Go to YouTube and watch their game with Ohio State, and their recent tourney finals. We need to come with our A game!

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BY THE NUMBERS: Previewing UK vs. Oakland​

Kentucky freshman guard Rob Dillingham took a shot during the Wildcats' open practice session on Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. (Gregory Fisher/USA Today Sports)

Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK

As Kentucky begins its NCAA Tournament path on Thursday in Pittsburgh, we take a look at some of the intriguing numbers behind the matchup between the third-seeded Wildcats and the 14-seed Oakland Golden Grizzlies...​

1st - Meeting in history between Kentucky and Oakland on the hardwood. The Golden Grizzlies ascended to the D-I ranks in the 1999-2000 season and are the champions of the Horizon League.

4th - Trip to the NCAA Tournament by Oakland. UK is making an NCAA-record 61st appearance.

5th - Team, Kentucky, that Oakland will have faced in the NCAA field of 68. The Grizzlies previously lost to Michigan State (79-62), Illinois (64-53), Drake (85-77), and Dayton (91-67). They also faced Ohio State and Xavier, losing 79-73 to the Buckeyes but defeating the Musketeers 78-76.

8 - Two-point field goal attempts by Oakland guard Jack Gohlke this season. He has taken 327 shots from beyond the 3-point arc.

32-11 - Kentucky's NCAA Tournament record under head coach John Calipari.

38 - Career-high points for Oakland senior forward Trey Townsend in the Grizzlies' Horizon League championship win over Milwaukee. He was the tournament MVP to go along with his league Player of the Year honors.

57th - All-American in UK program history, senior guard Antonio Reeves, who was honored by The Sporting News and the USBWA.

75.8% - Oakland ranks among the nation's Top 50 in free-throw shooting percentage.

137 - Oakland's national rank in the Ken Pomeroy efficiency ratings. The Grizzlies are 133rd on offense and 166th on defense. The closest SEC comparison to Oakland was Missouri (151) which went winless in league play and lost 19 straight to close the season.

307th - Pace of play ranking for the Grizzlies, who average almost 19 seconds per possession, one of the slowest figures in the nation. Kentucky is one of the fastest-tempo teams in the country at 21st.

318 - Three-pointers by the Wildcats this season are the second-most in program history going into the NCAA Tournament.

412 - Area code for Pittsburgh, Pa., which is home to UK players Adou Thiero and Tre Mitchell, UK head coach John Calipari, and the college home of UK assistant coach Orlando Antigua, who played for the Pitt Panthers.

552 - Combined 3-point attempts by Oakland guards Jack Gohlke and Blake Lampman this season. By comparison, UK's top three of Antonio Reeves, Reed Sheppard, and Rob Dillingham have a combined 458.

1,553 - Combined college wins for head coaches John Calipari (855) and Greg Kampe (698). They have a combined 72 years on the sidelines as head coaches.

1-2-3-4-5 - Kentucky's national rank in 3-point shooting percentage (41.2), scoring average (89.4), blocked shots per game (6.3), fastbreak points (15.7), and field goal percentage (49.7).

So I think some of you know I'm good friends with Jack Givens and he invited me to a book signing he had in Louisville yesterday

There were a ton of people there including, Mark Krebs, Dave Baker, Bobby Perry, etc.....

But the reason I'm posting is to tell you about the funny story he told when they were freshman and playing IU early in the season......Jack said he had a breakaway on one play and thought "man, I'm gonna hammer this one".....Well he said Scott May came out of nowhere and blocked it all the way back to nearly halfcourt

And on the way back down court May told him "Boy, don't be bringing that weak sh*t in here" LOL!

Just thought y'all would like to hear...

They seem to be shooting well but they also are still playing fast, hope we can do that

Sad day for card fans.

Used to be like a kid on Christmas morning about now. Now I watch with my eyes diverted.

If ANYONE besides @drew_ukfan even attempts to start the game thread tonight, I am personally coming after you and hell is coming with me.

Don't do it. Don't screw this up.

Nice article on him from John Feinstein. Cal must spend almost every waking hour on the phone, with all the people he supposedly talks to regularly.

I know I'm a little late to the party, some of the editing and publishing logistics got the best of me. But here's my first episode of what I *hope* to be a long running ordeal, the Bleed Blue Podcast

I know the UK sports podcast scene isn't exactly on a shortage, but I'm hoping to bring some different twists to it, including maybe some interviews or content with some Rupp's Rafters posters

Anyhow, give it a listen if you want - only 12 minutes long - let me know some feedback too if you want. Appreciate it

And probably well worth it.

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Former Michigan signee will be in town for spring practice.

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: First Round - Oakland vs Kentucky​

Wednesday, March 20, 2024​

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA​

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Q. John, the obvious question is your feelings coming home to coaching in your hometown, but I'm also interested in the Pitt recruiting class of 1988, Miller, Matthews, Martin?

