Plenty to talk about in the Linkapalooza today, including the South Carolina debacle, Joker Phillips' future, and hearing from a lot of the basketball team. You haven't forgotten that Big Blue Madness is coming up this Friday, have you?
Good. Now for the news:
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Ira Combs on Kentucky's football situation.
In his post game remarks to the Kentucky football media contingent Rick Minter the UK defensive coordinator said , " we all have a lot of soul searching to do this week both players and coaches " and this is true . What I fear for all of the UK coaching staff is that if this full blown downward spiral don't stop and turn around during this upcoming three game home stretch the new UK President Eli Capilouto and athletic director Mitch Barnhart may have to do some soul searching themselves .
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Big Blue Madness guest list.
< Darth Vader mode > Impressive. Very impressive. < / Darth Vader mode > -
Jerry Tipton talks to Stacey Poole, Jr.
Question: Uh, obviously, you didn't play as much as you'd like last season ...
Answer: (Interrupts) I didn't play at all. It's cool.
Q: It's cool?
A: I'm saying, it's cool. You didn't want to say it. I can handle it. Last year was difficult. You're right, I didn't play. I think I handled it well. I still came to practice, doing what I had to do. I enjoyed it. I always kept a smile on my face. You never knew I was mad. I just dealt with it. Now, it's all about where I'm headed. So I'm just moving on. I'll play this year.
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No 50-50 split, no agreement, according to the NBAPA.
The NBA players’ association wanted a meeting and said the league would grant one — under one condition.
Just agree first to a 50-50 split of revenues. -
Metz Camfield says that Marquis Teague will use expectations as motivation.
Marquis will handle the starting point guard duties for UK this year and is one of the headliners in perhaps the most highly touted freshman class Calipari has brought to the Bluegrass State. With that said, comparisons and pressure are two things the 6-foot-2 Indianapolis, Ind., native does not waste his time on. Being the top ranked guard in the top ranked class is motivation, Teague says, and he welcomes the talk.
"I don't try to look at it as pressure," Teague said. "I just want to come in and play my game and try to help our team win. ... It's motivation to me to make sure I'm in the gym working hard, getting better every day." -
Kyle Tucker interviews the Memphis counsel about the Calipari-Rose settlement
ON HER THOUGHTS ABOUT THE LAWSUIT: "The lawsuit itself makes no sense from a legal and a factual perspective. The lawsuit alleged that season ticket holders didn’t have all the information they needed when they were buying the next season’s tickets. This was alleging for the 2009-10 basketball season that they didn’t have all the information. But John left in April of ’09 and the recruits he’d gotten said they weren’t coming in April of ’09 and the notice of allegations came in May ’09. You don’t by tickets until September. Most people don’t make their donations until the end of June.
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The Aggrieved Fan Flow Chart
Hilarious. - Heroes & Villains tickets are on sale now.
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John Clay wants to know if Kentucky football should really be this bad.
Kentucky shouldn’t be this bad, should it? Saturday’s performance was a definite debacle. The only time it had the ball in South Carolina territory was when the Gamecocks fumbled the opening kickoff. And then it was forced to kick a field goal.
The long-term answer: Recruiting. I think Phillips recognized this was a problem when he took over. That’s why he shook up the staff, replacing some of Rich Brooks’ assistants with some of his own hand-picked coaches. - Good grief.
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The rest of the league is noticing that UK sucks at football this year, too.
Kentucky: That 3-0 early lead was nice, wasn't it? Those 54 unanswered points that followed? Not so much. UK managed six first downs, six turnovers, and 96 total yards of offense, and Morgan Newton had a negative quarterback rating for much of the game (didn't know that was even possible). Nyjer Morgan did nothing nearly as offensive on Friday night as the 'Cats did in Columbia on Saturday morning.
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Crean wants Bob Knight to make return to Indiana
So says Matt Norlander. I say go for it -- nobody listens to him any more, anyway. -
Matt Norlander thinks Travis Ford's comments might be slightly overstated.
Pardon my barb, but Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford must be a bit delusional when he's saying sentences like this one: "Everybody might be wanting to join us."
By "us" he means the Big 12, and by "everybody" he pretty much means Cinci, Louisville and West Virginia. All possibilities and good additions in hoops to the league. (But what to make of this Big East news, breaking today?) Nevertheless, Ford speaks on behalf of basketball, as if it's got one finger in the say of what programs go where. -
The SEC presidents are not ready to continue expansion yet.
The SEC says in a statement that the presidents and chancellors "discussed a wide range of issues dealing with the changing landscape of intercollegiate athletics" but didn't make any moves on expansion.