A8 | WEDNESDAY, 04.4.2012 THE LEDGER INDEPENDENT

RICHMOND INSURANCE AGENCY, INC.

Eric Schumacher • Carla Pfeffer606-759-5663

1428 US 68, Maysville, KY

Your best insurance is a good agent.

The Series One Contractors Policy

from State Auto gives contractors

broad, basic and complete

coverage for property and general

liabilities and great value for your

money. Plus you have the option of

choosing from several custom

packages. Call today for more infor-

mation.

I’m Alive... because someone like YOU joined the Kentucky Organ Donor RegistryAt 3 months old, Katie’s parents noticed the whites of her eyes were turning yellow. Katie would not survive without a liver transplant. She’s alive because someone said “yes” to organ donation. Now, Katie is a 10-year-old honor student who plays basketball and goes camping.

Please give $1.00 to promote organ donation when you renew your driver’s license.

Supported by

www.trustforlife.org866-945-5433

A CLEAR DIRECTION FOR YOUR CAREER

AMERICA’S NAVYOn-the-job training

Superior Benefits Full Tuition for College Medical and Dental Benefits provided 30 days paid vacation yearly Must be H.S. Grad or GED 15 College Credits Ages 17-34 Navy and 17-38 Navy Reserve Travel and Adventure Opportunities

CALL 1-800-282-1384 orEMAIL us at

Recovery is within reach:513-381-6672

830 Ezzard Charles Dr. Cincinnati, OHCCATsober.org

DEPENDENCY IS A MEDICAL,NOT A MORAL ISSUE

•Medically - Monitored Detoxification•28 - Day Residential Treatment Program• Suboxone Outpatient Treatment

TRUE BUILT BARNS 3 1/2 miles SE of Flemingsburg, Ky. on Rt. 32 (next to the Fast Track Shell)606-845-0540 • 1-800-710-4822Quality is our Goal! Ask For Sam Yoder or Dan Esh

Since 1991 RENT-TO-

OWN

FREE Delivery within 150 miles • www.trubuiltbarns.com

Our Buildings are ready for your Spring Cleaning

Get organzied and ready for

Spring with one of our buildings.

Available in many sizes.

Ladies Aux. VFW Post 2734

VFW Post (Lic.# OCG #0429)

Doors open 5 p.m. Bingo at 7 p.m. Tues. & Thurs. Buy-Ins $15.00

Kehoe Viaduct Maysville, Kentucky (606) 564-6944

“New” HigherGame Payouts!“New” Tickets!

SPORTS DIRECTORY606-564-9091 OR 800-264-9091

NAME EXT. EMAILChuck Hamilton 251 chuck.hamilton@lee.netZack Klemme 273 zack.klemme@lee.net

SCORE DEADLINE FOR NEXT DAY’S EDITION: 10 P.M.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4BASEBALLMason County at Lewis County, 5Fleming County vs. Montgomery Coun-

ty, Cocoa Beach (Fla.) Expo, 9 a.m.West Union at Ripley, 5Felicity at Georgetown, 4:30SOFTBALLSt. Patrick at Bracken County, 10th

Region All “A” Classic, 5:30Fleming County vs. Whitley County,

Cocoa Beach (Fla.) Expo, 5West Union at Ripley, 5Felicity at Georgetown, 4:30TRACK AND FIELDNew Richmond Meet, 4:30(All times p.m. and subject to

change)

PREP SCHEDULE

THIS DAY IN SPORTS

SPORTS ON TV

APRIL 4 1937 — Byron Nelson shoots a 283 to

win the Masters by two strokes over Ralph Guldahl.

1938 — Henry Picard beats Ralph Guldahl and Harry Cooper by two strokes to capture the Masters.

1983 — Lorenzo Charles scores on a dunk after Derek Whittenburg’s 35-foot desperation shot falls short to give North Carolina State a 54-52 triumph over Houston in the NCAA championship.

1986 — Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky breaks his own NHL single-season points record with three assists to increase his total to 214. He scored 212 points in 1981-82.

