UK Needs a New Coach - Fire Billy Gillispie

Seriously, this guy is not the man for UK. Send him back to Texas. I am sick of people still blaming Tubby.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090204/SPORTS03/902040499/1002/SPORTS

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- That perfect league start seems like a faded memory.

The University of Kentucky men's basketball team suffered another head-scratcher last night -- a 66-57 setback to Mississippi State, which had not won in Lexington since 1995.

The announced Rupp Arena crowd of 21,940 booed the Wildcats, who trailed 37-24 at halftime and saw their second-half comeback fall short.

Now the team is searching for answers.

UK (16-7) started its Southeastern Conference schedule 5-0 but has followed with three straight losses -- at Mississippi, at home against South Carolina and now this.

It was painful game all around for the Cats. Forward Ramon Harris left in the second half with a left shoulder injury, although coach Billy Gillispie said he could have returned. Star guard Jodie Meeks broke a tooth before exiting late in the game. Michael Porter is wondering about the team's heart.

"Right now it seems like we don't care out there," the junior point guard said. "Like we're not playing with any heart and desire. We're not competing. If we can change that maybe things will turn around. We just have to care a little bit more and have a little more fight in us."

Gillispie said on Monday that the Cats needed to take competing more personally, but last night Mississippi State (15-7, 5-2) displayed a lot more bite.

It never trailed while torching UK with 14-of-27 three-point shooting.

"We have to play a lot tougher," said UK forward Patrick Patterson, whose team missed its first 10 shots. "We also have to play with a lot more heart. We have to play a lot more competitive. We have to want it more than the opposition does. We have to play together, play as a whole, play as one, play as a family."

UK used a 10-0 second-half run to get back into the game but never got closer than three points. With Mississippi State leading 45-42, the Bulldogs' Jarvis Varnado -- who finished with six points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks -- scored on a dunk and Barry Stewart followed with a three-pointer.

The momentum seemed to permanently shift in Mississippi State's favor when UK's Perry Stevenson was called for an offensive foul after grabbing a rebound. The Bulldogs got the ball back and Dee Bost scored to move the margin to 52-45.

Mississippi State then made three straight three-pointers, including one by Phil Turner while he was falling down, to push the lead to 61-45.

Ravern Johnson had five three-pointers and finished with 17 points. Turner made four threes and had 18 points. Stewart had three threes, and Bost hit two.

"When teams spread you out and make shots like they were, they usually get you on penetration and pitch," Gillispie said. "But they didn't. They got most of their threes on back screens, out-of-bounds plays and those kind of things. Those are things we should have done a better job of defending because we knew all of their plays. We weren't quite tough enough when they screened us."

For a long time, the loudest ovation wasn't for the UK basketball team but for Philadelphia Phillies pitcher and former UK star Joe Blanton. The Cats' second-half rally got the fans excited for a bit. Trailing 43-30, they reeled off 10 straight points, capped by Meeks' breakaway dunk with 11 minutes to play. Varnado broke the run with two free throws with 10:40 to go.

Meeks and Patterson finished with 15 points each. No other UK player scored in double figures, and the Cats shot just 21 of 59 (35.6 percent).

UK will have plenty of time to think about its losing streak. The Cats' next game will be next Tuesday, when they host Florida.

"We have to get back to practice," Stevenson said. "We have to practice like we know and get back to playing like we were at the start of the conference."

Michael Grant can be reached at (502) 582-4069.

Tiger Woods ready for comebback

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/sports/golf/04golf.html?ref=sports

SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods wanted to know how Torrey Pines Golf Course looked, what the weather was doing and what else was going on at the site where, six months ago, he put on a paranormal display in the United States Open — the likes of which had not been seen before and most likely will not be seen again.

“How’s the course out there?” Woods asked during a telephone interview Tuesday from Orlando, Fla. “It’s going to rain, huh? It’ll be cold, damp and long.”

The PGA Tour is back at Torrey Pines this week with the Buick Invitational. Woods is still absent from the game, and the forecast of rain and cold during Thursday’s first round could be considered appropriate. Cold, damp and long or warm, hard and fast, Woods has won under all conditions at Torrey.

Woods, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, has been out since he had surgery after his United States Open playoff victory over Rocco Mediate in June, in which he played 91 holes with a torn anterior cruciate left knee ligament and two stress fractures in his left tibia. The tour has suffered in his absence, with depressed television ratings and lower turnout at tournaments.

