UK's coaching search goes on. Who will be the next Big Cat, and guide our program back to the promised land? Well, we probably won't know until next week at the earliest.
Meantime, back at the Ponderosa, recruits are going elsewhere. 5-star big man Kenny Frease, who was reportedly leaning toward UK before Tubby Smith left for the frozen tundra, has verbally agreed to matriculate to Xavier.
This is a rather big loss to 2008, but we do have other possibilities, like Phillip Jurick, shown here. But every day we go without a coach, our recruiting situation gets a little more tenuous.
On the Billy Donovan recruiting effort, John Clay reminds us of what we know vs. what the rumors say:
Donovan owes those kids and his team every ounce of his energy and every single piece of his gray matter. (Did you see UCLA's defense against Kansas? The Gators have their hands full.) And that's what he will give them.
I think that's right.
Here at A Sea of Blue, we will leave it to others to break "news". We try very hard not to substitute fiction for reality in order to be among the first to break a story, and in the world of Internet blogging, that can be a real challenge. We want to be right, even if we are a little slow.
Eric Crawford at the Louisville Courier-Journal once again attempts a little humor while excoriating the rumor mongers, and for once, I think he actually pulls it off:
Watching people scamper after these UK coaching rumors is like watching a pack of puppies. You pretend to throw a stick one way, and off they run. Fake throwing it the other way, and they're gone again. Soon they're chasing their own tails.
In the end, you just wind up with a pile of you know what.
The article goes on to beat up on Darrell Bird, The Cats Pause executive editor who posted the story that allegedly started the rumor wildfire.
Crawford is right, but perhaps a little strident. To be fair to Bird, he made it known he was speculating, but his story lede was just a little too juicy and the Big Blue Nation a little to anxious to buy what it appeared to be selling.
Nobody tries to get it wrong, and who knows, Bird may be absolutely right on with his speculation - what is false today sometimes becomes the truth later on. Unfortunately, lots of people want to believe his speculation. That can cause a lie to become the "truth" in a hurry.
Moving right along, I really like Rick Pitino - I do. He is a fine coach and a great motivator, but this one torqued me off just a bit:
"I would never, ever leave to go to another college," Pitino said. "You can't leave your players. You don't leave for another college. You just don't do it. I'm too old to go anywhere else."
Well, well. I am thinking maybe you are right about your age, Ricky boy. You seem to have forgotten that you did the very thing you "just don't do" to the UK players back in 1997 - or has dementia just kicked in at the ripe old age of 54?
Oh, wait, I get it - it only counts as bad if you go to another college and not to the NBA, right? Bullcrap.
Keep your mouth shut, Rick, and mind your own damn business. You've told us you're not coming back, and for my money that's a good thing. I suppose I can't blame you for answering that question, even if it is unasked by UK at this point, at least as far as I know.
But at least check your hypocrisy at the door before talking to the press about UK's situation - it isn't very becoming for a senior citizen to wear it like a badge of honor.
While we are on the subject of Traitor Rick, the Gainesville Sun thinks that Donovan won't come because of his relationship with Rick Pitino, and the rivalry that exists between UK and Louisville:
Billy reveres Pitino, his coach at PU and boss for five seasons as a Kentucky staff assistant (1989-94). Rick is like a second father to Donovan. Confidant. Huge friend. Mighty mentor. Someone with whom Billy D would never want any kind of conflict.
Conflict? We are talking about one (1) basketball game each year barring a meeting in the tournament. Tubby was just as close to Pitino as Billy D. is, and somehow he managed to not only play his old boss, but beat him repeatedly without causing any "conflict."
I would love to mock this guy some more, but I really must move on. There seem to be a plethora of people today who simply haven't bothered to engage their brain, like this guy from the AOL Sports Blog:
I know I'm a homer, OK? But Florida to UK a "lateral move?" If by some miracle UK won back to back national championships in football, would that make their football program equal to Floridas?
I'm thinking you damn sure should be alone, pal, if you consider yourself among those informed enough to comment. Have terrorists afflicted our nation with an IQ reducing virus or something? Somebody alert Homeland Security.
Finally, Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel thinks Florida should pay Donovan whatever it takes to keep him, including making the football coach the second highest-paid coach on campus:
That would be about twice as much as Meyer makes. But so what? Donovan soon might have twice as many national titles.
Donovan should make more than Meyer because he has accomplished more. Meyer coached a national championship team last year; Donovan has built a national championship program over the past decade. Meyer took over a team loaded with talent; Donovan took over a program bankrupt of it.
Does he really think UK would stop at $4 million? Does anyone really think Donovan would come to UK for less than that? I don't.