More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Coach looks a bit excited here. Robic, not so much.

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The flu bug has assailed the football Wildcats, and the prospect of watching John Wall finally lead the basketball Wildcats into battle has me delirious with both pleasure and pain.  It drives me crazy when so many players are hit with injury and illness all at once, and I suppose I should be thankful that we are not going into the Vanderbilt game this weekend.  But at the same time, it drives me nuts that we seem to wind up in this same situation every year at this time.  Maybe it's everybody, but it just doesn't  seem that way.

Moving on to basketball, UK welcomes John Calipari's alma mater, Clarion University, into Rupp Arena tomorrow night.  We'll have much more on that in due course, but I highly recommend this Jerry Tipton article (even to the anti-Tipton crowd), which has lots of great background on Calipari's time at Clarion, and how it helped shape him into what he is today.

I am a big fan of coaches playing their alma maters, particularly when they are small schools like Clarion.  It may not continue for Calipari, though, but I have to admit, I do like the practice.

Speaking of practice, how is that Dribble Drive Motion offense working out for the 'Cats?  About like Calipari predicted it would early on -- balls flying everywhere but in the basket, turnovers, etc.  It will get better, and when it does, this team will be really dangerous.

And now, for the news:

Top Stories

• Former coach says Calipari was "born to coach" at UK | Vaught's Views
  Well, there you go.

• Brooks, Cats must regain focus, UK picked to win SEC

• Rich Brooks & the SEC Teleconference " Over The Pylon
  Always a good read.

• Lindley's Award chances dimmed by injuries

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

John Wall will be out there on the floor on Friday.

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SB Nation has performed what they are calling a "visual refresh" of the blogs, and I hope you love it as much as I do.  To me, the the site looks much cleaner and more readable.  Great job by the code magicians at SBN.

Now, to business.  The game last night drew pretty predictable commentary from around the Big Blue Nation, mostly expecting the ugly, disjointed nature of the game while marveling at the talent and athleticism.  I think that's the best way to look at it, and I'm sure Coach Calipari learned a lot about his team last night.  We will learn even more on Friday when John Wall gets to suit up and take the floor for the first time versus outside competition.

At the end of the day, I was not unhappy with what I saw.  I expected this game to be ugly, and it did not disappoint.  But I loved the way the team tried to play together, and the effort on defense was really quite remarkable, with a number of players hitting the floor hard trying to draw charges, and getting floor burns chasing after loose balls.  You have to really admire all that effort, and even if the execution was sloppy, it was really good to see how hard the team played.

Now, for the news:

Top Stories

• UK commitments update
  Great stuff from Jody Demling.

• UK's debut displays 'good, bad & ugly' " Evansville Courier & Press
  "If they had 58 possessions, we guarded about 10 of them just the way we want to do it," Calipari said. "The problem is the other 48. They missed a lot of open shots. When we watch the tape, we'll see we didn't communicate. We missed on some switches. But there were other times I looked and said 'That's exactly how I want my team to play."'
  
  That's the way I saw it as well.

• " Audio: John Calipari’s post-game press conference John Clay’s Sidelines

• Bluegrass State Basketball: UK/Campbellsville Quotes, Analysis and More
  Some nice observations from BSB. Always worth a read.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

We'll be seeing a lot of this guy on the court in 2009-2010, just as we figured.

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As Ken posted earlier, John Wall has been cleared to play this season for UK.  He must sit out the first exhibition game and the regular season opener as well as repay $787.58, but after that, it is clear sailing for the #1 ranked recruit out of Word of God Academy in North Carolina.

Reaction follows:

PG John Wall cleared by NCAA to play for Kentucky - ESPN

Kentucky freshman John Wall to be suspended two games by NCAA - Mike DeCourcy - College Basketball - Sporting News

NCAA orders UK guard John Wall to sit 2 games - Sports - Wire - TheSunNews.com

John Wall Certified -- Chris Diggs - UK Fan | The Courier-Journal

Wall cleared to play by NCAA | The Kentucky Kernel

CatsPause.com - NCAA certifies Wall with conditions

Not much for me to add, except that like most of you, I am very pleased.

You know, I hate these kerfuffles with mainstream media reporters, particularly with Jerry Tipton.  He inspires so much passion (most of it negative) that it can suck all the air out of an otherwise good day, and convert it into napalm-throwing anger.

John Clay of the Herald-Leader was kind enough to email me this morning about the matter.  Of course, he did not try to speak for Tipton, nor the paper, but just assured me that Tipton made an error in his characterization of events, and did not intend to describe Patterson driving off in his truck that way, as though he actually saw it happen.  His main point was, Tipton had no malicious intent in making that mistake, it was just a misworded sentence that got through.

Tipton has corrected his article on the Herald-Leader website (the sentence now reads "For Patterson, the fun figures to continue when he climbs back into his new black truck."), and according to Larry Vaught, has apologized to the Pattersons, which they have presumably accepted.  Tipton's clarification can be found on his blog, for what it's worth, and I find it pretty weak beer.

So what should we make of all this?

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Jerry? Is that you?

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I just came across a tweet that directed me to this post on KSR.  It's a short post, so I won't quote any of it here, but it essentially states that Patrick Patterson's mother, Tywanna, is suggesting that Jerry Tipton made this up:

For Patterson, the fun figured to continue as he climbed in his new black truck and drove away.

Folks, I am not a Tipton hater.  Not at all.  But I will say that if what Patrick's mom has said is true (and I have absolutely no reason not to believe her), then Jerry Tipton should be in a whole lot of hot water with his employer, regardless of his reputation and longevity.  Reporters can't go making up things to make their story better.  That isn't just wrong, it is downright unethical, and I don't know of any journalism outfit worth it's salt that would allow such a thing to occur.

