Kentucky Wildcats 5 for Monday: Calipari/Pitino rivalry going international edition
By Paul Jordan
Like I said the other day, I love this picture. Calipari is beaming, tanned, and mugging for the camera while Pitino, is pale, miserable looking, and is obviously not comfortable being next to Cal. And did Pitino ever cross his legs like that when he was our coach? I hope not.
I digress. We know that Kentucky is not big enough for both Pitino and Calipari, so they could be taking their rivalry international. Rick Pitino is rumored to be on the verge of accepting the head coaching job for the Puerto Rico national team and now it appears that Calipari may be interested in doing the same for the Dominican Republic. I don’t know how likely this is to happening for both coaches, but if it does, prepare for more international uncomfortableness.
The UK Hoops squad is off to a 8-1 record after yesterday’s 84-58 win over Alabama A&M. Victoria Dunlap scored 22 points and Keyla Snowden hit 5 3-pointers to finish with 15 points. The #13th ranked UK Hoops squad has now won their third straight game and will host Arkansas Pine Bluff Tuesday night at Memorial Coliseum.
On the surface, the numbers indicate that Terrence Jones had a good game against MVSU with 19 points and 9 rebounds. But John Calipari wants more from his talented freshman:
"“He has numbers but they’re not real,” Calipari said of Jones, who because of two early fouls played only six minutes and scored four points in the first half. “How do you start the game this way? In a league game or a big game… you can’t do that. It’s important that we have everybody come and play.”"
Kentucky football practice continues for the BBVA Compass Bowl on January 8th and Bleed Blue Kentucky has some notes on how new defensive coach Rick Minter is changing the attitude of this team. In addition, UKAA has released some information on how to order tickets for the bowl game:
"Sideline Seats Available Through UK: Tickets are available to the BBVA Compass Bowl for both season-ticket holders and the general public. Fans are encouraged to buy directly from the Kentucky ticket office, as all tickets from the UK allotment are sideline seats. All tickets are $50 each."
"Tickets may be purchased:"
"• In-person at the UK Ticket Office in the Joe Craft Center, open"
"o Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 20-21, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m."
"o Wednesday, Dec. 22, 9 a.m. to noon"
"• By calling the ticket office at 800-928-2287"
"• By mail or fax; print a ticket application from UKathletics.com and mail or fax (859-323-1269) to the ticket office."
Finally, Saturday’s game gave the opportunity to honor a couple of former Kentucky coaches. John Calipari wore a brown suit to honor the 80th anniversary of Rupp’s first win at Kentucky. And a halftime, Joe B Hall was honored on the 25th anniversary of his retirement, and there was a reunion of about 40 former players. In case you missed it, here is some video of the festivities honoring Hall:
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