It has been a rough couple days for that orange team down in Knoxville.

First, Lane Kiffin bolted for USC just a year after taking the Tennessee job and energizing Rocky Top with his recruiting and ridiculous behavior. Texas defensive coordinator/coach in waiting Will Muschamp was then the prime target, but he decided Austin was the place for him. The Vols then reportedly targeted Air Force head man Troy Calhoun, who was nearly hired when Layla’s husband took the job. Calhoun also said ‘no’.

Most recently, UT AD Mike Hamilton pursued former offensive coordinator and current Duke coach David Cutcliffe. You would think he would be a lock to take the job because he knows Tennessee well…and he coaches football at DUKE. Not exactly the pinnacle of the profession.

If that’s what you thought, you thought wrong. ESPN is reporting that Cutcliffe has removed himself from consideration for the job and will stay in Durham. Wow. I know that there was a lot going on behind the scenes (word is that he wanted to bring his entire staff with him), but it just doesn’t look good when you get turned down in this situation.

The Vols are said to now be targeting Louisiana Tech coach Derek Dooley and Temple coach Al Golden. Not exactly the high profile home run hire that they needed when Kiffin left them in the lurch.  In the long term, Tennessee very well could be better off without Kiffin in the fold, but this is getting ugly in the short term.

Tennessee men’s basketball players Tyler Smith, Cameron Tatum, Brian Williams and Melvin Goins were arrested after a traffic stop around noon on Friday.

The players are facing misdemeanor weapon and drug charges, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

“We take these matters very seriously,” UT coach Bruce Pearl said in a statement released by UT. :We are still gathering information. Once the appropriate authorities have provided us with all of the facts, we will act accordingly.”

Smith is a senior and the starting power forward, Tatum is a redshirt sophomore who has started on the wing, Williams is a junior backup center and Goins is a junior college transfer who is the backup point guard.

The 14th-ranked Vols (10-2) flew back from Memphis Thursday night after defeating the Tigers 66-59.

UT’s next game is Wednesday at Thompson-Boling Arena against Charlotte.

I don’t need to say it, but the loss of these four players for any extended period of time would significantly hurt the chances of the Vols in the SEC, one of the teams picked to challenge UK in conference.

**UPDATE** The News-Sentinel now reports that Smith and Williams will also face felony charges. This is not good for the Vols.

Lane Kiffin has made a habit of flirting with NCAA rules and regulations since becoming head coach at Tennessee. Ironically, it now appears that it may be actual flirting that gets him in real trouble.

The New York Times is reporting that Tennessee’s football recruiting is currently subject to a “wide-ranging investigation” by the NCAA. The investigation is reportedly centering on the practices of so-called recruiting “hostesses”, female students who host athletes and other prospective students on visits to the school. The Times reports that hostesses traveled to watch the games of certain football recruits, up to 200 miles in one case. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Interviews with multiple recruits and their family members revealed that the N.C.A.A. has strong interest in Tennessee’s use of recruiting hostesses, students who are part of a formal group at the university that hosts all manner of prospective students at campus visits, including athletes. It is not clear whether the university sent the hostesses to visit the football players.

In one case, hostesses traveled nearly 200 miles to attend a high school game in South Carolina in which at least three Tennessee recruits were playing.

Marcus Lattimore, a running back who made an unofficial visit to Tennessee but said he would not enroll there, said multiple Tennessee hostesses attended a game at James F. Byrnes High School in Duncan, S.C., in September. He said they brought signs, including one that read, “Come to Tennessee.”

“I haven’t seen no other schools do that,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

The hostesses are considered representatives of the university, which would mean they could not recruit players off campus. Therefore, the visits may be considered violations of N.C.A.A. recruiting rules.

Two of Lattimore’s teammates, Brandon Willis and Corey Miller, have orally committed to Tennessee. Lattimore described the hostesses as “real pretty, real nice and just real cool.” He said he thought they had “a lot” of influence in Miller’s and Willis’s commitments to Tennessee.

Because of their influence on recruits, the recruiting hostesses have become popular with Tennessee fans. Bryce Brown, the country’s top running back recruit last year, who is a freshman at Tennessee, was pictured on a social networking site last year with a hostess. Other Tennessee hostesses have publicly conversed with prospects through Facebook and MySpace.

Some recruits say their influence is significant.

“You don’t want to go to a college where they ain’t pretty,” Lattimore said.

This is obviously an interesting case. A major issue here will be whether these hostesses were acting at the direction of the Tennessee staff or the university. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more in the coming days, so stay tuned.

