Wednesday Night Headlines

The internet is buzzing with reports that Memphis will in fact have to "vacate" at least some of their record setting 38 victories from the 2007-2008 season because of the major infractions leveled against them earlier this year. The details will be released on Thursday at a NCAA press conference. When ESPN's Andy Katz asked Calipari what he knew of the soon to be released penalties, Cal said he was unaware of what would be announced on Thursday.

Big Blue Nation should prepare itself for all of the haters that will most certainly come out of every crack and crevice, once again painting Calipari as a shady coach, always willing to bend the rules to bring in the best talent. Very few will mention that Calipari has never been to blame for this situation and that the NCAA cleared the player in question (Derek Rose) before he played at Memphis. Matter of fact, most people (unfortunately, those without a pulpit) actually think Calipari runs a pretty tight ship, and that both the situations at UMass and Memphis were beyond his control. Oh well... just be prepared for the negative reporting that could surround Calipari and the UK program in the coming days. Don't worry though... the press coverage could always be talking about something far worse; just ask Rick Pitino.

Hopefully (and possibly by design), some distractions will be made on Thursday night to draw attention away from the negative situation in Memphis and redirect it to the optimism surrounding this year's UK team. The new basketball schedule will finally be released Thursday night. Few details have been released about the schedule, so far, other than the already reported games to be televised by ESPN. The new schedule will be released on the UK Athletics website at 9 PM EST, followed by a TV special at 10 PM. We'll have a breakdown of the schedule shortly thereafter.

In other news, Patrick Patterson has been named as one of the 50 candidates for the 2010 John Wooden Award, awarded each year to the nation's top player. For those wondering, John Wall was not on the list, but probably only because freshmen, medical red-shirts, and transfers are not eligible for the preseason list. Congrats to Patrick for this well deserved honor.

That's all for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow to discuss the Memphis case, the new basketball schedule, and more reports from the football team.

Good night and good luck, Big Blue Nation.