Beisner and I will now be exclusively writing for Kentucky Sports Radio.

Thanks to everyone who visited the site here, and we hope to see you at KSR. Our posts will be just as they were here, only they will be hosted on a site that gets 750 times our hits.

Check back around noon for big surprise.

Skin-nerrrrrr!!!!!!!

Rock chalk championship? Good one, Nantz.

For the record, I’ve sat on this headline for months, thinking, ‘Mario Chalmers will never do anything cool enough to gain a headline.’

Paydirt!

Memphis’ mighty choke-job. They got so far with the bad free throw percentage, but couldn’t pull it off. (Sportsline)

Pitino, probably lying. (Courier-Journal)

Will Tubby take the bait? (Fan Nation)

Jim Nantz, on scripting his final calls of major events. He’s a dork. (Awful Announcing)

Quotes from last night. (Awful Announcing)

Some ideas for Nantz. (The Big Lead)

Final Four seats are expensive, crappy. (Sports by Brooks)

Some humorous picture captions from San Antonio. (Simon on Sports)

One Shining Moment:

Is it too early to talk football?  I don’t think so - especially since the 2008 season might be the most important for the University of Kentucky in decades.  The Cats have built a solid amount of momentum over the past two seasons and now, with the stars of those teams leaving, it’s time to see if Rich Brooks is in the midst of rebuilding the program or if the past two seasons were just an aberration.  If Kentucky is going to continue to build the program and maintain a level of respectability, the responsibility will fall directly on the man who lines up under center.

Saturday’s first scrimmage of the year provided the first chance for Wildcat fans to see what the team had in store for 2008.  Here is how the competetion at this key position played out.

Quarterbacks

Mike Hartline - Hartline, a sophomore, played six drives in the scrimmage, splitting them between the first and second team offense and led the Cats on three drives ending in scoring opportunities.  On these drives, they finished with one touchdown and two field goal attempts, one missed and one made.  Hartline finished his day 12-19 for 175 yards, but threw for no touchdowns.

Will Fidler - Fidler, also a sophomore, played one series with the first team offense and five with the third team.  Although, long considered the third man in this competition, finished 4-10 for 92 yards, with 1 TD and 1 INT.

Curtis Pulley - Pulley, who everyone seems to expect to be Andre Woodson’s succesor struggled a bit in the scrimmage, but still managed to move the ball effectively.  The junior played six drives and, like Hartline, split them between the first and second team.  Pulley didn’t look too hot passing the ball, going 3-10 for 31 yards and an INT, but also ran for 45 yards on nine carries.  However, Pulley did lead the Cats to three scoring drives - one FG and touchdown runs by Alfonso Smith and John Conner.

Related News

The WR position is the spot that causes the most concern because of lack of experience.  E.J. Adams had a great first scrimmage, catching 4 passes for 167 yards and a TD……The running game was again handled by committee with Smith carrying 9 times for 60 yards and 2 TDs, Derrick Locke 5 times for 31 yards, and Tony Dixon 5 times for 25 yards……Dicky Lyons, Jr. had three catches for 8 yards……Marcus McClinton and Micah Johnson each had interceptions for the defense.

Mason County’s Darius Miller was named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball in a ceremony at the high school today. Mason, who averaged 19.9 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.9 steals per game while leading the Royals to the state championship, will play for UK in the fall. Butler’s Tia Gibbs was named Miss Basketball.

Miller was also named to the Parade All-American team as a member of the third team.

April Fool’s Day has always been a beating to any intelligent human being and especially rough for a man like me, who prides himself on being a duper year-round.  But, unfortunately, the great George Plimpton brought the world Sidd Finch in 1985 and the sports fan has been tortured with pathetic attempts at a little April 1 humor ever since.  This year’s worst offenders:

PTI.  See Evan’s links below.

OJ Mayo is transferring to the University of Dallas.  If you believed this, you deserve to be fitted with concrete shoes and dropped in deep water.

Have you ever wondered what Nascar would be like under a roof?  Yeah, neither do I.  But apparently, some people got a little worked up over this dupe.

They might not drink a lot of soda, but those wacky guys in Utah still aren’t above pulling a lame April Fool’s Day prank.  OMG!  Kirilenko is leaving to go back to Russia?!?!?!

Did you know that there are a pair of 7′8″ 16 year-old twins in China that are superstars, but have never been heard of before?  Well, it’s too late now.  Stanford already signed them to replace them Lopez twins, bub.

Matt Leinart has gone from schmoozing starlets to beer-bonging with regular, run-of-the-mill, everyday skanks.  Oh, wait that’s true?  Damn, I’d say that the mighty have fallen, but I’d still take it.

What can I make up today? 

Did Billy Packer just say that Ben Howland’s UCLA teams are the first since Adolph Rupp to have three straight 30-win seasons?  Please, someone, enlighten me. 

I would not be surprised if Packer did say this, because he’s an idiot, and his ACC brain can’t remember UK winning 30+ in ‘96, ‘97, and ‘98.  Also, it appears the national media is ignoring the three straight years in the ’90’s that UK dominated.  On Sportscenter this morning, there was a graphic of the teams who had reached the Final Four at least three straight years.  In the graphic, they denoted how many national championships were won in that stretch.  Next to Kentucky, it said “1.”  I guess if Pitino didn’t win, it doesn’t count.

Luckily, this bloodbath is almost over.  Hopefully Stephen Curry and Davidson can continue their magical run and be competitive with the Jayhawks.

In a completely unrelated note, does anyone else want to jab out their eyeballs when the creepy Subway commercial comes on?  What does Godzilla have to do with over-priced sandwiches?

 five……five………five dollar foot loooooooooooongs….

