Brooks content with decision to retire

Brooks content with decision to retire

By Eric Lindsey on January 22, 2010 11:09 AM
http://www.ukathletics.com/blog/index.html


Cal's Cats playing for top spot with '2-game losing streak' mind set
By Eric Lindsey on January 22, 2010 5:07 PM | No TrackBacks
MBSK 09_10 UK_GA Web 0004.jpgWith a proverbial target on their backs, the Kentucky Wildcats have chosen to take the arrows out of their backs and aim the bow at the rest of the nation.

Although UK is the hands-on favorite to be the No. 1 team in the nation if it beats Arkansas on Saturday, head coach John Calipari has decided to motivate his team with an interesting concept: a two-game losing streak.

Apparently, as Calipari has told reporters and instructed his players to practice like, they're beaten, bruised and hungry. No. 1 team in the nation? One would hardly know it by the change in practice leading up to Saturday's 4 p.m. game vs. Arkansas at Rupp Arena.

Caliarpi said he has become more aggressive with the players in practice and has extended the sessions about 15 minutes longer than he usually does around this time of the year. Unexpected of an undefeated team to say the very least.

"There' s no joking around (in practice)," senior guard/forward Ramon Harris said. "Guys are drill to drill, guys are hustling, guys are running hard. I'm not saying we weren't doing that before, but when you lose two games, you focus a little more and that what guys are trying to do."

Freshman guard John Wall, who has yet to experience a loss of any kind on the collegiate level, is fine with reversing to an underdog's mentality.

"I think that is the best thing that coach Cal has done with us except for Camp Cal when we were off for break and we had those three days of practice," Wall said. "I think that is the best thing he did because everybody is playing different and harder than we did before. When you think about it, when you lose two games you are going to be upset. He said he hasn't lost two games in a row in a long time, so he got our mind set to practice that way."

Only the Cats haven't lost two games. They haven't even lost one. They're really a win away from snatching the No. 1 ranking for the first time since March 2003.

The players said before Friday's practice that a No. 1 ranking would mean a lot to them because, as Wall said so accurately, "Everybody plays the game to be No. 1 in college basketball."

However, it's crystal clear that the top of the polls is just a small goal in a much more elaborate plan.

"We are playing for a No. 1 seed," Calipari said. "If this game Saturday helps us get a No. 1 seed, that's all fine. But, you don't know. It's not life or death. Our thing is let's go out and let's see if we are playing the way we need to play."

That's the main motivation behind Calipari's more aggressive practices of late. While the rest of the nation is talking in one ear about how good they are, in the other ear Calipari is telling them to stay humble and hungry.

Otherwise, Kentucky will endure the same fates that previous No. 1 Kansas and soon-to-fall No. 1 Texas have endured in the last few weeks. Or, take for instance the suddenly downtrodden Boilermakers of Purdue, who lost three straight after starting the season 13-0.

"What coach is trying to tell us is there are certain things that separate different teams," Harris said. "We're not the only good team in this country right now. There are other teams that can beat us and can play as good as us. What he's trying to say is those little things separate the good from the great teams."

Calipari has continued to emphasize that Kentucky is one off-night or one hot shooting night from an opposing player away from dropping its first game.

And his words might prove to be prophetic if Arkansas sophomore guard Rotnei Clarke (18.3 points per game) repeats some of his previous performances from this season.

"I recruited him really hard and I loved him as a high school player," Calipari said. "I've watched four or five tapes and he doesn't need a whole lot of time to get it off. He works real hard to get shots off, and if he takes 15 3s and hits 11, it's been one heck of a start to our season. We aren't going to stop him from shooting them."

Clarke is filling it up with the best of the nation this year. In a season eerily familiar to the one Jodie Meeks put together in 2008-09, Clarke has drilled 66 3-pointers on the year at a sweltering 49.3-percent rate.

What makes Clarke nearly un-guardable is that he has quite arguably the quickest release in the Southeastern Conference and has the freedom from Arkansas head coach and former Kentucky great John Pelphrey to shoot from just about anywhere on the floor.

"If you're not ready for that then you might get beat by 40 because if he gets going it is going to be tough to stop him," Wall said. "Our main thing this week in practice has been fighting through the screens because if he gets hot teams are in trouble. He's the type of person you don't want to get hot because he can change the game for them like Corey Allmond did in the Sam Houston State game."

Clarke nearly topped Meeks' record-setting performance early in the season with a 51-point explosion vs. Alcorn State. A few games later, he dropped 10 treys on East Tennessee State.

Even more troubling is that point guard Courtney Fortson, the primary playmaker in the Arkansas offense, has returned from a 14-game suspension and has added an instant boost to a team that was in shambles at the beginning of the year.

Clearly, with a potential No. 1 ranking on the horizon, a target will be on the backs of the Wildcats when they host Arkansas on Saturday.

"Now, how are we going to practice?" Calipari said. "What are we going to go to get ourselves ready? What's your mentality? What's your focus like if we just lost two? Because if we don't start stepping up and practicing that way, we are going to lose two in a row."

