BigBlueRules » point guard

Coach Calipari’s Press Conference

hawaiibillT — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:46:37 +0000

The more you listen to Coach Calipari the more impressed you become with him. The man truly understands that it takes more than good players to get Kentucky back to the top.

He knows the importance of getting the brand out there. He wants to take it one step further and get UK games on tv in china where he said there were over 11,000 7 footers but that he would settle for a point guard.
He understand how important former players are and that getting them back on campus to finish their degree helps not only them but the school.
He understands that with todays players who have grown up in the information age he has to use all the new tools in recruiting them.
He understands the importance of communicating with the media and most importantly the fans.

He said that recruiting should only be allowed in-season for high schools and not allowed during summer and that basketball should have a month off like football.

He feels that Orton is a very skilled player and that both Orton and Cousins can play together at the same time.

He wants to have a fantasy camp for guys over 35. They would stay at the lodge and play against former players. He mentioned maybe having Issle and Riley as coaches.

He is going to have a kick ass website in a couple of weeks but didn’t offer me the job as manager.

Quite a switch from the last two coaches conferences.

Calipari Gets His Man – Eric Bledsoe

Memoirs0Zeus — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:24:44 +0000

UK filled a huge need for a point guard yesterday, when Eric Bledsoe announced he would play his college basketball for UK…The recruit from Birmingham, averaged 20.3 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 11.5 assists, per game last season for The Class 5A runner-up.

Bledsoe, is rated a 5 star pg, and 3^rd best in the class according to Rivals. ““It’s a dream come true for my son,” said Maureen.

The last year of Bledsoe’s life has felt like a dream. Seven months ago, nobody knew much about the 6-foot point guard from Parker. The only colleges who wanted him were UAB and Ole Miss — fine schools with fine coaches, but not exactly on the same level as Duke and UConn and Florida and Kentucky and Memphis.

“I was nervous (at not signing in November),” Bledsoe said. “Coach (Maurice Ford) told me if I waited, that a lot of schools were going to want a point guard. But I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t easy to wait.”

It was quiet in December and January. And then, almost out of nowhere, the phone started ringing. Jim Calhoun of UConn. Billy Donovan of Florida. Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. John Calipari of Memphis before he became John Calipari of Kentucky.

FOR THE ETERNAL OPTIMIST…

Memoirs0Zeus — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:45:34 +0000

For the eternal optimist, hope does spring eternal, and we now may have to cushion ourselves to earning our UK FAN PLEASURE from our Baseball Team and then our Football Team before we again can H-O-P-E to enjoy our basketball team – ….that is considering one is a three sport watcher and not Barnhart.

But, let us consider that the date is October 15, 2009. Who will be on the court and starting for the CATS come opening day? Now this is way too much speculation coming from one who said that the Wildcats would be a “tough out” this year. They were just that for 5 games in the SEC, and then the wheels ran off, and all the coaches’ horses and all of his men could not put them back together again…At least, up until the last minute, and last second, the NCAA bubble floats perilously over a sea of pinpoints….

Again it is October 15, and the first day of practice; who shows up but Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks -…but there is another dynamic here to go with that reality. They have help…BIG HELP….Their names are Pilgrim and Orton, and they are contributors to a team that is a year older and a year wiser…Point guard spot gets nailed down by a guy not named Porter…

In the pre-season, blue-white scrimmage, Orton scores 20 and gets 20 boards, while Pilgrim and 2Pat face off for 15 and 10 apiece, and when ask what he likes about Orton, a cautious BCG replies, ……”HE’s TALL”!

UK beats UofL easily before conference time, after polishing off NC. They run through the SEC like butter, and have 3 on the All-SEC Team…., while taking a solid lead in the all-time wins category, and much like the NIT team of yesteryear did, went on and won the NCAA Title the year after that!

“To sleep, perchance to dream-
ay, there’s the rub.”

Gamecocks Flog Cats 77-59

Memoirs0Zeus — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:07:27 +0000

The South Carolina Gamecocks showed us all last night why they should be in first place in the SEC East – and not us…They outplayed us…They outhustled us…and worse, they humiliated us. SC, not accustomed to being in this spot this time of the year, made the most of it last night, beating UK for the second time this year, and showing us what a matchup problem UK has with SC’s guards. Native son, Darrin Horn, must be basking in the glory after defeating UK twice in one season…SC, riding the wave of 16 blocked shots on the inside by its big men, and 9 alone on 2Pat, flogged UK for the second time in a row this season, and this one’s going to “hurt us for a long, long, time”….

For as good as UK looked on Saturday in the confines of Rupp; that’s how bad they looked on the road before a packed house of screaming Gamecock Fans…Indeed, UK showed it has the youth and immaturity to lose at any time should they not play with the passion commensurate with the situation. Playing for 1^st in the SEC East, UK looked like a bunch of high-schoolers getting their dose of humble pie before a packed house of screaming “I told you so’s….. We came out and looked rigid and tight and never really had a chance. Patrick Patterson was the only player that I could discern that played very hard while he was out there.

Sc rode the heady play of guard Devan Downey and came out and hit 4 of their first 6 three’s and the game was over for all intents and purposes. In my pre-game pep-talk I suggested that Porter might need lots of help with Downey. He did, and he didn’t…He did need help; he didn’t get it, in anyone that BCG put on Downey. He is just too quick and too good. The substitution pattern on this night went beyond logic into bizarre world…I don’t have the numbers on minutes played, but it looked as if Galloway could have been uses if available, for all those useless 30 minutes or so that Liggins stood out there. And, to play Porter and Sloan at the same time on SC’s guards was the biggest mismatch since Hawaii took on……just kidding Bill!,,, you guys know what I mean…There isn’t a way that those two can handle SC’s two at any time. Nuff Said!

Since BCG is always eager to take the blame for a loss, I will eagerly give him some of it; given he played the same defense against SC he played in Lexington and lost worse here than there…I wonder how BCG wanted us to double down on Downey and Frederick as they drove the lane when we couldn’t do it in Lexington and prevent them from the kick out pass to the man with the open 3.

BCG did have this to say about the game:

“They have a point guard; we don’t”

On Perry Stevenson: “He is just not playing hard enough”, Gillispie said. “That’s two times in the last, what, week or eight days that I’ve said something about a guy not playing hard enough and that’s the first two times in my career I’ve ever said that. That’s shameful, in my opinion, to everyone involved.”

SC and Darrin Horn, had the easy, logical, perfect game plan, and we had the task to crack it. We did not. We let them run the ,”drive and kick”, on their first 6-3 balls and they hit 4 of them. It would be better to let the guards go on those drives than the wing defender to collapse on him and let Downey kick to the open shooter…..But that is what happened last night and that is how they took us out in Lexington….

AND, don’t get me started on the substitution patterns…Can we hire Bruce Pearl’s guy who does his for him..BCG’s patterns were illogical based on even his last game and I don’t think that anyone did anything in practice since Saturday to radically change the way one would expect it would be. I suspect that after BCG watches last night’s game for the 20^th time, maybe he would concede that.

UK needed a “team effort” to play in this game, and they hardly looked like one all night. As bad as we made UT look on Saturday, SC made us look last night. That is basketball, but this glaring weakness is one that teams will exploit until BCG and Co. Stops it. Maybe we don’t have the personnel to stop it. Maybe we do not have the point guard the SEC requires to overcome it. We shall see.