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 ‘netMen’s basketball: Calipari says team needs space on Final Four trip (CoachCal.com)Echoing a sentiment he first expressed on his radio show Monday night, Coach Cal is calling on the Big Blue Nation to allow him, the staff and the team to tend to their business in Houston in relative peace and quiet.”If we take care of our business, there will be plenty of time to get autographs and personal photos beginning next Tuesday,” Coach Cal said. “We have the greatest fans in America and we want to reward them with our players’ undivided attention, focus and peak physical condition.”Men’s basketball: Photo gallery of iconic Kentucky basketball moments (SI.com)Men’s basketball: Audio of Calipari’s radio spot with Jim RomeMen’s basketball: A look at the Final Four field (Luke Winn, SI.com)There is no Cousins or Patterson on this team, and while freshman point guard Brandon Knight is even more clutch than Wall, he doesn’t have the same breathtaking array of NBA skills; what this Wildcats team has is more gunners than Calipari has ever had at his disposal in the past. Knight (38.2 percent), Doron Lamb (48.1), Darius Miller (44.9) and DeAndre Liggins (40.2), who hit the dagger three on Sunday, are all dangerous from beyond the arc, and they’re the big reason why this year’s Kentucky offense is actually more efficient (ranking seventh nationally) than last year’s.Men’s basketball: Brandon Knight talks Final Four on the Dan Patrick ShowDan asked if coach John Calipari is still intense at this point of the season. “Everything we do we want to just go hard,” Knight said. “Coach Cal isn’t letting up on us.”Knight said that he’s not focused on the NBA right now. He wants to focus on this season and leave that for later.Baseball: Cats swept on the road by Alabama (Lexington Herald-Leader)Alabama scored four runs in the first inning and went on to beat Kentucky 8-3 Sunday for a series sweep at Thomas-Sewell Stadium.The Tide (18-7, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) batted around against UK starter Taylor Rogers in the first inning, getting six hits. Austin Smith drove in two runs with a double down the left-field line, and Josh Rosecrans hit a two-run homer to right to make it 4-0.Men’s basketball: Fans helped UK reach Final Four (Merlene Davis, Herald-Leader)My boss, for example, wears a particular pair of UK socks during every game since the SEC tournamentI, on the other hand, change the channel or turn the TV off completely if the game gets too close. After viewing a kitchen transformation on HGTV, I turn back.Sure enough, the Cats are winning by a wider margin. Works every time.Football: La’Rod King next in line at wide receiver (Chip Cosby, Herald-Leader)La’Rod King made opposing defenses pay for locking in on Randall Cobb and Chris Matthews last fall, catching 36 passes for 478 yards and five touchdowns.Now that Cobb and Matthews are gone, the question now is whether King can step into the lead role at wide receiver.Women’s basketball: Dunlap named AP Third Team All-American (Louisville Courier-Journal)Kentucky senior guard Victory Dunlap was named to the third team. Dunlap averaged 17.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.0 steals per game.Men’s basketball: Coach Cal’s Final Four Mailbag (Fox Sports South) *videoMen’s basketball: All-Star Derrick Rose praises Calipari (Shannon Ryan, Chicago Tribune)“He always wanted me to be great,” Rose said. “When I was going to college, I wasn’t aggressive. In (Simeon) high school, I probably averaged 14-16 points. He just makes you aggressive the whole time. He makes you play hard the whole time.”Rose, of course, is now the Bulls’ point guard. Calipari now is coaching Kentucky, where he will lead the Wildcats in the Final Four against Connecticut this weekend in Houston.Men’s basketball: Kentucky boasts a six pack of inspiration (Lexington Hearld-Leader)Here’s the quandary in thinking about the six players who are primarily responsible for carrying the University of Kentucky to the cusp of an improbable eighth NCAA championship.
It’s hard to decide which has the most inspirational story.Men’s basketball: Big picture comes into focus for young Kentucky team (The Sporting News)
John Calipari sat in the underbelly of Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C., and relayed to reporters the message he’d given his players minutes earlier.
“I told them, I’m not coaching you just to win this game,” the Kentucky coach said. “It’s a bigger picture for us. We’re Kentucky, this is a bigger picture.”
This was after a January 22 win at South Carolina, which was the Wildcats’ first SEC victory away from home in three tries.
We’ve come to expect a certain style of basketball from Calipari-led teams full of talented freshmen and future NBA standouts, but maybe he’d always known this team would have to adjust that style.
But this was when it was starting to sink in. Former Wildcats making headlinesEx-Wildcats think about what might have been (Will Graves, Associated Press)Even at 18, Cousins understood he was part of something special.
Yet the promise of NBA riches proved to be too tempting. Cousins and four other Wildcats — John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Patrick Patterson and Daniel Orton — opted to leave school early rather than make another run at a national title.
“Yes, I wish I was still there,” Cousins said. “College life was fun.”
Kentucky (29-8) plays in its first Final Four in 13 years on Saturday when it faces UConn (30-9) in Houston. More than a thousand fans showed up at Blue Grass Airport to welcome the team back late Sunday night after knocking off North Carolina in the East Regional final, the same kind of celebration that was supposed to happen last year.
“I wanted to be there for that,” Cousins said. Wizards look to Wall as primary scorer (Michael Lee, Washington Post)John Wall is having the most prolific scoring month of his career, as the rookie point guard is averaging 19.2 points in 14 games in March. His 28-point outing in the Wizards’ 100-95 overtime win on Monday over the Utah was his sixth game with at least 20 points this month.Rondo plays through pinkie injury (Mark Murphy, Boston Herald)After initially being ruled out of action for the second straight game because of a jammed right pinkie, Rajon Rondo [stats] last night talked his way into the lineup before the Celtics [team stats]’ 107-100 loss to the Indiana Pacers.The result was a 22-point, 9-for-13, eight-assist effort. The 20-plus scoring performance was the point guard’s first since Feb. 6, when he put up 26 in a win against the Orlando Magic.Derrick Locke works out for Atlanta Falcons (National Football Post)Kentucky running back Derrick Locke conducted a private workout today for the Atlanta Falcons.The 5-foot-8, 188-pounder ran the 40-yard dash in 4.37 seconds at the NFL scouting combine, recording a 37 1/2 inch vertical leap and bench pressed 225 pounds 16 times.News from UKathletics.comFootball: Practice moves inside and Cats respondSoftball: UK sweeps Mississippi State in weekend seriesWomen’s tennis: Wildcats overwhelm Auburn in 6-1 winVideos of the weekPerhaps the most special part of UK’s 10-game winning streak that has propelled the Wildcats to the Final Four is the way that this mix of veterans and freshman has come together and played as a unit. Here is a Rivals.com/Yahoo! Sports video breaking down how UK’s chemistry is so important to their success.
The Kentucky Kernel, the independent student-run newspaper at UK, was featured on ESPN First Take on Tuesday. Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray was interviewed to deliver the campus pulse of Big Blue Nation as Kentucky embarks on its first Final Four since 1998.
