Summitt the sport’s winningest coach career ends with a 1,098-207 record, 16 regular season Southeastern Conference championships and 16 SEC tournament titles. She also led the 1984 Olympic team to a gold medal.

During her time, Tennessee never failed to reach the NCAA tournament, never received a seed lower than No. 5 and reached 18 Final Fours.

The game will miss her but at the same time the SEC coaches will feel better with her in the stands, not on the court.

You can watch all their games live if you have UK’s allaccess package

Go Lady Cat’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Silve hasn’t called me to ask my opinion but I hope he hears it anyway. I say invite Hawaii so my big blue friends can make a semi annual trip and we can tailgate, grill Ahi and drink PBR with umbrellas.

Now that I got that out of the way I can get on with what I really want to talk about. What about women’s sports and how will adding four more teams affect them. It depends on what teams are invited and how the league is set up. If four come from the Big 12 and are put in the west and Alabama stays in the west then the softball champion stands a good chance of coming from the west. The same might be said for basketball but there is a better chance that the east will prosper. Soccer should favor the east slightly but its probably more like a 50-50 chance on who will be the strongest division.

We can throw all that out the window if we bring two teams from the Big 12 and two teams from the ACC. The east should dominate in soccer and basketball while softball should be a toss up.

I figure no matter how we look at it women’s sports in the SEC will prosper more than men’s will. Even though they might not turn a profit, we are going to see more national champions in SEC women’s sports as a result of expansion.

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.

What a turnaround from the earlier loss this year to that same team on their home court, but it wasn’t just this game that makes the team, fans and administration walk around with a smile on their faces.  The overall record for the year is good enough to warrant a #16 national ranking and would probably be higher if they hadn’t come from out of nowhere this year.  They have won enough games in the SEC that they can finish as high as #2 in the SEC (how long has that been).  Another reason to smile really big is the fact they never lost a home game all year.

For the Lady Cat’s to not lose a home game in the SEC is remarkable because the SEC has the best teams in the nation top to bottom every year and the Lady Cat’s took on all comers and sent them home carrying an “L” with them.

The game was the home finale for two of our beloved seniors, Ldyia Watkins and Amani Franklin.  It seems like only yesterday when we first listened to their names being called and now they have concluded their careers before the record home crowd for the year.  What a befitting send off for them because they have battled injuries and played through pain all year to help make this teams record one of the best ever at UK.

It has been since the 1980-81 season, 29 years, since they have had such bragging rights which brings me to a major point I want to make.  Mitch Barnhart has been vilified by many ever since he came to UK, but the naysayers have been silenced, at least for the time being.  His devotion to all the sports at UK is remarkable and we don’t hear too much about most of them, because they don’t have the following that football, basketball and to a lesser extent baseball do.

His hiring of Matthew Mitchell was a gutsy move, because Matthew had limited head coaching experience at Morehead State.  However, Barnhart already knew Matthew’s devotion and passion for the game when he was an assistant at UK, but it takes more than that to be a successful coach.  You have to be able to plan the “X’s & O’s”, be a master teacher in practice, and be a master recruiter.   He has been all those things, but he has been successful in getting the ladies to buy into his passion and belief that UK basketball belongs at the top of the #1 conference in all of Basketball.

The ladies played the games with heart, Matthew coached them well and Barnhart made a good decision.   All of them deserve recognition for what they have accomplished thus far and the groundwork has been laid for many more smiley faces in the future!

catfan4life

Add the lady Cats 10 wins to the Cats 11 and we are having the best start of any program in the nation.

In addition to the wins it was announced that the Volleyball Cats will be on national TV six times this year. Meaning the 18th ranked Cats are going to get more national exposure for the program.

Added to the two wins so far this season for the Soccer Cats it puts Kentucky off to a 5-0 start so far this season.

The Wildcats next game is Saturday, Aug. 29 when they play Louisville. The game will be a “Blue Out” and all fans will receive admission for just $1.