1987 — New York’s Denis Potvin, the highest-scoring defenseman in NHL history, scores his 1,000th point.

1988 — Danny Manning scores 31 points and grabs 18 rebounds as Kansas wins its second NCAA cham-pionship with an 83-79 victory over Oklahoma.

1993 — Sheryl Swoopes shatters the women’s championship game record by scoring 47 points to lead Texas Tech to an 84-82 victory over Ohio State.

1993 — Mario Andretti, at 53, wins the Valvoline 200 in Phoenix to become the oldest driver to win an Indy car race and the first driver to win a race in four different decades.

1994 — Arkansas wins its first men’s national championship with a 76-72 victory over Duke, depriving the Blue Devils of a third title in four years.

1998 — Mark McGwire ties Willie Mays’ National League record by hitting a home run in each of his first four games. McGwire launches a towering three-run shot in the sixth

inning of an 8-6 victory over the San Diego

2001 — Hideo Nomo becomes the fourth pitcher in major league his-tory to throw a no-hitter in both leagues in Boston’s 3-0 victory over Baltimore. Nomo joins Cy Young, Jim Bunning and Nolan Ryan as the only pitchers to accomplish the feat.

2003 — Toronto’s Lenny Wilkens sets the NBA record for most career losses when the Raptors lost to the Spurs 124-98. Wilkens, in his 30th year as an NBA coach, was already the winningest coach in league his-tory with 1,292 victories.

2003 — Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs becomes the 18th player to hit 500 career homers, connecting for a solo shot in a 10-9 loss to Cincinnati.

2005 — Dmitri Young becomes the third player to hit three homers on opening day to lead Detroit over the Kansas City Royals 11-2.

2005 — North Carolina defeats Il-linois to win the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship. Sean May has 26 points and the Tar Heels don’t allow a basket over the final 2 1/2 minutes to defeat Illinois 75-70.

2010 — Yani Tseng shoots a 4-under 68 to win the Kraft Nabisco Cham-pionship for her second major title. Tseng, of Taiwan, finishes at 13-un-der 275 at Mission Hills to hold off Suzann Pettersen by one stroke.

2011 — Kemba Walker scores 16 points and Alex Oriakhi has 11 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots to lead Connecticut to a 53-41 win over Butler in the men’s NCAA championship game. UConn coach Jim Calhoun wins his third national championship, something only four other coaches have done.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4GOLF3 P.M.ESPN — Exhibition, Masters Par 3 Con-

test, at Augusta, Ga.MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL7 P.M.ESPN — St. Louis at MiamiNBA8 P.M.ESPN2 — Oklahoma City at Miami10:30 P.M.

ESPN — L.A. Lakers at L.A. ClippersNHL7:30 P.M.NBCSN — Detroit at St. LouisSOCCER2:30 P.M.FSN — UEFA Champions League, quar-

terfinal, APOEL at Real Madrid8 P.M.FSN — UEFA Champions League, quar-

terfinal, Benfica at Chelsea (same-day tape)

