The Big Blue Daily Mail -- News for Kentucky Wildcat Fans, June 1st 2009

Ah, it's nice to be back on the beach, enjoying the sea air and all that beach stuff.

But the Wildcats wait for no one to get back from vacation, so I must sacrifice to ensure my brothers and sisters Big Blue Nation are as well-informed as possible.  Hey, even Coach Calipari is on vacation in China this week -- If he can take a week "off," so can I.

This morning, SB Nation has introduced a ton of changes into the blogging platform which make life much easier for me, and quite possibly you as well, if  you like to post your own FanPosts.  The editor has been extensively re-done to make it easier for you do do many of the things that used to be hard.  If anyone has a question about some of the new features, just email it to me and I will get back to you ASAP.  I will, understandably, not be around the computer very much for the next week, but I will try very hard to have a morning news post up for your peruasal and comment.  It probably won't be up quite as early, but no worries, it will happen.

I will also be "tweeting" from around the beach an keeping an eye on the news as I enjoy the golf, surf, and other things people do when they go off on holiday.  Don't worry about bothering me if you need to get in touch or something -- just don't expect an immediate answer.  But I will get back to everyone as soon as I can.

That's it for the blog news this morning, now let's get to the important stuff:

UK Basketball News

• John clay has this exactly right.  Calipari's detractors may one day be right about him being responsible for NCAA violations.  But not today.
• Eric Crawford thinks that the Memphis accusations are no real problem for Calipari, but that Dr. Todd and Mitch Barnhard did a bad, bad thing.
• Should the NCAA punish a coach's new school?  Debate here, for what it's worth -- which is not much.
• Team Speed Kills has a vastly different take on John Clay's article (linked above) than I do.
• Straight Cash Homey asks, "What's the point?"
• Larry Vaught takes the, "Guilt by association," crowd to task.

UK Football News

• Derrick Lock is rehabbing well, maybe even better than hoped.
• Larry Vaught's readers sound offf about Jeremy Jarmon, and are understandably of the opinion that the NCAA was too heavy-handed in their actions regarding his unintentional taking of a banned substance.  Personally, I think the NCAA was fair in the sense that Jarmon got neither especially harsh nor especially lenient treatment, I just think the process is a bit flawed and arbitrary.  It has things to recommend and revile it, but by no means was Jarmon treated unfairly.
• UK wants Mossakowski to redshirt if his shoulder is not 100%.  I think that is wise for him and great for UK, but we'll have to wait and see -- Moss understandably wants to play ball right away.

Other UK Sports News

• Molly Johnson named softball's first All-American.
  

NCAA Sports News

• Mike Slive (via KSR) thinks that the SEC needs to schedule tougher out of conference.  This has been a common complaint of SEC detractors since time immemorial.  I agree with Slive, but I'm not sanguine we will actually be seeing that anytime soon.

• Heh.  Scarbinsky: SEC's rookie coaches aren't exactly five-star recruits.  "Has the SEC ever welcomed, at the same time, more head coaches who've done less? If this were a recruiting class, it would be UAB."

• An SEC football preview from AL.com.
• Spurrier upbraids Kiffin.  Heh.

NEW!  The Daily Schadenfreude:  Sour Grapes and Other Ridiculousness from Around the Web

• The Boston Herald doesn't care if Calipari had no knowledge of the alleged fraudulent test, or anything at all to do with it.  They just want him blamed, regardless.
• More hand-wringing from a rival in faux concern for the UK basketball program.  I could litterally read these things all day, they are so incredibly droll.