Former Kentucky standout pitcher James Paxton was named by Baseball America as the fourth best prospect in the Seattle Mariners organization, it was announced.

A native of Ladner, British Columbia, Paxton was a member of the World Team in the Futures Game during the 2011 All-Star Weekend in Arizona. Baseball America’s staff tabbed him as the fourth-best prospect in the organization after being drafted by the Mariners in the fourth round of the 2010 MLB draft.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound southpaw checks in as the third-best pitcher for the Mariners minor league organization and the second best left-handed hurler, also ranking Paxton as having the best curveball in the organization.

“Paxton is the rare power lefthander who combines high strikeout totals with above-average groundball rates,” Baseball America’s Conor Glassey said in the prospect breakdown. “His fastball sits at 91-95 mph and peaks at 98. He can pitch up in the zone effectively but has just as much faith in his two-seam fastball as he does his four-seamer. He can use his plus 76-79 mph curveball to get ahead in counts or put away hitters. His changeup made a lot of progress after he switched to a circle grip in 2011, and should be at least solid in the future.”

The Delta Secondary School product pitched in 17 games (17 starts) between low A Clinton and double-A Jackson. Paxton ended his 2011 minor league season with a 6-3 record while registering a 2.37 ERA while holding opposing batters to a .204 average. Paxton, who starred at UK from 2007-09, also struck out 131 batters, while only issuing 43 walks in 95 innings on the bump. His two most notable performances came in double-A against the Carolina Mud Cats where Paxton went five innings allowing one earned run and fanning 11. The next performance came vs. the Huntsville Stars when Paxton pitched seven strong innings of four hit, one earned ball while striking out 10 and not issuing a walk.”

“Paxton has a number two starter ceiling,” Glassey detailed. “He could reach Seattle at some point in 2012.”

During his three-year UK career, Paxton appeared in 55 games with 24 starts, totaling an 11-5 record and a 4.91 ERA, striking out 168 in 148.1 innings. As UK’s Friday night starter in 2009, Paxton ranked third in the NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings (13.2), fanning 115 in 78.1 innings. In 13 starts in 2009, Paxton totaled a 5-3 record and a 5.86 ERA. With 115 punchouts, Paxton ranked fifth-best in the history of the Kentucky program, marking just the 10th player in program history to eclipse 100 strikeouts in a season.

Paxton, southpaw Chris Rusin (108 strikeouts in 94.1 IP)  and then-freshman right-hander Alex Meyer (80 strikeouts in 59.2 IP) teamed to help UK set a new season strikeout record, as the UK staff fanned 523 in 2009, breaking the previous record of 502 team strikeouts in 1995. Paxton’s ERA was inflated in 2009 courtesy of three outings that saw the lefty allow five or more runs. Without those three outings, Paxton totaled a 5-0 record and a 3.95 ERA in 10 starts, hurling 66 innings with 101 strikeouts and a .218 opponent batting average. Seven times in 2009, Paxton struck out 10 or more hitters in a game.

When UK womens play at home, you will find some of Cal’s guys watching.

The coaches are friends.

It also isn’t everyday when you have both teams undefeated in conference play this late in the year.

But, Bria Goss, who led UK to a blowout against Ole Miss with 19 points, believes that her Cats play tougher defense than the guys, and that she doesn’t believe the men could play as hard as they do on defense.

“Let me just say I know Marquis (Teague) personally,” says Bria Goss. “I don’t think he can do it.”

Samarie Walker, who is really coming into her own for Matthew Mitchell wasn’t as strong.

“I will just say it’s not easy and obviously it was tough for me when I came in to get used to this but, I mean, I don’t know if they could do it. I’m not taking anything away them but, I don’t know if they can do it.”

It was fun sharing those thoughts with Doron Lamb. The look he gave me when I told him was priceless.

“I don’t pay them no mind,” says Lamb. “We’d beat the girls team by like a hundred points if we played them in a game so, I’m not going to say nothing.”

Defense or not?

“Yeah, don’t matter.”

Doron was on a roll. He steps up his talking game by saying the men could spot the ladies by 20 and still beat them by 100.

To Doron the prankster. His roommate is Marquis Teague.

