| Men's basketball, football bring up the rear on spring GPA list
Kentucky's spring-semester grades are in, and the winners are:
• Female athletes. Of the top 11 team grade-point averages, 10 belonged to either a women's team or rifle, which includes several female shooters. The exceptional male team was men's soccer, which came in third at 3.262.
• Football. After winning the oft-celebrated Music City Bowl championship, Rich Brooks' team improved its overall GPA from 2.20 in the fall to 2.49.
• UK's emphasis on academic performance. UK athletes improved their overall GPA from 2.841 in the fall to 2.961 in the spring. That moved UK closer to its goal of an overall 3.0 GPA.
The losers were:
• Male athletes. The bottom seven GPAs were posted by males-only teams. In sports involving men's and women's teams, the men got lapped by the women in the classroom. For instance, women's track/cross country had the best team GPA (3.367), while the men's track/cross country finished 16th out of 18 teams (2.694). Women's golf was fourth (3.257) and men's golf 14th (2.880).
• Men's basketball. After a 3.088 GPA in the fall, which was believed to be the best in years (at least since the spring of 2001), the basketball team slumped to a 2.56 in the spring.
• Revenue-producing sports. Men's basketball and football finished next-to-last (2.56) and last (2.49) among UK teams.
Senior Associate Athletic Director Sandy Bell, whose duties include oversight of academic services, declined an invitation to mimic Helen Reddy's 1970s feminist anthem: I am woman, hear me roar. She suggested the female athletes reflected the overall gender differences in the general student body.
True enough. In the fall 2006 semester, UK's female students had an overall 2.99 GPA. The men had a GPA of 2.75.
As for the men's basketball team slumping in five of the last six springs, Bell noted the paradoxical problem of travel with post-season tournaments.
"We send tutors, study hall and laptops on the road," she said. "But it's just out of the normal routine.
"And," Bell added, "you want it to last a long time."
Kentucky basketball's spring GPA also took a hit when two of its seniors who performed well in the classroom (Bobby Perry? Lukasz Obrzut?) needed only one class in the spring to graduate, so they had a smaller impact on the overall GPA, Bell said.
Scorekeeper/star
DeMarcus Cousins, a top-10 national prospect in the high school class of 2009, attended UK's Elite Camp earlier this month.
DeMarcus Cousins, a 6-foot-10 player from Birmingham, Ala., came away impressed. UK made it a mutual admiration society.
"Both parties were excited about him being there," said Danny Pritchett, DeMarcus Cousins' AAU coach.
Pritchett said he advised DeMarcus Cousins not to rush into a college choice. The player will have options. Many Southeastern Conference schools want him. So does UConn. He plays pickup games with UAB players.
Although the Prep Stars recruiting service rates DeMarcus Cousins No. 8 among high school juniors-to-be, he's relatively new to the game. He's only been playing organized basketball for three years.
Pritchett recalled the first time he saw DeMarcus Cousins. The future top prospect was keeping the scorebook at a middle school game.
"You're supposed to be on the floor," Pritchett said he told DeMarcus Cousins. "Even if you can't play, you're supposed to be on the floor."
DeMarcus Cousins considered himself a football player. But Pritchett's urgings (and a three-inch growth spurt one summer) led DeMarcus Cousins to basketball.
South Dakotah
Sophomore-to-be Dakotah Euton headed south Friday to participate in Florida's Elite Camp this weekend. His father, Clay Euton, said the Rose Hill star is weighing a scholarship offer from Florida, which has been his favorite school.
Dakotah Euton, a 6-8 forward, attended UK's Elite Camp earlier this month.
Camp notice
Georgetown College will play host to in-state prospects at the "Blue-Chip" Camp on June 24-28.
Among the players expected to compete are Taylor Stewart of Lexington Catholic, Cameron Hundley of Scott County and Nick Brumback of Jackson County.
The camp, which expects to draw almost 1,000 players from more than 40 states, will feature an all-star game on June 27.
Sophomore-to-be Trae Golden, a 6-2 guard from Powder Springs, Ga., is scheduled to play in the game. Golden is supposed to visit with UK Coach Billy Gillispie on his way to the camp.
Another camper of note is Jonathan Thomas, a 6-2 junior-to-be from Dallas.
Guest speakers for the "Blue-Chip" Camps this summer will be Clark Francis, publisher of the Hoop Scoop basketball publication, and former UK All-American Mike Casey.
'Market-driven'
UK will pay Billy Gillispie's assistants handsomely.
Glynn Cyprien will receive $200,000 this season, while Jeremy Cox will make $160,000.
This compares favorably with former UK coach Tubby Smith's assistants. In the 2006-07 school year, UK paid David Hobbs $141,326, Scott Rigot $124,727 and Reggie Hanson $107,947.
The salaries continue a pattern in which personnel hired since Mitch Barnhart became athletic director received initial salaries that far surpassed the last year's pay of their predecessors.
