Kentucky in the Final Four, his next goal is a government security

ATLANTA — Kentucky was not bothered by Baylor’s height or its players’ wingspans, and it was not bothered by the Bears’ 1-3-1 zone defense. Nor were the Wildcats unnerved by their ragged play in the second half, which enabled Baylor to make a brief challenge in the N.C.A.A. tournament’s South Region championship game on Sunday. Kentucky also handled a scary fall by its all-American center, Anthony Davis, and the strain of second-half foul trouble on its seven-man rotation.
So when Kentucky Coach John Calipari was asked after his team’s 82-70 victory over Baylor if his Wildcats might be distracted this week by a national semifinal matchup with its archrival Louisville at the Final Four in New Orleans, he just shrugged.

It was an easy answer for him.

“I’m not worried about who we’re playing,” Calipari said.

No. 1 Kentucky (36-2) dunked over Baylor’s height, shot over its defense and blitzed the Bears with transition in front of 24,035 fans, most of them wearing Kentucky blue, at the Georgia Dome. When the Wildcats play as well as they did in the first half while building a 42-22 lead, it really does not matter what team they play. And that includes Louisville, which lost at Kentucky, 69-62, on Dec. 31.

Kentucky is considered to have the best collection of talent in college basketball, and very little of it is from its home state, so the players are not predisposed to feel the pressure of the fierce Red versus Blue rivalry with Louisville. Among the Wildcats’ top seven players, only the senior wing Darius Miller is a Kentuckian. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, a versatile 6-foot-7 player who led the Wildcats with 19 points against Baylor, is from New Jersey. Davis, a 6-10 freshman who had 18 points and 11 rebounds, is from Chicago.

Louisville and Kentucky have split their four matchups in the N.C.A.A. tournament, but this will be their first meeting in the Final Four.

“We’re playing a basketball game,” Calipari said. “Believe me, we will not change. The drama of the game will be on the staff, but I don’t have many Kentucky players on my team. They don’t know all that stuff. I’ll tell them, get off the message boards, don’t worry about the Twitter and the Facebook. Don’t buy into it.”

Davis said: “We think of it as Kentucky against the next team. Louisville is a great team. So we’ve got to come out and play hard. We’re just worried about the next win.”

There appeared to be little doubt that Kentucky would beat Baylor on Sunday until Davis fell to the floor on the baseline holding his left knee and grimacing in pain with 18 minutes 38 seconds left. He was driving to the basket when he collided with Baylor’s Perry Jones III.

Kentucky led by 44-24 when Jones hobbled off the court, but he was back on the floor quickly after his knee was treated on the bench.

“Knee is doing fine,” Davis said. “I just bumped knees with Perry Jones, and it started hurting real bad. But I knew my team needed me to play. I wasn’t going to sit out.”

Davis played 14 minutes in the second half because of the knee and foul trouble. That and furious defense helped the Bears battle back.

Kentucky could have put Baylor away with the same kind of foul shooting it exhibited in its region semifinal win over Indiana (35 of 37), but the Wildcats made only 30 of 44 free throws against Baylor, including 23 of 34 in the second half.

Kentucky maximizes its talent advantage with the kind of basketball savvy that point guard Marquis Teague showed in the first half, which helped the Wildcats build an early lead.

When Baylor went to a three-guard lineup to try to get more speed on the court against Kentucky’s transition game, Teague went to the bench and told Calipari that the Wildcats should get the ball to Kidd-Gilchrist, who would be matched against a smaller player.

The Wildcats went to a play they call “slice,” in which Kidd-Gilchrist comes across the lane with the help of a screen to post up and takes a pass from Davis, who is at the top of the key. Kidd-Gilchrist, who was named the region’s most outstanding player, made 6 of 7 field-goal attempts in the first half as Kentucky built a 42-22 lead by shooting 55 percent from the field.

“I just saw the mismatch and took advantage of it,” Kidd-Gilchrist said.

Before the post-ups to Kidd-Gilchrist, Baylor’s other challenge was dealing with Kentucky’s fast break. The Bears could not get back quickly enough and were behind by as many as 22 points before halftime.

“The goal is no dunks, and I think that was out the window four seconds into the game, it seemed like,” Baylor Coach Scott Drew said. “I think first half we rushed and took some shots that we shouldn’t have taken. I mean, when you shoot 32 percent, you’re giving a lot of chances for fast breaks.”

