Kentucky Sports Radio

The season’s over. To stay apprised and educated, follow me on Twitter @NotJerryTipton. Here’s the weekly notebook:

*Over My Head: CBS.com college basketball writer Gary Parrish has picked UK to win the 2013 national championship. This does not bode well for Kentucky. To place this much pressure on a team as young as the Cats will be next year is a sure fire recipe for disaster. Ideally, this team would prefer to sneak up on people, but thanks to Parrish, the Cats have a bulls-eye pained squarely on their backs. And the bad news doesn’t stop there. Parrish’s colleague, Jeff Goodman, has tabbed Louisville as his top choice next year. In other words, not only will all the pressure be on Kentucky thanks to Parrish, but Goodman has made it clear that UK isn’t even the best team in its own state. The Cats can’t win for losing, it seems.

*Go Your Own Way: When John Calipari was hired at Kentucky, the conventional wisdom was that well-known power broker William “World Wide Wes” Wesley would funnel him players, and that Cal would return the favor by ensuring that these players signed with Wesley’s agency — CAA — once they turned pro. However, this isn’t the case at all. Only one of the 6 departing UK player this year signed with CAA, and similarly, just one of the 7 first round picks from Cal’s first two UK teams picked CAA. The takeaway from all this? John Calipari is a liar. Though he presumably promised World Wide Wes that he would giftwrap these kids for him, Cal simply isn’t keeping his word. How long until Wesley gets fed up and stops sending good players to UK? How long until UK’s recruiting starts to suffer as a result? How long until UK fans get fed up with the double-digit loss seasons that will inevitably follow? Though we don’t know the answers to these questions yet, we do know one thing. As long as Calipari’s players continue to not sign with World Wide Wes’s agency, people will continue to ask questions.

*Don’t Stop: The University of Kentucky announced this week that it is increasing the price of basketball tickets. There is only one possible inference that can be drawn from such a move: John Calipari is paying players. Though AD Mitch Barnhart announced that the increased revenue will help fund salaries, academics, facilities, etc., observant fans will note that Barnhart never said that none of the money would be paid to recruits. In addition, the timing seems more than a little odd. For example, are we supposed to believe that the recent influx of talent has no correlation whatsoever to the more expensive tickets? And why the sudden concern for “academics” and “facilities?” The stark reality of the situation is that until John Calipari issues a public statement specifically denying that the decision to increase ticket prices was made to finance illegal payments to recruits, a shadow will be cast over the program as a whole.

* On this date: On this date in 2008, Patrick Patterson was seen driving around Lexington in a fancy car.