LITTLE ROCK — Kentucky sliding in other polls
Unease is creeping across the Bluegrass State after the Kentucky Wildcats’ less-than dominant start to the season.
The Wildcats, who are counting on a ballyhooed freshman class, started the season 6-3 and fell out of The Associated Press Top 25 after opening the season ranked No. 3.
Apparently, Coach John Calipari’s popularity has slipped as well. Public Policy Polling, which tracks presidential candidates’ standings in the state, reported this week that the coach’s favorability rating has fallen below 50 percent.
According to its research, Calipari is liked by 49 percent of the Kentucky fan base while 15 percent dislike the fourth-year coach, who last season led the Wildcats to their first NCAA title since 1999.
CBS Sports may have summed it up best.
“So Calipari comes in, makes an Elite Eight, then a Final Four, then wins the school’s eighth national title - and not even half the state is on his side?” college basketball reporter Matt Norlander wrote. “Kentuckians, you are the greatest.”
In possibly related news, polls show Kentuckians prefer Jim Beam over Jack Daniels by 2 percentage points.
Maybe they should take a couple of swigs to calm their nerves as the young Wildcats work out the kinks.
Do right rule
OK, Gary Bettman, this lockout situation is getting ridiculous.
Even President Barack Obama is weighing in on the NHL’s work stoppage.
Obama told a Minneapolis television station Thursday that the league and the players’ association need to “do right by your fans” and find a solution.
Then he trotted out the usual line in addressing the league’s second prolonged work stoppage in less than a decade by adding that players and owners “make a lot of money, and you make a lot of money on the backs of fans.”
All of which brings us to this:Do you find it more odd that Obama, an unabashed basketball fan, pays attention to hockey, or that he seems to be injecting himself into the Canadian pastime, which would seem to be poor foreign policy?
Quick stop
By now, you’ve probably heard the story about how former Texas Tech Coach Tommy Tuberville reportedly left recruits in the middle of dinner to field a call from the University of Cincinnati and ended up taking the Bearcats job.
But in an interview with national radio host Dan Patrick, Tuberville said he didn’t discuss the Bearcats opening until Saturday morning.
So what happened at dinner, where the coach reportedly left before the food even arrived?
“Sooner or later you have to get up and leave,” Tuberville told Patrick. “You can’t sit at a dinner table all night long.
There wasn’t anything to that.
They might think the head coach is supposed to be around them 48 hours straight. That’s not what happens.”
Maybe they should have just gone to In-N-Out Burger.
Quote of the day
“I’ve got the best job in America. I’ve been lucky.” Greenwood coach Rick Jones who has won six football state championships with the Bulldogs
Sports, Pages 26 on 12/16/2012