I’m guessing the TV crew realized on Saturday morning “Oh crap, we’ve been so busy stuffing our faces this week to do any research or find any interesting information to fill down time during the game.” The resolution was “Let’s make some stuff up and anytime we can’t think of anything else, let’s mention that UK hasn’t beaten Tennessee since the mid-80′s.

Anyway, I’m a little later than usual on my recap and post-game thoughts, so I’m not going to bog you down with a drive by drive analysis or anything.

Saturday night’s loss was another tough one for the ‘Cats in this rivalry. UK, after senior safety Ashton Cobb made a huge play to force a Luke Stocker fumble, was in position on the Tennessee 37 yard line to punch the ball in the end zone in the final 2:21.

Riding a wave of emotion after the gamechanging play, Randall Cobb ran the ‘Cats down to a 1st and 10 at the Tennessee 13. Cobb ran for another 3 yards on first down, then Morgan Newton came back in at quarterback. After a Derrick Locke 2 yard run, Joker Phillips called for a QB sprint to the right for Newton. It looked like he had the corner, but Locke couldn’t get enough of Eric Berry on a block to spring Newton for the first, and UK settled for a tying field goal.

Questions are already arising over the decision to put the ball in Newton’s hands rather than Cobb’s, Rich Brooks said of the Wildcat on last drive: “We got a couple of good plays out of it and then we were in a two-minute situation. Unfortunately we’re not expert enough to run the two-minute out of the Wildcat so we got back into our regular formation and tried to finish that drive and get it in there. Plus Randall (Cobb) was out several times, he took IVs at halftime for cramps and he’s pretty worn out.”

In overtime, UK got the ball first and could not make any kind of a play, forcing a 49 yard field goal attempt from Lones Seiber. Anyone who has watched UK football over the past 3 years was not optimistic about Seiber’s chances of hitting the long kick…he didn’t hit it.

UK then went on defense, and got a holding call on first down. The ‘Cats couldn’t capitalize, allowing a 14 yard second down pass, then a 20 yard Montario Hardesty touchdown to end it.

AP Photo/Ed Reinke

Even though UK was in position to win the game, let’s be honest here: they didn’t deserve to win that football game. Before Stocker’s fumble, UT’s 3 point lead felt more like 3 touchdowns, as UK was pretty thoroughly dominated in the second half.

The first half was played almost to a dead draw, with Big Play Sam Mawell’s touchdown return off a Jonathan Crompton interception being the difference in the 21-14 score. The second was another story.

There are a lot of factors in a football game. That goes without saying. However, if you asked me to boil the second half domination down to 2 factors, I would point to the battle for the line of scrimmage and quarterback play.

Montario Hardesty was the player of the game last night, rushing for 188 yards on 39 carries. He was a workhorse, getting his yards on gashing runs over the middle. His long for the game was the 20 yard game winner, so it’s not like his stats were buoyed by a couple long ones. As well as Hardesty played, he wouldn’t have done a thing if not for the UT offensive line.

DeQuin Evans made a few very nice plays early, but for the most part, the defensive line that played so well in last week’s Georgia win was taken out of the game by UT’s zone blocking scheme. Senior Corey Peters, in particular, was handcuffed all day long.

Offensively, UK had early success with Randall Cobb out of the Wildcat. Cobb ended with 101 yards on the ground, but almost none of that yardage was gained after halftime and before UK’s final drive. UK has been best this season when matching Randall Cobb’s productivity out of the Wildcat with a strong traditional running game with Derrick Locke.

Locke, though, could not ever get any room to run. He finished with just 22 yards on 11 carries. The 22 yards were a season low, and Locke carried the ball fewer than 11 times only in blowout wins over Miami and Louisiana Monroe.

When a defense gears up to stop the run like Tennessee did last night, your quarterback just has to step up and make a few plays to keep the opponent honest. Morgan Newton, facing pressure almost every time he threw the ball, just could not do that.

Newton, even when he did make the appropriate read and/or step up in the pocket to avoid pressure, just could not make throws downfield. He overthrew almost every throw beyond 5 yards. I’m not sure if he has been so drilled in not making a mistake that he can’t bring himself to put the tough throws where they need to go, but he just couldn’t get it done.

Jonathan Crompton wasn’t great by any means, but he was good enough to make a few plays, most of which went to wide receiver Gerald Jones and tight end and KY native Luke Stocker.

