Cats in a big football win and other fun stuff

What a game this weekend in Lexington. We didn't have tickets to the game but couldn't miss the tailgating so we went out and had a great time getting ready for a great game. This was one of the best football games I have ever seen. The Cats winning definately helped it be great but it was an instant classic, sure ESPN will be replaying it in the future.


Random funny commercial:

Couture is a bad ass

What a great UFC fight card this weekend. I very much enjoyed Koscheck getting dominated by GSP and watching Couture kick Gonzaga's ass. I thought that 'zag had a good chance to beat Couture but other than about 1 punch and 1 kick, he got totally dominated. Couture is amazing, no idea who would has a shot at knocking him off the top.

Sounds like the next event is free on Spike. Have to love the free shows, good job UFC.

Great video

Still slacking on the updates but a friend passed me this great video today. What if business meeting was like internet forum responses. Foul language.

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/video-internet-comments-business-meeting-that-chart-is-photoshopped-

07 Big man looking good for UK

Wow, here I thought there was no way that we'd add another player for 07 and Leonard Washington's name starts poping up. It sounds like this kid is similar to Chuck Hayes or Charles Barkley where as he is 6'6"/225 but can work the post like a guy much larger. Known for rebounding and using his body well. He is finishing up summer school so that he can quailify for 07 and things are looking good. Here is a clip of him:
http://uschoops.tv/lwashusctv.html

Been slacking

So I've been slacking on the blog, guess the new wore off a little. Here are the catch-up tidbits:

UK gets a verbal commitment from Rose Hill's (Ky school) Dakotah Euton (pronounce oot-en). Euton is 6'7"/200 and a 2010 recruit, yes two thousand ten.

UFC had a great Fight Night Live and what sounded like a meh PPV from Ireland. The FNL main event was Fisher vs Stout and it was a war. The undercard bouts were all good, with some crazy knockouts. Didn't get the PPV cause it didn't seem exciting, but sounded like mostly decisions.

UFC Ultimate fighter is this weekend, and I am really looking forward to it. Pulling for Jens and Nate Diaz mostly because BJ and Manny both get on my nerves. Haven't heard who they have put as the undercard on this but usually some fun match ups of guys that were on the show. Would love to see them bring Gabe back to get his ass beating that he deserves, just as long as he doesn't get any fame or money from the fight. Hate that guy.

As for my personal stuff, had been playing some decent golf till I went to Old Silo this past weekend. I sucked it up bad and Brandon handed my ass to me 77 to 86 IIRC. If anyone knows of any good golf scramble around the Lexington area let me know. Its been a while since I have played in any and I am getting the shakes! Not that anyone reads this, but nice to make believe that anyway.

Donovan to Magic a blessing for Jai Lucas?

Well I think Jai Lucas just got an early Christmas present plopped strait into lap. I could be wrong but I think he has been regretting his decision to go to Florida after PPat signed with the Cats. And now that Billy D is headed to Orlando I think Jai could get out of his LOI if he wants to. Surely he'll see what the Gator's new coach has to say and I would not be surprised either way.

As for my preference, I am fine either way. At first I didn't want him, but I have resorted to trusting Coach Gillispie. If he feels JL is worthy of a ride, by all means sign him up. There are some rumors of a South American PG that is working on qualifying for 07 that UK could have a chance at. This kid is supposed to be a possible one-and-done high lottery pick, I'd be all for it. Hell give us both with a little BCG scholarship magic.

UFC 71 Rampage vs The Ice Man

Some friends and I got the UFC 71 ppv this Saturday and it was a good one overall. It seemed that we all went into it pulling for Rampage but most of us kinda thought that Chuck would pull out the win. When Jackson dropped Chuck with a nice right, then knocked him out the rest of the way we were all speachless. Jaws were on the floor with amazement cause no one saw it ending that way, even if you thought Rampage would win.

He did to Chuck what Chuck normally does to others. Amazing.

The undercard fights were really good also, Karo dominated Burkman in a really good fight that went to decision. It was mostly standup which was surprising and impressive win for Karo. Oh and he even sang a little girly song after he won, which made the impressiveness go way way down.

Keenan Ivory Wayans (actualy Houston Alexander) knocked out Keith Jardine in no time, which I really enjoyed as I think Jardin has been way over rated. Not a huge fan of Starnes but I always enjoy seeing Leban getting his ass beat, even though it was close. The fights were good also.

All in all a very good PPV.

