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UK Football
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Elite Football Players in KY
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Before I get started this week I must say that I thought the trio of game officials Tony Greene, Jamie Luckie, and Michael Stephens did about as good a job as you could do considering the circumstances and I had a courtside view at the end line opposite UK's team bench which is about as good as you can get and if you've been a loyal reader of this column like I hope you have your well aware of my history of criticism toward college basketball officials.
It wasn't pretty by any means of evaluating a college basketball game especially an in state rivalry type scenario of two top ten teams but when your limited in your abilities offensively like Louisville is, you do what you have to do to compete and stay in games, then hopefully late down the stretch you find a way to pull out a win. Rick Pitino's teams are well known for this type of play especially in recent years at Louisville and whether you like the guy or not you have to respect his abilities as a coach to squeeze out whatever talent is there on his roster.
Personally, I think they guy is doing his best job in years (maybe ever) with this particular roster of players. However, it must be said that his schedule making abilities are as much a part of this team’s success as his coaching expertise.
But with that being said when you have a team as physically talented as John Calipari does yet you shoot 29.8% and commit 21 turnovers against a top 10 team but come out of the game unscathed with a 69 - 62 win you take your win and move on. On the other hand or side if your Rick Pitino and enter this particular battle with an obvious disadvantage in raw basketball talent especially offensively as well as the ugly intangible of playing on the road in an extremely intimidating environment and you come out with only a seven point loss your energized inwardly but rarely show it outwardly.
Both Calipari and Pitino are two of the uniquely talented coaches in the college coaching fraternity at keeping the media guessing on their true feelings after the battle. Saturday’s most recent Battle of the Bluegrass was one that both coaches dreaded playing for different reasons but today I'm betting that both are very satisfied that it ended the way it did with all the different games within the game that made it play into the final minutes and actually seconds to the final horn.
Twice during the game , once around the 10:00 minute mark in the first half and again around the 8:00 minute mark in the second half UK had a double figure lead and possession of the ball with momentum and a crowd of 24.287 just begging for a short burst of 3's to finish off the Cards. Didn't happen, had Anthony Davis not went out early in the first half with two fouls that one time 15 point lead could have easily grown to 20 and put the Cards away real early or had Calipari because of foul trouble not had to split point guard duties between Teague and Lamb from the late first half on that 10 point lead at the 8:00 mark of the second half could have grown to say 15 and put the Cards away around the 5:00 minute mark down the stretch. Again, didn’t happen and it rarely does in highly emotional rivalry games no matter what the talent difference is because some players play at a higher emotional and physical level than others and more importantly coaches prepare before the game and coach during the game at a higher level.
That you can take to the bank especially for a UK - UL game as long as the two schools have their present coaches.
Eddie Sutton, on special occasions, made a point during his long and successful coaching career to remind those who thought they were astute in their knowledge of basketball that, “there are many different ways to make it to the throne room”. This particular year Calipari and UK as well as Pitino and Louisville are classic examples of Coach Sutton's wisdom and I for one wouldn't be at all surprised to see both go deep into March. Besides any experienced and educated person of NCAA tournament play knows that once you get by the first weekend of the tournament your one bad shooting night or a couple bad officiating breaks away from elimination anyway.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
VIP's Out In Numbers at UK - UL Game
Rest assured there will always be VIP's and government dignitaries in attendance for those high profile UK games at Rupp Arena. This particular game brought several to Rupp Arena. Of course the present setting Governor of the Commonwealth is pretty much expected to be in attendance and Steve Brashear was and he was spotted standing and singing the UK fight song on several different occasions but he is a UK grad. CBS sent their number one broadcasting team lead by the talented and very likable Clark Kellogg. Dick "Hoops" Weiss of New York Daily News and author of several popular basketball books and publications were in town for the big game. "Hoops" is one of the rare few in college hoops that have maintained somewhat of a cordial friendship with both Pitino and Calipari, usually you have to choose between those two coaches or at least in their eyes you do.
Movie actress Ashley Judd made one of her two or three yearly appearances at a game. Actually I walked closely by and rubbed shoulders with the actress in the VIP parking lot while leaving Rupp Arena. I got a cordial smile and hello as she opened the driver’s side door of what appeared to be a late model mid-sized Chevrolet.
In return, I gave her the classic cold shoulder to which she raised her eye lids in a surprised look.
