Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - Charon Edition

On this day in 1978, Charon, a moon of the dwarf planed Pluto, was discovered at the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station. The planet Charon was an important feature in one of the great works of science fiction, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, however, it was not the same as Pluto's moon, which had not been discovered at the time of Haldeman's novel in 1974, but the two share an eerie similarity.

Tweet of the Morning:

Worst thing the internet ever did was reward people for being able to write fast.

— Bethlehem Shoals (@freedarko) June 22, 2013

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Nice work about negative recruiting. [Hank]

• I mentioned yesterday that it was my perception the SEC brand was a big factor in so many quality players choosing Kentucky over the currently much more successful Louisville Cardinals. Here is more validation of that perception:

  Earlier this week, Brady Hoke defended the Big Ten, saying the SEC isn't the only conference with good football and good coaches. But it's clear the SEC message has been getting across better. Seven straight national championships will do that. [Via Hank]

• Neal Brown wants to make opposing defenses "soft." I think that's interesting. But there's more to it than that. [Via Hank]

• The reality of the season is just around the corner for the Kentucky football team:

  "How do we measure success?" he said. "I don’t know. I know this: We’ll be a better football team than they finished last year. We’ll be a better football team. Our guys are hungry. They’re working extremely hard. They’re buying in. They’re being coachable. So we’re going to be a better football team.

• More on the Davis twins transferring to Kentucky from their home-town newspaper, the Youngstown Vindicator

• Former UK head coach Guy Morris is worried about the current generation of football players, calling them the "generation of the unwilling and unable."

• Larry Glover and I agreed on this a while back, but Western Kentucky is UK's most important game of the season next year. Hat tip KSR

• Kentucky was an easy sell to linebacker Ryan Flannigan.

• Team Speed Kills reckons that Kentucky will go winless in the SEC next year and win only the 3 "buy" games.

Kentucky basketball

• Cleveland.com Sports Insider speaks to coach John Calipari about Nerlens Noel.

• Calipari talks about last year, but much more about the upcoming year, in Bowling Green.

• According to the methodology of this Emory Business school blog, Kentucky is only third in the SEC in "converting talent into NBA draft picks."

  After studying their methodology, I'm not convinced that their description of what they are measuring is accurate. Players are weighted according to their Rivals.com ranking coming into school, and a school gets much more credit for getting a lower-ranked player drafted than, say, a five-star. So this analysis is weighted heavily in favor of the development of lower-ranked players. Naturally, that hits schools like Kentucky and other blueblood programs hardest.

• Eamonn Brennan on how Calipari convinces so many great players to come to UK:

  His Kentucky program has become the shortest route between high school and the NBA, an elite one-year graduate program. Just as important, in doing so, he hasn't treated that desire, or his ability to succeed by exploiting it, as any less noble than the classic model.

  Also this:

  I'm not sure why the expectations should be anything but high. Kentucky is adding not just the consensus top recruiting class in the country this season, but the best ever -- better than the Fab Five, according to RecruitingNation's Dave Telep (and most, if not all, fellow recruiting analysts). Even if UK's assets this season were its freshmen alone, that team should be considered a national title favorite, if not the pick to win it all.

• Kentucky is #4 in the "Path to the draft" series by Myron Metcalf. Metcalf is a Kentucky detractor, and I can't wait to see his rationale for placing Kentucky this low.

• 2014's Cliff Alexander trims his list, Kentucky in great position.

Other UK sports

• UK baseball's Austin Cousino wins a Gold Glove Award.

Links posts

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• John Clay's SEC Links

• The Leach Report - Saturday Wildcat Links

College football

• SB Nation's pre-season All American Team. Lots of SEC players here, as you might expect, particularly from Alabama and Texas A&M.

• Ranking every team in the country by it's entrainment index. Kentucky is ranked remarkably low, even considering last season. I have a funny feeling this is going to be spectacularly wrong about UK.

• Hilarious!

• Bret Bielema is not going to find much sympathy for this suggestion in the SEC. How do you like us so far, coach?

College basketball

• You thought the arrest of P.J. Hairston on drug charges was the only problem that North Carolina had (besides, of course, the still-simmering academic scandal), you'd be wrong.

  The NCAA is now looking into a connection between Hairston and the NBA agent who allegedly paid money for influence over Ben McLemore.

• John Calipari called on Ben Simmons from Australia, one of the top players in 2015, last week.

Other sports news

• SB Nation covers the O'Bannon vs. NCAA trial. Lots of interesting stuff in here.

  On that same subject, CBS has an article about the judge requiring O'Bannon's legal team to add a current player to the proposed class if they wish to include them in the class.

• John Wall to get a UK logo tattoo on his chest.

• UCLA and Mississippi St. will play for the College World Series crown.

• Lance Armstrong's long-time nemesis Jan Ullrich admits to blood doping, surprising nobody.

Other news

• Firefox advances "Do-Not-Track" technology. Good.