Support The Lady Cats

How good is Matthew Mitchell at recruiting. In the 2010 class he signed four top 100 players in #10 PG Jennifer O’Neill, #16 G Laquinta Jefferson, #18 G Kastine Evans and #8 C Samantha Drake. He also signed two players #35 F Sara Beth Barnette and #35 PG Maegan Conwright.

As good as the 2010 class looks he is off to another great class having signed two top 100 players in #6 C Azia Bishop and #18 G Bria Goss. As good as that sounds the list of players considering Kentucky in 2011 is amazing. The #1 G, #4 PG, #4 F, #2 W, #4 C, #21 F and #29 F are also taking a good look at Kentucky.

Not only is he getting good players he is getting the height we need to challenge Tennessee for the SEC championship. How lucky can Kentucky be to have a coach that is not only able to recruit but to have his teams back it up on the floor.

So lets all support him and make sure no one tries to take him away from Kentucky.

Football Miracle

This is another not Kentucky article but I wanted to point out that miracles do happen even in Southern California.

It obviously took a while but USC finally got one right when they looked to another one of their own and named Pat Haden the new AD to replace Mike Garrett that dirty lowdown varmint who let the program down. This is like having your Maytag break down, its a first for USC who has always been known as a school of questionable sports morals.

You can probably chalk this one up to the new president Max Nikias who apparently is listening to some smarter people than the ones who were using the ignore it and people will forget it philosophy.

USC made a great choice by hiring Pat Haden. He led USC to 3 straight Rose Bowls when playing in one mattered. He is also a Rhodes scholar and although there have only been five great athletes named a Rhodes scholar so far, Peter M. Dawkins West Point, Byron White Colorado, Bill Bradley Princeton and Pat Haden have all gone on to be very successful and prominent people. The fifth scholar is Myron Rolle Florida St. who is just starting his life.

I’m sure Pat Haden took the job expecting to have to keep a sharp eye on Lane Kiffen who has already showed he thinks little of schools reputations by wanting to sign a former UCLA player who was kicked off their team and his actions at Tennessee.

USC is also returning their copy of Reggie Bush’s Heisman trophy. The only thing USC has left to do is fire Kiffen and hire someone to be a good compliance officer and they will be on the right track.

It won’t be long before Pete Carrolls Cheating In College Sports for Dummies will quit being a #1 national bestseller.

The Good The Fair And The Ugly

I thought it would be fun to go back a few years and find something written on a blog to write about. The following was written on a blog no long being maintained April 16, 2007 about the coaching changes coming in college basketball.

Good Hires

Billy Gillipse – Kentucky – Despite the slimeball move of leaving A&M after agreeing to a contract extension (honestly, what are the point of contract in college athletic anymore?) I still think he is the best young coach in college basketball. Perfect for rebuilding the Kentucky program. Just look at the wonders Gillipse did at doormats UTEP and Texas A&M. In my opinion, Gillipse is a better fit at Kentucky than Donovan would have been.

Stan Heath – South Florida – Still not exactly sure why he was fired after making back to back NCAA Tournament appearance at Arkansas, but Stan Heath actually lucked out. Not only does he get to leave the insane fan base in Arkansas, he gets to coach in the Big East. While he has some rebuilding to do at USF, it not like their isn’t a large recruiting base in Florida.

John Beilein – Michigan – Great move by Beilein. He took the West Virginia program as far as it could go. Time to move to Michigan, a school that should be rivaling Florida and Ohio State for two sport supremacy.

Bad Hires

Bob Huggins – West Virginia – The least surprising coaching move of the offseason was Huggins bailing on K State (the only school that would give him a chance) after one season for a paycheck. Great character influence on the student athletes of West Virgina. I have a hard time seeing the Mountaineers being successful without Beilein’s quirky offense. West Virginia isn’t exactly teeming with basketball talent. As I have said before, never trust a man who wears one of those garbage bag jackets to a basketball game.

Frank Martin – Kansas State An unproven assistant coach taking over the #1 ranked recruiting class in the country….sounds like trouble to me. I guess it worked for Larry Coker, for a few years anyway.

Steve Alford – New Mexico – There is something fishy about someone leaving a Big ten school to got to New Mexico. His Iowa team perennial underachieved in the post season outside of the Big Ten tournament and has survived on name recognition for awhile now.

My thoughts on what was written three years later and how I would rank his thoughts.

Billy Gillispie – Off of reputation it sounded like a good choice but when you can’t spell a coaches name your opinion is a little suspect. Ugly

Stan Heath – Stan Heath has moved South Florida to the middle of the Big East. Fair

John Beilein – His seat is getting warm as he hasn’t managed to get Michigan to where the fans want. Fair

Bob Huggins – Not only has Huggins succeeded at West Virginia his team also had the highest collective GPA of any men’s basketball team in the Big East. Beyond Ugly

Frank Martin – The Fiery coach has proved everyone wrong. Even Me Ugly

Steve Alford – Alford has become right at home in the Pit. Its probably a better place for him than Indiana where he would have always been in the chair throwers shadow. Ugly

It just goes to show that even when you think you have coaching figured out things don’t always work out the way you expect them to.

Cheerleaders Gone Wild

Can you feel it? Strong winds are starting to blow across the SEC. After last years multitude of blown calls by SEC officials the SEC is going with digital replay.

As I write thousands of feet of fiber-optic cables are being run in stadiums that don’t already have them. Replay officials are getting their eyes checked so they can clearly see the new equipment being installed. SEC officials are celebrating their referee problem as being solved. ESPN is nervously awaiting the call asking for more money for the conference because the games are longer because of more replays.

Each new HD system being installed comes with three monitors. Two that show video and one that is a touch-screen computer. This will allow the replay official and replay technician to mark every angle of a play and toggle between different views.

