SB Nation User Blog: JLeverenz

Putting Kentucky's recent seasons into context

JLeverenz — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:08:21 -0000

There’s been a lot of understandable weeping and gnashing of teeth among the BBN lately over the fall from national prominence of “once proud Kentucky”. There is a feeling that UK as a program shouldn’t have to go through these kinds of struggles, but I think it would be helpful to gain some perspective on UK’s performance the past few seasons by looking at what a couple of comparable power programs have gone through this decade.

There are two historically great programs that have been through rough stretches this decade. UNC is familiar to pretty much everyone, but I think most people forget that UCLA also fell off the college basketball map not too long ago. For those two programs I’ve listed seasons beginning with the last time each made the NCAA tournament prior to their first bad season and ending with their first season attaining notable success thereafter.

UNC

SEASON	RECORD	CONF RECORD	POSTSEASON	NOTABLE LOSSES
2000-01	26-7	13-3	2 seed NCAA, 2nd round
2001-02	8-20	4-12		Hampton, Davidson, Ohio (home), College of Charleston (neutral)
2002-03	19-16	6-10	NIT, 3rd round	Iona (Neutral)
2003-04	19-11	8-8	6 seed NCAA, 2nd round
2004-05	33-4	14-2	1 seed NCAA, Champs

UCLA

SEASON	RECORD	CONF RECORD	POSTSEASON	NOTABLE LOSSES
2001-02	21-12	11-7	8 seed NCAA, Sweet 16	Pepperdine (home), Ball State (neutral)
2002-03	10-19	6-12		San Diego, Northern Arizona (home)
2003-04	11-17	7-11		UC-Santa Barbara (home)
2004-05	18-11	11-7	11 seed NCAA, 1st round
2005-06	33-7	14-4	2 seed NCAA, Finals

Notice that UNC and UCLA each had seasons well below .500 that included some embarrassing home losses on the same order as what UK went through last year. Both went through a coaching change (oddly enough both occurred in 2003), and both had a mediocre re-appearance in the NCAA tournament before getting back to the Final Four.

Now here’s Kentucky. Since UK hasn’t had a below .500 season recently, I started with their last notable NCAA appearance which was the Elite 8 run a few years ago.

UK

SEASON	RECORD	CONF RECORD	POSTSEASON	NOTABLE LOSSES
2004-05	28-6	14-2	2 seed NCAA, Elite 8
2005-06	22-13	9-7	8 seed NCAA, 2nd round
2006-07	22-12	9-7	8 seed NCAA, 2nd round
2007-08	18-13	12-4	11 seed NCAA, 1st round	Gardner-Webb, San Diego, Houston

Wow. Kind of makes you appreciate our guys a bit more doesn’t it? Despite their struggles, at no point has UK been anywhere near as bad as UCLA and UNC have been in the recent past. UK has kept their NCAA appearance streak intact while finishing better than .500 in conference every year – something neither UNC nor UCLA can claim.

I’m not about to predict a Final Four appearance for this year’s squad – that would just be silly. But I think a Sweet 16 appearance is very much possible and I remain optimistic about this year’s team. I firmly believe that once the PG situation gets straightened out everything else will fall into place and this will be the best UK team since 2004-2005.

Poll

I still BELIEVE! (that UK will...)

Joe Blanton (and friends) wins the World Series!

JLeverenz — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:12:31 -0000

Former UK pitcher Joe Blanton and the Phillies finished off the suspended Game 5 and the Tampa Bay Rays last night, 4 - 3. Cole Hamels was named WS MVP (cue Wildcat supporters claiming anti-UK bias on the part of the media for the snub of Sluggin' Joe)

Blanton won Game 4 for the Phillies, going 6 IP, giving up 2 ER on 4 hits and 2 BB while striking out 7 and adding his first ever homerun for good measure. For the 2008 postseason he was 2-0 in 3 games with a 3.18 ERA in 17 innings, striking out 18 while walking 6 batters and giving up 16 hits. Joe is now 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in 4 career postseason games.

