Calipari Gets a Visitor

Cal and his family had a visit from a long lost son tonight. MKG stopped by for a visit with his former coach and family. It's nice to have a coach who still keeps in touch and cares about his former players the way Cal does. If you don't think this is true, the picture above says other wise.....

Cal posted this picture on Facebook/Twitter with the following caption...

"With two of my sons"

Also, did you know that Tim Ducan drew what was probably the second technical foul of his entire career tonight? The end is near apparently.....

Waylon and Shooter Jennings Are Wildcat Fans

If you are a Waylon fan like me, then this video is sure to make your day, if you're also a Wildcat fan that is.

Turns out that in 1988, Waylon Jennings son, Shooter Jennings loved the Cats, so much so that his dad Waylon invited the team over to his house in Nashville for dinner. This is one of the coolest videos I have seen in quite sometime.

I've gotta thank H.I. who used to be a contributor to this blog for discovering this of AWESOME Wildcat history.

A.J. Reed Taken By Astros In MLB Draft Second Round

Kentucky junior left-handed pitcher/first baseman A.J. Reed has been selected in the second round of the 2014 MLB Draft, going No. 42 overall to the Houston Astros, it was announced on MLB Network at Studio 42 in Secaucus, N.J., on Thursday night.

Announced as a first baseman, Reed is the highest draft pick for Kentucky since Alex Meyer went 23rd overall to the Washington Nationals in 2011. A native of Terre Haute, Ind., Reed is the eighth player in Kentucky history to be selected in the first or second rounds of the MLB Draft. Reed is the 34th player, and the 14th top-10 round pick, in the UK head coach Gary Henderson era to be selected in the MLB Draft or sign a free-agent contract.

A 6-foot-4, 240-pound left-handed hitter, Reed completed one of the most historic seasons in college baseball history in 2014, leading the nation in homers (23), slugging (.735) and OPS (1.211), while ranking as Southeastern Conference leader, and fourth in the NCAA, in pitching victories (12). Reed hit .336 with 18 doubles, one triple, 73 RBI, 49 walks and a .476 on-base percentage. Reed finished with a 2.09 ERA in 16 starts, working 112 innings, allowing 98 hits and 29 walks, striking out 71. He is the first player in the storied history of the SEC to rank as the league leader in wins and homers.

In his storied three-year career, Reed has charted a .306 average in 172 games, with 35 doubles, three triples, 40 homers and 168 RBI, with a .559 slugging and a .415 on-base percentage. On the mound, Reed – a first-team All-America selection – has a 19-13 record with a 2.83 ERA in 248 innings, allowing just 53 walks and striking out 174.

The 2014 SEC Player of the Year, Reed has rewritten the UK record book during his career. In UK’s single-season records, Reed ranks first in homers, third in RBI, fifth in total bases, sixth in slugging, second in walks, 13th in on-base percentage, ninth in hit by pitches (14), fifth in ERA, second in wins, third in winning percentage (.857), third in starts and third in innings pitched. In UK career history, Reed ranks second in homers, second in RBI, eighth in total bases, 12th in at-bats, 12th in walks (99), 11th in sacrifice flies (nine), 10th in hit by pitch (26), third in ERA, 10th in wins and 11th in innings pitched.

The Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Year, Reed is seeking to become the third all-time SEC player to be named a unanimous national player of the year, joining Dave Magadan (1983) and David Price (2007). There are five major national player of the year awards in 2014: Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, the Golden Spikes Award, the Baseball America College Player of the Year, the American Baseball Coaches Association Player of the Year and the Dick Howser Trophy.

The MLB Draft will resume on Friday and conclude on Saturday. MLB.com's exclusive coverage of the second and third days will begin with a live Draft show at 12:30 p.m. ET on Friday.

Calipari Inks New Seven Year Deal With Kentucky

University of Kentucky men's basketball coach John Calipari, who led the Wildcats to the school's 16th NCAA Final Four appearance last season, has been rewarded with a new seven-year contract, UK Director of Athletics Mitch Barnhart announced Thursday. See attachments for the actual contract, which includes an amendment to the previous agreement along with details of the seven-year deal.

