Kentucky Korner

Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas State, Duke, Villanova, Ohio State are all teams that have been regarded as being Final 4 good. Why has no one talked about the possibility of New Mexico being a final 4 contender. New Mexico is my more than dark horse final 4 contender. For those of you who don't know much about New Mexico let me try and fill you in on what impresses me about the Lobos.

At 4 pm Eastern Time Saturday the Oklahoma State Cowboys could be potentially putting their season on the line when the 27-1 Kansas Jayhawks and they tip off. The Jayhawks are a perfect 13-0 coming into the game while the Cowboys are 19-8 overall 7-6 in conference play. Oklahoma State is coming off a loss to Texas without starting forward Matt Pilgrim which people seem to be forgetting. Meanwhile Kansas is coming off an 81-68 victory over Oklahoma where Xavier Henry continued his hot play scoring 23 points on 9 of 13 shooting.

- DeMarcus Cousins was awarded the SEC Player of the Week for the fourth time this season following his monstrous performance Saturday against Arkansas, which saw the Cats destroy the Razorbacks 101-70. Big Cuz posted his 10th double-double of the season (one shy of Chris Mills' freshman record) with 16 points and 14 boards in just 17 minutes of play.

The ACC definitely lost a lot of talent from what the league had last year. But that doesn't mean regulars like Duke and North Carolina won't be top ten teams. The tigers of Clemson are gonna be pretty good with their incoming freshman class. So what's the outlook for the ACC? Read below for complete predictions as well as awards.

1. North Carolina Tarheels(34-4, 13-3)

YouTube video of the new EA Sports commercial featuring University of Kentucky head coach John Calipari representing EA's NCAA Basketball '10 video game.

From the Associated Press via SI.com comes news that Memphis has announced after an internal investigation they have found no proof that a former player cheated on his SAT exam.

Because of these findings, Memphis says they should be allowed to keep the 2007-08 season in their record books, which included a trip to the Final Four and an epic overtime loss to Kansas in the National Championship game.....

Click on the link below to read the rest of this article!!!

King of the Bluegrass tournament director Lloyd Gardner released the field about a week ago for the 2009 version of the K.O.B. Holiday Classic in December (17th-22nd at Fairdale), and what an impressive group it is.

-The tournament will consist of 12 in-state teams and four from out-of-state.

-The Kentucky teams are (in no particular order): defending state champion Covington Holmes, Warren Central, Eastern, Ballard, Seneca, Clark County, Trinity, Iroquois, Tates Creek, Knott County Central, Shelby County and the host team Fairdale.

According to an official press release from UK Athletics, former Wildcats A.J. Stewart (pictured), Jared Carter, and Donald Williams will not be returning to the University of Kentucky next season....

Click on the link below to view the rest of the story, with pictures and links...

Every year, there are great coaching hires. Last year Indiana snagged Tom Crean from Marquette as one of the bigger deals. Darrin Horn and Keno Davis both got their first major head coaching jobs, heading to South Carolina and Providence. So, with the coaching carousel of 09 coming to an end, what were the best coaching hires?

10. Mark Fox, Nevada to Georgia

Hey guys. This is just a post from my blog Saturday. Enjoy

The University of Kentucky's men basketball team took huge strides this week for success next season. Although the Wildcats were likely already considered a top twenty five team for the 2009-2010 preseason, they are now considered to be a lock for the top ten.

Calipari has gotten another big recruit to commit to Kentucky. On thursday, Eric Bledsoe added to one of the top recrutuing classes in college basketball by joining Daniel Orton, Demarcus Cousins, and Darnell Dodson in the 2009 recruiting class.

No further testing was needed on the right ankle of Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson.  He has a sprained right ankle and last night’s X-rays were negative. Patterson is listed as day-to-day.

- UK Media Relations

The 11-6 Auburn Tigers will stroll into Rupp Arena tonight at 9pm, fresh off an impressive home victory over their SEC West rival Alabama, 85-71.

Auburn plays with a small, athletic lineup led by guards DeWayne Reed and Tay Waller and veteran big man Korvotney Barber. Reed is the Tigers leading scorer averaging 13.4 ppg, followed by Barber with 12.9 ppg.

After a week full of media spotlight on the University of Kentucky basketball program following Jodie Meeks' 54-point performance in a big victory at rival Tennessee, and then a 68-45 drubbing of Georgia in Athens, it was widely speculated that the Wildcats would break the Top-25 for the first time in over a year.

However, despite those two impressive SEC road victories, the Cats were included in neither the AP or the ESPN/USA Today polls which were just released today.