“Sometime at the beginning of the season I used to, when he was trying to go to sleep I would wet him when he’d sleep, but I stopped doing it because he would get mad, so I understand how he feels so I stopped wetting him a little bit.”

Part of him being a rookie?

“No, I do it to everybody. Everybody knows that they can’t sleep in front of me because I will wet you if you go to sleep in front of me so. It’s hard to take naps in front of me.”

Doron admits that some of the Cats wouldn’t want to room with him.

University of Kentucky men’s tennis senior Eric Quigley has been named the Co-Southeastern Conference Player of the Week after an impressive week of tennis where he broke the school record for career singles wins. 

“Eric Quigley is the type of student-athlete that our program is all about,” UK head coach Dennis Emery said. “We are really proud of what he has accomplished and excited about what our team can accomplish now that we are in dual-match season. We are condiment that our team can be very special this year and I know, as one of our team leaders and co-captains, that Eric is focused on helping our team achieve those goals.”

 

The senior entered the week needing two singles wins to become the all-time winningest singles player in school history. Quigley tied the record with win 144 against Indiana before breaking the record with a straight-sets win at No. 1 singles in the Eastern Kentucky match.

 

The native of Pewee Valley, Ky., currently holds a 147-44 career record, passing former UK All-American Paul Varga for first all-time in career singles wins at Kentucky. Varga, who played from 1982-85, ended his career with a 144-80 record and has held the title as the winningest singles player in school history for over 27 years.

 

Quigley, who is ranked fifth in the nation in singles, went 4-0 in singles play throughout the week, helping Kentucky defeat three top-60 ranked teams in No. 22 Tulsa, No. 29 Indiana and No. 57 North Carolina State. Quigley’s fourth win came against in-state foe Eastern Kentucky. In doubles action, Quigley went 2-1 with sophomore Panav Jha, helping Kentucky win the doubles point over Indiana and NC State.

 

So far this season, Quigley is 31-5 in singles action, including deep runs into some of the best tennis tournaments in the nation. During the fall, Quigley earned a berth into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships where he won the singles consolation title. The win would punch the senior’s ticket to the United State Tennis Association/ITA National Indoor Championships, where he would defeat three ranked players before falling to a top-three ranked player in the semifinals. Quigley also advanced to the finals of the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Indoor Championships and the Southern Intercollegiate. Most recently, Quigley advanced to the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Coaches’ Indoor Championships. The UK star is 6-0 this year in dual matches.

 

As a team, the Wildcats are 6-0 this season in dual matches, including four wins over teams ranked in the top 60 in the nation. Kentucky’s 4-1 win over Tulsa on Saturday punched UK’s ticket to the National Indoor Team Championships for the third-consecutive season. The national team event will be held from Feb. 17-20 at the Boar’s Head Tennis Club in Charlottesville, Va.

 

UK will continue its dual-match slate Sunday with a doubleheader against Pepperdine at Noon and Abilene Christian at 6 p.m. ET. The Wildcats’ contest against Pepperdine will be at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex, while the dual match with Abilene Christian will be played at the Lexington Tennis Club.

Vanderbilt’s Jeffery Taylor, a 6-foot-7, 225-pound senior forward from Norrkoping, Sweden, was named SEC Player of the Week after averaging 20 points, 7.5 rebounds and two assists in wins over Tennessee and Middle Tennessee. The 6-foot-7 senior tallied 23 points and nine rebounds against Tennessee, and 17 points and six rebounds against MTSU, all while shooting 50 percent from the floor and 66.7 percent from three. Taylor, the league’s leading active scorer with 1,680 points, is third in the league in scoring in all games and leads the league in SEC-games only in three-point field goal percentage with a 68.2 percent mark. 

Florida’s Bradley Beal, a 6-foot-3, 207-pound freshman guard from St. Louis, Mo., was named SEC Freshman of the Week after averaging 14 points, three rebounds and 2.5 assists in wins at Ole Miss and against 18th-ranked Mississippi State. Beal scored nine points and added three assists and two boards against the Rebels. He followed up his performance at Ole Miss with a team-best 19 points, on six-of-nine shooting, including three-of-four from distance, against Mississippi State. The team-leading 19 points marked the sixth time this season that Beal has led the team in scoring.

