Robert Goulet's Wednesday News and Views

Its been a sad couple of days in the music world as two talented musicians from different backgrounds have recently passed. First was the sad news a couple of days ago of the death of Porter Waggoner, one of the true country music legends who is known not only for his career, but for launching the career of Dolly Parton as well. And tonight comes news of the passing of Robert Goulet. To an entire generation, Goulet may be best known for the Will Ferrell skits in which he screamed “GOULET” and talked about “having the chops” to sing the hits of the modern era. But Goulet was also a true talent who was known as one of the great crooners of his era. For Kentucky fans, Goulet may be best remembered for the commercial he did during the Pitino era for ESPN where he reminded folks that Pitino’s Cats “kick a little tush and then its back on the bus.” Goulet died while waiting for a lung transplant and our thoughts are with his family.

“Wake Forest is the team for me….baddest muthas in the ACC” “That Duncan’s kid’s name….it aint just a noun, its a verb…..a bad verb”

And my personal favorite with the immortal line, “my idea of a romantic evening is me watching hoops and you keeping your mouth shut”

To the news….

(1) Well if you havent been reading this here blog recently and you just came upon it this morning and read that the starters for tomorrow night have been announced, then you might be surprised at the names. 3 months ago, no one in their right mind would have suggested that Ramel Bradley, Jodie Meeks, Razor Ramon Harris, Perry Stevenson and Mark Coury would take the floor as starters in the opening game….but that is the case. Patrick Patterson will come off the bench due to the leftovers from his viral infection last week and Derrick Jasper will not play as he gets over his knee injury. But otherwise, the team is in tact and the starters are the above players. Meeks and Bradley are not surprises, but the fact that Joe Crawford is not in the mix is a bit disconcerting. Crawford has been known to sulk….to put it mildly…..it is oh so important that he is on board with whatever his role is this year and tomorrow night will give us our first indication if that is the case. Razor Ramon Harris getting into the lineup showcases that summer reports of his improvement were not exaggerated and that Billy Clyde wants his athleticism in the game. And Mark Coury….what can you say about the guy? 6th man on his high school team to starter at Kentucky. You gotta give it up for one of the nicest kids you will ever meet. I cant wait to see him walk out to center court tomorrow. I never thought I would see a Coury Flurry in his Sophomore year….but tomorrow it comes…..college basketball is something else.

(2) Recruiting will be picking up in the next two weeks as Chris Singleton makes his final visit to Kentucky this weekend. Tonight, Chris confirmed to The Cats Pause what he has hinted before, mainly that he is down to Kentucky and Florida State and that one of these two schools will get his services. In my last conversation with Chris, he said he wanted to have a decision by early November and it looks like it could come as soon as next week. I am always nervous when a kid is choosing between UK and Florida State because I know that Florida State’s recruiting is much different than what has been normal at UK. Chris Singleton is a HUGELY important recruit and could be the crowning jewel to a great initial class with Liggins and Miller. Get Singleton and you can take a chance on a 4th player….dont get him and you are still scrambling. The visit to the game on Saturday is very important….get Singleton and Billy Clyde truly gets an A+ on recruiting for his first go around.

(3) Disappointing news today that the UK-Vandy game is at 1 pm and will not be available anywhere on television. Part of the reason for this is that it wasnt picked up by any of the networks, but it is also partly caused by Vandy’s decision to play the game in a timeslot that is reserved for the Lincoln Financial game. This means that UK cant show the game, even on PPV and there is no way for a BBN telecast to be broadcast. With Vandy and UK both two of their best teams in years, it is patently absurd that the Dores would not do everything they could to get this game on television. A 1 pm kickoff does no one any good….and ensures that UK fans will have no method to see this very important game.

(4) We havent talked a lot about it on this blog, but the saga at Indiana is absolutely fascinating. Kelvin Sampson (or as Hubby calls him Samuel Calvinson) has always had the reputation as a guy who walks the line on the rules….then he is caught breaking phone rules as he comes to Indiana. But anyone with any degree of sense would have assumed that he would stop that practice after being caught and try and ensure that he followed all rules going forward. So what does he do? Well he goes and breaks phone rules AGAIN, ensuring that his lead assistant has to resign and IU loses (at least) one scholarship in the process. Hoosier fans have always prided themselves in the ability to say that they have run a clean program, no matter what other problems they may have had. Sampson has now taken that source of pride away from a program that truly liked to hang their hat on it. He better win and win big or his time in Bloomington may be short-lived.

More to come today, including previews of the Pikeville game and our update on Garrett Stutz….stay tuned…..

And for Bobby Goulet and Bobby Knight….