"Basketball has long been the marquee sport at the University of Kentucky,” Barnhart said. “It’s a sport that the traditions of this university and this state have been founded on. They were developed and sort of started from the get-go by Adolph Rupp and through many good people since. What Cal has done is returned us to those glory days of Final Fours and championship efforts, great players, and all along he’s helped young people understand the responsibility of going to class, of the commitment to each other and to a program that has as rich of a tradition as this one does. It has long been our goal over the last three to five years that Cal enjoy this as his final stop in coaching and that he has an opportunity to finish his career at the University of Kentucky and hopefully set standards and win championships that will be remembered for many, many years to come.”

"Under Coach Cal’s leadership, the most storied program in NCAA basketball has reached new heights of success and excellence,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “And that continued success, in which Coach Cal plays a critical leadership role, is a major reason why we have one of the handful of programs in the country that is financially self-sustaining and that has entered into an unprecedented partnership to fund nearly two-thirds of a more than $100 million science building dedicated to learning and research. As important to me, the Coach, his staff and our entire program are focused intently on putting students first in everything that they do. Nowhere is that more evident than in their continued efforts to ensure that our student athletes are prepared for success in life as well as in sports. They perform on the court and in the classroom."

In five seasons, Calipari has led the Wildcats to a 152-37 (.804 winning percentage) overall mark, including four Elite Eights, three Final Fours, two appearances in the national championship game and the 2012 national championship. Under Calipari’s tutelage, 17 Wildcats have been selected in the NBA Draft in four seasons, including 13 taken in the opening round, two No. 1 overall selections, five top-five picks and eight lottery picks.

Calipari has guided UK to two Southeastern Conference championships, a pair of SEC Tournament titles and has comprised 20 consecutive 20-win seasons, leading all active coaches with that streak. He is a mere three wins shy of becoming just the 13th active Division I coach to achieve 600 on-court victories.

“I’d like to thank Mitch (Barnhart) and Dr. Capilouto for their commitment to me, my family and the basketball staff,” Calipari said. “I’ve said over and over that I have the best job in the country. With the continued support from our administration and the greatest, craziest, fans in college basketball, we have accomplished a lot in our five quick years, but we still have lofty goals for the future. We want to continue to help young people and their families reach their dreams, while at the same time maintaining our success on the basketball court, in the classroom and in the community.”

Calipari's teams have showed remarkable success off the court. Most recently, the men’s basketball team posted a 3.11 cumulative grade-point average during the 2014 spring semester, including 10 student-athletes who amassed a 3.0 or better. It marked the sixth time in the last seven semesters the basketball team has achieved a 3.0 or higher GPA. In addition, Kentucky totaled a perfect APR score of 1,000 for the 2012-13 year.

Since Calipari arrived in Lexington, his teams have posted one-year APR scores of 979 in 2009-10, 979 in 2010-11, 977 for the 2011-12 national championship season and 1,000 for 2012-13. Kentucky’s most recent four-year composite score of 989, ranked in the 80th-90th percentile among all Division I basketball scores and the 60th-70th percentile within all Division I sports. The NCAA’s average APR for all Division I men’s basketball schools was 957.

Additionally, all 10 players at UK who were eligible to graduate by the end of their senior years, under Calipari, walked away with a degree in hand. Two of those players (Jarrod Polson and Patrick Patterson) earned a degree in just three years.

Calipari's foundation, The Calipari Foundation, has raised millions of dollars to help the lives of those in need in the Commonwealth and across the country, and in 2010, he used a telethon to raise more than $1 million for victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. He followed that up with another telethon in 2012 that raised $1 million for victims of Superstorm Sandy that ravaged the New England coast.

A year after helping raise $350,000 for charity during the inaugural UK men’s basketball alumni weekend, Calipari was the driving force behind the more than $1 million that was donated to local and national organizations during the second annual alumni weekend.

