Courtside with the Kentucky Wildcats
Freshman big man Morakinyo Williams asked for a release, UK Coach Billy Gillispie said on Saturday.
Williams also provided a list of schools that could receive his transcript and formal release, the UK coach said. Gillispie did not say what schools were on the list.
Williams played sparingly last season. The player hopes to find a program where he has a greater chance to play, Gillispie said.
Kentucky guard Derrick Jasper spoke of his possible transfer for a story published Thursday in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
In the story, Jasper noted how he misses his family.
Here’s a portion of the story:
For the second straight year, Derrick Jasper is considering a transfer from the University of Kentucky to a men’s basketball program located on the West Coast.
Only this time the Paso Robles High graduate sounds serious about making the move.
“I want to get closer to my family,” he told The Tribune on Thursday in a phone interview from Lexington, Ky. “I’m kind of homesick, playing here in Kentucky, and I have been thinking about transferring to a West Coast school so that my family can attend more of my games.”
Jasper would have to sit out the 2008-09 season if he transfers to another Division I university, which might not be a bad thing for a surgically repaired knee that kept him out of the lineup for the first three months of this past season.
Jasper is considering at least three programs, although he wouldn’t name the schools.
The 6-foot-6 sophomore averaged 4.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists in his second season with the Wildcats and has been receiving letters from fans urging him to remain in Lexington.
“I like Kentucky, and I think we’re definitely heading in the right direction,” Jasper said. “It’s just that I want to be closer to home. Sitting out a year would also be good for my knee.”
Jasper considered transferring a year ago when then- Wildcats head coach Tubby Smith, who recruited Jasper, left to take over the program at Minnesota.
Jasper, a point guard in high school, played the point under Smith but was moved off the ball and used largely as a wing under Gillispie. On Thursday, Jasper admitted he’d like to move back to his natural position again.
“Yeah, I miss playing the point, definitely,” he said.
Jasper said his decision would not be influenced by the players Gillispie is bringing into the program, although the Wildcats recently signed 6-foot-6 guard Kevin Galloway out of the College of Southern Idaho, where he ranked fourth in the nation in assists.
Ramel Bradley has been picked to play in an all-star game. Here’s the UK release:
Ramel Bradley will take part in Friday’s DiGiorno College All-Star basketball game in
Bradley is one of 22 seniors playing in the game, which will be played on the Final Four floor for the first time in its long history. The game begins at 6:00 p.m. (ET) and will be televised on CSTV.
The 6-2 senior, will team with fellow SEC member and SEC Player of the Year Shan Foster of Vanderbilt as a member of the National Team and will be wearing the number 20.
Bradley led the team in assists (3.4 apg) and free throw shooting (83 percent) and ranked third on the team in scoring with a career best 15.9 ppg average. The Brooklyn native also finished his career ranked 27th on
Bradley was named first team All-SEC by league coaches and second team by the Associated Press.
Former UK guard Ramel Bradley has recorded music and plans to release a CD.
Here’s the news release that came on Tuesday:
University of Kentucky senior and Wildcat basketball star, Ramel Bradley is expected to release his debut hip-hop album on April 15. The Brooklyn, NY native has been working with singer-songwriter/producer, Jonathan Webb, in the recording process. A few tracks on the album will feature Webb’s music. The album, which is expected to showcase ten songs, will feature tracks produced by former UK basketball player, Bobby Perry, as well as the work of Jay Azubuike, younger brother of another former UK player, Kelenna Azubuike. Webb has also helped to produce and arrange several tracks.
“It’s been really great working with Ramel. Our musical backgrounds are obviously different; he raps and I sing, but we both have stories to tell which we portray through our lyrics,” Webb, 22, said.
Bradley’s lyrics will show you a different side of the extroverted player that fans have come to know on the court. His tracks tell the story of a young boy growing up in Brooklyn; of his dreams and aspirations; and the life changing experience of coming to Lexington. The album’s first single is to be released on April 1.
“It’s an edgy hip-hop album,” Webb said, “that reflects a lifestyle of someone growing up in Brooklyn.”
Bradley is expected to finish his album on March 31, and his first appearance following the release will be at the Jonathan Webb Music Festival on April 12. Webb and Bradley will then be co-headlining a show on April 25 at the Dame, in Lexington, Kentucky.
