Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Hugh Hefner Edition

On this day in 1988, the last Playboy Club in the U.S. closed it's doors, bringing an end to the 28-year reign of one of America's most interesting nightclub brands. Playboy Clubs were relaunched in 2006, mostly internationally. The Las Vegas Playboy Club closed last year.

Tweet of the Morning:

Goodwin's advice: "Listen to what Coach Cal says and not how he says it. Last year we had a couple guys (that got) down" when criticized.

— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_CJ) July 29, 2013

Sounds like good advice to me

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Interesting. Before Kentucky and Tennessee meet next season in Lexington, the two teams will have six of their opponents in common. Tennessee also plays Western Kentucky next year.
• Another Yahtzee! today? It looks pretty likely.
• John Clay says that Louisville is not far behind Kentucky in recruiting class rankings for 2014.
• KSR provides their take on who is most hurt by Kentucky's improved recruiting. Hank has already discussed this topic more than once.
• Erik Korem talks sports science at the Kentucky Women's Football Clinic.
• Rushel Shell, a transfer from Pitt, had Kentucky in his top two, but wound up picking West Virginia.

Kentucky basketball

• Jeff Sheppard talks about Mr. Wildcat:

  "One guy we miss at Kentucky basketball more than any individual to bridge the gap from old and new was Bill Keightley. He was the last one to bridge gap from Cotton Nash to DeMarcus Cousins," Sheppard said. "He did it well with few words. He knew everybody and everybody loved him. When he passed away, I never thought I could miss a non-family member as much as Mr. Keightley."

  I agree 100% with Jeff on this point, but this one:

  Sheppard will never be convinced any current UK team could beat the 1996 and 1998 national championship teams he was on.

  "I just don’t think they would lose to the current teams. One reason is that when things were going good, we would win by 35 or 40 points," Sheppard said. "When they were going bad, we would win by seven, eight or nine points.

  Ah, how memory can deceive us. 1996 was definitely like that, but 1998 was not. That team got drubbed by Arizona in the Maui Classic 89-74, won 7 games by 3 points or less, and lost a total of 4. I'm pretty sure that 2012 would have handled them 5 out of 7 games. Hat tip: Aaron's blog.

• Coach Cal now has his own clothing line. I want to see him get a perfume line. That's how you know you've truly arrived in the fashion world. More on the line from CoachCal.com.

• Jason King says UK is poised for a leap, of course, but check out some of the other teams he figures to vastly improve. Tennessee figures in there, as does SMU. Is this the Larry Brown Gambit paying off for the Mustangs?
• As to those on the way back down, I think he leaves out a big one: the Indiana Hoosiers.

Other UK sports

• Update on the Ethiopia service trip by Kentucky athletes.
• Incoming UK freshman Linnae Harper helps Team USA Under-19 women's squad win gold medal.
• Matthew Mitchell, your office on line 1. I think these two would look great in Blue and White.

Links posts

• The Leach Report — Monday Wildcat Links
• John Clay's Big Blue Links
• John Clay's SEC Links

College football

• Eric Crawford talks about former Auburn running back Michael Dyer possibly coming to Louisville. I think Dyer is a head case and probably should not be playing college football, but if Louisville thinks he should play for them, I'm fine with it. They'd just better hope he behaves, or there will be hell to pay.
• Team Speed Kills handicaps the race for the SEC East.
• Lane Kiffin is not on the hot seat, according to ESPN. Well, he should be, just on general principles.

• On the Jadeveon Clowney hit debate, Bo Pelini gets it right:

  "If they're going to throw people out for the Clowney hit," Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said, "we should find another sport."

  Indeed. The rules committee needs to revisit the targeting rule, and that needs to be done with the input of coaches as well as other genuine experts on the matter.

• Can the B1G come back to prominence in football? Well, maybe, but they have to win something first.

• College football's most intriguing coaches. No, Mark Stoops does not make the list, but Charlie Strong does.
• More on the NCAA vs. power conferences debate.

College basketball

• Look for the "indefinite" suspension of P.J. Hairston to last until basketball practice starts. Can you say, "Nothing to see here. Move along," boys and girs?

  Meanwhile, Gary Parrish calls Hairston a serial knucklehead:

  To be clear, there are worse things than going 28 mph over the speed limit. But when you've spent the summer garnering headlines for all the wrong reasons, and you know that any reckless thing you do in a car will garner more headlines for wrong reasons, how in the world could you get behind the wheel on a Sunday afternoon and drive recklessly while approaching 100 mph?

  No, it doesn't make Hairston a despicable person.

  But you have to question something about him, don't you?

  I'm thinking yes.

Other sports news

• Archie Goodwin consistently outplayed 2012 lottery pick Kendall Marshall in the summer league, according to this NBA.com blog. If you'll recall, I warned you a long time ago that Kendall Marshall was vastly overrated. Also this:

  The most remarkable comment I heard during Summer League came from new Sacramento Kings coach Mike Malone about DeMarcus Cousins after he watched the final game from the bench with the summer Kings searching for their first win, which they got: "I told him he was our good-luck charm."

  Wow. When Cousins is suddenly deemed a good-luck charm, you know things aren’t the same old same old. This guy was like the Grim Reaper in Sac, delivering seriously bad vibes wherever he wandered. But maybe, just maybe, new ownership, a new front office and a new coaching staff is breaking through the darkness (74-156 during Cousins’ three seasons) and getting through to the immature-yet-wildly talented big man.

  Hat tip: Aaron's blog

• Manti Te'o doing good deeds, winning over fans in San Diego. Good for him. He needs to put last year behind him.