Not Jerry Tipton's Friday Basketball Notebook

The season is over. To stay apprised and educated, follow me on Twitter @NotJerryTipton. Here’s the weekly notebook: *I'm Goin' Down: This has not been a good week for Kentucky fans. The season ended Monday, and immediately Big Blue Nation started worrying about which UK players would be leaving early for the NBA. As many as five underclassmen have been rumored to be declaring for the Draft (Kyle Wiltjer isn't good enough), which means that Cat fans should expect many more sleepless nights until the April 29 deadline. And to make matters worse, many preseason publications have released their 2012-13 preseason polls, and most of these polls have UK rivals Louisville and Indiana in or near the #1 spot. In other words, not only will Kentucky probably lose all their best players, but their most hated adversaries will be really good next year. Any way you look at it, Big Blue Nation can not be happy right now. *I'm On Fire: This has not been a good week for Kentucky fans. Last Saturday and Monday night, several UK fans set fire to couches, flipped over cars, and generally caused a ruckus all over Lexington, casting a negative light on the city. By comparison, there were no such acts of vandalism in towns such as Chapel Hill, NC, Bloomington, IN, Lawrence, KS, etc. If a blue chip recruit is trying to decide where to play his college basketball, it stands to reason that he would much prefer to play at a location where his car isn't in danger of getting overturned and his couch isn't likely to be set on fire. The University of Louisville, for example, was quiet as a mouse on Monday night. In fact, it was even reported that the only noise emanating from the UofL campus at midnight Monday was "a soothing sound that resembled gentle weeping." Leave it to Louisville to make Lexington look bad. *Cover Me: This has not been a good week for Kentucky fans. Last Saturday night, Kentucky played Louisville in a game in which UK was favored by 9 points. However, the Cats failed to cover the spread. In other words, Louisville overperformed and Kentucky underperformed. This very well may make it exceedingly difficult for John Calipari to convince recruits to come play for him, especially when one realizes that rival coaches are very likely to use this against him in recruiting. To compound matters, Kentucky played Kansas two nights later, and was favored by 7. If not for a late blocked shot by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, they would have failed to cover that spread as well. Regardless of where your rooting interests lie, you are naïve if you think high school superstars don't notice what the Kentucky basketball team did last weekend. * On this date: On this date in 2011, Kentucky was coming off a Final Four loss to UConn. The Cats would lose 3 of their top 6 players in the NBA Draft, and there were many questions surrounding what kind of team John Calipari would be able to field the following season.