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Next Cats summer recruiting guide in Sunday’s paper

 Posted by at 1:46 AM on June 14, 2013  Comments Off
Jun 142013
 

NextCatsSummer2013

Be sure to pick up a copy of Sunday’s Lexington Herald-Leader for a special section full of UK basketball recruiting content.

The 6-page section will include a column by the Herald-Leader’s John Clay, a wrap-up of UK’s record-setting class of 2013 (with analysis on all eight signees from Scout.com’s Evan Daniels), a closer look at the the players John Calipari is targeting in next year’s class and more.

Click on the picture to the right to get a sneak peek at the cover of Sunday’s special recruiting section.

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Numbers game: Who will wear what in 2013-14?

 Posted by at 2:19 PM on June 5, 2013  4 Responses »
Jun 052013
 
Julius Randle is expected to wear No. 30 during his freshman season at Kentucky. Photo courtesy of McDonald's

Julius Randle is expected to wear No. 30 during his freshman season at Kentucky.
Photo courtesy of McDonald’s

The members of Kentucky’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class have been arriving in Lexington one by one over the past 24 hours. With those arrivals, it’s becoming more clear who will be wearing what next season.

Andrew Harrison (5), Derek Willis (33) and Marcus Lee (22) all wore numbers in high school that are already taken by returning UK players. According to tweets, two of those situations have been decided.

Willis tweeted a picture of his locker Tuesday, and the UK freshman will be wearing No. 35. That means Kyle Wiltjer will probably hold on to No. 33 for a third season.

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Caesars lists Kentucky as 3-1 favorite to win in 2014

 Posted by at 5:12 PM on May 20, 2013  Comments Off
May 202013
 
McDonald's All-Americans Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee, Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, James Young and Julius Randle are part of the reason that UK is the early favorite to win it all next year. Photo courtesy of McDonald's

McDonald’s All-Americans, left to right, Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee, Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, James Young and Julius Randle are part of the reason that UK is the early favorite to win it all next year.
Photo courtesy of McDonald’s

You might have noticed there were fewer updates to the blog late last week. That’s because I took a little vacation to Las Vegas.

Among the places on the visit list was Caesars Palace, and a sheet of paper with their odds to win next year’s national championship made it back to Lexington with me.

Here are some highlights (odds were updated after Andrew Wiggins’ decision to play for Kansas):

Kentucky (3-1): The Wildcats are the clear betting favorite to win their ninth title next season.

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Poythress returning to UK for sophomore season

 Posted by at 7:38 PM on April 2, 2013  2 Responses »
Apr 022013
 

Kentucky forward Alex Poythress will return for his sophomore season, UK announced in a statement Tuesday evening.

“I’m really happy that, after talking with his family and evaluating his options, Alex has decided to return for his sophomore season,” John Calipari said. “Alex is a great kid with a lot of potential and I’m excited to be able to work with him next year. I believe we have only scratched the surface with Alex, and another season in college will get him closer to reaching his dreams.”

Poythress started in 30 of 32 games as a freshman and ranked second on the team in points (11.4) and rebounds (6.2) per game. He was also an Freshman All-SEC selection.

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While we were gone: Big stories from last week

 Posted by at 12:54 AM on December 24, 2012  9 Responses »
Dec 242012
 

Next Cats is back from furlough, and it was a relatively quiet week for UK recruiting.

But that doesn’t mean there was no important news.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest stories from the past few days …

Dakari’s down to three

Dakari Johnson, one of UK’s four remaining targets from the class of 2013, announced at the City of Palms Classic that he will decide between Kentucky, Syracuse and Georgetown. The 6-11 center eliminated Florida, Ohio State and others, and said he does not expect to make a final decision until the spring.

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Note to readers: There will be no updates this week

 Posted by at 5:03 PM on December 16, 2012  7 Responses »
Dec 162012
 

I will be on a company mandated furlough from Monday, Dec. 17 through Sunday, Dec. 23. That means I will be unable to blog, tweet or link to stories. Basically, there will be no Next Cats for the next week.

