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During last night’s NBA Draft-powered run on Kentucky basketball players, head coach John Calipari offered this assessment of the “historical” evening: “This is biggest night in the history of Kentucky basketball.” I have seven reasons to disagree with Coach Calipari, but more than that, I wish he’d just ease up with the unending hyperbole assault that erupts from him at will. Yes, it’s true he has every reason to be proud of his first recruiting class for Kentucky, but are over-the-top comparisons really necessary?

Bill Simmons doesn’t think so either:

5:04: John Calipari tries to claim with a straight face that, since Kentucky might have five first-round picks, it’s the biggest day in the history of Kentucky basketball. Yeah, I’m sure it beats winning the title in 1996 or 1998. Go away.

While the “go away” is a probably more drastic than I’m thinking, Simmons and I agree on this: Stop the hyperbole, Cal. So far, you’ve proven to be exactly what the realistic Kentucky fans expect: a fantastic recruiter who knows how to capitalize on popularity, but a suspect bench coach. That’s always been the give-and-take with Calipari, and failing to at least advance to a Final Four with the roster he put in the draft last night emphasizes this quite well. Clearly, he gets his fair share of top talent; however, he doesn’t go all the way when he’s got such teams.

Granted, winning a National Championship is never easy — Kentucky has seven in over 100 years of basketball history — but please, save the “greatest day” stuff for an actual banner-raising; one that’s safe from being taken away by the NCAA, preferably.

John Calipari took to his Twitter account — again — to debunk/pacify Kentucky fans concerning the rumor/story being reported by ESPN, et al. Specifically, noted basketball insider, William Wesley, aka, Worldwide Wes, has been contacting NBA teams potentially interested in signing LeBron James to see if they would be interested in a LeBron/John Calipari package.

Wesley is a noted friend of both Calipari and James.

The lead screenshot is Calipari’s response to these rumors, evidently assuming last week’s comments should be enough to ignore the rumors. That being said, I’m not sure how well these words of encouragement are working.

Judging by this particular barometer, they aren’t.

Not only does John Calipari have a fear-inspiring team (well, to some pundits, anyway), stocked to the gills with talented players, as well as the entire city of Lexington eating out of his hands, he’s also got his own signature Ford Mustang. And yes, you can drive it, provided you make it to Paul Miller Ford in time enough to buy one.

Of course, there’s no price listed on this 435 horsepower-ed beast, and as of right now, there aren’t any listed on Paul Miller Ford’s Mustang inventory page.

More on Calipari’s Mustang, including another pic, after the jump >>

Apparently, when Nike is designing their uniforms, they are lacking the quality control department. Just ask John Calipari and his stud of a freshman, John Wall, who, along with Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins, had their pictures taken for the cover of the upcoming March issue for Slam Magazine. The photo features the Wildcats in their new Nike uniforms. It’s a good looking picture, showcasing Calipari’s thoroughbreds.

One problem, however: “Kentucky” is spelled incorrectly on John Wall’s jersey — unless, of course, Nike is introducing a new method of spelling; one that features putting the letter “C” before the letter “U.” I suppose Nike could be trying to expand the “I” before “E” rule, or this could be an “on purpose” accident to test the observation powers of Kentucky fans.

Apparently, we passed with flying colors.

In other news, there are seven pages of discussion concerning Kentucky’s uniform change with over 300 comments between two primary threads. As a comparison, when Burnt Orange Nation revealed the new Texas Longhorns uniforms, also by Nike, there were a total of 29 comments.

Over at Shaggy Bevo, perhaps the primary forum for Texas fans, the new uniforms weren’t even discussed, at least not on the first two pages of their basketball section, which dates back to February 2.

Draw from that what you will.

H/t to Kentucky Sports Radio for the image.

Because of comments made after the Vanderbilt game, super freshman John Wall was in a position of clarification, one he handled by saying he has nothing but love for his (one-year?) coach. As far as these things go, this will probably be the last we hear of this, unless, of course, Kentucky struggles against Ole Miss tonight.

The University of Kentucky had a special guest this past weekend when they took on the Vanderbilt Commodores — one LeBron James. The current greatest basketball player was in town for a couple of reasons: To watch uber-freshman, John Wall do his thing, and to promote the new LB23 shoes the Wildcats were wearing, as seen below:

Say what you will about LeBron’s basketball game, because if you are offering praise, it’s probably true. However, his entrepreneurial spirit is every bit as commanding as his on-court ability. There aren’t many who maximize their profits in such a fashion, save names like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan. Hell, Roger Federer, one of the most famous athletes in the world, doesn’t come close to LeBron when it comes to self-promotion, no matter how many RF logos he sports. Same with Tom “TB12″ Brady.

Anyway, as part of his “visit” for the Kentucky game, LeBron was asked to be the “Y” for the ceremonial cheerleader-led spelling of “Kentucky.” Needless to say, King James obliged while enjoying every minute of the adulation:

Does this mean LeBron is now a UK fan or is this simply the manifestation of his friendship with John Calipari, coupled with Nike’s desire to push their product to Kentucky fans?

Dear Kentucky fans,

Barrack Obama did NOT jinx your beloved Wildcats yesterday with his congratulatory phone call for the team’s efforts with Haitian relief. I know letting your disappointment from last night’s loss manifest itself into Obama-blaming is the vogue thing to do, but please, lets show a little bit of common sense before going off on such tangents.

Did memories somehow become shorter? Or did North Carolina, you know, the team Obama picked to win the National Championship last season, have their championship taken away? Did his support somehow create a “you lost even though you won” type of jinx?

Considering the levels of abject disapproval for the current President — warranted and/or tea-bagger-created — it wouldn’t be surprising if these kinds of thoughts actually existed.

No, instead of projecting blame onto the idea of something, why not try placing it directly where it belongs: The missed layups by Darnell Dodson and Eric Bledsoe. Patrick Patterson’s second half disappearing act. Having only three players — John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe — score in the second half. Getting outrebounded by an SEC team who ranks dead last in the conference for rebounding margin.

Any of those will do, because that’s not the way a newly-minted number one team is supposed to play.

Oh, the inability to at least SLOW DOWN Devan Downey might be a contributing factor as well. In fact, if Obama does get any blame whatsoever; I mean, I’m sure his call did go the teams’ head, the level he receives is minuscule when compared to the rest of the contributing factors.

Signed,

Your friends at Intentional Foul.

Following up on a post The Dagger made yesterday about Kentucky basketball players stomping the Louisville Cardinals center court logo, it seems the Wildcats players weren’t the only ones to get in on the fun. While John Calipari was a little disappointed his players took part in the stomping — “we do dumb things” — I have to think even he would’ve smiled at the young Wildcats fans doing the same.

I mean, you have to start them early, right?

Make sure you pay attention to the preamble for the lead video. It is truly awe-inspiring. Only in Kentucky would stomping on a rivals’ logo be equated to Biblical scripture.

In other news, considering all the stomping going on, not to mention Kentucky’s less-than-capacity crowd for last night’s game against UNC Asheville (Kentucky was making their yearly journey to Freedom Hall for one of their “home” games), it wouldn’t be surprising if this yearly journey — not including the actual game against the Cardinals — might be put on hold for a year or two.