Henry to UK picking up steam

On a Kansas City radio station today Carl Henry, the father of Xavier and CJ, stated he and his family felt betrayed by a newspaper article that made the Henry’s look like “prima donna’s” and that they were questioning their commitment to Kansas even further.

Carl stated that Daniel Orton and John Wall, two players who chose Kentucky over Kansas among others, have been talking to Xavier about how great it is in Lexington and how they want him to join them in the pursuit of an NCAA Championship.

Many Kansas message boards have been calling the Henry family “slime” amongst other things for the way they have handled their displeasure with the Kansas program.

So what will the UK program look like if Henry joins as the fifth five-star player this season?

Potential Starters

PG: John Wall – Top five player in the nation right off the bat

SG: Xavier Henry – Deadly shooter who has a complete offensive game

SF: Darius Miller – Will be one of the most improved players in the SEC and fits DDM offense perfectly

PF: Patrick Patterson – Decision to come back was the right one. May be the top big man in the country

C: DeMarcus Cousins – Rated as the #2 high school player in the nation behind Wall and is a bigger, more talented Patrick Patterson at the same stage

 

Potential Key Bench Players

Eric Bledsoe – Would be starting for most teams in the nation. A really strong and powerful guard.

Jon Hood – Very athletic wing with an old school game. Will not cry about getting limited minutes and should pick up the offense quickly.

Daniel Orton – Coming off an injury he should be ready to prove himself. Great body who should play very aggressively.

Darnell Dodson – Another deadly shooter who can get into the lane. Will cause teams not to double the great post players.

New Xavier Henry News

 

Henry to UK? Europe? Still KU?

Remember a few weeks ago when it looked like there was some problems with Bill Self and Xavier Henry?

 

Well it looks like there may be some more smoke to the Xavier Henry fire.

In an interview with a Kansas athletics website, Carl Henry, Xavier’s father, stated that Xavier wanted to go to Kentucky but he and his wife said they would not move to Lexington and advised him to stay home and go to Kansas.

But that’s not it.

Xavier is not enrolled in summer school and Carl Henry has met with advisors about Xavier maybe playing in Europe rather than KU. Carl Henry stated that Coach Self knew about these meetings but one has to wonder why he would even be meeting with people about these things.

More to come later.

How Does Jodie Meeks Fit In Milwaukee?

Kentucky star Jodie Meeks was chosen in the second round of the 2009 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks but how does he fit into their future?

Meeks becomes the fifth shooting guard on the Milwaukee roster, which does not bode well for Jodie.

But the one thing that Jodie Meeks DOES have going for him is that outside of Michael Redd the Bucks do not have a legitimate scoring guard. Keith Bogans and Bruce Bowen are more defensive oriented and Charlie Bell is more of a distributor and point guard.

Meeks could end up being the backup to Michael Redd, and with Redd’s injury history I would not be surprised if Meeks logged major minutes at some point next season.

With two terrific passing point guards in Ramon Sessions and rookie Brandon Jennings, Meeks could find himself in many scoring positions and have many opportunities to prove what he can do offensively.

Big man Andrew Bogut should benefit from having Meeks around because it will be difficult to double down on him when Meeks is ready to fire from behind the arc.

Meeks to the Bucks

Jodie Meeks has been picked with the 11th pick of the second round in the NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Meeks can fill the void left by the departure of Richard Jefferson via trade and should get immediate opportunities to show his scoring ability at the next level.

More to come later in a breakdown of what he could see.

Jodie Meeks To The NBA: What It Means For The Kentucky Wildcats

With news coming out today that All-American guard Jodie Meeks is heading for the NBA instead of another year at Kentucky, many Wildcat fans thought the same thing, “Where do we go from here?”

To answer this question you have to look at the players that will be replacing Meeks in the Kentucky lineup next season.

Two new players to the program, Darnell Dodson and Jon Hood, will look to replace Meeks in the Kentucky lineup by using a mix of lineups to confuse opponents.

Dodson, a 6-foot 7 junior, spent last season at Miami Dade College after transferring from Pittsburgh during his freshman campaign.

Hood, a 6-foot 7 freshman, was born and raised in Madisonville, Kentucky and is the reigning “Mr. Basketball” in the state of Kentucky.

Like Meeks, Dodson is a deadly shooter from long range with the ability to completely dominate a game from behind the arc.

Hood can stroke from long range as well but makes his presence known from mid range because of his silky smooth jumper that becomes impossible to block when factoring in his length.

Meeks’ departure leaves the Wildcats much thinner at the shooting guard spot. Eric Bledsoe, one of two incoming five-star point guards, will play along side John Wall—the other five-star point guard joining the Cats—in the Kentucky lineup.

