Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie used humor in responding to Bruce Pearl’s assertion the day before that UK, not his Vols, should be the favorite in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division.
When asked about the Tennessee coach disagreeing with a media poll that tabbed the Vols the favorite, Gillispie said, “Is he part of the media?”
A moment later, Gillispie (presumably with tongue in cheek) put Pearl’s comment in perspective.
“If he said that, he’s saying he knows more than all the media,” Gillispie said. “He’s totally discounting what you say.”
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — During his Southeastern Conference Media Day appearance yesterday, Kentucky women’s basketball coach Matthew Mitchell preached the necessity of an uptempo style of play. Not once did he note UK fans’ well-documented love affair with high-octane play.
“I don’t think we’re going to be the most talented team” in the SEC, Mitchell said. “So I looked for ways to close the gap.”
In his first season as coach, Mitchell does not envision an all-out, full-court pressing, three-point shooting style. He spoke of conventional half-court man-to-man defense mixed with an offense that exploits opportunities to run.
“We want to create easy shots in transition,” he said. “If you set up every time against a half-court defense, talent wins out.”
Toward speeding the tempo, Mitchell has put more physical demands on his players in practice. He’s gone to two-a-day workouts, the first starting at 6 a.m. He’s also incorporated a reward system which involves a lot of practice competition with the losing side running sprints.
“It’s been an all-out effort to create a mindset of toughness, and players understanding the sacrifice required to close the talent gap,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell noted the incremental improvement, sprints and drills run better this week than last.
The references to talent gap were not coachspeak. Various pre-season publications listed five different SEC teams among the top25. None were Kentucky. Several outlets (Athlon’s, CBSsports.com, CSTV.com, Women’s Basketball Magazine and Gballmag.com) listed Tennessee, LSU and Georgia in the top 10.
Mitchell shrugged off the pre-season vote that picked Kentucky sixth in the SEC. He noted another UK team that’s defied expectations.
“Our football team (this season) has given us inspiration,” he said.
SEC schedule-makerse did not do the Kentucky women’s team any favors. The rotation of opponents dropped Mississippi State and Florida from two games to one. This season UK must play home-and-home against LSU, which has been to four straight Final Fours, and perennial power Tennessee.
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Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings yesterday expressed little sympathy for Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl’s complaint the day before about Kentucky’s many television appearances.
At the Southeastern Conference Media Days on Wednesday, Pearl voiced irritation with Kentucky being on CBS seven times this coming season. Tennessee, which finished higher than UK in the league and advanced further in the NCAA Tournament last year, will only be on CBS three times.
“He just hasn’t been in the league long enough,” Stallings said when asked about Pearl’s complaint. “He’ll get used to it.
“The last time I checked, Kentucky had won more (SEC) championships than the rest of us put together. What do you do?”
Stallings acknowledged that parity has come to the SEC. Other programs, most notably two-time defending national champion Florida, have gained equal footing with Kentucky.
But Kentucky still rates supremacy as television sees the landscape, Stallings said.
“If Kentucky hit the skids for 10 or 15 yearaes, I’m sure it would look a lot different,” the Vandy coach said. “That hasn’t happened nor is it likely to happen.”
A trainer accompanied Florida Coach Billy Donovan to the Southeastern Conference Media Days on Wednesday.
Donovan’s back pain required the presence of a trainer, who through medicine and therapy kept the Florida coach upright through interviews.
Donovan wasn’t sure how he hurt his back. He said he’d just finished a job and gotten through a practice when he sat down. When he tried to get up, uh-oh, his back was killing him.
For the flight to Birmingham, Donovan laid face down on the floor of the plane to alleviate the pain.
While speaking to him about the pain, I accidentally dropped my notebook at his feet. “You’ll have to get that,” he said with a smile. “I can’t.”
Although Tennessee was the unanimous choice to win the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division this basketball season, Vols coach Bruce Pearl tabbed Kentucky as the favorite.
“They remind me of my first (Tennessee) team,” Pearl said of the Cats. “The backcourt is deep and talented.”
Pearl’s first Tennessee team surprised the league by winning the Eastern Division.
Whether or not Kentucky duplicates that feat, Pearl questioned the television attention paid to UK this season. Speaking at the SEC Media Days on Wednesday, he noted that Kentucky will be on CBS seven times this season. Tennessee, the favorite with four returning starters from a team that reached the Sweet 16, has two appearances.
“I think the league is better off when we’re just not promoting Kentucky (only),” the UT coach said.
