SEC Basketball

1. Here are three points the day after Alabama lost on the road to LSU.

2. Tennessee and Texas A&M provided “one for the ages,” writes Mike Strange.

3. Kentucky’s young players grew up in the Wildcats’ win over Missouri, writes John Clay.

4. Should we look out for Kentucky in March? Maybe so.

5. Missouri let one “slip away” in its loss to Kentucky.

6. An official released a statement following a “curious ruling” late in the Georgia-South Carolina game.

7. Three SEC teams showed up on ESPN’s bubble watch from Saturday’s action.

8. The top concern for Florida: health, according to ESPN’s Myron Medcalf.

SEC Football

9. Georgia TE Ty Flournoy-Smith was arrested and charged with filing a false crime report.

10. Former Notre Dame LB Manti Te’o said the girlfriend hoax played no role in the BCS title game.

11. Here are seven early enrollees who could make a quick impact in the SEC.

NFL Scouting Combine

12. Former Alabama guard Chance Warmack is focused on preparing for the NFL Draft.

13. Former Tide nose guard Jesse Williams is preparing for the bench press. He should do well there.

14. Former Auburn defensive end Corey Lemonier is preparing for the next step in his career.

15. Former Tiger Philip Lutzenkirchen was pleased with his Combine results on Saturday.

16. Several former LSU players are in Indianapolis preparing for the draft.

17. NFL teams have raised red flags regarding former Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones.

Extra

18. NCAA president Mark Emmert has received a vote of confidence from the executive committee.

19. The NCAA is “out of whack,” says former Southern California coach Pete Carroll.

1. Arkansas quarterback commit Robert Gregory is one of the Razorbacks’ best athletes for 2012.

2. Highly-touted WR D’Vario Montgomery will visit Arkansas officially this fall.

3. Baltimore prospect Cyrus Jones has options all around the country.

4. John Clay compliments one of Kentucky’s final additions to the 2011 class: fullback D.J. Warren.

5. Check out Phil Kornblut’s notebook of SEC and recruiting news.

6. LSU’s 2012 class looks to be in good shape heading into the fall.

7. ESPN’s Corey Long looks at some of the nation’s top junior college prospects for 2012.

8. Here’s a profile of Miami commit of Jelani Hamilton, who could open up his recruiting to the SEC.

1. C.J. Curry’s decision to de-commit from Georgia seemed like a matter of time, according to his father.

2. Here’s an update on Kentucky’s status with its recruiting for the 2012 class.

3. John Clay includes some recruiting in his latest notebook for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

4. “It was LSU all the way” for basketball prospect Malik Morgan.

5. Why did Auburn commit Tyler Nero choose a school six months before signing day? To “get it it out of the way.”

6. Don’t ignore Arkansas on the recruiting trail, writes ESPN’s Jamie Newberg.

7. Tom Luginbill has seven prospects who could make an impact in 2012.

8. Tennessee and Michigan are the latest schools to offer Orlando wide receiver Alton “Pig” Howard.

When the NCAA decided to tsk-tsk Kentucky regarding the “500th victory” celebration it held for John Calipari, it was opening Pandora’s Box.  By making sure one school wasn’t ignoring its past rulings on vacated wins, the NCAA put itself in a position where it had to be up to date with every other school’s media guides and websites.

John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader pointed out last week that Nick Saban was still being credited on Alabama’s website for five wins that were vacated from the 2007 season.

A UA spokesman, however, told Cecil Hurt of TideSports.com that while the website is wrong, the school’s media guide is A-OK:


“All of our printed material is correct.  We have consulted with the NCAA prior to any publication of our media guides and have been completely compliant.  In the wake of the situation at Kentucky, we have become aware of a technical issue with our on-line site, and we will correct that discrepancy.”


If Clay is suggesting that the NCAA is inconsistent and — as is often the case — is not completely aware of what every school is doing, we feel he’s correct.

But if Clay — or any UK fans reading Clay’s work — is suggesting that the NCAA is playing favorites, we think they might want to check Alabama’s track record with the NCAA.  For that matter, they should pick up a phone and call any Tide fan in the country.  ‘Cause if there’s any group that feels more picked on than Kentucky fans, it’s Bama fans.

1. John Clay on vacated wins - wake up and smell the Internet, Grandma.

2. Mark Wiedmer: “I think the NCAA is going to gently move away from hammering schools and inch toward hammering the individuals responsible for violating those rules.”

3. Scott Rabalais: “Criticizing (Jordan) Jefferson is unfair.”

4. Rotnei Clarke’s decision to go public backfires.

5. Alabama – Auburn and the lost decade of NBA talent.

6. Who had the better year in 2010/2011 - Kentucky or Louisville?

7. With only six seniors on the two-deep depth chart, leadership could be an issue for the Tennessee football team.

8. A challenge modern technology has yet to figure out – syncing radio play-by-play with television pictures.

Extra

9. Unsigned NFL rookies cut the grass to pay the bills.

10.  Every wiffle ball in the country starts here.

Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon took up the issue of John Calipari’s 500 wins — and whether or not Kentucky should have given him a celebration for them — on ESPN’s “Pardon The Interruption” yesterday.

Wilbon no doubt made new fans all across the Bluegrass State when he said that UK officials should pick up the phone, call the NCAA, and tell them to “go to hell.”

Oh, yeah.  That would be a very smart thing to do.