The biggest question surrounding Meeks’ exit is how will Kentucky’s preseason ranking be affected. Many believe they will remain within the top three, along with Kansas and Villanova.

In my mind, Kentucky moves from second to third in the preseason rankings, falling behind Villanova after Scottie Reynolds announced his return to Nova.

Will Meeks go to the league?

The NBA deadline to enter a name into the NBA Draft is this Monday and Jodie Meeks still has not decided what he is going to do.

It appears from all indications that Meeks’ wish to become a first-round pick will not come true and he will either be a mid-to-late second-round pick or go undrafted. Meeks has been quoted as saying he will only stay in the draft if he thinks he can get guaranteed money and it does not appear that is likely.

So what happens with UK if Meeks stays or goes? Well, this is a HUGE decision for UK as well as Meeks. If Meeks stays in the draft and hires an agent UK will likely stay at around top 5-10 in the preseason polls and be expected to reach the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. But if Meeks returns UK will definitely be the top team in America heading into next season and will be poised to make another Final Four run, and perhaps, win their eighth NCAA Championship.

Cool Website Alert
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thesportscave.freeforums.org

Who Will Be The Last Player To Leave?

As it stands now, UK has one too many players on athletic scholarship. There are a few players who could leave and there are three very reasonable candidates.

DeAndre Liggins
DeAndre Liggins, a rising sophomore, looks like he may be heading out. Liggins does not seem to have a place on a team that will be with two 5-star point guards and maybe Kevin Galloway.

John Wall will be starting and Eric Bledsoe will be logging major minutes coming off the bench—and will start the following year.

By the time Liggins will get any significant playing time he will be a senior, as UK looks to land a stud point guard for next season.

I believe Liggins will be the player you see make an exit from this team and transfer to a lesser known school in Division I.

Kevin Galloway
I guess Galloway could be the player to go but the fact that he will be a senior next season really makes me question that.

Galloway has the ability to play three different positions and he appears to be a great energy guy coming off the bench. He has pretty good open court skills so I think he will stay.

Matt Pilgrim
As odd as it may seem, Matt Piligrim could very well be the player left on the wrong side of this equation.

Although he has become an icon of sorts during his year off the roster, Pilgrim is going to be sitting behind two or three top tier players next season, including Patrick Patterson.

Patterson, DeMarcus Cousins and Daniel Orton all will log more minutes than Pilgrim and if need be Pilgrim could be the player to go.

We will keep you updated on any further developments of this story.

Derrick Rose Allegations Hurt Some More Than Others

On May 27 news broke that Derrick Rose, a standout on the 2008 Memphis Final Four team, may have had his academic grades changed during his senior year in high school.

At the time, many people believed this would be an investigation dedicated solely into the Memphis Athletic Department. In the two weeks since the information was released, the bulk of the blame has been placed on former coach, and accused cheater, John Calipari.

Calipari has been called everything from a liar to a greasy slime ball since the allegations of alleged cheating was released.

Many people do not realize the affect that these accusations could have on Calipari and the program he now runs.

It was announced today that Will Barton, a high school senior-to-be and top 10 recruit, committed to the University of Memphis, when it was known that Kentucky was the clear leader for his services.

In an interview conducted after his verbal announcement, Barton stated that coaches at Memphis told him that Calipari was the source of the problem and, were he to play at Kentucky, he would be representing a liar and a cheater.

All the negative publicity and criminal accusations have many Kentucky fans wondering if they missed the news when Calipari was found guilty and to blame for this behavior.

The answer is no, Calipari has not been charged in any way, and in fact, the NCAA cleared Calipari before UK hired him, as these accusations were known for months by the two universities.

As it stands, the old saying ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is not being used in this situation.

It seems the college basketball world is doing all it can to rain on the Kentucky parade.

When Kentucky wrapped up perhaps the greatest recruiting class in NCAA history, there were the Duke, Louisville, and Tennessee fans to crown Calipari a cheater and to announce that there is no way Eric Bledsoe or DeMarcus Cousins could qualify—which they both have.

But where does Memphis stand in all this? The program that let Derrick Rose in, the program that looked at Robert Dozier’s two SAT scores and cleared him, and the program that is currently under investigation has been using the Calipari card the entire time.

Memphis signed Latavious Williams last week, a player known around the recruiting world as having grade issues himself.

They just took Will and Antonio Barton from Kentucky, simply by claiming their own mess was someone else’s fault.

In no way does it appear that Memphis’ reputation will be questioned, but Calipari and Kentucky however, will face the persecution of the nation and will be ushered in as the next band of cheaters who are trying to ruin this perfectly run game.