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Miami of Ohio coach Charlie Coles didn’t let us down after his Redhawks barely lost to Kentucky last night in Lexington on John Wall’s game-winning shot.
(I love that man)
A reporter made the mistake of asking Coles how the game “got away” from Miami at the end.
That’s when the fun began.
Daniel Orton will face insane scrutiny as a highly-touted 6-10 freshman at Kentucky, so it’s good to see him efforting already, even if it is his Halloween costume. (Okay, I know, a stretch. Work with me.)
(From Kentucky Sportsradio)
Orton, on the left, is a Might Morphin Power Ranger. At least that’s what they tell me. Next to him is teammate DeMarcus Cousins, who might consider giving that drawstring a chance.
Let’s just hope this doesn’t inspire Billy Gillispie to try to go all Speed Racer on us this evening.
Well, for once it wasn’t a Twitter post that started a huge controversy with an athlete. It was just the little ol’ lead of this LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER story on Kentucky basketball, in which Wildcats beat reporter Jerry Tipton noted that forward Patrick Patterson drove to Wednesday’s Blue-White game in a brand new, rather expensive truck.
Forgive Reggie Bush if he’s unimpressed. But folks in Kentucky are sure talking about it. And Patterson’s mom is more than a little P.O.ed. Was Tipton’s lead written to provoke controversy? (Heaven forbid!). Or was it an innocent observation? By the way, Patterson’s mom says the report isn’t even true. Read more…
A group of donors has offered to put up $7 million to construct new living quarters for the Kentucky basketball team, but there’s one catch. The new place has to have the word “coal” in its middle name. I’d change my middle name to Coal for 7 mil, but when we’re talking about a university building, and an issue as politically sensitive as coal production (*cough*), things get complicated.
Everyone’s weighing in on this one: Faculty, students, mining engineers, former Kentucky head coach Joe B. Hall (for whom the current facility is named), politicians, environmentalists, and even MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Point of Irony: The proposed new facility with coal in the title will be a “green” building. Read more…
Well now I feel awful.
Today I wrote of the disingenuous concern over head injuries in football by fans and media.
But how can you react any differently to Tim Tebow’s concussion at Kentucky today? (Kirk Herbstreit reports on ABC Saturday night that Tebow is being held overnight at a Kentucky hospital for precautionary reasons.)
UPDATE: The SPORTING NEWS reports “Tebow had a CT scan that indicated ‘no bleeding on the brain,’ a source close to the team told Sporting News late Saturday night. The source said Tebow probably had a ‘bad concussion.’”
Video after the jump. Read more…
WKYT-TV reports Tuesday night that Billy Gillispie “has checked himself in the John Lucas After Care Program in Houston, Texas. It’s a substance abuse recovery program that has two treatment centers, a physcial fitness program and an aftercare program with counselors.”
(Flashback: ESPNer slammed by Gillispie after spurning his amorous advance)
Not known is how long Gillispie will remain at the rehab facility. We also don’t know the exact reason Gillispie checked himself in, but it isn’t too hard to guess.
The move isn’t exactly unexpected. On August 27th, Gillispie was charged in the early morning hours with DUI for the third time since 1999. Gillispie has since had his right to drive in Kentucky revoked. (He had only been in the state to negotiate a settlement on his terminated contract with UK.)
After just two seasons as UK Coach, Gillispie was fired for producing lackluster results on the court - and most likely also making questionable judgments off it.
• Novak Djokovic delights the Monday night US Open crowd with his manic impression of John McEnroe - only to have Mac come down & reclaim his honor in an impromptu tennis match.
• A Kansas community is burned by the cold-hearted hazing of a high school football player slathered in Icy Hot.
• Kentucky fans are fuming at John Calipari because their coach dared send a Wildcats jersey to President Obama.
• A whole lotta football kicked off this weekend - even the lingerie variety.
• Ex-Notre Dame QB Blair Kiel is arrested after going on a drunken warpath at an Indianapolis Indians minor league game.
For a couple days now, Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari has been teasing fans with a #44 jersey, asking them to figure out where he’s sending it. If it were a recruiting ploy, it would be fantastically popular - and, of course, riotously illegal in the NCAA’s eyes. So that wasn’t it. Who’s getting el double cuatro, then?
(Um, Mr. Calipari, you may want to “vacate” this decision.)
Oh, him. Yes, Barack Obama is our President, and how you feel about his job thus far probably directly coincides with your party allegiance. And unfortunately for Calipari, he now coaches in the middle of Kentucky, and if there’s one thing they hate, it’s some Barack Obama. Commence Internet meltdown!