A total of 47 University of Kentucky student-athletes were named to the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll for fall sports, the league office announced. Kentucky had the fourth-most honorees out of all 12 SEC schools.  

The football team led the way for Kentucky, posting 22 student-athletes on the honor roll, while the women’s soccer team earned 10 honorees. The men’s soccer team had eight student-athletes on the honor roll, while the volleyball team earned seven. 

The 2011 Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll is based on grades from the 2011 spring, summer and fall terms. Kentucky also had 47 honorees on last year’s fall honor roll. 

Any student-athlete who participates in a Southeastern Conference championship sport or a student-athlete who participates in a sport listed on his/her institution’s NCAA Sports Sponsorship Form is eligible for nomination to the Academic Honor Roll. The following criteria should be followed: (1) A student-athlete must have a grade point average of 3.00 or above for either the preceding academic year (two semesters or three quarters) or have a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 or above at the nominating institution. (2) If a student-athlete attends summer school, his/her grade point average during the summer academic term must be included in the calculation used to determine eligibility for the Academic Honor Roll. (3) Student-athletes eligible for the Honor Roll include those receiving an athletics scholarship, recipients of an athletics award (i.e., letter winner), and non-scholarship student-athletes who have been on a varsity team for two seasons. (4) Prior to being nominated, a student-athlete must have successfully completed 24 semester or 36 quarter hours of non-remedial academic credit toward a baccalaureate degree at the nominating institution. (5) The student-athlete must have been a member of a varsity team for the sport’s entire NCAA Championship segment. 

A complete list of UK honor roll recipients is below. 

Brian Adams                 Football            Business Management

Tyler Brause                 Football            Exercise Science

Steven Duff                   Football            Business Management

Antwane Glenn              Football            Community Communications and Leadership Development

Max Godby                   Football            Communication

Stuart Hines                  Football            Finance

Lionel Inanzala              Football            Kinesiology

Cody Jones                  Football            Special Education

Jake Lanefski                Football            Community Communications and Leadership Development

Jake Lewellen               Football            Agricultural Economics

Joe Mansour                 Football            Undergraduate Studies

Luke McDermott            Football            Integrated Strategic Communication

Craig McIntosh              Football            Exercise Science

Anthony Mosley            Football            Community Communications and Leadership Development

Billy Joe Murphy           Football            Social Studies Education

Morgan Newton             Football            Business Management

Toba Omotinugbon        Football            Business Management

Jacob Russell               Football            Marketing

Pat Simmons                Football            Chemistry

Sam Simpson               Football            Marketing

Matt Smith                     Football            Middle School Education

Taiedo Smith                 Football            Psychology

Pedro Andreoni                        Men’s Soccer   Business Management

Sam Brooks                  Men’s Soccer   Psychology

Craig Heard                  Men’s Soccer   Civil Engineering

Jacob Kemper              Men’s Soccer   Marketing

Josh Mulvany                Men’s Soccer   Psychology

Steven Perinovic           Men’s Soccer   Finance

Tyler Riggs                   Men’s Soccer   Mechanical Engineering

Cameron Wilder            Men’s Soccer   Marketing

Jenna Goblirsch            Women’s Soccer          Exercise Science

Natalie Horner               Women’s Soccer          Accounting

Kelsey Hunyadi                         Women’s Soccer          Political Science

Brooke Keyes              Women’s Soccer          Business Management

Kayla King                    Women’s Soccer          Agricultural Biotechnology

Danielle Krohn              Women’s Soccer          Elementary Education

Kacie Kumar                 Women’s Soccer          Marketing

Taylor Parker                Women’s Soccer          Linguistics

Alyssa Telang               Women’s Soccer          Exercise Science

Ashley VanLandingham Women’s Soccer          Human Nutrition

Ann Armes                    Volleyball         Nutrition and Food Science

Ashley Frazier               Volleyball         Marketing

Gretchen Giesler           Volleyball         Mechanical Engineering

Christine Hartmann         Volleyball         Integrated Strategic Communication

Jessi Greenberg           Volleyball         Marketing/Integrated Strategic Communication

Elizabeth Koberstein     Volleyball         Nursing

Becky Pavan                Volleyball         Mathematics

Kentucky junior guard A’dia Mathies (Louisville, Ky.) was named to the John R. Wooden Award Midseason Top-20 list, as announced today by The Los Angeles Athletic Club on the nationally recognized “Women’s Sports Central” podcast. The list is comprised of 20 student-athletes who, based on their performances in November, December and January, are the frontrunners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor.

