Calipari's Kiddie Corp declares for NBA draft

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By COLIN FLY | The Associated Press

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) Kentucky's starting lineup of three freshmen and two sophomores did most everything together. Now, they will go their separate ways in the NBA.

Freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague, and sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb declared for the draft in a nationally televised news conference Tuesday night.

''We made it work,'' Jones said. ''We all wanted to be there and do it together like we've done everything else together.''

The group, all clad in similar blue UK golf shirts, came into the season largely untested before ascending to No. 1, winning the Southeastern Conference in dominating fashion and capping an NCAA tournament run with a 67-59 victory over Kansas in the title game for the school's eighth championship.

''It's been a great opportunity playing here, I'll miss this team, the way we played together. We all love each other,'' said Davis, who picked up every major player of the year award and is likely the No. 1 pick in June's draft. ''I'm just going to miss this place. We won an NCAA championship here and did a lot. We all did a lot for this school and I'm going to miss it.''

The five join seniors Darius Miller, who is also projected to be drafted, and Eloy Vargas in leaving the program.

''This is a players' first program. I said it three years ago. During the season, it's about our team. You saw it in this year's team, they were about each other,'' coach John Calipari said. ''When the season is over, it's about moments like this.''

The departures mean only freshman Kyle Wiltjer remains from the rotation with a new class of highly touted recruits joining Calipari next season. Calipari said he had never watched the final game of a season until this one.

Kidd-Gilchrist appeared emotional for a few moments at the podium and later said his mother, Cindy Richardson, wanted him to return to school since he was one of the youngest players in Division I after turning 18 in September. Instead, he has other plans for her.

''I want to spoil my mom. I think I'm going to spoil my mom to death. That's one thing I'm looking forward to,'' said Kidd-Gilchrist, who plans to buy her a watch for starters. ''I'm ready, I think. I'm ready for anything that comes my way now.''

Teague, the point guard, seemed to be the only player who might be a questionable first-round pick in Calipari's effort to match his 2010 draft class that saw five players go in the first round led by the No. 1 overall pick, John Wall. Teague said he felt like he did enough to be drafted in the first round by leading a ''great team that's kind of like an NBA team'' to a national championship.

''This is my lifelong dream to play in the NBA and to be doing it with these guys, we're all just making the decision together just makes it that much more special,'' Teague said. ''I love every day knowing I played with these guys and that not being an option any more is tough to deal with. But we all decided we needed to move on, so this is something we've got to do.''

Lamb said he really had only one goal after both he and Jones were projected first-round picks last season.

''The reason I stayed was to win a national championship,'' Lamb said. ''Me and Terrence we talked together last year and we decided to come back this year to win a national championship and we did that. Our dreams came true.''

Wiltjer, who said earlier this year the thought of his teammates leaving was ''scary,'' and the rest of the bench made up just 6 percent of the total minutes played this season. But the group will quickly be getting help as Calipari closes in on his fourth straight No. 1 recruiting class.

Kentucky already signed Willie Cauley, Alex Poythress and Archie Goodwin in the early period. Top prospect Nerlens Noel committed to the Wildcats on national television last week by shaving the school's initials in the back of his signature flat top hairstyle. Transfer Ryan Harrow is expected to take over as point guard with Wiltjer, giving the Wildcats the same projected starting mix of two sophomores and three freshmen.

The team is in the hunt for a few of the remaining top prospects who have until May 16 to make their final decisions.

All of Kentucky's new players will be thrust into major roles because with the departures, the Wildcats will lose 93.3 percent of their points, 94.5 percent of their individual rebounds and 96.2 percent of their assists.

Meanwhile, this group is about to begin their heady new lifestyle, something Davis couldn't help laughing about when he was reminded of his upcoming payday.

''I actually haven't thought about that yet. That's right, I am going to be rich,'' Davis said. ''You've just got to manage your money well. Good thing is I like math.

So I should be fine.''

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The Battle of Redemption for the Bluegrass Bluebloods

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Kentucky versus Louisville - Calipari versus Pitino

As if the significance of the basketball game was not enough when Bluegrass Bluebloods Kentucky and Louisville take the court in the NCAA national semi-finals in New Orleans Saturday there are a host of sidebar stories worthy of merit as well.

