Not Jerry Tipton's Friday Basketball Notebook

The 2012-13 season is mercifully over, and despite having the #1 ranked recruiting class in the country, Kentucky failed to make the NCAA Tournament, and were unceremoniously dispatched in the First Round of the NIT by Robert Morris. Hard to see things being any different in 2013-14. To stay apprised and educated, follow me on Twitter @NotJerryTipton. Here’s the weekly notebook:

*Here Comes The Boom: Earlier this week, former Duke star Steve Wojciechowski took to Twitter to lambast John Calipari and Kentucky, by gleefully boasting about how many more 1st Round NBA Draft picks Coach K has produced at Duke than Coach Cal has produced at UK: 25 to 11. Though he didn’t mention Calipari by name, the truth is that he didn’t have to. The implication was clear. Coach Cal may get all the hype for churning out 1st Round draft picks, but the fact of the matter is that he hasn’t produced even half as many at UK as Coach K has at Duke. What was Calipari’s response to being put on blast by everyone’s favorite Dookie? He attempted to change the subject by bragging about graduation rates or something. But last I checked, they don’t hang banners in Rupp for that.

*Boom Boom, Out Go the Lights: Earlier this week, former Louisville star Gorgui Dieng rocked the college basketball world when he publicly guaranteed that UofL would beat Kentucky next year: “Kentucky always have a chance to win it.” It was obvious by his tone (probably, as I wasn’t there and didn’t hear him), however, that he gives the Cats no chance to beat the Cardinals next year. And he didn’t stop there. He also said that Rick Pitino is a much better coach than John Calipari: “If your body fat is over nine percent, you won’t play (for Pitino).” Wow. The implication there, of course, is that Kentucky players are a bunch of fat slobs who won’t be able to keep up with the high-flying Cards next season, who are looking to rack up their 2nd win over UK in just 6 attempts. It’s still 6 months away, but the UK-UofL tilt figures to be a classic next year, so get your popcorn ready. (And if you’re anything like UK players. you’ll probably want extra butter lol.)

*Mr. Boombastic:Mark Stoops and the UK football team has the nation’s #1 ranked recruiting class. This does not bode well for Kentucky. While John Calipari is trying to drum up support for the UK hoopsters next year, all anyone is talking about is the UK football squad. Articles have been written, blogs have been penned, and even known Kentucky hater Clay Travis called Stoops’ approach to recruiting “brilliant.” When is the last time Clay Travis called Calipari’s approach (a vanilla strategy which essentially consists of simply landing the best high school players on the planet) “brilliant?” Never, that’s when. What little momentum the basketball team had by inking the greatest class in the history of the sport was washed away when Stoops lured the Davis twins, Demitrious and Chris, away from Pittsburgh. Remember when the Harrison twins were the best-known twins on campus? Me neither.

* On this date: On this date in 2013, Louisville has the 3rd highest all-time winning percentage in the state of Kentucky, trailing only UK and Western.