Mathies, an All-Southeastern Conference preseason first-team selection and contender for SEC Player of the Year, is leading the Wildcats to one of their most successful seasons in school history. Kentucky’s 19-2 start ties its best start in program history through the first 21 games, and the Wildcats are riding a school-record 11-game conference winning streak dating back to last season. The sixth-ranked Cats are the only undefeated team in the SEC this season with an 8-0 record.

Mathies has been a key cog in the Wildcats’ success as she leads the team in almost every statistical category, including scoring (15.6), steals (3.0), 3-point field goals made (35) and 3-point field goal percentage (.385). She is also second on the team in rebounding (5.5) and assists (2.5). She has scored in double digits in 15 of 20 games played this season, including eight games with 20 or more points.

Mathies put on one of the most impressive performances in UK Hoops history on Jan. 12 vs. No. 6/7 Tennessee when she scored a career-high 34 points, grabbed nine boards, one shy of tying a career high, and dished out two assists, blocked two shots and grabbed two steals. Her 34 points are the most points scored by a UK player since Dec. 20, 1987, when Bebe Croley scored 40 points vs. Morehead State. She became just the fifth player in school history to score 34 points or more in a game.

Overall, Mathies ranks third in the SEC in scoring (15.6), second in steals per game (3.0), fourth in 3-point field goal percentage (.385) and eighth in 3-point field goals made per game (1.8). In just 90 career games, she also ranks 15th on UK’s all-time scoring list with 1,237 points and has climbed to No. 9 in both career steals with 223 and free-throws made (283).

Mathies is one of three SEC players on the prestigious Wooden Award midseason list, along with Tennessee’s Shekinna Stricklen and Glory Johnson. Mathies also is on the watch list for the Naismith Trophy.

The 36th annual Wooden Award Gala, will take place Friday, April 6, 2012, and will honor winners, All-Americans and the Legends of Coaching winner Geno Auriemma of Connecticut.

About the John R. Wooden Award

Created in 1976 and named after the Hall of Fame player, coach and teacher, the John R. Wooden Award is the most prestigious individual honor in college basketball.  It is bestowed upon the nation’s best player at an institution of higher education who has proven to his or her university that he or she is making progress toward graduation and maintaining a minimum cumulative 2.0 GPA.  Previous winners include such notables as Larry Bird (’79), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), Blake Griffin (’09) and Maya Moore of Connecticut (’09 and ’11). BYU’s Jimmer Fredette and Moore were the Wooden Award winners in 2011.

Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed close to a million dollars to universities’ general scholarship fund in the names of the All American recipients. The Award has also sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps in the Award’s name.   Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament.  The day-long tournament, which brings together Special Olympic athletes and the All Americans, takes place at The Los Angeles Athletic Club the weekend of the John R. Wooden Award Gala.

With wins over Georgia and Florida last week, No. 6/6 Kentucky improved to 18-2 overall, 7-0 in the Southeastern Conference, which ties its best start in program history through the first 20 games. The Wildcats look to continue their winning ways when they take on Auburn on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET in Auburn Arena.

UK’s best start to a season was in 1982-83 (21-2). Counting last year’s three SEC wins to end the regular season, the Wildcats are currently riding a 10-game regular season SEC winning streak, including a school-record five consecutive SEC wins on the road.

 “We are looking forward to playing again on Thursday,” UK Coach Matthew Mitchell said. “We have a tough opponent ahead of us with Auburn. I’m impressed with their roster and personnel. Coach (Nell) Fortner is one of the best coaches in our league and I know they’ll be prepared.  They have some really good athletes with some nice length and they play real tough defense. It will be a real challenge on the road but I like where our team is and how they are practicing right now. We’re just excited to have another opportunity to play in this conference on Thursday night. We’ll go down to Auburn with the intention of winning and see what we can do.” 