His foundation has also worked with and donated money to Samaritan's Feet, the West Liberty Recovery Fund, 4 Paws for Ability, the Starkey Hearing Foundation, the Urban League of Lexington and the V Foundation. Calipari has also headed up the EverFi Financial Literacy Program, which teaches students across Kentucky the importance of money management.

UK has hauled in the top-rated recruiting class in four of five seasons under Calipari’s direction. This year’s four-player class is rated No. 2 overall by most recruiting services and will accompany eight scholarship players from the 2013-14 national runner-up squad.

Kentucky is set to return 67 percent of its assists (300), 65 percent of minutes played, 59 percent of its scoring (1,773) and 54 percent of its rebounds (872) produced from its 2013-14 roster, which includes Willie Cauley-Stein, Aaron and Andrew Harrison, Dominique Hawkins, Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee,  Alex Poythress, and Derek Willis as scholarship returnees.

The Wildcats will also welcome four McDonald’s All-America and Jordan Brand Classic players in Devin Booker, Trey Lyles, Karl-Anthony Towns and Tyler Ulis.

SEC Network on Armstrong Cable? Possibly...

As you already know, the SEC Network will launch in August and a lot of Kentucky fans (me  and my family included) will not be able to subscribe to it as our local cable company as of right now does not carry it. 

Armstrong Cable covers a lot of people in Eastern, Kentucky and as of today, Armstrong has made no announcement on whether they will be carrying the SEC Network or not. So, after fielding many, many questions from extremely disappointed Kentucky fans and Armstrong customers, I decided to see if I could just get a response from Armstrong on the matter.

I sent them an email earlier this week and informed them that there was A LOT of Cat fans/Armstrong customers here in Kentucky that are extremely upset over the fact that they may not get to see ALL Kentucky games that will be played this season. I also informed them that Kentucky fans are the most loyal fan base of any sports team (college or professional) and they would look at other options if something wasn't done.

A few day's had passed since the email I had sent and I started to think that it got swept under the rug (especially when you consider I sent it to their complaint department and we all know how often you hear back from those) when my phone made a noise and I looked down and it was a response from Armstrong. 

This wasn't just a normal computer generated response you get when you send a complaint to the complaint department, this came from an actual person. The person was, David Wittmann who just happens to be the Vice President of Armstrong's cable marketing department. Here's MR. Wittmann's response...

“Armstrong is well aware of the passion of SEC fans.  We are in active negotiations with ESPN about adding the SEC Network when it launches in August.”

There was more in the Email, you know your basic "thank you for contacting us on this matter and we value each and every one of customers", but this was the quote I was looking for. I wanted someone to tell me if Armstrong was even looking at the possibility of carrying the SEC Network or if they were simply going to refuse it and move along without it.

Now we know that at least they are making an attempt to come to an agreement with ESPN and are hoping to have the SEC Network in their programming line-up come August. So, for the time being, relax and hope for the best and to David Wittmann, thank you for taking the time to respond to my email. It shows that you are in-fact trying to come to an agreement and please your customers in Eastern, Kentucky and everywhere else Armstrong in available.  Hats off sir...

UK Softball Wins First Ever Women's College World Series Game

Sophomore pitcher Kelsey Nunley was brilliant in the circle with only one hit allowed and five strikeouts, while senior pitcher/infielder Lauren Cumbess provided the offense by going 3-for-3 with a home run, double and two RBI, as No. 14 Kentucky posted a 4-1 win over No. 6 Louisiana-Lafayette in its 2014 Women’s College World Series opener on Thursday at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

Kentucky (50-17) stays in the winner’s bracket of the tournament and will play the winner of No. 2 Alabama and No. 7 Oklahoma on Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The winner of Friday’s game will have a day off on Saturday and automatically advances to the final of the winner’s bracket, which will determine the two teams that will in the championship final (best-of-three series).

Live stats from Friday’s game will be available on UKathletics.com, while the game will be aired live on radio in Lexington and streamed online. UK’s game on Friday can be heard live on 630-AM WLAP with Dick Gabriel and Jenny Dalton-Hill calling the action.

