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Week In Pictures
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Seventy-five days to get through the Kentucky summer sports doldrums:
■ When ex-Kentucky Wildcats athletes achieve success on the biggest national stages, it has become something of a University of Kentucky Athletics Association tradition to buy an advertisement in USA Today to congratulate them.
Kentucky has bought ads in the past in honor of Tayshaun Prince (2004 Detroit Pistons) and Nazr Mohammed (2005 San Antonio Spurs) winning NBA championships. It purchased one when Brandon Webb (Arizona Diamondbacks) was named the 2006 National League Cy Young Award winner.
Earlier this year, UK used one ad to recognize both Jared Lorenzen, backup quarterback for the NFL champion New York Giants, and golfer J.B. Holmes, who won the PGA Tour's FBR Open on Super Bowl Sunday.
So, for those wondering, if Boston wins the NBA title you can expect UK to purchase an ad in USA Today congratulating former Kentucky and current Celtics guard Rajon Rondo.
“I would anticipate we would scrounge up some money in the budget and do that,” said Kentucky sports publicist Scott Stricklin Monday.
The USA Today ads that UK buys are regional, Stricklin said. “We make sure they're in Kentucky and in the city where the athlete we're recognizing plays, and then we try to get them in the South most of the time,” he said.
In the past, Stricklin said the advertisements have cost around $25,000.
■ Speaking of Prince, ESPN.com's Chris Sheridan says the final spot on the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team will come to a choice between Prince and New Orleans big man Tyson Chandler.
■ Ex-Bryan Station star Shelvin Mack hit 13-of-25 shots and scored 40 points in the two games as the Kentucky Boys' All-Stars came achingly close (a one-point loss in Indianapolis; a 95-78 win in Louisville) to sweeping Indiana in this year's interstate high school basketball series.
I'll say this again: Billy Gillispie is going to regret letting the Butler signee get out of Lexington.
■ Given this year's putrid attendance — 5,097 in Indy; an announced 2,200 in Louisville — it's hard not to reach the conclusion that the Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Series, long struggling in the commonwealth, is now petering out on both sides of the Ohio River.
Which is a shame.
■ Speaking of All-Star Games, now that Tennessee has taken its football and gone home, longtime Kentucky high school football advocate Jimmie Reed needs to find another state against whom the commonwealth's best graduating seniors can play.
An instate East-West format like this year's isn't going to generate nor sustain much fan or media interest long-term.
■ On Saturday, the Reds drew 40,947 for a game with the Red Sox in Cincinnati; Churchill Downs had an estimated 12,000 on hand to see Curlin run in The Stephen Foster Handicap; and almost 4,500 fans were in Lexington to see the final day of the Kentucky state high school baseball tournament.
Meanwhile, Kentucky Speedway drew a track-record 73,195 for this year's Nationwide (formerly Busch) Series event.
Think about that the next time you hear someone opining that this would not be a “desirable” market for a Cup race.
■ Bruton Smith, whose Speedway Motorsports Inc. is the pending purchaser of Kentucky Speedway, says a Sprint Cup race is not the only thing he might add at the Sparta track. His preference, Smith said, is to have two big events for each major race weekend at tracks he owns.
Smith said Saturday night he might ask NASCAR for a second date each year on the Class AAA Nationwide Series. As for Indy Car, Smith said he's already talked with IRL honcho Tony George to express his desire that the now unified open-wheel series keeps running at Kentucky.
■ Beyond adding 50,000 seats, Smith declined to say what other physical changes he has in mind for Kentucky Speedway when (and if) his purchase finalizes. Outgoing Speedway owner Jerry Carroll says he believes Smith “wants to bank (the corners) a little more. And I think he wants to get the drainage a little better than what we have it.”
■ Unlike the move that caused such a ruckus in Charlotte, Smith said one thing he won't be adding at Kentucky is a drag strip.
■ Early on in Kentucky Speedway's existence, NASCAR legend and Owensboro product Darrell Waltrip worked as a paid consultant for the track. That isn't the case anymore, but that doesn't mean Waltrip isn't looking out for Kentucky.
Carroll says it was Waltrip who got Smith interested in buying Kentucky Speedway. Said Carroll: “Darrell Waltrip was telling Bruton what a wonderful track we have and, it looked to him, like a darned good market.”
■ I know this is mean, but my first thought when I heard that Georgia State had hired Bill Curry to be the head coach to start football at the Atlanta school was: At least they aren't going to over-emphasize winning.
■ As you read this, exactly 75 days until Kentucky and Louisville kick off the college football season.
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