Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - Rupp Arena Edition

Yesterday, Kentucky governor Steve Bashear and Lexington mayor Jim Gray announced a renovation plan for Rupp Arena with improved seats, the same seating capacity, and more.

Tweet of the Morning:

UK spokesman confirms both Pancho Thomas and his brother Khalid have been dismissed from the football team.

— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_CJ) July 11, 2013

It's the ol' "violation of team rules," per UK, on the Thomas brothers' dismissal.

— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_CJ) July 11, 2013

And we know what "violation of team rules" usually means, right?

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Very interesting work on Stoops and UK. Not sure I agree with the writer, but everyone has an opinion. [Hank]

  [Glenn] This is about as good as you'll ever get from Dan Wolken. He's pretty much been on the anti-Kentucky train since Calipari came, and possibly before.

• With the above in mind... [Hank]

• Interesting...wonder why they didn't do the same for the Big East football? [Hank]

• Landon Foster makes the Ray Guy watch list for best college punter. Not bad for a sophomore.

• The latest from the Drew Barker Diaries. [Hank]

  [Glenn] Very classy comments from Teddy Bridgewater of Louisville:

  Seeing Teddy Bridgewater was pretty cool. I had met him before on visits to Louisville, but I haven’t seen him since I committed to Kentucky. He was kind of teasing me about going to Kentucky, but was very courteous about the new staff. He said he’s seen all of the recruiting efforts and is glad UK is on the rise because it would be good for the rivalry and the state to not only have two really good basketball teams, but two good football teams as well. He’s a really nice guy, and pretty cool about it all.

  Also this:

  How about my man TV Williams! TV is a really big get for us. He’s not really that highly rated because of his size, but he’s lightning fast and if you watch his highlight film, you can tell he’s a playmaker in the open field. In the Air Raid offense, you need those type of guys who can dump down screens and take a one-yard pass and turn it into an 80-yard touchdown.

  Read the whole thing, it's worth your time.

• T.V. Williams was a nice birthday present for Mark Stoops. [Hank]

• The comments are priceless.

• Who says Kentucky fans don't love football? All we need is a reason and a dash of hope. Idaho? [Hank]

• Cats get some respect from iHigh in their SEC preview. Avery Williamson is a 1st team pick and Landon Foster makes 2nd team. Za'Darius Smith is named Newcomer of the Year. [Hank]

• News about JUCO 2013 commit Nate Willis. "Hold On - I'm Coming." [Hank]

• Really cool photo! [Hank]

• Speaking of Cool: Bob Dylan - He's always been cool in my eyes and he gets better with age like fine wine: [Hank]

• More on T.V. Williams' commitment to UK.

• Meet Javess Blue, Kentucky's incoming JUCO wide receiver.

• Red and Black looks at the Kentucky-Georgia football matchup next year. Given that this game is between the hedges in Athens, I don't give this year's Wildcats much of a chance.

• Ugh. Glad Ashely's okay, but he's got other problems.

• Kentucky offers 5-star Derrick Jones, 2015 small forward. According to him, at least.

Kentucky basketball

• RUPP ARENA -Can't disagree, but can UK pull off the same kind of boondoggle that UL did with the Chicken Bucket?

• Seth Greenberg thinks UK will have the best backcourt in America next year. I'm not a Greenberg fan, but I think he's right about this. CoachCal.com has more.

• Big Blue Madness tickets available October 5th.

• Other than UK, 2014 PG Emmanuel Mudiay has no visits currently planned. Hat tip: Aaron's blog

Links posts

• The Leach Report — Thursday Wildcat Links

College football

• SEC Media Days are coming. Here's the roster of players who'll be attending from each school. I think UK has made some very good choices.

• ESPN's College Football Live will be making their first trip to SEC Media Days next week. Here's the schedule.

• Roll Bama Roll has a very interesting way to preview next season.

• Is the SEC the villain of college football? More like the Yankees, so yeah, probably.

College basketball

• The SEC creates a basketball czar, and are calling it "Associate Commissioner for Men's Basketball"

• Kevin Ware could be back on the court in October. I think that's about right. Good for him.

• Coach Cal is elected to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Board of Directors. I guess that's great.

• Dominique Hawkins is living the dream.

• Heh. More mocking of UCLA's contract with Steve Alford. Bruins Nation reacts, and also has a full story stream on this issue. They are rather less than pleased.

• Marshall Henderson of Ole Miss is suspended indefinitely for the ubiquitous "violation of team rules." We all know what that means.

Other sports news

• This is a bit weird, and escapes my sense of humor. Maybe you will do better.