I admit, I am absolutely shocked about this.  Jerry Tipton is no hero of mine, but I always thought of him as a straight guy, if a little negative and curmudgeonly.  But if he has been making up events and misquoting people, particularly Patrick Patterson's parents, that's where he and I part ways big time.

I understand from this tweet by Jones that something will be in the paper tomorrow about this, and Tipton has put up this blog post, which quite frankly, is as clear as mud to me.  So what happened?  Did Tipton make up the above comment?  Did he just make an honest mistake writing two articles at once and not catch it?  Did he mistake some other black truck and some other 6'8" guy for Patrick Patterson, since his mother said he was with her and her husband?  Is this all we get?  Who the heck is on first?

I can't wait to read about it in the paper pixels tomorrow.  I sure hope this is all just some big misunderstanding.  Sometimes, things look really bad, but there is an innocent or at least understandable explanation.  I sure hope so.

More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Patrick Patterson showing off his new skills.

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There is a ton of talk today about last night's Blue/White game, and instead of compiling links for everything this morning, I'm just going to focus on that.  We'll have the normal BBDM post later.

I think the buzzword for last night's game is "speed," followed closely by "excitement."  What Wildcat fan would not have been excited by John Wall's blazing speed, Eric Bledsoe's aggressive drives to the hoop, and seeing Patrick Patterson shoot three pointers like he had been doing it for years?

I think I was most excited to see Patterson show off skills that I wondered if he would be able to develop.  Of course, it is early, and there are lots of talented teams out there who will challenge him, but there was no hesitation in Patrick's shot whatsoever.  I love that.  Coach Calipari seems to insist on it, and it is obvious these guys are really comfortable with Calipari as their coach.  Really.  Obvious.  That's something we haven't seen in at least two years.

The news follows the jump.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

The man. Patrick Patterson.

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Okay, 'Cat fans, here we go.  The Blue/White game is tonight, and we will learn a lot more about this team than we learned at Big Blue Madness, which essentially amounted to, "Josh Harrellson can shoot the ball and nobody else can do anything but dunk."  Hopefully, we will see something more meaningful tonight.

I am really anxious to see this team in a more formal game setting where there is something at stake.  As good talented as these guys are supposed to be, I want to see some of that talent express itself tonight.  I want some reason to believe that this team can be molded into a national contender.  I want to see what all the fuss is about.

It should be exciting, and of course, A Sea of Blue will have an open game thread for this game just like every other, so come one, come all, and join us tonight as we begin to experience the 2009-2010 season in earnest.

Now, for the news:

Top Stories

• A Letter From Mitch Barnhart - KENTUCKY OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE
  Well, I'm glad we got that straight.

• Bluegrass State Basketball: Contract Signed: Wildcats to Practice at Freedom Hall

• Revealing eligibility problems hits a wall | KentuckySports.com
  When asked whether Wall faced a serious threat to his eligibility, Todd said, "No comment. If we chose to talk about it, we would have talked about it a long time ago. You'll know about (the decision) when we know about it."
  
  I'm not worried, but I am anxious to get this episode into the history books. Faster, please.

• Kentucky Sports Radio " The Blue-White game’s Wednesday News and Views

• It's about color of money, not power of coal | KentuckySports.com
  Wow. John Clay is on a roll, and knocks every bullet point out of the park. Way to go, John! My man!

• Nothing wrong with UK protecting Wall | Vaught's Views
  I totally agree.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

Well, who did you think was going to be featured here? Exactly.

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The Kentucky vs. Louisiana-Monroe game yesterday will be the main focus of this edition, but we will be throwing in a bit of other good stuff on this beautiful Sunday morning here in the Bluegrass state.

I think it's safe to say that, despite the lopsided 36-13 score, most Wildcat football fans are far less than totally pleased with the play of the 'Cats yesterday, as are the coaches.  It seems that in the third quarter, the UK team just decided to take fifteen minutes of football off, and let ULM roll up yardage all over the field and fail to offend anyone but their own fans.

In the end, though, it was a victory that was never really in doubt, and in the end, that's pretty much what everyone would expect.  In a way, this is better than a flawless victory, because it gives Brooks & Co. plenty of film to view, and lots of pins to pop any swell-headedness that may have been emerging on the team.  And then there is the Micah Johnson injury, which Brooks says isn't major, but it isn't minor, either.

Now, for the news:

Top Stories

• 'Cat scratched: But it wasn't all bad in ULM's loss to Kentucky | thenewsstar.com | The News Star
  The game from ULM's point of view. I laud Cody Wells for crediting the o-line, even if I think they didn't deserve much. I don't know how many times Wells got hit, but he must be bruised from head to toe.
  
  Still, a brave player and a pretty tough team.

• Joker: "We didn’t play clean" | Vaught's Views
  No, we didn't. And 119 yards in the second half is definitely risible. And I agree with Fidler that the intensity was significantly lower, which you might expect versus a less capable foe, but then again, that kind of thing can get you beat.
  
  Fortunately, having Randall Cobb on your team makes getting beat by an inferior team much, much more difficult. But a few people besides Cobb and the O-line need to step up and make plays.

• Eric Crawford: Cobb is Mr. Do-It-All for Cats | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
  It's easy to say Cobb should get it more. But Brooks has a delicate task — to develop enough people around Cobb so that defenses have to stay honest. It's hard to argue with how Cobb was spread around Saturday — 41 yards rushing, 27 receiving, 84 return yards and 46 yards passing.
  
  Yeah, Crawford has a point that I hadn't really considered. With Locke dinged up and playing an inferior foe, there are lots of good reasons to try to get others involved. I expect against MSU, those reasons won't be there, but vs. Eastern, they will be back.

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