Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - Baltimore Ravens Edition

What a game last night between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. It was a lot of fun to watch, even with the blackout and the inordinately high number of completely humorless commercials.

Tweet of the Morning:

Freeman on Kaepernick's slow start: "It was deer antler spray in the headlights." cbsprt.co/11GLDP1

— Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelCBS) February 4, 2013

Heh. Funny stuff. The Super Bowl was a great game, but I'll just leave this right here:

.@mikepereira said "nothing obvious in real time" on 4th down 'hold.' Which is why there were 4 million tweets about it when it happened?

— Andy Glockner (@AndyGlockner) February 4, 2013

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Florida lineman decides to play for Kentucky football // The Courier-Journal
  More on Nick Haynes. Another Florida commitment.

• Q&A with new UK football commitment Nick Haynes // Courier-Journal

• That UK football commercial during the Super Bowl // John Clay's Sidelines
  It must have been only in the Lexington markets, because it didn't show up in Louisville.

• Kentucky football nabs 3-star offensive guard // Kentucky.com
  Nick Haynes is a solid get for UK, although slightly less touted than the players Stoops & Co. have been landing lately.

• Desperation? UGA ships out last-minute scholarship offer // College Recruiting | www.ajc.com
  Looks like UK is out on this one. Via Mr. Hanky.

• SEC Football: Kentucky and Mark Stoops Already Aiming for Big Returns // The Lady Sportswriter

Kentucky basketball

• Poised 'old man' makes the difference for Kentucky basketball // The Courier-Journal

  ven as a senior, he’s struggled to take a leadership role on a talent-rich team – especially since he’s as much a new guy at UK as the freshmen. Also, after leading Wright State in scoring last season, he’s fifth or sixth in the pecking order for the Cats.

  Well, everybody has a learning curve. It's great to see him be so productive,and we needed every bit of it.

• John Clay: Young Cats slowly, surely finding an identity // Kentucky.com

  Never mind the chronic complainers who pine for the Big Blue Machine of a year ago. It's not that team, nor is it going to be that team. Every game is "a dog fight" as John Calipari said after UK's 72-68 overtime win over the host Aggies, but that's OK if you keep coming out as top dog.

  I wish I could agree with Clay about the team finding an identity. It's probably happening, but right now it's seen only through a cloudy glass, and darkly.

• Nerlens Noel amazes without scoring a point, Indiana dominates - College Basketball - Seth Davis - SI.com

  This is the first time in the long, storied history of the Fast Break that our POW went through an entire game without scoring a single field goal. That's how good Noel was in all other aspects of the game Tuesday night at Ole Miss. It was a performance for the ages — Noel had 12 blocks, seven rebounds and two assists in the Wildcats' season-turning victory.

  What can you say? Noel is pretty much everything he was supposed to be coming out of high school.

• Calipari almost joined Metcalf's staff // Aggie Sports
  Interesting.

• Nerlens Noel: Kentucky Wildcats Freshman Sensation a Dirty Player (Video)
  A stupid accusation, if anyone is actually making it. If I don't link it, somebody will.

• NBA draft analyst Ed Isaacson on Willie Cauley-Stein and Archie Goodwin // vaughtsviews

  Isaacson: “Goodwin is one of those players that would make me lose my mind as a coach. Athletic with good skill for his age, he just doesn’t seem to understand smart basketball. When he does get it, he can be spectacular. Like Poythress, there is time for him to get it together, and I would see him doing enough to be a late lottery pick.”

  Read the rest for Isaacson's thoughts on Willie Cauley-Stein, Ryan Harrow and Julius Mays. I think he totally nails Goodwin.

Other UK sports

• No. 9 Kentucky Upsets No. 8 Oklahoma 4-3 in Marathon Match // UKAthletics.com
• LEXINGTON, Ky.: Kentucky women's home winning streak ends at 33 // Kentucky.com

Links posts

• The Morning Mix // CollegeBasketballTalk
• Tom Leach // Monday links
• John Clay's Big Blue Links // John Clay's Sidelines

College football

• Rivals.com Football Recruiting - Social media pose risks for recruits

  Numerous prospects have talked about harassment on social media sites, especially Twitter, and the recruiting process becoming a hassle and a negative memory because of vicious and nasty fans. The access is unprecedented in a time when notoriety is unprecedented.

  Twitter is the devil.

College basketball

• Indiana, Michigan: Nation's two best teams // ESPN
  I thought Michigan played soft, and took too many threes. They let IU speed them up, and that's why they lost.

• Don't freak out if Florida loses // Ken Pomeroy

  While Florida’s run has been impressive and unusual, it’s not unprecedented. Even with this run, they will probably lose again in regular-season play, maybe even twice. When that happens, there will be some chatter about what’s wrong with Florida. But taking a longer view, they should still be expected to lose a game. (My system has the Gators as better than 50/50 to go unbeaten in SEC play, but it’s working with an unrealistically high rating.) So there may not be any reason to freak out when they do.

  I just want one or both of those losses to be against Kentucky.

Other sports news

• Patterson Prevails - Rockets Push Past Bobcats 109-95 - The Dream Shake

  The script was familiar, and a home loss against the HorniCats loomed. Who could save the Rockets from snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

  Patrick Patterson, that's who. Patterson simply went berserk to start the 4th, pulled the Rockets even, then brought them the lead. 2Pat shot 10-12, and scored 24 points. He dropped 14 of those in the 4th, scoring 12 straight to open the quarter.

  In all the news of MKG's injury, we completely missed Patterson's big game.

• Clippers' Eric Bledsoe shows no room for doubt against Celtics // latimes.com

  Bledsoe tied his career high in points with 23 and field goals made at nine — he took 15 shots. He tied his season high in assists with 10, to go along with seven rebounds, in the Clippers' 106-104 loss.

  This is the least heralded guy coming into Kentucky in 2009. Amazing.

• Love him or hate him, we'll all miss Ray Lewis // CBSSports.com News, Rumors, Scores, Stats, Fantasy

  If you hate him, you're going to miss hating him. The world needs a bad guy, and if you decided Ray Lewis was a bad guy, he was the most perfect bad guy God ever created. A double-murderer, some of you think. An obstructionist of justice, Ray Lewis himself admitted at a trial in 2000.

  Read the whole thing.