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Kentucky Wildcats: Saturday Afternoon Quickies - Nike Peach Jam Edition

News and commentary from around the Big Blue Internet. Nike Peach Jam winds up this weekend. Johnny Cox, Fiddlin' Five member, is honored. Lots of basketball recruiting news. More.

Kentucky recruit Stanley Johnson has been a stud at the Nike Peach Jam
Kentucky recruit Stanley Johnson has been a stud at the Nike Peach Jam
USA TODAY Sports

The Nike Peach Jam winds up tomorrow in Augusta, Georgia, and a lot of Kentucky recruits are taking the floor this weekend.

Tweet of the Morning:

I'd be ecstatic if we could take Delgado and Lyles from Louisville.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football
Kentucky basketball
  • Goodluck Okonoboh, 2014 top-40 prospect, likes Kentucky, among others. He was a teammate of Nerlens Noel in high school.

  • Johnny Cox, former member of Adolph's Rupp's Fiddlin' Five, will be inducted into the Kentucky Basketball Hall of Fame.

    Cox will be part of the second class of the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame when he is formally inducted later this month. Curtis Turley, executive director of the Hall of Fame, said the selection process must include coaches and at least two girls’ players every year, and also takes into consideration the different eras of Kentucky high school basketball. Cox’s selection was an easy one to make considering his career and the impact he made on his team.

  • Coach Cal, among other elite college coaches, watches Stanley Johnson have a big game at the Peach Jam.

  • Angel Delgado, a Dominican Republic native and a rising star in high school basketball, has a great relationship with Orlando Antigua. That will give Kentucky a leg up, much like it did for Karl Towns. If Kentucky is interested, that is, which they may not be.

  • John Calipari is using his new position as member of the NABC board to advocate for change in the one-and-done rule.

  • Two of Dallas area prep school Prime Prep, founded by former Cowboys star Deion Sanders, were declared non-qualifiers by the NCAA. Since Kentucky recruits Emmanuel Mudiay and Elijah Thomas both go there, the problems with Prime Prep could affect them.

  • Mike DeCourcy tells Thomas Beisner of KSTV that Kyle Wiltjer wasted the summer of 2012, and says he is critical of Wiltjer "... not because of what [he] can't do, but because of what [he] won't do." Great points. Watch the whole thing:

  • I really want Trey Lyles for all sorts of good reasons, not the least of which is sticking it in the eye of Tom Crean and Indiana. Taking a coveted recruit from Rick Pitino is another good schadenfrude-based reason to want him.

  • Can Karl Towns be our hole card in recruiting Jahlil Okafor?

Other UK sports
Links posts
College football
  • Thorpe Award watch list for the best defensive back in college football. No UK players there, but there is a Western Kentucky and Louisville player.

  • Outland Trophy (best lineman) watch list.

  • Nagurski watch list for the best college football defender. "Bronco" Nagurski was always one of my favorite football names. Once again, there is a Western Kentucky and Louisville player there.

  • Kate Upton visits the University of Nebraska. Hilarious. Here's a taste:

    Let's be honest, very few people actually care about recruiting. No one pays for recruiting anymore because it's all over twitter in 5 minutes anyway. I also realized that even fewer people probably care about Stephen. Everyone just wants to get their picture taken with Kate. That's the story here. But, since this is a Husker site, I need to at least mention the potential future football star. So, I did some research and found out that Stephen Upton was last rated by rivals as a 6-star "play anything" stud muffin. ESPN rates him as a 7-star "ultimate football player". They also mentioned that he is known as "possibly being the greatest athletic specimen that has ever walked the Earth." Since he had a decent recruiting rating, I decided to make time to ask him one question. "Stephen, what gives man?"

College basketball
  • Golden Gate Sports recognizes exactly what the hype for Andrew Wiggins is all about — ridiculous athleticism.

    The writer makes some very good points here, and Wiggins fanboys should take note. He's absolutely right about what Wiggins' strengths are, and what his weaknesses are. But from watching a good number of his high-school games, I can say that Wiggins does not (yet) have the killer mentality of a LeBron James or even a Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Marquis Teague, let alone John Wall.

    He's a great athlete, maybe even better than LeBron or Kobe Bryant. But his game has a very, very long way to go before he can be rationally expected to be dominant even on the college level. Can he get there in a year? Well, maybe not all the way, but close enough.

    What he has to worry about is realizing that his hype is not reality. MKG got it, always fearing he wasn't good enough his whole time at Kentucky. That's exactly what Wiggins needs to fear, because his game has some real weaknesses that can't be exposed in high school or all-star games.

  • Rick Pitino talks about his book, which sounds interesting. The Tattoo, not so much:

  • P.J. Hairston admits being a "recreational" user of pot, and that a felon loaned him the rental car he was driving when he was arrested.

    This isn't going to end well.

  • Peach Jam update from Dave Telep. Stanley Johnson is a key mention, and trust me, UK is recruiting him hard. Cliff Alexander and Jahlil Okafor are prominently discussed. Also Angel Delgado, from the Dominican Republic that I linked a story on above, gets mentioned.

  • Marshall Henderson timeline: A troubled college career.

    This isn't going to end well, either.

Other sports news