Start with the fact both are coached by fiery Italians from the Eastern US, Rick Pitino of New York City and John Calipari of Moon Township just outside of Pittsburgh, PA.

Both played out east in college.

Pitino played for U. Mass while Calipari played for the University of North Carolina at Wilmington before transferring to Clarion University in Pennsylvania.

Both were assistant coaches for coaching legends, Pitino at Syracuse under Jim Boeheim and Calipari at Kansas under Larry Brown.

Both got first head coaching jobs in Massachusetts, Pitino at Boston University and Calipari at U. Mass.

Pitino, former star player at U. Mass, was on selection committee to hire Calapari.

Both revived their schools making them national powerhouses.

Both coached Kentucky.

Both coached in college and the pros.  

They are the only coaches in history to take three different schools to the NCAA final 4.  (Yes I know 2 Calipari trips no longer count.)

Both are among the top winning coaches in college.

Pitino is one of a select group of eight coaches who have taken teams from four different schools to the NCAA Tournament.

Pitino is one of 10 coaches all-time who have reached the Final Four on at least five occasions.

Both are seeking redemption, Pitino from personal blackmail scandal and Calipari from coaching violations at U. Mass and Memphis.

Pitino is seeking his second national championship while Calipari is seeking his first national championship.

Pitino is the Dapper Dan of college coaches whose sterling courtside dress style changed forever the coaches bench in college basketball.

Not only are they two of the best college coaches of all time but they are also two of the most animated and entertaining coaches of all time.

Let the game begin.

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America can't seem to get enough of Kentucky

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As if the NCAA Battle of the Bluegrass between UK and Louisville is not enough - Kentucky natives carry Hunger Games on film and Missing on TV to astounding successes.

I, for one, can't get enough of Kentucky as you may have noted in my earlier prediction that Hunger Games starring Jennifer Lawrence of Louisville, Kentucky would make history and bring female action leads to the forefront in Hollywood.

But it is even better than that.  Both young leads from Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence from Louisville and Josh Hutcherson who was born in Union, Kentucky have put the state firmly on the map as the film stunned Hollywood with a blockbuster $155 million opening weekend.  Not bad for a film that cost $80 million and the first of four films in a series.

Estimates are the film could generate over $400 million in domestic sales alone and the sequels could keep making a small fortune for the next seven years.

Yet there was another Kentucky actress also making headlines as UK's number one fan, Ashley Judd, premiered her new ABC series last week and finished in the top ten shows in spite of going head to head with American Idol.  Over 10.6 million watched Ashley bring Missing to life.

Here is what the media had to say about the Kentucky stars and shows.

The Washington Post

By Cara Kelly, Monday, March 26

The much anticipated film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’s book, “The Hunger Games,” surpassed expectations on its opening weekend, pulling in $155 million. The total earned the film several impressive distinctions, including third-biggest opening weekend of all time, the Associated Press reports.

"The huge haul marks the third-best debut ever in terms of revenue, behind the $169.2 million opening for last year’s “Harry Potter” finale and the $158.4 million opening of 2008’s “The Dark Knight.”

“Harry Potter” and “Batman” were well-established franchises. “The Hunger Games” set a revenue record for a non-sequel, taking in more than twice what the first “Twilight” movie did with its $69.6 million opening weekend.

“This is the birth of a franchise. To launch in this fashion is mindboggling,” said David Spitz, head of distribution at Lionsgate, which now also owns the “Twilight” franchise after its purchase of Summit Entertainment.”

The impressive revenue also earned the film several other honors, says Jen Chaney of Celebritology.

With just a single weekend under its belt, “The Hunger Games” is already very close to becoming the biggest hit of 2012.

"The Lorax,” which has been in wide release for three weeks, remains the year’s top grosser with $177.3 million in its pro-environment pockets. Expect it to hand over that title to “The Hunger Games” sometime during the next week.

“The Hunger Games” has already earned roughly 2.5 times as much money at the North American box office as "John Carter" has during the past two weeks.

And it did so with a budget well below half of what it cost to make “John Carter.” If only Disney had spent less money and handed Taylor Kitsch a bow and arrow, things could have turned out differently.

The earnings are great news for Lions Gate Entertainment, the production company behind ‘Hunger Games.’ The company bought Summit Entertainment in January, effectively bringing the other teenage smash “Twilight” under the same roof as Collins’s hit, the Associated Press reports.

