Hope everyone had a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend. We’re back at it here at the media relations office in the Joe Craft Center. I will have a feature on Victoria Dunlap and the UK women’s basketball team in a little bit. Until then, check out a couple of football- and basketball-related links from around the Big Blue Nation:
– If you haven’t read it yet, check out the Courier-Journal’s Saturday story on former UK wide receiver Keenan Burton and his camp in Louisville, Ky. Burton, along with former Kentucky linebacker and teammate Wesley Woodyard and ex-Louisville Cardinal running back Michael Bush, hosted the “Reaching for the Stars Youth Football Camp.” The camp was completely free of charge and more than 100 more participants showed up than last year’s inaugural event.
“I’m trying to teach life lessons, and the reality of my life is I’m not going to play football forever,” Burton said. “I want them to know me as an ambassador, someone who wanted to give back, someone who just wanted to do right.”
“I refuse to make these parents pay for anything,” Burton said. “I feel like it’s important for their kids to be able to come out here and do something constructive, do something to where they can reach and touch some of the players who have been here and done something.”
– Jason Belzer from Fox Sports ranked a list of the top 25 high-major assistant coaches in college basketball. Kentucky’s Orlando Antigua, although technically not the No. 1 assistant coach at UK, made the list at No. 16. Keep in mind, as Belzer wrote in his story, that seven of the coaches he listed in the 2009-10 rankings went on to take head coaching jobs after the 2009-10 season. Here is what Belzer had to say about Antigua:
“Antigua has followed Calipari to Kentucky after joining the most successful four-year run in basketball history at Memphis. He helped coach the Memphis Tigers to a spot in the 2009 NCAA Sweet 16. Prior to Memphis, Antigua worked at his Alma mater, Pittsburgh where he helped lead the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament in all five years on staff, including the 2004 and 2007 Sweet Sixteen.”
And here is a quote from Antigua on being recognized:
“It’s always good to get recognized for your hard work but this isn’t about me,” Antigua said. “It’s about this great university and about our entire staff working to help promote all that is great about Kentucky as a state, as a fan base and as a university.”
