Dr. J and the UK Convention in Middletown Ohio.

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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

 

Kentucky Convention JUly 22 at Middletown, OH Inbox x Sam Kegley 5:45 AM (23 hours ago) Judi and Dr. J, Did either of you attend the Kentucky Convention last Saturday? 3 older messages Dr. J 9:05 AM (20 hours ago) I'm off to work, I'll write about it tonight when I get back. Was surprised a... Dr. J 8:55 PM (8 hours ago) to me, Judi 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). 5 attachments — Download all attachments   View all images   Share all images   P7200027.A.jpg 139K   View   Share   Download   P7200031.A.jpg 110K   View   Share   Download   P7200044.A.jpg 102K   View   Share   Download   P7200052.A.jpg 83K   View   Share   Download   P7200064.A.jpg 130K   View   Share   Download