The game ball on offense goes to Randall Cobb, of course. In addition to his 101 yards on the ground, caught 4 balls for 24 yards, completed a pass to Chris Matthews for 31 yards, and added 61 yards in the return game.

AP Photo/Ed Reinke

On defense, Micah Johnson is the guy. He had 10 solo tackles and 6 assists, along with 2 tackles for loss. He was all over the place and did everything he could to win this game. He was also asked to play some tough assignments in the passing game, guarding Stocker and Hardesty one on one. He did pretty well for a 260 pounder, likely earning himself some money in the process.

On the positive side of things, UK is still at 7 wins. With the way that other SEC teams played yesterday, the smart money would say that UK will be making a return trip to Nashville for the Music City Bowl. Representatives from the Chick-Fil-A Bowl have been watching UK very closely over the past few games, so I wouldn’t rule out that possibility.

UK wil definitely benefit from the month off ahead of the bowl game. Look the Rich Brooks to rest his squad and install some new offensive wrinkles to surprise whomever UK plays next. Also, Mike Hartline has not yet been ruled out of the bowl game, so his status will be an important thing to watch.

Needless to say, things have changed a bit in the past 6 months.

20 of 25 writers tabbed UK as best in the SEC, and 23 of 25 said UK would win the SEC East.

Naturally, Patrick Patterson was a unanimous member of the media SEC first team, and was joined by Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State, Tyler Smith of Tennessee, Terrico White of Mississippi, and Devan Downey of South Carolina.

Notably absent from the first team is UK freshman phenom John Wall, who was picked to the second team along with AJ Ogilvy of Vanderbilt, Chris Warren of Mississippi, Tasmin Mitchell of LSU, and DeWayne Reed of Auburn. Kentucky and Ole Miss were the only teams to have two players elected as first or second team.

So, with that in mind, I’m going to be giving you a brief breakdown of each game involving an SEC team with a “Beatability Index” from 1-10 based on what we have seen to this point from each team, with a focus on the performance from this weekend. 1 means “no chance”, 10 means “I’d be ticked if UK lost”.

Florida 56 Troy 6

The Gators are number 1 for a reason and I’m not sure if there’s a team on their schedule I would expect to stay within 3 touchdowns. Troy took their turn this weekend, sustaining a substantial beating. They were down only 7-3 at halftime, but everybody’s favorite choir boy, Tim Tebow, led Florida to 4 touchdowns in the second quarter.

Tebow had a pretty standard afternoon based on his past, throwing for 235 yards and 4 TD’s and running for 76 yards and another score. The Gators lost their most dynamic weapon in Percy Harvin to the NFL, but they have not missed a beat in their two so-called “pre-season” games leading up to their SEC opener against Lane Kiffin and Tennessee.

Riley Cooper has emerged as Tebow’s favorite target thus far, catching 10 balls for 187 yards in the first two games.

The Florida defense was stouter than in their opener against Charleston Southern, allowing only 151 yards to Troy compared with 323 the previous week.

Beatability Index – Florida: 1

I was tempted to throw a zero at the Gators, but I will never say never. Like I said earlier, I’m not sure any team will be able to stay with them before the SEC Championship game or maybe even the National Title game.

UCLA 19 Tennessee 15

Wow the Vols looked bad against a mediocre UCLA squad. Well, I guess I should say wow, the Vols’ OFFENSE looked bad against a mediocre UCLA squad.

Lane Kiffin better be glad his daddy is taking care of the defense and that he has Eric Berry, because otherwise, it was ugly. Jonathan Crompton made a strong case for the dubious distinction of worst SEC QB, completing only 13 of 26 passes with 3 picks. Those numbers are bad enough, but add to them the fact that his 13 completions resulted in 93 yards.

The running game was better, but not by much. They ran for 119 yards on 44 carries.

Amazingly, the Vols outgained UCLA thanks to some excellent defense, but were undone by 4 turnovers to UCLA’s 1. Luck was on UCLA’s side when the ball was on the deck, because they fumbled 6 times and only lost 1.

When UT wins games this season, they won’t be all that pretty. The Vols D is going to tough for everyone to beat (save for maybe Florida) and the offense is marginal at best.

Beatability Index – Tennessee: 6

I basically look at the Vols as 2 different teams. I would give the offense a score of 9 on the index and the defense a 3, so averaging the two, it’s a 6. I know UT is UT and the streak is ongoing and all that, but I think UK is going to have a golden opportunity to take down Tennessee.

