http://www.kentucky.com/287/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2010 Kentucky.com Mark Story 60 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:16:18 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench interactive-ops@herald-leader.com http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1130837.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1130837.html Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:30 EST
21. Sean Payton. The now-Super Bowl-winning Saints coach must thank his lucky stars every day that his efforts to get the University of Kentucky head coaching job in 2002 went for naught.

(If you don't know the back story, Click here ).

20. Jacob Tamme. In a classy gesture, the Colts back-up tight end and former UK star invited his Boyle County High School coach, current Kentucky assistant Chuck Smith, to be his guest at the Super Bowl.

19. Manning bashing. Peyton Manning might not have played his best game Sunday but, even with the late interception, he was not the reason Indianapolis lost. I've been surprised at how many people are trying to revive the "Peyton is a choker" tag.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1128493.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1128493.html Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:36 EST
NCAA men's basketball tournament expansion.

Proving again that some ideas are so bad they just won't die, the NCAA continues to float the idea of expanding March Madness to 96 teams. The Associated Press reported last week that the college sports governing body is discussing the idea with college hoops stakeholders.

Given the realities of big-time college sports, one suspects the NCAA's ultimate motive is to create more television "programming inventory" from its most lucrative event to ensure that the rights fees to televise March Madness go up in the future.

After the current college hoops season, the NCAA can opt out of the final three years of its 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1125524.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1125524.html Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:47 EST
Swish.

In the balcony of Memorial Coliseum, a guy who knows a little bit about theatrical basketball John Wall turned to DeMarcus Cousins with a "Can you believe that?" look on his face.

Turns out, the Wildcat men's team is not the only basketball squad on the Kentucky campus with a first-year player who can make you say "Wow!"

The surprising Kentucky women (19-3, 7-2) solidified their hold on second place in the Southeastern Conference with an 80-66 pasting Thursday night of third-place Ole Miss in a game that wasn't, as the saying goes, as close as the score indicates.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1120454.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1120454.html Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:46 EST
So-so recruit. I believe that Brooks and staff could have done better.

We are in the SEC and we are competing with Marshall, Toledo and ECU for recruits?

In the fickle, manic-depressive world of recruiting, it is amazing how quickly 'Who?' can turn into 'Wow!'

Of the present recruits committed to sign with Kentucky and new head coach Joker Phillips Wednesday, the first day of college football's national signing period, the one generating the most buzz now is ... Raymond Sanders.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1118640.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1118640.html Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:34 EST
"I said, ' You ? You are going to be an official?'" Randy Napier recalls. "She was about the last person I expected to hear that from."

It seems in her playing days in the early 1980s at the now-defunct high school in Perry County, Tina (pronounced Tie-nuh) could be a little hard on the refs.

"She rolled her eyes at every (official's) call," Randy Napier recalls. "Every time they called a foul on her, she'd hold her hands up like, 'Who, me?' The whole time she played for me she never committed a foul, not one, at least according to her."

It's rich the twists one's life can take.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1116240.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1116240.html Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:01 EST
A team of high school-age boys breaks huddles with "One, Two, Three Bluehawks!" Along the sidelines, a mascot one that actually looks far more like an eagle than any kind of hawk roams. In the stands, a group of little girls leads a high-pitched chant of "Deeee-fense! Deeee-fense!"

What this version of high school basketball is missing is the traditional version of a high school. The Bluegrass United Bluehawks are Lexington's high school hoops for home-schooled kids.

It is an attempt by parents many but not all of whom are affiliated with the Lexington home-school cooperative Bluegrass United to fill the void of extra-curricular activities for their children that one gives up by opting out of the conventional form of schooling.

"We are trying to have something so that parents who have boys who are fairly decent ballplayers don't have to give up and surrender their preference for home schooling just so their son can play on a school team," says Jeff Fields, a Lexington financial analyst and home-school parent who coaches the Bluehawks.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1110916.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1110916.html Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:10 EST
Which means that, by the perverse logic of sports, the raging debate is whether the nation's only remaining undefeated men's college basketball team (19-0) now "needs" to lose.

Among the things pointed to by those saying yes is 1996, when a No. 1-ranked Kentucky had a 27-game winning streak snapped by Mississippi State in the finals of the SEC Tournament.

Properly chastened, Rick Pitino's uber-talented roster came back to win six more games and the NCAA title.

The question on the floor: Is taking at least one loss more beneficial for a team than entering the NCAA tourney undefeated?]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1108424.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1108424.html Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:51 EST
That ended after last season when ESPN acquired the rights to SEC basketball telecasts. So the Lexington-based Hammond finds himself this winter with a bit of SEC basketball withdrawal.

"I was talking to Larry a couple of weeks ago," Hammond said of his longtime broadcast partner, "and told him it seems strange not to be driving the back roads of the South, calling a ball game and then eating in some barbecue joint."

Yet if there had to be a year when Hammond's long-running gig with SEC hoops ended, this was likely a good one.

In his "day job" with NBC Sports, Hammond called play-by-play for the New York Jets-Cincinnati Bengals NFL playoff game earlier this month.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1105944.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1105944.html Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:10 EST
So there is irony that Euton losing his chance to play at UK in the change from Billy Gillispie to John Calipari seems to have put fun back into basketball for Scott County's senior big man.

"I've seen a lot more smiles on Dakotah's face this year," said Scott County Coach Billy Hicks.

Says Euton: "It feels different. Honestly, it does take a little bit of pressure off knowing that I'm not going to UK."

The 6-foot-8 forward was on the vanguard of Gillispie's kiddie corps approach to recruiting when he pledged to play hoops at UK in June 2007.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1098544.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1098544.html Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:21 EST
In the epitome of ironic associations, have you been following Tommy Tuberville's construction of a new coaching staff at Texas Tech?

