Saturday notes blowout: John Calipari and Rick Barnes meet again; UK football adds a QB
A Saturday notes blowout as we wait on Kentucky-Tennessee:
Cats-Vols basketball notes
▪ In previous battles between the two old friends, both veterans of the Five Star Camps, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes is 7-5 versus Kentucky’s John Calipari. Remember, Tennessee rallied from 17 down to shock UK at Rupp Arena last season. Kentucky led 48-31 with 17:30 to go only to see the Vols storm back for an 81-73 victory.
▪ Dick Vitale tweeted Friday that he was told by John Calipari that Terrence Clarke will not play against the Vols.
▪ Vitale and Bob Wischusen will be on the call for Cats-Vols at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
▪ According to Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency numbers, Tennessee has the nation’s best defense. The Vols are 69th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 15th overall. Kentucky is 107th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 13th in adjusted defensive efficiency. The Wildcats are 55th overall.
▪ After going 9-for-20 from three at Missouri on Wednesday, UK is now shooting 30.2 percent from three-point range, which ranks 295th in the nation.
▪ The Cats are 284th in turnover percentage at 21.5. Kentucky’s turnover percentage at Missouri was 23.1. Its turnover percentage in the 70-59 loss at Alabama was 23.6. Its turnover percentage in the 82-69 win over LSU on Jan. 23 was just 12.4 percent.
▪ In its 52-50 loss at Ole Miss last Tuesday, Tennessee scored 23 points in the first 10 minutes, then 27 points the next 30 minutes. From the 13:07 mark to the 3:43 mark of the second half, the Vols scored two points. Both came on free throws.
▪ UK’s Olivier Sarr and Tennessee’s Yves Pons are both from France and close friends. Both played. on the French National Team. They played against one another before becoming teammates at INSEP Academy. The SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year a year ago, Pons has upped his offensive game. He’s averaging 15.8 points per game.
▪ Some links to get you ready for Kentucky-Tennessee:
- Vols another test of Kentucky’s ability to finish
- Talk of firing Calipari loopy, but Kentucky fans are right about some things
- What Vols must do to fix slumping offense before Kentucky game
- Vols want John Fulkerson to be aggressive
- Why the regular season still matters for Kentucky
- When UK ran short on point guards, Calipari tinkered
▪ Kentucky is 7-8-1 in the second half this season. The tie came against LSU. Only one opponent has outscored the Cats in the second half over the last four games.
▪ The Pro Insight blog takes a look at UK’s Isaiah Jackson and the freshman’s dominance in the paint. “UK’s Isaiah Jackson, a freshman who notably shared a court with rookie standout LaMelo Ball for a year at Spire Academy, has displayed a level of control around the key on both ends so far that is quite literally a statistical anomaly for any player in college basketball, let alone for a freshman in a power five conference.”
[UK recruiting news and links at Next Cats]
Saturday’s SEC schedule and around the state
▪ Two SEC games scheduled for Saturday have been postponed because of COVID-19. Texas A&M at Arkansas is a no-go. Florida at LSU is a no-go.
▪ Here is the SEC schedule for Saturday:
- 12:00 - Alabama at Missouri (ESPN)
- 3:30 - Mississippi State at South Carolina (SEC)
- 4:00 - Ole Miss at Auburn (ESPN2)
- 6:00 - Vanderbilt at Georgia (SEC)
- 8:00 - Tennessee at Kentucky (ESPN)
▪ The Alabama-Missouri game matches the first-place Tide and the second-place Tigers in the SEC race. Alabama was picked to finish fifth by the preseason poll. Missouri was picked to finish 10th. Now, Alabama is ranked 10th in the AP Top 25. Missouri is ranked 18th.
▪ Alabama Coach Nate Oats says forward Jordan Bruner is still a “few weeks away” from returning from the knee injury he suffered in the Tide’s 85-65 win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Jan. 12.
▪ Morehead State will try to extend its winning streak to 11 when the Eagles play host to Austin Peay at 2 p.m. Saturday. Morehead State improved to 14-6 overall and 11-2 in the OVC with a 66-56 win over visiting Murray State on Thursday. Austin Peay is 7-4 in the OVC, 11-6 overall.
[Morehead’s 10-game winning streak headlines a surge by Kentucky teams not named UK]
▪ Eastern Kentucky will try to bounce back from Thursday’s 94-79 loss to Austin Peay when the Colonels play host to Murray State at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Colonels are 14-3 overall, 8-2 in the OVC. Murray is 8-9 overall, 5-7 in the league.
▪ Western Kentucky’s back-to-back games at Florida Atlantic, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, have been postponed. They had been pushed back to Sunday and Monday, but now have been scrapped because of COVID-19 issues. Western is 13-4 overall and 6-2 in C-USA. Rick Stansbury’s team has not played since beating Middle Tennessee 68-52 on Jan. 24.
More hoops news and notes
▪ As it always does, ESPN is pushing Duke vs. North Carolina, which takes place at 6 p.m. Duke is 66th in the NCAA NET computer rankings. North Carolina is 55th. Instead of the game’s best rivalry, it is two teams battling to get into the NCAA Tournament.
