Entries from November 2010 ↓

UK players wore black socks and block wristbands against Boston U Tuesday night to signify their mourning. Calipari’s mother, Donna, passed away at age 74 on Sunday.
Before the game, Calipari tweeted his appreciation of the gesture.
“It means a lot to me and is another sign of the kind of superb young men we have in our program,” he tweeted. “Thanks to all of (the Big Blue Nation) for your support.
“I’ll coach with a heavy heart tonight. But I know my mom is watching from the luxury boxes with a whole crew of UK luminaries cheering along with her.”

Fans can celebrate the history of UK Basketball and support the school’s Art Museum.

That twin bill can be accomplished by buying a limited edition poster printed by the Art Museum. Former UK Coach Joe B. Hall will sign posters at the UK Bookstore on Dec. 11 from 1 to 3 pm.

John Calipari has signed a limited number of posters, which will be available for $40. Unsigned posters are $20.  Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky.

The painting, created by Clifford Amyx and entitled 1958, captures the spirit and action of UK games during the 1950s era.  Amyx, a native of Jackson County, studied at UK where he received his Master’s degree in 1943.

From 1936 to 1941 Amyx was the assistant supervisor of the Federal Art Project in San Francisco. He returned to UK as a professor of painting and drawing in 1946 and helped develop the art department.

A thin smile crossed DeAndre Liggins’ face. Isn’t there an inherent conflict to negotiate in a Kentucky offense predicated on aggressive drives to the basket, yet being chastised as being “selfish” for driving too aggressively against Connecticut last week?
“It’s very hard for me,” Liggins said Monday when asked about finding the right balance. “I’m an attacking player.”
But, he acknowledged, there is a better balance to be found than the blind man groping in the dark that UK did against the Huskies in the EA Sports Maui Invitational championship game.
“I’ve got to recognize what I have,” Liggins said. “If the defense collapses, I’ve got teammates wide open.”
Kentucky hopes to do better against Boston U on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena. In this case, the Cats have an easy act to follow. It’s hard to imagine a worse performance than one that inspired UK Coach John Calipari to label it “selfish.” Kentucky had only nine assists against UConn, which topped the seven against Washington the night before.
Unity of purpose was not in evidence on defense either.
“Just not talking,” big man Josh Harrellson said. “Not helping each other out. Just primarily focused on our own guy.
“You don’t have an assigned guy. Everybody is our guy on the court.”
As Liggins noted, the guilty were not confined to the many freshmen who form the core of this Kentucky team. Veterans were a part of the selfishness, too.
“Not only the young guys,” Liggins said. “It was me, too. I admitted it. I have to learn and keep moving.”
Of course, the very name of Kentucky’s offense — the Dribble-Drive — suggests an emphasis on moves to the basket.
“That’s the whole reason for the Dribble-Drive motion (offense),” Harrellson said. “That’s the reason it works. You’ve got to have at least two or three good drivers on the floor just to get in the lane and penetrate and find open players.”
It’s that last part, the finding of open players, where Kentucky faltered against Connecticut.

UK Coach John Calipari missed the start of practice on Monday. He was returning from Charlotte, N.C., where his mother passed away Sunday night. His mother, Donna, was 74.

Calipari missed his regular day-before-the-game news conference and the start of practice. UK spokesman DeWayne Peevy said assistant coach John Robic would substitute for Calipari on the weekly call-in radio show Monday night (7-8 p.m. EST).

Calipari is expected to coach the Kentucky team against Boston U on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena.

The Southeastern Conference named Kentucky forward Terrence Jones its Freshman of the Week for last week, the league announced Monday.

Jones averaged 23 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.3 blocks during the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

His 29 points against Oklahoma tied for second most points in a game by a UK freshman in school history. His 17 rebounds against Washington was third most rebounds by a freshman in school history.

UK Coach John Calipari just sent a tweet saying his mother, Donna, had passed away.

Here is the tweet: “As most of you know, my mom, Donna, has been battling cancer for several months. On Sunday, she lost her brave fight.”

In follow-up tweets, Calipari said, “”On behalf of my dad, my two sisters, Ellen and all of our family…we want to thank the Big Blue Nation for all their prayers, cards … Your warmth uplifted her and all of us.

“We hope you will all respect our privacy during this period and know that we are grateful for being part of the Big Blue family.

“God bless and thank you.”

Keeping in mind that The Associated Press encourages free expression in its top 25 balloting, Connecticut made a big splash on my ballot this week.

I had not included UConn in my top 25 until seeing them win the EA Sports Maui Invitational last week. To show you how thin a line there is between winning and losing, the Huskies trailed Wichita State much of that first-round game before — who else? — Kemba Walker led a late second-half charge.

UConn got stronger as the tournament unfolded and ranked No. 8 on my ballot.

I dropped Kentucky three spots (from 10 to 13).

Unbeaten Notre Dame — a future UK foe — got on my ballot. So did Wichita State, which went to Maui intent on winning the tournament and showed the talent to validate those ambitions.

The other team of note on this week’s ballot is Purdue. Or should I say PURDUE?

I put the Boilers in all caps as a salute to their fans, who flooded my e-mail with protests when I did not include Purdue on previous ballots. Robbie Hummel’s season-ending torn ACL put me off Purdue.

It didn’t help that Purdue’s strength of schedule was not in the top 200. But as a reward to that keyboard-loving fan base, and ignoring the loss against Richmond in nearby Chicago, I put PURDUE at No. 25.

Here’s this week’s ballot:

<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} span.EmailStyle15 {mso-style-type:personal; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-ascii-font-family:Arial; mso-hansi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; color:windowtext;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:413012538; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:-1147878308 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-tab-stop:.5in; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;} –>

1. Duke
2. Ohio State
3. Pittsburgh
4. Kansas State
5. Kansas
6. Syracuse
7. Missouri
8. Connecticut
9. Michigan State
10. Minnesota
11. Texas
12. Illinois
13. Kentucky
14. West Virginia
15. Memphis
16. Florida
17. Georgetown
18. San Diego State
19. Notre Dame
20. Vanderbilt
21. North Carolina
22. UNLV/Virginia Tech winner
23. Tennessee
24. Wichita State
25. PURDUE

Freshman point guard Brandon Knight’s struggles at the EA Sports Maui Invitational led Kentucky Coach John Calipari to re-think how he’s directing the team’s floor leader.

“He’s got to get better,” Calipari said. ” . . . I have to do a better job of coaching him, to be honest.”

After noting that Tyreke Evans struggled early in his freshman season for Calipari at Memphis, the UK coach said it can take time to determine how to bring out the best in a player.

“I have to do a better job defining how he has to play and run this team,” Calipari said of Knight. “Obviously, I haven’t done as good a job as I need to because in the first half (against Connecticut) we were out of whack.”

Surely tougher competition had something to do with it. Yet, Knight had a noticably drop in efficiency.

In three games on Maui, Knight made 17 of 47 shots (36.1 percent) and just three of 22 three-point attempts (13.6 percent). He also committed 18 turnovers while getting credit for eight assists.

The UK traveling party plans to travel home Thanksgiving Day. The Cats have a late-morning flight off Maui.

If the schedule holds, UK will touch down at Lexington’s Bluegrass Field at 1 a.m. Friday.