Back in January 2008, the Australian Open finals featured Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova in one of the most eagerly-anticipated women’s tennis matches ever. Sharapova won the match, but it seemed like the sport was set for one of the hottest - in every sense of the world - rivalries in recent memories.
Now flash forward to last night. While a Bedazzled Sharapova (more on that in a minute) started her comeback from shoulder surgery with an easy straight set win over Tsvetana Pironkova, Ivanovic continued her freefall into oblivion by getting bounced by unheralded Kateryna Bondarenko. That makes a tidy zero titles for Ivanovic this year and no appearances past the fourth round in any major - and another early round exit from the U.S. Open after last year’s shocking loss to Julie Coin in the second round.
(Ana Ivanovic in happier times…for everyone)
It’s not just that Ivanovic lost - at times, she looked absolutely lost, seemingly unable to do something as simple as throw the ball into the air correctly during her serves. Call it the tennis equivalent of Rick Ankiel’s pitching yips, although more attractive to watch if just as awkward. Ivanovic took to burying her head in a towel during changeovers, which is probably what a lot of fans wanted to do after watching her stumble to defeat.
Meanwhile, Sharapova was confident and poised in her easy victory. Her tennis game looked great, while her outfit … let’s just say it looked like something you might have seen in a teen dance competition in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1987. And not to go Mr. Blackwell on your here, but honey, Cher called from 1975 and she wants her beaded headband back. Unless you are planning on belting out a rousing version of “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” after winning your next match - in that case, it’s all yours.
Sharapova said that her outfit was “inspired by the architecture of New York.” Which is a perfect transition to talk about one of the other great metropolises of the Americans: Saskatoon. Because FACEOFF.COM says that one of the bidders for the Phoenix Coyotes has already booked five dates at the Credit Union Centre (the Madison Square Garden of Saskatchewan) to hold games there if they get the team next season.
(There really is nothing quite like Saskatoon in December…)
Which leads to the question: what other events would possibly be happening in Saskatoon so you would need to save the date? A quick look at the Credit Union Centre event schedule shows a lot of minor league hockey…and not much else. Somehow I think that the arena would be willing to postpone the Saskatoon Blades vs. Moose Jaw Warriors showdown for an NHL game.
A partner for Ice Edge Holdings said that the team would be playing most of its games in Phoenix and not moving to Saskatoon permanently, which is too bad: it would be great to see NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman get an involuntary eye twitch every time he tries to explain how having a team in Saskatoon is good for the league.
Finally, Adrian Beltre returned to the Seattle Mariners last night after learning a valuable lesson about wearing a cup while playing third base on August 14 - as in “for the love of all things good and holy, wear one!” You might remember that Beltre thought his testicle had “exploded” after taking a scorching drive to the crotch.
After sitting out a few weeks (and probably getting some counseling for his lingering trauma issues), Beltre was back, and the Mariners decided to have a little fun at his expense. Ken Griffey Jr. had said he had the “perfect” music for Beltre’s first at-bat, and the person in charge of the songs being played over the PA delivered. Our own Scott Sepich was at the game, so I’ll pass along what he relayed to me:
“I was at the Mariners-Angels game tonight, and in Adrian Beltre’s first at-bat since coming off the DL, the music they played for him when he came to the plate was the “Nutcracker Suite.” A few of us in the press box caught on, but I’m not sure that the crowd got it. I thought it was pretty brilliant.”
Brilliant, indeed. In case you need further proof, the SEATTLE TIMES game blog not only mentions the musical cue but has audio of it as well. While I find it ironic that Ken Griffey Jr. - a man who once suffered a season-ending groin injury while fielding a fly ball - thinks that Beltre’s situation is hilarious. But it was a good choice of music, certainly more subtle than what I would have selected.
Let’s be honest, if you’re reading this right now, you’re probably a male sports fan. And that means you’ve probably spent a substantial amount of time on YouTube watching football players get absolutely destroyed. There’s like eleventy million clips of “HARDEST HIT EVER” on there, and 90% of them are spectacular.
(”Remember to take notes, guys, and make sure they say more than “THIS IS AWESOME” over and over. We’ve had this problem a lot lately.”)
Another substantial amount of them - and the overlap’s heavy here - involve head injuries. Concussions, to be precise. And while some University of Kentucky scientists were wasting time by watching clips of fellow Wildcat Myron Pryor knock a Georgia receiver into the next decade, they decided to turn the activity into an experiment - one that actually proved fruitful.
