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It's NBA Draft eve, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation. Will Nerlens Noel go #1, or #2? That seems to be the question. My money would still be on #1.
Tweet of the Morning:
If there is one truism in the world it's this: if Roger Cossack is talking about you on TV, you're having a bad day
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) June 26, 2013
Heh. Indeed. For those of you who don't know, Roger Cossack is a legal analyst for ESPN, among others.
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
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Mark Stoops, Matthew Mitchell, and more to participate in the July 14th Battle in the Saddle Team Penning Event at Kentucky Horse Park
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The transfer of the Davis twins from Pittsburgh to Kentucky was helped by some family connections to the UK program.
Kentucky basketball
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Lelands.com is auctioning Pat Riley's Rupp's Runts game jersey.
The site notes that Riley is the only man to win an NBA championship as a player, coach, and executive. The auction is on Friday, so get out the gold card.
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Drew Roberts of Saturday Down South has a new site up called Uniform Critics. In it, he looks at all the college uniforms. Check out:
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A Louisville fan made this tweet that Mark Boxley mentioned in his "Water Cooler" piece today:
@UofLMemes was surprisingly supportive of Wiltjer and complimentary of his play at Kentucky. "BBN will spin it and say they are better off without Kyle Wiltjer, but that would be incorrect in my humble opinion," he tweeted.
Memo to Boxley: That's known as "concern trolling" in the blogging world, Mark. He isn't supporting Wiltjer except as a method to take a shot at the Big Blue Nation.
I haven't seen more than one or two people mention Wiltjer's departure as a positive, and those guys are wrong.
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Archie Goodwin's draft stock is still high. I have read many people, including Chad Ford of ESPN, who agree.
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Calipari won't restrict Wiltjer's transfer. Hold your hand up if you are surprised. You don't count, Louisville fan. Nor you, Dookie.
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Karl Towns Jr. is ranked #10 in the class of 2014 by Scout.com.
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Calipari and Krzyzewski square off for big man 2015 big man Stephen Zimmerman.
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This analysis places Kentucky very high in the success of their players drafted into the NBA based on PER rating.
Other UK sports
- 100m hurdler Keith Hayes is an indoor NCAA track All-American. The track and field team is really excelling under Edrick Floreal.
Links posts
College football
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Oregon will receive their
sentenceruling from the NCAA today -
College football 2013 season win total betting lines. Kentucky doesn't seem to be worthy of a line...
College basketball
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The Big 12 is the only conference who can boast that all of its head coaches have taken teams to the NCAA Tournament.
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Kansas agrees to ESPN deal. I can't judge if this is good or bad, so I'm going to say, "Good for them."
- Bill Self reprimanded and fined by the NCAA for conduct unbecoming.
Other sports news
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Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer thinks that Cleveland will pass on Nerlens Noel in favor of Alex Len, but they'd rather trade the pick.
There are tons of trade rumors out there that include such players as Paul Pierce, Shawn Marion, LaMarcus Aldridge and even Earl Clark.
Fear The Sword reports that they even floated a mega-deal that would obtain Kevin Love.
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Are the Bobcats shopping Michael Kidd-Gilchrist? Do they seriously think that Otto Porter is a good replacement? If so, I think they may be in need of a drug test. Hat tip: John Clay
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Steals will be the reason that Nerlens Noel should be a star. Here's what Chad Ford said about that, via John Clay:
"All the analytics say Nerlens Noel should be a star. Almost all of them, but not all of them, most of them say Alex Len shouldn’t. And it really comes down to one number. They find a predictive quality in steals. When big men get steals they have found that number is predictive of NBA success. You get a lot of steals as a big man, the people who have done that in the past in college have gone on to have great NBA careers. If you don’t get steals, it shows the opposite, that big men who can’t get steals in college when they get to the NBA they fail. [My emphasis]
I highlighted this quality of Noel in pieces I did for several blogs, and this is the reason why.
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Does Doc Rivers move to the Los Angeles Clippers mean Eric Bledsoe will be on the move? Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinal thinks so. Hat tip Aaron's blog
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Patrick Patterson is hosting a basketball camp at Lexington Christian Academy from July 1-3.
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UCLA defeats Mississippi St. to win the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
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The Orlando Magic are ready to pounce on Nerlens Noel at #2 if they Cleveland Cavaliers pick someone else.