Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - Notre Dame Edition

Welcome to gameday, and the Notre Dame edition of the Morning Quickies. Lots of good stuff in here.

Tweet of the Morning:

RT @ukgreg90: @johnclayiv Impressive, but it is just November.//A veteran team, Duke knows its roles. Other teams with more upside.

— John Clay (@johnclayiv) November 29, 2012

Indeed. Duke is a veteran club, and veteran clubs are tough early. Clubs with more upside overtake them later on.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Returning Cats weigh-in on Stoops hire // The Kentucky Kernel
  Reviews from the team are positive, and that's a good sign.

Kentucky basketball

• Cats set for first true road game // The Kentucky Kernel
  No doubt, the first true road test can be tough, especially in the state of Indiana. But I like our chances.

• Kentucky Sports Radio // The Powerball’s Thursday News & Views
  Notre Dame preparing a "Blackout" for tonight. By the way, anyone in here have that Powerball winner?

• Archie Goodwin Ranked 2nd on CBSSports Freshman of the Year List // Everything Kentucky Online
  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Archie is going to be high on this list all year long.

• Kentucky Wildcats at Notre Dame Fighting Irish // CBSSports.com

  "It's been a big thing that's helped us over the years is we've stayed old," Brey said. "We've not had to rely on playing a lot of young guys."

  This game is very similar to the Duke game, with less talent. Kentucky must find a way to compete on the glass.

• Kentucky-Notre Dame notes: Unique challenges await Cats in South Bend // Kentucky.com
  Unique? Not sure about that ...

• Ken Pomeroy only has UK at 57% to win tonight at Notre Dame // Kenpom.com
  [Subscription required]. Here is Kentucky's opportunity to excel.

• Rick Pitino says he doubts Dieng will play against UK // John Clay's Sidelines
  Pity. The last thing I want Louisville to have after we beat them is an excuse.

Other UK sports

• Pinkett's double-double powers Kentucky women's basketball in tuneup for U of L // The Courier-Journal
  Tune-up time is over. Time to go to the Yum! center and take down the lady Cards.

Links posts

• Tom Leach // Thursday Links

College football

• ‘Angry’ Charlie Strong vehemently denies interview with Auburn // CollegeFootballTalk
  Charlie needs to learn to control his temper. "Anger" at being considered for another, better position is not the correct response. And if he thinks anger makes him more believable, well, it doesn't - it just makes him less likable.

• Jon Gruden is not going to Tennessee // SBNation.com
  Heh.

• This Week In Schadenfreude: At least everyone's not Auburn // SBNation.com
  Brian Cook of MGoBlog has this week in schadenfreude. Undoubtedly worth your time.

College basketball

• Pickeral: Duke makes case as top team // ESPN
  Gotta give Duke credit for getting the job done early.

• Ohio State’s lack of balance will be their downfall // CollegeBasketballTalk
  If there's one thing that every team should know, it's that you have to have more than one scoring option.

• Can Rick Pitino Reconcile His Change of Heart on Realignment? // Rush The Court

  But what of Rick Pitino? The Cardinals head coach had accepted the mantle of top Big East advocate and de facto ambassador since the league started crumbling around him; ironically, when John Swofford’s siren song first lured Pittsburgh and Syracuse to its shores last fall. The guy railed against the “corporate greed” of the ACC; he publicly aired theories of collusion designed to neuter a Big East whose basketball stature was overshadowing that of its coastal neighbor; he swore he was a “Big East guy through thick and thin,” who “wouldn’t mind dying a Big East coach.” Well a year later, he had tempered his fervor a bit, as evidenced by a text message exchange with Louisville reporter Eric Crawford early this morning:

  Read the whole thing.

• ATB: Duke Makes Statement, Gonzaga Rolls Through Old Spice, and Rethinking Officiating Fundamentals…Rush The Court | Rush The Court

  UCLA Needs Time. Last week’s Legends Loss to Georgetown was a setback, but an understandable one — the Hoyas are a legit top-20 outfit with an All-American-level talent in Otto Porter. Squandering an 18-point lead in the final 12 minutes and allowing Cal Poly — yeah, really — to soil the newly refurbished Pauley Pavilion. That’s reason enough to sound the alarms in Westwood. The Bruins were never going to be a finished product in November. With a highly-touted recruiting class coming in, the congealing process would take place over the course of the season. But when you lose to Cal Poly (Cal Poly!), all bets are off. Ben Howland’s hot seat is scorching.

  Ben Howland's time is up, barring a remarkable surge from here on. It's hard to write off a team in November, but given what we've seen so far, I'm almost ready to do just that.

• How bad was UCLA's loss to Cal Poly?
  Cal Poly is ranked #217 by Kenpom. When Gardner-Webb beat UK, they were 201.

  Feel free to press the panic button on UCLA’s season. Sure, they’ll finish high in the Pac-12 and they’ll get to the tournament, but without substantial improvement, a deep run in the tournament is a longshot.

Other sports news

• Rajon Rondo ejected after fight, assist streak ends // SBNation.com
  That foul didn't look particularly hard on replay.

Other news

• Modern problems: Forget the dog, homework-eating viruses attack // Slashdot
  Heh.