Ramel Bradley, 23, grew up in Brooklyn, NY and came to the University of Kentucky as a freshman to play basketball. Music has been a lifelong interest of Bradley’s, having begun writing lyrics as a young boy. He has appeared on stage at Webb’s concerts, once arriving unplanned to perform Webb’s song, “Stand Up” to a sold out crowd at the Singletary Center Concert Hall (see link at bottom of page).
Probably reflecting the importance of the game, Perry Stevenson will replace Mark Coury in Kentucky’s starting lineup on Thursday against Marquette.
Stevenson has easily been the most productive big man available to Kentucky since freshman Patrick Patterson was lost to the season because of injury.
But Coury had started with Stevenson quickly coming into the game at the first sign of trouble.
Coury had started all but one game this season.
Since Patterson’s season-ending injury, Stevenson has averaged nearly a double-double in four games. He was averaging 9.3 points and 10 rebounds in the four games UK’s played without Patterson.
In that same span, Coury was averaging 1.0 points (all four points against South Carolina) and .5 rebounds (two rebounds at South Carolina).
UK seniors Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford acknowledged their relief in Kentucky receiving a NCAA Tournament bid.
“We were a little nervous,” Crawford said on Sunday night. “We wanted to see our name so we could be totally sure.”
UK, an 11 seed, will play Marquette in the first round in Anaheim, Calif., on Thursday.
The team watched the pairings announcement at UK Coach Billy Gillispie’s home. “A castle,” Crawford called it. They watched the draw in what Bradley called “the theatre room.”
The players cheered and celebrated the sight of Kentucky in the bracket.
When asked about Gillispie’s reaction, Bradley said, “He was really serious. It was one of those momentes where a dad is telling how proud he is of his son.”
Bradley and Crawford expressed their eagerness to begin a new portion of the schedule. They saw no problem in having to travel across the country and play on the first day of the NCAA Tournament after a long, grinding season filled with obstacles.
The players saw an advanage in playing someone less familar with UK.
“I’m looking forward to that,” Bradley said. “Teams in the SEC, they’re keying. They know what you want to do. Hopefully it’s an advantage.”
It wouldn’t be Kentucky basketball without intrigue.
The latest example involves Morakinyo Williams and walk-on Dusty Mills. Their transgression: the camera catching them smiling and/or laughing on the bench at Vanderbilt as Kentucky was getting beat 93-52.
Neither player made the trip to LSU last weekend.
During a news conference on Monday, UK Coach Billy Gillispie was asked why Williams did not make the trip. Gillispie said he simply chose not to take Williams, and that the player was not suspended.
Perhaps something else will surface Tuesday night when Kentucky plays Georgia.
Kentucky forward Mark Coury has been named First Team Academic All-District as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Thursday.
Freshman Patrick Patterson said Kentucky shrugs off talk of a dwindling chance to make the NCAA Tournament or criticism of Coach Billy Gillispie. (Hear Gillispie’s Friday-afternoon press conference.)
The Cats are concerned only with opinions voiced inside the team, he said.
Gillispie echoed that sentiment. The coach shrugged off UK’s modest post-season credentials at this point: worst Ratings Percentage Index of any Southeastern Conference team; 19-49 record against Division 1 opponents by the teams beaten; and the “best” victory coming against Texas Southern, which had a RPI of No. 226 at the beginning of the week.
“I don’t think outside pressure has affected us,” said Gillispie, who suggested that inexperience rather than pressure had been a prime factor. “There’s a lot of basketball to be played. We have to play better. None of that makes any difference unless we play much better.”
Sophomore guard Derrick Jasper played down the obvious difference he made for Kentucky in the last two games.
“I’m not a savior,” he said with a soft smile on Friday. “I just try to play my game, get the ball moving and get easy baskets.”
Jasper, who missed the season’s first nine games while recovering from microfracture surgery in June, gives Kentucky a heady ballhandler and decision-maker.
“It’s been devastating for us not to have him on the court,” UK Coach Billy Gillispie said. “He’s one of the toughest guys we have. He can play multiple positions.”
Jasper, a cool customer who rarely shows emotion, downplayed the passion surrounding Saturday’s Kentucky-Louisville game.
“I feel it’s just the next (game) up,” he said before acknowledging the fans’ emotional investment. “It means more to the fans than me.”
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.