of Kentucky recruiting keeps the news coming and the Big Blue Nation thinking about ... well, what we always think about -- basketball.
Today, we'll begin with this post made late yesterday by Chris Diggs over at the Courier-Journal Wildcats fan blog. Chris has some interesting news on Beas Hamga's thoughts about a possible reclassification to 2007. He also has this interesting link to a discussion on U of L's Rivals board that begins by suggesting that the 2007-2008 U of L Cardinals team will compare favorably to the 1996 UK national championship team that saw eight members become NBA players.
Now, nobody can ever accuse me of being a lover of the Louisville Cardinals. As the old saying goes, my two favorite teams are the Wildcats and whoever is playing U of L. Still, I thought that most of the posters in this thread were very honest and realistic in their rejection of that favorable comparison. I expect the Cardinals will have a very good team next year, and who knows, they may even be extraordinary. But as most of the posters in that thread point out, comparing the two teams at this point is ... well, I'll just let a Cardinal fan say it:
We're comparing a team that lost in the second round, has one good shooter, and an enigmatic SF to one the greatest college teams of all time? Come on guys, get real. We may turn out to have a great year next year, and I think we will. But we do not have that collection of talent on our team.
AAron's UK Basketball Blog links this article from the Albuquerque Tribune warning us that Darrington Hopson, a 6'6" swing player we offered recently who matriculated to New Mexico instead, is trying to convince the aforementioned Beas Hamga to join him at UM. I have no comment on this, except to point out the inherent insanity of such a concept.
For you recruitnicks out there (aren't we all?), Rivals brings us two free articles covering AAU events, King of the South and the King James Classic. There isn't much UK-related stuff in there, but recruiting news is always interesting to read.
Mike Fields' Fields Notes blog has this post on the players that will be teeing it up in the Kentucky-Indiana all star game this year. Definitely worth a look.
The Official Sports Blog has this long post on the history and tradition of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. As must be true of any such exposition, Kentucky figures prominently there.
Finally, the Bat Cats had a huge win over Georgia (ranked #24 by Baseball America). The Bat Cats have struggled a bit this year, but they still have a chance to make post season play. T. Kyle King, our brother SportsBlog Nation contributor at Dawg Sports, has a detailed and lengthy post on the game in his own inimitable, eclectic style.
Update [2007-4-30 8:59:7 by Truzenzuzex]: Former UK football long-snapper Jason Dixon didn't get drafted this weekend in the NFL draft, but the Detroit Lions want to see more of him.
Update [2007-4-30 11:17:9 by Truzenzuzex]: Jody Demling is hearing that Steffphon Pettigrew is WKU bound. Yippee! Update [2007-4-30 12:35:21 by Truzenzuzex]: Jody now tells us the news conference is scheduled for 2:00 PM.
Plus, the Kentucky Kernal hands out its Golden Fork Awards.
Update [2007-4-30 16:28:42 by Truzenzuzex]: Matt Jones just posted a quickie that says Gillispie visited Chris Singleton this morning.
Update [2007-4-30 19:34:18 by Truzenzuzex]: Rivals has another free final look at the King James Classic. Darius Miller, Tony Woods and Al-Farouq Aminu figure prominently.