Each Wednesday here at Cat Scratches, we’re going to take a look back at the latest week’s news in UK Athletics from around the web..Best on the ‘netBaseball: Alex Meyer named National Player of the Week (LEX 18)A native of Greensburg, Ind., Meyer had a career game on Sunday vs. Miami (Ohio). The 6-foot-9 right-hander tossed a career-high seven innings in his season debut, allowing only three hits and one earned run, striking out a career-best 13.Men’s basketball: Rest of regular season rife with opportunity (John Clay, Lexington Herald-Leader)Kentucky can still accomplish plenty. Look at the schedule. Opportunity knocks. Wednesday night brings a road game for a team that has won just once in conference on the road. Then comes the division leader, the division runner-up and the division’s mystery men.Let’s start with the road bugaboo, the Wednesday night game at Arkansas, the scenario that forced the media to ask the dreaded road questions on Tuesday.

Men’s basketball: The Bracket Project (a compilation of NCAA Tournament projections from around the country)Women’s basketball: UK Hoops gets rare win at Vanderbilt (Jennifer Smith, Herald-Leader)What Kentucky has experienced in the past four days could be mistaken for a ride at Kings Island.A Thursday drubbing at Georgia was the lowest of lows for No. 19 Cats.”There’s no worse feeling than losing a game and knowing that you didn’t give everything you have,” freshman Bernisha Pinkett recalled. “The ‘I wish I would have done this or I wish we would have done this better.’ That’s the worst.”That lowest of lows on Thursday night ended in a big high Sunday as the Cats dropped Vanderbilt 80-71 to earn their first win at Memorial Gymnasium in 13 tries.Women’s basketball: Dunlap’s career winding down (TJ Walker, Kentucky Kernel)One of the most prolific players to ever wear a UK women’s basketball jersey only has one home game remaining.UK’s senior forward Victoria Dunlap came into the season with lofty expectations, being named preseason Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and a preseason All-American. And instead of backing down, Dunlap has shinedMen’s basketball: Calipari keeping UK in right frame of mind (Brett Dawson, Louisville Courier-Journal)The mind, it seems, is John Calipari’s most pressing matter.The University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach made multiple references Monday to his team’s mental makeup, going so far as to say that his team’s state of mind played into a decision to keep his starters in late in Saturday’s 90-59 rout of South Carolina.Former Wildcats making headlinesAdrian Smith of Fiddlin’ Five reflects on winning All-Star MVP (Jerry Crowe, Los Angeles Times) At 5 feet 11 and 135 pounds as a senior, Smith attracted only one scholarship offer, later rescinded when he hesitated in accepting. After growing to 6-1 and 170 at a junior college in Mississippi, he signed with Kentucky.In 1957-58, Smith averaged 12.4 points for the so-called “Fiddlin’ Five,” helping to bring legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp the last of his four NCAA championships.Tim Masthay returns to UK to do ‘Y’ at Rupp (LEX 18)Tim Masthay was excited to be asked to do the traditional “Y” in the Kentucky cheer Saturday against South Carolina.What a season. Normally a kicker or punter gets singled out when they mess up. But, after the Packers beat the Bears to get to the Super Bowl, Green Bay general manager Ted Thompson called Masthay the MVP of the game.Then, you not only go to the Super Bowl, but you win it.Q&A with Patrick Patterson (Larry Vaught, Danville Advocate-Messenger)Question: What did it feel like to walk to midcourt and get such a huge ovation?Patterson: “It felt great. It was just like old times. I felt like I was in the jersey getting ready to step on the court and play in the lineup. It feels good to be back in Kentucky and back in Rupp Arena seeing all these familiar faces. I am just enjoying doing what I am now but to be back here seeing Darius, Josh and DeAndre show exceptionally well right now, I am so proud of them and so happy the team is doing well.”Patterson leads Rockets to win with career-best performance (Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle)Patterson scored 11 of his career-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, including seven in a row as the Rockets pulled away. And the rookie enjoyed himself as much as Lowry had enjoyed hoofing through a timeout, though unlike Lowry he did not deny it.”There were times I kept looking over to see if Coach wanted to sub me out, but there came a point in time I realized, ‘Hey, he’s going to leave me in,’?” Patterson said. “I was just having a ball out there. I loved it.” John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins too much for sophomores (John Hollinger, ESPN)News flash: This season’s rookie class isn’t just Blake Griffin.And while the hometown L.A. crowd roared, “We want Blake!” on Friday night, it instead was treated to a pretty good show by the tandem of John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.Griffin played only 14 minutes in the Rookie Challenge to keep himself fresh for the dunk contest and All-Star Game, but Wall and Cousins — two former University of Kentucky teammates — ran circles around the second-year pros in the annual rookie-sophomore game.News from UKathletics.comSoftball: Brittany Cervantes named SEC Player of the WeekMen’s basketball: Terrence Jones named SEC Freshman of the WeekMen’s tennis: UK closes National Indoors with win over WashingtonGymnastics: UK scores school-record vault score (with video)Baseball: Offense explodes for 12 runs in first winVideo of the weekThe highlight of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend for Kentucky fans was the Rookie-Sophomore game on Friday night. DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall and Eric Bledsoe got to play together for the first time since leaving UK after their freshman seasons. Cameras followed around Cousins for the game, giving us an all-access pass to the Rookie Challenge. Not surprisingly, Cousins spent much of his time with his former teammates.