Archive for February, 2008

Gillispie pushing too hard?

Published by jtipton on February 29, 2008 in Injuries. 13 Comments

Although his team learned of a third stress fracture this season, Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie rejected the notion that he’s pushed too hard.

Patrick Patterson learned on Friday that he’d sustained a stress fracture in his left foot. That followed stress fractures earlier this season to Jodie Meeks (pelvis) and Ramon Harris (foot).

[[ Watch an audio slideshow of Patterson’s season, and hear comments from Billy Gillispie, Ramel Bradley and Perry Stevenson. ]]

Patterson, who sprained ankles at Houston and then against Georgia earlier this season, was leading the Southeastern Conference in minutes played with 38.9, on average.

“I push all the time,” said Gillispie, who has noted in the past that his earlier teams did not suffer stress fractures. “If I had Patrick last year, he’d have played 38, 39 minutes, and we had a pretty good team.

“Next year, he’ll play 38 or 39 minutes. You play your best players as much as you can.”

To the thought of pushing too hard, Gillispie said, “Absolutely not.

“We never put a player in jeopardy. He was never in jeopardy.”

He noted another factor: the roster he inherited that was short on talent, necessitating more minutes for the better players. Ramel Bradley (37.5) and Joe Crawford (36.5) rank third and fifth in minutes played in league games.

“A lot of teams have injuries,” Gillispie said. “We need to be better equipped in the future to handle whatever injuries come our way.”

Patterson injured: no joke

Published by jtipton on February 29, 2008 in Injuries. 0 Comments

When Patrick Patterson hobbled into the training room on crutches Friday, his teammates thought (hoped? prayed?) it was a joke.

“Joe’s face dropped,” Patterson said of teammate Joe Crawford. “He said, ‘Stop playing. It’s not April Fool’s yet.’ ”

[[ Watch an audio slideshow of Patterson’s season, and hear comments from Billy Gillispie, Ramel Bradley and Perry Stevenson. ]]

It was no joke. An X-ray of Patterson’s sore left ankle on Friday revealed a stress fracture. UK’s star freshman will not play again this season.

On the plus side, Patterson committed himself again to returning to Kentucky next season rather than enter this year’s NBA draft.

“I know I’m not ready,” he said. “There’s no possible way I’m going.”

UK Coach Billy Gillispie put on a brave face. He noted his team’s toughness in overcoming injury earlier this season. He noted how the Cats overcame a 6-7 start to get in position to play at No.1 Tennessee on Sunday for a share of the lead in the Southeastern Conference regular-season race.

But Gillispie did not dismiss the new obstacle that seems too much to overcome.

“It’s going to get a lot tougher,” he said. “But it’s not impossible. This team has played a special way of basketball. We’ll just have to play a little more special.”

Patterson acknowledged his shock at having a stress fracture. He said he woke up Tuesday morning with pain in the ankle. He played 37 minutes against Ole Miss on Wednesday night.and felt fine on Thursday.

But when he woke up on Friday, the ankle hurt. UK trainers recommended an X-ray, which revealed the fracture.

“I started crying when I found out I couldn’t play the rest of the season,” Patterson said. “Because I couldn’t play anymore I felt I let down my teammates.”

Patterson is UK’s second-leading scorer (16.4 ppg) and leads the team in rebounding (7.7 rpg). He’s the team’s sole presence around the basket. He also leads the SEC in minutes played at 38.9, on average.

“I have not been around a freshman who was asked to do more or done more for a team,” Gillispie said.

Patterson, who has had ankle problems (sprains and “tweaks”) since high school, said he would be playing through the pain at Tennessee if the X-ray had not been taken.

“But the doctors said if I continue to play, it’ll tear on through,” he said. “It’d be 20 times worse. If I play, the likelihood of playing next year would not be good.”

Teammates Ramel Bradley and Perry Stevenson spoke bravely of carrying on.

When asked what he’d tell fans who believe the injury ruined UK’s chances of success the rest of the way, Stevenson said, “All I can do is tell them, watch. Look and see. I think we’ll be all right.”

Gillispie took a more sober-minded view while accentuating the positive.

“It’s easy to say we’ll be fine,” he said. “It’s a devastating blow.”

Gillispie likened the injury to a setback in life. The UK coach pointed out again that the key will be how the Cats respond.

Gillispie voiced his confidence that the Cats will compete. He did not see drastic changes in how UK plays. It’s too late in the season to orchestrate an overhaul, he said.

Patterson out for the season

Published by jtipton on February 29, 2008 in Injuries. 3 Comments

UK spokesman Scott Stricklin just called to say Patrick Patterson is out for the season.

The star freshman has sustained a stress fracture in his left ankle. X-rays on Friday revealed the break. Patterson will need about eight weeks to recover, Stricklin said.

