Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: President's Cup Edition

The President's Cup gets underway today, for all you golf fans. Will Tiger Woods finally find a partner that works for him in Matt Kuchar?

Tweet of the Morning:

Calipari at Pittsburgh Coaches Vs. Cancer event: "Are you guys having me back to celebrate that Robert Morris victory again?"

— Michael DeCourcy (@tsnmike) October 3, 2013

Pitino says he's "not sure" Kentucky should be ranked #1. After December 28, he will be.

— Not Jerry Tipton (@NotJerryTipton) October 3, 2013

Now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• One of Kentucky's most successful plays (Hat Tip to adolph rolling over @ Cats Illustrated). [Hank]

• Florida Apopka's Chandler Cox gets an offer from UK. [Hank]

  "Cox is the cog that grinds the gears of an Apopka offensive juggernaut that puts up 50 points and 535 yards per game . He runs, passes and blocks from the fullback position in the Daters’ single-wing attack. But even if the Darters needed an extra offensive lineman, he’d step right in.

  Kentucky coaches told him Wednesday night that’s exactly what they love about him."

• Nico Firios update. [Hank]

• Short piece on 2015 UK offer holder Jacques Patrick. [Hank]

• Ohio high school rankings. [Hank]

Kentucky basketball

• Pretty cool interview with Coach Cal while he was up in Pittsburgh. It's broken up into 3 parts for your listening pleasure.

• Aaron Harrison talks to Larry Vaught about a number of important subjects.

• Julius Randle falls back on his faith for support. Without disrespect to beliefs, I found this the most interesting from a basketball standpoint:

  "I would probably have to say my defense is underrated. Guys like Nerlens (Noel) came here who are known as defensive players, but I take as much pride in my defense. I don’t like people scoring on me," Randle said.

• Jeff Eisenberg tries to read between the lines of Calipari's interviews. I think he does a fair job, although I might take issue with #4. Calipari does not have to prepare Marcus Lee for scarce playing time, it's a given that on this team, he will be playing fewer minutes. I think Marcus gets that.

  What I think he meant by the passage that Eisenberg quoted was that you need defensive-minded players to win championships. Remember the much-touted point he constantly makes that Anthony Davis was fifth on the team in shots? That's obliquely what he's talking about here. He doesn't need Lee to score, he's got scorers. He needs Lee to defend, block shots and rebound. That was his message, pure and simple.

  Lee is under no illusions of playing time. That kid gets it.

• Superman or Beast? Well, I always liked the Beast, Henry "Hank" McCoy), in the X-men. Let's go with that.

• Jarrod Polson enters the season as a proven commodity. I think Polson's going to see more playing time than people think. Even if not, the kid has been a great addition to Kentucky.

• James Young:

  "Some people don’t think I can actually jump that high but I think that is going to be a big shock to everybody when they see how high I can jump and how fast I am going up and down the floor," Young said. "I worked on my legs a lot during the summer and I can jump out of the gym."

  I can't wait.

• Randle embraces the hype, and expectations. I think anyone would embrace a comparison with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

• Calipari is counting on the fire of competition to shape his young team into a winner. I think that's exactly the right formula.

Other Kentucky Sports

• Women's soccer, currently #19, travels to Mississippi St. to try and extend their 3-match winning streak.

Links posts

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• John Clay's SEC Links

• The Leach Report — Thursday Wildcat Links

College football

• Football powers are not exciting their students. I find this interesting, and it deserves a lot of study as to why.

• Division III football and the rise of the traditional student-athlete.

• Go like SB Nation's new college football Facebook page. Go do it now. While you're at it, you might as well like A Sea of Blue's not-so-new Facebook page, because, you know, you already like us... right?

College basketball

• Jim Boeheim is no fan of paying players. Neither am I, despite John Clay's snark. Boeheim doesn't make a particularly strong case, but if you look closely, he includes them in a bit of a rant format.

• Truth from an NBA scout:

  "You could almost cover the [bleepin] lottery if in the preseason you go to Michigan, Michigan State, Kansas Kentucky," one Western Conference NBA GM told SNY.tv. "I mean you basically almost got the lottery covered."

  There's an interesting comment in here from the NBA GM interviewed which basically uses the "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" substituting Andrew Wiggins for "IBM." All of which leads me to believe that Wiggins is a lock for the #1 pick no matter how much, if at all, Randle or others outplay him.

  Kind of creepy, in a way.

• From a guy who knows a thing or two about ego:

  "Ego is edging out greatness." -Rick Pitino

  — Danielle M. Koonce (@DanielleKoonce) October 3, 2013

  Not sure he knows about it in that context, though. :-) Here's Matt Jones:

  Rick Pitino is seriously on tv AGAIN talking about how it is important to not have an ego. He seriously has ZERO shame

  — Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) October 3, 2013

  Heh.

• John Clay notes the touting of Rick Pitino's book, and wonders if anyone actually reads them. I read Pitino's first book after he came to Kentucky, and I read Coach Cal's first book after coming to Kentucky. Will I read the next one? Probably.

Other sports news

• Mark Emmert seeks out Mike Krzyzewski's advice.

• Lexington is one of two cities being considered for the World Equestrian Games. That's awesome.

• Some rumors have Tom Jurich being considered as the next Athletics Director for the Texas Longhorns. Why would he leave? I'll give you two good reasons:

  • Money;
  • Prestige.

  No matter what Tim Sullivan thinks, Texas can provide more of both that Louisville, and that's just a fact.