Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - Happy Twinkie Day Edition

Today, Twinkies will make their return to grocery store shelves. No matter what you think of them, they are an American icon.

Tweet of the Morning last 24 hours:

In April, Stanley Johnson told me UK was "biggest school" on his list. What's he mean? "They have the biggest name. The biggest everything."

— Ben Roberts (@NextCats) July 15, 2013

He's ours, I tell you!

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Josh Clemons loss a blow to Kentucky's running game. No doubt about that.

• Another T.V. Williams story, this time about being hit up for pictures in the airport by a UK fan.

• Kentucky-South Carolina last ten meetings. Well, we got one win, and I guess that's better than zero. I'll never forget that one, either.

• Jalen Whitlow gets a positive mention by Saturday Down South when ranking backup quarterbacks. Hat tip: KSR

• Larry Vaught asks if Alabama should be favored by 30 over UK in Commonwealth Stadium.

  If I were a betting man, and I'm not, I'd take UK and the points.

• Brian Towle at SB Nation's Corn Nation wonders how Nebraska lost T.V. Williams to Kentucky. This time, he says, it wasn't Vince Marrow (obviously, since Williams is not from Ohio). Consider:

  Finally, there is one angle that a lot of schools are dealing with in Kentucky, and that's the conference they are within, the SEC.

  It's a big selling tool, regardless of what school you belong to in the conference. The conference that has produced the last seven BCS national champions, along with numerous higher draft picks will make that happen. The whole "steel sharpens steel" thing comes into play, and you end up in something that dwarfs what a lot of other school/conference combo's can offer. And that mattered to the Williams family in their interviews afterwards.

  Think it's not big? Go look at what Georgia's class looks like after "DawgNight" this weekend. I'd wet my pants in euphoria if that happened to Nebraska, and so would some of you.

• The Davis twins, transferring in from Pitt, appeal to the NCAA for immediate eligibility. I don't think the NCAA will grant it.

Kentucky basketball

• Stanley Johnson is ours, ours I say. He's clearly one of Coach Cal's top priorities, if not the very top.

  The trip to Lexington is planned for Oct. 18, the date of Big Blue Madness.

  "I expect the red carpet to be out," Johnson told the Herald-Leader. "That's them at their best. And if that's them at their best I want to see a lot of good things happen. I'm already excited about it because I heard all the fans come out and all the players are juiced. There won't be any opposing fans there so it'll be all love. I'm excited to see what happens."

  You'd best believe, young man, that you're in for the experience of a lifetime. And yes, we have the obligatory mixtape:

• Cliff Alexander may be changing his mind about coming to UK. Or Florida. Hopefully UK.

• 2015's Luke Kennard gets an offer from Kentucky. Kennard grew up a Kentucky fan, and you have to think that is as favorable a situation as it gets for Coach Cal.

• Who would you rank as the best recruiter in college basketball. Doh.

Links posts

• The Leach Report — Monday Wildcat Links

College football

• Penn St. and UCF will open the 2014 season in ... Dublin, Ireland? Yes, it seems so. The question is, why is this Penn St. and not Notre Dame? And will anyone actually show up?

• Way too early ACC football power rankings. Okay, I think Miami is a homer pick, but they will be pretty good. There's no way any non-partisan observer picks them over Clemson (unless, of course, they are a Gamecock fan).

• Is Johnny Manziel a prima donna? It sure is looking that way.

• Gregg Doyel takes Les Miles to task for not kicking Jeremy Hill off the football team, and calls Hill a "violent predator" and repeat offender."

  Tough words. Hill was already on probation for having carnal knowledge of a juvenile when he was 19, probation that is likely to be revoked. That may make Miles' decision easier.

  In all honesty, I have seen much worse than what Hill did go unpunished, but the problem is, the cavalier sort of violence depicted in this video of Hill in his most recent infraction is troubling. I'm not sure if it earns him the label, "violent predator," but I am sure that repeat criminal offenders, even misdemeanors, probably don't deserve a college scholarship.

College basketball

• Will Yeguete's recovery from injury over the summer is critical for the Florida Gators' hopes next year.

Other sports news

• John Wall wants to get the Wizards into the playoffs. Badly. Consider:

  "This is my fourth year. I need to get into the playoffs. There's nothing more that needs to be said," he told reporters following the Wizards' 56-52 Summer League loss to Golden State. "I need to get into the playoffs. Seeing my season end early every year is no fun." ...

  "That's the toughest thing, though, because my whole life, I didn't have to do it," Wall told Miller and Kerr when discussing his jump shot. "When you get to the NBA, this is a man's league, a man's world. You gotta improve myself. I knew that to make things easier for me and easier for my teammates, I needed to knock down shots. I'm not stopping [my work]."

• Every block by Anthony Davis for his entire rookie season. Keep in mind, he's still not old enough to drink legally.

• Marquis Teague is beginning to develop. Yes, he needed another year here, and if he'd stayed, I promise you last year would have been different. But he's on the right path now. More here, so there must be something to it.