▪ Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News and Observer writes about the last time Duke and North Carolina met as unranked teams. The year was 1960.
▪ The Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy writes on both Kentucky’s and Duke’s struggles.
▪ No. 2 Baylor’s Saturday game with TCU and Wednesday game against Oklahoma have both been postponed because of COVID-19.
▪ Remember Mike Anderson? The former Arkansas coach has St. John’s on a four-game win streak, including a 70-59 upset of No. 3 Villanova on Wednesday. Now 12-7 overall and 6-6 in the Big East, St. John’s is at Providence at 2 p.m. Saturday on Fox Sports 1.
▪ The NCAA announced Friday that the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament will be played in the San Antonio area this year. From the release:
“First-round play will take place March 21-22 at the Alamodome, Bill Greehey Arena on the campus of St. Mary’s (Texas), Frank Erwin Center (Texas), University Events Center (Texas State) and the UTSA Convocation Center. Second-round play will shift entirely to venues in San Antonio, with the Alamodome, Bill Greehey Arena and the UTSA Convocation Center playing host March 23-24.
“The championship will shift to the Alamodome for all remaining rounds, with the Sweet 16 games played March 27-28, Elite Eight games held March 29-30 and the Women’s Final Four conducted April 2 and 4.”
▪ Jon Rothstein reports that the SEC Tournament could have up to 25 percent fan capacity at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
UK gets a new QB, and more football notes
▪ The big Friday news was Will Levis’ announcement that he is transferring to Kentucky. The former Penn State quarterback will miss spring practice, however.
▪ Among the topics that Josh Moore and myself talked about on our latest podcast was the possibility of UK getting the quarterback from Penn State.
▪ If you missed it, Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy says former Kentucky center Drake Jackson separated his shoulder on the second snap of the game and kept on playing. “I wasn’t going to let you down,” Jackson told Nagy after the game.
▪ Draft analyst Emory Hunt on the Ross Tucker College Draft podcast talking about UK defensive lineman Phil Hoskins, who is entering the 2021 NFL Draft and played in the Hula Bowl last Sunday:
“He’s well-traveled, a juco guy who was granted his sixth year at Kentucky. So a game like (the Hula Bowl) is really beneficial for him because he just needs reps against top quality competition. He got that at Kentucky. He played well this year. Missed a couple of games on the front end and on the back end, but you saw a guy that got better every week. I thought the last stretch of the season he was playing his best ball. For him at 6-5, 315, he was playing five-tech in a 3-4 defense but I think he’s probably more of a 1-tech because he’s quick off the ball. He can be a disruptor.”
▪ Bob Kravitz of The Athletic wrote a really good story in which he talked to former teammates, staff members and coaches about Peyton Manning, who is expected to be named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend.
One of those Kravitz talked to was former UK tight end Jacob Tamme, “For being as famous and popular as he is, he really cared about all his teammates, even the guys no one has heard of.”
Around the state and SEC football notes
▪ Louisville football says it will start spring practice on Monday. Yes, that’s Feb. 8.
▪ Louisville recently named Bryan Brown as associate head coach to go along with his duties as defensive coordinator. Brown had reportedly been pursued by new Tennessee coach Josh Heupel. Brown came to U of L after being defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach at Appalachian State. He joined the Cards with ex-App State coach Scott Satterfield.
▪ Charlotte tight ends coach Cody Woodeil is joining the U of L staff in a quality control role. He will also work with the offensive line.
▪ Former Louisville coach Howard Schnellenberger is still recovering from a fall he suffered last summer.
▪ Western Kentucky will play host to Indiana on Sept. 25. The Hoosiers were 6-2 last year, including a 6-1 mark in the Big Ten.
▪ Auburn has received approval to build a $91.9 million Football Performance Center. The 233,400 square foot facility is expected to be completed by July 2022.
▪ And Tennessee paid Parker Executive Search $120,000 to hire AD Danny White, who then turned around and had UT pay Parker Executive $120,000 to hire new football coach Josh Heupel. Oh yeah, White was Heupel’s AD at UCF.
Odds and ends
▪ Another Kentucky Derby prep race is on tap for Saturday with the Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs. Smiley Sobotka, trained by Dale Romans, is the 3-1 favorite. Nova Rags, trained by Bill Mott, is at 4-1 in the morning line. Fox Sports 2 will have racing coverage from 2 to 6:30 p.m.
▪ Saturday’s second Kentucky Derby prep is the Withers at Aqueduct. Capo Kane is the favorite.
▪ If you missed it, the Cincinnati Reds have named Thom Brennaman’s replacement. John Sadak will be the team’s play-by-play voice for Fox Sports Ohio telecasts. A New York City native, Sadak is a veteran of minor league baseball and has worked TV and radio for CBS and Westwood One.
▪ Yes, former Reds starting pitcher Trevor Bauer, the National League Cy Young Award winner, is signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The rich get richer.
The Dodgers rotation will be Lexington’s own Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Trevor Bauer, Julio Urias and David Price.
▪ Legendary Kentucky high school football coach Ivan McGlone has died at age 82. McGlone coached 38 years at Russell, winning state titles in 1978 and 2005.
This story was originally published February 6, 2021 at 7:46 AM.
