COVERITLIVE.COM

10:00

Eric Crawford - All right, we're back. No advertising, no fanfare, just an hour of stuff. Welcome to any and all.

10:00

[Comment From DLM]
Eric,

10:01

Eric Crawford - Lots of stuff in the air right now. John Wall news broke today. Spent the afternoon at U of L basketball practice and in their squad scrimmage. U of L football.

10:02

[Comment From Steve]
Heard that Samardo, lost 18 pounds. How does he look?

10:02

Eric Crawford - Samardo looked good. Ran the floor as well as anybody today in a 40-minute scrimmage with few subs.

10:02

[Comment From DLM]
Eric, I don't understand how I had to read about the John Wall story on ESPN. What do you and Rick do all day that national reporters get the scoop before you two do when it's in your own backyard. Is it because it's about UK?

10:05

Eric Crawford - DLM. I spent six years as the U of L beat writer. I got scooped on a few stories, but not many. That's not my gig now. ESPN gets stories.

And, just to clarify, I work in Louisville. The story is in Lexington. But point taken. We have broken plenty of stories about UK. In fact, the Claude Bassett money order story was broken by The C-J. I know because I had Tim Thompson's house staked out for about three days. But again, that was in my days as a beat reporter.

Anyway, today is the first I heard of it. But again, the day-to-day reporting and investigating of UK is not my job.

10:05

[Comment From Bennett]
Was the stadium expansion for PJCS a mistake?

10:06

Eric Crawford - Nope. Absolutely not. I think it will add revenue for U of L in the long run. And it may open the door to drawing some bigger name opponents in there.

10:06

[Comment From Craig]
I heard about this Wall thing today and one guy blamed it on Coach Cal... But didn't this occur while Billy G was the coach?

10:08

Eric Crawford - The Wall story, short form, is this. His AAU coach was also a registered agent, which made some expenses that his AAU coach paid while Wall was a junior in high school impermissible benefits in the eyes of the NCAA.

UK is now sorting through what benefits he got, and what he'll have to pay back. Wall could miss a few games, may have to pay back some money. There is no NCAA violation. But they will need to iron his eligibility out.

The last local player to have this happen was Simeon Naydenov of U of L. That story, by the way, DLM, was reported a couple of days before the first exhibition, because these things are usually ironed out before the start of the season.

10:09

[Comment From Steve]
Pitino said he was not planning on playing Samuels and TJ at the 4 and 5 together. Does he think Swopshire is ready to start at the 4???

10:10

Eric Crawford - Today it looked like the starting group would be this: Sosa, Smith, Samuels, Swopshire and Delk.

10:11

Eric Crawford - So, yeah, I get the feeling he thinks Swopshire is ready. My impression today. The team can really shoot it. It has a LONG way to go defensively.

10:11

[Comment From bagkrags]
your chat comment about the goal boards under Petrino vs. those under Kragthorpe was telling. the lack of attention to detail and preparation was glaring from the start with Krags. so why is this only coming out up now? that kind of insight would have been useful when there was this "debate" about how much of the team's decline is due to Krags.

10:14

Eric Crawford - Well, that's a question of access. When I tried to get at where the boards had gone the first year, I was told they were still being used, but the boards had been moved. And then I was told that there were still goals for each unit, but they weren't posted publicly like that.

The bottom line is this. You have to be careful. When I'm chatting with people, I can throw some anecdotal stuff out there for what it is worth. I'm not going to report something in the column unless I've got it cold. And since we can't get into the football facility rooms to see for ourselves, I haven't gone to the column with it.

I will say, the notion that I haven't chronicled the decline and Kragthorpe's role in it since the beginning is one I'd take issue with.

10:14

[Comment From jp]
Who was the biggest surprise in the scrimmage today?

10:14

Eric Crawford - Mike Marra looked a lot bigger and more athletic than I thought he was. He made 7 threes in the first half of the scrimmage, before the defense tightened on him.

10:14

[Comment From Chris]
How did the freshman Siva look today. Seem to be a natural leader?

10:15

Eric Crawford - Siva looked good. He's got a little better outside shot than I expected. I think he'll play plenty. The Sosa I saw today looked a lot like the usual Sosa, but we'll see how he comes along.

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