Pearl noted the post-season successes of Florida, Tennessee and other SEC programs in recent seasons. Those programs need to be seen on television more often to be appreciated.
“The torch has not been passed,” Pearl said. “The league is still about the Wildcats.”
If reporters at the Southeastern Conference Media Days want to talk to a Kentucky player, Ramel Bradley is their only choice.
Teams have the option to bring one or two players to the Media Days, which run Wednesday and Thursday of this week. If a school brings only one player, he has to be a projected starter.
UK, which answers questions on Thursday, will be one of four schools to bring one player. The others are Florida (Walter Hodge), Vanderbilt (Shan Foster) and Alabama (Mykal Riley).
DeWayne Peevy, the man in charge of SEC basketball media relations, said he hoped to change the guidelines so that teams will be required to bring two players to Media Days.
That Bradley will represent Kentucky seems to further cement the impression that he will be the team leader.
Freshman Patrick Patterson’s visit to a Lexington hospital Monday evening caused a stir of speculation.
Patterson had an upper respiratory infection, UK spokesman Scott Stricklin said yesterday.
Lloyd McGuffin, who coached Patterson at Huntington (W.Va.) High School, said he got a good report from the player’s mother.
“She said he’s fine,” McGuffin said. “Everything’s fine.”
McGuffin predicted a speedy recovery. “He’s a warrior, man,” the coach said. “He’ll be back in no time flat.”
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By Jerry Tipton
jtipton@herald-leader.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A select media panel voted Billy Gillispie’s first Kentucky team to finish second in the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division, the league announced yesterday.
That marked the second straight year that the media voted UK second.
Tennessee replaced Florida as the overwhelming choice to win the Eastern Division. The Vols received all 30 first-place votes to become the first unanimous choice to win a division since Auburn in 1999-00.
The media picked two-time defending national champion Florida to finish third in the Eastern Division followed by Vanderbilt, Georgia and South Carolina.
Arkansas, which has former UK player John Pelphrey as its new coach, was the choice to win the Western Division. The Razorbacks received 18 first-place votes to top Mississippi State (10 votes). Alabama and Auburn received one vote each in finishing third and fourth in the balloting, respectively. LSU and Ole Miss were fifth and sixth.
Kentuckian Chris Lofton of Tennessee received 27 of 30 votes for Player of the Year. Mississippi State guard Jamont Gordon received two votes. Tyler Smith, who transferred to Tennessee from Iowa this off-season, got the other Player of the Year vote.
For the second straight year, no Kentucky player was voted either first- or second-team all-SEC in the pre-season balloting. Joining Lofton and Gordon on the first team were Richard Hendrix of Alabama, Patrick Beverley of Arkansas and Shan Foster of Vanderbilt.
Second teamers were Steven Hill of Arkansas, Charles Rhodes of Mississippi State, Tasmin Mitchell of LSU, Dwayne Curtis of Ole Miss and Smith.
Until last year, a Kentucky player had made an all-SEC pre-season team every season since 1997-98.
The SEC changed the way it conducts a pre-season vote. In past years, all reporters who attended the pre-season Media Days, which begin today, had the opportunity to vote.
This year, each SEC school selected two media members who cover their team to vote. The league also had six national media figures vote.
High school sophomore Trae Golden had family ties to Ohio State. That made the difference in his commitment Sunday night to the Buckeyes over the schools that finished second and third in his recruiting race: Kentucky and Georgia.
Golden, a 6-1 guard from Powder Springs, Ga., might be one of the top players in the high school class of 2010. He made an unofficial visit to UK while attending an all-star camp in Georgetown, Ky.
However, his father grew up in Toledo, and earned bachelor and master’s degrees from Ohio State.
“He’s been around the university for quite some time,” Golden’s high school coach, Nick Chaykowski, said. “There’s a passion in their family for Ohio Steate. He felt, obviously, the same passion.”
Trae Golden, one of the top prospects in the high school class of 2010, committed to Ohio State on Sunday night.
Kentucky had been pursuing Golden.
When I attended a high school all-star camp in Cincinnati last summer, Golden stood out as one of the better underclassmen. He’s a guard who can shoot and handle the ball and take command of a game.
Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald- Leader has covered Kentucky basketball since the 1981-82 season. That time includes five coaches, five Final Fours, four athletic directors, two interim athletic directors and many memories. Before coming to Lexington, Tipton worked eight years for the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch. He covered Marshall’s basketball team for two seasons before coming to the Herald-Leader.