The Cats are coming off a 57-52 victory over the Gators on Sunday in Memorial Coliseum. Ten players scored at least two points, paced by senior guard Keyla Snowden (Lexington, Ky.) who led with 11. Sophomore guard Kastine Evans (Salem, Conn.) scored all 10 of her points in the second stanza, including eight of them in a key 17-2 second-half run. SEC Freshman of the Week Bria Goss (Indianapolis) pulled down a career-high nine rebounds, while sophomore forward Samarie Walker (West Carrollton, Ohio) came off the bench with nine points, seven rebounds, a career-high tying three blocks and a career-high tying three steals. 

Overall, junior guard A’dia Mathies (Louisville, Ky.) leads three players in double-digit scoring, averaging 15.3 points per game (third in the SEC). Goss and Snowden follow with 11.7 and 10.0 ppg, respectively. Eleven of UK’s 13 active players average at least 3.7 points per game.

The Wildcats rank in the top 10 of five national statistical categories, including leading the nation in turnover margin (+11.2). The Wildcats have forced at least 20 turnovers in all but two games this season and are averaging 32.2 points per game off turnovers.

Auburn (10-10, 2-5 SEC) enters Thursday’s contest coming off a 57-62 loss at Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss. Junior guard/forward Blanche Alverson scored a team-high 16 points, while sophomore forward Jassany Williams grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds off the bench.

 Sophomore guard/forward Tyrese Tanner is the Tigers’ leading scorer, averaging 11.1 points per game and 12.7 points per game in conference action. Auburn is very balanced on the glass, with three players averaging between 4.3 and 4.4 rebounds per game, and senior guard Parrisha Simmons averaging a team-high 5.5 rebounds per game.

Auburn leads the SEC in blocks, averaging 6.4 per game this season. Williams ranks third in the league in blocks with 2.1 per game. 

Auburn owns a 25-15 lead in the all-time series with Kentucky, including a 10-6 advantage on the Plains. UK has won three in a row over the Tigers, including the last matchup in Auburn Arena. UK defeated the Tigers twice last season, winning 69-38 in Lexington on Feb. 3, 2011, the largest margin of victory in SEC play in school history. UK won 76-62 on Feb. 27 in its conference finale in Auburn.

 The game will not be televised but can be heard live on the UK IMG Sports Radio Network or www.UKAthletics.com with Neil Price calling the action. Fans can follow the UK Hoops team on Twitter at @UKHoopCats and use #UKHoops to comment on the game.

 After generating the most prolific season in school history in 2011, the Kentucky softball team will open 2012 accumulating additional accolades. Led by fifth-year head coach Rachel Lawson, the 2012 squad will begin the season ranked No. 13/18 in the nation, as voted by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) and the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll. It marks the first time in school allure the Wildcats will begin a season ranked among the top-25 rated teams in the nation.

“We are very appreciative of the early recognition in the ESPN/USA Top 25,” Lawson said. “It is our program’s intention to not only live up to this expectation, but to also build throughout the season in the hope of exceeding it.” 

UK earned a No. 13 ranking in the NFCA poll, while claiming the No. 18 mark in the ESPN.com list. 

Kentucky ended its history-making season ranked among the nation’s top 15 teams for the first time in school history at the end of the 2011 season. That team set a single-season school-record with 40 wins and six single-season offensive records including home runs. UK knocked off 12 top-25 ranked opponents through the season, won a school-best five Southeastern Conference series, appeared in a third consecutive NCAA Tournament and advanced to the final field of 16 in the NCAA tournament for the first time in school allure. 

Lawson returns 15 letterwinners from that squad, including her entire pitching staff spearheaded by the winningest tandem in school history in seniors Chanda Bell and Rachel Riley. Senior Brittany Cervantes already owns the Wildcats’ career home run record with 35 long balls in three seasons and is on pace to shatter the school’s RBI record as well. Junior Kara Dill and sophomore Emily Jolly were All-Southeastern Conference performers a season ago and return to the starting lineup in 2011. 

Kentucky is one of six SEC squads to begin the year ranked in the top 20 nationally, with Auburn also garnering votes in the ESPN.com poll. Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and LSU were the other conference squads to earn a spot among the nation’s preseason picks as the top teams in the country.

