Today, the big news is the SEC Baseball Tournament which begins at noon today with the Kentucky Wildcats facing off against the Mississippi St. Bulldogs, who defeated #1 seed LSU yesterday. The winner of this game goes to the SEC Final, and the loser goes home.
Our Tweet of the Morning comes from UK signee Alex Poythress:
Graduation today!!
— Alex Poythress (@AlexTheGreat22) May 26, 2012
Congratulations, Alex, we can't wait to see you in Blue and White.
Your quickies follow the jump.
(4) Kentucky vs. (7) Mississippi State, 12 p.m. ET, CSS / ESPN 3 We meet again. The semifinal this weekend will mark the fifth time in 10 days that the Wildcats and the Bulldogs will face off with each other. At this point, it's almost getting personal. After all, it was Mississippi State that swept Kentucky out of the SEC East race and Kentucky that tried to cool of the Bulldogs by defeating them earlier in the tournament. The question for the Bulldogs is how much they have left after a thrilling win against LSU in the last round of the tournament. Kentucky, meanwhile, got its second bye of the tournament and will be ready to go for the noon game. But I'm hesitant to pick against whatever's working for Mississippi State, and the Bulldogs defeat their two-week rival again.
I suppose it's fitting that Kentucky keeps facing their former, and up until this year most successful, coach -- John Cohen.
Could we see Christian Laettner on a college sideline one day soon? // CollegeBasketballTalk
After all Laettner's legal and financial troubles, he needs to find some kind of job.
Marshall’s season-ending injury included broken elbow // CollegeBasketballTalk
When UNC point guard Kendall Marshall was injured in an NCAA tournament game against Creighton in March, a fractured wrist was listed as the official reason for his tragically curtailed sophomore season.
SEC Weekly Five: 05.25.12 Edition // Rush The Court
The biggest splash this week in the SEC again came from the defending champion Kentucky Wildcats and its scheduling choices. First, some group of stuffy faculty members chastised John Calipari’s decision to move toward more neutral site games. So what does Calipari do? He announced that UK has added Baylor to its schedule in a Rupp Arena game in 2012-13, but the Cats will travel to play the Bears in Cowboys Stadium in 2013-14. Now that’s an "experience." But it’s not about playing Baylor. This move, as is seemingly everything Calipari does, is a strategic move to advance his program.
Calipari is, right now, so far above his competition in program development that there almost is no competition. How long will it last?
Former UConn Huskies forward Roscoe Smith transfers to UNLV Rebels // ESPN
A look back with Jodie Meeks // The Kentucky Kernel
"Billy (Gillispie) prepared me for the NBA by helping me prove to myself that no matter what your circumstances are, you can make the most of it and be strong minded," Meeks said.
Mary Jo Perino, sports anchor for WLEX-TV, said, "as with the rest of the team he played on, there was a frustration you could see develop as he spent more time with Billy Gillispie."
The frustration with Gillispie is what led to Meeks’ biggest disappointment at UK – not making it to the NCAA tournament his junior year.
It's very classy of Jodie to take the high road. We all know that his relationship with coach Gillispie was strained, at best.
"He is absolutely special. He is just an amazing athlete. You can’t miss it when you watch him play. You don’t have to know anything about basketball to see how special he is," Price said.
For the second consecutive semester, UK student-athletes narrowly fell short of the 3.0 department-wide grade point average set forth by Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart. All UK student-athletes combined for 2.97 GPA and the GPA for scholarship athletes was a slightly higher 2.98 GPA. The average team GPA for the spring semester was 3.07.
Two words: Oustanding job.
Tom Leach Productions // Saturday Links
The Herald-Sun // Calipari wants Cats to play Duke UNC on regular basis
But, while Calipari and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski have informally discussed such a series, Cragg said nothing has been finalized. The two sides have not discussed any financial details, nor have they reached out to any arenas about housing the games or looked at possible playing dates.
I really hope this game happens.
University of Kentucky men's tennis senior Eric Quigley used a clutch performance Friday in the singles round of 16, winning two tiebreakers to defeat No. 13 Artem Ilyushin of Mississippi State and advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championship on Friday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
Congrats to Quigley! Get it done, young man.
Future Wildcat, Jacob Hyde // LEX18.com
The Kentucky football team didn't have to go far to find their first recruit. At 6 foot 2, 300-plus pounds, Jacob Hyde could be on the starting defensive line as a Sophomore if he continues to work hard -- something he's accustomed to.
Check out this very cool poster. You can find it here, along with a zoomed view.