NASCAR SCHEDULE

SPORTS CALENDAR

SPRINT CUP SCHEDULEDate Location, Time (ET) TV/WinnerFeb. 26, Daytona, Matt KensethMarch 4, Phoenix, Denny HamlinMarch 11, Las Vegas Tony StewartMarch 18 Bristol Brad KeselowskiMarch 25 Fontana Tony StewartApril 1 Martinsville Ryan NewmanApril 14 Texas, 7 p.m. FOXApril 22 Kansas, 12:30 p.m. FOXApril 28 Richmond, 7 p.m. FOXMay 6 Talladega,noon FOXMay 12 Darlington, 6:30 p.m. FOXMay 19 All-Star Race at Charlotte, 7 p.m. SpeedMay 27 Charlotte, 5:30 p.m. FOXJune 3 Dover, 12:30 p.m. FOXJune 10 Pocono, noon TNTJune 17 Michigan, noon TNTJune 24 Sonoma, 2 p.m. TNTJune 30 Kentucky, 6:30 p.m. TNTJuly 7 Daytona, 6:30 p.m TNTJuly 15 Loudon, noon TNTJuly 29 Indianapolis, noon ESPNAug. 5 Pocono, noon ESPNAug. 12 Watkins Glen, noon ESPNAug. 19 Michigan, noon ESPNAug. 25 Bristol, 7 p.m. ABCSept. 2 Atlanta, 6:30 p.m. ESPNSept. 8 Richmond, 7 p.m. ABCSept. 16 Chicago, 1 p.m. ABCSept. 23 Loudon, 1 p.m. ESPNSept. 30 Dover, 1 p.m. ESPNOct. 7 Talladega, 1 p.m. ESPNOct. 13 Charlotte, 7 p.m. ABCOct. 21 Kansas, 1 p.m. ESPNOct. 28 Martinsville, 1 p.m. ESPNNov. 4 Texas, 2 p.m ESPNNov. 11 Phoenix, 2 p.m. ESPNNov. 18 Homestead, 2 p.m. ESPN

FOOTBALLSign-ups for Tiger Football (grades 1-4

in Mason, Bracken and Robertson counties) will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the following days: April 7 at the Bracken County Public Library in Brooksville, May 5 at the Augusta boat dock and May 19 at the German-town pavilion. A golf scramble will be held April 28, beginning at 8 a.m. at Kenton Station. For more information, call Angela Yelton at 606-782-0270.

GOLFThe Laurel Oaks Golf Course Ladies’

League kicks off its season April 12 with a potluck at 6 p.m. at Laurel

Oaks. There is no cost to attend.The Lewisburg-Millcreek Lions Club

Golf Scramble is Saturday, April 14 at 8 a.m. at Kenton Station Golf Course. Cost $40 for members and $50 for non-members. For more information, call the course at 606-759-7154, Frank Lofton at 606-759-0787 or Don Turney at 606-301-3672.

SOFTBALLA men’s softball league is now forming

in Augusta. Games will be played on Fridays beginning May 25. Entry fee is $200 per team; deadline is May 18. For more information, call Mark Kiskaden at 606-402-0896.

CROWNFROM A7

Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Doron Lamb, Darius Miller, Terrence Jones, Marquis Teague — Coach Cal had a team of ringers and he, along with everyone else, knew it. Who’s No. 2 seemed to be the only question left.

Kentucky lost just twice during the season: on a buzzer-beater by Indiana and to Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament in New Orleans, where Com-modores big man Festus Ezeli pushed the Wildcats around.

The Vandy loss seemed to serve the Wildcats well, giving them a not-so-subtle reminder they still have to play, that this was no divine-right corona-tion.

The message clearly came through.

Kentucky attacked its first four NCAA tourna-ment opponents like a swarm of bees; swat one and the rest are coming

after you.The Wildcats earned a

return trip to the Big Easy by turning a highly hyped regional final against Bay-lor into a rout.

Waiting for them was in-state rival Louisville in the national semifinals.

The scrappy Cardinals made a game of it, thanks to some master manipula-tion by coach Rick Pitino, the former leader in Lex-ington who’d gone to the enemy, but Kentucky was just too deep, too talented.

That set up a blue blood matchup with Kansas in Monday’s championship game. Save for a slight stumble near the finish — Kansas closed to within five after trailing by 18 — the Wildcats rolled to the title everyone said was theirs to lose.

“They’re playing with pros,” Kansas coach Bill Self.

Davis rose up as the best of them all.

The 6-foot-10 fresh-man with the pterodactyl wingspan and Lexington’s favorite eyebrows domi-nated in what may be his

only season in college bas-ketball.

Shot-swatter, rim-rat-tler, jump-shooter, game-changer — Davis was the consensus player of the year, everyone’s pick to be the No. 1 overall choice in the NBA draft when he comes out.

He took over the title game without making a shot until the last 5 min-utes, a 1-for-10 perfor-mance that was nearly a perfect 10 on the rest of the stat line: 16 rebounds, six blocked shots to tie a title game record, three steals, enough intimida-tion to get the Jayhawks to chuck shots at the back-board so the ball wouldn’t get sent into the student section.

