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| Yes, there is a Kentucky Convention in Ohio. UK fans are ubiquitous! Dr. J wrote a UK Newsletter as the internet was becoming popular in the mid-Nineties. Jim Porter of Middletown is one of us die-hard UK Basketball fans: however, he gathers notable speakers from and about UK sports on the third weekend of July each year. Dr. J did another wonderful job of coverage here as he always does. I am from Portsmouth Ohio, but I love the Buckeye football and UK basketball programs. UK football could surprise this year with Mark Stoops (an Ohio native) leading the program. SamKat | |||||||
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Kentucky Convention JUly 22 at Middletown
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| Sam Kegley | 5:45 AM (23 hours ago) | ||
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3 older messages
| Dr. J | 9:05 AM (20 hours ago) | ||
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| 8:55 PM (8 hours ago) | | ||
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More on the convention...
I
actually spoke first (after Jim Porter), announcing our club's
collection of signatures for a UK Ohio license plate. I reminded Jim
about my needing to get a message out sometime during the day, and poor
Jim only remembered me (and introduced me) as "J", so I had to tell the
audience that I was Dr J. Got well over a dozen signatures so I
considered the announcement successful.
First
3 speaks were West Lakota High School football head coach Larry Cox,
Larry Vaught, and Matt Layow (former UK defensive end) who each spoke
about football. Cox, being a HS coach, was free to talk about recruits
and prospective recruits, whereas a UK coach wouldn't have been able to
do this for kids who had not yet signed. Vaught pointed out that
although Kentucky fans within the state are excited, the excitement
hasn't trickled out yet to many sportswriters or opponent's coaches.
And it was mentioned that UK recruiting, although vastly improved, is
still considered to be last in the conference. Although it's early for
2014 recruiting, UK is presently ranked 3rd in the nation on that.
There's a lot of talk about renovating Commonwealth Stadium, which is
interesting to me because it seems like we just had a major renovation a
few years ago.
Next
was Preston Spradlin, director of UK basketball operations. He's been
with Calipari for a few years now but is still one of the more junior
members of the staff. He told some Bill Keightley stories which shook
some of us up, I'm very happy to see that the young generation has an
appreciation of that man. Can't really remember much of what he said
except that unlike many coaches and assistants he enjoyed teaching at
basketball camps and continues to do so.
Steve
Mott appeared and touted his UK Daily Basketball Calendars. I'm a
friend of his co-worker, John Spaulding, who sold them at UK events down
in Atlanta (he and I were at an awful lot of game watch parties
together). Those calendars have become regular Christmas
stocking-stuffers of mine and I usually buy a dozen or more late in the
year.
During
lunch at Bob Evans a couple who had just entered as I was leaving
noticed my shirt, and I explained that there was a UK convention going
on nearby. Maybe we'll get a couple more visitors next year! Still
haven't made it over to Mom's Restaurant, maybe next year I'll breakfast
there before the convention...
After
lunch Jeff Sheppard appeared, and as you may have heard, his comments
were repeated and debated around Big Blue Nation afterwards. They had a
video and audio crew for this convention, I think it was from a
Louisville TV station. Jeff said nothing really controversial, he
doesn't like one-and-one any more than the rest of us but he didn't
blame Coach Cal for it. I was astonished to see some of the blog
vitriol against him.
The
only thing he said that surprised me was his attitude regarding Coach
Cal and Rick Pitino. Jeff said that a relationship with a coach was of
supreme importance to a player, and how he thought that Cal's players
very nearly worshipped him. But then Jeff said that this holds to the
extent that when he goes to the Louisville basketball offices to visit
Coach Pitino, he feels more at ease with him than when he visits Coach
Cal at UK. Rick was his coach, after all, and Cal was an opponent that
Sheppard twice played against during the 1995-96 championship season
when Cal was at UMass. That shocked many of us, but some (like me)
have never had a coach, so we don't know that much about that particular
rapport.
Can't
remember the name of the guy who came next (Richie?), but he was a
member of the Committee of 101 and he told us about the history of that
organization. Did not realize that the committee raises money for
scholarships for the children of its members.
Finally,
new women's basketball coach John House spoke. Porter originally had
Matthew Mitchell lined up but at the last minute something came up and
Matt couldn't make it. House expressed surprise as a UK outsider that
when he first moved to Lexington and reached his hotel at 1 AM,
the staff recognized him, and someone took a picture of him with them,
ran across the street to a Kinko's to print it, then brought it back to
have it autographed. John didn't expect such notoriety for a lowly
women's assistant basketball coach.
House
and I left at the same time, and I chatted with him about UK coming up
to Dayton - the Lady Kats used to play Dayton and Miami (O) quite a lot
in basketball on a home-and-home basis, and many fans up here are eager
to see the Wildcats' return. John said that discussions were underway,
and that although the upcoming season's schedule is complete, and the
2014-15 schedule is perhaps 80% finished, there could be games as early
as the 2015-16 season and UK and those schools are trying to make it
happen.
Additional
photos appear of Jim Porter, Preston Spradlin, Steve Mott, Jeff
Sheppard, and John House (my photos of the Committee of 101 guy weren't
good enough to distribute).
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