A honey of a business: Draper Super Bee Apiaries buzzes with activity

MILLERTON -- Back in the early '70s, Bill Draper's brother-in-law gave him an old, well-worn beehive.

It sat in his backyard while Draper pondered its future -- and his own.

One question buzzed around Draper's brain: "To bee or not to bee?"

Fortunately for Draper and tens of thousands of customers over the next nearly 40 years, he chose the sweet life, and Draper's Super Bee Apiaries was born.

Now the company, housed in barn and outbuildings just west of Millerton in northeastern Tioga County, Pa., remains one of the biggest bee businesses in Pennsylvania, selling 500,000 pounds of honey a year, along with hundreds of other bee-related products.

A couple of factors influenced Draper's decision.

"While the hive was in the backyard, a swarm of bees came in," said Draper, now 63.

"I had never seen a swarm there before. I kind of took that as a sign. It's like this was meant to be."

His father Bernie, a retired Wesleyan-Methodist minister, had also caught the buzz.

He was getting up in years and dreamed of creating a honey-handling and beekeeper supply business to keep busy.

"Dad was not very mobile," Draper said. "But he had some financial resources. And he decided he wanted to do this. It was kind of a back-to-the-land thing, something that was popular back then.

"He and I worked together," Draper said. "I did the work, and he talked to people on the phone."

The dream took root, and the business took off. But it was never easy or without constant challenges.

Bernie passed away. Bill and son Royal, now 43, built the business, eventually amassing millions of bees and tons of honey.

Beware mites, bears
But starting in the 1980s, fragile bee populations perished by the billions worldwide from a variety of causes.

"In the '80s, it was the tracheal mite," Draper said. "Very small. It devastated the bees.

"In the '90s, we had the varroa mite. It was bigger and much more visible. That one sucked the blood out of the bees.

"In the years 2000 to 2010, we had colony collapse syndrome," he said.

"It was a worldwide thing. Whole colonies would just die. Everyone has different ideas about what caused it, why it happened. I believe it was several things: environmental issues, weather issues, stress issues."

A huge percentage of the honeybee population worldwide died off, he said. But the natural selection process may have saved the day -- and bode for a better future.

"We are hoping the remaining bees have a survival gene that will cause populations to expand and handle natural stresses better," he said.

"This year, maybe we're taking a step in the right direction."

Much depends on the weather.

An especially hot summer will hurt chances, he said. Plants wilt, bees are stressed and can't produce honey, and it's back to falling populations.

As Draper's business grew, Bill and Royal increased the number of hives from 100 to 1,000, producing 60,000 to 100,000 pounds of honey a year.

Now, Bill and Royal have scaled hives back to 240, in a dozen areas, all protected by electric fences to keep colonies' greatest enemy -- black bears -- at bay. It works.

"When they get zapped by 60 amps, it definitely discourages them," Draper said.

Sweet success
But despite the drop in local honey production, Draper's remains busier than ever. In fact, product diversity is what sets Draper's apart from others in the bee biz.

Take honey: Draper's offers a dozen kinds, many gathered from other states.

Acacia honey is very light and smooth; buckwheat, dark and full-bodied. Orange blossom is light, with a fresh scent, exceptionally sweet on the tongue. Tulip poplar, light in color and mildly flavored. Clover honey -- much of it local -- is the most popular by far. Tupelo honey, produced near Tallahassee, Fla., is always in very short supply.

Draper's produces four varieties: clover, wildflower, goldenrod and basswood.

Customers come from everywhere. For many years, Draper's supplied all of the honey needs of the White House. Stricter security following 9/11 ended that.

But Draper's continues to ship nature's sweetest treat across the country and the oceans.

"We send honey to Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sweden," Draper said.

"We have a customer in the United Arab Emirates who will only eat Draper honey. He buys it by the four-gallon case every few months. Shipped to the Emirates, that's $600 a case."

Honey prices, in fact, have jumped sharply due to several factors, including the bee blight and the principle of supply and demand.

"There's always a worldwide shortage," Draper said. "There's never enough high-quality honey to go around.

"We used to sell a pound of comb honey in a little box for 95 cents. The same thing nowadays is $6.95 to $9.95."

Draper sells honey for $3.95 for a five-ounce mug to $200 for a five-gallon pail.

