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It’s Been Two Days and Still Doesn’t Seem Real

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Kobe Bryant’s death was the first big celebrity death in my lifetime that really impacted me. Michael Jackson died in 2009, but I was only eight years old and had no idea who he was. I was then introduced to his music and am a huge fan of the former pop star.

But, Kobe hits different with me for some reason.

I spent a lot of my life disliking him. I am a huge MJ fan and I always thought that he was a guy that stole Jordan’s moves and made a living off of him. I always thought that if Jordan hadn’t been as good or never happened, Kobe wouldn’t have happened.

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I never liked Kobe because I always thought he was a ball hog. I really don’t care for people that are selfish and ball hogs are selfish.

But, looking at what people said that really knew him, I believe I was wrong

On April 13, 2016 the Golden State Warriors were playing the Memphis Grizzlies in an attempt to set the NBA regular season win record of 73, one more game than the 1996 Chicago Bulls. That night, you had the Warriors trying to break the win record and Kobe Bryant’s last game. Pretty damn good night if you’re a sports fan.

I am a Warriors fan and have received plenty of crap from friends for it. I knew the Warriors were going to crush the Grizzlies and the game was kind of over before it started, so it wasn’t that fun to watch. But, I tuned in for the last four minutes of Kobe’s final game.

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Well, he did something only the greats do. He put the Lakers on his back and won the game against the Utah Jazz. The man dropped 60 points. That and Hubie Brown going “oh, oh, oh, oh my!” when he hit the three-pointer will be something I always remember. If you’re an immature teenager you get why that’s funny. If not, good for you.

But, Kobe walked off the floor of Staples Center with people standing and applauding, hugging his teammates, coaches, etc.

Since then, I honestly forgot about Kobe. Until this past Sunday.

I hopped on Twitter to see what was happening and kept seeing people tweeting “please tell me this is fake” and I had no idea what was going on. Then I saw TMZ’s report that Kobe had been killed in a plain crash. The first thing I did was call my dad and told him. We talked for about five minutes and then hung up the phone. I sat there for the next two hours stunned, emotional, and shaken. Nothing had really hit me like this before.

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I’ve been lucky to not have any close family members die and not a lot of tragic things happen in my life. I never met Kobe, never really cared for him, he lived on the other side of the country, and yet I was crushed when I saw the news.

A legend in the game of basketball, one of the best to ever do it. A guy that worked so hard on his craft, cared so much about basketball, wanted to win so bad. A guy that cared for his family so much. We had just lost of that.

I got locked out of Twitter for some reason that night, so I didn’t have to see anything about it until the afternoon of Monday. Probably was best but I still have no idea why Twitter locked me out.

Kobe was a legend. He touched so many people. The influx of tributes on social media is something that I have never really seen. That’s how you know that someone had a major impact on not only the sports world, but the world itself.

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When I get on social media I am quickly reminded of his passing. I get this knot in my stomach and get depressed. I’ve watched his final game and 81 point game probably 15 times each and every time I cannot watch with happiness.

The thing that’s even harder is the fact that his 13 year old daughter, Gianna, perished in the accident too, along with seven others. So many people lost loved ones. I cannot even imagine how hard that is and really don’t even want to think about it.

Kobe Bryant was a legend. His daughter was a rising superstar who had pretty much nailed all of her dads moves at 13 years old. She was a stud, her dad was a stud, and they along with the others killed, will be missed forever.

With all this, we are reminded how short and valuable life is. It can be taken away from us in an instant with no reason and the people we leave behind grieve and are forced to move on.

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If nothing else, this tragic event should remind us all to tell our loved ones that we love them every night. I definitely do not do it enough. Hug them, kiss them, and cherish every moment you have with them. Because in an instant, it can be taken away.

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John Calipari and Mitch Barnhart Share Details of Their Meeting, “Exit Strategy”

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John Calipari and Mitch Barnhart sit down and discuss the future of the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball program.

The talk of the town the last few days has been of the meeting between John Calipari and Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart. One fan even created a Twitter/X account dedicated to tracking Calipari’s plane from New Jersey to Lexington.

The meeting finally took place on Tuesday afternoon at Barnhart’s farm. Afterward, Kentucky Insider quickly learned that Calipari would be returning for his 16th season as coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, with some changes. There are rumors of what changes are coming, but we are confident that there will be some staff/support staff changes and some day-to-day, operational changes.

Less than twenty-four hours removed from that meeting, the two discussed the details in a pre-recorded interview with LEX18.

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Barnhart started the interview by putting to bed the rumor that he and Calipari have “no relationship”, pointing out that both he and Calipari are part of 40+ year marriages, and have worked together going on 16 years.

“We know how to manage relationships,” Barnhart said. “This notion that we have no relationship is garbage… I’m not a guy that gets in coach’s business, and they will all tell you that. At the end of the day, I trust him (Calipari) to do his job. Let’s put the notion of no relationship out the door.”

So what did they talk about in the meeting? “We talked about things we want to get better at. The elephants in the room,” Barnhart said. The biggest elephant in the room has been the lack of success from the Kentucky basketball program over the last four seasons, despite a number of talented players coming in.

“Our fans know what the standard is. We know what the standard is. The mantle of what we have been entrusted with is critically important to us. We talked about that,” Barnhart said. How do we change that dynamic in a world of NIL, transfer portal, older rosters?”

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Calipari says, “We gotta get older,” and it sounds like he will be doing so, combining young and veteran talent, rather than being reliant on one or the other.