JOHN CALIPARI: I have a picture in my office in Kentucky that I'll put out. I'll take a picture and send it out to you and you can get it. It's all those guys, and they've all stayed in touch. What a great group.

Q. How were you able to get all them to come at one time, and do you regret not getting to coach them?

JOHN CALIPARI: Sean was like family. Durrell always wanted to come. As a matter of fact, we signed him before he took an official visit. Now, he was from the city. Bobby wanted to come to Pitt, Bryan Shorter I had known since he was -- and Jason Matthews wanted to come to Pittsburgh. I went to LA, and Paul Edmonds did a great job of recruiting him, too, now. He was the head coach. That was an interesting -- you know, let me tell you why -- just listening to him, how many of you are from Pittsburgh? Yinz? Downtown? (Laughs). I mean, come on, the crick. We had a crick in our backyard. My mom used to say, red up. Like red up. What is red up? Like, clean up. Red up. Do you know what a gum band is, like a rubber band? It was gum band. A pop? I never knew, they said are you going to have a soda? What are you talking about? Pop?

I mean, let me say this about Pittsburgh. When I grew up, it was a blue collar town, but it's never changed the roots of what Pittsburgh is and what it's about. The Steelers are still, A, I call him the Stillers, as in Pittsburgh Stillers. They're still a blue collar team with fans who love them and, like, where I grew up, my high school teammates are still my best friends. They still come to games and they say, you know -- anyway. But we were all brought up the same way. Our fathers were laborers. Mom raised us, and put hope and dreams and you can be whatever. That was mom. But we were all the same. It was a melting pot. And, you know, you were taught, there's nothing in this world that's going to be given to you. You're going to have to go take what you want, and if you don't work, you will not eat. That was the famous line, you don't work, you're not eating. You work. If you want to be better than somebody, you better work. That's Pittsburgh. And it was the greatest thing. And I think sometimes -- anybody that's been here and left knows that's what it is, and also, yinz and all the other -- how about this word? Jagoff. Come on, where else do you say jagoff other than Pittsburgh? And when I say it, they go, oh my -- did you hear what he just said? In Pittsburgh, that's like in passing.

So, no, I appreciate that. And I love coming back. I'll probably take the tour of my grandparents' house and my other grandparents and our house where I grew up and the high school and my aunts and uncles and cousins, and I normally come back and I do the whole drive. But a special place. I called Mike Tomlin. Why don't you come in and talk to the team? Mike and I are friends. He's in a pro day somewhere, can't do it. But special place.

Q. You've had a number of guys over the years who have been in a similar situation of D.J. and Justin coming in top recruit, projected NBA lottery. How do you think they've managed those pressures and expectations?

JOHN CALIPARI: I think they've done great. I mean, my job is to help them walk through this. And at the end of the day is I just want them being their best, and when I'm with them every day, I know what that looks like. But when they're playing against other guys, they know what it looks like, too. Most of it for young guys, and again, I've got the youngest team in the field, I will tell you is the mental part of this. Can you be a cheerleader for yourself? What is your inner talk? They have to learn that. You have to push out anything that's coming at you negative. Anybody's telling you, well, if you did this and did that. Doesn't help. Both of them -- D.J. being hurt and sitting out two and a half weeks really affected him. He's come back. He's better. He's back to where he was. He was the Freshmen of the Week four times, and then he took two-and-a-half weeks off and it's taken him time. Justin, I could not be more proud of any player I've ever coached. To know where he was, to know the expectations that were on his shoulders, to know all the stuff he was hearing. And I said, Justin, I just want you to know, I believe in you. And he said, Coach, I want you to know I believe in you and I'm sticking with this. And that's -- and then he makes it. We don't win at Tennessee if he doesn't play that way.

Now, here's the thing with all. Guys, they're not machines and they're not robots. They have bad games and they have bad nights, and it's what they are. The good thing about this team I'm coaching is we have a deep team. For a couple years, if one or two players played poorly, I didn't have subs. You left them in and you end up losing. And I'm not just talking the NCAA Tournament. Other games. With this group, if these two or three are not playing well, I'll just play these five or six, and we'll run with them. And they know it. We've had -- I believe it's seven guys hit 25 or more points, and nine or ten or maybe even 11 have had 13 points or more. We got that type of team. But we're really young.

And then your next question, someone from Pittsburgh, yinz don't play very good defense. That will be your question to me. At times, yinz do play good defense, and there are other times you're like what are you thinking? But I'm loving coaching this team. I mean, this practice today -- and all I'm telling them is you make sure I'm having as much fun as you. So we'll see. And there's no guarantee in this tournament.

