Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com tweeted earlier today that the first stop on the transfer tour of UConn big man Alex Oriakhi will be a date with the national champs:


“Kentucky’s John Calipari expected to meet with UConn transfer Alex Oriakhi today.  Oriakhi has one year left and can play immediately.”


As previously noted, he could play immediately if he enrolls in a major not offered by UConn and if the SEC grants him a waiver.  Both are likely to happen if Kentucky (or Missouri) is his final choice.

Oriakhi can play immediately because of NCAA sanctions against UConn.

You’ve gotta hand it to Kentucky fans.  Last week a Wildcat fan offered up his wife on craigslist.com in exchange for tickets to the Final Four.

Now, while doing a notebook for ESPN.com, top hoops recruit Nerlens Noel says that a Cat backer approached him on Bourbon Street and offered up his wife if the big man — presumably — would ink with his beloved Wildcats:


“I literally stopped hundreds of times and took dozens of pictures.  The fans were showing me so much love out there, and I definitely have to say that most of the fans were from Kentucky.

Now of course that had a lot to do with the fact that they were playing there, but I’m always just shocked at how dedicated Kentucky fans are.  One man asked me if I wanted to take his wife home with me, ha ha.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was like ‘Nah, I’m good,’ but that’s just how insane the fans were down there.  Great atmosphere.”


Was Noel kidding?  Was the fan kidding?  When it comes to Kentucky basketball mania, I wouldn’t be so sure.

Noel will announce his decision next Wednesday on ESPN, choosing between Kentucky, Georgetown and Syracuse.

For more normal recruiting stories for all the SEC’s schools, always keep an eye on the work Josh Ward does over on our Recruiting Page.

Last week we told you that UConn senior-to-be Alex Oriakhi was looking at three SEC school as possible transfer options: Florida, Kentucky and Missouri.  This in spite of a rule the SEC made a big deal about launching last summer that would block one-and-doners — those on the back end of their careers — from entering the conference for a lone, hired gun type of season.

The SEC confirmed its policy to us which basically states that as long as the player signs up for a major not offered by his old school, the league could still grant a waiver allowing him to enter the SEC for just one season.  Meaning that not a whole heckuva lot changed when the SEC put the new “rule” into effect.

Now comes word from The Connecticut Times that Oriakhi has narrowed his list of candidates — sorry Florida — and will visit four schools: Kentucky, Missouri, Duke and North Carolina.

That seems to provide further proof that the SEC will okay an Oriakhi transfer into the league… regardless of the widely-publicized policy it put in place last year.

John Calipari has for three seasons built dominant basketball teams at Kentucky thanks in very large part to one-and-done players.  That doesn’t mean he’s in favor of the rule:


“I don’t think it’s a good rule.  I hope we change it before this week’s out so all these guys have to come back.  But it is a rule.  It’s not my rule.  It’s a rule we have to deal with.”


As we noted yesterday, NBA commissioner David Stern would also like to change the rule.  He’s stated that he would be in favor of raising the NBA’s minimum age limit to 20 (or two years removed from high school).

For pro teams, they would have a better idea of the type player they are drafting/signing.  They would also have to spend less time developing a first-year player.  That means less risk on both fronts.

But the NBA Players’ Association is against such a move.  Why?  Because it means athletes have to stay in school longer — risking injury while not being paid. 

The hold-up in this matter is not the NBA, the NCAA or Kentucky’s coach… it’s the NBA players’ union.  Calipari says he’s met with the head of the union — Billy Hunter — “three times already”

“You’ve got to negotiate,” Calipari told The Lexington Herald-Leader.  “We’ve got to go to Billy Hunter and say, ‘How do we get this done?’ Then you’ve got to get the NBA involved.”

If Calipari could keep his current batch of likely one-and-doners in school he’d have a better chance at catching UCLA in national championship banners, his new stated goal.  The Bruins have 11 and UK now has eight. 

Kentucky’s coach made that comment yesterday while nuking the annual Calipari-to-the-Knicks rumors that have emerged in the last week:


“Kentucky is the best job in basketball coaching.  Why would I leave?  We just won the national title.  We’re chasing UCLA…

All of those (NBA) teams know I’m not doing anything.  I’m not changing.  I’m going to continue to see my friends who coach in the NBA and see my former players who play in the NBA.  I’m going to continue to go to games…

I’ve always said I have more money than I can spend, than my children can spend.  It’s not about that.”


Putting one last exclamation on the point, Calipari told ESPN: “No one is stealing our joy (with rumors).  I’ve made statements that I’ve got the best job in basketball and I’m not going to change my lifestyle.  I’m not leaving.”

(But that hasn’t stopped speculation over who might replace him in Lexington if he did leave.)

