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What's the buzz, tell me what's a'happenin' ...

By Glenn Logan

The web.  The Internet. The information superhighway that Al Gore invented (thanks, Al).  It gives me a place to post comments and scratch my itch to bloviate.  But best of all, it gives us access to stuff about the Kentucky Wildcats, and that, my friends, is a very good thing.

So what do we have over at the good old Lexington Herald-Leader today ...  Ah, an article reminding us of yet another recruit that could have been ours, Derrick Byars:

Byars already is part of another select group: players that got away from UK's recruiting nets. Unlike with Tennessee's Chris Lofton and Florida's Corey Brewer, Kentucky made a concerted effort to land Byars. Late in his junior year at Ridgeway High in Memphis, Byars made an unofficial visit to UK. It was the school he rooted for growing up.

"I was a huge Kentucky fan, watching Rick Pitino and those guys winning championships," he said yesterday. Derek Anderson was his favorite player.

The visit went well. He chatted with the latest UK star, Tayshaun Prince. "I met with Coach Tubby (Smith) and his family," he said. "I came away liking the place."

Fate intervened.

"I believe Antwain Barbour pulled the trigger first with them," Byars said. "He ended up signing (with Kentucky). I looked elsewhere."


Before long, Scout and Rivals will have to start factoring in Kentucky recruitment as a basis for rating a player - if UK recruits you and you go elsewhere, your rating jumps 10 spots.

The Detroit Free Press reports on Saginaw junior Draymond Green's recent commitment to UK.  Green's coach was a former Tubby Smith player at Tulsa, and had some nice things to say about his former coach:

Saginaw junior standout Draymond Green has given a commitment to play basketball at Kentucky, and if you think this was an inside job, you're right.

Saginaw coach Lou Dawkins played for Kentucky coach Tubby Smith when both were at Tulsa.

"He was my coach for four years," Dawkins said. "I know what he can do with players. I know what he did for me."


More of this type of recruiting, please.

The Denver Post has the obligatory "Coaches on the hot seat" article.  It is noteworthy only for it's brevity with regard to UK, and the fact that it omits Smith from it's hot list:

Missing are three names commonly placed on endangered lists. Speculation about Kentucky's Tubby Smith mounts every year he doesn't go a Final Four. The Wildcats have not returned since his national title in 1998, one year short of the longest drought in school history.

Guess others seats are hotter right now, though you wouldn't know it from reading our blogs and message boards.

NCAA Hoops Blog compares Louisville and Kentucky, and, well, this one is ugly, folks.  They think Louisville is hot and UK is not, and based on current performance, who could argue with them?  NHB has this to say about our juniors:

Bradley looks like a 3rd guard that should come off the bench to provide a spark, not a starter. Crawford is not living to his expectations and even for a college tweener he looks a bit slow/heavy. Morris posts good numbers, but he is not a game-changer inside like one would expect from someone of his size and experience (compare his game-impact (not numbers) in the paint to Greg Oden's). Perry, Thomas, Obrzut are good rotation players but none of those guys are PTPers.

This guy is not a UK hater (he does truly hate Duke, though), so his stuff is generally fair.  Don't let the excerpt put you off, read the whole thing.  And just keep scrolling, this guy has some good stuff on his blog.

Finally, Mike DeCourcy schools me on coaches that have received technicals for yelling at their players like John Brady did during the LSU-Kentucky game:

Something I didn't know: Who knew a coach could get a technical foul for yelling at his players? Well, OK, I did know that; I saw it happen to Roy Williams at Kansas when he threw his jacket following a foolish Drew Gooden foul in a 2001 victory over Texas.

I just didn't know an official would be silly enough to call one against Drexel's jovial Bruiser Flint when one of his guys got tangled up with a Creighton player in a game the Dragons were leading late. That tech almost allowed Creighton to complete a comeback, and it would have been the official's lack of control that changed the outcome of the game.


We both learned something this week, Mike.

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