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.

I thought this headline may attract all you recruiting junkies, so scroll on down now if you aren’t at all interested in the Kentucky Derby, which is merely 25 days away!  NBC has jumped on board, and they are upping their coverage by an extra half-an-hour for the big day!  This douche will lead you through behind-the-scenes looks at all the Derby celebs. Thanks, NBC. No, really, thanks.

What makes this difficult is that there aren’t any Derby Preps run at Churchill Downs unless you count the Derby Trial, and with a full week to prepare, I give the winner of that race zero chance to win the Derby (although Don’t Get Mad did finish fourth in 2005…that was the ‘Giacomo Debacle’ mind you.)  Speaking of Giacomo, he was the last horse to win the Derby off of a California prep, and I feel that with him being the anomaly, the 2005 Derby stands to be a race that can be thrown out.  Like I have said before, I think that Giacomo wasn’t necessarily bad for fans of horse racing, but definitely bad for handicappers. 

So, a couple of rules to follow when looking at the prep races (these trends are from the past 20 years):

1.  The winner almost always comes out of the Big Four (Santa Anita-6, Bluegrass-5, Wood-4, Arkansas-3); only two horses have taken a different route (Barbaro won the Florida Derby and War Emblem went wire-to-wire in the Illinois).

2.  The winner almost always hits the board in his (or her) final prep race.  Only four horses have failed to place: Giacomo (2005) and Charismatic (1999) in the Santa Anita and Thunder Gulch (1995) and Sea Hero (1993) in the Bluegrass.  

3.  Winning isn’t a must.  Of the horses that have hit the board, eight (8) have won, seven (7) have come in second, and there was only one third place finish (Unbridled in the 1990 Bluegrass).  So, more horses have lost their final prep race than won it.  But, looking at it another way, 75% of them have been in the exacta.

I know that you probably think I am full of it because of my poor picks in last week’s prep races (Denis of Cork 5th, El Gato Malo 5th, Court Vision 3rd), but even if I can’t pick a winner for you, I can promise that the top two horses to come out of the Bluegrass this weekend will have a legitmate shot at winning the Derby. 

Also, keep your eyes peeled for Keeneland Picks-Against-the-Spread for this weekend.  Last weekend, after three days and $174 worth of bets, I ended up down 20 cents.  So, if you didn’t play my picks last week, you probably missed the boat, but who the hell knows?

The teams for the 2008 Derby City Festival Basketball Classic were officially announced today.  We’ll break these down more in the next 10 days leading up to the event, but here are the rosters.  The black team features two UK signees, Darius Miller and DeAndre Liggins, and the Gold team features two Louisville signees, Terrance Jennings and Jared Swopshire.  The Gold squad will be coached by Mark Lieberman of Opa Locka, Fla. and the Black team will be under the direction of Mason County’s Chris O’Hearn.

GOLD TEAM

BLACK TEAM

Player/College	College	Ht/Wt	Position
Larry Drew	North Carolina	5’11″	PG
Korie Luscious	Michigan State	5’11”	PG
Paul McCoy	Undecided	6’0”	PG
Travis Releford	Kansas	6’5”	WG
Jerime Anderson	UCLA	6’2”	WG/PG
DeAndre Liggins	UK	6’5”	WG/WF
Darius Miller	UK	6’6”	WF
Chris Singleton	Florida State	6’8”	WF/PF
Howard Thompkins	Georgia	6’9”	BF
Ater Majok	Undecided	6’10”	BF/Center
Tyler Zeller	North Carolina	6’10”	BF/Center
Maurice Sutton	Undecided	6’10”	Center

  The game will be April 18 at Freedom Hall.