John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader doesn’t sound like a man who thinks John Calipari will be leaving for the NBA’s New York Knicks anytime soon.  And it doesn’t sound like he believes Calipari’s first national title will be his last.

An excerpt from his column today:


“Outside (UK’s locker room on Monday night) stood John Calipari, weary and happy and a tad defiant.

‘There’s a lot of angry people right now, that said you couldn’t do it,’ the Kentucky coach was saying.  ‘Tried to put the black hat on me and all that stuff.  They’re not real happy.’

Those mad men (and women) better get used to it.

Monday night wasn’t the end of something, it was probably the beginning.

‘If this was 1985, I’d have all these guys back and we’d be trying to go undefeated next year,’ he said.  ‘It’s not 25 years ago.  It’s now.’

No one has figured out ‘now’ better than John Calipari.”


Indeed he has.  UK could possibly lose its entire starting lineup to the NBA Draft this summer.  We’ll know next Tuesday who all is a’ goin’ and who all is a’ stayin’.

But is there any doubt that Calipari will simply reload with five of the best recruits in the nation if/when that happens?  And after three years of doing things his way, Coach Cal’s track record looks pretty good: Elite Eight, Final Four, national title.

Whether kids arriving, playing and leaving in seven-month intervals makes a mockery of “college” basketball or not, Calipari didn’t create the rule.  He just knows how to win while using it.

Clay is probably right, SEC fans.  Kentucky and Calipari are on a roll.  Eventually the coach will land some kids who won’t have the attitude to buy into his team-first philosophy, but he hasn’t yet.  (And if he has, they’ve made it at least as far as the Elite Eight anyway).

The only thing that can run UK off the tracks at this point is a Calipari departure or some sort of NCAA bust.  And as we noted earlier today, Calipari’s never been caught doing anything wrong despite the fact that he’s the most-eyeballed coach in the country.

So get used to it.  Just as Alabama will be the SEC favorite in most years so long as Nick Saban is in Tuscaloosa, Kentucky will be the league favorite in hoops just as long as Calipari is kicking around Lexington.

The league’s traditional powers both look as if they’re just getting started.

John Calipari says he wants to coach an undefeated team.  That’d be a lot easier done in the college ranks (about 40 games) than in the pros (82 games plus umpteen rounds of playoffs).  But that’s not stopping yet another Cal-to-the-Knicks story from making the rounds.  Only this one has a funny sidenote included.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes today that Calipari now has a collegiate title and the New York Knicks have “a vacancy, a big stage and a blank check.” 


“Money matters to Calipari — matters a lot — and rest assured that Calipari will get Kentucky to push past his $5 million a season salary.  How far does UK go, though?  Six million?  Seven?  Kentucky doesn’t lose bidding wars, but it would lose this one.”


Then comes the obligatory mention of uber-agent William “Worldwide Wes” Wesley, his connections to Calipari and several NBA stars, etc, etc.  We’ve all been down this road before.

But what’s really interesting is found right at the top of Wojnarowski’s story.  According to the writer, Calipari grew so tired/worried about the daily talkshow ripping he took on New York radio as coach of the New Jersey Nets back in the ’90s that he had an intern start calling in for propaganda purposes.

“Anthony from Hoboken” would call into WFAN-AM — as ordered by Calipari — to defend Calipari from the criticism he took from other callers.

Do we at MrSEC.com doubt that story?  No.  Friends of coaches have long had their own agendas when it comes to talk radio.  So it isn’t that far-fetched to think that an ego-driven coach — and most of them are very ego-driven — would put someone up to calling in on his behalf.

Vanderbilt’s James Franklin has gained a reputation for calling into Nashville’s WGFX-FM himself when he hears rival Tennessee getting too much positive publicity.

So we’ll bite on the “Anthony from Hoboken” story. 

But not on the Calipari-to-the-Knicks bit.

When John Calipari was hired to lead Kentucky’s basketball program three years ago, many of us in the media believed the marriage made for a dangerous blend. 

Calipari had had a Final Four trip at UMass vacated.  His reputation ranked somewhere between the Prince of Darkness and scurvy in most circles, fair or not.  Within months of arriving at UK, that reputation took another hit when he had a second Final Four trip — this one while at Memphis — also vacated and stripped from the history books.  (In neither instance was Calipari found guilty of anything… other than being the captain of the boat that struck the iceberg.)

At Kentucky, Calipari would be taking over a program that had wound up in the NCAA hoosegow a number of times over a number of decades.  From a point-shaving scandal and impermissible financial aid troubles in the early-50s to an opened Emery Air Freight container — en route to a recruit — filled with cash in the late-80′s, UK had earned a reputation for often skirting the law.

For those reasons, many of us expected Cal + Cats to equal another “Kentucky’s Shame” Sports Illustrated cover at some point.

