"Season Never Ends" Thursday News and Views

by:Matt Jones11/06/08
We continue our work with a good advertiser for KSR, offering a wonderful gift for the holiday season: What's the most repeated phrase when we show people what's inside the pages of the Kentucky basketball calendar? "I was at that game." Kentucky's first win in Rupp. Rondo hitting a three to beat South Carolina. Chapman floating a runner to send the Tennessee game to overtime. Macy draining a technical foul shot to beat Kansas in miracle fashion. If you were "at that game" you'll love reading this calendar. Created by two UK Alumns, "Kentucky Basketball: The Season Never Ends 2009 Calendar" is a 365-day box calendar featuring the greatest moments in UK basketball history on the days they happened. The calendar is just like the boxed calendars you find at bookstores during the holiday season. Only instead of "365 Dogs" or "365 Paper Airplanes" you can have 365 days of UK basketball, and nothing but UK basketball. As with any licensed UK product, UK gets 10% of the royalties, so not only is it a new, unique gift idea, it's one that also helps the school. Available in Lexington at Kentucky Korner, Kennedy's, Joseph-Beth, AllSports, The Kentucky Store, Keeneland Gift Shop, Cat Fan Attic and Alumni Hall. Available in Louisville at JD Becker, Kentucky Korner and Cardboard Heroes. Available at Kentucky's Best (Owensboro), The Paper Tiger (Newport), Kentucky Haus (Newport) and Mom's Diner (Middletown, OH) If you can't find it there, you may buy it online at www.ukcal.com or www.seasonneverends.com. Suggested retail price is $19.99 per calendar. To the news..... (1): The biggest piece of news of the day is of course the transfer of Jai Lucas from Florida. As we wrote on here earlier today, I feel bad for Lucas, who I believe always wanted to come to Kentucky but was part of a late situation that had him end up at Florida for reasons that may have been a bit out of his control. He has now been allowed to leave the University, in part because it is rumored that the new Florida team may have Nik Calathes as its primary ball handler. What is next for Jai is difficult to figure out, but early word is that Oklahoma State and Baylor may be his initial top choices. There has of course been a lot of talk about transferring to Kentucky, but that will be very difficult to make happen. He would have to agree to sit out the transfer year, but also to pay his next year by conference rules. He could of course choose to do that (and the Lucas family could certainly afford it), but it isnt clear that Billy Donovan would allow the in-conference transfer to occur. Add to that the fact that Gillispie already has a couple of young point guards and GJ Vilarino coming in and the possibility of Lucas at Kentucky is remote. Still yet, I hope all will wish Lucas well. He is a part of UK recruiting lore and the building of this site for years to come. (2): On the basketball end of things, we get ready for the scrimmage against Ouachita Baptist on Friday night. Again, little is known about Ouachita (although Mosley is hard at work finding the information out), but the game is likely to be another exercise in differentiating the lineup for Gillispie this year. Last season, the Cats had four good to very good players (Patterson, Crawford, Bradley and Jasper) and then lots of guys who were not very good and who really couldnt give a lot off the bench. Now the Cats have two stars (Patterson and Meeks) and the difference between guys 3-11 is not that great. That means that who plays the best will get the minutes and lots of minutes are there for the taking. Friday night's game will be a huge opportunity and it will be interesting to see who can step up in the same way that Darius Miller and Josh Harrellson did the other night. (3): On the football end of things, the news out of practice has been almost nonexistent....which is good. Injuries are few and far between and the team is getting healthy for the big showdown against Georgia. As was reported earlier in the week Jess Beets is gone for the year, meaning the offensive line again will have a hole to fill. The OL is banged up to such a degree that the plan seems to be to allow Randall Cobb to roll out more and give him time to get the ball down field. Most everyone around the program agrees that they will have to put points on the board to beat Georgia and that simply running a game control offense wont work. Look for a couple of big play attempts early on Saturday to make a statement and get the offense going. (4): The bowl situation continues to be a hot topic. With the Chik-Fil-A Bowl in town, it bears repeating again that Atlanta is slowly becoming the most likely destination for the Cats this season. If the Cats win 1 or 2 games, Atlanta still beckons as the most likely option, unless the Atlanta bowl decides Ole Miss is a better draw than the Cats. I am hearing that even with one win, the 7 pm game on New Years Eve in Atlanta would pit the Cats against the ACC #2 team. So watch UNC-Boston College this weekend.....whoever loses could very well end up being the Cats' opponent in Cat-lanta. (5): Finally, QB recruit Ryan Mossakowski is injured and his high school career is done. However the injury isnt too serious and he wrote a long description of where he is and what his status is with Kentucky that Beisner will put up later in the day. Mossakowski wrote it to us in email form and asked to have it put out for UK fans to show his status and desire to get going for the Blue and White. Check in around 12 pm today to see it. More throughout the day, including news on the Jaw-Ja Dogs, a peek at what goes on at Ouachita Baptist and an update on Mossakowski. Stay tuned.........

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