When he replaced former Kentucky assistant Mike Leach in Lubbock, Tuberville had no choice but to keep the high-octane passing attack that Leach learned in his days with Hal Mumme.

That offensive approach has become as much identified with the Red Raiders as the fast break was with Kentucky basketball in Adolph Rupp's heyday.

Other than Leach, the foremost coaching proponent of the spread passing offense in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision is another former Kentucky assistant: Middle Tennessee offensive coordinator Tony Franklin.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1095920.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1095920.html Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:40 EST
Here in Kentucky, his parents, Condy and Wilhelmina Fugate, were spending a quiet Tuesday evening watching TV and then the phone rang.

A family friend was on the other end.

You've got to turn on ESPN Kiffin is leaving Tennessee!

"We were stunned," Condy Fugate said, over and over, Wednesday. "We're just like everyone else, it was a real stunner for us."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1091530.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1091530.html Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:14 EST
21. Kenzo. John Wall told Sports Illustrated there is no "John Wall Dance." The moves the Kentucky guard displayed at Big Blue Madness, he told SI, come from the video for the song Do the Shizz performed by the Louisville hip-hop artist Kenzo.

20. The John Wall Dance craze. You can see Kentucky fans on YouTube performing The John Wall Dance (sorry, Kenzo) standing over a dead deer after a hunt; at the symbolic center (the Old Well) of the University of North Carolina; and at New York City's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (among many other sites).

19. DeAndre Liggins. Did you ever think you'd hear a Kentucky coach say of the enigmatic swingman, as John Calipari did Saturday, "I'm proud of him."

18. Darius Miller. I suspect we've come to the defining moment, up or down, in the UK career of the 2008 Kentucky Mr. Basketball.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1089191.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1089191.html Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:34 EST
In the 1960s, Manual's Wilbur Hackett and Daviess County's Houston Hogg were the third and fourth black football players to sign scholarships with UK.

"If you'd asked me when I was there, I'd have said no way, no way," said Hogg, a former running back, of UK hiring a black man as its head football coach.

Hackett and Hogg hold a distinction in the history of University of Kentucky sports that has too often been overlooked. They were the first two black players in a major sport who played their full careers at UK.

The initial duo of black football signees at Kentucky, Nat Northington of Louisville and Greg Page of Middlesboro, had tragically star-crossed experiences in Lexington.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1086686.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1086686.html Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:14 EST
Kanye West has shown up, ripped the microphone from the hands of Joan and Melissa Rivers, and demanded that every one of my mid-season Kentucky college basketball awards go to John Wall.

OK, he might have a point.

BEST ACTOR

The nominees are: ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1080294.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1080294.html Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:14 EST
In a scramble for a loose ball near the U of L basket, Cardinals forward Jared Swopshire went to the floor.

So did DeMarcus Cousins, Kentucky's 6-foot-11, 260-pound wide load.

By the time the officials had the scrum under control, Swopshire and his U of L teammate Reginald Delk each had technical fouls.

With both teed-up Cardinals pointing at Cousins and demonstrating for the refs a swinging elbow, the officials went to watch the replay.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1079512.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1079512.html Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:14 EST
But when Rick Pitino's Cardinals invade Rupp Arena on Saturday to face John Calipari's Wildcats, no household anywhere in the United States will have more reason to feel conflicted than that of Rickie and Genevieve Delk in Jackson, Tenn.

Reginald Delk, one of Rickie and Genevieve's twin sons, has started eight games for U of L this season as a senior swingman.

On the other bench, Tony Delk, the youngest of Rickie's seven siblings, is back at UK where he starred on the 1996 NCAA championship team. Tony is working as an assistant strength coach for the men's basketball program.

"Very weird," says Rickie Delk of the situation his family faces. "Very weird."]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1075317.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1075317.html Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:55 EST
We were wrong .

I know how they feel.

When Brooks was introduced as Guy Morriss's successor seven years ago, I thought the former University of Oregon and St. Louis Rams coach was a puzzling hire at best. For 31/2 rocky seasons, through the full brunt of Hal Mumme-era NCAA sanctions, I didn't see much on the field to alter that.

Yet if Brooks takes his intention to retire as Kentucky's head man from the 80 percent he stated after the Music City Bowl to 100 percent, he will depart Lexington as one of the coaches I've covered that I respect the most.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1074610.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1074610.html Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:59 EST
UK's 21-13 loss to Clemson showed the wisdom of that stance.

If it is going to sustain its football success, Kentucky has got to get a more effective passing attack going.

With Clemson stacking the line to shut down running back Derrick Locke and Wildcat formation runner Randall Cobb, UK had no answer to loosen the 'D.'

True freshman Morgan Newton went the whole way at quarterback and threw for 98 yards. Of Newton's 13 completions against the Tigers, only two went for more than 10 yards.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1072723.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1072723.html Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:50 EST
The all-expenses-paid junket that is an "official recruiting visit" whisked the Louisville Central star to Ohio State, Michigan and Auburn.

Hometown Louisville and state university Kentucky also had red carpets to roll out for a four-star defensive tackle with every positive intangible a coach could want.

By the time the coveted prospect wrapped up his travels, Peters had noticed a repetitive narrative to all his non-UK visits

Why go to Kentucky? You'll never win. Go to Kentucky, bowl games will be things you watch on TV. You can do better than Kentucky. ]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1068817.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/1068817.html Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:14 EST
Win No. 1 for the Kentucky Wildcats basketball program came by one, 11-10, over the always formidable Lexington YMCA.

On Monday night, the fascinating journey that is Kentucky basketball reached 2,000 wins first before any other college hoops program with an 88-44 obliteration of Drexel.

"This is for the greatest fans in the history of college basketball," UK Coach John Calipari said.

What a trek UK2K has been.]]>