Joe is the only UK player to ever pitch in the World Series, and of course is also the only UK player to ever win a game in the World Series.

Joe is the second UK player to play in the World Series; the other was Jim Leyritz who played in 3 World Series in the 1990's with the Yankees (1996 and 1999) and the Padres (1998).

Kentucky doesn't have much history of good MLB players, so celebrate Joe's accomplishment and be proud that he is one of ours!

Let's have a survey! Favorite sports blogs (non-UK division)

JLeverenz — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:53:24 -0000

We need a new fanpost to spur some interaction and discussion! I was kicking around the idea of doing this during the summer, but never got around to it (yes, I am that lazy). What are your favorite (non - UK related) blogs to read?

So here's the deal, just list some (or all) of your favorite non-UK sports blogs. Provide the links to each one, and maybe a few comments about what you like about each.

I think this will do a couple of things:

a) Give us all a chance to get better acquainted with our fellow ASoBers (am I the only one who gets fleeting thoughts of a non-endearing phrase every time I read "ASoB"?).

b) Introduce some great blogs to each other.

c) I don't really have a third benefit, but I think lists should always have at least 3 items.

I'll go first. All of mine are baseball related as MLB is my favorite sport along with college basketball.

Athletics Nation : A fellow SBN blog that covers the Oakland A's. I've been an A's fan since I was a kid and Rickey Henderson was flying around the bases. AN has given me the chance to become more connected to my favorite team than I ever thought possible and it's one of the most active blogs out there.
FireJoeMorgan : Exposing lazy, irrational, and just plain bad sports writing in a humorous and entertaining way. Despite the name, they'll write about any and all sport writers and announcers, not just Joe Morgan. If you want to tear your teeth out every time you watch Around the Horn, this blog is for you.
Joe Posnanski : In contrast to #2, Joe Posnanski is one of the best sports writers out there. He writes for the Kansas City Star and mostly covers the Royals, but in his blog he writes about whatever happens to be on his mind that day, not just baseball.
Shysterball : As the name suggests, the blogger here (Craig Calcaterra) is a lawyer by profession, and is yet another example of how you can find great and compelling writing anywhere.
Rob Neyer : (ESPN Insider req'd) I debated whether I should include Rob, because his blog isn't free, but it's also the sole reason I have an Insider subscription.

There are a few more that I visit now and again, but those are the ones that I check multiple times daily.

Poll

What is your favorite sport to read a blog about?

college basketball

16 votes

college football

1 votes

college baseball

0 votes

MLB

1 votes

NBA

0 votes

NFL

1 votes

Hockey

1 votes

Soccer

1 votes

Other

1 votes

22 votes | Poll has closed

Who should the new assistant coaches be?

JLeverenz — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:42:45 -0000

One of the big questions about the off-season is whether Tubby will make changes to his assistant coaches. I think it is safe to say that a majority of UK fans would like to see somebody brought in who can really coach offense. My question is, who is this 'someone'?

Realistically you're not going to get anyone who is currently a head coach at a Div 1 school to come and be an assistant coach. You could see a currently unemployed head coach (or should that be 'unemployed former head coach'?), but the only one I can think of who fits that criteria is the recently-axed Tommy Amaker and I don't think he's the answer.

I think the best bet is to find an assistant coach on either a low-level BCS conference team, or a high-level mid-major. Unfortunately I don't have a clue as to who the assistant coaches are on any of these kinds of teams, nor do I have any idea which of them would be "offensive guys" (that's the good kind of 'offensive').

So my question to Big Blue Nation is, who would make a good assistant coach for our beloved Cats?

Street Diary on ESPN.com

JLeverenz — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 16:45:17 -0000

Apparently ESPN.com has swiped an idea from Blez and will have Huston Street post periodic diaries on the site. In his first diary he talks about what it's like to be a closer and how he handles the pressure. It's all stuff that I don't recall reading or hearing from other closers before, so it's nice to hear a fresh perspective and new comments about the job. In particular I like how he describes pressure as essentially an emotion and how he can control it by controlling his mind. I think he removes any possible lingering doubt about whether he can handle the ninth inning.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=street_huston&id=2073394

I'm not sure if this is an Insider article or not, I saw 2 links, one with the Insider logo by it, the other without.