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The 9th ranked Kentucky Baseball team takes the field tonight at 6:30 against the little brother at Cliff Hagan Stadium.  Sophomore Clint Tilford puts his 2-0 record and 1.20 ERA on the line tonight against the Filthy Cards and hopes to extend UK’s 18 game non-conference winning streak.  Here is how the teams stack up:

	UK  25-5 (7-5)	U of L (16-12) 4-5
Team Avg.	.350	.296
On Base %	.453	.371
Slugging %	.578	.449
Home Runs	46	24
RBIs	261	178
Runs	291	194
Stolen Bases	45-61	39-54
ERA	3.17	4.45
Opp. Batting	.253	.270
Walks	80	102
H Allowed/9 IP	8.69	9.31
K/9 IP	8.59	8.38
Fielding %	.980	.965

Related News

Joe Crawford will throw out the first pitch at tonight’s game….UK has added a game with Marshall to their schedule April 30 to make up for one of the three games they’ve cancelled this year due to weather….CF Colin Cowgill was named National Player of the Week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.  On the week, he batted .692 with 4 HRs, 7 RBIs, 9 runs scored, 6 BBs and a steal….The game against Louisville marks another Two-for-Tuesday promotion where fans are able to purchase two tickets at the box office for the price of one….The game is available on the Big Blue Sports Network….Louisville will host the second half of the home-and-home series on April 22.

I didn’t know you made syrup, tdub!  And, yes, yo’  sho’ am good at picking winners.

I’m going crazy with the Simpsons’ quotes today, but what else for the first winner of the Wildcat Blitz bracketology challenge?

Luckily, I know the winner, so we don’t have to come up with a prize.

Someone who may or may not be Preston LeMaster came in second.  His team name was Preston LeMaster, anyway.

***I’m sure only 1% of this readership gets that picture, and I can’t stop laughing.  Also, in no way is the inside joke racially charged.  Just wanted to throw that out there.

Thanks to ebonygentleman79 for the footage. If he feels the need to paste his name in the video, then I feel the need to acknowledge him.

The zoom close-up of a man crying is never flattering, but good lord Vitale, wear some make-up or something. He looks like a caricature of himself from an SNL skit, where they are trying to make him look horrible.

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:

“Basketball doesn’t build character. It reveals it.”

I’m not sure who said this, but it’s been uttered by every basketball coach from the YMCA elementary leagues to the NBA. Perhaps never was there a more perfect example of this than last night when Memphis found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. After hiding their true colors for five games, the final moments of regulation and overtime revealed Memphis to be the immature, unintelligent Calipari team we come to expect every year.

It all started when Joey Dorsey fouled out. The 1st team All-Mental Midget collected 5 cheap fouls, with the last being the cheapest. Dorsey had a great tournament on the defensive end of the floor and controlled the glass for the Tigers in every game but, as even John Calipari was probably expecting, the dumb overcame him in the biggest game of the year. A guy who had developed into one of the best rebounders in college basketball, collected two. For the entire game. And after his dumb foul, it was if a revolving door opened up in the lane and Kansas got bucket after bucket.

Then, it was the free throws. All season long we were told that Memphis’ achilles heel was their inability to be consistent at the free throw line. But, again, for five games, this was hidden from the rest of college basketball. It looked as if Memphis had found their way at the stripe and rendered themselves unstoppable. Then, the pressure cranked up and they missed four in a row, allowing Kansas to not only push the game to overtime, but to snatch the momentum and the 2008 National Championship.

Then, it was the guy on the sideline, never a very good X’s and O’s guy, deciding not to foul at the end of regulation.  Instead, the Tigers allow Kansas to come down and nail the game-tying three.  A foul would have likely ended the Kansas run and brought the trophy to the Volunteer State.  But, instead, Mario Chalmers cemented himself into NCAA history with an off-balance, clutch three.  When the shot went through, the faces on the Memphis bench were not those of surprise, but rather looks of acceptance. They knew this was their fate. Everyone did.

This was Memphis, after all. It was the squad from the Island of Misfit Teams. The one that jersey pops, trash talks, fights with fans and, contrary to what Billy Packer kept telling you, is coached by a guy who was in his first Final Four. At least according to the record books, that is.

So, you might be heartbroken and surprised, Tiger fans. But the rest of us intelligent basketball fans expected it. We could see your true character all along.

That was unbelievable.

Sherron Collins needs to calm down. He makes hasty and horrible decisions with the ball.

Memphis needs to learn how to shoot free throws.

That is all.