In case your wondering if this will work the high-definition picture available in the replay booth will be much better than what we see on the tube since the picture is 25 times clearer than Blu-Ray CD’s.

In fact the picture is so clear that replay officials are already considering releasing cheerleaders gone wild CD’s to supplement their pay.

Will this make a difference in overturning calls? Of course not but fans might get lucky and get a CGW CD featuring the Louisville cheerleaders out of this system.

Reason BYU Players Study

OK theres more to why BYU players study than this video. No cursing, drinking, fornicating, drugs, kicking the dog, throwing the cat against the ceiling and betting on if it will land on its feet (many BYU players who have broken this rule and won this have gone on to thriving careers in Las Vegas as taxi drivers) or not returning borrowed books to the library.

Not being allowed to do all these and more will drive a player to the library where many girls hang out. This sometimes leads to polygamy but thats for another post.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ArIj236UHs

The Lady Has Game

Here is a interesting bit of baseball news from Chico Ca.

On her first trip to the mound for the Chico California Outlaws knuckleball pitcher Eri Yoshida made baseball history as the first woman to play professional baseball in two country’s. Baseball’s Hall of Fame even came to collect Yoshida’s jersey from her first game – a milestone for the few women who have ever challenged men at their own game.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG8Rrh7QwXU

At 5’2″ she knew shes had to do something different if she wanted to fulfill her dream of playing baseball. What she did was to to study knuckleballer Dave Winfield and learn to throw that pitch.

Yoshida said she was “mesmerized” by watching Wakefield’s signature pitch. When the two met, Wakefield gave her some tips.

“To have her try to pick up and carry the torch for our little fraternity of knuckleballer’s,” Wakefield said, “was pretty amazing.”

Respect The Bell

Six years ago this fall Thomas “Mule” Henderson Jr was a average freshman at Ole Miss. Considered brayingly funny by many of his friends he looked forward to getting his degree in radio communications and becoming a salsa DJ.

Mule and a group of friends showed up with cowbells for his first football game. Some how during the game he was struck repeatedly by cowbells. This is not a uncommon occurrence at Vaught Hemingway Stadium according to unname sources, although it seldom requires more than a dozen stitches and wearing hearing aids for the rest of their life.

In Mules case the injuries went much deeper. He spent 83 days in a coma and has been slow to recover his braying since of humor said his mother Shannon “Clover” Henderson. In fact she said, “Mule is a totally different person since his injury.” He has lost his desire to be a Salsa DJ and now is planning on being a lawyer and is a Alabama fan. These changes have been heartbreaking to his family said Shannon. His father Thomas ” Big Mule” Henderson said “to see your only son not follow in your bell ringing footsteps and give up his life long dream and settle on being a lawyer is gut wrenching.”

Shannon and mothers who have had similar experiences with loved ones started MFRCR Mothers For Responsible Cowbell Ringing five years ago. Although they faced overwhelming odds they managed to convince the SEC to force Mississippi to either control the cowbell ringing or cowbells would be banned.

Ole Miss has responded to the SEC by setting up Respectthebell.com. Which promises to bring about total chaos in the stands as Mississippi fans are the rudest in the SEC and would rather quit spitting than quit banging their cowbells.

Both the ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union) which says using a cowbell at a football game is as American as owning a gun and the NACBM (National Association Of Cowbell Banging Musicians) which says beating a cowbell while playing music is part of their culture have filed law suits against the SEC.

Unlike most years fall promises to be an exciting time in Mississippi.

Media Dayze

The SEC media days kick off the football season on July 21 and all of us here at BigBlueRules are stoked. This year fans can watch the media days at The SEC Sports site.

Joker Phillips will be staring in his first media days on Wednesday along with a supporting cast of Kentucky players Randall Cobb, DeQuin Evans and Derrick Locke.

Some thoughts on the media days.

With no Lane Kiffin to provide the fodder this year, Tennessee will still be the star for the second year in a row. This year most eyes will be on Derrek Dooley to see if he in nimble enough to face a media that will have few questions not related to bar room brawls or how bare the cupboards are.

Will there ever be a player better with words than Dicky Lyons representing a team again.
Watch Dicky Lyons here?

Will a coach not show up like Fulmer did when he was a no-show so he couldn’t be served court papers?

Will Spurrier be the only coach not to vote Garcia as the top QB in the league?

Will a player admit that he’s not a virgin.

If any of this happens count on us to bring the news to you.

SEC West Looking Better

The SEC West is looking better thanks to Auburn forking out $92.5 million for a new basketball arena. Its not bad looking at all and when you watch the slide show and read the inspirational wording on the walls you know Auburn players will find themselves wanting to climb tall buildings, stop falling asteroids with a single hand and wish they could have gotten a scholarship to Kentucky.

With an approximately capacity of 9,600 its not hard to tell Auburn doesn’t seem to worried about winning the SEC west much less the national championship.

8 Years Ago Today

Eight years have gone by since Mitch Barnhart was hired as Kentucky athletics director. July 15, 2002 should be a date thats remembered by Kentucky fans.

Sure most of us have bitched about him from time to time but just look at this season and you can see how good a job he’s done hiring coaches.

Both men’s and women’s basketball had a great year. Football went to its fourth straight bowl game and Mitch hired Joker rather than trying to go for a home run hitter. Women’s volleyball had a good year and look to have another one. Both men’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis are producing big time players. Rifle and cheer-leading are great as always. Baseball had a fair year and softball had a good year. Track had a national champion and soccer is improving.

All the programs are getting great athletes and have great coaches so hats off to Mitch Barnhart. Hes taken Kentucky to levels Tom Jurich can only dream about, that and Ricky P. in Italian diners.

Sgt Pepper had nothing to do with this but now the song is stuck in my head.

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