A decade ago, Kentucky was quarterbacked by just about the biggest man you’ll ever see behind center.  Jared Lorenzen was 6-4 and his weight was listed as being anywhere from 285 to 315.  From the “Fat Cat” to “Battleship Lorenzen” to “The Pillsbury Throwboy” (a personal favorite), UK’s jumbo-sized QB drew as much attention for his size as he did his record-setting success in the Bluegrass State.

Soon there may be a new quarterback casting a big shadow across the SEC.

LSU signee Jeremy Liggins is listed at 6-3, 270 pounds.  But Les Miles says his future field general is a bit heftier than that number now:


“He’s probably closer to 280 than 270 right now.  So if a defensive lineman rushing the passer came loose, he might want to bring a friend.  He might not get it done by himself.”


Liggins high school coach says “his weight is an issue” but he believes the LSU staff can help with that.  Liggins agrees. 

“It’s not going to be as bad as people think,” he said of shedding some excess pounds.  “I probably have to lose 10 or 15 pounds, but that’s not a problem.  I’m talking to a nutritionist who’s telling me how to eat and keep running.”  (Having just turned 41, I loathe those young pups who can add and drop weight so easily.)

In case you’re wondering just how big 6-3, 270ish is… Cam Newton has been listed at 6-5, 250.  Former LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell was 6-6, 260.

And here’s a look at the aforementioned Lorenzen in action back in 2000:

Since SEC play began, John Calipari has been goading his team to show more toughness in the face of physical play.  While the Wildcats have opened league play with seven consecutive wins and grabbed the nation’s #1 ranking, Coach Cal still isn’t thrilled with Kentucky’s physicality.

Apparently it’s time to call in some help.

Calipari said yesterday that he wants officials to start calling more fouls lest there be an increase in flagrant, dangerous fouls league-wide:


“My whole point is if you don’t call rough play, that’s what it goes to.  You’ve got to call rough play… We don’t want it to be a rough-house, win-in-the-weightroom game.  That’s now how we play.”


Timing is everything.  Kentucky hosts Tennessee tonight, a team that Calapari said out-physicaled his team in a close loss in Knoxville two weeks ago.  The coach said he expects a “hand-to-hand kind of deal” from the Volunteers this time around.  No wonder than that he’s already trying to get the officials to be on the lookout for that type of rough-and-tumble play.

Vol fans will claim Calipari’s being whiny.  Cat fans will claim he’s being wise.  But in reality, officiating probably won’t make that big of a difference tonight.  On paper, Kentucky is third in SEC play in scoring defense while Tennessee is just 10th in SEC play in scoring offense.

If form holds, Tennessee will have to get Jason Bourne-style physical in order to make up for its lack of scorers.

When you’re gliding through the third month of the regular season with but one loss on your resume, it’s easy to say, “We could use a loss.”  Fact is, that’s pretty much just what John Calipari said yesterday.  And here’s guessing guys like Darrin Horn, Mark Fox and Cuonzo Martin aren’t too moved by Coach Cal’s “troubles.”


“We probably need a loss.  So we’ll come together and say, ‘We’re not losing like this.’  In other words, getting manhandled.  ‘That’s enough!’…

My thing is, let’s take one on the chin.  Now, what’s (the team) going to do?  Is (the team) going to say, ‘It’s OK.’  I don’t think they’ll say it’s OK.  That was my message. … IF this doesn’t start changing, we need to take a ‘L.’”


Kentucky’s coach is talking about his team’s tendency to get outmuscled at times.  But that probably won’t be an issue tonight at Georgia.  Granted, UK hasn’t looked good on the road this year — heck, no one ever looks good on the road anymore — but Fox’s Dawgs just don’t match up well with the Calipari’s Cats:


* Kentucky is first in the SEC in scoring offense, Georgia is last.

* Kentucky is first in the SEC in scoring margin, Georgia is last.

* Kentucky is first in the SEC in field goal percentage, Georgia is last.

* Kentucky is first in the SEC in field goal percentage defense, Georgia is last.

* Kentucky is first in the SEC in rebounding offense, Georgia is 11th.

* Kentucky is second in the SEC in rebounding defense, Georgia is 9th.

