Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Royal Baby Edition

The Duchess of Cambridge, a.k.a. Kate Middleton, is in labor with her first child, who will presumably be third in line to the English crown. All the best to the nascent family member and his/her parents.

Tweet of the Morning:

Mark Stoops has 9 four stars signed or committed at Kentucky. In the previous SIX years, UK signed just 7 four stars.

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravisBGID) July 21, 2013

I think that's way more than we could have expected.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Petrino talks about UK game - a lot of background noise. And new Unis. [Hank]

  [Glenn] I thought this was interesting:

  Having spent four years at Louisville, Petrino will try use his experience coaching against the Wildcats in season-opening games to his advantage.

  What "experience" does he mean? The last time he coached against Kentucky, Rich Brooks was on the sidelines. Does he think that his experience against UK will make any difference at all 2 head coaches removed?

  I'm sorry, but that's just ... nuts.

• Yes, I noted the gray uniforms. Yeah, they're fine, but I'm not much of a fan. I have been converted on the black ones, though.

  Interestingly, it seems that 5* UK recruit Matt Elam revealed these "potential" new uniforms. That's probably a good thing.

• Stoops and his defensive linemen. [Hank]

  Mark looks... kinda small in that picture.

• Stoops asks why the rush to judgment on a starting QB:

  "Why rush that situation if it's not clear cut? That's not fair to anybody," Stoops said. "We want to make sure we make the right decision and we will make that decision when it's clear cut. If it takes one day, it takes one day. If it takes a week, a couple weeks, or into the season, I think those players have earned that right."

  I think that's right, but what he doesn't want to do is hold on to his cards so long it becomes a distraction, as it did under Joker Phillips.

• Mark Stoops institutes a dress code for the Wildcats. Suit and tie for pregame. That's old-school, right there.

Kentucky basketball

• Julius Randle wants to be kind of like Randall Cobb -- not defined by position, but by his effectiveness. So I'll say it now, but he's gotta earn it -- Julius Randle, basketball player.

Other UK sports

• UK Hoops assistant Jeff House is starting to make his presence felt.

Links posts

• John Clay's Big Blue Links for Monday
• John Clay's SEC Links for Monday
• The Leach Report -- Monday Morning Links

College football

• More boys behaving badly. [Hank]
• Florida's 2014 top 101, according to Varsity Preps. [Hank]
• Outback Bowl News. [Hank]
• Top 15 comments from Media Days. My favorite: Nick Saban on the fact that media has successfully predicted the SEC champion only 4 times in the last 21 years:"If I was 4-17 as a coach, I'd be back in West Virginia pumping gas at my daddy's gas station." [Hank]
• Florida player arrested for barking at a police dog. Only at Florida.
• Johnny Manziel continues to burnish his reputation as the bad boy of college football stars.
• Tajh Boyd denies fear of Jadeveon Clowney. I think Clowney's comments were disrespectful; pure smack-talk. Not very becoming, in my view.
• This should be no surprise to anyone from around here.

College basketball

• I got a good laugh out of this.
• This is just awful. Via John Clay.

Other sports news

• Archie Goodwin is making some noise in summer league play, and it's getting noticed. Consider:

  If scouts worried that Goodwin was a one-trick pony, a guy with a quick first step and little else, then they may have underestimated just how good that one trick is. Goodwin has shown an explosive first step here in Las Vegas, the willingness to get into the lane and accept contact, and the ability to finish at the rim. It helps that he is 6-foot-5 with a 6-10 wingspan, of course.

  Archie has never been a one-trick pony, he just lacked the consistent perimeter game that makes his best trick so devastating.

  I said it before and I'll say it again -- Archie is one of the fastest players I've ever seen at his size with the ball in his hands. And he's also durable, as the many hits he took going to the rim at Kentucky will attest. I don't think there has ever been a player hit the floor more times in a season than Goodwin, and he bounced back up every time.

• John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins could join the fairly rare ranks of rookie extensions.

  I think that says a lot about the tremendous talent of the 2010 team. We were a Doron Lamb away from a national title that year, I believe.