Auburn 49 Mississippi State 24

Auburn may be just a little bit better than we thought. In Tommy Tuberville’s last year, the Tigers dealt with a failed experiment with the spread offense and one of the worst seasons in War Eagle memory. This season, it looks like Gene Chizik’s squad is going to earn its money on the ground.

Auburn punished Mississippi State on Saturday to the tune of 390 yards and 6.6 yards per carry. The Tigers look like they will contin

The Facts

Name: Josh Selby
Position: PG/SG
Height: 6-2
Weight: 180
High School: Lake Clifton-Eastern HS (Baltimore, MD)
AAU Team: Team Melo
Rankings: Rivals – #2 PG, #7 overall, Scout – #3 PG, #10 overall, ESPN – #6 PG, #24 overall

The Game

Selby is a scoring combo guard with elite athleticism and a big time competitive streak. He is an explosive scorer who can put the ball in the basket in a variety of ways: in transition, off of penetration, and from the perimeter.

He also shows his competitiveness on the defensive end. During the July camp season, he has consistently challenged other top level point guards he has matched up with on both ends and has been very impressive in doing so. He looks to score, but creates effectively for teammates.

He looks to do a little bit too much with the ball in his hands at times, but gets by with it more often than not due to his talent and athleticism. He has some growing to do before he can realize his potential at the next level, but is a major prospect.

The Story

Selby’s decommitment from Tennessee is highly publicized and a big loss for Bruce Pearl and the Vols. Lots of speculation is going on around Selby, particulary considering that it was confirmed that Worldwide Wes met with Selby at the LeBron James Skills Academy. Many say that Selby will now seek out a Nike school (UT is Adidas).

Adding to the fire, a frustrated Tony Jones (UT associate head coach) was quoted by GoVolsXtra saying “I’m not going to comment on any specific player, because I am not allowed to do that. I’ll just say something smells right now.’’

It’s widely believed that Selby’s verbal commitment to UT did not prevent some rival schools from contacting him. While some consider this a faux pais, Bruce Pearl doesn’t really have a right to complain when you think about his tactics in going after Scotty Hopson after his verbal commitment to Mississippi State.

The Players

Bruce Pearl has said from the Maccabiah Games (he’s coaching the Jewish US team) that he will still recruit Selby, but it’s rare to see a kid decommit from a school and recommit later.

Given the circumstances (Worldwide Wes involvement and mentioning of Nike), there were three schools that immediately jumped to mind for most experts: Kentucky, Memphis, and Oregon. UK and Oregon are both well connected with Wes and Nike and Memphis has a commitment from Selby’s cousins, Will and Antonio Barton. However, Gary Parrish reports that Selby’s connection to the Barton’s may not be as impactful as some think. Louisville is also expected to be involved.

General consensus is that UK is in solid position for Selby, but do not expect a rushed decision.

The Impact

Whenever a recruit like Selby becomes available unexpectedly, it causes a ripple effect in the entire class (see Henry, Xavier). UK already has a bunch of targets at point guard, so UK’s involvement with Selby will likely change their approach with other kids as well.

The most high profile of UK’s 2010 targets is Brandon Knight. Knight is similar to John Wall in that a commitment in his class from a high level player at his position will likely not faze him.

Even so, Knight of late has looked an awful lot more like a 2 guard than a point guard or even a combo guard. Commanding the floor has never been his strength even when asked. UK is thought to be strong with Knight as well and I do not think it is out of the question that Calipari lands both. Neither Knight nor Selby is a true point, but I can see them playing together. Even moreso, I can see either at the 2 with Eric Bledsoe running the point.

UK’s second most highly rated point guard target is Kyrie Irving. When Calipari brought Irving’s godfather, Rod Strickland, to UK, many thought UK would have the inside track, but Irving has been adamant that family connections will not be the deciding factor. IU is very strong with Kyrie, as is Duke, and I would surprised if he ends up at UK, especially considering that he becomes less of a priority if Selby comes on board.

Joe Jackson has not been a high priority for the UK staff and Selby probably will bump him another spot down on the list.

We have yet to hear from Selby himself, only his mother, since his decommitment, so it will be interesting when he does speak.

Ok its official. The King was in the practice facility. LeBron James stopped to say hello on the way to an event in Mississippi.

The building was going crazy. The players were excited to see him! LeBron works as hard as any pro and is a good man.

My goal is to coach both LeBron Jr and Bryce, his sons…(probably for one year!!!)

