Kentucky Wildcats Basketballs Big Blue Madness will be televised … sort of
By Paul Jordan
You have tweeted. You have hash tagged. And finally ESPN and the SEC Network have responded to the Big Blue Madness situation. And it will be televised. Sort of.
"The plan hasn’t changed as far as that is concerned. But while ESPN3.com remains the only live source other than ESPNU cut-ins – that’s due to music rights — Connolly said the SEC Network’s staff has added two coverage elements. First, clips and highlights will air on SEC Now at 9 p.m., which follows LSU-Missouri volleyball. After that, at 11 p.m. an hour-long Big Blue Madness special will air with most of the action – just minus the music. Connolly’s comments to The Courier-Journal, in full: Could you fill me in on where the situation stands now? First thing’s first. Our expectation is Big Blue Madness will be covered more this year than ever before. It’s going to be covered live in its entirety on ESPN3. We’re going to do a lot of cut-ins live on ESPN. We’re going to do highlights and clips on SEC Now, which is our…show on SEC Network. We’re also going to do a packaged show on SEC Network around Big Blue Madness. The core issue for us is a rights clearance issue. We have an issue with clearing the music live on a network. So what we’ve tried to do is build the most robust plan around that across ESPN’s platforms to cover it. We know it’s important. It’s unique. It’s different. It’s what makes Kentucky basketball special. We want to do right by the fans, and we don’t want to skimp on the coverage."
Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Looking ahead to this upcoming season, there has been talk that we may not see a lot of the talented freshmen die to the overabundance of talent on the UK roster. Well, John Calipari’s platoon plans helps to negate that concern some. Besides, it is going to be hard to keep a player like Karl Anthony-Towns on the bench anyway. Yahoo! Sports seems to think so as well as they have him among their top ten impact freshmen.
"5. Karl Anthony-Towns, F, Kentucky (Rivals 150 ranking: No. 5) The unexpected return of potential first-round draft picks Willie Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson created a frontcourt logjam for Kentucky with six potential future NBA players vying for playing time at two positions. That may cut into Towns’ immediate playing time, but nonetheless it’s difficult to imagine the skilled 6-foot-11 big man not carving out a big role for himself as the season goes along. Whereas Johnson is a classic back-to-the-basket big man and Cauley-Stein is a defensive ace whose offense is still developing, the long, fluid Towns is more well-rounded than either of his peers. He has catch-and-shoot range out to the 3-point arc and can also dribble and pass well for a 7-footer. Where Towns can be neutralized is if he falls in love with his perimeter game and doesn’t play from the inside-out. Outside shooting can be an aspect of his game but he’s doing opposing teams a favor if it’s the focal point."
Apr 6, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari speaks at a press conference during practice before the championship game of the Final Four in the 2014 NCAA Mens Division I Championship tournament at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Add one more player to the list for Big Blue Madness. The number one guard in the 2015 list will be taking a visit to Lexington on Friday.
"Five-star combo guard Malik Newman is expected to be among the recruits at Big Blue Madness, his high school coach told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday. “I think he is coming up on an unofficial visit,” said Callaway (Miss.) Coach David Sanders. Newman has long been one of UK’s top recruiting targets in the class of 2015, but he has never visited Lexington. Sanders says his star player doesn’t have any expectations going into this weekend’s trip. “Malik’s a different kid in that sense,” he said. “He’s just going to go and see what happens. Of course, it’s Kentucky and it’s basketball. So he just assumes everything is going to be top of the line and everything is going to be done up real nice.”"