Wildcats

LEXINGTON — DeAndre Liggins has had a simple philosophy this season. “I just have to try to learn from my mistakes and try to do whatever it takes to help our team. That’s all I can do,” said the junior guard. He’s averaging 8.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game and has been Kentucky’s most consistent defender. He’s shown an improved 3-point shot — he’s 7-for-18 from 3-point range — and a willingness to try and be a more vocal leader.

LEXINGTON— The Kentucky basketball team was on a bus riding back from Bluegrass Airport here on Sunday when it found out the Wildcats were just a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. “I’m a little but surprised to be honest with you. But in the end, you’re in the tournament, you’re going to have to win games. A tough road for us. It was a tough road last year,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said after learning his team would open tourney play Thursday in Tampa against Princeton.

Kentucky picked up a verbal commitment from Louisville guard Ranjo Rondo over the weekend. Rondo played three years at Louisville Eastern before transferring to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia this season. The point guard is averaging 20l.4 points and 10.2 assists per game for the nation's top-ranked team. He had also been considering Louisville, Georgia, Illinois, Arkansas and Florida. However, UK coach Tubby Smith increased his recruitment of Rondo earlier this month and that was enough to convince him to commit to the Wildcats over the weekend.

Offensive lineman Jorge Gonzalez of Tampa has given a verbal commitment to Kentucky. "I just felt it was the right place for me, especially since my parents liked it so well, too," Gonzalez said. The 297-pound Gonzalez had drawn interest from Auburn and Mississippi recently. He had visited Georgia Tech, Purdue and Alabama-Birmingham. Gonzalez said he was recruited the most by UK assistant Ron Caragher. "I really liked coach (Rich) Brooks, too," Gonzalez said.

Full disclosure: The editor of The Jessamine Journal is not a University of Kentucky fan. He doesn't even own a UK T-shirt. While he respects the school as a fine academic institution, and acknowledges its long tradition of being a basketball powerhouse, he loves the University of Tennessee Volunteers, and has followed the SEC for many years. "UK's futile football history," was the title of a column that was published on July 6, 2006 in the pages of the Journal. Simply put, the focus of the column was to point out that the Wildcat football team was far from college football's elite.

MEMPHIS - Kentucky looked like a team feeling sorry for itself in its third consecutive postseason appearance in the first half of the Liberty Bowl on Friday. Facing a 13-point deficit, the outlook looked as gloomy as the team's disappointing finish to end in the regular season nearly a month ago. However, the Wildcats left town feeling good about the state of the program after completing one of the biggest comebacks in school history. It was a rally that gave the Wildcats their third straight bowl victory for the first time in school history as Kentucky scored 22 points in the second half for an exciting 25-19 triumph over East Carolina Friday night.

LEXINGTON - It's a long walk from the Rupp Arena court to the Kentucky locker room, even longer when you know there's an angry coach coming right behind you. That's what Patrick Sparks and his Kentucky teammates faced Tuesday night after they allowed Morehead State to climb back into a game they should have been dominated. And that might be why they made things so tough on Morehead in the second half. "It was a long walk," Sparks said. "We went in there and took it, and we came out in the second half and responded to it. " The response came in the form of a 20-0 run that allowed the Wildcats to put Morehead away once and for all. Sparks played a big part in that run - part of a larger 23-0 run that included the last three points of the first half and was the Wildcats' largest scoring spurt of the season.

Terry Orcutt Danville, KY: Hi Mr. Vaught I wanted to say you do a good job on sports you are the best in KY! I do have a question for you do you believe ky can make it to the final 4 this year? And I know the Patterson kid is going to wait untill spring to sign what are the chance of him coming to KY in the spring? My self I believe the longer he waits he will go somewhere else like FL or Duke what do you think? Larry: Thanks for those kind words. I don't see a Final Four for UK this year and I am afraid Patterson will end up at Florida.

LEXINGTON - Kentucky is coming off a badly needed overtime win over Missouri, but UK¿coach John Calipari stressed Monday that his team now had to “keep on that path” in the weeks ahead. “We've got four left and Mississippi State at home and got to go on the road to two teams (Arkansas and Georgia) that have played very well and have been well-coached and end up with Florida, one of the top two, three, four teams in the country to finish up the year,” said Calipari on the Southeastern Conference coaches' teleconference.