Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - Jim Boeheim Edition

Jim Boeheim won his 900th career basketball game last night, a remarkable and noteworthy accomplishment. Congratulations to Coach Boeheim.

Tweet of the Morning:

Calipari makes me want to strive to the best. I'm not as talented as anyone on Kentucky's team, but i'm human and can be just as good.

— Da'zjon Tinae (@HoopingDreams24) December 18, 2012

When a college coach inspires players he isn't even recruiting, folks, that's something to be proud of.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kentucky Football Coaches Update // KentuckySports.co
  Good run down of the new football coaching staff.

• Football in December? // Chris Diggs – UK Fan Blog

  Mitch Barnhart deserves a lot of credit right now. Watching some of these other coaching searches, like the dumpster fire of a hire that was Tennessee, Barnhart did a fantastic job keeping everything completely quiet and to himself. He went out and talked with Neal Brown about the offensive coordinator position in the weeks leading up to the hire of Stoops, and relied heavily on Tim Couch to help him in this process.

  I think this is right.

• Former players believe Neal Brown brings new excitement to program and new attitude to players // vaughtsviews

• Ron Caragher replaces Mike MacIntyre at San Jose State // John Clay's Sidelines

Kentucky basketball

• Doron Lamb Urges Current UK Team to Get in the Gym // AllKyHoops.com

• Kentucky Needs Kyle Wiltjer to Become More Than a Catch And Shoot PlayerRush The Court // Rush The Court
  This is a nice effort by Brian Joyce at RTC, but it misses the mark slightly -- understandably so. Simplistically, it seems to indicate that Wiltjer has played well against bad teams and poorly against good ones, but that's not really right. Wiltjer missed a ton of wide open looks against Notre Dame, Baylor, and Morehead of exactly the same quality that he made against Lafayette, LIU and Portland

  The problem is that there just isn't enough data on this season to make a conclusion like that, and having actually seen the games, I know that only Duke defended Wiltjer to the point he could not be effective. This is a case of correlation falsely implying causation.

• ESPNU documentary gives Sam Bowie's injury-plagued career a second opinion | Basketball: Men | Kentucky.com

  The fear that ESPN Films might dwell on the-man-picked-before-Jordan angle initially made Bowie reluctant to cooperate. But after a private viewing for family, friends and selected K Fund donors Monday night, he expressed appreciation for the film's sweeping review of his remarkable life to date.

  Well, good. One of the most unfortunate things about sports is that it suffers more from historical revisionism than ... well, regular history. Kudos to ESPN for trying to get this right instead of going with the popular meme.
• UK guard Ryan Harrow did more talking against Lipscomb but sometimes it had nothing to do with what Calipari wanted // vaughtsviews

Links posts

• Tom Leach // Tuesday Links
• The Morning Mix // Troy Machir, CollegeBasketballTalk
• Wakeup Call: A few more follow-ups on Boeheim's accomplishment // CBSSports.com

College football

• SEC dominates consensus All-America football list // WKYT
  No Kentucky players on there this year.

• Math says the SEC was the second-best conference in 2012 // The Journal News

  According to Jeff Sagarin, who has provided ratings for USA TODAY Sports since 1985, the SEC was not the best league in the FBS during the regular season â?? it was the second-best, behind the Big 12.

  Yeah, whatever.

College basketball

• 3-point shot: Cardinal need momentum // Men's College Basketball Nation Blog - ESPN

• Five thoughts on Jim Boeheim and his amazing run to 900 wins // SI.com
  Congratulations to Jim Boeheim.

• Kentucky Sports Radio // Come on SEC, Get it Together
  This.

• SEC M5: 12.18.12 EditionRush The Court // Rush The Court
  Win some games, guys.

• BOZICH BLOG: SEC Basketball Good Reason to Discuss SEC Football // WDRB 41 Louisville -
  Sadly, he's right.

Other sports news

• Eric the Amazing // HoopSpeak.com

  Well, Bledsoe is different. There is a real gulf between the defense he plays and the defense that pretty much every other guard in the NBA plays.

  Praise for Eric Bledsoe's game, and much deserved. He is really making a name for himself.

• John Wall almost ready to test knee | Basketball: Men | Kentucky.com

  The No. 1 overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft visited a doctor in New York on Friday, getting a lubricating injection in the knee — and what Wall called "good news" about being able to ramp up his recovery work.

  Get well soon, John. Your team most definitely needs you.

• Tolkien's Path: Suffer Tennis Injury, Write 'Hobbit' // NYTimes.com
  J.R.R. Tolkien, tennis player and sports aficionado. Who knew? Now, you do.

• VIDEO: Blake Griffin bores us with insane dunk - SBNation.com
  < Darth Vader voice > Impressive. Very impressive. < / Darth Vader voice >

• Everyone At ESPN Is Still Under Tim Tebow's Spell // Deadspin
  Heh.

• Kentucky Sports Radio // Anthony Davis makes Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list
  Cool.