Most non-fans will scoff at how they believe "you got a one minute fight for $40" since Rampage made quick work of the Iceman, but I paid for the excitement. I watched Mayweather vs De La Hoya and although it was an ok fight, it was pretty booring, I'd rather watch UFC any day over boxing until boxers start fighting and not trying to "out point" the other guy.

Another possible name for 07

Nemanja Calasan, 6'9"/245 from Serbia currently playing Juco ball at Midland College. He has gotten out of his LOI with Utah so is on the market. Could help us as far as big guys go although the things I have read on him are about his offense. I am more interested in someone pulling boards and gaurding the block. Couldn't find too much on this guy though.

New PG recruit for 07 maybe?

So Coach Cyp's comments the other day had everyone buzzing about who the heck else we could add to this class. Here's the kid that people are guessing
Hank Thorns, 5'10"/170 Avgs 27.6 points, 12 boards 6 assists.

The word is that this kid could be underrated because he has always played football and basketball, so he never hit the elite camps, AAU tourneys, etc. He is a tough nose guy that has that football mentality. We'll see what BCG does.

Some Patterson videos

The talk now is that Patterson is going to be the takeover kinda guy like Durant, Oden, etc, but I still think he will be a big impact for UK next year. Gives us something we definately need. Take a look at these videos, some serious potential here:

Hoops Summit

Highlight Mix tape

Kick ass!

Patrick Patterson has signed to be a cat. 6'8"/228 PF from Huntington, great news for next year!

0-3 on 07 recruits Monday

Well Monday sucked. Jai Lucas had a press conference and it was down to UK and Florida, he picked Floridy. I didn't care too much about where this guy went since he is a 5'7" point guard and we have plenty of guards, with GJ Valerino coming in 09 and hopefully Brandon Jennings coming next year. Not a huge loss, but good recruits are never bad news, so strike 1.

Next strike, Beas Hamga to UNLV. I was excited about this kid even though he seems to be a project, he has a ton of potential. With the lineup he would have been helping someone to alter shots and grab boards would have been perfect. I was bummed about this news.

Lastly, to round out the strike out day. Michael Sanchez, big man from Ark. signs with Pelfrey and U of Ark. This was not a surprise to me, just sucked it came on the same day as the other two strike outs.


So, now we will look for Patrick Pattersons news on Wednesday. I have a feeling he isn't coming to UK. Lucas and PP having the conferences on different days made me think they were going to seperate schools. I am leaning Duke for PP, but I could see how 2 NCAA champs with basically 1 recruiting class that just all went NBA, could make another big name want to go there since Billy D already has a stack recruiting class. PP going to UF would put them over the top. Not feeling good about UKs chances with PP, but keeping my hopes up.

I am hoping BCG has a Juco guy in his pocket. If not lets hope next year is huge, with D. Miller from Maysville, Jennings, Osbry, Singleton, Zeller, etc, etc.

Another 08 recruit

Seems like the names keep rolling in. I really hope we snag D. Miller from Mason Co for 08 but here is another name to go along with him: Tyler Zeller, 6'10" / 185 Reportedly a big guy that can move like a SF and has a good looking jumper. His brother plays for Notre Dame. Numbers from his junior year 18 ppg 9 boards 68% fg 74% ft.

Suspense is killing me

No real news from recruiting as far as commitments go even thought J. Lucas said he would narrow his list to 3 yesterday. I guess the word now is that BCG has offered another point guard in 08 a scholly, he must be wanting to build the fastest teams ever, who knows. This is coming from scout.com and the kid's name is Verdell Jones. 6″4″ / 155 point guard. We need to get a good tally on how many offers BCG can really make out there, very interesting stuff.

UK Recruiting update

In reading KSR it seems that Coach Gillipsie (BCG) is still working his ass off and then some. I believe that yesterday was the last day until the "dead" or "silent" period where coaches are not allow any more in home visits or something like that so what does BCG do? Visists 3 of his top priorities all in one day. "Big deal" you might say, but the thing is that these recruits do no live near each other. First stop, Chris Singleton (08 recruit) in Atlanta, then to Huntington, WV and met Patterson. If that wasn't enough traveling, he headed to visit Beas Hamga in Indiana to round out his day. I love this guy, work ethic on recruiting seems to be unmatched by any other. I am not sure he can keep up this pace over the next several years, but the way he is going he will probably have us a very nice 08 class wrapped up in the early signing period.

Chris Singleton being a new name here is what I have heard so far; 6'9"/215, combo forward, great athlete, good shooter, has been compared to Tayshaun. That would be fine by me to have another Tayshaun except under a coach that could actually develop him more as a player, wow. Sounds like we are battling UT for him.

