Busy Memorial Day weekend for UK

Any illusions that this weekend would be a quiet one for UK news were gone pretty quickly on Friday afternoon. Jodie Meeks continued his workouts with NBA teams, rumors about AJ Stewart’s departure came to a fever pitch, and a mysterious press conference was called for Saturday morning. Let’s take a look at how the news continued to break:

-Late Friday night when speculation was wild about the topic of the Saturday press conference, UK relaxed everybody’s concerns by revealing that the presser was unrelated to UK Basketball. Even still, we knew whatever was going to be announced was not going to be good news.

In a sad scene, one of the leaders of UK’s defense, defensive end Jeremy Jarmon, announced that his career at UK was over after a positive drug test caused by a dietary supplement. This is one of those times where you know the letter of the law was violated, but it just doesn’t feel right. Jarmon had been a great representative for UK for four years, and he returned to school to play on a defense that looked to have a chance to be very special, but he made a mistake by not educating himself about what he was putting his body.

Jarmon will now attempt to enter the NFL through the ironically titled supplemental draft. Hopefully Jeremy has learned a lesson and his team mates as well.

-The other big news yesterday, even though it barely constitutes news, was John Calipari’s and DeWayne Peevy’s Twitter faux pais. I’m not going to rehash the whole thing because I’m fairly certain that everyone knows the story by this point. Coach Cal’s Twitter briefly mentioned transfer papers, presumably about a player that is soon to leave the program, AJ Stewart most likely.

The mistake is far from a violation of any sort, but it does reveal certain dangers associate with the social medium. Every one of Calipari’s 86,000 plus followers (290th in the world at last check) is following his every move and Calipari can instantly communicate with every single one of them. It’s very easy to mistakenly send a Tweet or to impulsively send one without thinking. Calipari will have to watch what he does closely in the future. It’s still a new thing at this point for UK, so I’ll just chalk this up to growing pains.

-The player who figured to be the Tweeted about one, AJ Stewart, was reported to have made the decision to leave the program first by Jerry Tipton, then by WKYT. AJ is a kid who loves UK, so it’s tough to see somebody like that forced out, but he was simply never going to be a success at UK. He’s a kid with a lot of athleticism but without a position. I hope he goes to a school (Northern Kentucky is the rumored one at this point) where he can get on the court and realize the offensive potential he has flashed from time to time. We’ll miss AJ, but this is a decision that’s best for everyone.

-One beneficiary of AJ Stewart’s departure could be Josh Harrellson. As you know, Harrellson surprised some folks at team workouts. He is another kid who loves UK and has worked very hard to earn his spot for next year, so seeing his Facebook status from this morning saying “Josh Harrellson is coming back!!! It’s final!” is nice. He probably won’t ever be anything more than a role player under John Calipari, but he will have earned it. One thing that Josh does bring to the table is his shooting ability. Especially if Jodie Meeks turns pro, UK is going to severely lack outside shooting, so Harrellson may see some time.

-This isn’t really impactful news, but yesterday Jon Hood won the KHSAA high jump state title by clearing 6-6. Last week at regionals, he cleared 6-10, but he missed that height twice. Jon Hood is probably being underappreciated as a UK recruit because of how much talent there is in UK’s class, but he’s going to be a big time player before his career is over, and he may even have a big role as a freshman if Jodie leaves.

Let’s take a look at the updated roster as it stands as far as we know:

1. Patrick Patterson
2. Darius Miller
3. Ramon Harris
4. Perry Stevenson
5. Kevin Galloway
6. John Wall
7. DeMarcus Cousins
8. Eric Bledsoe
9. Daniel Orton
10. Jon Hood
11. Darnell Dodson
12. Josh Harrellson
13. Jodie Meeks???
14. DeAndre Liggins
15. Matt Pilgrim

Assuming Josh Harrellson has accurate information, DeAndre Liggins and Matt Pilgrim could both be gone if Jodie Meeks returns, unless another player listed is an academic casualty.