Patterson and UK Coach Billy Gillispie will  be at a news conference later Friday afternoon to discuss the injury and its effect on Kentucky’s season.

The injury is the latest in a string of medical problems to haunt Kentucky this season. Earlier such players as Jodie Meeks and Derrick Jasper were sidelined.

Bob Knight joins ESPN

Published by jtipton on February 28, 2008 in National news. 0 Comments

Tyrannical Bob Knight will be commenting on college basketball during the post-season this year.

Here’s the ESPN news release:

Bob Knight Joins ESPN as Studio Analyst For Championship Week and NCAA Tournament

Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Knight, the winningest coach in Division I men’s college basketball with 902 victories, will join ESPN as a men’s college basketball studio analyst during the network’s coverage of Championship Week Presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods and through the NCAA Tournament. Knight will begin Wednesday, March 12 from ESPN’s Bristol studios and conclude Monday, April 7 from ESPN’s set in San Antonio, Texas, site of the NCAA Final Four. As part of the agreement, Knight will also appear on select ESPN shows and platforms, including SportsCenter, ESPN Radio and ESPNEWS.

“I think ESPN has been real good for college basketball and I look forward to working with some of their people who I have known a long time,” said Knight.

Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production, added, “Coach Knight is a legend with a depth of knowledge on tournament basketball. Fans have always found him to be a compelling listen and we are delighted to add his insights to our tournament coverage.”

Knight will serve as an analyst on ESPN’s day-long pre-game, halftime and between-game segments Wednesday, March 12 through Sunday, March 16, as well as on ESPN’s Selection Sunday specials: College GameDay Driven by State Farm at 11 a.m. ET and the two ESPNU Bracketology Presented by Staples selection specials at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

He will also appear throughout ESPN’s studio coverage of the NCAA Tournament, including analysis from Bristol for the first and second rounds on March 20-21 and the regional finals on March 27-28. He will appear via satellite at the conclusion of games on March 23 and 30. During the Final Four, Knight will offer analysis on ESPN’s on-site coverage from San Antonio April 5-7. He will be working alongside Rece Davis, John Saunders, Karl Ravech, Dick Vitale, Digger Phelps, Jay Bilas, Hubert Davis and others.

Knight resigned from Texas Tech on February 4, 2008. He coached for 47 years, compiling a 902-371 record as a head coach with Army (1965-71), Indiana (1971-2000) and Texas Tech (2001-08). In his career, he won three NCAA championships (1976, 1981 and 1987), a NIT championship (1979), led the 1984 U.S. national team to an Olympic gold medal and a Pan-American Games Gold medal (1979). He is the only coach to win all four championships. During his career at Indiana, Knight led the Hoosiers to 11 Big Ten championships and his 1976 squad remains the last Division I men’s team to go undefeated and win the NCAA championship. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.

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UK ahead 31-14 at halftime

Published by jtipton on February 27, 2008 in Game stories. 0 Comments

Kentucky scored the game’s first eight points and steadily pulled away to a 31-14 halftime lead.
Stingy defense discombobulated Ole Miss from tipoff to halftime. The Cats led by as much as 31-8 before Ole Miss scored the final six points of the half.
Coming off a 26.8-percent shooting performance at LSU last weekend, Ole Miss actually slumped further in the opening 20 minutes. The Rebels made only six of 25 shots (24 percent) and missed all 10 of their threep-0point shots.
Warren, the team’s leading scorer (15.2 ppg), led the way, so to speak, by making only one of eight shots (zero for five from three-point range).
Two three-point misses by Warren helped Kentucky get off to fast start.
Ramon Harris’s three-pointer (his second since the Louisville game on Jan. 5) gave UK an 8-0 lead. That prompted an Ole Miss timeout with 18:10 left.
The Rebels went inside to Dwayne Curtis, their center and the player that put the strength in Ole Miss’s supposed inside strength. He got fouled on his low-post attempt.
But then Ole Miss went back to firing away from the perimeter. The Rebels did not attempt another two-pointer until the 15:28 mark. David Huertas, a transfer from Florida, missed a fast-break layup. Jermey Parnell nearly fumbled away the rebound before Huertas grabbed the loose ball and laid it home. That marked the Rebels’ first basket.
Ole Miss had only four points until Warren hit a pull-up in the lane with 5:43 left. That marked the Rebels’ first points in exactly seven minutes.
Kentucky made 12 of 22 shots. Except for Harris’s three-pointer, the big three (Patterson, Bradley and Crawford) scored all of UK’s points in the first 11 minutes.
Then Stevenson, who dreamed about a 200-point game on Tuesday, scored seven straight points to break the monotony.

