Noel named Wayman Tisdale Finalest

Media Release from the University of Kentucky...


Noel Named a Wayman Tisdale Finalist
Award goes to Freshman of the Year


LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel is among eight players announced by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) as a finalist for the Wayman Tisdale Award, honoring the nation's top freshman for the 2012-13 college basketball season on Monday.

Noel started in all 24 games played prior to suffering a season-ending ACL injury on Feb. 12 at Florida. He was averaging 10.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 2.1 steals and 4.4 blocks per game, while shooting at a 59 percent rate from the field.

The Everett, Mass., native swatted 106 opponent attempts which ranked second in UK single-season history and third among all-time Southeastern Conference freshman in just 24 games. He set a new Kentucky single-game standard with 12 blocks at Ole Miss. In addition to his shot blocking prowess, he garnered 50 steals at a rate of 2.083 swipes per game which ranks as the seventh best per game average in UK single-season history.

Noel led the nation in blocks per game, while also ranking among the top-30 nationally in rebounds and steals per game. He was the only player standing 6-5 or taller who ranked in the top-30 for steals.

Furthermore, he had 14 double-figure scoring outings. He charted five double-double efforts, had two or more blocked shots in 20 of 24 games played and had at least one steal in 21 games. His six swipes against Baylor tied for the most in a single game in the John Calipari era.

Others finalists include Anthony Bennett, UNLV; Jahil Carson, Arizona State; Gary Harris, Michigan State; Ben McLemore, Kansas; Shabazz Muhammad, UCLA; Marcus Smart, Oklahoma State; and Rasheed Sulaimon, Duke.

Former Wildcats Anthony Davis and John Wall have previously been named USBWA’s Freshman of the Year.
The USBWA has chosen a national Freshman of the Year since the 1988-89 season when LSU's Chris Jackson was the recipient. This is the second year it is named for the late Wayman Tisdale who was a three-time USBWA All-American at the University of Oklahoma.

Huntington Prep wins big on Senior Day

(Huntington Prep Senior Day ceremony). #33 Moses Kingsley (Arkansas), #23 Carlos Arroyo, #14 Patrick Straight, #3 Travon Landry (Tennessee),  #12 Dominic Woodson (Baylor), #24 Williams Otor Gabriel, #11 Xavier Rathan-Mayes (Florida State), #22 Andrew Wiggins

At Boyd County Middle School, Huntington Prep destroyed United Leadership Academy (Canada) 131-64 in front of 200 fans. Everyone in attendance witnessed what Andrew Wiggins was all about from soaring dunks, to long range threes,  the crowd oohed and awed as Wiggins did what Wiggins does. To him, it's just a game, to those in attendance it's a chance to see what they hope will turn out to be a future Wildcat. But for now, Andrew is just a kid that happens to be the best in the country at what he does, playing basketball.  

From the get go it was clear that ULA had no answer whatsoever for Wiggins as he got to the basket anytime he wanted, most of the time for a head above the rim dunk. It didn't matter who guarded him or how many, Andrew was getting to the rim to score. At the half he had 28pts and that was with coach Fulford taking him out with a little under a minute to go.

Second half saw much of the same, except this time Wiggins would also show off his outside shot draining  three three's in the second half. But the play that brought the crowd to its feet was an off the backboard dunk set up by Xavier Rathan-Mayes who also had a very impressive game. Rathan-Mayes ended the game with a triple double 16pts, 20asts and 12 rebounds. This kid is extremely talented, Florida State is getting a good one in Rathan-Mayes.

When the final horn sounded, Prep had won their 30th game of the year on the back of Andrew Wiggins' game high 40pts. 

When the game was over, Prep had their Senior Day ceremony honoring the ones who are graduating this season. When you look at the picture above you realize just how much talent is actually on this team. They may be known for playing basketball, but they are also all excellent students and just genuinely good kids. I've watched this team play many times this season and everywhere they go they are hounded for pictures and autographs from young and old alike and never once have they turned someone away. They always make time for the fans, something not many high school athletes would take the time to do. 

Now that the season is over, I'd like to thank coach Rob Fulford and his staff for giving us the opportunity to cover his team for our site. It has helped us out tremendously we can't thank you enough, we look forward to seeing you guys again next year.

UK/Arkansas official box-score

Kentucky vs Arkansas recap

After coming home from seeing Andrew Wiggins (who scored 40pts today)  and Huntington Prep destroy a team from Canada 131-64, I found Kentucky down 1 with 3:47 to go in the first half. They seemed to have played decent despite some of the usual senseless turnovers they always seem to have. Defense looked to be solid as the Cats closed out on shooters fairly decent.

The funniest thing in the first half was the crowd chanting "Justin Beiber" whenever Jarrod Polson touched the ball. Gotta love drunk college students...

Kentucky went in at the half down 32-29 thanks in large part to 11 turnovers and the Cats' lack of rebounding allowing Arkansas to collect 10 offensive rebounds.


                                  HALFTIME STATS:

POLOSN: 4PTS, 1REB
GOODWIN: 9PTS, 3REBS
CAULEY-STEIN: 5PTS, 6REBS
WILTJER: 5PTS, 4REBS, 1AST
MAYS: 0PTS, 4REBS
HARROW: 4PTS, 1REB, 1AST
POYTHRESS: 2PTS, 3REBS

Kentucky cannot have Mays and Poythress not scoring when they are playing in this type of atmosphere. I said in my preview to this game that EVERYONE would have to give 100% for Kentucky to win in Fayetteville, at the half that wasn't the case...


Kentucky opened the second half with two free-throws from Poythress cutting the Hogs' lead to 32-31, then immediately gave up a wide open three then turned it over on the other end which turned into an Arkansas dunk to make the score 37-31. At times this team can be so frustrating to watch just because of some of the silly mistakes they make, turnovers will be the end to this team when it matters.