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Video: Another SEC challenge for UK Hoops
By Eric Lindsey on January 22, 2010 3:56 PM | No TrackBacks
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Video: Calipari says Cats playing for No. 1 seed
By Eric Lindsey on January 22, 2010 3:35 PM | No TrackBacks
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Video: Players say they're undefeated, not unbreakable
By Eric Lindsey on January 22, 2010 3:02 PM | No TrackBacks

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Lost Lettermen: Wayne Turner part 2
By Eric Lindsey on January 22, 2010 11:22 AM | No TrackBacks

MBSK 08_09 UK_AU WEB 31.jpgFormer Kentucky great Wayne Turner was featured on lostlettermen.com in a recent interview and podcast. In the post, Turner talks about the 1998 NCAA Elite Eight classic against Duke, why the momentum suddenly shifted in UK's favor and how he overcame criticism of his unusual jump shot.

Here's part two from the interview with Turner. Read the full story and listen to the podcast at lostlettermen.com.

LL: The one knock on your game was always that unorthodox jumper. At what point did you say forget it, I'm not going to listen to people trying to fix my jumper. I'm just going to stick with it?

WT: I want to say in '98. In '98 I definitely had that whole year I was with coach Mike Sutton, who coaches at Tennessee Tech. He worked with me a whole lot on my shooting and he always told me the best shot is the next shot. That shot that you've already taken is already gone. It's already marked down as a field goal attempt. You worry about the next shot.

And that whole year I shot 38 percent from the 3-point line which is a big change for me and my free throw percentage went up. I just felt like everybody shoots different, everybody's different, every player is different from another player. There's some similarities but they're differences and unfortunately my shot had to be the most different.

But hey, I'm grateful that even with that type of shot, I made shots. A lot of people would say, "How do you make shots?" and I say, "Hey, it feels normal to me."
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Brooks content with decision to retire
By Eric Lindsey on January 22, 2010 11:09 AM |



Sitting courtside Thursday night at the UK women's basketball game, Rich Brooks looked like a man at ease with his decision to end his 44-year football coaching career.

"Well, I am," Brooks said. "It was time."

Nearly three weeks since retiring, Brooks kicked back and relaxed with his wife, Karen, on the sidelines as Matthew Mitchell and his team notched their second straight Southeastern Conference victory and 15th overall with a 69-52 victory over Arkansas.

Maybe there is still a tiny little fire in him to coach - after all, he had a few words for one of the referees for a non-call late in the second half - but it's apparent after Thursday's game that Brooks was ready to hang it up.

"I've been good. I'm not doing any recruiting," Brooks said as he cracked a smile. "I had a chance to go down and see my little grandson for his second birthday in Atlanta, so that was fun."

Brooks attended the American Football Coaches Association coaches' clinic in Orlando, Fla., last week, but otherwise he has spent his time catching up on the things he was unable to do as often while he was coaching, such as visiting with family and friends.

The seven-year Kentucky coach caught up with former players Marcus McClinton and Keenan Burton on Wednesday in Lexington. Brooks had a few words of encouragement for Burton, who suffered a season-ending knee injury with the St. Louis Rams a few months ago.

"He's going to be ready to go for the passing camps in June," Brooks said. "He's looking forward to the year. He's a little uncertain with maybe a strike coming up or a lockout or whatever in 2011. I just hope he has a good year coming up."

The retirement of Brooks has been far from easy for some of the players, especially the former ones, who, with the help of Brooks, took a stagnant football program and transformed it into an annual contender in the Southeastern Conference.

"I think they're doing fine," Brooks said. "I talked to (current players) a week ago Wednesday for their first day back at school and they're just going about their business getting ready for spring ball."

There has been an especially high outpouring of love and support from the Kentucky fan base following Brooks' retirement for a man who made football matter in the Bluegrass State again. Brooks said he is grateful for the kind words but admitted he's had to take it with a "grain of salt," much like he did when he took a beating of criticism for his first few years on the job, because it's only a few weeks into the Joker Phillips regime.

Under the new initiative "Operation Win," Brooks said Phillips has been doing a "great job." The two have had several conversations over the past couple of weeks while Phillips has been on the road recruiting. Brook said he would like to help Phillips in whatever capacity he can, but he admitted it's now Phillips' show to run.

"He's the guy," Brooks said. "He will bounce a few things off of me from time to time, but I'm sure that will diminish as the weeks go on."

Mitchell and his team dedicated the game ball to Brooks on Thursday for his longtime dedication of UK Hoops.

"That's a real honor," Brooks said. "I've been a big fan of his and what he's trying to do here and I think this is the team that's in transition from being semi-competitive to one that can get back into the Big Dance, so I'm really excited for him."

As far as the long-term future is concerned, Brooks has no set plan. For now, it's time to catch up with family and friends and enjoy the good life of retirement.

"I'm just going down to do a little bone fishing with a friend of mine in the Bahamas and then back out to Oregon to see my family out there and then probably back here to see some more friends," Brooks said.

After his honest, hard-working rein at UK, he has plenty of them to go around and see.