As time seemingly crawls toward the tip of the Cornell Big Red @ Kentucky Wildcats game in the sweet sixteen, we have a few links to keep your busy minds occupied.

• Tom Leach - Kentucky Football, Kentucky Basketball, UK Football, UK Basketball
  Lots of new podcasts from the Voice of the Wildcats.

• National media finally recognizes Ohio State's next opponent - Rocky Top Talk
  Nobody is talking about the Volunteers, but Kentucky fans know that they can beat anyone.

• Formula For Success: Sweet 16 Edition
  Rush the Court's perceptions are always worth a read.

• Turkish big man commits to Cats | KentuckySports.com

  Few doubt Kanter's impressive talents, but there are questions surrounding his eligibility to play college basketball.

  Before coming to America late last summer, Kanter played in the Turkish Basketball League and in the Euroleague with players who were paid. Kanter reportedly was not paid.

  Hmmm.  Interesting.  Another John Wall-type penalty, maybe, in the offing?

More after the jump

• Kentucky Wildcats' offense has imitators in Oregon | – OregonLive.com
  The dribble drive motion is catching on everywhere.

• Tourney Success Signals More Roster Turnover for 2010-11 Wildcats " Big Blue Lowdown :: The Top Destination for Kentucky Hoops

• Calipari a Real Ambassador In Kentucky: Cease Additional Mockery

  How can any college coach be blamed for someone else’s blunders? Maybe because he wasn’t aware, allowing insidious nonsense to slide instead of plotting stricter guidelines and building a stronger bond with his student athletes. For all we know, Calipari may have told nothing but the truth, and really had no idea the athletes were lavished with gifts and cash to violate NCAA rules.

  Since Calipari himself turned Camby in to the NCAA, I'd say that "maybe" is more like "most likely."

• Facebook and Twitter Keep Calipari Ahead of the Game - NYTimes.com

  "Some things you don’t touch, and politics is probably one of them," Scott said.

  Sports and politics = oil and water.

• " SEC links: Ole Miss advances; Shipman leaving Florida John Clay’s Sidelines
  John Clay's SEC links. If you didn't see the Ole Miss game last night in the NIT, you missed a real thriller.

• Sprints Concedes Alabama Fans Know More When It Comes to NCAA Cases // 03.24.10 - Team Speed Kills
  Two words: Up yours. :-)

• North Carolina Tar Heels vs. UAB Blazers - Recap - March 23, 2010 - ESPN
  North Carolina is doing well in the NIT. Why did I enjoy writing that? Schadenfreude, baby!

• Morehead's Tyndall being courted by other schools
  No surprise here. Donnie Tyndall has done a great job at Morehead.

• Cornell’s Wittman living ‘every kid's dream' | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal

  Randy Wittman, who played eight seasons in the NBA and is an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, helped his son develop the touch and range that has frustrated so many defenders. Much of Ryan's development came from being around the NBA lifestyle.

  "I would get to go to shootarounds occasionally, just see guys in the NBA playing, working hard and stuff like that," he said. "It became a normal part of my life."

  This guy is really good.  He is going to be a handful for UK.

• Cousins proving he can grin and bear it | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal

  For most of his freshman season, the 6-foot-11, 270-pound Cousins has been dogged by a reputation as a hothead, ready to overheat at a moment's notice. His temper has been cited as a potential roadblock in UK's national championship chase.

  But as the Wildcats, the No.1 seeds in the East Regional, prepare to meet brawny, 12th-seeded Cornell on Thursday in the Sweet 16 in Syracuse, N.Y., the big man appears to have undergone considerable growth.

  Indeed.  Of course, many opposing fans have not noticed.  They are still living four months back, thinking he can still be baited into doing something ejection-worthy.

  That time, dear opponents and haters, has passed.

• 2006 Florida Gators NCAA National Championship 10K Ring - eBay (item 130373944736 end time Apr-11-10 03:20:36 PDT)

  Weak. Via John Clay.

• " BBL: Boston writer takes Cornell over UK’s "bags of cash" John Clay’s Sidelines
  John Clay's Big Blue Links.

• Cousins: "It feels good to be accepted" | Vaught's Views
  I'm gonna miss the big guy. More than anyone else, DeMarcus Cousins has provided a personality to this team. The Big Blue Nation has embraced him, and it's a real pleasure to have had him with us, for however long or short.

• Kentucky Ink Weekly Webcast - Week 4 Segment 1

• Cornell vs. Kentucky has some history

  "I don't remember much racism from the crowd that night," said Durkac, then a senior who had 14 points and eight rebounds and now, 64, a farm-animals veterinarian in Kittanning. "But I do know Rupp was a racist. I'm sure that really bugged him. I can still see him jumping up and down, yelling at his guys."

  Heh.  That's called, "coaching", pal, not racism.  Via Walters Wildcat World.