These two movies could generate about $450 million in profit combined, estimates Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz. The adventures of bow-wielding heroine Katniss Everdeen alone could translate to 6 to 7 years of higher earnings, Creutz says, adding that Lions Gate may post its first profit in five years when its fiscal year ends on March 31.

More than two-thirds of Lions Gate’s revenue comes from the movie business, so its first blockbuster means a lot. It had been getting by with staples like Tyler Perry comedies and the “Saw” horror series.

The rest of Lions Gate’s revenue comes from television productions such as “Mad Men,” which kicked off its fifth season Sunday. Although the company doesn’t reap ad revenue from the hit TV show, success with audiences keeps it in demand as a production company. It also boosts sales of DVDs and licensing revenue from reruns.

The opening figures are also good news for films featuring female action heroes. The success may inspire Hollywood to make more films with female leads, according to Christopher Palmeri.

“The Hunger Games,” which set a record as the biggest opening ever for a non-sequel, illustrates how Hollywood under- appreciates audiences’ acceptance of female action heroes, according to Phil Contrino, editor of researcher Boxoffice.com.

“People were hungry for something like this,” Contrino said in an interview. “Now everyone will be looking for the next ‘Hunger Games’ instead of every male-driven, Will Smith action film,” he said, referring to the star of “Independence Day” and “Men in Black.”

“The Hunger Games” may go on to capture $400 million domestically, according to Contrino.

The movie, which stars 21-year-old Jennifer Lawrence as an arrow-slinging killing machine, sold $59 million of tickets outside the U.S. and Canada, and was first in almost all of its 67 markets, Vancouver-based Lions Gate said yesterday in a statement.

This is what the media had to say about Missing, Ashley Judd's new TV series.

Debut of Judd's 'Missing' on ABC lands in top 10

By David Bauder

AP Television Writer / March 20, 2012

NEW YORK—If your television show revolves around a search for someone missing, it helps to have Ashley Judd looking.

That's ABC's lesson from Nielsen's television ratings. Last Thursday's premiere of the network drama "Missing," starring Judd as a former CIA agent trying to find a teenage son who disappeared in Rome, landed among the 10 most popular series last week with 10.6 million viewers. The strong sampling came despite "Missing" competing directly with Fox's "American Idol."

Go Kentucky...

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The Battle of Bluegrass Thoroughbreds

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Pitino Louisville versus Calipari Kentucky

March Madness and the Midwest Hayseeds - Where are the power conferences now?

East coast sports writers are left stunned after the NCAA round of eight left only Midwestern teams in the final four for national champions.  What happened to the eastern power conferences that dominated the selection process, conferences like the Big East and ACC?

Ashley Judd with UK Wildcat

Kentucky remains the prohibitive favorite and is the only number 1 team left in the tournament.  For the first time in about 50 years two teams from the same state will meet in the final four, Kentucky and Louisville, while the other two contenders are Ohio State next door to Kentucky and Kansas farther west.

We picked Kentucky as the winner and so far no one has come close to them.  Louisville, under the magic of former Kentucky coach Rick Pitino, has pulled off a series of major upsets to get to the final four.  Kentucky played Louisville earlier this year and UK won at home by just 7 points.   No one has come that close to UK in the tourney though they have played all away games.

Louisville Cardinal

Some sports analysts say the championship match will take second place to the semi-final battle between Kentucky basketball giants.  UK is the most successful team in NCAA basketball history while Pitino has made Louisville into the biggest basketball money generator for the school in the nation.

As John Clay of McClatchy Newspapers wrote:

ATLANTA — Not even Bourbon Street will know what hit it.

Welcome to what promises to be the wildest, craziest, most hyped, most exciting, most nerve-wracking and sleepless six days leading up to the biggest, most-anticipated sporting event in the history of our little commonwealth.

For a state that lives for basketball, this is a dream and a nightmare all at the same time.

This is Kentucky vs. Louisville in the Final Four for the first time.

This is the top-dog Cats, the NCAA Tournament’s overall No. 1 seed, winners of the South Regional by beating Baylor 82-70 on Sunday, versus the underdog Cards, No. 4 seed and surprise 72-68 West Regional winner over Florida on Saturday, squaring off in the Big Easy for a berth in the national championship game.

