Fire Tubby?

In case you were wondering why Joe Crawford didn’t partisipate last night, he’s recovering from minor surgery. He’ll miss a few of the first practices. Let’s hope that’s it is just a minor surgery. Last year Sheray Thomas had tennis-ball sized tumor removed and really didn’t look like he was able to contribute to the team until the very end of the season.

Also, CBS Sportsline.com is asking if you have a “Choops question”, they may have the answer. For the record, Choops is the worst word combination I’ve ever seen related to sports.

AJ Stewart has verbally committed to UK. Let me quote Matt from kentuckysportsradio.com here:

In the rush for news about other prospects, lets not overlook what happened here. This is a kid who basically wanted Florida forever…..they ignored him. UK swooped in and got him, over other powers such as Illinois. And at the end, Florida wanted back in and AJ said no dice. […] AJ is a great kid and a great get. And oh yeah, he told me that he would be spending the next few weeks, “trying my hardest to get Jai and Pat to come with me.”

Jai Lucas and Patrick Patterson had a great time bonding with AJ during their time in Lexington this weekend, Matt also reports. Let’s hope that AJ’s committment gives Jai, Patrick, Chris Barnes and Marshall Moses one more reason to wear Kentucky Blue next year.

I’m not for sure how badly Illinois wanted AJ. Couple this with Illinois losing Eric Gordan’s verbal committment to Indiana, and I’m sure Illinois boosters (Illini Alumni?) are mighty whizzed.

Edit: Thanks to the Concerned at dynastydefenders.com, here’s a YouTube link of the AJ Stewart chant during Big Blue Madness.

Edit 2: Thanks, Mr. Clay. Also, in case you folks don’t know about the Concerned, here’s our somewhat biased assessment.

It was a most interesting event, as viewed from the rafters. If you want a complete summary, Matt Jones over at kentuckysportsradio.com liveblogged the event. Let me take a few moments commenting on what I noticed.

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Big Blue Madness is just around the corner. Did you get your ticket? Don’t ask me how, but somehow a few tickets funneled down to me. So me and the wife are gettin’ ourselves a babysitter and heading to the Rupp rafters.

I’ll be sure to post my impressions. I’m looking forward to seeing Jodi Meeks in action, and hopefully another dunk contest involving Woo.

In money made from licensing that is. From July 1st 2005 to June 30th 2006 the University of Kentucky is still one of the top brands in college sports. Check out the rest of the list here.

Sorry to get you excited with the headline. There won’t be any news to get you excited (or chill you out, depending on how it affects you) in this post. It may give you the munchies though, because it is lunch time (mmmm Joe Bologna’s). Anyway, the Maui Invitational schedule has been released and we play DePaul in the opening round with an impending UCLA match up in the second. You can view the weird inverse bracket here.

But I have no doubt that if we get defeated by Chaminade in the second round the headline on the front page of the Herald-Leader will read “A Wowie in Maui”. Oh, you know it will happen. Am I right Mark Story?

UK has released their 2006-2007 non-conference schedule.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

I really didn’t want to do this on my first real posting. But I’m afraid I’m going to have to enter the sickening Big Blue Hole that is Richard Cheeks and the “Concerned Fans For UK Basketball.”

His group has gotten some nice publicity due to the Kentucky Kernel (UK’s Student Newspaper) refusing to publish an ad which was an open letter to [UK President] Lee Todd and [UK Athletics Director] Mitch Barnhart calling for Tubby’s dismissal. Here’s a clip of an email Mr. Cheeks posted on the alt.sports.college.sec.kentucky newsgroup where Kernel Editor-In-Chief Chris Poore explains why the Kernel declined the ad:

We didn’t run Cheeks’ ad because it had suspect factual statements in it that, if we ran, could be construed as libel, which is lying about someone in print to defame them. […] If Cheeks’ ad runs, edited by him, in the paper, it will be because it doesn’t contain any information we know to be false that is represented as fact.

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So I have arrived. And no, I am not the true Gimel. I only pretend to be him, and use his likeness as my avatar (until he sues me proper).

Honestly, who can forget Gimel from back during those up-and-coming Wildcat years. When the Pitino ran his boys into the ground so that they could run everybody else off the floor. Back when Wildcat players could party at Banana’s Tavern and not have to worry about ESPN.com linking to some drunken pictures of them groping co-eds posted on some blog. Back when drop-outs don’t seduce a basketball player in order to claim rape and lawsuit money. Man, those were the days.

But these are great days as well. You’ve got Dukies doing everything they can to smudge the sparking image that their Athletics PR took years to create. You’ve got the Hoosiers firing a decent coach and then hiring… another decent coach, while a vocal minority rumbles about how “Knight wouldn’t put up with that.” You’ve got Pitino in Louisville, since JoAnne decided that she didn’t like Boston since they were about to ride Rick out on a rail. “Those Kentucky people treated us like royality, and I guess I can get over the lack of Prada…”

You’ve got Tennessee fans actually paying attention to basketball game, now that they have a coach that convinced the talent he has to actually try. You’ve got the National Champs in Florida, who’s fans are now going to start setting the bar to Spurrier-like levels — that’s all they know to do, after all. (Just wait; Donovan is going to have a “dissapointing” 7-loss season.)

And you’ve got a state full of basketball fans, most that root for our Big Blue, most of which are quite the educated fans. And, more wonderfully, you’ve got a bunch of good-for-nothing Laz-E-Boy coaches who, thanks to the power of call-in radio talk shows and the Internet, get to voice their overly-passionate opinion about the team and the coach. After all, anything that happens to the team is the coach’s fault.

And me and my boy da ‘master get to make fun of them. Wonderful times indeed.

Karma. Sweet, sweet, karma.

Oh, how I hoped this day would come. Literally hundreds of thousands of people (in Lexington alone) are giggling with excitement upon hearing the news. JJ Redick was arrested last night for driving while intoxicated (DWI). I’ve had conversations with friends about the things I wished he would be arrested for; prostitution, gambling, gambling with a prostitute. Oddly enough, I never once pictured him being a DWI type of guy.

To make this day even more special Colin Cowherd has been railing against the idea of JJ being one of the preeminent NBA players. I’d like to dip this whole day into bronze like they used to do with baby shoes so I could put it on my shelf and walk by and smile occasionally.

Sorry to interrupt the debut of our new contributor, I just couldn’t pass up this news. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

edit: Oh please let there be dash cam, stumbling, Huggins bumbling goodness. Actually, why hasn’t the sobriety test been officially renamed “The Huggins” when sports stars are arrested.

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