First year Samford head coach Bennie Seltzer was an assistant to Tom Crean at Marquette and Indiana. Former Kentucky great, Scott Padgett joined the Samford staff as an assistant coach prior to the start of the season.

With Seltzer in charge the Bulldog’s are looking to run a fast paced offensive and get a number of players involved in the scoring. They will also look to bring a certain amount of intensity, which is their team’s motto.

They come into Rupp with a 2-7 record and are coming off of their first conference win of the year, a 57-48 victory over Georgia Southern.

Despite the fact that they return three starters in junior Will Cook and sophomores  Tyler Hood and Raijon Kelly, this is one of the youngest teams in the country. A total of nine of the Bulldogs’ 14 players are underclassmen this season, and Samford is just one of two teams in the SoCon that doesn’t have a single senior on its roster.

Hood led the team in scoring last season at 11.1 points per game and Cook and Kelly weren’t far behind at 8 and 9.4 ppg respectively. Kelly ranks No. 15 in the league with a 13.4 points per game scoring average. He is also a threat to shoot it from deep as he has already knocked down 18 three-pointers.

Freshman forward Tim Williams is leading the Bulldgos in scoring and rebounds with 15.6 and 8.4 per game.  The 6-8 post man will look to be active on defense blocking shots and creating steals. He will definitely be the player to watch on the Samford side, that is unless any of their shooters find the range.

With three double-doubles on the year, Williams ranks eighth in the country.

Connor Miller is another sophomore who will start for the Bulldogs rounding out a three-guard backcourt with Cook and Kelly.

This will be Notre Dame’s second ever appearance in this challenge and the last time they also faced Kentucky. The Wildcats downed the Irish in 2010 at Freedom Hall, 72-58. The last time Kentucky went to South Bend was Billy Clyde’s last ever game at UK as the ‘Cats fell to the Irish 77-67 in the quarters of the NIT.

Notre Dame is 105-7 in their last 112 games played at home and their .938 home winning percentage in the last seven years ranks second in the nation to Kansas (.965).

Their best overall player is senior forward Jack Cooley (6-9, 246), who comes into the game averaging 14.3 points and 11.3 rebounds. He has a team-high five double-doubles on the year and is shooting a crazy 74-percent from the field in the last three games. If he gets it around the rim in good position, he’s likely to score. Four of his double-doubles have come in the last five games and he has 18 in the last two seasons. Besides leading the team in points and rebounds, he also leads the team in blocked shots with 13.

They have two other players averaging double figures with a pair of junior guards in Jerian Grant (6-5, 202), who averages 13.0 points and 4.7 assists, and Eric Atkins (6-2, 182), who is putting up 10.3 points and 6.7 assists a game.

In their win over Chicago State on Monday night, Grant recorded a double-double with 13 points and a career-high 11 assists. He did not commit a turnover in the game and has 17 assists to zero turnovers in his last two games. Not a bad ratio. He is also their biggest threat from deep, knocking down nine three-pointers while shooting 45-percent.

Grant also recorded a double-double against Chicago State. He matched a career-high with 22 points and recorded a career-high ten assists. It marked his second double-double of his career. He has scored in double figures in five straight games and leads the team in scoring during that span.

Fifth-year senior guard Scott Martin (6-8, 218) and sophomore forward Pat Connaughton (6-5, 212) close out the starting lineup for the Irish. Both average right at eight points per game and Martin is their second leading rebounder with eight a game.

Senior center Garrick Sherman (6-10, 246) will get solid minutes off of the bench. He has scored in double-figures in their last three games and is shooting 67-percent from the field in those games. He is a transfer from Michigan State.

Remember a few years ago when Notre Dame had a ton of talent, but struggled. Most of those struggles were due to their lack of commitment towards defense. That has changed the past few years and this ND team is now a very good defensive team. This season they are holding opponents to just 37-percent shooting from the floor and 31-percent from deep. They have held ooponents to less than 23 points in the first half four times already this season and are giving up just 27.0 points a game in the first half.

Unlike the Wildcats, this is a very experienced Notre Dame team. Their starting five has started 21 of the last 22 games and they have gone 16-5 in those games. They return 2,003 of their 2,257 points from a year ago, which equates for 89-percent. They also return 93-percent of their rebounds and 89-percent of their minutes.

Mark Stoops will be your next head coach at the University of Kentucky. He has been the defensive coordinator for Florida State since the 2009 season and is the brother of Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops. Actually, he is one of six brothers and his brother Mike was head coach at Arizona and he served as his defensive coordinator from 2004 to 2008.

He played at Iowa from 1986 to 1988 and was a graduate assistant there after his playing career. In 1996 he was hired at South Florida as their defensive backs coach. From 1997 to 1999 he held the same position at Wyoming. In 1999, he left for Houston when head coach Dana Dimel was hired by the Cougars. He served one season there as co-defensive coordinator and then left for Miami in 2001 to become their defensive backs coach. He worked there until his brother Mike got the job at Arizona and he was named defensive coordinator.

This will be Mark’s first head coaching position.

It is being reported that former Wildcat Tim Couch played a big role in the hiring of Stoops. It is also being said that the UK administration promised changes and improvements to facilities. I hope this is true.

It is also being rumored that Florida State offensive coordinator James Coley may be heading for Lexington with Stoops. He is in his third season as OC and fifth overall with the team. He was recruiting coordinator from 2008 to 2009 and led FSU to back-to-back top ten classes. In 2010, he led FSU to the top scoring offense in the ACC.

