Apr 2, 2012; New Orleans, LA, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari at a press conference after the finals of the 2012 NCAA men

Coach Cal’s Dominican Republic national team now stands 1-1 in the FIBA tournament as they lost to Russia yesterday 84-69. Russia is ranked number 11 in the world. All is not over for Cal’s team. They have a chance to make the Olympics because they have already defeated Korea and have the one win.

The Dominican Republic will play Macedonia on Friday at 5:30 PM. Macedonia is the top seed from their group and ranked 33 in the world. Whoever loses the game will go home while the winner will still have a chance to make it to the Olympics. The Dominican Republic basketball team has never made it to the Olympics.

Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-US PRESSWIRE

Heading into the playoffs, most teams are ultra-secretive about their team practices. Some pro football practices resemble a military exercise with people up in stands looking for any prying eyes of on the watch for Bill Belicheck and his video cameras. Not the University of Kentucky and John Calipari. Today at 3:00 PM, Calipari will bare his soul (unlikely), and reveal to the world the secrets that make his top rated Wildcats tick (even more unlikely).

What he will do is hold a public practice for UK students that will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU from 3-5 PM today. Don’t expect any glimpses on how the DDMO runs or late game scenarios strategy sessions revealed, but it is almost unheard of for a coach to do this in any sport, much less the top rated team in the country.

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2012′s Perry Ellis cut his list of prospective schools by 20% over the weekend, going from five teams to four teams.  And Kentucky made the cut.  I still think that Ellis will be tough to pry out of the state of Kansas, but Kentucky is in the running  along with Kansas, Duke, and Kansas State.  Memphis did not make the cut.  As for now, Ellis has no time frame for a decision or to even make visits. 

A couple of Wildcats are participating in the Adidas Nation’s event and there are glowing reviews to the future of Kentucky’s point guards.  Here is what is being said about Marquis Teague and Ryan Harrow. 

2012′s Perry Ellis cut his list of prospective schools by 20% over the weekend, going from five teams to four teams.  And Kentucky made the cut.  I still think that Ellis will be tough to pry out of the state of Kansas, but Kentucky is in the running  along with Kansas, Duke, and Kansas State.  Memphis did not make the cut.  As for now, Ellis has no time frame for a decision or to even make visits. 

A couple of Wildcats are participating in the Adidas Nation’s event and there are glowing reviews to the future of Kentucky’s point guards.  Here is what is being said about Marquis Teague and Ryan Harrow. 

After a few hours of internet confusion last night, it now seems to be official that DeAndre Liggins is leaving his name in the NBA Draft and he will make this news official at a 2PM press conference today.  As we have learned from being Wildcat fans, scheduled press conferences are generally a bad thing, so by now , all people seem to be in agreement that Liggins will be gone. 

To be honest, it is a weak draft this year and DeAndre very well could have found a few teams to make that first round commitment to him ala Daniel Orton last year.  And from Liggin’s statement, it appeared that he got the news he wanted to hear from the NBA types and that John Calipari encouraged him to stay in school: 

With the NBA decision made, the focus now turns back to recruiting.  Former NC State Wolfpack Ryan Harrow will be on campus this week in Lexington and he is kicking off a whirlwind tour of his remaining possibilities.  He will visit Kentucky, Louisville, Georgia, Texas, and St. Johns over the next 10 days and presumably have a decision by the end of the month.  Harrow can not play until 2012, but he would be able to practice with UK and Marquis Teague this year, which would be key in giving Teague a highly rated practice foe.  Some pundits have Kentucky as the team to beat. 

It’s not official, but there are rumors that Eloy Vargas is going to head to China this summer and take part in the same exhibition series that Josh Harrellson did last summer.  We first saw glimpses of Jort’s busting out last summer in China and one hopes that the trip can be a similar boost to Vargas. 

But we can not forget the big news of the weekend …. that Terrence Jones is returning to Kentucky!  It just proves that some top rated players that Calipari will get will not fit that “one and done” mold and can benefit from another year in school.  Also Jones’ decision has far reaching implications for next year and it is OK to officially start getting excited:

Jones’ decision had import beyond next year’s national championship hopes. It showcased what Calipari’s recruiting style can optimally do. After his first year, where all four freshmen who thought about making The Leap successfully did, the one-and-done strategy was derided. Too much yearly roster turnover would make it impossible to construct a team steeped in both the necessary talent and experience to win a championship. One year’s freshmen class would make costly mistakes when it mattered, and then next year’s freshmen class would then do the same thing. This year proved that to a degree; Calipari admitted that the Reliant Stadium lights were too bright in the Final Four (not literally), and UK largely shot its way back to Lexington.

Will the last Tennessee Volunteer player to Knoxville, please turn the lights out?  As we knew earlier, Tennessee has lost commitments Kevin Ware and Joseph Uchebo as they have decommiettd from UT, and now Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris are leaving their name in the NBA draft … leaving the Vols with… well, nobody to play next year.  Should we feel bad? 

After a few hours of internet confusion last night, it now seems to be official that DeAndre Liggins is leaving his name in the NBA Draft and he will make this news official at a 2PM press conference today.  As we have learned from being Wildcat fans, scheduled press conferences are generally a bad thing, so by now , all people seem to be in agreement that Liggins will be gone. 