Nunley and Cumbess were the stars for Kentucky in the game with Nunley allowing one hit in seven innings of work, striking out five and allowing one earned run on a solo home run in the first inning. The win in the circle for Nunley moves her record to 30-9 on the season, becoming the first 30-win pitcher in program history. The native of Soddy Daisy, Tenn., is now 6-2 in NCAA Tournament play, having thrown every pitch of every NCAA Tournament game for UK this season. The sophomore has nine wins in her career in NCAA Tournament games, leading UK all-time in that category.

Cumbess led UK at the dish and was responsible for three runs with a double, home run and two RBI to go 3-for-3 in the game. The native of Normal, Ill., hit a run-scoring double in the first inning and followed with a solo home run in the fourth. The homer was her 10th home run of the season – and fourth career NCAA Tournament home run – clearing the wall in left-centerfield. Fellow senior infielder Krystal Smith had a double in the game and scored a run, while senior outfielder Ginny Carroll had a RBI on a sacrifice fly. Junior catcher Griffin Joiner was the only other Wildcat with a hit, going 1-for-2. Sophomore Sylver Samuel reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second base, marking her fifth stolen base all-time in NCAA Tournament play which is a new school record.

Louisiana-Lafayette (49-9-1) started ace Christina Hamilton in the circle with the junior going seven innings, allowing four runs – two earned – on five hits with two strikeouts. Offensively, the Ragin’ Cajuns had one hit on a solo home run in the first inning by sophomore catcher Lexie Elkins. Nunley got two quick outs to start the inning on a groundout and fly out, before Elkins hit her 23rd home run of the season. Nunley followed with a walk before getting her first strikeout of the game to end the threat.

Kentucky started the scoring with a run in the first inning after a double to right-centerfield by Cumbess. After two outs to start the inning, sophomore infielder Nikki Sagermann reached on a fielding error and moved to second when Joiner was walked. That set the stage for Cumbess, who sent a laser line drive into the gap to score Sagermann and put UK up 1-0. Louisiana-Lafayette got a strikeout to end the threat.

The Wildcats grabbed their lead back in the second inning after Smith started the inning with a double off the wall in leftfield. Smith moved to third on a perfect sacrifice bunt by senior Emily Jolly before Carroll hit a sacrifice fly to leftfield to give UK the 2-1 lead. A foul out by sophomore shortstop Christian Stokes ended the inning.

After Cumbess’ home run in the fourth inning gave Kentucky a 3-1 lead, the senior was involved in more scoring in the sixth inning. After an infield single by Joiner to start the frame, Cumbess placed a perfect bunt down the first baseline for a single with the ULL pitcher fielding the ball and throwing wildly to first, allowing sophomore Maisie Steed, who was pinch running for Joiner, to score.

For the latest on UK softball, follow "@UKSoftball" on Twitter and Instagram or like Kentucky Softball on Facebook.

2014 Women’s College World Series – ASA Hall of Fame Stadium – Oklahoma City

Session One (Thursday, May 29)

No. 5 Florida def. No. 13 Baylor, 11-0

No. 1 Oregon def. No. 8 Florida State, 3-0

Session Two (Thursday, May 29)

No. 14 Kentucky def. No. 6 Louisiana-Lafayette 4-1

No. 2 Alabama def. No. 7 Oklahoma – 9:45 p.m. ET – ESPN2

Session Three (Friday, May 30)

No. 5 Florida vs. No. 1 Oregon – 7 p.m. ET – ESPN2

No. 14 Kentucky vs. No. 2 Alabama/No. 7 Oklahoma – 9:30 p.m. ET – ESPN2

A.J. Reed Named National Player of The Year

The Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, Kentucky junior lefty/first baseman A.J. Reed has been named the National Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball, it was announced by the magazine on Thursday afternoon.

Reed becomes the first player in Kentucky history to earn national player of the year honors and the 13th player in the history of the SEC to earn NCAA Player of the Year accolades. Reed, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound two-way star, is seeking to become just the third SEC player to earn consensus national player of the year honors, joining David Price (2007) and Dave Magadan (1983).