This is something that comes along once in, well, never.

It’s UK versus U of L, the state’s two biggest rivals on the sport’s biggest stage.

It’s John Caliapri and Rick Pitino, former coaching friends, now, well, current coaching competitors.

It’s one passionately insane fan base against another passionately insane fan base, that happens to reside within the same borders.

“It’s basketball,” said Calipari on Sunday as if this were a mere sporting event.

No, it’s Kentucky and Louisville basketball.

Oh, UK and U of L have played in the NCAA Tournament before, in the 1959 Mideast Regional semifinals (Louisville won), in the 1983 Mideast Regional finals (Louisville won) and in the 1984 Mideast second round (Kentucky won).

They’ve never met in the Final Four, however, though they came close twice.

In 1986, Louisville beat Auburn to win the West Regional, but Kentucky lost to LSU in the finals of the Mideast Regional.

In 1975, the two actually came within a whisker of playing for the national championship when Kentucky beat Syracuse in the national semifinal in San Diego, then Louisville lost a heartbreaker to UCLA in the second game that day.

Now, finally, everything has fallen into place.

However, don't overlook the other teams, Ohio State and Kansas, who rank among the basketball elite though they will not get the media attention of the Kentucky duo.  I lean toward Kansas reaching the finals against Kentucky with Kentucky winning but any of the four teams is capable of knocking off the others.

It should be a rousing finish to a rather lackluster NCAA season and if you have ties to Kentucky, the semi-final could just be a classic.  This is truly the Battle of Bluegrass Thoroughbreds.

By the way, UK is also still in the running in the NCAA Women's national tournament.  We just can't get enough of the Wildcats.

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Obamaville March 14 - Primaries and March Madness - America's Entertainment

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International Negotiations American Style

For those of you who think we like to mix politics and entertainment, you got it right.  Last night was the pre-opening round of the NCAA tournament when those teams "on the bubble", yet another odd form of media slang, had to play to get into the tournament.

There were two NCAA games and four NIT games and March Madness doesn't even start until tomorrow.  Make no mistake, however, this is really big stuff, much more important than political primaries.

Why even UK Prime Minister David Cameron flew in and he and President Obama took a break from critical world affairs to run down to Dayton, Ohio for the night to see one of the NCAA play-in games.

Play-in games were an underhanded trick by the NCAA to allow more teams into the tournament without adding a huge number of teams, so four teams play each other for the right to play in the NCAA.  In truth it was a way to take advantage of the massive money made from tournament games.

Of course as the last teams to qualify they get the worst seeding so what does that mean to the winner of these games, they play the top seeded teams in the tourney in their next game. So Western Kentucky, after staging the greatest four minute comeback in NCAA tournament history, now has to face the top team in the nation, the mighty Kentucky Wildcats who are the concensus favorite to win the national championship.  The game is in Louisville.

By the way, as our two heads of state watched on Western Kentucky staged the greatest five minute comeback in NCAA history as they came from 16 points down to win 59-58 over Mississippi Valley State.

The next game in Dayton saw even more history made as BYU staged the greatest comeback in the NCAA history by coming from 25 points behind.  Previously, the largest deficit overcome was 22 points in 2001 when Duke fought back to beat Maryland 95-84 in the national semifinals.

Back to our leaders, we all know Obama loves basketball.  In fact it has been good for basketball and good for Obama politically.  But the Brits, well they have a little problem with strange games in the colonies such as basketball and leaders going out for a good time. Check out this fun report of the game by the London Daily Mail.

The London Daily Mail

Don't risk looking like a basket case, Dave

By Melissa Kite

PUBLISHED: 06:17 EST, 14 March 2012 | UPDATED: 09:52 EST, 14 March 2012

British Prime Ministers are good at many things, but high-fiving whilst eating hotdogs has never been one of them.

David Cameron did his best to look like he was enjoying all the slam-dunking action at the basketball, but this really isn’t our thing, is it? I mean, the only thing we Brits have ever put in a basket for cultural or leisure purposes is a piece of chicken.

Barak Obama invited Mr Cameron to watch Western Kentucky University take on Mississippi Valley State in the opening game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's Basketball tournament, known as March Madness, apparently.

At half-time, the pair were interviewed by Clark Kellogg of CBS Sports and Mr Cameron, an Old Etonian more used to cricket, rugby and The Eton Wall game, tried to pretend he was lovin’ it.