The Wildcats first entered the polls in 2011 following the opening weekend of play after charting a 3-1 weekend to open the season. UK was then among the top 25 for the remainder of the season including the final rankings. Kentucky has now been ranked in 16 consecutive polls including last season’s final release and this season’s preseason poll.

UK Head Coach John Calipari

On being ranked No. 1 …
“I was trying to get a hold of (Syracuse coach) Jim Boeheim, I was so mad at him. It’s just an added thing. I just watched Georgia and Vanderbilt, Georgia had Vanderbilt beat at Vandy. I don’t know if they need anything added, they are at home against us and it will be sold out. I’ll tell these guys it’s a badge of honor, not a burden; it’s a badge of honor let’s go play. Because we are here, it wasn’t a big deal. When they lost I didn’t feel anything, it’s a different deal here. We’ll address it for a second or two but we just have to play.”

On recruiting guys that can handle the atmosphere …
“You don’t know until they are in there doing it, but you’re hoping you peg the kids that you think can deal with all this. I’ll give you an example, Kyle Wiltjer, not afraid at all. We pegged it right, he is not afraid at all. If he is open he is shooting it, defensively he is out there playing hard and he’s not playing timid in any way. We’re not playing poorly down the stretch in games, we’re giving ourselves a chance to win but there are things we are going to have to do to keep getting better.”

On seeing talented recruits that can’t handle Kentucky atmosphere …
“Normally they’ll let you know, they’ll say they aren’t interested. I’ve had kids that I’ve really wanted and kids that I wasn’t sure of but that kid convinced me that he could do this and the other kid was shaky even though I thought he was right, but the kids know. In most cases, kids don’t want to put themselves in positions of being exposed and they won’t come here. This place is not for everybody, it’s the toughest place to play basketball; we are everybody’s Super Bowl.”

On Anthony Davis’ counter to someone always being on his body …
“I showed him the tape where before he catches the ball he has to be ready to play, not after the ball is swung and the guy is into his body. He has to play defensively the same way, as the ball is moving he’s in position before that wing catches the ball. He saw on tape that as the ball was caught he tried to move for position and got sealed. It’s all playing before you catch it and before the ball gets to the wing defensively. He’ll learn, I’ve never seen him miss dunks or one-footers, this was the first time. He’s got to learn, if they aren’t going to call it you have to negate it. That’s all of us, Terrence (Jones) the same, Terrence has missed 25 one-footers with his left hand. You have to make those, I don’t care if you got hit, whacked, grabbed, punched, you have to make those.”
On transforming good players into National Champions …
“What happens when we are all done with this is that history will tell you what kind of job you have done. What kind of men you have molded, how they have turned out, what you have done in the community in the places you work, in the community you work. It all comes out. If I am worried about what everyone is saying, I am cluttered. I have a sign on my wall upstairs that says ‘coach your team’, and that’s my job. Coach the individual players, and help them get better. At the end of the day, I want them to be about those players. If they keep saying, ‘Well, he has better players than everybody’, and I get the connotation ‘he can’t coach,’ then that’s OK. Then I have done my job because they are saying my players are better. That gives me satisfaction. You are never going to hear me say that ‘this guy can’t do this and this guy can’t do that’. I’ll challenge them physically to mentally be tougher in all of those things, but I have always said that I’ve got good players, and our job is to get them to play harder, get them to play together, get them to talk to one another, mental and physical toughness is the key to all of that.”

On getting a team of great players to play as one collective team …
To get the all-stars like Phil Jackson would do, to play a triangle offense and then defend together, and then communicate together, and then have breakfast club together, that is the challenge of what we do. Not getting a mediocre group together and getting them to play well, and ‘We’re not playing well, so let me get a timeout and I’ll show you my out-of-bounds.’ To me, that’s not coaching. Coaching becomes how do you become the best, and how do you get that group to really come together, sacrifice for one another, be their brother’s keeper, and compete. The crazy thing in college is that it is not the best of settings. It’s one and done. Stuff gets overridden here. You have some of the greatest coaches in our history not getting to a Final Four because of where they coached. They are some of the best coaches, and they have never been to a Final Four. Gene Keady is one of them. John Chaney is another one. They have never been to a Final Four. Does that mean they can’t coach? No, it is where they coached.