Since that official confirmation was given, the UK world has been buzzing about the visit by LeBron and its significance.

From a branding standpoint, it’s obviously a big deal to have the best basketball player in the world (at least in my opinion, I hate Kobe) more closely associated with the UK program than any other. I’m not sure exactly what LeBron’s travel itenirary looked like, but people don’t just stop by Lexington for no reason when they are on the way down to Mississippi.

Let’s face it, the UK brand has simply not been relevant on the national stage since 2005 at the most recent. The recruits that UK now targets were but 6-8 years the last time UK won a title or made a Final Four. Programs like Kansas, North Carolina, and UCLA have had a great deal more recent success, and most kids just don’t have a strong concept of history beyond what they remember.

What better way to jumpstart a program’s image without even playing a game than having one of the most famous athletes in the world unofficially adopt that program?

I think everybody understands that this is a big deal and why, but the question I’ve been asking myself recently is “why?” I don’t think LeBron and Coach Cal genuinely liking eachother is an act, but this feels way too deliberate to just be some sort of weird bromance. I don’t have any sort of inside information on this, but thinking about this rationally points me to three main related elements that are making this relationship go:

Worldwide Wes

Cringe all you want ‘Cats fans, but John Calipari and the infamous William Wesley are thick as thieves. There is no evidence that says Cal’s relationship with Wes has led to any wrongdoing in the eyes of the NCAA, but I don’t think anybody could argue that Calipari’s friendship with the man that GQ speculated may be the most powerful in sports has not benefitted him.

I think this another instance where Worldwide Wes is an asset for Calipari. The Akron Beacon-Journal published an article about 4 years ago detailing Wesley’s relationship with LeBron James: “Wesley, 40, has become a close associate of Cavaliers star LeBron James and helped James decide to sever ties with former agent Aaron Goodwin last month.”

So, Calipari and James have a close relationship with Wesley in common. Wesley has enough influence over both to steer them toward people and steer them away from people. I think it’s pretty clear that William Wesley is acting as a matchmaker of sorts between Calipari and James.

Wesley sees that LeBron and Calipari both stand to gain by building a rapport, so he’s pushing them together.  Per usual, it figures that Wesley stands to gain as well, it just that no one is sure how. However, the next reason for the LeBron-Cal relationship may give some insight into that.

Nike

What else to LeBron James and John Calipari have in common?

LeBron is Nike’s flagship in professional basketball. No matter how many titles Kobe wins or how hard he tries, he will never be as likable or funny as LeBron, so he’s not taking over that title any time soon.

Now that John Calipari has come to UK and put together one of the more ridiculous recruiting classes in recent memory, conveniently at the same time that ESPN has taken over the rights to broadcast SEC basketball, UK has become the most marketable brand in college basketball. Consequently, UK is positioned to take over as Nike’s flagship at the college level, which is why they are in the process of developing new unis for next season.

Those two things make John Calipari and UK a logical match for LeBron James. Also, don’t you forget that Nike founder Phil Knight (another guy who has an argument as most powerful man in sports) calls William Wesley a close personal confidant (that’s where Wes likely stands to gain).

If you think Nike is just an onlooker as LeBron and Cal have gotten close, you’re fooling yourself. They are acutely aware of what’s going and have likely taken an active facilitating role in making in happen.

John Calipari

John Calipari is probably the best recruiter in the game. He’s in the business of making relationships and that’s what recruiting is all about. Calipari’s interactions with LeBron are not ‘recruiting’ in a strict sense of the word, but that’s exactly what he’s doing, and he knows it.

He knows what it means for the UK brand to have LeBron at the Craft Center. He knows what it means for a 17 year old top recruit who follows him on Twitter to see a picture of LeBron and Calipari together when he posts one.

Everything about LeBron and Calipari is deliberate and everyone involved knows it. I encourage you to just sit back and enjoy what it can do for UK.

One more quick note before I wrap things up is that top 2010 point guard Josh Selby has decided to decommit from Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Volunteers and reopen his recruitment. Some of the rumors around the decision have said that part of the motivation was that Selby wants to play at a Nike school.  Another interesting part of this is that Selby’s mother met with Worldwide Wes at the LBJ Skills Academy, as reported by Gary Parrish.

UK fits the bill, as does Memphis (where Selby’s cousin Will Barton has committed, but Parrish says their relationship is not particularly strong), and Jeff Goodman writes that “Kentucky immediately becomes the front-runner for his services”.

