Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - Anthony Davis Edition

Congratulations to Anthony Davis for being selected by Kentucky sportswriters as Sportsman of the Year. John Calipari finished second.

Tweet of the Morning:

Phil Mickelson was thisclose to shooting a 59 yesterday -> bit.ly/WFt4Zt

— ESPN (@espn) February 1, 2013

"The cruelest 60 you will ever see." I have to say, despite the implausible incongruence of the phrase "cruelest 60" when applied to a golf score, it seems to fit this.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• National Signing Day: Florida's "Big Three" football programs struggling to secure prospects from Broward and Palm Beach counties as National Signing Day approaches // OrlandoSentinel.com
  Via Mr. Hanky. This is good news for teams like us. Even if this changes back the way it was to some degree, the leavings and scrapings from the big Florida schools are always worth having. Not only that, if just a few of the high-profile guys are willing to look elsewhere, that's good news for Kentucky.

• It is 6:19 AM and I am going out on a limb (rolling eyes) // A Sea Of Blue
  Read this if you haven't. It's been reported elsewhere, but Mr. Hanky was one of the first to pick it up.

Kentucky basketball

• Conference Power Rankings: SEC // ESPN
  So UK defeats Ole Miss, yet is still behind them in this "power poll?" Okay, whatever.

• UK Basketball: Kentucky recruit Karl Towns Jr. is eager to play in front of his future fans // Central Kentucky News
  Can't wait to see him.

• Sportsman: Davis, Calipari best U of L trio // Kentucky.com
  Well, that's no surprise.

• What does the RPI have against Kentucky? // John Clay's Sidelines

  If you look at the schedules of teams like Duke and Miami. Kentucky played six (6!) teams outside the top 200 in the non-con. How many did Duke play of that low quality? One. Miami? Three. Kansas had 4, but they had a bunch of top 50, way more than Kentucky

  The RPI is really no mystery, it's just math that looks at your opponents and your opponent's opponents. When the teams you lose to actually help your RPI more than many of the teams you've beaten, you don't get to ask this question.

• Kentucky Sports Radio // Is Kentucky a College Basketball Villain?

  Look, let's be honest: We are a "sneering blueblood," and I don't apologize for it one bit. Because teams that aren't sneering bluebloods rarely win national titles, and honestly, if others want to settle for the occasional Final Four or conference championship, who am I to harsh their mellow?

  I've lost count of the number of pretenders and wanna-be's that have come on to the blog with the explicit purpose of poking the monster. If that's what fans from the "nice" schools do, I'm happy to be a fan of Snidely Whiplash.

Other UK sports

• Baseball season previews: Shepherd carries prep success into SEC // Cat Scratches

• Cousino Named Baseball America Preseason All-America // UKAthletics.com
  Baseball season is getting close.

• Gymnastics Hosts No. 6 LSU // UKAthletics.com
  Another opportunity for the Gym Cats to excel.

Links posts

• Tom Leach // Friday Links
• John Clay's Big Blue Links // John Clay's Sidelines
• The Morning Mix // Troy Machir, CollegeBasketballTalk

College football

• Lane Kiffin takes blame for USC Trojans 2012 season // ESPN
  Great. Now he can take the blame for wrecking Tennessee's program, because he was certainly responsible for a lot of it.

• No special treatment for Jadeveon Clowney // NBC Sports
  That's only because he doesn't have to suit up against him and deal with this. LSUFreek improved it a little.

College basketball

• Basketball means more in Indiana // ESPN
  More than what? Common sense? Actual intelligence? I'd buy that for a dollar.

Other sports news

• Kemba Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist selected to BBVA Rising Stars Challenge // Rufus on Fire
  That's 2 Wildcats so far this year. And a Wildcat-beater.

• Rookie Anthony Davis Selected to 2013 BBVA Rising Stars Challenge // Yahoo! Sports
  No surprise..

Other news

• Changes released Thursday across SB Nation // Blog Huddle
  Some changes to the site which you may or may not have noticed by now.