Charlie Coles' Tuesday News and Views

On this Tuesday edition of the News and Views, we bid adieu to Charlie Coles, who retired as head coach of the Miami Redhawks following his team's loss in the MAC tourney Monday night. We've had a lot of favorites over the years here at KSR and Charlie ranks right up there with the best of them, thanks to a soundbite from two and a half years ago. In case you have forgotten, Coles delivered one of the best postgame press conferences we've ever seen in Rupp Arena after Miami nearly upset Kentucky in Coach Cal's first season in Lexington. It took a late game-winner from John Wall (in his first game) to get the victory and prevent a horrendous loss to start the Calipari Era. After the game, Coles was asked by Dick Gabriel how the game got away from his team... "Well, Cousins became Cousins." "You remember John Wall?" News and Views...   We're just a couple days away from the 2012 SEC Tournament in New Orleans and if you aren't excited already, you need to get that way. On Monday, Calipari said this tournament is going to be outstanding, citing an increased level of competition in the league as the reason it's going to be so good. He called this season the strongest he has seen the league in his three years at Kentucky, and he still stands by his claim that five or six SEC teams are "Sweet 16 teams" in the NCAA tournament. "This is a strong, strong league," he said. It's interesting to hear Calipari's constant praise of the opposing teams and coaches in the conference, considering his team went 16-0 in league play. By saying the conference is the strongest it has ever been in his three years at Kentucky, he's in turn saying his own team is the best it has been since he's been at Kentucky. If the SEC is as good as Cal advertises, how good is he saying UK is? The Cats won by nine or more points in all but three of its conference gams.   Look for a little more Kyle Wiltjer on the floor during the SEC and NCAA tournaments. During Monday's SEC teleconference, Calipari said Wiltjer deserves more minutes, thanks to his improvement on defense and on the boards. He said he is staying on Terrence Jones and the other starters about subbing themselves out more to get Kyle more time on the court. He said, "I’m telling Terrence, ‘The kid deserves more minutes. Get your butt off the floor.’" Calipari said he may experiment with a Davis-Jones-Wiltjer frontcourt in this week. "The kid (Wiltjer) deserves more time, except Anthony and Terrence are pretty good," he said. "So it’s hard unless you play all three of them together, and we just haven’t done that that much."   Cal also had a few things to say about his point guard, Marquis Teague. He said he talked to an NBA guy at the airport in Gainesville who is very impressed with Teague's improvement: "There was a player personnel director in the airport in Florida and he just grabbed me and said, ‘You know, at the beginning of the year, Marquis drove me crazy. I watched bad shots, turnovers, out of control, playing too fast and I’m thinking, ‘Cal, you’ve got your hands full.’ Then he said, ‘I’m watching him run your team now, make good decisions, take shots that he should be taking, shooting the ball better, making free throws. I can’t believe it.’" Cal added that Teague is intelligent, tough, plays great on-ball defense and has a swagger that he likes.  Two AP voters still don't think Kentucky is the best team in the country. Nick Jezierny from The Idaho Statesment and Scott Johnson from The Daily Herald in Everett, Washington think the Cats are the second best team in the country when the 63 other voters all agree the Cats are No. 1. Do they not get ESPN in that part of the country? The Cats received all 31 votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll, too. Louisville doesn't exist in either poll.  Anthony Davis is your SEC Freshman of the Week. Yawn.  Darius Miller has been named to the Southeastern Conference Community Service team. According to the press release from UK, Darius has logged several hours in the community, including working with God’s Pantry, packing backpacks and delivering them to local elementary schools to children and families in need. He also visits children at the UK Children’s Hospital as well as other local elementary schools. Miller has also donated his time at the Ronald McDonald House as well as joined in the Cats’ Samaritan Feet project.  Miller was also selected as one of 30 candidates for the 2011-12 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award.  We already showed you the Cats on the cover of the new ESPN Magazine, but get ready for a Kentucky edition of Sports Illustrated for Kids coming out soon: Check out our own CM Tomlin in National Geographic for Kids too. Animal Friends!  While one-loss Kentucky is gracing the pages of magazines and leading the nation in swagger, one-loss Syracuse is in hot water. Again. Yahoo! Sports is reporting that 10 Syracuse basketball players since 2001 were allowed to play and practice after a failed drug test. Two sources told Yahoo! that of the 10 players, at least one player was allowed to play after failing four tests and another player played after failing three. The report doesn't include anyone from this year's team, but it isn't helping Jim Boeheim's already tarnished image. After reading the entire report, I immediately thought two things: (1) Is Carmelo Anthony involved? (2) Eric Devendorf. Read the entire report here.   Western Kentucky advanced to the finals of the Sun Belt tournament with a close win over Denver. New head coach Ray Harper has really turned the Hilltoppers around and they're just one win away from the big dance, something no one thought was possible two months ago. Seventh-seeded WKU will face fifth-seeded North Texas on Tuesday night at 7:00 ET on ESPN 2. Go Hilltoppers!!!  Go Madisonville!!! #Region2 #Road2Rupp #OneMoreWin #HopkinsvilleDoesntExist  Kentucky basketball fans have reason to be worried about March, now that the Davidson Wildcats have punched their ticket to the dance. If you recall, Dan Dakich said during the Georgia game that Davidson is a team that could upset Kentucky in the tournament. Now Davidson is officially in and UK fans should be afraid, according to Dakich.  In NBA news, reports out of Orlando say Daniel Orton will be traded. Yawn. That'll do it for now. Tune in to Kentucky Sports Radio radio at 10:00 AM with Matt Jones and the gang. Go Cats.