The Cats Lair and Hangover

By: LONNY DEMAREE

• First let us review the issue of the UK men in both regular season and in the NCAA tournament. As good as John Calipari has been overall for the Men’s basketball team, there are several questions that arise.
• Why has he not been to a final-four since 2015? My old Yeahbut speaks from the closet he resides in.
• His public relations is top notch for the community and state. Yeahbut that’s a job for a public relations firm. His primary job is to win games and utmost is to hang NCAA Championship banners from the Rupp Arena rafters.
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• Calipari hasn’t hung one since 2012. By comparison, others have hung more.
• Calipari felt the need to make changes on the heels of a 9-16 2020-21 season. He did that – A point guard (SahVir Wheeler) – some shooters and he did that in Kellan Grady and C. J. Frederick and unfortunately injury held back Frederick; - A big man and in Oscar Tshiebwe he did that. He had a veteran team.
• He had some key returners and three quality freshmen, although some pundits would say that perhaps, he mishandled them. Almost all of those pundits were not in his practice sessions that Calipari said were fun to be honchoing.
• The two main keys with even some of his better teams are clutch free throw shooting and surrendering late game leads.• Mark Stoops hired three new coaches to help carry on the recent success in the football field and the upward trend.
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• I’m sure by now he realizes the ongoing ambivalence in the South and even in some quarters, locally.
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• Brad white said its fun when you put on the pads. “That’s when you find out who can play at this level,” the coach said. “You find out who can strike with the pads on, who is physical when the ball is in the air, and what the young guys can do.”
• Offensive lineman Kenneth Horsey said he’s never worked so hard trying to learn the new offense. Stoops said in an earlier presser that there will be no “21 or 22” personnel offense, conversely coming from the players there will be a lot.
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• Perhaps, Mark Stoops was trying to put his receiver’s minds at ease that they will be throwing a significant amount of the time.
• Offensive lineman Kenneth Horsey said he’s never worked so hard trying to learn the new offense. Stoops said in an earlier presser that there will be no “21 or 22” personnel offense, conversely coming from the players there will be a lot.
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• Perhaps, Mark Stoops was trying to put his receiver’s minds at ease that they will be throwing a significant amount of the time.
• Former player Jeff Piecoro coming of the breezy field today was amazed at the lower body of Tayshawn “Spider” Manning. It’s huge “Once he gets his hands on you, it’s over,” Jacquez Jones said. He said when they get this offense down no one is going to be able to stop the offense.
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• Marquez Jones said the transfer portal is a scary place to be because last season there was 2,000 players in the portal and many of his friends and more are still looking for a place to play.