And let me say to everybody, forget about seed and all that stuff. If you win on a half court bank shot by one, you celebrate because you're surviving and marching on. That's what this tournament is. You don't let everybody come at you, you gotta do this, you have to do this, if they don't do it this way. Go ahead, have your fun. This is about survive and advance. And we're playing a good team now in Oakland. They're good.

What they do defensively, what they can do offensively with two kids taking 20 threes every game and having the freedom. Greg is a great coach, not a good coach, a great coach. And then they play funky defense. They play a defense that's not normal. And I'm not -- I'll tell Greg, Greg, we're not changing much. So when you watch what we do against zone, that's what we do. I'm not trying to be tricky. Here's how we play. I don't want them thinking too much. I want them playing. Let's just be who we are. And let's see if that's good enough.

Q. It feels like when you guys have a lead, there's a lot of passing, a lot of up tempo, and when you're behind there's more dribbling, more one on five.

JOHN CALIPARI: To get behind or when we're behind?

Q. When you're behind. How do you get them to keep playing the other way?

JOHN CALIPARI: Reed Sheppard said to me, Coach, I'm not sure we're selfish, but I think we have so many good players, each guy is trying to get us back in the game himself, and we're just not as good when we play that way. Now, we talk about it, but there's game slippage and they revert back to their habits sometimes, and that's both on offense and defense. Look, I've had video. We did highlights to show them, here's when we're at our best. Here's when we're not. And most of that is we hold the ball. But they're not robots, they're not machines. They don't play -- there's stuff that you're teaching that they miss on. You know, you talk about the pressure of this tournament. It's on everybody. You got more than anybody else, and Reed has more than -- no, it's on everybody. And how you deal with it is how have you done throughout the year when you're down? Have you ever been down 36 minutes and came back and won the last four? Have you been up, they make a run and you gotta make another run? All that stuff adds up to the experience a young team like ours needed.

Creeping on their board they seem to think Chris Collins ( ex Dookie) Northwestern HC will be there man next season.

Stoops likes the O's operation on Day 1 of spring practice​

New UK offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan worked with transfer quarterback Brock Vandagriff during the Wildcats' first day of spring practice. (Elliott Hess/UK Athletics)

Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK

Despite a busy off-season that may have required a few "Hello, My Name Is..." tags around the Kentucky football complex, the Wildcats had a smooth opening day of spring football practice, Mark Stoops said after Tuesday's workout in the Nutter Fieldhouse.

"For the first day, just today, I was very impressed," said the UK head coach, who is entering his 12th year in Lexington. "There are obviously some mistakes with some things and some areas where we have a lot of practices to clean up, but overall, procedure, alignments, motions, plays, I really like what we're doing.

"I really feel good about Bush (Hamdan) and the creativity that he has and the experience that he has -- the knowledge. Overall, first day went very well." (cont) ...

Me and my fiance have been at the hospital since early yesterday, we are going to give birth to our first child (son) today. So Cal, run Oakland into the ground!!!!!!!

Doesn't hurt I got paid today and my taxes came in as well. Going to order some good food and watch our boys. GO CATS

Edit: forgot to mention he's a Sheppard boy! (No relation)

One of the worst hires Barnhart has ever made. Interest is declining. Should be replaced immediately.

Been 22 years since I’ve attended. A buddy and I were going to go tomorrow for the morning session. Right now all I’m seeing on stub hub and Ticketmaster are uppers. Should I go ahead and get the uppers or will they he an opportunity to get lowers at the Rupp Arena box office in the morning? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank

Ladies and gentlemen, let the madness begin! GBB!!!

Tip off time is here.


The greatest 4 days in sports.....

🥳 🎉 🎊 🍾 🥂

Joey Brackets scored 336 pts (he had 67 out of 68 teams right) finished in 169th place

Jerry Palm scored 323 pts (66 out of 68 teams right) finished in 214th place not bad out of 227 people !

The winner scored 355 pts (67 teams right)

8 people got all 68 teams right (including 2nd place)

I scored 350 pts good for 8th place tie (I got 67 out 68 teams right) I am not on bracket matrix but I do these myself each year but I have to tell you ever since a million people started doing them it really isn't any fun anymore it was fun when it was early 2000's and it was just Joey, Palm and myself doing them and I was smacking Palm around year in and year out. I thought was impressive clearly not everyone does it now.

These are the 2 guys getting paid to do this haha

If I had trusted my gut and put Kentucky as a 3 (which would have put Auburn into a 4 for me) I would have finished with 354 pts and 2nd place.

This was the worst score ever on avg for bracket matrix avg score was 342 as the committee seeding was way off for the MWC and a few other teams that most everyone missed by 2 or 3 seed lines which kills your score.

Make your case. The winner gets a like by me. 😆