Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies -- Andy Murray Edition

Andy Murray became the first Englishman man from the United Kingdom in 77 years to win the Wimbledon championship. That's a ridiculous drought, and I'm sure the UK is glad it's over.

Also, I'd like to take the opportunity to give a shout-out to well-known A Sea of Blue member Wild Weasel, who did yeoman's work keeping the news up to date in the comment section during my recent absence. Thanks, WW.

Tweet of the Morning:

Eloy Vargas and Karl Towns have both been invited to the Dominican National team's camp by Orlando Antigua.

— Thomas Beisner (@thomasbeisner) July 8, 2013

I hope Eloy makes it this time.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kentucky's football schedule is tough next year, but that's nothing new. Ira Combs:

  Personally , I think a lot of this tough schedule talk is coming from this simply being the rotation year that Alabama comes on the schedule , that's just one game out of 12 folks .

  Honestly, I think there is some truth to that. It isn't as though the schedule was a cakewalk last year.

• Wondering what the connection was between Mark Stoops and defensive line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh? Larry Vaught has the story.

• The 30-point spread for the Kentucky-Alabama football game would be the largest of the Nick Saban era if it holds.

• 2014 UK Commit Darryl Long makes iHigh's Top 20 Tight Ends [Hank].
• WR Garrett Johnson is visiting in July. The Cats are in his top four [Hank].

Kentucky basketball

• Stanley Johnson is the only small forward with a 2014 offer from Kentucky. I like the comparison to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

• Incoming recruit Marcus Lee named East Bay Male Athlete of the Year. Consider:

  "You will not find a kid that didn't like playing with Marcus in any sport," Deer Valley basketball coach LeChet Phillips said. "He was a great teammate and the greatest kid in the world to coach. If I made a mistake, he'd go out there and make it look good."

  Hat tip: Sam Henson

• This:

  In regards to Kentucky, Johnson’s the lone 2014 small forward currently holding an offer from head coach John Calipari. That’s a clear indication of how much of a priority he is to the Kentucky coaching staff, and recent history shows that more times than not the Wildcats end up reeling in high-level prospects that they’ve decided to devote their full attention to.

• Fox Sports has five UK players drafted in the first round of the 2014 NBA draft.

• 2015 5-star shooting guard from Chi-town, Charles Matthews, gets an offer from UK.

Other UK sports

• UK golfer Ben Stow qualifies for the British Open, the first Kentucky player ever to do so. Well done, young man.

Links posts

• The Leach Report — Monday Wildcat Links

College football

• Saturday Down South has their preseason SEC All-Star teams. Kentucky is represented.

College basketball

• For Carolina basketball, integrity is more important than winning. Really? You can't be talking about academic integrity, though.

• Andy Katz says Billy Donovan should be rewarded with FIBA World Cup consideration for coaching the Under-19 Team USA to a championship.

• Doug Gottleib, who I think is not terribly credible, says that the Celtics job is anything but no-lose for Brad Stevens. Consider:

  What is being described as a no-lose is actually anything but. Stevens was a boy king in college, and now he is just another young coach in an expensive suit, in a city to which he is foreign (and vice versa), and in a league that eats college coaches for lunch.

  Could he go back and have his choice of jobs? Of course, but there is only one Butler. Cases in point: Barry Collier, Thad Matta and Todd Lickliter all had great success as head coaches at Butler but only Matta has been able to recreate it elsewhere, though it looks little like the Butler Way.

  So his argument, essentially, is that Stevens can come back, but he might not be as happy? Nobody is even considering that for good reason — if Stevens can't go to a Duke, or Kentucky, or North Carolina and be happy because it isn't Butler, he's got serious problems that have nothing to do with a job.

  Seriously, Gottleib, this sort of nonsequitur is exactly why you are one of the least credible college basketball pundits. Sometimes, you just can't go against the grain.

Other sports news

• We mentioned Terrence Jones had a big game yesterday, but so did Doron Lamb.

• USA under-19 wins the gold medal.

• Wondering about all the NBA free agents? SB Nation has an update.