Quotes from head Coach Rich Brooks and players Zipp Duncan, Trevard Lindley, Sam Maxwell, Cory Peters, and Alfonso Smith.
(more)

I’ve actually been working on my television show this afternoon, so I wanted to catch you up on all the stories related to John Calapari from the past couple of hours.

As usual, depending on the source, you’ll find some different information.



ESPN

According to ESPN, Calipari reached out to former UK coach Joe B. Hall today.  According to Hall, Calipari is having “difficulty” making up his mind about accepting the Wildcats’ offer and is “trying to get as much information as he can before deciding.”

“He had not made up his mind,” Hall said.  “He was trying to get all the info he could.



THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER

Calipari also called Eddie Sutton to discuss the job.  Sutton said he gave Calipari a balanced assessment.  “I told him all the good things about Kentucky.  Kentucky has the best things (a coach) would ever want.  Maybe there are a couple drawbacks.”

Gee… ya think Calipari will call his good, good buddy Rick Pitino for his take?  (More on Pitino in a second.)

Dick Vitale believes Calipari will eventually accept the UK job.  “My strong impression is he ultimately is coming (to Kentucky).”



SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

Seth Davis believes Calipari is a perfect fit for Kentucky, in part because of his big ego.

Pitino, a rival of Calipari’s, said that the current Memphis coach would “do a great job at Kentucky if that’s their pick.”



THE LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL

If Calipari accepts the job, expect an immediate announcement from UK along with a plan for an official press conference to follow.

Larry Brown chimed in on his former assistant, Calipari, and his situation in Memphis.  “That community, that town, just adores John and respects what he’s done.  But (Kentucky’s) a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Brown also believes that Calipari has always wanted to coach on a big stage.

While Joe B. Hall told ESPN that Calipari is still weighing the decision, he told Rick Bozich that he “can’t wait until next year when we host Louisville.”  So does that mean Coach Cal is coming?  Or is that just Hall’s gut feeling?

Eric Crawford saw WREG-TV’s report from Memphis from earlier this afternoon (Calapari is headed to UK) and heard of Hall’s call to Mr. Bozich… then decided to post the following title to his blog: “Calipari a Cat.”

One problem with that… WREG is now saying that Calipari is “reportedly wavering” on his decision to leave Memphis.



CBSSPORTS.COM

Gary Parrish wrote earlier this afternoon (as we did) that Calipari was expected to meet with his assistants to discuss the move.

Meanwhile, Memphis fans and media are gathering around Calipari’s house.



FOXSPORTS.COM

Jason Whitlock writes that Calipari is considered a “dirty coach” by some in the media and that his “rep is that he plays loosey-goosey with the NCAA rulebook.”

And then he basically writes “so what?”  In Mr. Whitlock’s view, it’s the NCAA rules and “the system” that need changing.

Yeah, that should make everyone feel good.

Content provided by Alabama Basketball Blog.

1. Better marketing of the basketball program. Unlike the football program, the basketball program will not sell itself, at least not in its current state. Coach Gottfried did a good job when he first arrived of going around campus and getting the students interested. He became complacent in this area as the years went by. I would like to see Coach Grant do some things to get the student section full again. Also, I hope he pushes the administration to market the program in the Birmingham area. It’s a short 45 minute to one hour drive. Tuscaloosa has shown it does not have the population base or the demographics to adequately support Bama basketball. Of course, the die hards like me already drive in from Bham, and will regardless. Still, I think there are a lot of casual basketball fans in the ‘ham who would make the short drive to Ttown several times per year if the program were adequately marketed.

2. Bring back Midnight Madness. It’s fun for the students and exciting for recruits. If some of us alumni want to see it, it’s not going to kill us to stay up past our bedtime once per year. The pregame scrimmage at 6pm in the middle of the week, or 9am on a Saturday morning before a football game, has got to go.