Bees and more
But diversity means lots more than honey.

Draper's provides other beekeepers with the supplies they need, from beginners' kits to hand-made observation hives that let folks watch bees at work (a couple are on display in Moscow).

Bees themselves are a hot commodity -- especially in light of regional population collapses.

Sales of queens -- the heart of the hive -- are popular: $32.95 for an "Italian queen," $38.95 for an "All-American" queen. Package bees run $125, shipped, including a queen.

"In some northern areas, two-pound packages produce an average of 225 pounds year after year," Draper said.

"The All-Americans will produce more honey than ordinary bees. They are capable of producing enormous crops if the weather cooperates."

A walk through Draper's showroom reveals more diversity.

A mini-museum displays 100 or so honey brands and varieties. There are bee books: "Favorite Honey Recipes" shares shelf space with "Honey, I'm Homemade" and "Honey: The Gourmet Medicine."

There are bee-proof suits and smokers to render bees docile, bee DVDs and a flour-sack towel that reads "I'm buzzed on local honey."

"Business varies with the time of year," Draper said.

"It's always changing. In spring, we have a huge amount of tours booked: schools, buses, community groups. One annual tour comes all the way from Baltimore.

"The peak for honey sales is fall and spring," he said. "Also, around some ethnic holidays."

Busy as a bee
Despite the spring and fall sales, Draper likes summer best, when he can get outside with the hives and critters and let the four other full-time workers handle the office.

"No one bugs me," he said. "I can't hear the telephone. I'm in my own little world, me and the bees."

This time of year, a Draper's van patrols the East Coast, delivering honey and bees. So far this year, the company has sold one van-load of bees -- that's several million -- and is part way through another.

But business can be difficult, too.

"The biggest challenge we face is maintaining inventories of the things beekeepers want," Draper said.

"From comb boxes to jar lids, we are always running out of things. Suppliers don't want to maintain a big inventory. It's difficult."

But Draper insists on old-time individual attention, and he isn't likely to change.

"You can call us with any questions and ... an actual person will answer the phone," he said. "No recordings. No pressing number-two to get service."

That actual person is most likely to be Draper. That's the way it has always been and the way it will stay.

Draper would like to slow down a little, spend more time with his bees and less with a phone in his hand.

But the man who has built a thriving business from a hand-me-down hive and survived mites and collapses and bears is nothing if not a realist.

"I would like to be doing less," he said. "But I can see that isn't happening."

Bear running back Barber said he is retiring

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Chicago Bears running back Marion Barber said he plans to retire.
His decision, posted on the team's website Friday, comes one day after Michael Bush signed a four-year, $14 million contract to be part of a backfield that includes disgruntled Pro Bowl running back Matt Forte.

Marion Barber, who was drafted by the Cowboys in 2005 and played six seasons in Dallas, retired after a season with the Bears. Here's a look back at his career.

The 28-year-old Barber spent his first six NFL seasons with the Dallas Cowboys before signing with the Bears in 2011. He was a backup to Forte last season and then saw extensive duty when Forte sprained his knee in early December.

Barber had six touchdowns and 422 yards rushing last season, but will be remembered for two gaffes in a costly loss at Denver when he ran out of bounds as the Bears were trying to kill the clock, and then fumbled in overtime.

A fourth round pick of the Cowboys in 2005 out of Minnesota, the hard-running Barber gained 4,780 yards rushing on 1,156 carries with 53 touchdowns in his career. He also caught 179 passes for 1,330 yards and six touchdowns.

Barber, who had little to say to reporters during his only year in Chicago, told Larry Mayer of ChicagoBears.com: "I want to thank everyone who gave me the opportunity to play, and I'm very thankful to have had the chance to suit up for two of the NFL's most storied organizations."

"I want to thank everyone who helped me become a better player," Barber said. "I owe a lot to a lot of coaches, and am also very grateful to the owners and organizations I played for. Last but not least, I want to thank the fans for the support and inspiration they gave me."

Forte, who has not been able to reach a long-term contract deal and was given the franchise tag, was not happy when the Bears signed Bush.

On his Twitter account he said he had been disrespected after doing everything he'd been asked to do by the team. He later tweeted that he was not upset at the Bears signing another running back, adding that "undervaluing a player under his market value is another story!"