http://www.kentucky.com/287/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2008 Kentucky.com Mark Story 60 Sat, 17 May 2008 04:18:47 EDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/395092.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/395092.html Sun, 04 May 2008 02:03 EDT
What I think: The University of Kentucky just can't find a happy medium when it comes to basketball recruiting.

In its latter years, the knock on the Tubby Smith coaching regime was that it was perpetually late to the recruiting party and therefore always behind and in scramble mode on the recruiting trail.

But offering scholarships to kids who have yet to enter high school is erring at the opposite extreme.

I'll preface this by noting that Gillispie and his staff are reputed to be working their (Wildcat) tails off in recruiting. UK basketball needed that infusion of energy.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/388196.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/388196.html Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
At the level of college coaching at which they have long plied their trade, Bill Cronin and Happy Osborne are Orcas.

Cronin, the Georgetown College football coach, has gone a robust 123-22 with two NAIA national championships in his 11 years as head man of the Tigers.

Osborne, the men's basketball coach at Georgetown, is 371-67 in 12 years as Georgetown head man with the 1998 NAIA national title making for a nice line on his r.sum..

Both live in a town they like, work at a college they love and have coaching jobs where one can realistically aspire to championships every year.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/386367.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/386367.html Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:30 EDT
When it comes to the Celtics-Hawks matchup . specifically the point guards . in the NBA playoffs, suffice to say Rajon Rondo's former high school coach and Mike Bibby's first cousin feels strongly both ways.

"It's weird, really weird," says Doug Bibby, who coached Louisville's Central High School to its first Sweet Sixteen appearance in 30 years in 2008.

In his time as head coach at Louisville's Eastern High, Doug Bibby took a skinny kid with unusually large hands and convinced him he had a special gift for playing basketball.

The relationship between him and Rondo grew deeper than player/coach. Bibby became a life mentor for the Louisville product who became a McDonald's All-American and, for two up-and-down years, a Kentucky Wildcat.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/383168.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/383168.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 07:48 EDT
As you read this, it's exactly 130 days until Kentucky and Louisville renew the Governor's Cup football rivalry.

Last year's UK-U of L battle was the most anticipated in the modern history of the series. Both teams had legitimate reason to think they'd be strong -- a rarity in the history of our state's signature college football rivalry.

Both had an unusual level of star power in the offensive skill positions, starting with senior stars in quarterbacks Andre Woodson and Brian Brohm.

The homegrown QB standouts are gone, and so are a bevy of future NFL receivers from both schools.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/381560.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/381560.html Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:05 EDT
What I think: The ex-Kentucky point guard's ascension up the coaching ranks is fairly amazing when you consider that, in eight years as a Division I head coach, he has: A.) coached in a whopping one NCAA Tournament; B.) never won a tourney game.

Still, I've always been bullish on Ford's coaching future and that hasn't changed. Some people just have "it" and Ford radiates the drive and hunger it takes to succeed in the cutthroat world of big-time college basketball.

As jobs go, Oklahoma State is a better one than the UMass position Ford is leaving and the Providence spot he turned down.

It is not as good a job, potentially, as the LSU position (with the abundant talent produced in Louisiana) that apparently slipped from Ford's grasp late in the SEC school's search.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/379970.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/379970.html Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
Derrick Locke has spent his spring going back and forth between football and track and field. The University of Kentucky sophomore has to work in that whole going to class thing, too.

You wonder how the surprise running back standout who has become a record-shattering long-jumper avoids whiplash.

"It's hard," Locke says.

Football: Rich Brooks says the two fastest players he's ever coached, college or pro, are longtime NFL wide receiver Eddie Kennison and a current UK tailback, Locke.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/365964.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/365964.html Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:29 EDT
Bill Keightley lived the ultimate fantasy of everyone who grows up in the commonwealth loving the Kentucky Wildcats.

In death, he went out the same way.

So they came right out of the annals of UK sports history. Wah Wah Jones from the Fabulous Five. Unforgettables. Comeback Cats. There was Sky (that's Kenny "Sky" Walker) and Moon (Rodney "Moon" Dent).

There were two coaches -- Joe B. Hall and Rick Pitino -- who took Kentucky to national championships and one, Billy Gillispie, who hopes to do so.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/362746.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/362746.html Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:29 EDT
I was scrambling to leave the state high school basketball tournament to get back to the office when I ran into a familiar face behind Rupp Arena.

Bill Keightley’s eyes were filled with tears.

His title may have been UK men’s basketball equipment manager. His nickname may have been “Mr. Wildcat.”

What Bill Keightley really represented was the heart of University of Kentucky basketball.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/19572.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/19572.html Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:13 EDT
They just wouldn’t let the other team score.

So in this season of tumult and turmoil — with rumors swirling about the security of Smith’s job — it was fitting that his Wildcats opened the NCAA Tournament by getting in touch with the grinding, stifling defense upon which their coach built his name.

When it counted last night, Kentucky shut down Villanova, holding the “other” Wildcats to only eight field goals in the second half.

The result was a 67-58 UK victory, which means two wildly significant things.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/373367.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/373367.html Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:18 EDT http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/352169.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/352169.html Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:07 EDT http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/333190.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/333190.html Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:20 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/311286.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/311286.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:07 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/305188.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/305188.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:20 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301198.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301198.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:21 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301203.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301203.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:21 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301205.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301205.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:21 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/312465.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/312465.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:10 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/312459.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/312459.html Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:05 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301223.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301223.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:21 EST http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301225.html http://www.kentucky.com/760/story/301225.html Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:21 EST http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/403197.html http://www.kentucky.com/287/story/403197.html Tue, 13 May 2008 07:50 EDT
During the course of the conversation, he mentioned in passing that he had just seen the best high school basketball player in the state of Kentucky.

Who, I asked.

This sixth-grade kid over at Rose Hill, said he.

You're insane, said I.]]>