. It’s only equal to the nine reserved for UK’s opening game against Morehead State.
UK spokesman DeWayne Peevy noted the game coming 24 hours after New Year’s Day as a possible factor. As of Tuesday, Kentucky had more requests from NBA scouts for the upcoming Southeastern Conference opener against Georgia on Jan. 9, Peevy said.
That’s not to say the UK-U of L game will not draw plenty of interest.
Media outlets sending reporters to the so-called Dream Game include the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Internet sites such as Yahoo! Sports, ESPN.com (two seats), FoxSports.com and CBSSportsline.com

During the semester break, Kentucky Coach John Calipari is scheduling more than one practice per day. But it’s not all work-work-work for the Cats.
On Sunday evening, Calipari gave the players a choice: another practice or go see the movie Invictus. The players chose the movie.
After the players posed for pictures, signed autographs and, according to Mark Krebs, “pretty much bought out the snack shop,” the Cats watched Invictus, which tells the story of how a rugby team played a part in Nelson Mandella’s effort to re-unite South Africa.
UK Coach John Calipari said he hoped the players got two messages: 1) Mandella’s inspiring story of going from 27 years of imprisonment by the country’s apartheid government to being elected president, and 2) seeing that an athlete can be doing something that has a much larger purpose than simply playing well.
In case the players did not get the messages, Calipari said he spoke to the team for 45 minutes about the movie before Monday’s practice.
Not that Kentucky is spending a lot of time away from basketball. The team is practicing twice or three times a day.
The good news is that the practices are running shorter than the scheduled two hours each.
“They’re getting it done,” Calipari said, “and they’re doing it with great enthusiasm.”
The UK coach said he encourages the movie excursions and tries to use non-sports techniques in an effort to get the players think about others.

While Florida football coach Urban Meyer cited health concerns and time away from his family as reasons he briefly resigned, Kentucky Coach John Calipari suggested that he won’t let the pressures of his job have an adverse effect.
“This can eat you up if you’re consumed with it,” he noted on Monday.
For instance, Calipari suggested that being fretful about players leaving early for the NBA can cause anxiety. So, a reporter asked, did the UK coach feel anxiety with the talk swirling of star freshman John Wall and perhaps forward DeMarcus Cousins leaving after this season.
“No,” Calipari said. “What’s the worse they can do to me? Fire me. I’ve been fired. I’ve already been fired.”
As for critics, Calipari said, “Get in line. The long one. No, keep going.”
While acknowledging that the job of Kentucky basketball coach involves stress, Calipari suggested how he looks at the job defuses the pressure.
“I’m looking at it like I’m blessed,” he said. “And I’m trying to use it to help the campus.”
As for family life, Calipari said his son Bradley, 13, attends practices and is the only person allowed to continue shooting while the coach speaks.
“Ellen and I probably don’t get the time together than we need,” he said of his wife. “… This profession consumes your time. Now, does it consume you? I don’t talk basketball when I get home.”

In a radio interview Friday on 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis, Kentucky Coach John Calipari said that he feeds off criticism.

A transcript of the interview was sent via e-mail.

Here’s one question-and-answer, with the question being whether Calipari will try to call Bob Knight and ask about the Hall of Fame coach’s criticism last week:

“I don’t know,” Calipari said. “I haven’t thought about it. I might. I have his cell number ‘cause like I said we have stayed in touch some. I do have it and I may call him, but like I said I’m worried about coaching my team, getting this team better and I’ve been pretty good over my career about the distractions.
“When I get on point of what I’m doing and what I’m coaching, you can try to throw stuff at me to see if you can get me off point to affect this or affect that, but in most cases it makes me a little sharper. Makes me more on point of what I’ve gotta do and how I’ve gotta be.”

Here’s a link to check out:

http://sportsradiointerviews.com/2009/12/21/john-calipari-has-nothing-negative-to-say-about-bob-knight/

New York Times columnist William C. Rhoden weighed in on the Bob Knight-John Calipari episode of last week.
In a column published Monday, Rhoden suggested that Calipari and Knight are more alike than different. Each got away with transgressions that might have had more severe consequences for other coaches. Why? Because Calipari and Knight won games.
Authorities looked the other way when Knight was involved in an altercation with a Puerto Rican policeman in 1979, dumped a LSU fan in a garbage can in 1981, threw a chair in a game and got caught putting a hand on the throat of player Neil Reed.
Two of Calipari’s programs — Massachusetts and Memphis — had to vacate Final Four appearances because of rule violations.
“Knight wonders why Calipari is still coaching,” Rhoden wrote. “He is because Kentucky wants championship banners.
“Why was Knight allowed to keep going? Because Indiana wanted championship banners.
“Let’s stop the moralizing. Knight and Calipari: first cousins of the NCAA cloth.”

For the first time in five weeks, Kentucky guard John Wall was not the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week.
The SEC named forward Reginald Buckner of Ole Miss as its Freshman of the week. He averaged 9.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in the Rebels’ victories over UTEP and Centenary.
Wall had won the SEC Freshman of the Week the past four weeks. UK guard Eric Bledsoe won the award the week prior to Wall’s streak.
As for Player of the Week, the SEC named Trey Thompkins of Georgia. He scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds in Georgia’s neutral-court victory over Illinois.

Syndicated columnist (and ESPN poker commentator) Norman Chad writes a weekly column. At the end of each column, he answers reader questions.
Here is the first question this week:

Q. Are you taking sides in the Bobby Knight-John Calipari contretemps? (Tom Leonard; Houston)

A. On this one I side with the late Al McGuire, who once said, “The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.”

Kentucky Coach John Calipari noted on Sunday how he uses humor when reviewing video of games in order to get his points across to the players.
He uses humor not because it might help ease the pain of correction or not wound a player’s ego.
“Their pride hurts when the whole team is laughing,” Calipari said on Sunday. “I want them to have a sense of humor. When you go through a season, if you’re so sensitive you can’t laugh at mistakes, how can you get better? You’ll have excuses for everything and answers for everything.”
Calipari said he had an excuse board that included such entries as 1) opponent grabbed my arm or 2) opponent pushed me in the back or 3) I really tried or 4) girlfriend problems.
“Then you don’t have to give the whole excuse,” he said. “Just give me the number. You can also give combination of numbers.”