For any big recruiting news, make sure you’re following Herald-Leader columnist John Clay on Twitter and checking out his blog, Sidelines.

John Calipari tweeted Sunday that today’s trip to New Jersey would be his last for a while, so maybe it’ll be a slow week on the recruiting front.

I appreciate all of you that frequent this blog, follow on Twitter and make this such a fun job. I’m sure I’ll be back to tweeting and blogging as soon as I can, which is 12:01 a.m. Christmas Eve.

See you then,
Ben

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Calipari to make a couple of stops Wednesday

 Posted by at 10:42 PM on December 4, 2012  9 Responses »
Dec 042012
 

John Calipari was not in a pleasant mood after his Cats defeated Samford 88-56 on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena.
Photo: Mark Cornelison/Herald-Leader

John Calipari wasn’t in a very good mood after his team came out flat in the second half of Tuesday night’s 88-56 victory over Samford.

The UK coach spent near the entirety of his post-game press conference blasting his players’ conditioning and promising that they would be running at 7 a.m. every day for the next three weeks. The phrase “out of shape” was used in reply to just about every question.

Calipari had the look of a man who needed to get away for a little while.

As he left the podium, he said he was going to do just that.

“I’m going recruiting,” Calipari said. “That’s where I’m going tomorrow.”

He said he would make  stops in two cities, but he didn’t reveal the locations.

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Montverde opens new gym against Lexington Catholic

 Posted by at 5:08 PM on November 29, 2012  No Responses »
Nov 292012
 

The Lexington Catholic Knights will be treated to some swanky surroundings when they make the trip to Montverde Academy to play one of the best teams in the country Friday night.

Montverde, a school in Florida, will debut a brand new state-of-the-art basketball facility for Friday’s game.

Montverde Coach Kevin Boyle spent the last few days going over the team’s new digs — which he said cost about $6 million — and sounded more than pleased with what he’s seen.

“We have an incredible facility that was built here,” Boyle told the Herald-Leader on Thursday. “The weight room is state of the art. The guy who put the weight room in just did the Lakers’ and thought it was every bit as good as the Lakers’ weight room.

“I played at Seton Hall, and it’s a better on-campus facility than Seton Hall. Georgetown, Providence, La Salle, Villanova — I mean, it’s a better on-campus facility than any of those places.”

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Reminder: UK hosting telethon for Sandy victims

 Posted by at 7:42 PM on November 6, 2012  No Responses »
Nov 062012
 

The University of Kentucky men’s basketball team will host a telethon Wednesday to benefit the victims of Superstorm Sandy.

The telethon will be aired on WKYT-27 from 7-8 p.m., and CWKYT from 8-9 p.m. Phone banks will be open from 6-9 p.m., and UK basketball players will take phone calls and donations from 7-9 p.m. Those wishing to donate can call (859) 299-5455 or toll free at (855) 257-2700.

The event will also be available live at WKYT.com, where donations can be made for 24 hours beginning at 7 p.m. and people can bid on various items that will be auctioned off. Items will include pieces of the 2012 national championship court autographed by John Calipari, Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

100 percent of the proceeds will go to the American Red Cross to benefit storm victims.

During non-telethon hours, people can still call the Red Cross at (859) 253-1331 or 1-800-RED-CROSS.

Monetary donations can also be taken to any Central Bank location in Lexington.

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Roundup of UK basketball links for Friday

 Posted by at 12:04 PM on November 2, 2012  Comments Off
Nov 022012
 

Since John Clay is off this week, here’s a look at some of today’s top stories concerning UK basketball…

UK was up and down in a 32-point exhibition victory over Northwood on Thursday night.

Calipari experimented with 12 different lineups, by one media member’s count. Using only seven players through the first 34 minutes-plus, UK went small, medium and extra large with a collection of players co-existing under game conditions for the first time.

Ryan Harrow has been on the other end of John Calipari’s yelling.

“He could just be talking normal, and then something could happen that wasn’t even dealing with me and it’s just like, ‘Aaaaaahhh!,’” Harrow said. “‘Why didn’t you make this happen?!’”

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