Published: September 23, 2008 03:24 pm            

Pre-season coverage begins for basketball

Monticello — With UK's Big Blue Madness less than three weeks away, this means

pre-season college basketball magazines are beginning to show up on the

newsstands.

And many folks in the Big Blue Nation are enthusiastic about coach Billy

Gillispie's second Kentucky squad, featuring future NBA player and 6-8

sophomore Patrick Patterson.

But if you look at Lindy's and Athlon Sports' college basketball

magazines, you would conclude the Wildcats are heading for a so-so‹not

great‹campaign this winter.

Athlon did not rank UK in its pre-season Top 25 poll with Kentucky

expected to get knocked out in the first round of the March Madness.

And Lindy's did not have UK in its pre-season Top 40 poll.

But the Mr. Motormouth from ESPN is more optimistic about UK's chances

this season.

Dick Vitale, in his pre-season Top 40, has listed Kentucky at No. 24. He

says the Wildcats will return to prominence with a healthy Patterson.

So, we'll find out who's right in six months.

Anyhow, both Lindy's and Athlon Sports magazines, as usual, are filled

with lots of useful information, including recruiting reports provided by

Rivals.com and Scout.com. More insightful stories are also available on the

magazines' websites (lindyssports.com and athlonsports.com).

Speaking of SEC teams, Tennessee, not surprisingly, is the team to beat.

Coach Bruce Pearl's Vols are placed at No. 10 by Lindy's and No. 11 by

Athlon Sports.

The Vols, who have SEC Player of the Year candidate Tyler Smith and

freshman star Scotty Hopson (a McDonald's All-American from Hopkinsville,

Ky.), are the only conference school ranked in the Top 25 in both magazines.

In addition to UT, the other SEC institutions rated in Lindy's Top 40

are Florida (No. 26), Alabama (No. 30) and Vanderbilt (No. 38). That means

Kentucky is forecasted to place fourth in the SEC Eastern Division.

If you want my opinion, the Wildcats are much better than the No. 4

divisional spot. With Gillispie's outstanding coaching, they will surprise

some folks.

As for UK's schedule, it is attractive and reasonably tough.

In addition to four hard-nosed SEC battles with Tennessee and Florida,

the Wildcats are scheduled to visit two powerful teams on the road during

the nonconference action. They face consensus pre-season No. 1 North

Carolina in Chapel Hill in mid-November and Final Four contender U of L in

Louisville in early January.

North Carolina, unbelievably, has eight McDonald's All-Americans on its

current roster.

At Rupp Arena, Kentucky meets the Miami Hurricanes, a Top 20 club from

ACC, in an early December matchup.

Vitale says Miami has one of the best players that the nation hasn't

heard enough about. His name is Jack McClinton, a 6-1 senior guard who

returns from last year's 23-win team (8-8 in ACC).

While the Wildcats may not be a national title contender this season,

they still will be good and fun to watch.

And if Gillispie continues his recruiting prowess, Kentucky will be a

Final Four candidate in 2010 and beyond.

Just like the glory days of Rick Pitino during the mid-1990s.



Unlike the Big East Conference which is loaded with four pre-season Top

10 teams (Connecticut, Pittsburgh, U of L and Notre

Dame), the SEC doesn't appear to have a very dominating team this year

except for Tennessee.

However, SEC is filled with several NBA first-round draft prospects.

According to the DraftExpress, a professional scouting service, the top

five SEC players based on NBA potential, in order, are Vanderbilt's Andrew

Ogilvy, Kentucky's Patterson, Tennessee's Smith, Florida's Nick Calathes and

Mississippi State's Jarvis Varnado.

The service, by the way, had Patterson at No. 17 in a mock 2009 NBA

Draft as of August 25, just behind No. 16 Ogilvy.

Gillispie has said he would advise Patterson to leave Kentucky if the

star player is projected to be a very high first-round draft pick.

Guess who's first in that mock draft?

Seventeen-year-old Ricky Rubio of Spain, who has been compared to

legendary Pete Maravich, is projected to be the top player selected in 2009,

according to DraftExpress.com website. Six-foot-4 Rubio played for Spain in

the 2008 Summer Olympics in China last month.

Rubio, however, may wait for 2010 because of his current pro contract

with a Spanish club.

Meanwhile, in another mock 2009 draft (as of Sept. 10) on NBADraft.net

website, Patterson is the first SEC player selected (at No. 13 overall) in

the NBA.

Unlike the DraftExpress, Rubio was not selected in the first round for

2009 by NBADraft.net. But Rubio is projected to be a No. 2 overall pick in

2010.



The free tickets for 2008 Big Blue Madness‹formerly called the Midnight

Madness‹will be distributed on Saturday, Sept. 27, beginning at 7 a.m., at

Memorial Coliseum and online.

And they won't be available very long. If history is any indication,

this year's event will be "sold out" in a matter of hours, if not minutes.

As you will recall, a record Big Blue Madness crowd of 23,313 at Rupp

Arena attended Gillispie's first practice as UK coach last October.

When the 2007 tickets first became available, there were problems with

the online portion of the ticket distribution due to a technical glitch.

So, hopefully, there won't be any computer-related problems this time.

The annual season-opening UK basketball event began at Memorial Coliseum

in 1982 when Joe B. Hall was the head coach and it has grown in popularity

ever since.



Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author

of four books about UK basketball. He is currently a professor at Southeast

Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro and can be reached

by e-mail at CatsUpClose2008@yahoo.com.

        

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