Before joining the staff at FSU, he served as offensive coordinator/QB coach at Florida International in 2007, quarterbacks coach for the Miami Dolphins from 2005 to 2006, was a graduate assistant at LSU from 2003 to 2004. He graduated from FSU in 1997 and got his Master’s at LSU.

We will have more on the hire as things develop.

**2:48 update**

BleedBlueKentucky.com’s Aaron Cordero has texted me to advise me that it is not going to be James Coley as offensive coordinator at UK. He says that Stoops had interest in bringing him with him, but doesn’t think it will happen.

One name we are hearing now is Texas Tech offensive coordinator, Neil Brown. He is a native of Danville, KY and played at UK from 1998 to 20090. He has been at TTU since 2010. Prior to that he was wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator at Troy from 2007 to 2009 and prior to that spent time at Delaware, Sacred Heart and Massachusetts.

Well, according to sources it appears that he is in the running and in fact is one of the final two to be considered for the job. The other is San Jose State’s Mike MacIntyre.

If Stoops comes to Lexington, you are getting one of the best defensive coordinators in the country with a last name that will draw attention to recruits. Remember, his older brother Bob is the head man at Oklahoma and his other brother Mike was head coach at Arizona.

MacIntyre is in his third season at San Jose State went 10-2 this season and 5-1 in conference play. They went 1-12 and 0-8 in his first season there and 5-7 and 3-4 a year ago. In January of 2012, he signed an extension with SJSU that locks him in through 2017, but we all know how much that really means.

I really liked the idea of hiring Butch Jones because of his ability to recruit Ohio and I think UK has to recruit Ohio better to compete in the SEC. But, it doesn’t look like Mitch Barnhart will be able to pull Jones away from Cincinnati.

Most reports say that we will find out who the next head coach will be for Kentucky sometime this week.

In the world of Twitter, news can break quick and anyone that says anything can be relevant. Former UT quarterback and current radio host in Knoxville Erik Ainge tweeted this this morning and caused quite a stir.

@ErikAinge3, “Heads up, watch out for Butch Jones to Kentucky…coming soon”

Word last week was that Jones could be out of the running at UK. Now it appears that he is not out of consideration, at all. The reason this could be relevant is because Tennessee is considering Jones for their vacancy, as well. Ainge could have received viable info on why Jones is not interested in the UT job and that could potentially be the UK gig.

I think a Jones hire would make sense simply because he has Ohio ties. If UK can find a way to recruit Ohio better, I think it gives them a big edge. You recruit the state with the opportunity to play in the SEC. When you recruit the south, obviously the opportunity to play in the SEC is not as great because all of the top recruits are already being recruited by other, more relevant teams in the SEC.

If Mitch Barnhart is able to pull Jones away from Cincinnati, I think it will be a great hire because of his ability to recruit Ohio, alone.

LIU enters Friday night’s contest at 0-3 with losses to Morehead State, Lafayette and Maryland. Three teams that Kentucky has beat this season. Their match-up with Kentucky is their first contest against a top ten opponent in the regular season since they faced No. 6 Purdue in 1997.

Despite their 0-3 start, this LIU team was picked to win the NEC title after winning back-to-back titles. They are a high scoring team. They ranked second in the country in scoring (81.4 ppg) a season ago and have the nation’s second-longest active home winning streak at 27. Guess who’s first?

They have four players that average double figures and are led by senior forward Jamal Olasewere (6-7, 225), who averages 22.3 per game. Last year he was a first-team All-NEC selection and ranked in the top ten in five major statistical categories. He has 20 double-doubles in his career. He lives on the line and has gone to the free throw stripe at least ten times in each of their first three games.

Senior forward Julian Boyd (6-7, 230) is second on the team in scoring with 18.0 points-per-game. In their last contest against Maryland he was impressive, finishing with 22 points on 11-for-20 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks. He is a two-time All-NEC selection and last year was honorable mention AP All-American. Last year he averaged 17.4 points and 9.3 rebounds.

Junior guard Jason Brickman (6-0, 175) is their best distributor with 8.7 assists per game and ranks third on the team in scoring with 15.0 points. The kid can shoot it too, through the first three games he has knocked down 10 threes and is shooting 56-percent from deep. He was named to the All-NEC tournament team a season ago after recording 18 points and 11 assists in the championship game. He is on pace to be LIU-Brooklyn’s all-time assist leader when his career is through.

The Blackbirds are going to want to run, which should play right into Kentucky’s hands. It should be a fun game to watch.

Ryan Harrow has not played since the season opener against Maryland because of an unknown illness. Well, he was scheduled to return tonight versus Morehead State, but instead is traveling back home to deal with family issues and will miss the next two games, as well.

This is definitely odd news, especially considering he has missed the last few games.

Kentucky needs someone to step up at point guard and Harrow was expected to be that guy. Not a John Wall, Brandon Knight or Marquis Teague type of guy, but a guy that could get them into their sets and deliver the ball into right spots.

We wish Harrow the best and hope to see him back in the lineup contributing soon.

Terrence Jones has been fighting to see the court more for the Rockets after being selected with the 18th overall pick last June. Through their first nine games, he had played in just two games for a total of 13 minutes.

On Sunday against the Lakers, he played in 20 minutes and made the most of his opportunity, finishing with eight points on 4-for-7 shooting, with four rebounds and three assists.

But, it was this dunk over fellow former Wildcat, Jodie Meeks, that caused a stir across the basketball world. It’s awesome to see former ‘Cats do well in the NBA, but when it’s at another player’s expense…does that change anything? Not really. Meeks was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and Jones decided to cram on him in transition. Attempting to draw a change was probably not the smartest idea.

It’s sick.