Basketball Media Day's Morning Wakeup

Whether college football likes it or not, basketball is here, at least in the Bluegrass. Today marks the end of the summer talking season as UK Basketball holds its annual Media Day on campus. John Calipari and his players will give one last update from the summer and what lies ahead, before Big Blue Madness unofficially kicks off the season on Friday. And we'll be there, so you don't have to. Here's the itinerary and others happenings around Big Blue Nation...   John Calipari will speak at 1:00 pm. Stop by KentuckySportsRadio.com after your lunch break for a live video stream and realtime commentary from Coach Cal's Media Day appearance. Calipari will hold court in front of college basketball's best and baldest media members, from the local to the national personalities and outlets. Cal has been his swaggiest self all summer long, so we're expecting him to be on his swaggiest behavior on this afternoon's stage. Make sure you join us for what he has to say. Players will be available at 2:00 pm. Once Calipari wraps up his comments in the Wildcat Den, his players will be available for questioning on their Joe Craft Center practice floor. We'll go live from there on the KSR Facebook Page so stick around to check that out, too. Wednesday gave us one last run of football talk for the week. Being a bye week, Mark Stoops has closed the doors to his program until next Monday's weekly press conference. D.J. Eliot and the defense were available yesterday, and Stoops made an appearance on the SEC teleconference, but that wraps up the week. A rundown of the Wednesday news/comments: -- On the SEC call, Stoops labeled Drew Barker as "week-to-week," which sounds a little more positive than previous updates. Stoops insists that's nothing new, but it did leave some hope for an eventual Barker return sometime after the Mississippi State game. "He’s in there getting rehab so we’ll see how it goes in the next week or two," said Stoops. -- Stoops also said the staff expects to have Matt Elam back next week. -- After Wednesday's practice, D.J. Eliot called UK's bye week a "fundamental week," meaning they're focused on improving the basic fundamentals, rather than looking ahead to Mississippi State. The State planning will be inserted next week; now's all about "getting back to the basics" and "going back to working hard." -- Eliot said he and Stoops are working together more like they did at Florida State, now that Stoops has relieved some of the head coaching duties. "He’s been able to come in there and work with us on defense more," Eliot said. I'll be at the Trump rally in Cincinnati for Hey Kentucky tonight. So I've got that going for me, which could be good. My SnapChat might get "lit," as the kids say. Class of 2018 prospect adds his name to Madness guest list. John Calipari's special guest list is up to 10 now with the addition of Cameron Reddish, first reported by Chris Fisher over at 247Sports. Reddish is the third-ranked player and No. 1 small forward in the 2018 class, according to the 247Composite rankings. He's also a high school teammate of Mohamed Bamba and an AAU teammate of Lonnie Walker. Gotta think this guy who blew a .499 blood-alcohol reading in Louisville had a hell of a hangover. This is no laughing matter because three people were injured and drunk driving is awful, but let's acknowledge the fact a man registered a .499 blood-alcohol reading on a breathalyzer test in Louisville over the weekend after he struck three vehicles. That's over six times the legal limit! Judge David Holton II said, "Geez" when he first learned of the reading. "This reading may be the highest I've ever come across in my eight years on the bench... You're lucky to be alive, if it's accurate." As the Courier-Journal's story notes, blood-alcohol content of 0.31 to 0.45 is considered life-threatening. Check out how Archie Goodwin won the game for Phoenix last night: My goodness, Archie. Goodwin (13), Devin Booker (20), Tyler Ulis (7) and Eric Bledsoe (16) combined for over half of Phoenix's points in the win. Brandon Knight did not play.   Alright, that'll do it for your Wakeup. I hope it woke you up. Media Day on the way...