3. Move the student section closer to the floor. I know Coach Gottfried tried to do this at one time, and it may not be feasible. Ideally, I would like to reconfigure the whole arena so we have more fans closer to the floor, and have all the seats actually facing the floor, but I realize this probably is not possible. Still, most places give the students premium seats along the sideline on the lower rows. We stick them up in a corner and behind the basket. If we have to displace some blue bloods to create a better home court advantage, so be it.

4. Fix the damned scoreboards. I know, this isn’t really a head coach’s job, but as CEO of the basketball program, I would think he could lean on someone to make this happen. For one thing, the scoreboards we have now are pieces of crap. There have been rumors for the past 4 years that they will be replaced with one large scoreboard hanging from the ceiling at center court. Short of that, at least lets get the stat board, clocks, and PA system to work on a consistent basis. This has been a problem for the past several years, and frankly, it’s an embarassment.

5. Continue to schedule tough non-conference opponents. This is one area where Coach Gottfried was successful, at least after getting screwed one time by the NCAA tournament committee. Let’s continue to play in as many preseason, neutral site tournaments as possible, get a few home and home arrangements with other BCS conference schools, and fill the rest of our home non-conference schedule with mid majors and small confernce schools that project to have strong seasons. It’s all about the RPI these days.

EXPECTATIONS

What should we expect as far as on the court results go? I’m hopeful that we can make the tournament next year, especially with a down SEC, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that needs to be an expectation. Our returning players will have to buy into Coach Grant’s system, and they have probably learned some bad habits and will need to relearn some fundamentals. That takes time. Also, Coach Grant will need time to recruit the type of players to fit his system. That being said, when you consider the amount of money we are paying him, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a fairly quick turnaround. So, here is what I want to see:

Year 1: I realize the limitations that I mentioned above, and while I hope and think we could make the tournament, I’m not going to be too caught up in using wins and losses to evaluate Coach Grant. If I see a team that brings its A game defensively every night, that puts forth maximum effort, hustles for loose balls, that uses substitution patterns and in-game strategy that makes logical sense, and competes, then I will be happy.

Year 2: After a full year on the job, it will be interesting to see how recruiting is going. I don’t get caught up in recruiting rankings, but if we are signing kids who’s only other offers are Mercer and Troy, then I will be concerned. The biggest thing I am looking for in year 2 is improvement over year 1. By Year 2 we should certainly be back into post season play.

Year 3: There is no excuse for not making the tournament within 3 years. I think that is the bare minimum for what should be expected. I would hope we could make a sweet 16 or better run.

Good Luck Coach Grant. I believe you can and will not only meet, but exceed our expectations.

Alabama Hoops Feed. FEED ME!

Content provided by The Slophouse.

Take a break from watching the great Les Smith’s reports and that live feed outside John Calipari’s house and office on whether Cal is jetting to UK, and check out ESPN blogger Chris Low’s piece on Arkansas tight end D.J. Williams. Williams, who led the Hogs in receiving yards last year, has bulked up, gotten a tad faster and says he needs to work on blocking to become a better tight end.

Coach Bobby Petrino said as much last week at his pre-spring press conference. Williams hits on a few other things in Low’s post with the team this spring. For one, quarterback Ryan Mallett brings confidence to the huddle unlike they’ve seen before, Williams said.

Here’s more from Low:

“It’s going to be very fun to watch next year,” Williams said. “Now we’re able to get into the meeting rooms and go over stuff, and it doesn’t sound like Chinese anymore. We’re able to add more complex things and get out there on the field and execute them. Everybody sees how well they’re working. Coach Petrino’s a great coach. The way he can break down a defense and build up an offense is amazing.”

For more, check out Low’s post.

I believe Low was in Baton Rouge, La., last week for spring practices at LSU and was in Athens, Ga., earlier this month for Georgia’s spring activities. I don’t know when/if he’ll be in Fayetteville before practices end April 18 with the spring game. Mr. Low or someone in the know, shoot me an e-mail if you’re reading this.

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– Brandon Marcello
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Content provided by Bayou Bengal Blog.

