Coach Cal on Twitter

Posted at 6:14 p.m. EDT – Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

In case you haven’t already seen or heard, Coach John Calipari has joined the Twitter craze and created his own account. Fans can now follow along with what Calipari is doing via Twitter.

Follow Calipari at http://twitter.com/UKCoachCalipari. His username is UKCoachCalipari.

Also, in case you’re not already following UK the Athletics Twitter account, be sure and follow UKAAWildcats at http://twitter.com/ukaawildcats.

Men’s basketball holds individual workouts

Posted at 5:59 p.m. EDT – Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

So I promised everybody a baseball feature for today. Well, given the circumstances of the last two nights, that story has unfortunately fallen through.

But I might be able to do you all one better.

The men’s basketball team held individual workouts with Coach John Calipari on Thursday. Each player is allowed two hours of individual instruction per week outside of the playing season as long as no more than four players are in involved in the workout.

A few groups of four worked out with Calipari on Thursday for 45-minute sessions. I wasn’t able to watch each group work out, but I did stay for the entire workout of Jodie Meeks, Darius Miller, DeAndre Liggins and Ramon Harris. It’s the group that, in my opinion, could have the most to benefit from playing in Calipari’s system. When all four players were doing what they were supposed to do at full speed, it gives you chills about what this team could potentially do in 2009-10.

Here are some observations of what I saw:

• Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Darius Miller continues to look like he was made for this system. Whether it’s gaping, long drives to the basket or his patented floater, he’s drawn nothing but praise from Calipari.
• Calipari wants the layups as high off the glass as possible to avoid shot-blockers. Calipari said that with the type of system they run, post players will be in the paint trying to swat those low shots before they hit the glass. One of the more comical moments of practice was when Miller lost control of the ball and rolled off the top of the backboard and through the net. Can’t get much higher off the glass than that, can you? Calipari and Miller couldn’t help but smile and laugh after that one.
• The perception of Calipari’s offense is that it’s run, run, run. Not quite. While a lot of it is predicated on getting to the hoop via the drive and getting there fast, a lot of it has to do with changing speed and changing directions. “The game isn’t played at 100 miles per hour,” Calipari said during practice. “It’s played at 60, 90 and then 100. We’re too used to playing 100 all the time.”
• Jodie Meeks has looked a lot sharper than he did the first couple of practices. I don’t know if it was nerves or just a different change of philosophy, but Meeks doesn’t look like the same player he did a few weeks ago. For one, he’s looks a heck of a lot more confident, much like the guy we saw in late January and early February.
• One guy we haven’t talked about much is Ramon Harris. I don’t want to say he was spectacular in practice, but he hasn’t looked half bad. While not as fast or athletic as Meeks, Miller or Liggins, his game could work well in the system. He hit a ton of shots this afternoon.
• Calipari loves, LOVES the floater. As I’ve mentioned today and multiple times in the past, Calipari is keen on Miller’s runner in the lane, so much so, that he’s trying to get Meeks to adopt it. Meeks doesn’t look as smooth as Miller does at this point with the shot, but if he can grasp the skill and add it to his growing bag of tricks, watch out.
• Even though Calipari can only instruct the players four at a time, the drills he’s running are becoming more complex. The first few weeks were basically the bare bones of Calipari’s offense – dribble hard and either layup it up or kick out. That’s still the main concept, but they’re starting to put together more wrinkles to the offense. They worked on where they’re supposed to cut when a certain man stops on the floor, when they should drive, when they should kick. It’s all about finding patterns, as Calipari termed it one time. It seems so basic in words, but believe me, it’s looking more and more like a polished system. As Calipari said, “This offense isn’t just about driving it and throwing it out somewhere. We’re playing off each other.”
• Liggins had an up-and-down practice. The first 30 minutes or so, he looked great. The last 15 minutes? Not so much. As Calipari inserted more wrinkles into a few of the drills, it looked like Liggins was over thinking things – almost trying too hard. So much is being thrown at him in such a short time that it’s taking a little bit to digest. As I’ve said before, he really looks like he’s going to be one of Calipari’s projects, and that’s a good thing. I’ve seen glimpses of some major improvement from him under Calipari already, but it’s going to take time before we see the whole package.

A few other things overhead:

• During a drill where the player trails on the drive for an open 3-pointer: “You’ll live for this, Jodie.”
• The four players were hitting most of their shots, but during one cold stretch: “If I miss five straight shots, what am I going to do? Shoot a layup.”
• As they added more components to some of the drills and a few struggled: “What I hate as a coach is to tell you something and then you do something completely different.”

Blackwelder SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year

Posted at 2:58 p.m. EDT – Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

Mallory Blackwelder was named the Southeastern Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year, as announced by the SEC office.

Blackwelder, a senior and co-captain on the women’s golf team, is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and a three-time NGCA All-Scholar Team member.

In addition to medaling at the UTC Lady Mocs Tournament and a top-10 finish at the Auburn Derby Classic, the Versailles, Ky., native also served as an active member in the Lexington community. She’s volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, God’s Pantry, First Baptist Church of Versailles and UK Children’s Hospital.

Blackwelder is the second student-athlete in program history to be awarded the honor.

Full release on the homepage is coming soon.

Cat Connections

Posted at 10:59 p.m. EDT – Eric Lindsey, UK Media Relations

Outside of the recruiting world, not a whole lot going on today in the papers. Nonetheless, here are a few stories to glance over this morning (heavy on the spring football).

Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports that John Calipari's assistants get academic incentives.

 His colleague Chip Cosby writes that wide receiver Aaron Boyd has older brother Shane to lean on.

Brett Dawson from the Courier-Journal writes about Myron Pryor's NFL chances.

 A few other notes from Dawson.

The Cats’ Pause’s Darrell Bird reports on Josh Harrellson's future at UK.

Boston Globe columnists Bob Ryan and Dan Shaghnessy debate whether former Wildcats Rajon Rondo is an elite NBA point guard.

The Kentucky Kernel’s BW Jones writes about quarterback Mike Hartline.  

Metz Camfield at the Kernel reports on the baseball team's loss Wednesday night to Evansville.

Bill Nigut on the softball team's shutout.