OSU Athletic Director and 2011 NCAA Tournament Selection Committee Chairman Gene Smith via www.cantonrep.com

Mr. Smith, would you say that this Kentucky team gained, grew, jumped, hopped, leapt, or hurdled in the eyes of the voters on Friday evening, or would it be a more apt description that The Ohio State University team "slid"  a little?

What would you like to ask Mr. Smith today?

story: Gene Smith talks about the seeding decision for The University of Kentucky Wildcats (from March 13)

Some interesting comments from Roy (last week):

Q: Obviously, the recruiting battle you had to go through to get Henson – along with plenty of your other players – was intense. What are your feelings about the process you have to go through to land a top player these days? Toward the end of your career at Kansas, you expressed frustration at the "seediness" of the recruiting game.

A: I still get those feelings sometimes, but not like I had at that time. What I’ve tried to continue to do is to make good judgments about people and to try to recruit kids like Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison. There are so many great players out there. I just choose to try not to recruit in situations that I think have the possibility of being unpleasant. Since Nick, Kirk and Drew Gooden came along, I haven’t been involved in very many bad recruiting situations. We’ve lost some guys. Delvon Roe – we thought we had him. We thought it was a done deal, the whole bit. We ended up losing him. We’ve lost some other kids, but at least it hasn’t been the messy kind of thing that it was getting to be a couple of years ago.

Q: Why didn’t you make more of an effort to recruit John Wall, the nation’s No. 1-ranked player who signed with Kentucky? He’s from Chapel Hill.

A: That gets so much publicity here. A friend of mine who is also a friend of his asked me to call him [during the Final Four] and talk to him about the recruiting process. I made one phone call to him and that was it. He’s the best point-guard prospect I’ve seen since Jason Kidd. I love the way he plays. It was a tough situation for us with so many other things going on, so we chose not to go there. But he’s the best point-guard prospect I’ve seen since Jason Kidd – just a tremendous, tremendous player.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=jn-williamsqa111609&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Just wondered if I could get a little feedback about the Envy & Fear slogan I've seen around.  (Full disclosure:  okay, I just want to get my two-cents worth out there.)

"Envy Our Past.  Fear our Future."

Do you like this slogan?

I hate it. 

(1) Our Past -- yes, I'm proud of our past.  UK has great tradition.  We should honor it, and definitely make sure the world knows about it.

(2) Our Future -- we are gonna be good.

(3) Our Slogan -- this slogan seems to be of the "smack talk" variety.  These are a lot of fun.  But who ever heard of talking smack about "what we used to be" and "what we're gonna be?"  It's ridiculous.

Why not just say "We were really good back in the day, and someday we will be again!  UK Basketball."

Bleh.

In this wild news cycle, my post is already dated.  But I thought I'd provide the info anyway, FWIW.

C.M. Newton was interviewed by an Alabama radio host on Thursday evening to talk about the Alabama basketball coaching search.  He made a few comments of interest to us.  (some of this may be paraphrased)

* Billy Gillispie is a heck of a coach.  Is he the right fit at Kentucky?  I don't know.  Does he really understand the job?  That's a critical part of this.

* I really don't know [what is going on at Kentucky].  I can't read it.....certainly two years is not long enough in my opinion.  But I don't know the circumstances.  You hear this rumor and that rumor.  Not being there, I can't comment on that.  There has to be something involved other than just straight basketball.

* [if offered to Billy Donovan,] it's a better job offer now than it was two years ago.  Following Tubby Smith was not going to be real easy.  Tubby was such a great people person and so forth.  I think the expectations have lowered.  Kentucky has been humbled a little bit.  Will those expectations change?  Absolutely.

* From a purely professional, basketball decision, Donovan has no real decision to make if he wants to coach at one of the 4 or 5 or 6 premier programs in the country.  His only decision is the personal one [regarding uprooting his family].  Professionally, I'd tell him to go for it.

I would point out that C.M. made these remarks casually as part of a conversation that was focused on the Alabama situation and absolutely made no claims of being in-the-loop regarding the Kentucky situation.

source:  The Paul Finebaum Radio Network
http://www.finebaum.com/

Memorial Coliseum.  Basketball Glory!

Old gym, students on the floor, loud!

This is what it looks like. (May the gods of Kentucky basketball forgive me.)

Pre-Tip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc0kfuc2Ckk
Tip-Off
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvaKIBtPIIQ
Time-Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt47NvY2L_A

There are no fans like Kentucky fans.  During up years and down years, we root on the Cats.  We don't need a top-ten opponent to get excited.  Let's rock the house!