If you’re in New Orleans and looking for something to do, you might head over to Turchin Stadium to watch LSU and Tulane tussle tonight – but if you do, bring your checkbook. Tulane is charging $30 for tickets to tonight’s game, which is one of the most asinine things I’ve ever heard.

The face value for a ticket in the Champions’ Club at Alex Box Stadium is $15. If you can get your hands on one of those you sit directly behind home plate and you can go in the clubhouse and eat great food and drink beer or wine. It’s a terrific experience that makes you pretty much OK with a rain delay.

Will this game be twice the experience as a ticket in the Champions’ Club?

No.

That Tulane seeks to maximize its revenues out of playing LSU isn’t new, nor is it a surprise. And I’ll confess – I don’t have this raging animus against Tulane that a lot of other LSU fans do. Tulane is the largest private employer in New Orleans, and right now that makes Tulane a precious resource. It’s also a pretty good school. Overpriced and overrated, certainly – but a good school nonetheless. And there’s no question that in post-Katrina New Orleans those people have to do absolutely everything they possibly can to stay afloat, even if some of the decisions they’re forced to make look grasping and petty.

Like $30 baseball tickets. Those are grasping and petty to the extreme.

If Tulane, who at 16-11 right now and 1-2 in Conference USA doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere this year, does manage to right the ship and finds a way to host a regional, do you think they’ll charge $30 per ticket? After all, those games are more important than a Tuesday game against LSU. I can answer that one – of course not.

They’re trying to gouge LSU’s fans out of the $30 as some sort of fundraiser, and in their own way they’re trying to avoid the phenomenon of playing a home game in front of a hostile crowd – thinking that LSU fans would be priced out of the stadium at $30, as though Tiger fans don’t have the money. While I wouldn’t condemn them for that per se, what really rubs me the wrong way is what they’re doing to their own fans in charging that amount.

Upping the price for a Tuesday game against LSU serves as an admission that Tulane’s product isn’t good enough to justify high-end prices on a normal basis. It also serves as an admission that playing LSU in a midweek game is more important than weekend games against their league opponents – which puts Tulane in the same boat as Northwestern State, UL-Monroe, Centenary, Southern and McNeese State, whether they like it or not. It also admits that Tulane can’t make enough revenue to stay afloat without LSU.

Perhaps those admissions are true. I find that sad, as while I’m not looking for a quality in-state rival for LSU in any sport there used to be some value in the LSU-Tulane series – whether in football, baseball or whatever. Clearly Tulane’s athletic program has taken a turn for the worse since the heyday of the rivalry, a decline accelerated by that hurricane but one which began years ago when the decision was made on Willow Street to abandon its Louisiana roots and instead shop itself out as a “safe” school for middling students from places like Syosset and Piscataway, who would drown their sorrows at not achieving Ivy League admissions in bars on Magazine Street. While those kids probably don’t hurt Tulane from an academic standpoint and for the most part they’ll pay their share of tuition they’ve proven to be a drain on that school’s donations base. They get out of Tulane, go back up North and forget all about the four years they spent in a haze in New Orleans – and when the fundraising letters come the maid throws them in the trash.

A couple of decades of this have produced a sclerotic and shrinking local fan base which can’t be grown beyond Tulane’s alumni, for the simple reason that the current fans are so obnoxious nobody else in New Orleans really wants to be identified with them, and an alumni base which is generally 1500 miles away or more and couldn’t be bothered to mail a $50 check much less fly in for a game once in a while.

And that has produced this sad spectacle, where Tulane attempts to stick it to both LSU fans and what supporters they do have left for a Tuesday night game which has very little meaning in the big scheme of things.

Both coaches are acting like the game is a big deal, though. Tulane is throwing lefty Aaron Loup, who has started midweek losses to UL-Monroe and Northwestern State already this year and sits with a 5.50 ERA, while LSU will go with lefty Chris Matulis (4-0, 2.51 ERA), the normal midweek guy. Tiger head coach Paul Mainieri says he’ll have freshman closer Matty Ott available tonight, which is not overly surprising but an indication he’s serious about winning the game.

