Mitch Barnhart on successes, challenges of UK athletics

I’ve shared a few snippets of my conversation last Friday with Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart. You can read his thoughts on basketball scheduling here and the new contracts for the basketball coaches here.

And now here’s everything else from a long, wide-ranging chat. Barnhart talked about what has been a remarkable year in UK athletics and the challenges ahead, including state funding for a football stadium renovation, patience with the football staff, and the latest on the future of Rupp Arena.

Enjoy. The remaining Qs and As with Mitch Barnhart:

How good has this year been for you and your department, considering a men’s basketball national title, women’s Elite Eight appearance and top-10 baseball, volleyball, men’s tennis and rifle teams?

Read more: blogs.courier-journal.com

No reason is good enough for Kentucky-Indiana to end

Last season, Kentucky and Indiana combined to produce, arguably, the two most memorable games of the 2011-12 college hoops campaign.

The great border rivalry seemed on the verge of returning to the level of its 1970s, early ’80s heyday when it crackled with electricity.

So, of course, the powers that be have snuffed it out.

In a move that seemed to catch UK off guard, IU issued a news release Thursday afternoon saying, simply, Indiana will not play Kentucky next season

Doc: Do not call them ‘student-athletes

The five graduates appeared on the podium to announce their departures from the prestigious Kentucky School of Basketball. They flipped their metaphorical tassels on national TV. All that was missing was Pomp and Circumstance, and the expected job offers from the best professional basketball corporation in the world.

The live TV announcement provoked mild nausea and illustrated nicely how out of whack we are when it comes to sports. Imagine if ESPNU offered similar air time for MIT graduates: “Here they are, ladies and gentlemen, your future Nobel laureates, atom smashers and students of the human genome!’’

Read more: news.cincinnati.com

Kentucky Wildcats players set to reveal NBA draft intentions

OKLAHOMA CITY National player of the year Anthony Davis isn’t giving away whether he and four teammates from national champion Kentucky will declare for the NBA draft at a news conference Tuesday.

But with the possibility that all of his starters could leave college early, coach John Calipari said: “My guess is we’ll need a new batch.”

SMU target Larry Brown assembling coaching staff, looking at Kentucky asst

As SportsDay’s Kate Hairopoulos reported earlier today , it’s becoming increasingly evident that Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown is SMU’s top choice to become its next men’s basketball coach.

The feeling seem to be mutual. After Brown visited with SMU officials over the weekend, he came away with a glowing report of his time on the Hilltop. And now Brown seems to be recruting assistants he could bring to Dallas with him.

According to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski , Brown is seeking help from Kentucky head coach John Calipari and Creative Arts Agency agent William Wesley in putting a potential coaching staff together.

Sources told Wojnarowski that current Kentucky assistant Rod Strickland, a longtime NBA point guard, has been discussed as a possible candidate to join Brown at SMU should he land the job.

Read more: dallasnews.com

John Calipari uninterested in coaching Knicks, any NBA team

John Calipari isn’t interested in coaching the Knicks or any other NBA team according to a report by Andy Katz of ESPN.com.

“Kentucky is the best job in basketball coaching,” Calipari told Katz. “Why would I leave? We just wont he national title. We’re chasing UCLA.”

No team has even asked Calipari yet, he told Katz, but that isn’t stopping him from putting a fork in the ongoing rumors and debate

Read more: nj.com

Worldwide Wes, shoes and connections

Things quickly got pretty crazy. I learned so much so fast about basketball. Wesley seemed to be involved in everything, with every player, with every coach, with every agent … it was wild.

Four-and-a-half years later, everything I learned then matters more than ever. Thanks to his influence over LeBron James; his emerging public profile as a representative to coaches; and his positioning at the eye of the perfect storm that sees the agency he now works for, C.A.A., representing James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, coach John Calipari and others, Wesley has gone from being a curio among insiders to a full-fledged NBA celebrity, complete with his own mythology, reputation and influence. He’s even on SportsCenter.

espn.com
6/22/10

Kentucky Wildcats defeat Kansas 67-59 to claim 2012 title

University of Kentucky basketball fans like their nicknames, preferably with the same prefix. There were The Unforgettables in 1992, The Untouchables in 1996 and The Unbelievables in 1997.

This year’s Wildcats, then, could be called The Undeniables. They weathered every Kansas storm, held off one final, frantic comeback bid and won the program’s eighth NCAA championship Monday night with a 67-59 victory in the title game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Read more: courier-journal.com

Kentucky Wildcats’ coronation reshapes Coach John Calipari’s legacy

The crown fit perfectly, just as it should gave given that the Kentucky Wildcats pretty much had been parading around in it all season, and that Monday night merely was the exclamatory confirmation that the Wildcats again were the best team in college basketball.

Almost wire to wire, Kentucky sat atop the rankings. Its 67-59 victory over the Kansas Jayhawks in the national championship game inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, in front of 70,913 fans, merely was the final piece of unattended business for a program that fed an unrelentingly insatiable fan base its eighth national title, and first since 1998.

read more: nola.com

One big ring for John Calipari, and he’s not done

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – How will it end?

Fire? Flood? Plague? Locusts? Hailstorm of missed free throws?

The world is going to end now, isn’t it?

John Calipari just won the national championship for the first time, and the Ken­tucky coach did it with three first-year starters, each of whom is likely to declare himself eligible for the NBA Draft by next Tuesday’s deadline.

Hello and goodbye, An­thony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Tea­gue.

Read More: al.com