* Kentucky is first in the SEC in rebounding margin, Georgia is last.

* Kentucky is first in the SEC in blocked shots, Georgia is 11th.


Calipari’s “we need to take a ‘L’” talk is likely just a motivational tool for his team as it travels to meet an overmatched foe.  For if UK loses tonight, Georgia will have pulled — at least on paper — one of the biggest SEC upsets you’ll ever see.

The Kentucky Wildcats are back atop the two national basketball polls today, but a team joining the league next season is nipping at their heels.

For all the talk of Missouri not being ready to compete in the SEC, the Tiger basketball program is currently #2 in both major polls with an 18-1 record.  Mizzou has a veteran team so they might not be quite so tough when they come aboard next season, but there’s no question MU’s addition will help the league’s hoops reputation.

That’s a good thing, too, because Florida and Mississippi State are the only current SEC teams joining UK in the polls this week:


AP Top 25
1.  Kentucky
14.  Florida
18.  Mississippi State


ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll
1.  Kentucky
13.  Florida
16.  Mississippi State


In a roundball-related note, the SEC has named Ole Miss’ Terrence Henry as its Player of the Week and Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes as its Freshman of the Week.

Kentucky forward Terrence Jones didn’t get off to the start many expected this season.  National media members wondered why a kid with so much talent didn’t seem to bring the same energy and emotion from night to night.  Big Blue fans fretted.

John Calipari said that his All-American candidate simply needed to start having fun on the basketball court.  And that has made all the difference.  Jones came close within one rebound against Arkansas on Tuesday of recording his first double-double of the season (he had seven last year), and his play has improved overall in recent games.

Jones knows why:


“I’m just not thinking as much.  Just being less conscious about my (injured) hand.  Worrying about messing up because I wasn’t playing like I was (as a freshman).  Just thinking too much about every little play.”


This season, Jones is averaging 11.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.  In 2010-11 he averaged 15.7 and 8.8.

Kentucky’s John Calipari might line up one of the nation’s tougher non-conference schedules each year, but Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings thinks UK’s coach has a pretty cushy ride once league play begins.  Specifically, two things stick in the Vandy coach’s craw:

1.  For the second year in a row UK will not have a quick Thursday-Saturday turnaround.

2.  Kentucky will play four Saturday games against teams coming off Thursday games and that’s more than any other team in the league.

Stallings wants to know whazzup with that:

“Go figure that one out for me, would you?  We all agreed to do it, so if you have one, like we have one, I’m not going to complain.  To not have any and to be able to play four teams that have to do it to play you… that’s not right.”

Not sure about you, but to this writer it sure sounds like Stallings is complaining.

But let’s give the explanation part a try.  First and foremost, the league’s basketball schedule is created in concert with ESPN for television purposes.  Guess who the SEC’s biggest TV draw is by far.  Now realize that ESPN’s main SEC basketball night is its “Super Tuesday” block.  When UK gets moved off of the standard Wednesday night routine, it typically slides to Tuesday, not to Thursday.

The Cats have five such Tuesday night games this season and they will not play again on Wednesday for the rest of the year.  They do have one Thursday nighter (against Georgia on March 1st) but that will be followed by a Sunday noon game against Florida.  Know why?  CBS traditionally kicks a UK game into the noon timeslot on final day of the regular season (this year Florida replaces Tennessee as UK’s last day opponent).

Stallings’ issue with Kentucky’s schedule has more to do with ESPN and CBS than it does the SEC office.  But before he barks too loudly, he might want to keep these points in mind:

1.  The SEC’s highest-rated games tend to involve Kentucky.

2.  The higher the ratings for SEC basketball, the better the cashflow into the league long-term via TV contracts.

3.  The better the cashflow into the SEC, the more money trickles back to Vanderbilt… who pays Stallings’ salary.

Television rules college sports these days.  And with ESPN and CBS already paying the SEC about three billion dollars — that’s billion with a B — over a 15-year span, those two networks are typically going to get exactly what they want from Mike Slive and league office.

And for the record, LSU and Auburn will not play Thursday-Saturday turnarounds, either.