Video of Beas Hamga

Big guy, can tell he still needs some work but some serious potential. The last shot of him running the floor for a fastbreak drunk is impressive for a guy that young and about 7'. Would be nasty to have him and Stevenson on the floor at the same time shot blocking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVMvtk5S3jI

AFL's Caged Inferno @ Rupp Arena

For my birthday (4-29) my wife got us tickets to the Caged Inferno MMA fights at Rupp Arena. These fights are part of the AFL and were pretty good overall. Was hoping to see more knockouts but most were submissions, some from strikes, and a couple of TKOs. The coolest part was getting to meet Matt Hughes. Tamara and I took a picture with him and bought a t-shirt and he was quite interactive and not shitty at all. I asked him what he thought about Matt Serra and after giving me a funny look, he said "He talks to much." with a little smirk. I told him to kick Serra's ass and good luck, and he said thanks. I thought he was more tall and less broad than I thought he would be in person, although you can tell he is a brute.

Here is an interesting read about Patrick Patterson, no news of course but a nice article: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/luke_winn/04/25/patrick.patterson/index.html

Oldy but still funny

Many sports fans have already seen this but a very funny video here. The story is that this guy thought it wouldn't be so bad to fill in at the sports desk for his friend who couldn't work that night for the campus news team. Also, there was a new girl on the teleprompter that had no idea how to work it and was scrolling everything by at light speed. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKyfGAEEMQo

New name in the UK recruiting mix.

According to KSR a new prospect that was thought to be a 08 possibility could now possibly "go the extra mile", get a few more credits, and be eligible for the 07 class. Reportedly that is what BCG is trying to get done. The kid is Beas (BEE-AZ) Hamga, 6-11 C/PF from Cameroon Africa, thus the reason he could be able to change classes. From reading a few posts and articles sounds like this kid has amazing talent, a nack for defense and shot-blocking, and continually improving his offensive game. This impressed me from one of the reads:

Adams said that Hamga had about 15 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocks that game while holding (DeAndre) Jordan (the top center in the class of 2007) to 15 pointis, five rebounds and two blocks.

Have I said before how glad I am that Tubby is gone? By far the most excitement around the UK program since the 98 championship.

Golf at Coal Ridge!

Well I am adicted to the game of golf. It is one of my favorite past times so I will post some course reviews from time to time here, not that anyone reads this, but just to amuse myself I guess. So played this Sunday with Jamie, Shaun, and Lisa. We played at Coal Ridge (formerly Bogey Busters).

This course is golf at it's rawest form. It seems someone converted a farm into a golf course by just adding some greens and mowing the fairways a little shorter than other parts. $25 for 18 holes with cart, no tee times available. The course is short, but does have back tees that would make it a little longer.

The thing that really made this course different was the back 9. Front nine was a lot like Cassel Creek (Sportland), Southwind, etc. The back nine on the other hand had water on nearly every hole, well not always water, sometime swampy cattail hazardy things. 10-13 or so were surprising. It seemed you should not hit driver off the tee, fairways were fairly limited, and ended with hazards before the green. 2 of the holes seemed like you should hit 5 or 7 iron off the tee to keep it in play. Much different than the grip it and rip it front 9.

The other thing on the back that was odd is that there are NO par 5s. This is really a course killer to me, besides that there is no variety, the par 5s are the fun holes. The risk reward and chance for an eagle makes golf very interesting.

So 10-14 are all par 4s. 15 starts the oddness. We were playing the white tees, which is common for my group, I sometimes play the tips, probably less than 1/2 my rounds. 15 and 17 are both par 4s about 200 yds, no joke. Crazyness.

Some more info on Legion

Good stuff here. I am not sure which new article this came from, as I am swiping it from a poster. But a good read, now lets snag us a big man!:

Steve Smith calls days like Tuesday among the best and worst of his
job.
The best? Oak Hill Academy’s coach gets to see one of his star players
sign with an elite college program like Kentucky.
The worst? Smith knows he’s
going to spend literally hours on the telephone talking about his player with
Kentucky’s relentless basketball press corps.
“A kid signs with Kentucky and
you know you may not be eating lunch that day,” Smith joked after four-star
guard Alex Legion made his intentions to play for the Wildcats known on Tuesday
morning. “I’ve been on the phone since 8:30 this morning. They just killed my
cell phone battery.
“But that’s one of the great things about sending a kid
to a place like Kentucky or North Carolina or Duke – programs like that. The
passion and the following for basketball are just unbelievable. I think Alex is
really going to enjoy that. He’s always wanted to play for one of the premier
programs in the country.”
Legion (6-5, 208) originally signed with Michigan
in the fall, but requested a release from his letter-of-intent after Wolverines
coach Tommy Amaker was fired. The Detroit native scrambled to put together a new
list of schools, but decided to end the process just three days after returning
from an official visit to Kentucky.
“It was kind of a whirlwind thing,” Smith
said. “He had a list of two or three schools, then it grew to five or six and
more people were calling wanting to see if Alex was interested in visiting. UCLA
was calling. UConn was calling. Florida was calling. Kansas was calling.
Michigan was still interested.
“I think it got a little overwhelming for him,
and he realized he just didn’t have time to make all of these trips. And after
visiting Kentucky, I think he and his mother was so impressed with them that
they didn’t need to drag the process out any further.”
Smith said Legion
faxed the paperwork to his mother Tuesday morning. She was expected to sign and
send the documents to UK later in the day. Those are thought to be scholarship
papers. Since he already signed an LOI with Michigan, Legion cannot actually
“sign” again with Kentucky per rules which limit one LOI for a player during an
academic year.
In Legion, the Wildcats are getting one of the top offensive
threats in the Class of 2007. He is rated the No. 43 prospect in the country by
Rivals.com. As a senior at Oak Hill, he averaged 19.7 points per game while
shooting 52 percent from the field, 42 percent from 3-point range and 80 percent
at the free throw line.
“He could have easily averaged 30,” Smith said. “But
the teams we have obviously have a lot of other scoring options. He played this
year with a kid who’s going to Duke, Nolan Smith, and a point guard, Brandon
Jennings, who may be the No. 1 junior in the country. It was a great backcourt
with all three guys capable of scoring 25 or 30 points on a given
night.”
Smith said Legion has been labeled as a “shooter,” sometimes at the
exclusion of the rest of his game, but has been working hard to improve his
all-around skills.
“He’s a tremendous shooter, so he kind of gets branded as
that’s all he can do,” Smith said. “But of all the things you want to known for
as a basketball player, I would think that’s the one you’d want. He can really
shoot. He’s got the range well beyond the 3-point line, he’s got the
intermediate game you don’t see from many kids these days, and he’s great at the
line. He had a run of hitting 40 or 42 (free throws) in a row at the end of the
year.”
Smith said Legion’s work ethic will also fit in well with what he’s
heard about new UK coach Billy Gillispie.
“He’s a kid who’s up at 6 in the
morning doing his workout and then back again at 4 in the afternoon doing
another regimen,” Smith said. “He’ll do it whether I’m with him or not. He’s
just a very dedicated player.
“Most kids his age aren’t as concerned about
their body as he is. He’s 208 pounds and there isn’t an ounce of fat on him
whatsoever. I haven’t seen many kids like him in that regard. He’s got great
stamina and endurance. His legs are the same in the fourth quarter as they are
in the first quarter.”
Smith also praised Legion’s intelligence and mental
approach.
“Alex is a bright kid who isn’t hung up on the NBA at all,” he
said. “All kids think about it, and that’s what they’ll put down if you ask them
what their goal is, but Alex doesn’t have that one-and-done mentality that you
see from so many other kids.
“He picked Kentucky with five other guards in
their program right now, so that shows you he’s not hung up on getting out of
there as soon as possible. I don’t even think he’s hung up on starting. He knows
they have (Ramel) Bradley and (Joe) Crawford and the (Jodie) Meeks kid, so it’s
not real likely that he’ll start. But he’s going to play a lot as a freshman, no
doubt about that.”

Big news for UK Basketball today. Coach Gillispie signs Alex Legion, a stud SG from Oak Hill. Nice to see that Oak Hill connection still there since they have produced us several quality players over the years including Hawkins and Bogans if I remember correctly.

Few links regarding Legion, they mainly say he is big 6-4, 210, and can really fill it up from anywhere:

http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=30871&Sport=2
http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=1151935

I have joined the internets!!

Well, figured it was about time I got a blog. This is the simple first post just so it looks like I have done something and the page won't be blank. I plan to use this blog to post random stuff that I find funny or interesting. I am guessing that it will mostly be comprised of UK (mainly basketball), MMA, and internet/video game stuff. I'll probably also use it as a way to share some favorite links with friends. Comments always welcome.