“There have been teams that have taken a bunch of transfers. One year they did okay, the next year they fell flat on their face,” (cough, cough, Arkansas) Calipari said. “With the current environment, you can’t have five freshmen starting. If you have freshmen, they’ve got to be supplemented with some veteran, talented players.”

Barnhart is confident in the guy who he hired 15 years ago can adjust to the current landscape of college basketball.

“If there has even been a person that has been able to adapt and adjust in the game, Cal has,” Barnhart said. I remember when he first came here, he made the comment, ‘We’re going to have to adapt to this new era of ‘one and done’.’ He adapted. We will have to adapt and just to a new world of NIL and transfers.”

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Barnhart and Calipari also discussed the absence of defense and toughness from recent teams, and it will adjust how Calipari uses the summer.

“I’ve never worked on defense in the summer. Now, I’m looking at this summer and say this may be where we try to get the foundation set defensively,” Calipari said. “Toughness. Some of it is recruiting toughness. I think the class we are bringing, a bunch of these guys have more toughness to their game.”

It’s clear, that both Barnhart and Calipari, who are in the twilight of their careers, want to end on a positive note. Now on more common ground, they will look to make changes in hopes that it pays off with postseason success.

“Not a lot of people in our industry get to exit the way you want to exit. I want us to be able to exit well and be able to say we left it (Kentucky basketball) in a really good spot for the people that came behind us.”

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Men's Basketball

Everything Players and Staff Had to Say after Losing to Oakland

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© Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports

Well, Kentucky’s 2023-24 season is over after getting upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to 14-seed Oakland. A lot of questions are surrounding the Kentucky basketball program.

Head coach John Calipari and players let all of the sadness out and spoke on the touching subjects after the loss.

John Calipari

Calipari really felt like this team was built March. “They shouldn’t be and our team and our season, defined by that game, but it will be. This one is painful. … This team, I really felt was built for this moment, even though we were young.”

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Calipari says the mistakes from the team was due to the youth. “We made some critical mistakes at critical times today. When you have a really young team and look at where did the mistakes come from, they were freshmen.” When asked if his philosophy will change moving forward, Calipari says he doesn’t know, but he has changed lives doing it the way he is. “”I’ve done this with young teams my whole career. It’s gonna be hard for me to change that because we’ve helped so many young people … I don’t see myself just saying, ‘Ok, we’re not going to recruit freshmen.’ … We have an unbelievable group coming in.”

It was clear, though, that Calipari really believed that this team could have done something special. “I just come back to, I hate it for these guys that people try to define this season by that game, and it’s natural and it’s how this business works but this group was a ball to coach.”

Players

Then, it was the players’ turns to talk with the media, and as you can imagine, it was a devastated locker room. Tre Mitchell, one of the veterans on the team, appreciated his time at Kentucky. “I’ve loved every single second of being at Kentucky. I got an opportunity to live out a dream, and I built bonds with people that will last a lifetime.”

Reed Sheppard was very emotional after the game, talking about how this team was fun to play with, and it being their last time on the court together. “It sucks losing, but it sucks losing knowing it’s your last time playing with this group. This group has been unbelievable. There’s no team that’s been like this on/off the court. We’re all super close. Being able to play at Kentucky and have a special group of guys around me.”

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Sheppard continued on how “special” this Kentucky team was. “You guys could tell how special we were. How close of friends we were on and off the court. It sucks ending the season no matter what. Especially with this group. We’re all really close. We’re all best friends. Knowing that we won’t play with the same group of guys next year is tough. But you know, we have a lot of memories.”

Rob Dillingham also expressed that same comradery feeling. “It means everything to me. I might not show it all the time, but I love everybody on the team. I love putting this (Kentucky) jersey on. Every time I go out there I get chills looking at the crowd. It’s just crazy to think we’re done right now.”

Just like that, Kentucky’s season has come to a shocking halt. A special team ended with a very disappointing March. Now, big questions will need to be answered .

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SEC Coach Compares Rob Dillingham to NBA All-Star

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One SEC coach compares Rob Dillingham to an accomplished NBA All-Star.
Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

You will be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining player in college basketball than Rob Dillingham, with opposing players and coaches saying as much throughout the season. Vanderbilt head coach, Jerry Stackhouse, is the most recent to do so.

Following a loss to Kentucky, where Rob Dillingham scored 23 points and 5 assists, Stackhouse complimented Dillingham and his style of play, even describing him as his “shifty”, the moniker he goes by on social media, ‘Rob wit da shifts’.

“I would say he is so shifty. I think that’s the word that I would describe him, and I saw him in high school,” Stackhouse said. “He’s the guy that’s capable of exploding and going for 25 or 30 on any given night. I think that’s why you’re seeing him projected on the draft boards and his own because he has that type of ability.”

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There is one NBA guard in particular that Dillingham reminds him of, former NBA All-Star and champion Kyrie Irving.

“Being able to play one-on-one, create off the dribble kind of Kyrie Irving-like,” Stackhouse said. “I think once he continues to grow as a defender, he’s going to be a guy that you try to pick on, but I think he has to that same shift in this that he has on offense he can apply that and become a good on-ball defender as well.”

Considering Stackhouse’s experience as an NBA All-Star caliber player, and now as an NBA/college coach for the last decade, his compliment holds value. That said, his praise didn’t stop there.

Stackhouse also mentioned that this Kentucky team is arguably the best he has seen since he started at Vanderbilt in 2019. “Kentucky is really good, talented offensive team,” Stackhouse said. “The best that I’ve seen I think since I’ve been here. …I think it’s time for a big run this year (for Kentucky).”

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