Sorry folks, I don't have anything for those who have forgotten their roots and actually in Judd’s case have been very negative of the coal industry and how her former friends and neighbors had to make a living plus on occasions have been known to knock our way of life. She may be pretty and talented on the outside but I have no admiration for those who have attacked my home land.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2012 UK and SEC Football Schedule Released
The SEC conference office has released the much anticipated 2012 SEC football schedules for its member schools including the two new additions of Texas A&M and Missouri. According to sources within the UK media relations department this will be a one year scheduling format with a new plan for the SEC long term scheduling purposes decided at the spring meetings in Destin , Florida this coming May when the President's , A.D.'s , and Head Coaches can all get together . Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the walls of that conference center?
UK fans will get a taste of the ”Show Me State" in its maiden voyage thru the new SEC when it travels to Missouri on Oct. 27th which is basically a tradeoff for UK which was scheduled for a trip to "Death Valley" and a game at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Don't know about you but in my eyes that's kind of like trading a date with Roseanne Barr in for a date with Moms Mabley.
One change on the positive side for the Cats is that they will get to play Mississippi State in the friendly confines of Commonwealth Stadium for two years in a row.
It is nice for trip planning purposes for those diehard UK fans to know how to prepare for the 2012 season away games but at the end of the day it's hard for me to get too excited about a UK football team that just went 5 - 7 with a schedule that included home games with Louisville, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and the worst Tennessee team of the last 30 years not to mention losing 38 - 8 too of all people Vanderbilt.
Once again as with many college football teams UK's fortunes this fall will more than likely depend on what type of performance they get out of the quarterback position because they don't nor will they probably ever have a roster dotted with four and five star recruits. Let's all keep our fingers crossed and live at the foot of the cross in the meantime.
It very well could be one of those years where UK is noticeably better at several positions but still shows no improvement in the final record.
But as we all know I have been devoted to following and now covering UK football since 1963 and I will continue when the fall of 2012 rolls around.
Special Editor / Director's Note: Our new website will retain the same old address www.combsbrothersonkysports.com and should be entirely active by (Fri.) Jan. 6th, please give us a look and bookmark us for a return sometime this coming weekend.
Ira D. Combs
Phone = 606 - 436 - 3002
E-mail = icombs14@windstream.net
Website = www.combsbrothersonkysports.com
It wasn't pretty by any means of evaluating a college basketball game especially an in state rivalry type scenario of two top ten teams but when your limited in your abilities offensively like Louisville is, you do what you have to do to compete and stay in games, then hopefully late down the stretch you find a way to pull out a win. Rick Pitino's teams are well known for this type of play especially in recent years at Louisville and whether you like the guy or not you have to respect his abilities as a coach to squeeze out whatever talent is there on his roster.
Personally, I think they guy is doing his best job in years (maybe ever) with this particular roster of players. However, it must be said that his schedule making abilities are as much a part of this team’s success as his coaching expertise.
But with that being said when you have a team as physically talented as John Calipari does yet you shoot 29.8% and commit 21 turnovers against a top 10 team but come out of the game unscathed with a 69 - 62 win you take your win and move on. On the other hand or side if your Rick Pitino and enter this particular battle with an obvious disadvantage in raw basketball talent especially offensively as well as the ugly intangible of playing on the road in an extremely intimidating environment and you come out with only a seven point loss your energized inwardly but rarely show it outwardly.
Both Calipari and Pitino are two of the uniquely talented coaches in the college coaching fraternity at keeping the media guessing on their true feelings after the battle. Saturday’s most recent Battle of the Bluegrass was one that both coaches dreaded playing for different reasons but today I'm betting that both are very satisfied that it ended the way it did with all the different games within the game that made it play into the final minutes and actually seconds to the final horn.
Twice during the game , once around the 10:00 minute mark in the first half and again around the 8:00 minute mark in the second half UK had a double figure lead and possession of the ball with momentum and a crowd of 24.287 just begging for a short burst of 3's to finish off the Cards. Didn't happen, had Anthony Davis not went out early in the first half with two fouls that one time 15 point lead could have easily grown to 20 and put the Cards away real early or had Calipari because of foul trouble not had to split point guard duties between Teague and Lamb from the late first half on that 10 point lead at the 8:00 mark of the second half could have grown to say 15 and put the Cards away around the 5:00 minute mark down the stretch. Again, didn’t happen and it rarely does in highly emotional rivalry games no matter what the talent difference is because some players play at a higher emotional and physical level than others and more importantly coaches prepare before the game and coach during the game at a higher level.