The Prime Minister said: “I'm enjoying it. It's fast, it's pretty fast and furious. It's hard to follow sometimes exactly who's done what wrong.”

Which is a bit like British politics, I suppose. One minute you’re a popular leader in an open-necked shirt hugging hoodies, the next minute you’ve got a fractious coalition to lead and just when you should be worrying about your Budget statement and an impending re-shuffle, you have to get on a plane to the United States and eat hot dogs in front of the cameras at a basketball match.

Asked if the President was helping him make sense of it all, Mr Cameron said: “He's giving me some tips. He's going to help me fill out my bracket.”

I don’t know what that means, but I’m guessing it’s not about the pair of them doing a spot of DIY shelf assembly.

It’s always the same when British Prime Ministers meet US Presidents. Remember the banter when Tony Blair hobnobbed with George W Bush at Camp David? There was some gobbledegook talked then about how they used the same toothpaste.

In the effort to be folksy and populist, to mingle British and American culture together to achieve a sort of transatlantic mateyness, something always gets lost in translation.

It makes you long for the days when world leaders simply held talks behind closed doors then gave a short press conference in the Rose Garden. At least we could understand what they were on about.

What about the political primaries?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  Santorum was the surprise winner of both Mississippi and Alabama although I don't understand why the media was surprised since the two states are 80% evangelical and Santorum is the pride of the social moral majority issues.

A bigger surprise was how that liberal from Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, managed to split the vote with Preacher Santorum and Professor Gingrich.  Since Mitt also won primaries in Hawaii and Guam he actually finished third in the two southern states (just barely) yet still walked away with more delegates to the GOP convention.

So I guess the lesson this week is losing can still be winning in politics in America.

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March Madness Begins as Top 25 fall like Dominos

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It was the Mad Hatters Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland where all is not what it seems this last week of the college basketball season before the beginning of March Madness this Thursday.

As the top 25 college teams finished their regular season and headed into the conference tournaments, the last warm up before March madness, there were high hopes for a successful post season launch.

Of course the field was filled with the usual characters that have dominated college basketball for the past 500 years as you can see from the standings, with most top ten teams old hands in March Madness.  Here was the top 25:

Top 25

1.Kentucky

2.Syracuse
3.Kansas
4.North Carolina
5.Missouri
6.Duke
7.Ohio St.
8.Michigan St.
9.Marquette
10.Michigan
11.Murray St.
12.Baylor
13.Georgetown
14.Wisconsin
15.Indiana
16.Wichita St.
17.Florida St.
18.San Diego St.
19.Creighton
20.UNLV
21.Temple
22.Florida
23.Notre Dame
24.Gonzaga
25.Iowa St.

Before the long week was over and the NCAA field was set on Sunday night absolute carnage raged as 21 of the top 25 teams lost.  That may very well be a new record in NCAA history with 84% of the top 25 teams losing the last week of the season.

The biggest upset of all went to Vanderbilt from Nashville as they upset #1 Kentucky in the SEC finals.  But 9 of the top 10 lost, only Missouri survived.  The four who did not lose in the top 25, in red, still lost 19 games between them during the season.

In terms of which are the smartest teams, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, at the University of Central Florida, calculated the six-year graduation results for athletes who entered school during the 2003 and 2004 school years. The analysis does not count players who left college early to play professional basketball.

Only the following teams have graduated 100 percent of their basketball team members, Belmont, Brigham Young, Notre Dame and Villanova.  Vanderbilt awarded degrees to 93 percent of its players.  This was as of last year so maybe we will get to see how smart the teams are this year.

Ironically, Vanderbilt, the upset winner over Kentucky, is known more for the mind than the muscle as they won just their first SEC conference tourney title in 61 years.  Yes, Truman was president the last time they won.

The first round opponent for Vandy is the other egg head team of the tourney, Harvard, who has not played in the tournament since 1946, a 66 year absence.  It was in keeping with the other first-time achievements this season for the Crimson, who cracked the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time, and clinched their first outright Ivy League title since 1946.

This could be the most balanced and/or upset prone field in years as Kentucky, who appeared to be a notch above the rest all season, seemed to run out of gas in the SEC tourney.

Stay tuned to more from Wonderland.

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