Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - Butch Jones Edition

Butch Jones is going to be introduced today as the new Tennessee Volunteers head football coach. Some Tennessee fans are less than pleased, but others are welcoming him with open arms.

Tweets of the Morning:

@coachjonesuc Stay In Cincinnati! We don't want you!!!!!!!!!

— Ron Poole (@Ron_Poole) December 7, 2012

@coachjonesuc Butch, you can stay in Cincy...seriously us Vol fans wouldn't be too upset if you turned us down. Cincy needs you. Thanks.

— Sean Reed (@Sean__Reed) December 7, 2012

Bobby MF Petrino is sitting idle, yet UT hires Dooley 2.0.My season tickets may be available this year.Apathy reigns.

— Alan Bean (@AlanSBean) December 7, 2012

These weren't the worst, but they are at least family-friendly. But not all Volunteer fans were so negative:

@coachjonesuc Welcome to Rocky Top. Embrace the traditions, ignore the dumb a** fans ,Keep Graham& Pittmann.#VFL

— Roadrunner(DBentley) (@roadrunnerga) December 7, 2012

I can't believe UT's dumpster fire of a coaching search actually resulted in a good hire. Congrats @coachjonesuc and welcome to Rocky Top!

— Josh Becker (@BeckerJosh) December 7, 2012

@coachjonesuc I hope you can turn around this program and make UT the powerhouse that we all know its destined to be, again. Welcome to UT!

— Lauren (@Laurenbrook82) December 7, 2012

We try to be fair here at A Sea of Blue. Obviously, you'd like your new head coach to generate excitement, and I'd say that this one fell somewhat with a thud in that regard, although not as much as perhaps it could have. Good luck to Coach Jones and the Volunteers.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Scout.com // Bell: "I am solid with Kentucky"
  I'm sure Mark Stoops' hiring did nothing but help this commitment. Joker Phillips was starting to recruit Florida, but clearly too late.

• SEC All-Freshman team // Saturday Down South
  Hey, we got a guy in there - Landon Foster, the punter. Better than being shut out.

• Which SEC school made the best football hire? // John Clay's Sidelines
  Honestly, I'd have to say Arkansas from a pure coaching standpoint. But can Bielema recruit the South? Kentucky has to be a solid second. Malzahn is no better than Butch Jones, for my money.

Kentucky basketball

• Ira Combs Weekly Column
  A bit to negative for my tastes.

• Seth Davis says "Ryan Harrow Never Did Anything Special" // Everything Kentucky Online
  Once again, the media finds themselves repeating a meme that, at maximum, is a minor part of Kentucky's struggles -- upperclassmen and point guard. They actually learned nothing from last year except, apparently, to elevate sophomores to the level of seniors.

• Fraschilla calls 2012-13 a ‘transition year’ for Kentucky // Jerry Tipton on UK basketball
  More conventional wisdom on display, as reported by Jerry Tipton.

• Indiana fan sets Christmas lights to Christian Watford's game-winner over Kentucky // SBNation.com
  Only a Hoosier would do this.

• Will extra conditioning help Cats against Portland on Saturday // vaughtsviews
  Not in my experience, at least physically. It takes at least a couple of weeks before any effect will be felt. Still, there's the bonding. Maybe that will be on display. If so, it would be something positive.

Other UK sports

• Next step would be huge for Kentucky volleyball // The Courier-Journal

  Before Craig Skinner arrived eight years ago, the University of Kentucky volleyball team hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 1992 — hadn’t even been in the tournament since ’93. The Wildcats have made the field in each of Skinner’s eight seasons as coach and tonight will play in their third Sweet 16 in four years.

  With the exception of football, performance improvements like this are rampant throughout Kentucky athletics under Mitch Barnhart.

• UK Hoops look to ‘Pack the House’ // The Kentucky Kernel
  I'll have a game thread up tonight. We need the Hoops team to get themselves going offensively, where they have really struggled this year. But the defense has been fine. Hey, I wonder if Coach Mitchell would mind coming over hand giving Cal a hand ...?

• UK volleyball to face top seed in NCAA tourney // The Kentucky Kernel
  Huge. Win, and capture the imagination of the Big Blue Nation.

Links posts

• Wakeup Call: Indiana home syncs Xmas lights to Watford's game-winner // CBSSports.com
• The Morning Mix // Troy Machir, CollegeBasketballTalk

College football

• Butch Jones resigns at Cincinnati // John Clay's Sidelines
  Rocky Top Talk will be a most interesting site to visit for the next few days.

• Is Stanford becoming a football superpower? // NBC Sports
  Based on results of recent years, you'd have to say, "maybe."

• Notre Dame football should be banned: Dan on Fire // SBNation.com
  Okay, some of our video stuff I find downright unwatchable, but this, for some reason, was dang funny.

• VolQuest: Tennessee hires Butch Jones, asks too much of fans // Rocky Top Talk

  Butch Jones may turn out to be a fantastic long-term hire. But the program also desperately needed a shot in the arm for the short-term at this point in the program's history, and on that criteria, the administration struck out.

  Well, all I can say is that Tennessee fans are underwhelmed by the hiring of Jones. That may not be fair, but on thing is certain - their Athletics Director is really on the line now. If this hire fails, he's likely unemployed, and frankly, a more deserved fate I can't imagine.

College basketball

• 3-point shot: Scoping SEC/Big 12 pairings // ESPN

• 3 point percentage not a good measure of perimeter D.

  With few exceptions, the best measure of three-point defense is a team’s ability to keep the opponents from taking 3’s. This is what the Majerus defense did, and fortunately for Billiken fans, Jim Crews is carrying on that tradition as SLU is currently allowing the nation’s second-fewest 3PA%.

  Ken had dealt with this before, and I think he's right. If you can keep teams that shoot a high percentage of shots from 3 from getting those looks, the percentage is not really something you can control. What you can control is how many shots they get.

• SEC M5: 12.07.12 Edition // Rush The Court
  Big win for Vandy last night. About time an SEC team other than Florida performed, and I mean Kentucky as well.

• Maryland's fast start could be deceiving // NBC Sports
  Go Terps! Our one quality win ...

• 43-Year-Old Freshman Basketball Player Geneva College // SportsGrid
  Not something you see every day ...

Other news

• Galaxy collision: Bull’s-eye hit lights up a spiral galaxy (PHOTO).
  For you astrologists out there. Or astronomers. Or whatever.