Forget Jay Leno or Conan. Tonight, Saturday and a week from tonight will be Late Night with Calipari.

Kentucky’s next three games all have 9 p.m. (or later) tipoffs on ESPNU (tonight) and ESPN (Saturday and next Tuesday).

Starting tonight against Alabama, the Cats have one of the ESPN family’s primetime slots on ESPNU and the nation will be turning its attention to Lexington.

Forget about “American Idol” tonight and next Tuesday (Isn’t that what DVRs are for anyway?).

It will be “Kentucky Idol” on ESPNU and ESPN.

On Saturday, the ESPN GameDay crew will be coming to Kentucky for the Tennessee game that night. Reportedly there are going to be 23,000 on the scene in Rupp Arena for the pregame festivities that morning.

While ESPN doesn’t keep such records, it will probably be the biggest GameDay basketball crowd ever. But that “record” may be smashed the following week when Syrcause is the host in the Carrierdome as the Orangemen prepare to battle Villanova.

Not that it matters, although I know UK fans love being No. 1 at whatever is out there.

Also, with these Cats, it wouldn’t matter what time they are on television. The fans are going to watch because everybody in Kentucky loves this team as much as they were indifferent about the past two UK teams coached by you-know-who.

Halfway through the Southeastern Conference portion of the schedule, UK is 7-1 and nobody appears to be too much of a roadblock, although games at Tennessee, Vanderbilt and even Georgia may be problematic.

The biggest worry for UK fans in the next week will be keeping their eyes open.

Just remember to take an early nap or put another pot of coffee on for the next three games. It’s going to be finishing late.

Webb on bump

Brandon Webb’s rehabilitation is progressly along nicely in Arizona.

Webb will pitch off the mound today for the first time since last April. He started Arizona’s season opener and worked four innings before leaving with shoulder pain. It ended up being season-ending pain for Webb and the Diamondbacks.

Webb had minor surgery in August and is on the mend. From all reports, it looks like he will be ready to start spring training on time. He has been throwing for three weeks.

The return of Webb to the rotation is critical to how much of a contender Arizona may be in 2010. With a healthy Webb and Dan Haren, the D-Backs have one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball.

Arizona fans will be anxiously awaiting reports on how well Webb pitches off the mound today.

So will his fans here in Ashland.

Reds spring games

Fox Sports Ohio will televise three Cincinnati Reds spring training games from Goodyear, Ariz.

Games scheduled are March 5 vs. the Cleveland Indians (3:05 p.m.), March 18 vs. the Cleveland Indians (4:05 p.m. and March 22 vs. the Colorado Rockies (4:05 p.m.).

Freshmen AIT

Ashland’s Freshmen Ashland Invitational Tournament has stood the test of time.

The Freshmen AIT was started when Ernie Simpson was the Tomcats’ high school boys basketball coach in 1980. This year’s tournament is the 30th anniversary.

Semifinals are Wednesday night and finals are Thursday night at Alumni gym.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.