"Every salary in our department is market-driven," UK athletics spokesman Scott Stricklin said. "With all salaries in all professions, they tend to go up."
Staying the same is the practice of paying a bonus for making the NCAA Tournament, an accomplishment that netted bonuses for Smith's staff. Cyprien will receive $17,000 and Cox $14,000.
Inspiring moment
Billy Donovan's Florida-Orlando zigzag inspired John Cox, who makes bumper stickers as a fun sideline while running a Lexington-based graphic sign business.
His latest creation shows a waffle iron with the tag line: Kerry/Donovan platform for '08. Of course, 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry became synonymous with changing positions on issues.
Cox explained this burst of creativity.
"I've been kind of quiet for the last couple of years with my bumper stickers because Louisville (Rick Pitino) has been too good to abuse," he wrote in an e-mail. "So now I'm picking on Billy D."
Cox said he made about 20 of the bumper stickers to give to friends.
As Cox suggested, the best way to answer his bumper stickers is to win games.
Before last season, Cox needled Pitino with a bumper sticker that read: Rick NITino, which referred to Louisville failing to receive an NCAA Tournament bid in 2006.
Then Louisville rebounded from a slow start and effectively silenced Cox.
'Other' Billy
Billy Donovan (a.k.a. the "other" Billy) hasn't signed a new contract with Florida yet. This led a UK fan to e-mail a wishful thought: Maybe Donovan will leave the Gators, thus one less headache for Kentucky.
Not likely.
Donovan has a six-year, $21 million deal on the table.
The ban on coaching in the NBA, reportedly for five years, seems to preclude a move to the pros. There's not another college job open of note available.
Elaboration
Here's an elaboration on last week's note about the Jimmy V Foundation fund-raiser staged by ESPN commentator Dick Vitale.
UK grad Chris Sullivan of Outback Steakhouse fame made the winning bid of $100,000 for a trip to the Florida-UK game next season. That prize includes traveling with Vitale to the game.
Jim Frauenberg of Columbus, Ohio, made the winning bid for the Duke-UNC package. That also was a $100,000 bid.
Clarification
Last week's note about the UK-U of L game being moved to Jan. 5 suggested that a joint effort by the two schools resolved a scheduling conflict, thus finding a later-than-ever date for the Dream Game.
As they say in the rental-car commercial: Not exactly.
UK says it accommodated U of L in the switch to Jan 5. UK and CBS had a date in mind in the traditional (but not always observed) mid- to late-December weekend. But U of L already had a game booked.
Unlike the revived football series, which was intended from the beginning to be played as the opening game of every season, the basketball series has been a wandering star. It's been played as early as Nov. 26 (the opener to the 1983-84 season) and as late as January two previous seasons.
Q&A
Our favorite syndicated columnist, Norman Chad, responds to reader questions each week.
Last week's give-and-take included this:
Q: If you're Billy Donovan and you have to stay in the state of Florida, why would you choose Gainesville over Orlando? Jeffrey Howard, Sacramento, Calif.
A: Less traffic, more T.G.I.Friday's.
Happy birthday
To former UK forward-center Gimel Martinez. He turned 36 on Thursday.
His birthday was a family affair. Martinez attended his older son's baseball game. Then he went to dinner with family, friends and some of his son's teammates.
Youth sports plays a big part in the life of Martinez, who lives in the Columbus, Ohio, area. He and his wife, Missy, who met when both were UK freshmen, have two sons: Gimmy, 9, and Myles, 6.
Gimel coaches Myles' coach-pitch baseball team. He's also coached their soccer teams the last two seasons despite a seemingly disqualifying handicap.
"I didn't know anything about soccer," he said with a laugh. He became coach after checking to see why his Gimmy's team was not practicing. It turned out the team didn't have a coach, and asking about practice made Martinez the leading candidate.
"I did all the drills based on basketball," he said. "Dribble around cones. Give and go. Three-on-two. Two-on-one."
The parents liked what they saw and volunteered Martinez to coach again the following year.
The family flavoring to this birthday extended to the weekend. Martinez and Gimmy traveled to Louisville on Friday to attend Rick Pitino's father-son camp at U of L. It marked their second -- and not their last -- U of L camp. Martinez expects to bring Myles to next year's father-son camp.
"It'll be a workout for me," he said. "I'll have to do all the drills twice."
Martinez acknowledged the "weird faces" his appearance at a U of L camp generates. He said that Gimmy "is almost more a Louisville fan than a Kentucky fan. Because of Coach Pitino.
"As long as he's interested in basketball and having fun, he can root for who he wants."
Then, Martinez added with a laugh, "We'll twist his arm later to go to Kentucky."
Martinez, who works in sales for a company that's been in his wife's family for four generations, still plays two or three times a week in recreation leagues.
"Obviously, I still miss playing," he said. "There's nothing like it."
On those rare occasions when he attends a game in Rupp Arena, "You still get that fever," he said.
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