Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Morning Quickies.
Today’s lead story is the game tonight between Kentucky and Mississippi State. This will be the most formidable road test to date in the SEC for the young Wildcats, and if you’ll recall, they didn’t exactly run away with their last one in Nashville.
On paper, MSU looks like a significantly better team than Vandy, our last road opponent. While Vandy has a better offense, the Bulldogs are a better defensive club and already have two road wins on their SEC résumé, at LSU and at Arkansas. The LSU win isn’t going to impress all that much, but winning in Fayetteville is something to brag about.
MSU is 3-1 in the SEC, and although they aren’t really leading any categories, they are pretty decent at everything. The Bulldogs have no significant OOC victories to point to, but they are a solid defensive club, get to the line, and don’t have any glaring weaknesses other than offensive rebounding.
Kenpom reckons the Wildcats as a favorite by 14 points, but I suspect this game will be closer than that.
Tweet of the Morning
On this day in 2012 Anthony Davis breaks the school record for blocks in a season passing Turpin & Riddick who shared 84. #SchoolinSession pic.twitter.com/R3vyEiGWQ5
— Bradley McKee (@Bradley_Cn2) January 17, 2017
Five years has done nothing to diminish this accomplishment.
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
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SEC Country grades Kentucky’s quarterback situation. Understandably, the Wildcats don’t exactly make the honor roll at the spot.
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Could UK football add another top 100 national recruit to this class?
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Statistically speaking: Where Kentucky finished nationally, and in the SEC, last year.
Kentucky basketball
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Mississippi State hopes to hold Kentucky down on the glass. Kentucky is better than I thought on the offensive glass, coming in at #16 for the year (but only 4th in the SEC so far). But the Bulldogs should be more worried about transition offense, where the Wildcats are third in the nation, and first among Big Six schools in percent of initial field goal attempts in transition. 38% of Kentucky’s FGA’s come before the defense is set, and that contributes to their 1.22 points/possession efficiency.
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John Hale asks the question: Is Kentucky a month away from their peak?
It’s hard to say, really, but I’m confident this team hasn’t peaked yet by quite a long way. I’m not sure if a month is enough to address some of the lingering defensive issues facing this team.
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Malik Monk named SEC Freshman of the Week. This is his third FoW award this year.
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John Calipari is everything that’s right with college basketball. I think he’s doing pretty well.
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Speaking of Coach Cal, when the Hoophall Classic comes around, you know where to look for him.
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Isaiah Briscoe is the “heart and soul” of Kentucky. No doubt, he’s the leader of this team.
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Truth, forsooth.
Kentucky's toughest SEC game to date will be tonight in Starkville against Mississippi State at the HUMP. Bulldogs have won three straight.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) January 17, 2017
Other Kentucky sports
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UK men’s tennis opens 2017 with a couple of victories vs. EKU and Dayton.
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We all know about the cheerleaders winning their 22nd title, but may have overlooked the dance team’s best ever overall performance.
College football
College basketball
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Tough luck for Louisville losing Quentin Snider for 2-3 weeks. He’s a great player that absolutely killed Kentucky when we played them. Hoping for a quick return from the injury.
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Congrats to Ol’ Roy.
WATCH: Roy Williams was honored after UNC beat Syracuse for his 800th career win https://t.co/Pif0MmlQMF pic.twitter.com/0rDsWq7ZXi
— SI College Hoops (@si_ncaabb) January 17, 2017
Other sports news
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Nice stick. Oops, wrong sport …
Legal tackle and a clear fumble recovery by the Warriors. Golden State ball at the 20-yard line. https://t.co/dhmBTEwyVM pic.twitter.com/o44fCU5emR
— SB Nation (@SBNation) January 17, 2017
Other news
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Just in case you haven’t seen this … yikes! Somebody call Jurassic Park.
Meanwhile in Florida…
— Meilin Tompkins (@MeilinTompkins) January 16, 2017
Kim Joiner says she spotted this massive gator at Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland over the weekend! pic.twitter.com/5ZBbnqCqve -
We lost Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, yesterday. He was 82, and we grieve for his loss.
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Did you know that the great science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, wrote almost 500 books in his life? I didn’t.