“He is an unbelievable factor on both ends,” Self said.

And he may be gone. So could several other players in just a couple of weeks. With five po-tential first-round picks, the NBA may be too enticing for this team to stay together.

That’s OK with Calipari.

He’s hung his hat on chas-ing after the best players, regardless of whether they’ll stick around or go to the NBA. Teach them as much as he can, win with them as much as he can, let them go when they’re ready is Calipari’s phi-losophy.

It works. Calipari got to the title game in 2008 — a crushing loss to Self and the Jayhawks — with fu-ture NBA star Derrick Rose and Memphis. John Wall and the four other first-round draft picks reached the regional final in 2010. Brandon Knight led last year’s team to the Final Four.

Finally, this year, Cal’s method was fully validat-ed in the form of a national title.

“I don’t think it’s a good rule,” Calipari said. “I hope we change it before this week’s out and all these guys have to come back. But it is a rule. It’s not my rule. It’s a rule we have to deal with.”

And one Calipari and the Wildcats ruled with, at least this year.

TEAMFROM A7

It is basically the same formula used by John Wooden when he won all those championships at UCLA, playing together as a team and not worry-ing who scores the most points.

Kentucky had seven different players lead the team in scoring during the season but the sum of its parts delivered a champi-onship because of several key factors.

The team had wonder-ful chemistry, a willing-ness to share the basket-ball, a determined will to win and different players with unique talents that resulted in a magical sea-son.

Whenever you have a big man talent like fresh-

man Anthony Davis creating havoc on the defensive end by block-ing and altering numer-ous shot attempts, along with his rebounding and scoring, you have one of the primary ingredients for a winning basketball team. Wooden always had a quality big man leading his championship teams as well.

Mix in outstanding guard play from sopho-more sharpshooter Doron Lamb and freshman point guard Marquis Teague, along with talented for-wards Terrence Jones and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with superb team de-fense, and it is evident Calipari and his staff had a formidable lineup to work with and mold into a championship team.

Many so-called experts labeled this team too young to win a title and

have long said that Cali-pari would never win it all with so many “one-and-dones” playing for him.

Admittedly, I am not a fan of the one-and-done rule in college basket-ball either but if it isn’t changed, there really isn’t a thing any of us can do about it. Calipari goes after the players he con-siders best for his system and if they leave for the NBA after one year, well, then it’s time to go recruit some more players.

But the fact remains that there are only two (Davis and Kidd-Gil-christ) who will definitely be leaving after playing at Kentucky for one season. Jones and Lamb are likely “two-and-dones” and Teague may or may not be leaving after his freshman year.

I cannot blame any of these young men for

going for the riches of the NBA when they’re deemed ready but there are also others who should stay for more than one or even two seasons.

Even with the amaz-ing physical tools this team possessed, the mental toughness UK demonstrated in game after game after game was remarkable. The Cats got each and every oppo-nent’s best shot and they slipped only twice in 40 games.

One of the primary reasons for their mental toughness?

Darius Miller.The senior from

Maysville was the ulti-mate “glue guy” for the 2012 NCAA National Champions.

He sacrificed for the good of the team, he qui-etly led his younger team-mates and in the process, became the first player to be named Kentucky Mr. Basketball, be a member of a state championship team and cap off his col-legiate career by helping bring another national championship banner to Rupp Arena.

Some folks may dis-agree but I truly believe that this Kentucky team, as gifted as they were,

does not win it all with-out Miller.

He was the best sixth man in college basket-ball and did all the little (winning) things for the Cats.

Miller played lock-down defense, came up with crucial steals, made key blocks and his outside shooting and leadership qualities were all critical factors in Kentucky’s success.

All the success he has enjoyed couldn’t hap-pen to a classier young man and his parents deserve all the praise in the world for how Dar-ius Miller has matured and I know all of Big Blue Nation thanks him for all of the hard work he has put in during his four years in Lexington.