Tulane is struggling at the plate like LSU is. As a team they’re hitting .293, which isn’t awful but it’s not great either, and they had a paltry 10 runs and 21 hits last weekend in losing two of three to a bad Houston club (9-17 for the season, 4-2 in CUSA).

One piece of baseball news – Aaron Ross earned SEC Pitcher Of The Week honors for that eight-inning gem he threw on Sunday. That makes the second week in a row an LSU hurler has earned the honor, as Ott took it home last week.

SEC Hoops Coaching Hires Looking Strong: Our readers by now have probably heard that Kentucky’s hiring of John Calipari looks imminent, as the Wildcats are offering Nick Saban-type money to the Memphis coach and he’s likely to take it even if the FedEx people in Memphis match the offer. Word is Calipari might be taking a couple of his current Memphis players with him to UK, as well as a couple of recruits – one of them being DeMarcus Cousins, who also could be in play for LSU or Alabama if Calipari does leave. Kentucky already had a pair of big-time recruits on hand in 6-10, 260-pound post Daniel Orton and 6-6 swingman Jon Hood, the 22nd and 32nd best players in the country according to Rivals, so any damage Calipari might do in the spring recruiting period would only make the Wildcats scarier next year.

The question would be whether Calipari would be able to convince Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson to stick around. If those two guys bypassed the NBA Draft for another year and he put them with Orton and Hood, all he’d need is a point guard and he’d have an option with JUCO transfer Konner Tucker, a 6-2 shooter from Lon Morris JC in Texas who committed two weeks ago. Or maybe Calipari might cut Tucker loose in pursuit of some of his Memphis recruits, which might mean LSU ought to make a call.

It’s not just Kentucky making a hire, though. Alabama hired Anthony Grant over the weekend and Grant is already working the road hard, making point guard Eric Bledsoe of Parker High in Birmingham, whose club beat Cousins’ Mobile LeFlore team on the way to the Class 5A title in Alabama last month. With a good November class already in place, Bama looks like a team with a chance to get a lot better next year.

Georgia still hasn’t hired a coach, though the guy whose name seems to be most prominent with their job is Missouri’s Mike Anderson. Anderson’s name came up several times for the Alabama job (he used to be the coach at UAB and before that he was an assistant to Nolan Richardson at Arkansas), and he’s apparently the guy Memphis will want if Calipari leaves for Kentucky. We’ll see if the Bulldogs can reel him in.

Point is, the SEC’s status as a second-tier basketball league along with the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West is about to come to a close. If LSU is going to stay anywhere near the top of the conference, which is a reasonable expectation given the quality of the coach the Tigers have, then recruiting had better pick up in a big way. The 2010 class is going to be a lot more heavily contested with Calipari and Grant in the league, and next season is going to be considerably more difficult with those guys roaming the sidelines in at least three games next year.

I’m confident, but I’m still scared to death. You’re welcome to figure that statement out at your leisure.

More Spring Camp Stuff: I missed this one yesterday, but Joe Schiefelbein’s column in the Advocate said something very similar to Tony Barnhart’s blog in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution – namely, that LSU’s defense is brutal so far this spring.

I’ve been asked to throw a defensive depth chart together based on what’s going on, so here’s one which is by no means authoritative based on everything I’m hearing (you guys are welcome to throw your own ideas out in the Comments section):

LDE – Pep Levingston, Lavar Edwards
LDT – Al Woods, Cordian Hagans
RDT – Drake Nevis, Charles Alexander
RDE – Rahim Alem, Chase Clement
SAM – Kelvin Sheppard, Ryan Baker
MIKE – Jacob Cutrera, Kevin Minter
WILL – Perry Riley, Ace Foyil
LCB – Brandon Taylor, Chris Hawkins
RCB – Patrick Peterson, Jai Eugene
SS – Ron Brooks, Harry Coleman
FS – Chad Jones, Danny McCray

Obviously Taylor and Hawkins are interchangeable and I could be wrong about Brooks being ahead of Coleman – but all I hear is every day they’re trying a new guy at strong safety and I don’t think you’d do that if you were totally comfortable with your starter there. Also, we keep hearing one of the safeties – like McCray in all likelihood – will be moving to linebacker, but so far I don’t think it’s happened yet.

