Remember Casey Martin, the professional golfer with a birth defect in his right leg that prevented him from walking the golf course? On this day in 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he could use a golf cart on the PGA Tour.
Some things about him you may not remember. He was a teammate of Tiger Woods at Stanford, and in 2000, he made 14 cuts in 29 PGA Tour events and won $143,248.00 - his high point in professional golf. Martin is currently the men's golf coach for the Oregon Ducks.
On a personal note, I went to see Hall & Oats last night for the first time since ... can it really be 1983? The thing is, they played for over 90 minutes and 2 encores and still didn't get all their hit songs played.
Tweet of the Morning:
if you get a parking ticket while you are driving a loaner from the shop that is like a freebie right
— Martin Rickman (@martinrickman) May 29, 2013
If only.
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
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Drew Barker is getting his chance to make 5 star with this invitation only event (Hank).
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Mark Stoops talks about Neal Brown, and explains why hiring him was a "no-brainer," and waited for Brown to consider other offers to be head coach.
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Stoops talks still more with Larry Vaught, and professes surprise at the immediate impact Vince Morrow has had on recruiting, particularly in Ohio.
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2014 safety Darius West postpones his commitment. Kentucky was, and still is, hoping to land the 4-star recruit.
Kentucky basketball
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Andy Katz reports that the SEC is looking to put its basketball tournament permanently in one location, and that location is reported to be Nashville.
Myself, I would prefer New Orleans. Look, Kentucky is always going to attend, and the East is always strong. Trying to build strength in a league needs to start where it is weakest, which is historically the west. Yes, Katz is right about the idea that Nashville is closer to more schools, but it's closer to the wrong schools, from a development perspective.
I don't agree with Nashville as a "destination city." It is, to some degree, but New Orleans is much, much more so. You would put NOLA right in the same conversation as New York, Chicago, L.A., etc.
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Several UK recruiting targets qualify for the Nike Peach Jam. That will be worth watching.
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Larry Vaught asks, "Would moving the SEC tourney to Nashville annually be an edge for Kentucky?" Probably. But I thought we were trying to improve the league, and if that's so, an advantage for UK is the last thing that the league needs.
Other UK sports
- Kentucky has a new swimming and diving coach, former Olympian Lars Jorgensen.
Links posts
College football
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SEC discusses game attendance. I like what UGA is doing with student tickets (Hank).
I think the secondary ticket market is an important issue that needs to be addressed. College football should embrace it, and try to use it to their advantage. You can't stop it, just like you can't stop money in politics (Glenn).
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Nevin Shapiro, the fraudster at the middle of the Miami NCAA scandal, admits he lied in federal court.
Well, duh. The guy is an unrelenting liar who doesn't even have a nodding acquaintance with the truth unless it suits his purposes. The thing is that the NCAA doesn't have to rely on his testimony, their documentary evidence is overwhelming.
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I should have posted this college football bowl schedule earlier, but I'm too busy getting ready for my vacation.
You know, a person should never have to "get ready" for a vacation. There's just something fundamentally wrong with that.
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Nick Saban looks askance at your accusation that the SEC doesn't play tough schedules:
"We talk about trying to create some kind of strength of schedule [formula]. That's difficult to do," Saban said. "We had six [SEC] teams at the end of the [regular] season last year in the top 10, and other teams are vying to get into the championship game.
"And then to think that the team that loses our championship game wouldn't have gotten into the Final Four if we'd had one. I mean, that's not a strength-of-schedule consideration at all. It's taking how many games you lose into consideration. If we all played more good opponents, you could lose more games and still have a chance to get recognized as being a good team."
So the obvious question becomes, why would we want to see SEC teams make their schedules automatically harder by going to 9 league games? Truth to tell, though, it would probably be better for revenue. The cupcake games are notoriously ill-attended, as was discussed in the SEC meetings in Destin yesterday.
I wonder if John Calipari is paying attention to this? Probably not ...
College basketball
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I haven't paid that much attention to the Rutgers follies, but I thought this passage by Dana O'Neil deserved kudos:
After the incriminating videos of former Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice surfaced, the enraged reactions boiled down to two simple questions:
Who treats people like that? How could this happen?
Now at least we can answer the second.
It can happen if it happens at Rutgers, where the administration has the cognitive awareness of a piece of Tupperware, where the vetting process is done by Inspector Clouseau and where the leadership motto is best summarized by the only other entity to trash the reputation of New Jersey better than the state university:
"I'm not a phenomenon. I'm a train wreck," Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, of "Jersey Shore" infamy, who could be speaking on behalf of Rutgers president Robert Barchi.
When a journalist quotes Snooki as illustrative of your school's management, you have truly reached rock bottom... and continued to dig.
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Good grief. These are the kind of players, ones who want specific roles regardless of what the team needs in order to enhance their NBA chances, that Kentucky does, and should, decline. Kyle Anderson of UCLA was another such player.
I'm glad Calipari's message is, more or less, that "you'll play when and where we need you. Don't come here if you have an agenda."
Other sports news
- According to this article, the Chicago Bulls didn't want Derrick Rose to play this year, according to ... wait for it ... John Calipari. I think it is interesting how involved Calipari has been in the lives of his former charges. Can you see Tubby Smith ever making a comment like this?
Other news
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Things you can do if your are a billionaire living in Florida -- like, start your own school (Hank).
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And now for something really important: Do you capitalize "Sriracha," or not? Who cares, as long as you use the delicious hot stuff. Hat Tip: Rock M Nation