Big Blue Daily Mail -- A Little Football, a Little Schadenfreude

The Kentucky vs. Louisiana-Monroe game yesterday will be the main focus of this edition, but we will be throwing in a bit of other good stuff on this beautiful Sunday morning here in the Bluegrass state.

I think it's safe to say that, despite the lopsided 36-13 score, most Wildcat football fans are far less than totally pleased with the play of the 'Cats yesterday, as are the coaches.  It seems that in the third quarter, the UK team just decided to take fifteen minutes of football off, and let ULM roll up yardage all over the field and fail to offend anyone but their own fans.

In the end, though, it was a victory that was never really in doubt, and in the end, that's pretty much what everyone would expect.  In a way, this is better than a flawless victory, because it gives Brooks & Co. plenty of film to view, and lots of pins to pop any swell-headedness that may have been emerging on the team.  And then there is the Micah Johnson injury, which Brooks says isn't major, but it isn't minor, either.

Now, for the news:

Top Stories

• 'Cat scratched: But it wasn't all bad in ULM's loss to Kentucky | thenewsstar.com | The News Star
  The game from ULM's point of view. I laud Cody Wells for crediting the o-line, even if I think they didn't deserve much. I don't know how many times Wells got hit, but he must be bruised from head to toe.
  
  Still, a brave player and a pretty tough team.

• Joker: "We didn’t play clean" | Vaught's Views
  No, we didn't. And 119 yards in the second half is definitely risible. And I agree with Fidler that the intensity was significantly lower, which you might expect versus a less capable foe, but then again, that kind of thing can get you beat.
  
  Fortunately, having Randall Cobb on your team makes getting beat by an inferior team much, much more difficult. But a few people besides Cobb and the O-line need to step up and make plays.

• Eric Crawford: Cobb is Mr. Do-It-All for Cats | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
  It's easy to say Cobb should get it more. But Brooks has a delicate task — to develop enough people around Cobb so that defenses have to stay honest. It's hard to argue with how Cobb was spread around Saturday — 41 yards rushing, 27 receiving, 84 return yards and 46 yards passing.
  
  Yeah, Crawford has a point that I hadn't really considered. With Locke dinged up and playing an inferior foe, there are lots of good reasons to try to get others involved. I expect against MSU, those reasons won't be there, but vs. Eastern, they will be back.

UK Basketball News

• Rivals.com Basketball Recruiting - Meyer's Mailbag: Duke class could be great
  Who would rank higher?
  
  I was wanting to know who would be ranked higher out of high school- Samardo Samuels or Demarcus Cousins?
  
  Read the answer above.

• MaryJo Perino " Wall Situation
  Don’t you find it interesting that the story that came out yesterday involved both UK’s Wall and Mississippi State’s Renardo Sidney… both battling eligibility questions… yet Sidney was barely touched in the report… and the headline on the front of ESPN.com is ‘SEC Commish: UK vetting star recruit’s eligibility’
  
  This is a good point I hadn't really considered. Sidney, as far as I know, has much more serious questions about where some real money came from, his parents lifestyle, etc.

• Danny Jett's Inner Circle: The Immortals: UK's 25 'Legends' # 2

• The C-J's Sunday College Basketball Notebook | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
  "Derrick and Tyreke took longer to feel this offense," Calipari said. "John right now is probably farther along today than they were. But I'll say this: Those two, when they got it and they felt the offense, they were, one, unleashed, but two, they weren't afraid to make the play. Now, I haven't coached John (enough) to tell you, if we're in a tough game and it's on the road, is he going to go make the play that those two made? I have no idea."
  
  High praise for Wall coming from Calipari.

• Clifton at center of Wall investigation - High school - News & Observer
  Duke freshman forward Ryan Kelly, a Raleigh native who played at Ravenscroft, was Wall's teammate on the club team for at least three years.
  
  Kelly's mother, Doreen Kelly, said Ryan's amateur eligibility and academic credentials have been approved by the NCAA. She said she hasn't been contacted by the NCAA regarding Ryan's eligibility and doesn't expect to be.
  
