Busy KSR Crew: Quincy Miller Interview & Marshall County Wrap Up

This weekend was quite a busy one for the guys of KSR (Kate keeps taking maternity leave on Friday and Saturday nights and by law Matt can’t deny her of that right). To start off you had the first big Calipari win which should have convinced any non-believers out there, if any still exist, that Calipari was by far the right man for the job. Matt, Drew and Will were down in Lexington covering that. Drew may have been drunk-tweeting fallacies or he may be on the road somewhere right now on his way to New York for the official battle between “TheRealCoachCal” and “FakeCoachCal.”  I think there may have even been some Volleyball coverage thrown in there somewhere.

My weekend was no different. The action started when I took my little sister’s car (which always has the newest Lil’Weezy in the cd rotation for me to look forward to) down to Benton, KY for the Marshall County Hoop Fest. Thanks to KSR friend Patrick “Mocha Chip” Adamson for giving me a place to DVR and watch the UNC/UK battle and for helping with the filming. Note to readers: If you ever need a place to watch UK basketball with a true UK fanatic or are just in the Paducah area wondering about the history of Graeter’s Ice Cream…Patrick’s your man. Honestly, very cool guy and I really appreciated his help. Here’s some notes from the Marshall County action:

– Doron Lamb was very impressive in his outing. He dished off a few good looking assists and knocked down a lot of jumpers on his way to a trip-dub: 26, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

– Nick Johnson’s first day ended with a few people saying to me that he was more athletic than they thought he was before seeing him in person. He finished with 17 points and was knocking down jumpers from anywhere on the court. Nick twisted an ankle early in his second game and was unable to finish it out.

– On Saturday, after the UNC victory, Calipari and Coach Antigua arrived in Marshall County. Earlier in the day the PA announcer came on and said “Coach Cal will be arriving here tonight, just before the Oak Hill game,” which got a nice round of cheers. When the moment came where he actually did arrive, the crowd erupted and a massive line for autographs immediately formed. Again the announcer came on, announcing Cal’s arrival and also congratulating him on the UNC win, which received a huge eruption of cheers. The line for autographs would be stopped during each period of play and then allowed to continue in between each period and during the halves. It took nearly two full games to work through the entire line but Cal didn’t leave until there was no one waiting, which was after the gym itself was nearly empty. It was just a really cool thing to witness (even saw a kid in a UL sweatshirt waiting in line for a signature and a guy getting his UNC hat signed). I’ve got some video of the line and I’ll make sure to post that up here later in the week. (Just got a new camera so I’m working on figuring out how to edit and post this stuff).

– Along with the line video, I’ll also have some highlights from Doron Lamb and Nick Johnson.

Meanwhile, in Lexington, UK had one of their top targets visiting. Quincy Miller took in the UNC/UK game and I had the chance to speak with his coach, Isaac Pitts, today about that visit:

DR: Can you tell me a little bit about the visit and what Quincy was able to do?

Coach Pitts: He loved it. He liked the fans, the atmosphere that they played in, Kentucky as a whole. The coaching staff was great. He liked it. He knows John Wall and he had a chance to hang out with John and stuff like that, so he enjoyed it, he was excited.

DR: Do you know of anything that just really left an impression on Quincy?

Coach Pitts: Nationally televised game against Carolina. 25,000. That’s the wow right there. Everybody in the country watching the game, 25,000 people watching, jam-packed, standing room only, Kentucky wins. You know how Kentucky fans are. I don’t know what else you could look at, what else you could say or what else would wow him. If you’re a player, that’s the kind of atmosphere you want to play in.

DR: What’s next for Quincy?

Coach Pitts: I’m sure that’s not a one and done situation, just go to UK and that’s it and don’t visit anywhere else. I would think not. He’s going to take five (official) visits. That would be my advice but who knows? If a kid likes a place enough that they say this is where I want to go, which he hasn’t indicated that to me, so I don’t know. I would just imagine that’s the process. I know that UK, they do a good job and, like I said what is not to like, but I don’t know that so I can’t sit here and say whether he’ll take another visit or he won’t. Who knows?

Lastly, this week and next might be a little slower for me so I thought we could take some time to clear up some of the questions you guys might have about who we are recruiting and where we stand with each kid. Sort of a “regroup and get ready for Spring signing period” thing. So feel free to follow me on twitter and send questions to me via the @dustinrumbaugh reply and I’ll direct message the answer back to ya. On a slow day, I’ll post some of the best questions on the site.