After Kentucky’s 76-68 win over Florida on Saturday, John Calipari was presented with a basketball to commemorate his 500th victory.
That number included 42 wins Calipari-coached teams at Memphis and Massachusetts were forced to forfeit by the NCAA for violations during his tenure.
Gary Johnson, the head of Division I men's basketball statistics, said Monday that the NCAA does not recognize Kentucky's win over Florida as Calipari's 500th college coaching victory.
According to the NCAA, Calipari's record at UK is 55-11, at UMass 189-70 and at Memphis 214-68. That adds up to 458-149.
Calipari was not found to have violated NCAA rules in either case.
May 2011 Kentucky Wildcats Wiretap
Jimmer Fredette and Jared Sullinger headline the list of finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, awarded to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's National Player of the Year.
Other finalists include Jordan Hamilton (Texas), JaJuan Johnson (Purdue), Terrence Jones (Kentucky), Marcus Morris (Kansas), Kyle Singler (Duke), Nolan Smith (Duke), Kemba Walker (Connecticut) and Derrick Williams (Arizona).
In Saturday's rematch against Florida, John Calipari's frontcourt did a much better job to help him pick up his 500th career victory with the 76-68 win.
Florida did not score on a second-chance opportunity until 3:45 remained in the game. The Gators successfully controlled the glass in their prior meeting this season.
Darius Miller scored a career-high 24 points to lead Kentucky. Brandon Knight added 16 and Doron Lamb 14.
Heading into Saturday’s game against Florida, the 22nd-ranked Wildcats are 0-6 in games decided by five or fewer points.
“We’ve been poor in close games, and I don’t think it’s been luck,” UK coach John Calipari said Thursday. “I think you create opportunities, and what (the Gators) do is they create opportunities for themselves.
“I think what they do is, they’ve got players that, they expect to win, and they make plays,” Calipari said. “I don’t know if there’s a whole lot of luck to it. Just about every game has been a wire-to-wire close game.”
Calipari has called for UK players to take the initiative in close games the rest of the season.
Baylor's Perry Jones and Ohio State's Jared Sullinger join Texas' Tristan Thompson and Kentucky teammates Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight as finalists for the 2011 Wayman Tisdale Award, presented to the national freshmen of the year.
The winner will be announced April 1 in conjunction with the Final Four in Houston.
Kentucky freshman guard Terrence Jones was named SEC Freshmen of the Week for the fifth time this season.
The highly regarded 6-8, 244-pound small forward averaged 17.9 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.
Austin Rivers, James McAdoo, Anthony Davis, Mike Gilchrist and Marquis Teague are the five finalists for the Naismith Award for the national high school player of the year.
Davis, Gilchrist and Teague will all play for Kentucky this fall.
Rivers will attend Duke and McAdoo is going to North Carolina.
Jared Sullinger won the award last season, while Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd have also received the honor in the past.
The rosters for the 2011 McDonald's All-American High School teams were announced on Thursday.
East Team
Brad Beal, Florida
Chane Behanan, Louisville
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia
Michael Carter-Williams, Syracuse
Rakeem Christmas, Syracuse
Quinn Cook, Duke
Michael Gilchrist, Kentucky
P.J. Hairston, North Carolina
James McAdoo, North Carolina
Johnny O’Bryant III, LSU
Marshall Plumlee, Duke
Shannon Scott, Ohio State
West Team
Khem Birch, Pittsburgh
Wayne Blackshear, Louisville
Anthony Davis, Kentucky
Branden Dawson, Michigan State
Myck Kabongo, Texas
LeBryan Nash, Oklahoma State
Austin Rivers, Duke
Marquis Teague, Kentucky
Adonis Thomas, Memphis
Amir Williams, Ohio State
Kyle Wiltjer, Kentucky
Cody Zeller, Indiana
• Click here to view RealGM's section on the McDonald's All-American Game
Kentucky recruit Kyle Wiltjer had 12 points in Tuesday's win for Jesuit (Oregon) over Westview before leaving the game with a lower leg injury.
Wiltjer was on the floor for a few minutes, but left the court on his own power.
Jesuit coach Gene Potter was not available for comment on Wiltjer's status.
Chris Warren hit a three-pointer with 2.5 seconds remaining to give Mississippi a 71-69 win over No. 11 Kentucky on Tuesday night.
After the game, teammates mobbed the senior guard as the Rebels celebrated their first win over a top 10 team since 2002.
"It's just so much fun," Warren said. "Winning is fun and we haven't been doing that much lately. We called the play, ran it the right way and it felt good when it left my hand. We needed this really, really bad."
Kentucky's Doron Lamb missed a running three-pointer at the buzzer.
"We got the look we wanted," coach John Calipari said. "We missed."