That you can take to the bank especially for a UK - UL game as long as the two schools have their present coaches.
Eddie Sutton, on special occasions, made a point during his long and successful coaching career to remind those who thought they were astute in their knowledge of basketball that, “there are many different ways to make it to the throne room”. This particular year Calipari and UK as well as Pitino and Louisville are classic examples of Coach Sutton's wisdom and I for one wouldn't be at all surprised to see both go deep into March. Besides any experienced and educated person of NCAA tournament play knows that once you get by the first weekend of the tournament your one bad shooting night or a couple bad officiating breaks away from elimination anyway.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
VIP's Out In Numbers at UK - UL Game
Rest assured there will always be VIP's and government dignitaries in attendance for those high profile UK games at Rupp Arena. This particular game brought several to Rupp Arena. Of course the present setting Governor of the Commonwealth is pretty much expected to be in attendance and Steve Brashear was and he was spotted standing and singing the UK fight song on several different occasions but he is a UK grad. CBS sent their number one broadcasting team lead by the talented and very likable Clark Kellogg. Dick "Hoops" Weiss of New York Daily News and author of several popular basketball books and publications were in town for the big game. "Hoops" is one of the rare few in college hoops that have maintained somewhat of a cordial friendship with both Pitino and Calipari, usually you have to choose between those two coaches or at least in their eyes you do.
Movie actress Ashley Judd made one of her two or three yearly appearances at a game. Actually I walked closely by and rubbed shoulders with the actress in the VIP parking lot while leaving Rupp Arena. I got a cordial smile and hello as she opened the driver’s side door of what appeared to be a late model mid-sized Chevrolet.
In return, I gave her the classic cold shoulder to which she raised her eye lids in a surprised look.
Sorry folks, I don't have anything for those who have forgotten their roots and actually in Judd’s case have been very negative of the coal industry and how her former friends and neighbors had to make a living plus on occasions have been known to knock our way of life. She may be pretty and talented on the outside but I have no admiration for those who have attacked my home land.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2012 UK and SEC Football Schedule Released
The SEC conference office has released the much anticipated 2012 SEC football schedules for its member schools including the two new additions of Texas A&M and Missouri. According to sources within the UK media relations department this will be a one year scheduling format with a new plan for the SEC long term scheduling purposes decided at the spring meetings in Destin , Florida this coming May when the President's , A.D.'s , and Head Coaches can all get together . Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the walls of that conference center?
UK fans will get a taste of the ”Show Me State" in its maiden voyage thru the new SEC when it travels to Missouri on Oct. 27th which is basically a tradeoff for UK which was scheduled for a trip to "Death Valley" and a game at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Don't know about you but in my eyes that's kind of like trading a date with Roseanne Barr in for a date with Moms Mabley.
One change on the positive side for the Cats is that they will get to play Mississippi State in the friendly confines of Commonwealth Stadium for two years in a row.
It is nice for trip planning purposes for those diehard UK fans to know how to prepare for the 2012 season away games but at the end of the day it's hard for me to get too excited about a UK football team that just went 5 - 7 with a schedule that included home games with Louisville, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and the worst Tennessee team of the last 30 years not to mention losing 38 - 8 too of all people Vanderbilt.
Once again as with many college football teams UK's fortunes this fall will more than likely depend on what type of performance they get out of the quarterback position because they don't nor will they probably ever have a roster dotted with four and five star recruits. Let's all keep our fingers crossed and live at the foot of the cross in the meantime.
It very well could be one of those years where UK is noticeably better at several positions but still shows no improvement in the final record.
But as we all know I have been devoted to following and now covering UK football since 1963 and I will continue when the fall of 2012 rolls around.
Special Editor / Director's Note: Our new website will retain the same old address www.combsbrothersonkysports.com and should be entirely active by (Fri.) Jan. 6th, please give us a look and bookmark us for a return sometime this coming weekend.
Ira D. Combs
Phone = 606 - 436 - 3002
E-mail = icombs14@windstream.net
Website = www.combsbrothersonkysports.com
By - Ira D. Combs
Director - Tri State Sports Media Service Inc.
www.combsbrothersonkysports.com
Director - Tri State Sports Media Service Inc.
www.combsbrothersonkysports.com
Cats Survive Cards Physical Play with 69-62 Win
(Now Battle Tested Cal's Boys Move On To SEC Play)
(Now Battle Tested Cal's Boys Move On To SEC Play)