But not so fast.

Instead, UK has made the SI cover as national champions.  And in just three short years.  Calipari has turned Lexington back into the basketball capital of the world and despite the fact that everyone and his brother is dying to dig up dirt on the coach and his program, no one has.

Oh, there were questions about Eric Bledsoe’s grades in high school, but nothing came of them.  The Chicago Sun-Times ran with a rumor regarding Anthony Davis being paid by UK boosters, but again, nothing came of the speculation.

To date, there’s been a lot more diamond than dirt when it comes to UK and Calipari.  As far as dangerous blends go, a Maker’s Mark bottle bearing the coach’s name and likeness is about all that comes to mind.

Rival fans will taunt, heckle and, yes, pray that somebody in blue has broken some kind of rule somewhere.  But for now, Wildcat fans are reveling in their new Sports Illustrated cover.  And it sure beats the heck out of that cover from nearly 23 years ago.

1.  Kentucky completed a dominant run through the NCAA Tournament by vanquishing Kansas last night.

2.  The Wildcats did their work as a true team.

3.  Point guard Marquis Teague showed poise beyond his years.

4.  Doron Lamb came up big versus the Jayhawks.

5.  Anthony Davis was dominant despite scoring just six points.

6.  UK’s young team showed their maturity in the end.

7.  John Calipari said he hopes “there are six first-rounders on this team.”

8.  But the Cats were in no hurry to make NBA decisions last night.

9.  Coach Cal says his next goal is to coach a team through an undefeated season.

10.  Kentucky fans and AD Mitch Barnhart asked for glory… and Calipari delivered.

11.  Now he’s ready to reload.

12.  The Wildcat coach has already provided the blueprint for a new age of college basketball.

13.  UK will hold a public celebration at Rupp Arena this afternoon.

Something feels a bit more right with the world today.  The reigning national champs in football and basketball are Alabama and Kentucky.  Depending on your own fan allegiances that may be Heaven or Hell for you, but it does feel right.  The two most tradition-rich programs in the SEC in their sports are atop their sports once more.

That hasn’t happened since UK won a hoops title under Joe B. Hall in 1978 and Bama won a football crown the following fall under Bear Bryant.

First, congrats to the Kentucky fanbase.  Call them zealous or fanatical.  Call them spoiled or snobby.  But you must admit no basketball fanbase travels with and supports their team better than Cat fans.  Kansas is the second-winningest program in hoops history yet the Superdome crowd was clearly pro-UK last night.  And Lexington is only about 75 miles closer to New Orleans than Lawrence, Kansas is.

So to those Cat fans who weren’t shot or arrested in Lexington last night — imbeciles — MrSEC’s hat is tipped to you.

Now, some random thoughts rattling around the rim of this writer’s mind this morning:


* Ya think Mitch Barnhart feels pretty good today?  Kentucky’s AD went all in with John Calipari.  Five years ago, Coach Cal wasn’t on Barnhart’s list of job candidates.  But after the complete failure that was the Billy Gillispie era, suddenly the Cats’ athletic director did consider Calipari.  He hired a man who many view as dirty — though the NCAA has never found Calipari guilty of anything — to head up one of the most scandal-ridden programs in basketball history. 

It was a risky move.  For now, it’s paid off as Calipari has not only brought Kentucky its eighth national championship, but he’s made UK the hoops program in America again.  He’s proved to be the perfect fit.  He’s Pitino Part II and it doesn’t look like he’ll be jumping to the NBA anytime soon.

Barnhart took a lot of national heat when he hired Calipari.  Today he must feel all the potshots were well worth taking.


* I guess we know now that a team largely built with freshman can win the NCAA Tournament.  When Calipari began heading down the one-and-done road three years ago, there was debate as to whether a team built with youngsters could hang a banner.

No more.  UK’s starting lineup last night consisted of three freshmen and two sophomores.  Last year, UConn won the crown with three freshmen in its lineup also.

Put the debate to bed.  In the transient sport of college basketball, the teenagers can indeed get it done on the biggest stage.


* But I can’t help wondering about Cat fans’ connection to their players.  You can bet Kentucky’s national championship team will be adored in the Bluegrass State for years to come, yes.  But if Calipari continues to bring in one-and-done types, will Big Blue fans even be able to remember one team from another 20 years from now?

In the old days — and I’m old — fans got to know their team.  They watched individual players grow up over three or four years.  It was easy to say, “Remember that ’83 team with Johnson, Smith, Davis, etc”

Kentucky fans have their eighth title.  No one’s going to be complaining today.  But come 2030 will fans remember who was on the ’10 team as opposed to the ’13 team?  That we don’t know.


