Latest Kentucky Basketball Stories
Posted: Nov 20th 2009 1:54PM ET by David Steele (RSS feed)
Filed under: Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Syracuse, UCLA, Alabama

The roll call of eye-popping scores began with the start of the college basketball season. And there's a chance they won't slow down soon, for an important reason: this time, the names on the front of the jerseys tell less of a story than the names on the back.
The opening week's finals look like someone's idea of a joke. The opening acts, in exhibition season, should have warned everybody: LeMoyne 82,
Syracuse 79, and
Georgia Tech 84,
Indiana (Pa.) 76 in overtime. Then, when the games counted:
Texas-San Antonio 62,
Iowa 50. Cornell 71, Alabama 67. Wofford 60, Georgia 57. Rider 88, Mississippi State 74. Cal State-Fullerton 68, UCLA 65 in two overtimes.
None of that includes Kentucky 72, Miami of Ohio 70, in Game Two of the John Calipari Era in Lexington; if not for freshman
John Wall's heroics in, literally, the final second, that era would have been a carbon-copy of the start of the now-infamous Billy Gillispie Era (loss at home to Gardner-Webb in his second game).
Posted: Nov 16th 2009 9:45PM ET by Ray Holloman (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, Mid-Majors

When John Calipari accepted the
Kentucky coaching job, he warned that there are no easy solutions in college basketball. At the time, it was like telling a state full of lottery winners about the value of sound investment strategies.
Thank Miami University for proving your point, Coach.
And thank
John Wall for reminding Wildcats fans just why they were so darn excited in the first place.
Wall scored 19 points, including the biggest two of the season, a 15-foot jumper with less than a second left that lifted the No. 4 Wildcats to a 72-70 win over the Redhawks, narrowly avoiding the first major upset of the college basketball season.
Posted: Nov 13th 2009 12:01PM ET by David Steele (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky

Kentucky is used to the madness surrounding the official debut of a new basketball coach, even a new big-name, highly touted, expectation-driving coach. It's just not used to the madness taking place twice in three years.
The fact that the implosion of the coach he's replacing is so fresh in the
Kentucky faithful's memory, seems not to be bothering
John Calipari -- but signs are that he isn't blissfully ignorant of it, either. He takes the court at Rupp Arena Friday evening for the first time as Wildcats coach in a game that counts, against
Morehead State, and the anticipation is as high for this night as it was two years ago when Billy Gillispie, the savior from
Texas A&M, did the same thing.
Gillispie's downward spiral began not long afterward, of course, with the now- (and then-) infamous loss at home to Gardner-Webb in the second game of the 2007-08 season.
Posted: Nov 5th 2009 9:00AM ET by Chas Rich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, SEC, Coaches

SEC Commissioner
Mike Slive might have been hoping that when college football season ends, he would not have to be issuing weekly warnings to his high profile coaches to watch their mouths. But it looks more like he will be chiding coaches some time into April.
The addition of
John Calipari at Kentucky means the SEC coaching family gatherings promise to be more entertaining. Calipari has never been one to build warm relationships with other coaches in his conference (right,
John Chaney?). His soured relationship with Rick Pitino should make his meetings with Florida's
Billy Donovan more interesting.
The warm and special relationship that was built during his time at Memphis, with Tennessee's
Bruce Pearl will undoubtedly produce the most entertainment. .
Posted: Nov 2nd 2009 9:36PM ET by Chas Rich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, Coaches

Twice before in his life,
Billy Gillispie had been accused of drunk driving. He avoided an actual admission and penalties the first couple of times. The third time was the not quite the charm as the former Kentucky coach
pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol in Anderson County District Court in Kentucky.
Gillispie limited most of his responses to the judge to one word answers. He received a sentence similar to most first-time offenders in Kentucky. A 30-day suspension of his driver's license, a fine plus all court costs and being required to complete an Alcohol Drivers Education Program.
Posted: Oct 30th 2009 9:45PM ET by Chas Rich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, SEC

Oh, the uber-talented guard is practicing and with the Wildcats and impressing all who see
John Wall play. It's just that the
NCAA has suspended him for the first two games. Well, an exhibition and the season opener. So it is more like 1.5 games. Wall will miss the exhibition game against NAIA Campbellsville on Monday, November 2. He will also miss the season opener with Morehead State. That means his debut will be on November 16 against Miami (Ohio).
Wall's eligibility was called into question because his AAU coach/adviser/future entourage and hanger-on Brian Clifton had also been failing to be an NBA agent while Wall was being recruited as a high school junior. Clifton had helped pay for some of Wall's travel expenses for unofficial visits to schools. Wall also has to repay Clifton almost $800.
Somehow, Kentucky should be able to find a way to get past those first two opponents without Wall.
Posted: Oct 22nd 2009 5:51PM ET by FanHouse Newswire (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky

John Calipari's tenure at Kentucky will likely begin the same way his tenure at Memphis ended, with an NCAA investigation into the eligibility of his point guard.
According to an ESPN report, the NCAA is investigating the eligibility of Wildcat freshman
John Wall. At issue is whether benefits from his AAU coach, who is also licensed as an agent by FIBA, should be considered illegal and therefore threaten Wall's amateur status.
Should Wall be found guilty of accepting illegal benefits, he would be forced to pay back the amount before becoming eligible at Kentucky and could face further punishment.
If the amount owed is greater than $101, Wall would be forced to miss 10 percent of Kentucky's games.
Posted: Oct 13th 2009 11:07PM ET by Chas Rich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, SEC, Coaches

No one really expected ex-Kentucky coach
Billy Gillispie's lawsuit against Kentucky for breach of contract to ever make it to trial. Neither side really wanted everything in the open court, and dragging into the actual college basketball season.
So it was not a real surprise that the parties agreed to mediation and a
settlement was reached for roughly half of the $6 million dollars in dispute. Gillispie gets $2.98 million and his attorney and mediation costs paid by Kentucky. Or roughly one-tenth of the amount Kentucky is paying
John Calipari over the next eight years.
Gillispie gets to put one more aspect of his time in Kentucky behind him. Arguably that was the easiest item. He still has to sell his house in a bad real estate market and settle that DUI charge.
Posted: Sep 11th 2009 6:30PM ET by David Steele (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, Memphis, UMass, A-10, Coaches

"The University of Massachusetts Club reflects the diversity, professional character, and camaraderie among distinguished alumni, and their pride and passion for the University.''
So says the
welcome page on the website of the Boston-based private members-only club, consisting of "alumni, faculty, staff and friends'' of UMass.
And as far as the club is concerned, there's no need to edit that statement or re-consider its definition of "professional character'' or "distinguished'' based on who it was scheduled to honor Friday evening:
John Calipari.
Posted: Sep 9th 2009 8:10PM ET by Terrance Harris (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, SEC, FanHouse Exclusive

Former Kentucky and Texas A&M coach
Billy Gillispie has checked himself into the John Lucas After Care Program in Houston to help fight his alcohol addiction, a source close to the former head coach confirmed to FanHouse on Wednesday.
Gillispie, who was dismissed as the Wildcats coach after last season, was arrested on his third known
DUI charge last month in Kentucky
"He didn't have a whole lot of choices," the source told FanHouse. "Either [go to] Lucas or go to Betty Ford or somewhere. This is the best PR move Billy Clyde can make."