Players

#3 Terrence Jones, F, So.

On how receiving the No. 1-ranking changes things …
“It’s pretty much going to be the same for right now. Just for the teams playing us, we’ve got the target on our back. It’s going to be the same. We’re going to have to come in to every game knowing that teams are going to play their best or as hard as they can.”

On whether the team expects every game to be like the game against Indiana now …
“I think it’s going to be the same. The last couple games the other teams have been playing their best. We’ve still been pulling it out so hopefully we’ll just keep executing down the stretch and get the same results.”

On whether it’s easier being No.1 deeper into the season …
“I think it’s the same. It’s just what comes with it. Every team wants to beat you, especially at away games.”

On whether the younger players have felt rattled at all by all of the pressure …
“No, especially because of how much we do it together and how much we depend on one another. It’s not really built on one player to do too much. Every guy puts in his fair share of work.”

#14 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, F, Fr.

On how it feels to be No. 1 and whether the team deserves it …
“It’s a great experience to be No. 1 again. I’m just ready to play now.”

On whether they expect Georgia to come with an Indiana type performance …
“Of course, but that’s every game with us. It’s the same way every game for us, so it’s nothing different.”

On how being No.1 changes their approach and whether the team deserves the ranking …
“It doesn’t (change the approach) at all. Of course (we deserve the ranking). We’re young, but we’re good too.”
#33 Kyle Wiltjer, F, Fr.

On the toughness of practice …
“It’s definitely tough when you’re tired and having to push through the pain; especially when you have workouts and then practice and weights and things like that. It’s definitely an adjustment, but I’m glad I’m here.”

On being ranked No. 1 again …
“We’re still going to look at every game the same way. We’ll prepare for every opponent regardless of what they’re ranked. We don’t like to look at the numbers. We just want to get better as a team as the season goes on. But it’s always nice to be at the top of the pack, it definitely brings joy to us. Everyone is going to play their best game against you though, so we have to be ready every game. We’ve come a long way since we were No. 1 the first time, so I definitely think it will be a little easier and we just want to play every game like it’s our last.”

On the Alabama win …
“That game just shows our will to win. We’ve had a couple close games that we’ve pulled out. We hopefully won’t be as close in the future but a win is a win.”

On his improvement as a player …
“I just feel like I’ve been better on defense, with angles and being in the right spots, doing what Coach Calipari asks. I’ve gotten a lot better in all aspects of my game because we’ve been working hard in the gym. Getting better has been a combination of everything; film study, practicing more, playing more. Going against Terrence [Jones] and Anthony [Davis] in tough ways every day in practice and also just knowing where you are on the floor and listening to Coach Calipari and the advice he has for me. He’s there for me and he wants me to get better. Then just watching film and trying to learn from my mistakes and trying to become better.”

Cats are number one in both polls, but they don’t win either player of the week award.

Ole Miss’ Terrence Henry, a 6-foot-9, 210-pound senior forward from Monroe, La., was named SEC Player of the Week after averaging 18 points, 6.5 rebounds and two assists in wins over 15th-rank Mississippi State and at Georgia Henry keyed the Rebels’ 66-63 road win at Georgia with 24 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the year. His point total was two shy of his career high, and he hit three critical free throws to hold off a furious Georgia rally in the final 18 seconds. He also scored 12 points with three boards and three assists in helping Ole Miss to a 75-68 upset of Mississippi State.

Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes, a 6-foot-8, 250-pound freshman forward from Memphis, Tenn., was named SEC Freshman of the Week after averaging 13.5 points, 10 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, one assist and one steal in games against Georgia and Connecticut . After totaling 11 points and eight rebounds off the bench in his first career road game at Georgia, Stokes made his first career start Saturday against 13th-ranked Connecticut. Despite facing one of the nation’s most talented frontcourts, Stokes led the Vols in both scoring (16) and rebounding (12) to notch his first double-double and propel Tennessee to a 60-57 victory. Stokes helped hold Alex Oriakhi and projected NBA lottery pick Andre Drummond to 11 points combined.