The Lady Wildcats just didn't quite have enough last night to make it to the women's Final Four, being defeated by the Oklahoma Lady Sooners.  So basketball, as far as the University of Kentucky's chances in any tournaments are concerned, is officially over.  But there is still recruiting, spring football and even a little baseball to talk about.

Now, the news:

• NCAA tournament: Need a Final Four rooting interest? Use Pat Forde's likability index - ESPN
  Just ... whatever.

• (Coach in) waiting is over for UK's Phillips | KentuckySports.com

  Phillips announced position changes that will take place in the spring: Junior Chandler Burden is moving from defensive end to left tackle, junior Greg Meisner will move from defensive end to fullback, and redshirt freshman Jordan Aumiller will move from linebacker to tight end. Also, in changes that were announced earlier, junior safety Matt Lentz has moved to strong-side linebacker, and redshirt freshman Dakotah Tyler has moved from tailback to safety.

  Matt Lentz is now a strong-side linebacker?  Did he gain 25 pounds?  Wow.

• Rush The Court " Blog Archive " Comings & Goings: Oregon Chasing Tubby; Tim Floyd to UTEP – Really?
  Oregon is offering everybody with a name big money, it seems.

• Tubby Smith says he hasn't received Oregon offer - Sporting News staff reports - College Basketball - Sporting News
  Heh. Okay, when you hear the "working on an extension" thing, you know Smith is getting offers through third parties. I don't see Smith going to Oregon or anywhere else, but these reports suggest that something is afoot.

• » BBL: Selby, Leslie, Lamb and Luke Cothron updates John Clay’s Sidelines
  John Clay's Big Blue Links.

• URI jobbed in final seconds; NIT title game saved! | College Hoops Journal
  This is just wrong.

More after the jump.

• Facebook | Videos Posted by John Calipari: Mar 28, 2010 2:00am
  Arrival at the airport. Just in case you had not seen it.

• Future has never been brighter for UK Hoops

• Top prep event has Kentucky prospects | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal

  Seven of the high school basketball stars in Wednesday's [McDonald's All-America] game are uncommitted, and Kentucky is after five of them.

• Wildcats are first-year coach's army | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
  The quarterback battle will be quite interesting this spring.

• Power Rankings: Which Rookie Coach Will Have the Worst 2010 season? | The Wife Hates Sports
  Joker Phillips comes in somewhere in the middle of the pack.

• LEX18 | Lexington, KY | News, Weather, Sports, Kentucky | "Operation Win" Debuts As Cats Start Spring Football

• Kentucky Blog - University of Kentucky Official Athletic Site

  Starting Wednesday, the Kentucky football team will reconvene for four weeks of spring football practice. Spring football will culminate on April 24 at Commonwealth for the Blue/White Game.

  And we'll be covering this as much as we can.

• In The News: Kentucky’s Tom Payne Trying To Get Early Release From Prison After Life Sentence – LostLettermen.com
• In The News: Kentucky’s Tom Payne Trying To Get Early Release From Prison After Life Sentence – LostLettermen.com
• 'Cats ready for Joker || OnlineAthens.com

• No. 30 Baseball Hosts No. 18 Western Kentucky Wednesday - KENTUCKY OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE

  After an efficient dispatching of Cincinnati on Tuesday night in the Queen City, the No. 30 Kentucky baseball team will return home for a midweek showdown with No. 18 Western Kentucky, with first-pitch slated for 6:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

• Terrence Jones talks recruiting
  This kid is a stud, but Portland is a long way from the Bluegrass.

• Dunlap on AP All-America third team | Vaught's Views
• Doron Lamb talks recruiting
• Kentucky Sports Radio " Blog Archive " Recruits Being Told ‘Five Are Going’
• Kentucky Sports Radio " Joker talks more on "Operation: Win"

• Duke, Michigan St., Butler, West Virginia ride heart to Indy - Michael Rosenberg - SI.com

  (By the way,I recently wrote a column trying to explain what makes Calipari tick, and why, of all the ethically challenged coaches in this sport, he is the most reviled. Is he really the worst of the worst? Or just the most successful of the worst? A few readers interpreted this to mean I was DEFENDING Calipari, which was never my intention ... but upon re-reading the piece, I see why they thought that. I was not clear enough. Writer failure. My point was that, whether he is the worst of the rogues, or just the best at being a rogue, he is still a rogue. So let me state for the record: I believe Calipari breaks rules that haven't even been created yet, and if I were a school president for a hundred years, overseeing a thousand sports, I would never hire John Calipari.)

  This guy is the new Loathsome Troll.  Jeff Goodman surrendered that title a while back, and this guy is his replacement.

  Leaving aside the fact that he has no proof of any wrongdoing by Calipari at all, the phrase " I believe Calipari breaks rules that haven't even been created yet," is the height of an unethical comment.  It's perfectly fine for him to believe that Calipari cheats, even if he has no proof to support his belief (which he does not).  It is completely another matter to make a defamatory remark (yes, lawyers, I know Cal is a public figure, it's an opinion, yada, yada, yada) about him.