After turning it over, yet again while trying to inbound the ball, Arkansas cashed in on a "and one" taking their largest lead of the game 43-31. Alex Poythress cut it down to 43-33 after a nice move to the basket. I don't think any player other than Cauley-Stein has improved more over the last couple of weeks than Alex Poythress. He just seems more comfortable and confident on the floor than he was earlier in the season.

With Jarrod Polson taking more and more of Ryan Harrow's minutes, he has to be concerned about playing time next year. I promise you, if Harrow doesn't improve drastically, he will not see the floor at all next season. That goes for any of this years freshman that may elect to come back for another year, with so much talent coming in,  I could see many players from this years team leaving who really has no business.

With 13:02 to go, the Hogs turned on their full-court press and forced so many Kentucky turnovers in so little time I lost count as Arkansas built their lead back to 12 at 52-40. Some may not agree, but I really believe the crowd played just as big of a role in Kentucky's performance as Arkansas' defense did.  They just looked completely intimidated the entire second half, the louder the crowd got, the worse they played, it was just simply hard to watch.

With 8:50 to go in the game, Kentucky seemed like they were ready to get on a plane and head back to Lexington as Arkansas stormed out to a 59-44 lead and made it look easy while doing it. That's what happens when you turn it over 7 times in the second half and only get three made field goals. I said coming in, the fact that the Hogs averaged 9 steals per game and Kentucky averaged 13 turnovers, that it could be a disastrous night if the Cats didn't value every single possession and they clearly didn't.

Interesting site during the game was when Ryan Harrow fouled Haydar of Arkansas with 1:11 to go, Calipari yelled "you don't foul, you just play basketball".

Kentucky drops one on the road 73-60, but the game wasn't even that close. Kentucky for the last part of the first half and the entirety of the second played scared and as Cal says, "not to lose". But what initially cost them the game was 19 turnovers and giving up 20 offensive rebounds. I don't care who you are, when you turn the ball over at that rate and give up that many offensive rebounds, you will lose.

Up next is Georgia.....

Huntington Prep in action tomorrow at BCMS

This will be your final notice about any high school games concerning Andrew Wiggins as this will be his last game in the area in a high school uniform. This time next season he will be gearing up for a run at a National Championship at either Kansas, Florida State, Kentucky or North Carolina. You've had multiple chances to see the Nations #1 ranked player, if you didn't taken advantage of any of those, then tomorrow at 2pm at Boyd County Middle School is your last one.

Not only will you be seeing the best high school player in the country, but you'll also be seeing other future Division 1 players that suit up for Huntington Prep as well. Huntington head coach Rob Fulford has some of the best high school players in the country and you can tell just by who they have decided to play for at the collegiate level. Here's a little sample of what coach Fulford has had at his disposal this season....

                                              

 Dominic Woodson (signed with Baylor)

Andrew Wiggins (undecided between Kentucky, Kansas, UNC and FSU)

Moses Kingsley (signed with Arkansas)

Xavier Rathan-Mayes (signed with Florida State)

Travon Landry (signed with Tennessee)

Like I said, that was just a small sample of what the Express of Huntington Prep brings to the table every single game as they have some amazing underclassman that are going to be just as talented. So, now that you know what Huntington Prep has to offer when you attend one of their games, I can't see any reason why anyone wouldn't want to go and see the show these kids are capable of putting on.

This group hasn't just been beating teams, they've destroying them and couple of them have been small college JV teams, don't believe me...

December 12 they defeated University of Charleston JV 99-53

January 9 they defeated Alice Lloyd JV 85-41

February 7 they defeated Marietta College JV 111-59

The scary part about those scores are, neither team nor coach would run the score up on anyone, they all respect the game too much for that.  It's just that no matter who coach Fulford puts in the game, they can play at a higher level than who they are going against most of the time. They are truly an entertaining team to watch to say the least. 

So if your looking for a fun way to spend you Saturday afternoon, stop by Boyd County Middle School tomorrow at 2pm if you want to see basketball being played the way it should be...

pre Arkansas press conference videos

UK father/son basketball camp

Media release from the University of Kentucky.....



Men’s Basketball Announces Multiple Father/Son Camps
Camps to take place in June

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Due to its overwhelming popularity over the last few years, the University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball program is pleased to announce two separate sessions of the 2013 John Calipari Father & Son Camps.

The John Calipari Father & Son Camp Session 1 is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, June 7-8, while Session 2 is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, June 14-15 (Father’s Day weekend).

A limited number of spots are available for all camps and are based on a first-come, first-serve basis, with online registration (www.ukathletics.com/camps) recommended as the fastest and most efficient form of registering campers. All of the camps listed were SOLD OUT the last two summers, so early registration is encouraged to secure a spot.

Traditionally the most popular camp, the 2013 Father & Son Camp will be split into two separate summer sessions. These weekend camps offer a unique father/son bonding experience that only Kentucky Basketball can provide. This year’s father and son participants will be treated to instruction from the UK coaches and staff, along with current and former Wildcat players through detailed skill work and competitions in the best facilities in college basketball.

Father and son teams will compete with fellow campers of appropriate age groups (based on son’s age/grade level) in competitions that incorporate skills learned throughout the camp. The skill work is designed to give both father and son drills and techniques to take home and continue working on together. This camp is open to all fathers and sons ages 6-17, regardless of previous basketball experience.

Once camp registration is complete, participants will receive a confirmation email, with details of necessary paper work needed (physical, insurance and consent), along with a list of items campers will need to bring for camp. Any camp related questions can be called into the Men’s Basketball camp line at 859-257-9457 or 859-257-1916.