*  Calipari’s coaching reputation has improved mightily at Kentucky.  And not just because he won a tournament last night.  Over the past three seasons, UK’s coach has three times taken a group of the nation’s best recruits and molded them into team-first, defense-first units.  In itself that is a remarkable feat.

The players Calipari signs are the best of the best.  They’re used to being coddled from middle school to high school to AAU ball to the recruiting process.  Yet he continues to get them to buy into his team-first mantra.

Immediately after last night’s game, CBS’ Jim Nantz asked Calipari what the national title meant to him.  “It’s not about me,” the coach quickly answered.  And when Nantz began his chat with Davis — the tourney’s Most Outstanding Player — the young big man immediately gave credit to his teammates.

In addition to creating an air of selflessness, Coach Cal gets his players to focus on defense first.  For the most part, these are young men who are used to being The Man in high school.  You don’t get five stars by your name unless you’re putting the ball in the bucket.  A lot.  Yet Kentucky under Calipari has continued to worry about defense more than offense.

Whether you like or dislike the Cats’ coach, you have to respect the way he connects with his young players and gets them to put team over self, defense over offense.


* This Kentucky team was not The John Wall-DeMarcus Cousins Show, either.  Davis was America’s best player.  But he shot 1-for-10 from the floor last night and scored just six points.  UK didn’t miss a beat in their 67-59 win. 

Night after night, UK always found another player who would step up.  Some nights it was Kidd-Gilchrist.  Other times Terrence Jones would lead.  Darius Miller was often the Cats’ saving grace.  And last night Doron Lamb’s outside shooting helped propel UK to victory.

The point being — this year’s team was even “teamier” than Calipari’s previous squads.  Is there any doubt that’s why this is the bunch that brought down the confetti?


* I couldn’t help thinking last night that it must have been a good time to be a Missouri fan.  The Tigers had a terrific year and Frank Haith was named the National Coach of the Year, but a belly-flop to #15 seed Norfolk State brought their season to a bitter end.  The only thing worse would have been to see hated rival Kansas claim a national title.  Instead, it was an SEC foe — a team from Mizzou’s new conference — that broke the Jayhawks’ hearts.  I’m guessing more than one Tiger fan took a little solace in that fact.


* Finally, you have your championship and you can yell, “Scoreboard!” til the cows come home, but UK fans should be prepared for the jibes and taunts of rival fans.  Calipari has seen two previous Final Four teams stripped of their histories.  You can bet the “this one will be vacated, too” remarks will be flying all over SEC messageboards and call-in shows today.

Auburn fans dealt with it after the Cam Newton mess.  Alabama fans have heard it thanks to the T-Town Menswear story.  It’s simply what we do in today’s society.  Heck, the losing party in presidential elections no longer accepts the new prez as their own nation’s leader.  No one unifies under the elected leader, they just continue to fight and undermine.

So be sure that those who detest UK will work long and hard to discredit and downplay this year’s national championship.

That just goes with the territory.

Here’s what’s being said about the truly blue-blooded NCAA Tournament final between Kentucky and Kansas tonight…


1.  Tonight’s battle will be about as tradition-rich as you can get.

2.  It’s a matchup of legendary proportions.

3.  Fans of both teams have been cordial leading up to the game.

4.  John Calipari is focused on tonight’s game, not past losses (like his Memphis team’s title-game loss to Bill Self and Kansas in 2008)…

5.  But a win would end the biggest criticism of Coach Cal’s record.

6.  For that matter, is everyone rooting against Calipari and Kentucky?

7.  As usual, it’s being said plenty’s at stake for the Cats’ coach.

8.  The closer Kentucky gets to the national crown, the less Calipari talks about winning one.

9.  Kansas’ Self knows all about UK after losing to them back on November 15th.

10.  Expect tonight’s game to go to the toughest team.

11.  Kentucky’s freshman are continuing their amazing run.

12.  This writer says a win would make them the best freshman class ever.

13.  Don’t expect Calipari to apologize for building his team with one-and-doners.

14.  In fact, this writer says you can blame the NCAA for one-and-dones.

15.  UK’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has worked to overcome a speech impediment that’s plagued him since childhood.  And he’s done so bravely.  Good for him.

16.  Terrence Jones looks to finish what he started last year.

17.  Kentucky’s Anthony Davis and Kansas’ Thomas Robinson have been mighty impressive this season.

18.  Davis has made the unibrow cool.

19.  After an embarrassing night following UK’s win over Louisville Saturday, Lexington police are preparing for postgame nonsense.

20.  All signs point to a Kentucky victory…

21.  But if the Wildcats aren’t careful… upsets can happen.

22.  A lot of people stand to cash in after tonight’s game.

23.  And in case you’re wondering, no, you’re not the only one who thinks a 9:23pm ET tip time is flippin’ ridiculous.