  So let me say this to Michael Rosenberg -- You are wrong, and profoundly so.  You are hiding a bias in your writing, and that becomes obvious anytime a writer has an unqualified opinion that is unsupported by facts.  Don't give me the "two vacated Final Fours" claptrap -- the NCAA found nothing nefarious in Calipari's actions in either case and Calipari reported the Camby matter to the NCAA himself.

  Your opinion of Calipari is essentially exactly like belief in the shooter behind the grassy knoll.  In other words, you are a conspiracy theorist, mentally and rationally equivalent to people who think that the moon landing was faked, or that September 11th was orchestrated by the U.S. government.

  In other words, a wack-job.

• DT Corey Peters on Browns' draft radar | Big C's NFL Blitz

  Peters worked out for Cleveland a week ago and impressed members of the coaching staff. He has generated some interest around the league working out for New England as well. He is scheduled to visit the New York Jets and Tennessee Titans this week.

  Go, Corey!  Good on ya, big man.

• 10 Final Four storylines - Beyond the Arc - msnbc.com

  Duke's return to the Final Four is a conspiracy: The Blue Devils ran through the weakest region of the tournament, advancing as the only No. 1 seed in the Final Four. They were on the receiving end of a couple of beneficial calls in their Elite Eight game as well. Connect the dots, and it can only be a conspiracy to get Duke back to the Final Four for the first time in six years. Right?

  Heh.  After all the hate and invective Kentucky has suffered through this year (and continues to suffer through), I am revising my opinion of the Blue Devils.  No, I'm not pulling for them, but now that I know how it feels to be hated on a lot, I feel a bit of a connection that I did not feel when Kentucky's program was way down.

• Patterson always sacrificed for the team | Vaught's Views
  What can you say?

• Basketball Prospectus | Articles | Tournament Preview: Michigan State vs. Butler

• Nets landing Jeff Van Gundy? - Sports Rumors - NBA Blog - Yahoo! Sports
  I hope so. Anything to make the Calipari to the Nets talk go away.

• At least Kentucky won't have to take it back | The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN

  Three of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament failed to reach the Final Four, but there was good news for at least one of them: Kentucky will not have as much hardware to surrender when coach John Calipari leaves for a new job and the school goes on probation.

  Sigh.  Well, at least the column is aptly titled -- The Cheap Shots Column.  I can respect those who at least own up to what they are doing in advance.

• Fans impressed Wall from the start | Vaught's Views

• Calipari Thanks Fans For Support Despite Loss - Louisville News Story - WLKY Louisville

  "UK fans are spinning so hard I think they're digging holes in the ground. It's ridiculous -- the rationalization I'm seeing about Kentucky basketball," 84 WHAS Sports Talk anchor Lachlan McLean said.

  This guy is, unfortunately, a douchebag.  I have to listen to him occasionally, and it is not a pleasant experience.

  Note to Lachlan -- UK doesn't need to rationalize an Elite Eight with a team full of freshmen.  "Better to be silent and thought a fool ..."

• general - Are Boston fans racist? - WEEI | Jerry Thornton

  Right. Because one columnist wrote a puff piece about rooting for Cinderella, that makes us a city filled with card carrying Klansmen. Of course, one could point out that while Kentucky’s legendary racist old coot Adolph Rupp was still keeping his team segregated, Red Auerbach was winning championships with the most pioneeringly color-blind, racially bonding team in the history of American professional sports. Or point out that they named an arena after Rupp. We built a statue of Auerbach, while he still was alive.

  Will this never end?  Good grief, the Boston media are an elitist bunch. 

  Racist?  I doubt it.  Arrogant, ignorant, and condescending?  Yes, yes, and yes.

• The Daily Bruin | Final Four far from fantastic
  Well, now here is an opinion that goes against the mainstream sports media's narrative. I don't necessarily agree, but he makes some good points, and I like contrarian pieces like this.

• Column: Fans should be proud of Calipari’s first season : The Kentucky Kernel
  Kenny gets it right.

• Two famous coaches, two strange turns - College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN

  And before those of you starting bringing up the John Calipari-Memphis-Kentucky thing, remember that Calipari was never individually named or implicated in any of the Derrick Rose SAT stuff from last offseason. To the NCAA's lights, Calipari had nothing to do with that, and his move to Kentucky was treated accordingly. Floyd's situation seems far more specific.

  Thank God somebody has the rationality to get that straight.  But don't worry -- we'll see others claim a double-standard or some such drivel.  It never fails.

• 'One and Done' Is for Losers -- NCAABB FanHouse

  As for the present, you'll mostly become a one-and-done tease in March Madness, which is why Calipari's Wildcats are back at their old Kentucky homes.

  Heh.  This is a hilarious article.  The author tries to make the case, with ... ahem ... John Chaney as his validation, that the reason Kentucky lost is because the players were more interested than getting theirs than playing as a team.

  You have to wonder if any of these guys who write this dreck actually watch the teams they write about.  This is Seth Davisesque in its ignorance.  John Chaney, who once threatened Calipari, as  your "expert?" Seriously?

  There is no doubt that a team filled with "one and dones" are not the best way to win a national championship due to lack of continuity and youth.  No doubt at all that is so.  But it should be possible, and one thing you do tend to get is good basketball.