Latest Kentucky Basketball Stories
Posted: Jul 1st 2009 9:54AM ET by Chas Rich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kansas, Kentucky, Big 12, SEC, Media Watch, Recruiting, Rumors

For a rather wild day, it looked like things were going to get even weirder than they usually do in the college basketball offseason. Even before the summer recruiting began. In the end, it was a lot of noise but no change.
Xavier and C.J. Henry are still going to Kansas for the 2009-10 season, not reversing field to go to Kentucky to be with
John Calipari.
Xavier Henry is one of the top-5 high school players in the country. He had already switched his commitment from Memphis to Kansas, but since he could not sign a new National Letter of Intent (NLI) he is not actually bound to Kansas until he shows up on the campus and signs the scholarship papers. His older brother, C.J. Henry, is a walk-on with the New York Yankees paying his way following a failed baseball career.
Posted: Jun 15th 2009 1:25PM ET by Matt Snyder (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, SEC, NBA Prospects

According to an ESPN.com report by Andy Katz,
Jodie Meeks is still going to
forgo his senior year in favor of entering the NBA Draft. Meeks had joined the early entrant list to the NBA Draft prior to the hiring of
John Calipari as the Wildcats' head basketball coach. Once Calipari was brought on board, there was some thought amongst the general public Calipari's presence would somehow convince Meeks to change his decision, but that isn't the case.
Meeks was arguably the best player in the SEC last season. The 6-foot-4 junior averaged 23.7 points per game, and put together a brilliant
54-point outburst against Tennessee mid-January, which was a school record. He shot brilliantly for the season, hitting 41 percent of his threes and 90 percent of his free throws.
Posted: Jun 8th 2009 3:20PM ET by Matt Snyder (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, SEC

An Italian restaurant in Lexington, Ken., is
now forbidden territory for all University of Kentucky athletes. Joe Bologna, owner and operator of the creatively named Joe Bologna's Restaurant, had been allowing
UK basketball players to eat for free in his establishment for what is estimated to be a period of about four years. Under NCAA rules, no establishment can grant athletes freedoms or favors they wouldn't give to "normal" students, thus, it was an NCAA violation.
Kentucky's compliance department did the right thing in self-reporting to the NCAA immediately, and the only real punishment in the situation is that Bologna will not be allowed to serve any Wildcats athletes through August of 2011.
Posted: Jun 6th 2009 4:32PM ET by Tom Ziller (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, Memphis, Coaches, Recruiting

Memphis officials, Kentucky coach
John Calipari and the NCAA had their little four-hour pow-wow Saturday concerning
that whole SAT scandal. The verdict?
No verdict for six weeks or so, reports the Associated Press.
As Clay Travis discussed Friday, Calipari is
hiding chilling in China and had to phone in to the assuredly awkward hearing. (Note that he
had to phone in. The NCAA demanded he participate, even if he's on the other side of the planet.)
Six weeks (or more) leaves a lot of time for Tigers fans to sweat the impending doom of (gasp!) NCAA sanctions. But even more, it provides the opportunity for more allegations to come out against the program. Since the
Derrick Rose story came to light, reports have placed
the SAT scores of Robert Dozier in question. Another month-and-a-half leaves plenty of time for more shady recruiting stories to pop out.
Posted: Jun 5th 2009 4:29PM ET by Clay Travis (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, Memphis, Campus, Coaches

Saturday,
Memphis appears before the NCAA Infractions Committee to discuss the
Derrick Rose -- excuse us, name redacted -- imbroglio.
Kentucky coach
John Calipari will not be physically present. Why not? Because he has a previously scheduled trip to China. Boy, is that convenient. Coach Cal has known since mid-January that Memphis would be appearing before the infractions committee on June 5-7, 2009 (the letter preceding the notice of allegations informed Memphis of this date), and he just happens to schedule a trip to China during that time?
What a coincidence!
Calipari informed the NCAA via letter that he'd love to attend the hearing, but would be in China. The NCAA replied that they wanted him there anyway, by phone if necessary, foiling Calipari's ultimate rejoinder. "The NCAA hearing? I don't know anything about that. I was in China when they had the infractions hearing!"
Posted: Jun 1st 2009 10:00PM ET by Matt Snyder (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, Memphis, Conference USA, SEC, Coaches

When initial reports surfaced of the allegations against the University of Memphis when it came to an anonymous freshman's contested SAT results, most assumed the University learned of the charges on January 16, 2009 when they received a letter of discovery from the NCAA.
According to an ESPN report by Andy Katz, that isn't exactly true.
The University of Memphis actually found out about the nefarious testing allegations via email, and they found out just one month after their April 7, 2008 NCAA Championship appearance. Public assumptions -- due to the logistics of the allegations -- point to then-freshman superstar
Derrick Rose, who now plays for the NBA's Chicago Bulls.
Posted: May 28th 2009 10:08AM ET by Chas Rich (RSS feed)
Filed under: Kentucky, Memphis, Conference USA, SEC, Campus, Coaches, Police Blotter

It is a coincidence.
Besides nothing ever was proven or even suggested by the NCAA that
John Calipari even knew what
Marcus Camby was up to at UMass. Just like there is nothing at this point to indicate that Calipari was aware of the things
the NCAA is now accusing Memphis.
The NCAA is accusing the
Memphis Tigers with failure to monitor with regards to actions relating to the 2007-08 season in which the Tigers went to the Final Four. While the name of the key player has been redacted the letter from the NCAA indicates that the player, "subsequently competed during the 2007-08 season and specifically the 2008 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship." In other words,
Derrick Rose.