Tomorrow we’ll throw out an offensive depth chart and hopefully report on a $30 victory over Tulane.

www.bayoubengalblog.com

Content provided by Jerry Tipton on UK basketball.

Before announcing his decision on whether to accept Kentucky’s offer, John Calipari spoke with former UK coaches.

One of them, Eddie Sutton, said he gave Calipari a balanced appraisal. Sutton said that Calipari did not reveal his decision on the job to him.

“I told him all the good things about Kentucky,” Sutton said on Tuesday. “Kentucky has the best things (a coach) would ever want.

“Maybe there are a couple drawbacks.

“I told him it was a great place to coach till our situation occurred.”

Sutton had great success in his first three seasons, winning two Southeastern Conference championships and advancing to a NCAA Tournament region final in 1986.

The fourth season ended with accusations of NCAA rule violations and Sutton’s forced resignation.

“Most of the people there are just great basketball fans,” Sutton said he told Calipari. “There are a few who probably take it a little serious. It’s almost a religion to them.”
Sutton suggested Calipari’s family enjoyed Memphis, making a decision to leave more difficiult.

When asked about drawbacks to the Kentucky job, Sutton said, “You lose some of your privacy. It’s hard to go out and take the family to dinner without a lot of people wanting autographs. It’s something you live with.

“But it also has some real plusses. I didn’t say anything negative.”

Sutton said he had known Calipari since 1995, when their teams (Oklahoma State and UMass) played in the NCAA Tournament region finals.

Content provided by Jerry Tipton on UK basketball.

ESPN commentator Dick Vitale said he’s convinced Memphis Coach John Calipari will take the Kentucky job.

“That’s the impression I have,” Vitale said on Tuesday afternoon. “My strong impression is he ultimately is coming (to Kentucky).”

When asked about the delay in making a decision public knowledge, Vitale said Calipari was “just making sure. He wants to feel 100 percent comfortable” with moving from Memphis to Kentucky.

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

After posting that a source had said John Calipari is leaving Memphis for Kentucky, WREG in Memphis is now couching its report. The new headline says: “Calipari Reportedly Wavering on Decision.”

Excerpt:

HOWEVER, we have been told by someone close to the Calipari family that John Calipari keeps changing his mind and nothing is definite.

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

CBS Sportsline’s Gary Parrish, who lives in Memphis, reports that Calipari is meeting with his staff, and that news could be coming shortly.

Excerpt:

According to the source, Calipari still hasn’t given the power-brokers at Memphis or Kentucky a definite answer to the question of whether he’s staying or going, but multiple sources around both programs believe this is merely a matter of Calipari “pulling the trigger” and informing his players that he will be the next coach at Kentucky.

A decision should come within hours, if not minutes.

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

Seth Davis

Seth Davis writes for SI.com that Calipari is the perfect fit for Kentucky.

An excerpt:

To state the obvious, Calipari has a huge ego — and I mean that as a compliment. While some coaches may shudder at the attention and expectations lavished on the Kentucky coach, Calipari will bask in it. Whereas Billy Gillispie was the first Kentucky coach in history to turn down an invitation to speak at the local Gridiron Club, Calipari would love nothing more than to walk into a room full of several thousand people who are hanging on his every word. This is his chance to be the knight in shining armor who rides into town, leads the Cats back to glory and gets elementary schools named after him. Kentucky is making him feel wanted, it’s offering to make him the highest-paid coach in the country, and dangling the extra sweetener that Cal will get to go head to head every year with his longtime nemesis, Rick Pitino.