• Luke Warm Linkage | The Elitist Jerks' Sports Information Collective

  Coach K’s iPhone app teaches you geography and culture, while you try to avoid the dragons. Sounds like a typical pool party at the K’s.

  Words fail me.

• Florida out for Brandon Knight
  Good news for 'Cat fans. I saw Florida as UK's #1 competitor for Knight's services.

• Source: "Florida found out that Knight is Kentucky bound"
  I've been hearing this a lot lately. Keep your fingers crossed.

• Why Cinderella Cornell might not be done dancing

  Shooting guard Ryan Wittman is a sharpshooter from the perimeter, connecting on 43 percent of his 3-point attempts. While that isn’t exactly weird for a mid-major, the fact that he’s 6-foot-6 and presents matchup problems galore for even high-major opponents is. His 60.3 effective field goal percentage — a stat that combines 2-pointers and 3-pointers into one statistic by appropriately weighting long range shots as worth 1.5 times more — is 44th nationally.

  The one team that Whitman does not pose a matchup problem for -- Kentucky.

• ZagsBlog.com – Source: No Offer Made to Hewitt
  Interesting, if true. Usually, this sort of thing happens when a deal is fait accompli. Hewitt has not been a great fit in Atlanta. He has recruited very well, but his results have been what most would call, "underachieving", considering the talent he has brought in to Georgia Tech. A change in scenery might do him good.

• Bball Recruiting: An Overview - Roll 'Bama Roll
  Nice look at the college recruiting process rom Roll 'Bama Roll. Nice to see basketball coverage so vastly improved over there.

• Davis: ‘One-and-done’ rule about to hit colleges hard - College basketball- nbcsports.msnbc.com

  "I don’t think it’s the best way to go about things right now, to force kids who have no interest in being in college, to come to college for a year," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "You’re seeing the consequences of that right now, in many ways."

  Thompson is mostly right here.  It isn't that the kids have no interest in college -- John Wall's fine classroom performance gives lie to that perception.  Rather, it's that they simply cannot pass up chasing their dream for four years, and it doesn't really make sense for them to do so.

• Joker carrying the ball " Evansville Courier & Press

• UK Basketball: Former AD not surprised by Calipari's success at UK: AMNews.com

  He also has an idea why not matter what Calipari does, the media criticism will continue even though Marcum has defended for doing nothing wrong when UMass had to vacate its Final Four appearance because Marcum Camby hired an agent while he was still playing.

  "Not knowing a lot about your profession but observing a lot of it, I think people too often concentrate too much on opinions and not facts. I tend to stick with the facts about John or anybody else. Obviously not everybody does that," Marcum said.

  Ignore the typos.  You get the point.  The point is, Marcum doesn't think Cal had any knowledge of Marcus Camby's misbehavior, and neither does the NCAA.

• Q&A: Jim Harris, Part One - Arkansas Expats
  Interesting insights on John Pelphrey's job security at Arkansas.

• Could John Calipari Pull a Lane Kiffin and Leave Kentucky After One Year? | The Big Lead
  No.

• Myth of experience exposed by Kentucky - CBK News - FOX Sports on MSN

  That’s the problem with nonsense; you hear it long enough, you start to believe it. Four seniors? As Derrick Coleman once said, whoop-de-damn do. Nice story, but nothing to bet on. Sure, everybody likes to see hard-working upperclassmen beat a team of one-and-dones. But while experience might help at the so-called mid-majors, it’s also the single biggest ruse come tournament time.

  There's a whole lot of truth in that paragraph.

• Kentucky Wildcats will maul Cinderella in romp over Cornell - NCAA Basketball Betting

  Sagarin also notes a distinct difference is the strength of schedule for the teams. Kentucky is ranked 62nd (with an 8-1 record against top-50 teams) while Cornell is ranked 193rd (with a 2-2 record against top-50 teams). Kentucky has clearly played a higher caliber of opponents on a regular basis. Considering that the offensive and defensive statistics of these two clubs are similar, this is an important fact.

  I love it when others agree with me.

• UK Hoops to Face Top-Seeded Nebraska in NCAA Sweet 16 - KENTUCKY OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE
  Go ladies, go!

• New Rule Could Clear Way for Kanter "
  Interesting reporting from Luke Winn. Kanter could be spared the lousy treatment European players have suffered at the hands of the NCAA. But it would not shock me if the legislation was not approved just to take a shot at Calipari.

• John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe, Kentucky (2010) : FoxSports.com Photo Gallery
  Let it be so!

• Sweet 16 Bracket Breakdown: More Stats - SB Nation
  Even my own brethren at SBN can't refrain from taking cheap shots at Calipari. Sheesh.

• Feds investigate Kansas Jayhawk basketball ticket sales for NCAA tournament / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com
  Woah!