As some of you may have already heard, we are welcoming a new contributor to Coach Cal.com beginning today as Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio debuts his first offering below.

With Matt joining us and Tom Leach already on board, we feel like we have two of the most powerful voices – literally and figuratively – in all of Big Blue Nation helping to add to the quality content we have already been providing since our launch in July.

We think you’ll enjoy the perspective, insight and entertainment value provided by both Tom and Matt and we look forward to letting both spread their wings here as the weeks and months ahead unfurl.

With these two giants of UK’s sports media corps now contributing to our site, we thought it would be timely for Coach Calipari to also explain his own use of social media. Check out the video above and take the time to hear Coach’s philosophy on his use of this site, Twitter and Facebook (and more avenues coming soon) to connect with all of you.

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By Matt Jones

CoachCal.com Contributor

I am really looking forward to beginning my contributions here at Coachcal.com.  Making the decision to come and join the site was not an easy one.  I had offers on the table from KevinStallings.com, LaneKiffin.com and even HaydenFox.com, but in the end the beautiful siren call of Coach Cal and his innovative site were too much to pass up.  If you know of my work from Kentucky Sports Radio, you will know that I only like to be part of websites with the (a) most innovative, modern look in the industry and (b) impeccable technical quality that leads to no service interruptions.  If Coachcal.com can meet the KSR standard in those areas, then I think it will be a great gig.

If you think about it, the changes over the last seven months are really amazing.  Coach Calipari has become a modern day Howard Stern except instead of satellite radio and Artie Lange, Cal has Twitter and Drake.  Over the past six months, his Twitter account has reached over 900,000 followers, putting him in the Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, Tila Tequila” stratosphere of celebrity.  Through that account, he has created an openness about the UK basketball program that I don’t think exists at any other university.   If you want to know what the UK coach is doing, be inspired to start your day or even order a pizza, Calipari’s new social media forays have bettered your existence.

And I feel like that same cutting edge thinking is coming for the Coachcal.com site as well.  When I first heard about the website, my immediate concern was how it would affect me.  Would Coach Calipari do things that previously were the basis of existence for Kentucky Sports Radio and thus, take away from our reader base?  However, I quickly learned that references to 1960s television personalities, pictures of media personalities in various stages of undress and opinions of Brian the Intern were not of the top priority for Coach Calipari, and my concerns were alleviated.  What we have seen however is that Coachcal.com can provide something that no other site on the internet (with the exception of the live Ustream from Alan Cutler’s basement) can provide:  unique video giving behind the scenes access unlike anything we have ever seen.

That is what I ultimately hope to be a part of here on Coachcal.com.  Like you, I am a fan first and foremost.  Before I started doing the Kentucky Sports Radio website, I read the newspapers (yes kids they did use to exist), watched every ounce of local news (hoping for a glimpse of Dave Baker) and perused the message boards, looking for the latest kernel of wisdom from insiders such as luvrichie4life.”  Kentucky basketball had an abnormally large place in my life and I wanted to know everything I could about it.  As we have gone on with the blog, I have learned more than I could have ever fathomed and the internet has made it to where information about the team is ubiquitous in ways we never could have imagined. 

However one thing is still left to be seen and felt by the fans…and that is what it is really like around the UK basketball program.  That is what I hope to help contribute to here.   Coach Calipari and the Coachcal.com editor/content editor David Scott have created a forum in which Kentucky basketball can be seen from every angle and the program is now opened like never before.  I want to try to help view that program the way a fan would.  I hope to be able to help show you the types of things about the UK basketball team behind the scenes” that I would have wanted to know years ago, while in the process producing entertaining videos that will help make you even more unproductive at work.

I am glad to be starting this adventure and I hope fans from Pikeville to Paducah,” those that are Dukes of Hazard and those that aren’t, bounce back after realizing our players don’t poop ice cream, and enjoy learning more about the greatest program in all of college basketball. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Matt’s snark factor is currently teetering on too much, too soon,” but since we fear an uprising from the likes of BTI, Drew Coal” Franklin and The Fake Gimel — or the Real Gimel for that matter — we’ll let it go. For now! And on a serious note — Welcome to the family Matt. Your CoachCal.com t-shirt emblazoned with your name is now being processed at our home office.)

Matt Jones is the founder and genius behind Kentucky Sports Radio. He is a regular contributor to CoachCal.com