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.