At home in Orlando, where he is still rehabilitating his knee, Woods has been diligently preparing for the time that his body and his doctors tell him he can return to competitive golf.

“It’s just a matter of getting up the reps and getting the ball count a little higher and recovering on a daily basis,” Woods said. “That’s the trick when you’re coming back from major surgery is not to push it so much that you can’t recover the next day.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back. A lot depends on the baby. Our family situation is more important than anything I’m doing golfwise. That will take precedence over anything golfwise.”

Woods’s family situation is that his wife, Elin, will soon deliver the couple’s second child. Since they announced Elin’s pregnancy early last September, the only due date given has been late winter. Woods hinted on Tuesday that, despite a prediction of six more weeks of winter by the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil on Monday, late winter may be coming a bit earlier than that.

“The time flies,” Woods said. “You know, it’s six months away, then a few months away and next thing you know it’s almost here.”

Woods has been busy in the past few months. He was a featured speaker at President Obama’s pre-inaugural celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on Jan. 18, giving an emotional speech about the sacrifices made by members of the United States military that was inspired, in part, by the service of his father, Earl, a former Green Beret.

And while juggling his rehabilitation, managing site visits to golf course building projects under way in North Carolina and Mexico, playing daily with his daughter, Sam, and hitting as many golf balls as he can, Woods also has stayed busy overseeing the release of his EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’09 game.

On Tuesday he was at the Gillette-EA Sports Champions of Gaming Finals in Orlando, preparing to take on the best of 350,000 entrants narrowed down to the winner of a three-man playoff.

“These guys are phenomenal,” Woods said, laughing when asked if he could compete with any of the three finalists on equal virtual-reality footing. “They practice probably more hours a day on my game than I do on my real game. It will be fun to see if I can keep up, which I know I probably won’t be able to.”

Woods will play the finalist on the virtual 16th , 17th and 18th holes at the T.P.C. Sawgrass, which, in reality, are among the most demanding finishing holes on the PGA Tour. He does not expect to win.

“If he does beat me, and he probably will, we’ll just go double or nothing on a real golf course,” Woods said.

When Woods will step back into competition on a real golf course at a real PGA Tour event will be learned within the next two months. Most signs point to some time during the Florida swing, which begins in early March. Whenever it is, he will be stepping into a new situation because he has never been away so long.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” he said. “I really am looking forward to seeing how fast I can get into the competitive flow of a round. That’s the main thing — how long before things start to feel like they’re flowing in the round versus just hitting shot for shot? Getting into a rhythm, a flow, that’s what I’m looking forward to most.”

Super Bowl Now Most Watched In Game's History

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/04/super-bowl-now-most-watched-history/news-breaking/

TAMPA - NBC has won the most recent weekly Nielsen Media ratings race with the most-watched Super Bowl ever, which also ranks as the most-watched telecast in U.S. history, according to the network.

NBC's release of the Nielsen report shows 151.6 million persons watched all or some (at least six minutes) of the telecast of Super Bowl XLIII from Tampa. An average of 98.7 million watched for the game's full duration. That average tops last year's Super Bowl XLII, previously the most-watched Super Bowl (97.5 million).

Preliminary ratings results as of Monday had the national viewing average at 95 million, but the final tally boosted the total viewing audience.

Most media outlets were reporting on Monday and Tuesday that Super Bowl XLIII fell short of last year, but full ratings results tell a different story.

NBC won the week in all key measures, averaging a 7.8 rating, 20 share in ages 18 to 49 and 21.6 million viewers overall for the week of Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, according to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.

Super Bowl XLIII becomes the second most-watched television broadcast in TV history as far as "average viewership" during the program. The 1983 series finale of "M*A*S*H," which averaged 106 million viewers, remains the "most-watched television broadcast in history" based on average viewership.

NBC averaged 89.9 million viewers in prime time Sunday from 7 to 11 p.m., the highest viewership for any network on any prime time night in people meter history. In ages 18 to 49, NBC averaged a 34.0 rating Sunday night from 7 to 11 p.m., marking NBC's best performance for any prime time night in more than 11 years, since Sunday, Jan. 25, 1998, 35.5, when the network last broadcast a Super Bowl (Super Bowl XXXII).

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.