UK leads Ole Miss 20-4

Published by jtipton on February 27, 2008 in Game stories. 0 Comments

At the third television timeout, Kentucky led Ole Miss 20-4 Wednesday night.

UK limted to Rebels to 2-for-16 shooting (zero of eight from three-pointer range) to that point.

Ramon Harris contributed his second three-pointer since the Louisville game on Jan. 5.

Other oddities included Donna Smith’s presence behind the Ole Miss bench. Her youngest son, Brian, made his first start of the season.

UK gets mock bid

Published by jtipton on February 26, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Jerry Palm of Collegerpi.com included Kentucky in his mock NCAA Tournament bracket on Monday.

Palm seeded UK at No. 11. The Cats would play No. 6 seed Pittsburgh in the first round. The winner would advance to play either No. 3 seed Xavier or No. 14 seed Siena in the second round.

Other SEC teams to make Palm’s mock bracket were Vanderbilt (fifth seed), Arkansas (11th seed), Tennessee (one seed) and Mississippi State (10th seed).

Ole Miss, which plays at Kentucky on Wednesday, had been a No. 12 seed in Palm’s mock bracket late last week. Monday’s update dropped the Rebels and added Kentucky.

Tennessee-Memphis sets record

Published by jtipton on February 26, 2008 in National news. 0 Comments

ESPN’s telecast of the Tennessee-Memphis game last weekend set a record as the network’s most-viewed men’s college basketball game.

Here’s the news release from ESPN:

The showdown between then-#2 Tennessee and #1 Memphis – won by Tennessee 66-62 – averaged 3,636,000 households and 5,281,000 viewers.

The Saturday Primetime telecast averaged a 3.8 rating, making it ESPN’s highest rated men’s college basketball game since December 22, 1998 (Kentucky vs. Duke in the Jimmy V Classic averaged a 3.9).

It also stands as the most-viewed regular-season men’s college basketball on any television outlet – broadcast or cable – since March 6, 2005 (CBS’ coverage of Duke at North Carolina averaged 3,977,000 households). 

ESPN’s previous most-viewed men’s college basketball telecast was North Carolina at Duke on March 4, 2006, which averaged 3,134,000.  The game was featured on every ESPN entity as part of ESPN’s Full Circle initiative and was seen by an average of 3,780,000 households on ESPN and ESPN2 (which televised the game from the “Above the Rim” camera) combined.

ESPN’s men’s regular-season college basketball coverage this season is averaging 946,000 households and a 1.0 rating, marking 11 % increases in households (vs. 850,000) and ratings (vs. 0.9) over last year through the same point. 

Tennessee voted No. 1

Published by jtipton on February 25, 2008 in Polls. 0 Comments

It’s official. The weekly media vote made Tennessee the new No. 1 team in the country. The Vols won that vote after beating the previous No. 1 team, Memphis, on Saturday night.

When asked about this unprecedented stature for UT basketball, Coach Bruce Pearl suggested mixed feelings.

“The response has been overwhelming here,” he said on the SEC coaches’ teleconference on Monday. “There will be a lot of talk: where were you when Tennessee went on the road and beat the No. 1 team to become No. 1. It was that kind of event.

“It’ll have some staying power. But for us, it has very little staying power because we have to go to Vanderbilt.”

Tennessee, which is seeking its first outright SEC regular-season title in 41 years, plays at Vandy on Tuesday night. Vandy has not lost at home this season and beat Kentucky by 41 points there on Feb. 12.

“We’ve turned the page,” Pearl said.

Pearl also noted how the No. 1 ranking for his program does not put it ahead as much as in a catch-up mode with other Tennessee programs. The football team and women’s basketball teams have been No. 1 and won national championships.

“You can point to a number of different sports to show we’re proud to be part of one of the finest athletic programs in the country,” Pearl said, “and this adds to that.”

Patterson SEC frosh of week

Published by jtipton on February 25, 2008 in Patrick Patterson. 0 Comments

The Southeastern Conference named Kentucky big man Patrick Patterson as its Freshman of the Week for last week.

The league also named Tennessee forward Tyler Smith as Player of the Week.

Smith’s layup with 2:12 left brought the Vols to within 60-61 and then his turnaround jumper in the paint with 28 seconds remaining gave UT a 62-61 lead against No. 1 Memphis last weekend.

Smith led the Vols with 16 points to go with six rebounds and three assists in the 66-62 win at Memphis.

Patterson averaged a double-double on the week helping Kentucky to victories over Georgia and Arkansas last week. He recorded his ninth 20-point game of the season against Georgia.
His two key free throws with 51 seconds left against Arkansas helped UK win 63-58.

Patterson recorded his sixth double-double of the season against Arkansas tying him with Jamal Mashburn for fifth on UK’s freshman double-double list. He also moved to fifth on UK’s all-time freshman scoring list with 396 points.

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