As you know, UK was at fault for celebrating Calipari’s 500th victory last season when it knew full well that according to the NCAA’s record book he was still short of that plateau.

As a result, the NCAA then tried to remind schools not to ignore its rulings by demanding that UK officials apologize for the Calipari celebration.

Kentucky officials have balked at apologizing.

These two groups are one-upping one another in terms of silliness.  There are times to make a stand in life and UK officials should know that this is not one of those times.  Especially since their initial celebration was half-cocked to begin with.

We’ve said it before: UK officials should just apologize and move on rather than draw the NCAA’s gaze down upon Lexington.

But for all the Wildcat fans who strongly disagree with that take, here’s the clip of Wilbon rabble-rousing.  (Thanks to John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader for the tip.)

ESPN.com’s Andy Katz has been talking to plenty of NBA insiders as the deadline for college players to withdraw their names from the draft approaches.  He’s also posted the conclusions he’s drawn from those discussions.

In SEC terms, Katz believes “NBA decision-makers expect” Kentucky’s DeAndre Liggins to return to school next season.

So much for the positive.

Katz writes that “NBA personnel don’t expect” Terrence Jones or Brandon Knight to re-join Liggins in Lexington next year.  They also don’t expect Tobias Harris to return to Tennessee.

In Katz’ words, “No one at any of those schools will be stunned if all of that becomes truth.”

The plans of UT’s Scotty Hopson are still “considered a bit of a mystery.”  ESPN’s basketball analyst does say, however, that “it wouldn’t come as a shock if he stayed in the draft to avoid a possible rebuilding season.”

Back to UK’s Jones for a second — not everyone seems to think he’s definitely gone.  John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader posted a couple of tweets from the NBA site DraftExpress.com today stating:


Could Terrence Jones go back to school?  From what I’m hearing that’s a strong possibility.  Would surprise a lot of people.


So when it comes to the SEC’s undecided you can mark these down as follows:

DeAndre Liggins, UK — probably back
Brandon Knight, UK — probably gone
Terrence Jones, UK — probably gone… but still a glimmer of hope
Tobias Harris, UT — probably gone
Scotty Hopson, UT — still a mystery… but probably gone

It seems Tennessee fans aren’t the only ones making news in connection with “hate” today.  According to John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader, some Kentucky fans went over the line in their reaction to the NCAA’s final ruling in the Enes Kanter case. 

For those who haven’t heard, the European big man was ruled permanently ineligible on Friday.  So he won’t be joining UK’s 2011 title chase.

Pete Thamel of The New York Times has been covering the story from the beginning and several Cat fans took to Twitter this weekend to let him know they blame him for Kanter’s ineligibility.


“I hope your children are born paralyzed and they have to slither around like snakes in the grass like their (expletive) daddy.”


Nice.  And here’s what another Troglodye wrote:


“Congrats on Kanter, scumbag!  Hope you don’t step in front of a taxi.”


When FoxSports.com’s Jeff Goodman called on UK fans to stop their Twitter attack on Thamel, he too was blasted by angry Big Blue backers.

Clay — like most people today — has the shooting in Arizona on his mind.  Some would rather just say, “lone nut” and move along, but Clay believes it’s time to check our online vitriol.

We at MrSEC.com agree.  When a kook goes from ranting on the internet to shooting innocent people, there’s nothing wrong with asking, “What motivated the kook to go from A to B?”

Especially when so many people these days are ranting on the internet.  Over politics, over religion, and over sports.

For most people, it’s a huge leap from anonymous threat-maker to effigy-shooter to actual violent criminal.  But not for all.  As the deranged son of a bitch in Arizona showed us this weekend, some nuts go from YouTube quack to murderer with ease. 

With that in mind, it’s time we start paying more attention to the vile garbage being tossed around over basketball losses and departing football coaches.  It’s also time for all of us to tone the junk down.

As Clay writes, “It’s just a game, folks.  A game.”

Kentucky basketball signee Enes Kanter has been ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA.

Kanter was first ruled ineligible by the NCAA on Nov. 11 when it was determined that Kanter received benefits “above his actual and necessary expenses” while he played for a professional team in Turkey from 2008-09. Kanter received $33,033 more than the permitted expenses, according to the NCAA.

The ruling from the NCAA that Kanter is ineligible should not be a surprise, writes John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader:

“There was no dispute that Kanter received money. UK’s wanted the NCAA to look at the intent, where the money was concerned. The NCAA only saw money. And that made Kanter a professional.”

Kentucky coach John Calipari said the following in a released statement:

“The silver lining is that Enes will always be part of this team. My job will be to prepare him for his entry into the NBA draft, which this decision by the (NCAA) will likely necessitate. Enes will always be a part of our family and I plan to be by his side in the green room whenever he is drafted.”

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

(H-L photo/Mark Cornelison)

We’re a day late, but yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of this blog.

John Clay’s Sidelines started on Nov. 9, 2005, with a post previewing the Kentucky-Georgetown exhibition basketball game.

In the past five years, we’ve seen three UK head basketball coaches, two UK head football coaches, two different platforms (Typepad to WordPress) and the birth of numerous other UK sports-related blogs.

Earlier this year, we were fortunate enough to make the EPpy final four for the nation’s best sports blog, as awarded by Editor and Publisher.

Thanks to everyone who has read, commented and participated over the past five years.