Bo Pelini is such a whiner. I hate coaches who do this, and I generally like Pelini. He needs to get over himself. Shut up and recruit.
And his comment about Damore’ea Stringfellow’s parents was uncalled for, and I think that’s going to hurt him in future recruiting. Parents don’t like to be told they’re dumb, even if they really are.
Tweet of the Morning
@WSJ the southeastern conference has 6000 whistleblowers and still no dirt on Calipari or Saban? Wow ! What? Not that SEC? Oh @aseaofblue
— Michael Wallace (@mawallacehrco) July 30, 2014
Maybe there’s… you know… no dirt to dig up?
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
- Position breakdown: Quarterback. Unlike the author, I would not go with Drew Barker. He may be the QB of the future, but I think Patrick Towles is the QB of the present. Barker needs a redshirt.
Kentucky basketball
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James Young says the team was distracted by 40-0 talk, and not to listen next season:
“Don’t listen to it at all,” he said during a break in a UK summer basketball camp session. “We kind of listened to it last year, and it kind of got to us. And we had an up-and-down season. Leave the media stuff alone and stay focused.”
I think that’s good advice. Just forget the accolades, remember you’re young, practice hard and well, remember your classwork, and the wins will take care of themselves.
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The funeral for Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones will be this Friday. The Herald-Leader has full details.
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James Young works with young players at ProCamp. Love the new ‘do, or rather, lack thereof.
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Mike DeCourcy says the loaded UK roster will force Calipari to be creative. I think he has to be creative every season with the turnover he has.
Also interesting:
"Four kids said they need us and me to help them get more prepared for the rest of their lives," Calipari said Monday. "If I came back after the date and left … tough move. If it was your son, how would you feel? ‘That rat, we could have left, why didn’t he tell us?’ "
Calipari said that was the reason he declined the NBA jobs. "Solely,” as he put it.
So he has no love whatever for Kentucky basketball, it’s just all about the kids. Right? Not. But it’s the right message to send, regardless.
More on this subject: A Q&A with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein.
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John Calipari and Mark Stoops jet around the country a lot recruiting. Well, that’s why they get paid the big bucks, and it means a lot of time away from friends and family.
Links posts
College football
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In case you missed it: Final rankings of SEC linebacking corps.
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The NCAA settles the head injury suit against it by forming a $75 million trust to help defer the costs of thousands of current and future athletes who suffered or will suffer brain trauma while playing NCAA sports.
College basketball
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Louisville’s Akoy Agau undergoes surgery for a sports hernia. We wish him a quick and complete recovery.
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If you could invite anyone, living or dead, to dinner, who would it be? Eamonn Brennan has some suggestions.
I love pretty much all of them, even #2. That would be an interesting conversation.
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2015’s college basketball freshman class is just a warmup for 2016, according to Ricky O’Donnell.
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Broken water main brings serious flooding to UCLA, and Pauley Pavilion.
UCLA Bruins' Pauley Pavilion court flooded as water main breaks: http://t.co/GxK6ei8yy2 pic.twitter.com/BH3RqVIAB6
— ESPN College BBall (@ESPNCBB) July 30, 2014 -
Bruce Pearl trying to raise expectations at Auburn:
– On style of play: “We’ll have 50 points at halftime. (The opponent) might have 60, but we’ll have 50. We’ll play fast. We’ll attack, press and run and we’ll be uncomfortable to play against.”
Heh. I’m sure.
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More “Arizona has the best starting five” talk. Yeah, but barely, if at all, and then there’s the second starting five that only Kentucky has…
Other sports news
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Can you buy championships? My source say, “not really, unless you’re an NFL team.”
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The top 100 players will be in attendance at the PGA Tournament next week. So will I, on Sunday at least.
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Heh. Stephen A. Smith opens his mouth, inserts his whole career. The responses have been typical — a race to condemn well, everything he said, event the points upon which he was correct.
Please just stop. Men should not hit women absent extraordinary circumstances of self defense. There is no better time to embrace the “turn the other cheek” admonition of Jesus than in the unfortunate instance of a physical confrontation with a woman. It doesn’t matter if she started it or picked on you — just walk away and congratulate yourself for having the good, old-fashioned common sense to listen to what your mama told you.
Now, can women contribute to domestic violence? Oh, yeah, especially by not having their abusers locked up and prosecuted. Look, it’s assault in varying degrees, and allowing people to get away with assault is enabling, pure and simple. Did Smith make that point in a clumsy and offensive way? Yes again, but the response has been almost as bad.
And to the people of both sexes who bemoan the “objectification” of women, are you kidding me? Generally speaking, women want to be objectified to some extent. The want to be seen as attractive, even irresistible to the opposite sex. No, they don’t generally want to be leered at and treated like farm animals, but they do want their attractiveness to be noticed and appreciated.
They also don’t want us to forget they are human beings and not bra sizes, either. But when women put on provocative outfits, they don’t do it because they want to hear wolf-whistles and comments like, “Look at that 160 IQ over there! I’ll bet she has a massive prefrontal cortex!”
Just trust me on that.
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Donald Sterling loses his legal bid to prevent the sale of the Clippers. Kind of disappointing, in a way. I was hoping for more fireworks. Hat tip: Real Clear Sports.
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Suns’ standoff with Eric Bledsoe is described as an “ominous development.”
We’ve had issues between restricted free agents and players before. Josh Smith wanted to leave the Atlanta Hawks for the Memphis Grizzlies. Eric Gordon asked the New Orleans Pelicans to not match the max offer sheet he signed with the Suns. In both cases, it seemed like the relationship wasn’t going to be great moving forward, both offer sheets were matched, and we didn’t hear a whole lot about it after. More than likely, the Suns and Bledsoe will agree to a contract that is unlikely to drive the price far above what the Suns are offering. Then both sides will get along again and Bledsoe can deal with it as an unrestricted free agent next time around.
We’ll see.
Other news
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Ebola. Ugh. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about.
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Worst restaurant food list. I don’t mind the idea of putting caloric values on restaurant food, I think that just helps people make informed decisions. What I do object to is putting limits on food — if people want to eat unhealthy, they should be able to.
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Beware the Brown Recluse spider. Their bites are on the rise, and they are not pleasant.
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Driverless cars. They are coming. Well, that ought to reduce DUI incidents.