UK already has plenty of point guard targets for the upcoming class (Brandon Knight, Kyrie Irving, and Joe Jackson to name a few), but you can immediately add Selby to the list. I didn’t profile Selby when I broke down UK’s point guard targets for 2010, so look for a bio on Selby in the coming days.

The chat sites and message boards exploded over the weekend, word spreading like wildfire of an altercation near campus, possibly involving UK athletes. Local radio shows were filled with callers wanting to add their two cents and concerns.

We may never know if those rumors were true because there is no official police report and now it appears there will be no arrests.

We do know there was an incident off Winnie Street, at the Royal Lexington Apartments. Police were called to the scene there, where a foot pursuit followed, during which a UK police officer suffered a leg injury.

Sources tell 27 SportsFirst that the investigation is over and no charges will be filed.

Initial reports indicated UK football players may have been involved. On his Facebook site, linebacker Micah Johnson wrote, “The truth will come out.”

Safety Randall Burden posted this on his Twitter account: “…I might be through just because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time…”

For now, no news is good news.

Those are the highlights… Stay tuned.

Things escalated and the authorities were involved. We do know, or at least we think we do, that there is an ongoing investigation into the matter, which supposedly also involves some Tennessee athletes who were in town for the weekend.

I’ve hesitated to post about this up to now because of the simple fact that there is absolutely no hard news. I haven’t wanted to take part in rumor mongering, but not acknowledging the rumors that are floating around would almost be misleading.

However, I don’t think it’s appropriate to spell out all the individual rumors that are around. These rumors have truly taken on a lives of their own. No mainstream media has said a thing about what’s going on because everybody is trying to figure it out. Therefore, it has become the biggest story that isn’t officially a story since I’ve been keeping tabs on UK sports.

At this point, there’s really nothing to do but wait. There’s really nothing to be gained other than personal pride from spreading rumors about this situation. So, until there is hard news to report, you will not read anything else on the Pinkie about it…unless rumors about Layla Kiffin somehow being involved start popping up.

Until then, we’ve got plenty of other stuff to talk about:

-Darius Miller is finally back in the Bluegrass with a gold medal around his neck. I’m sure he has plenty to say about his experiences in New Zealand and tomorrow we will have two chances to hear about them.

First, as Larry Vaught reports on his excellent Twitter account, Darius Miller will hold court at a press conference tomorrow to field questions about his time with the national team. Second, Miller and Ramon Harris will be available for questions from fans via live chat at 1 pm on UK’s official blog, Cat Scratches.

The Pinkie will have coverage of both tomorrow afternoon and evening, so be sure to check that out as well.

-We’ve been reporting on Jodie Meeks successes in Vegas summer league play, but ignoring the other two ‘Cats getting a chance to play:

Joe Crawford – Joe is on the Knicks roster and the Knicks have played only one game thus far. Crawford played 17 minutes in the team’s 90-86 loss to Memphis, scoring 10 points on 4-9 shooting to go along with 3 board.

Erik Daniels – The perennial D-League star is on the Memphis Grizzlies roster, but has yet to play in a game.

-Another story of interest to UK fans today was the news that former national champion Antoine Walker has run up $822,500 in gambling debt in Las Vegas.  Walker is still looking to continue his career in the NBA, but the three outstanding felony charges against him will not help his case. I hope that this is able to be resolved cleanly and without much trouble for either side, but this is not good.

One of the casinos where ‘toiney did his damage was Planet Hollywood, which happens to be where I will be staying when I head to Vegas in August. I’m definitely going to be playing some craps there and I think I will debut the Antoine Walker dice roll. I’m going to stand unnecessarily far away from the table and land both dice on the table about 32.5% of the time (that’s Antoine’s lifetime 3 point %).

-One more story that has been recent fodder for message boards is a potential new transfer to UK. I do not think there is any validity to this whatsoever, but John Calipari remove any reasonable doubt that he keeps track of what is being said online. Here is a series of tweets from the man himself:

If you believe things you are reading, you would think we have dozens of commitments already but we’re still evaluating talent.

It’s gratifying 2 know so many young men want 2 b part of what we’re building. We only pursue studnt-athletes who’ll contribute 2 our goals.

For anyone 2 say were taking transfers or have tons of commitments is disingenuous. Our style of play requires a deep and diverse roster.

The young men who wear the UK uniform are people who dream big dreams and understand that to go far, we must go together.

Calipari went out of his way to mention “transfers” and while he likely was referring to Elliot Williams, it’s still going to fuel speculation.