  After having read this article, I am even more confused. Why is Kelly in the clear? If Clifton paid for Wall's trip to UK, it was surely with D-One funds. So why is it OK for Kelly to accept D-One funds for playing from an agent, but not Wall? And why is the UK unofficial visit somehow different?
  
  We may never know, but something seems amiss ...

• This Week in Review...10 Years Ago
• Wall practices with Kentucky in front of students a day after report questions his eligibility - KRCW

• Preseason Q&A with FoxSports.com's Jeff Goodman - Searching for Billy Edelin
  8. Your premature surprise team of the season... Vanderbilt. The Commodores have one of the most underrated coaches in the nation in Kevin Stallings. A.J. Ogilvy gives Vandy a low-post scoring option and now Stallings added a big-time freshman shooter in John Jenkins. Throw in solid senior point guard Jermaine Beal and athletic wing Jeffery Taylor and I think this team can surprise some people in the loaded SEC East.
  
  I like TLT Jeff Goodman's pick here -- I think Vanderbilt will be very, very good.

• Star UK Freshman John Wall May Face Suspension from NCAA - SB Nation
  Now after bashing Andrew Sharp about the SEC, I must praise him for his fairness to UK. But I must reject the implicit notion that Pat Forde has some kind of a special dislike for Kentucky. It seems that way, but let's be real -- Forde last and longest sportswriting stint was in Kentucky (Louisville) and even if he may harbor Cardinal sympathies and be Rick Pitino's ghost writer, I am highly dubious that he harbors ill will toward UK (although I am willing to be persuaded otherwise).
  
  In all honesty, the ESPN article by Forde and Dana O'Neil (now there is a woman who would be justified in having an axe to grind with UK after the way Gillispie treated her) presents nothing but relevant facts and draws no conclusions. It's headline, as Sharp points out, is a bit misleading.
  
  I also highly doubt that Forde (or O'Neil, for that matter) hates Calipari. Nobody hates Calipari (except, of course, fans of former schools and several rival coaches) -- he's just too hard to dislike. Like all people who write for a living, Forde knows perfectly well that columns critical of Coach Cal will garner millions of hits and blog links, make him look independent of his Kentucky roots, and no matter what the color of his school of preference may be, his favorite color is most likely green.

• Wildcat Blue In a Sea of Orange: Adreian Payne drops Kansas, plus latest on Lamb and Harris
  It does appear that big man Adreian Payne is getting closer to making his decision as he canceled his upcoming visit to Kansas and booted the Jayhawks from his list. Payne is now down to a final four of Kentucky, West Virginia, Arizona, and Michigan State. It appears that the leaders are Kentucky and West Virginia right now and pundits think it could go either way.

• Wildcat Coal Lodge? | KentuckySports.com
  This is liable to generate quite a bit of snarky comment. Well, whatever.

• Former UK player Mark Pope starting a new career at Georgia | Vaught's Views
  Awesome. Lots of ex-UK players on coaching staffs around the SEC this year.

UK Football News

• With Hartline out, Cats plan to stick with quarterback trio | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal
  "I think what we're going to see is a continuation of using both (Newton and Fidler) and mixing in the wildcat," Brooks said. "We're just trying to win football games. I wish it were easier and I wish somebody would go out there and say, ‘Hey, I'm going to complete every pass and I'm going to do all the right things,' but it doesn't work that way."
  
  Well, to be fair, this whole three-headed quarterback thing is only two games old, and it has worked okay. Still, with MSU coming in next Saturday, we will need a better performance from it than we got vs ULM.

• Big Blue Loyalty: The chase is on | KentuckySports.com
  Nice. We do have some pretty loyal football fans for a basketball school.

• QB plan is working, but needs work | KentuckySports.com
  So far, UK's three-headed quarterback platoon has managed to spit in the eye of pigskin convention.
  
  "We've made some mistakes but we're 2-0 in that situation," said Kentucky tri-quarterback Will Fidler. "So you have to say it is going pretty well."
  