Sweeney's limited no trade clause

JLeverenz — Wed, 11 May 2005 00:15:51 -0000

I've seen Mike Sweeney's limited no trade clause discussed, but haven't seen any details as to what teams it might or might not apply to. While reading the latest dialogue between Rob Neyer and Rany Jazayerli concerning the Royals on Neyer's website, I found a little nugget of information about it.

The link is http://www.robneyer.com/robrany.html

They started by talking about Mike Sweeney and how Baird should consider trading him now while he is

smoking the ball
not injured

The Yankees are the only team they mentioned by name as a possibility (which makes me think that all the talk of the A's trading for Sweeney is occuring on AN only), but Rany made one comment concerning Sweeney's limited no trade clause that I took particular notice of:

Rany:... Plus, there's the small matter of the no-trade clause in Sweeney's contract which only allows us to trade him without permission to eight teams. I don't know which teams they are, but I'm quite sure that most of them are on the west coast.

So it appears that west coast teams are among the few that the Royals can deal him to without problems. While I think that Sweeney would certainly provide a big boost to the offense for this year, I'm not sure the size and length of his contract make him that attractive as a long term option, not to mention the number of prospects it would require to pry him loose. That being said, if Beane can get him for a relative pitance and find some way to make the money work, I think he should go for it.

I would still like to see Dan Johnson, Matt Watson, and friends get a shot at some regular AB's in The Show though.

BTW, if you like Neyer but aren't in the habit of reading these conversations about the Royals, I highly recommend them for their entertainment value. Even if you're not a Royals fan (I'm not), I think it's nice to read some informed, regular perspective on other teams.

Recap from Hudson vs Mulder I

JLeverenz — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 15:17:36 -0000

I went to the Braves game last night and wanted to share some thoughts about the first matchup between Huddy and Mark. Unfortunately the game didn't live up to the hype, but it was still nice to be able to see both guys pitch.

First of all, driving into Atlanta, my friend Tim and I were listening to Buck and Kincaid on 680, when to my pleasant surprise Mychael Urban came on to talk about Aces and the Big 3. He mostly related stories from the book, but also made a few comments that stuck out to me:

When asked who Zito misses more between Hudson and Mulder, Urban said he thought it was Hudson since Zito used to talk to him about the art of pitching and now he doesn't have anyone like that on the current team.
When talking about how Zito and his outside interests are percieved by a lot of people, he made the comparison with Shaq, saying that people who think Shaq would shoot better free throws if he wasn't making rap albums were just being silly. I'd never thought of it like that, but I think it's an apt comparison.
On a side note, Buck and Kincaid were both very positive when talking about the Oakland organization. It's nice to hear our guys get some respect from other parts of the nation.

From the game:

Hudson had a rough time in the first inning, but a few of the hits should have been played better by the defense, IMO. On Edmond's single, Mondesi threw home instead of to the cut off man. While Mondesi has a good arm, he didn't have a shot at getting the runner going home and he could have gotten Edmonds in a run down if he had gone to the cut off man, or at least kept him at first base and it might have kept Walker at second. The inning ended on a high note though, Huddy made an outstanding catch on a bunt attempt that was popped up, then caught the runner off of third.

Mulder had a slightly easier time in his first inning, but the defense still let him down to. The single that Andruw Jones hit should have been fielded by Eckstein, and any real shortstop would have had that ball and ended the inning, instead 2 runners scored.

Both of them picked a runner off base, Hudson got Cedeno and Mulder got Jones. The moves were pretty good and they had both guys fooled. I personally took great pleasure in watching both getting picked off.

All in all it was an okay game, I wish they would pitched a little better, but I don't think they were as bad as their final lines indicate.