Yesterday we told you that Kentucky’s John Calipari was upset with the way officials were handling block/charge calls in Wildcat games.  For the season, UK has gotten nine charge calls to go their way… while they’ve been whistled for charging 39 times.  No wonder the coach was upset:

“If I’m in the act of shooting, but I haven’t left my feet, can (the defender) then slide in there,” Calipari asked.  “Because that’s what they’re doing.”

Well, uh, yeah.  The defender can.

Speaking to The Lexington Herald-Leader yesterday, John Adams — the NCAA national men’s basketball officiating coordinator — said what Coach Cal described could be “a legal defender.”


“Most people will tell you, ‘He was moving!’  It’s irrelevant. … There’s no standard of being set at the time of the contact.

To draw a charge, all a defender has to do is face his opponent (and) have both feet on the floor for an instant.  After which, he can move to maintain legal guarding position.”


According to Adams, the defender can move left, right or backward depending on the movement of the ball-handler.  He cannot, however, move forward into the man with the ball. 

Adams has more to say about the block/charge call here… and it’s an interesting read. 

But regardless of the rule itself we still believe that when a block/charge goes in your team’s favor it’s a good call.  When it goes against your team, it’s bad call.  Pretty simple in our view.

Ask a fan of any SEC school south of Lexington which team gets all the calls and they’ll likely tell you Kentucky.  In the past, we’ve tracked foul calls in the SEC and UK opponents should not really expect to get the short end of the stick.  It’s a myth.

In fact, John Calipari thinks the officials might be going a little tough on his Wildcats on charging calls:


“Teams, right now, are saying when they’re running to the rim, throw a body in there and hope it’s a charge, and not a block.  Now, 98% of them are being called charges.  I don’t think we’ve (drawn) three… all year…

Either these guys — when we leave our feet — are unbelievably quick to get into position or some of them should be blocks.”


As The Lexington Herald-Leader points out, UK has been called for charging 39 times but they’ve only drawn nine such calls.  That is quite the disparity.

Kentucky state senator Tim Shaughnessy got what he wanted from a proposed bill that would force UK and Louisville to meet in football and basketball every year — attention.  The lawmaker admitted yesterday that he threw the Cats/Cards talk into his bill just to draw attention to the rest of it, which would mandate better graduation rates and better governance over Kentucky schools.

“UK is the only state institution that graduates more than 50 percent of its students in six years. … That is unacceptable,” the senator said.

What’s also unacceptable?  Stirring up fan emotions as part of a ruse.  Shaughnessy’s motives appear to be good — who can argue with better schooling? — but sports is an area we believe lawmakers should seldom tread.

Wildcat hoops coach John Calipari seems to agree.  “I would hope (Kentucky’s lawmakers) don’t think I need help scheduling,” he said at lunch for lawmakers yesterday.  “I hope they have more important things to do.”

Calipari attended the luncheon in order to ask the politicians to help fund new academic buildings on UK’s campus.

Now that the 2012 SEC football schedule has been unveiled, discussion will start to swirl around next season’s basketball schedule (as well as the new football plan to be launched in 2013).  Having just done away with divisions this season, the league is even considering a return to that in the future.

Most believe the league will expand its current 16-game conference slate whether divisions return or not.  Kentucky’s John Calipari is in the group that expects an 18-game schedule to be launched.  And if it’s 18, he doesn’t like it:


“We don’t get as many non-conference games.  You just added two Top 20 teams (to the SEC).  Missouri hasn’t lost a game.  Texas A&M, historically, you know what they’ve done in basketball.  We’ve just gotten stronger.

If you look at all the Top 25 programs right now, we’re playing one of those schedules.  Can you play all these road games, can you do all this stuff and add two Top 25s?  We’ve got to make decisions on our schedule and how we’re going to do this without overloading our players or putting the program in jeopardy.”


We understand where Calipari is coming from — coaches like having the ability to line up some pre-Christmas cupcakes.  Everyone does it.  But in this case, Coach Cal seems to be exaggerating the dangers of moving from 16 games to 18 (if that’s what the SEC eventually does).

“Can you play all these road games,” the coach asked.  Well, technically, each school would only add one road game.  Instead of playing eight league foes at home and eight on the road, in an 18-game world the split would be nine at home and nine away.  That’s hardly a backbreaker.

Oh, and the guy below?  He’s 18 and he does like it.