Morning Newspaper for March 9th, 2009

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Today’s big news in the SEC is that Alabama pulled off a last-second defeat of Tennessee yesterday in Knoxville.  The Vols were flying pretty high after clinching the East, but Alabama came to play, and stuck another bad loss in the Vol’s eye. The SEC East this year is a train wreck.  Nobody has been immune from the bad loss or the unexpected upset.

In other NCAA news, North Carolina handed Duke another loss in Chapel Hill.  There were virtually no upsets in college basketball yesterday, something we haven’t seen in a while.

Now, for the news.

Kentucky Basketball News

• Advice for Kentucky basketball fans — start paying attention to football!  Heh.  Not bad advice, really.  Good news that Moncell Allen will apparently be back, after having let his academics slip.  Derrick Locke is apparently practicing in non-contract drills.
• Andy Staples doubts if UK will overreact and fire Billy Gillispie.  So do I.  Very much.
• The Nashville City Paper mocks UK basketball.  The hardest part of putting up with a season like this is having to read sportswriters taking shots at you when you’re down.  When the pendulum swings the other way, I am planning a virtual orgy of schadenfreude.
• Guy Smiley dubs this UK team the Unwatchables.  We’ve heard this one before, guy.  How’s about something original?
• I saw this article yesterday.  It made me laugh after I swallowed my gorge.  Jeez.
• Danny Jett reminds us that this is the thirty-year anniversary of our last NIT appearance.
• John Clay says that Gillispie might not be a lock for next season.  He says that his gut isn’t sure Gillispie will be back.

  I am more sanguine, but John raises a very good point.  This UK team is obviously not having any fun out there.  Now, that’s not too surprising — if they were having fun losing, I might question the coaching even more than I do.  But I think the apparent cloud that has sunk over this team’s collective head is part of the reason they are playing so badly.

  The SEC Tournament will be a quick read on how well Gillispie fills the role of the psychologist.  If the team is tight going into its first game, we can safely assume that he has not filled it well.  Coach Gillispie must get this team to relax and have fun, or the post season will be over quickly.

• Value Added makes the case for retaining Billy Gillispie.  I wouldn’t call his case compelling (#4 is completely ridiculous, #5 is true but doesn’t tell the whole story), but he makes some good points.
• There are fewer questions in this story than observations, but that’s okay.  He makes some very good points, but none of them are exactly revolutionary.
• I don’t find Meeks’ alleged comments to Ray Shipment about being told not to shoot all that curious — it seems obvious jodie was trying to play a head game with Shipman.  What makes me scratch my head are the number of fans apparently willing to chalk it up to Meeks trying to sabotage the game.  Note to Jodie — these are the times when you find out who your friends really are.
• Kentucky has found no solutions to the same old problems.  I have no clue what it will take to turn this team around, but my guess is about a four-month break.
• Glenn Guilbeau ranks Gillispie 5th out of the SEC basketball coaches, calling it a “questionable hire.”  Hindsight is always 20/20, but I do think he has the ranking about right, and I would add a down arrow by his name until he shows me otherwise.
• Matt Jones has a conversation with Patrick Patterson’s mom.  Interesting.  I see nothing particularly revealing either way in this interview, and I am glad she and Patrick are fans of Kentucky.  But I will say that her conversation with Barnhart does not look like the kind of conversation UK fans would want her to be having, and does not make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

  What is clearly absent from this interview is the assertion that Patrick will graduate from UK, something we have heard repeatedly through third parties from his parents.  I actually think this is healthy — If Patterson’s draft status is solidly in the first round, I believe that he should very seriously consider making the jump.  I don’t want to lose him, and I think we could have a very good team if he comes back next year, but I am convinced that the interests of the young man are not best served by my wishes.  He should do whatever is in his own best interests — Kentucky will be fine either way.

• Jerry Tipton — the optimist?  Who knew?
• Kentucky and Gillispie have problems.  Yeah, you could say that.  There are some good questions in there, too, and so far we have precious few answers.  Well, we definitely do know the answer to “Why doesn’t this team play any zone defense?”  Gillispie has answered that one ad nauseum.  I just wish people would quit asking.

Other Kentucky Sports News

• Kentucky tennis team loses a heartbreaker to the Gators.
• A decent article at the Bleacher Report about Kentucky’s football outlook for next year.  I didn’t know that Kelley had a shoulder injury that needed surgery.
• UK softball drops the rubber match in a series against LSU.

NCAA Basketball News

• Rich Brooks named to the Northern California Sports Association Hall of Fame.  Congratulations, Coach.

Other NCAA Sports News

• What will NCAA sanctions mean for Bobby Bowden’s legacy?  My answer:  He stayed 3 years too long at FSU.  Hubris will get you in trouble, sometimes …

Other News of Interest

• A review of the Laettner/Pitino ad in the NY Times’ Quad.