1951 - Kentucky knocks off Kansas State, 68-58, to win their third National Championship in Minneapolis and become the first team to do so.  The Wildcats got 10 points from flu-stricken Cliff Hagan and 21 rebounds from 7-footer Bill Spivey.  The 1951 tournament also marked the first time in history that 16 teams were allowed to play.

1978 -  The Goose got loose as Kentucky won their fifth NCAA Title, 94-88, over the Duke Blue Devils.  Jack “Goose” Givens, the tournaments MOP, went for 41 points in the final game to lead coach Joe B. Hall to his first NCAA championship. 

The Kentucky women’s basketball team got 30 points, including five 3’s,  from senior Samantha Mahoney to help push them past James Madison, 84-76, in the Women’s NIT at Memorial Coliseum last night.  Mahoney’s 30 pushed her into 4th place all-time on UK’s scoring ranks, passing Sara Potts - the last Cat to score over 30 in a game.

The Lady Wildcats also got season highs in points from Chelsea Chowning (14) and Eleia Roddy (10) and a double-double from freshman Victoria Dunlap (12 points, 12 rebounds).  The only bad news for Kentucky came in the form of a knee-injury to senior center Sarah Elliott about midway through the second half. 

The Cats advance to play….cue the ominous music….Marquette (gasp!), Sunday at 2 pm.  Like usual, the game will be at Memorial Coliseum and tickets are $10.

You might have noticed a major addition to the Western Kentucky coaching staff heading into their second round matchup with the San Diego Toreros.  Head coach Darrin Horn entered the contest sporting a gash across his nose that contrasted greatly with those piercing blue eyes and movie star good looks.  Seriously, he has to be the dreamiest coach in all of college basketball, right?  Sorry, that was a bit off topic.  So, anyway, what kind of vicious beast or unstoppable force does it take to injure a man tough enough to get the Hilltoppers into the Sweet Sixteen?

Sliding doors.  Seriously.  Apparently Horn was enjoying the spoils of his first round victory over Drake via text messaging when he walked directly into a set of sliding glass doors.  The doors were unharmed.  If you take into account the fact that Ty Rogers had 172 text messags after his game winner and emerged from the incident unscathed, then this only further supports my belief that no one over the age of 30 should be text messaging. 

Already this morning, Holmes defeated Lexington Catholic 57-50 and Mason County and Shelby County are battling it out at the moment in the semifinals of the KHSAA Boys Sweet Sixteen.  The state championship game is set for 8:15 tonight at Rupp and we’ll keep you posted as the results come in.

*Update: Mason County beat Shelby County 60-50, and they will meet Holmes in the final.  Darius Miller had 19 for the victors, and plans to dunk on and embarrass the poor kids from Covington tonight.

Former Kentucky sharp shooter Patick Sparks celebrates birthday number 25 today.  Sparks, a high school star from Central City, originally made a name for himself in Kentucky basketball lore by leading Western Kentucky to a surprising victory against the Cats in Rupp Arena.  Then, he came to the good side and cemented his status as a Wildcat hero with 3 big free throws against Louisville and a clutch shot in the Elite Eight against Michigan State.  His career peaked when he was deemed important enough to be included in the banner at the top of this web page.

Sparks will be spending his birthday in Germany, where he is averaging 7.3 ppg and 2.8 apg. 

Only the snow could stop the juggernaut that is Kentucky baseball.

The Wildcats (10-0), ranked 9^th in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper as of yesterday, had Friday and Saturday’s baseball games against Purdue postponed.

The Cats are surging, riding high on an undefeated record and beating opponents by an average of more than 10 runs a game. Sawyer “This man needs no introduction” Carroll is playing possessed and garnered more acclaim this week in the form of a spot on the “National All-Star Lineup”, which is put together by the College Baseball Foundation. He has already earned SEC and National player of the week honors and it’s easy to see why.

He is 21-of-34 on the season, good for a .618 average and has a monstrous 1.265 slugging percentage (best in SEC). He also leads the SEC in hits (21), RBIs (25) and on base percentage (.696). If there was college fantasy baseball this guy would be the MVP so far. The Cats are hoping that Carroll can lead the Cats to an SEC championship and deep into this years College World Series Tournament, which Kentucky did not play in last season.

The team down I-64 had their game against Northwestern postponed as well. The Slumping Cardinals (5-3), who were one win away from playing for last year’s title, might want the rest of their season postponed if they keep losing to sub par opponents.

In three losses this season Louisville was out scored by a combined margin of 26-11. Two of the worst were at the hands of non-ranked teams; a 1-0 tenth inning meltdown at the Citadel (6-3) and an embarrassing 8-5 lose to lowly Cleveland State (1-5). 10^th ranked Vandy (5-2) gave the Cards a 17-6 old fashioned beat down for the third L that cost them their top 25 spot.

Last season the intrastate rivals split their two game series and this year’s first head-to-head show down is slated for the 8^th of April in Lexington. The Second game is April 22^nd in Louisville.

You want to see this guy in a bathing suit? Well, I can’t guarantee that you will be lucky enough to see that, but your chances will definitely improve if you sign up for the Cat’s Cruise.

The Cat’s Cruise is a Carnival cruise ship that will leave Tampa on July 5th and return July 10th after hitting Cozumel and the Cayman Islands. What makes this cruise different than others is that Mr. Wildcat Bill Keightley, Kyle Macy, Kenny Walker, Mike Pratt and Sean Woods will all be on board and holding seminars, free throw contests and a “Pin the tail on Laettner” contest (I think Laettner might be into that sort of thing). 

Today is the last day to reserve your cabin for $25.  You can do that, and get the rest of the information, right here.