  Well, I would like to see Newton use his legs a bit more, and Fidler, well, not. Cobb should see a few more snaps in the Wildcat than he did last night, in my opinion.

Other UK Sports News

• Quigley Qualifies for Quarterfinals at ITA Ohio Valley Regional - KENTUCKY OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE

NCAA Sports News

• Our Top 25 is out -- and now what? - Beyond the Arc - msnbc.com
  Phew. After 5,500 words, several revisions and agonizing over teams 23, 24 and 25, the 2009-10 college hoops is finally finished. You can read it all here.
  
  I tended to favor experienced teams who returned a lot of their players, with some exceptions

• Convinced yet? No. 10 TCU trounces No. 16 BYU - College football- nbcsports.msnbc.com
  TCU is a really good team, but looking at their strength of schedule, they will likely be playing Boise State in the "We coulda been a contendah!" bowl. The only team likely to give them a game remaining on their schedule is 6-1 Utah. Right now, their SOS is #52, and it will only go downhill from here.

• Auburn continues to struggle with penalties - Sports - Ledger-Enquirer.com
  Their penalties Saturday came early and often. The Tigers were lined up to go for it on fourth-and-1 at their 48 on the opening drive. But right tackle Andrew McCain flinched, pushing them back 5 yards and forcing a punt.
  
  Wow. Penalties kill Auburn again.

• No. 6 Boise State batters Hawaii, stays perfect - College football- nbcsports.msnbc.com
  And will probably stay #6, or even start losing ground. Eventually, that schedule strength will be their bugaboo, as so many times in the past.

• Opinion: Iowa's thrilling ride won't end in BCS title game - College football- nbcsports.msnbc.com
  If the Hawkeyes keep doing what they're doing, they'll earn Big Ten championship rings and a permanent place in school lore. They might get another spot in history, too — next to Auburn's 2004 team as a perfect, BCS conference squad that didn't get a chance to play for it all.
  
  Interesting, and very probably true.

• Florida's win leaves Tebow speechless - SEC - ESPN
  And then after the game, which No. 1 Florida hung on and won 29-19 despite repeated woes in the red zone and a determined effort by Dan Mullen's Bulldogs, Tebow declined to talk to the media for the first time in his career.
  
  How very un-Superman-like.

• No doubt about it — Baton Rouge, LA
  Sparked by an energized offense and a suffocating defense in the first half, the No. 9-ranked Tigers trampled Auburn 31-10 Saturday, expunging whatever remained of the bad taste from a home loss to Florida two weeks earlier.
  
  So much for my theory that Auburn would make a comeback in this game.

• Saturday Lessons: October 24 - Team Speed Kills

• Positive Thinking and SEC Basketball - SB Nation
  Bah. Add likely locks Florida and South Carolina, and you have six. Arkansas has a good shot, that makes seven, and Ole Miss is another very likely dancer. LSU? With Trent Johnson at the helm, you never know. That's easily eight.
  
  Face it guys. The SEC is good. At everything. Except field hockey, rowing, and all those other huge sports that the Ivy League and East Coasters seem so fond of. So if you're going to come at us in basketball this year, you'd better come more correctly than this.

• Scheduling Patsies Works (Except When It Doesn't) - SB Nation
  Schedule Nazis (just kidding, guys) will love this piece by Spencer Hall (aka Orson Swindle of EDSBS).

Other News of Interest

• None today
  

The Daily Schadenfreude

• Duke provides video ammo for its haters - Beyond the Arc - msnbc.com
  But why the hate? Well, everyone has their reasons. Maybe the players are smug, maybe it’s the fans, maybe it’s because Duke seemingly gets preferential treatment from the refs and the media. But a casual fan may not get it. And maybe you don’t want to explain it to them.
  
  Read the whole thing, click the links, and remember why you hate Duke. As if you need a reminder.

• Duke fansite blogs on the "difference between John Wall and Ryan Kelly", challenges anyone to find dirt on Kelly
  Paul Jordan takes a bit more time to mock Duke Basketball Report's recent nonsense than I did.