There are five major national player of the year awards, including the Golden Spikes Award, presented by USA Baseball. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association presents the Dick Howser Trophy each season in Omaha, Neb., during the College World Series, with Baseball America and the American Baseball Coaches Association also crowning a national player of the year. Price won all five of the national honors, with Magadan winning the Baseball America and Golden Spikes Award in 1983.

A native of Terre Haute, Ind., Reed joins SEC legends Magadan, Price, Will Clark (1985), Derick Lilliquist (1987), Ben McDonald (1989), Lloyd Peever (1992), Todd Helton (1995), Tim Hudson (1997), Brad Wilkerson (1998), Eddy Furniss (1998), Kip Bouknight (2000) and Mike Zunino (2012) as national players of the year in the conference.

A consensus freshman All-American in 2012, Reed was also named a first-team All-American by Collegiate Baseball, marking the 17th player in Kentucky history to earn All-America honors, dating back to Dom Fucci in 1949. Reed is the first All-American for the Wildcats since Sawyer Carroll and Collin Cowgill were each honored in 2008.

The college baseball leader in homers (23), slugging (.768) and OPS (1.259), Reed also ranks as the SEC leader in RBI (70), on-base percentage (.491), wins (11), walks (47) and total bases (162). He also ranks third in the SEC in average (.351), second in runs (59), eighth in doubles (17), ninth in hits (74) sixth in ERA (2.10), third in innings pitched (103.0) and ninth in strikeouts (68). Reed is currently .002 points shy of the SEC lead in batting average and is vying for the second triple-crown in SEC history and the first since Rafael Palmeiro in 1984. There has never been an SEC player to led the conference in homers and pitching victories.

Reed has hit .310 in his 168-game UK career, with 34 doubles, three triples, 40 homers and 165 RBI. On the mound, Reed has an 18-13 record and the third-best ERA in UK career history (2.86), working 239 innings with 171 strikeouts.

No. 22 Kentucky (35-23) will open the NCAA Tournament on Friday vs. Kansas at 2 p.m. ET at Louisville’s Jim Patterson Stadium.

COLLEGIATE BASEBALL NCAA PLAYERS OF THE YEAR

2014: LHP/1B A.J. Reed, Kentucky

2013: 3B Kris Bryant, San Diego

2012: RHP Nick Petree, Missouri St.

2011: RHP Trevor Bauer, UCLA

2010: LHP Chris Sale, Florida Gulf Coast

2009: P Stephen Strasburg, San Diego St.

2008: C Buster Posey, Florida St.

2007: LHP David Price, Vanderbilt 

          2B Tony Thomas, Florida St.

2006: RHP Wes Roemer, Cal. St. Fullerton

          OF Kellen Kulbacki, James Madison

2005: OF Shane Robinson, Florida St.

2004: RHP Jered Weaver, Long Beach St.

2003: 2B Rickie Weeks, Southern 

2002: SS Khalil Greene, Clemson 

2001: RHP Mark Prior, Southern California

2000: RHP Kip Bouknight, South Carolina

1999: UT Jason Jennings, Baylor 

1998: OF Kevin Mench, Delaware

1997: OF J.D. Drew, Florida St.

1996: RHP Kris Benson, Clemson 

1995: 1B/P Todd Helton, Tennessee 

          OF/P Mark Kotsay, Cal. St. Fullerton

1994: P/1B Ryan Jackson, Duke 

1993: UT Brooks Kieschnick, Texas

1992: P Lloyd Peever, Louisiana St.

1991: P Bobby Jones, Fresno St.

1990: OF Mike Kelly, Arizona St.

1989: P Ben McDonald, Louisiana St.

          UT Scott Bryant, Texas

1988: P Andy Benes, Evansville 

1987: 3B Robin Ventura, Oklahoma St.

          1B Marteese Robinson, Seton Hall 

1986: P Greg Swindell, Texas

1985: OF Pete Incaviglia, Oklahoma St.

1984: OF Oddibe McDowell, Arizona St.