To be honest, it is a weak draft this year and DeAndre very well could have found a few teams to make that first round commitment to him ala Daniel Orton last year.  And from Liggin’s statement, it appeared that he got the news he wanted to hear from the NBA types and that John Calipari encouraged him to stay in school: 

With the NBA decision made, the focus now turns back to recruiting.  Former NC State Wolfpack Ryan Harrow will be on campus this week in Lexington and he is kicking off a whirlwind tour of his remaining possibilities.  He will visit Kentucky, Louisville, Georgia, Texas, and St. Johns over the next 10 days and presumably have a decision by the end of the month.  Harrow can not play until 2012, but he would be able to practice with UK and Marquis Teague this year, which would be key in giving Teague a highly rated practice foe.  Some pundits have Kentucky as the team to beat. 

It’s not official, but there are rumors that Eloy Vargas is going to head to China this summer and take part in the same exhibition series that Josh Harrellson did last summer.  We first saw glimpses of Jort’s busting out last summer in China and one hopes that the trip can be a similar boost to Vargas. 

But we can not forget the big news of the weekend …. that Terrence Jones is returning to Kentucky!  It just proves that some top rated players that Calipari will get will not fit that “one and done” mold and can benefit from another year in school.  Also Jones’ decision has far reaching implications for next year and it is OK to officially start getting excited:

Jones’ decision had import beyond next year’s national championship hopes. It showcased what Calipari’s recruiting style can optimally do. After his first year, where all four freshmen who thought about making The Leap successfully did, the one-and-done strategy was derided. Too much yearly roster turnover would make it impossible to construct a team steeped in both the necessary talent and experience to win a championship. One year’s freshmen class would make costly mistakes when it mattered, and then next year’s freshmen class would then do the same thing. This year proved that to a degree; Calipari admitted that the Reliant Stadium lights were too bright in the Final Four (not literally), and UK largely shot its way back to Lexington.

Will the last Tennessee Volunteer player to Knoxville, please turn the lights out?  As we knew earlier, Tennessee has lost commitments Kevin Ware and Joseph Uchebo as they have decommiettd from UT, and now Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris are leaving their name in the NBA draft … leaving the Vols with… well, nobody to play next year.  Should we feel bad? 

So far, Kentucky has not announced any commitments for the 2012 class , but if speculation is correct, that first member of the class may be via transfer.  It’s just one source so far, but a twitter account called Courtcred raised some eyebrows recently when they sent out the following tweet:

“It’s definitely been tough, without a coach and without the coach that I’ve always wanted to play for.”

There are rumors that former Iowa PG Cully Payne has North Carolina State near the top of the teams he wants to transfer to.  Both would be juniors in 2012-2013 if he did transfer, so you have to wonder if that may play into Harrow’s thought process.  Here is what ESPN had to say about Harrow when he was still a recruit and of course a look at Harrow’s official mixtape:

Don’t let Harrow’s willowy frame fool you, the kid is an assassin. While exploding for 47 points he showed his ability to score in a variety of ways (Elite 8 Thanksgiving Hardwood Classic). He knocks it down from behind the arc; gets into the paint or to the rim at will and is automatic from the free-throw line. He plays with extreme confidence and is fearless attacking the rim versus bigger players. He has great body control and is surprisingly explosive going to the basket in transition; he brought the thunder on a couple of occasions that got the crowd to its feet. Although he spends a lot of time playing off the ball for his high school team he needs to be more discrete with his passes as he turned it over 5 times with a few careless decisions. He will need to develop his body to defend and compete against some off the bigger ACC guards, but he is a handful to contain in his own right and is capable of running a team while still being a scoring threat.

So far, Kentucky has not announced any commitments for the 2012 class , but if speculation is correct, that first member of the class may be via transfer.  It’s just one source so far, but a twitter account called Courtcred raised some eyebrows recently when they sent out the following tweet:

“It’s definitely been tough, without a coach and without the coach that I’ve always wanted to play for.”

There are rumors that former Iowa PG Cully Payne has North Carolina State near the top of the teams he wants to transfer to.  Both would be juniors in 2012-2013 if he did transfer, so you have to wonder if that may play into Harrow’s thought process.  Here is what ESPN had to say about Harrow when he was still a recruit and of course a look at Harrow’s official mixtape:

Don’t let Harrow’s willowy frame fool you, the kid is an assassin. While exploding for 47 points he showed his ability to score in a variety of ways (Elite 8 Thanksgiving Hardwood Classic). He knocks it down from behind the arc; gets into the paint or to the rim at will and is automatic from the free-throw line. He plays with extreme confidence and is fearless attacking the rim versus bigger players. He has great body control and is surprisingly explosive going to the basket in transition; he brought the thunder on a couple of occasions that got the crowd to its feet. Although he spends a lot of time playing off the ball for his high school team he needs to be more discrete with his passes as he turned it over 5 times with a few careless decisions. He will need to develop his body to defend and compete against some off the bigger ACC guards, but he is a handful to contain in his own right and is capable of running a team while still being a scoring threat.