Kentucky Wildcats: Morning Quickies - T.V. Williams Edition

Rivals.com 3-star 2014 wide receiver prospect T.V. Williams will pick his school today. We are hoping for another Yahtzee, and Williams would be a sweet pick-up. He had some amazing numbers at The Opening when it came to measurables, which you can read about below.

Tweet of the Morning:

Good to be back in Lexington! Just got done puttin some shots up at Joe Craft!

— Jodie Meeks (@Jmeeks20) July 9, 2013

Saw the young fella Julius Randle puttin some work in too! #championshipyear

— Jodie Meeks (@Jmeeks20) July 9, 2013

I like how you're thinking, Jodie. Randle = Beast.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• The Bowling Green Daily News talks about the Western Kentucky - UK matchup:

  If Kentucky can’t get by Western Kentucky for a second straight year, the opportunity for wins the rest of the way becomes even more daunting. Outside of a home game against Miami (Ohio) – 4-8 last year – and Alabama State of the FCS, Kentucky’s 2013 slate features home games against Louisville, Florida and Alabama and trips to South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Georgia.

  Just so. Also, the article goes on to point out that the series has not been renewed. I wonder to myself if that has anything to do with Petrino being the coach at Western?

• UK Recruit T.V. Williams announces his college choice today. Could we get that Yahtzee? At least one analyst has him as a UK lean. Consider:

  Williams was one of 162 prospects from around the country who participated in last week’s The Opening event sponsored by Nike. The UK recruit ran the second-fastest shuttle time (3.83 seconds) at the event and was one of only five players to finish in under 4 seconds. Williams also recorded one of the best vertical leaps at the camp (39.7 inches).

• Bud Dupree and Donte Rumph helped Kentucky football check in at #8 in ESPN.com's overall defensive line rankings. If Kentucky's defense can stay reasonably healthy, the Wildcats might just surprise some people.

• Former football Wildcats believed that the right coach could attract top football players to UK.

• Three football Wildcats named preseason All-SEC.

• ESPN.com ranks Donte Rumph the 4th best defensive tackle in the SEC.

Kentucky basketball

• Matt Jones has an update on the renovation of Rupp Arena. He says the city of Lexington and the University of Kentucky are not quite on the same page yet, but it doesn't seem to me that they are at odds, either.

• Kentucky 2014 big man recruit Cliff Alexander believes that he and Karl Towns would work well together at Kentucky. Hat Tip: Aaron's blog.

Links posts

• The Leach Report — Tuesday Wildcat Links

College football

• LSU makes a bid for some Fulmer Cup points.

• Team Speed Kills says Tennessee is heavy on defense, but weak on offense.

• Fandom can be weird, and hopefully therapeutic.

• Saturday Down South thinks South Carolina is a legitimate BCS championship contender. Too many offensive questions for me to sign on to this.

College basketball

• Is Harrison Barnes a cautionary tale for Andrew Wiggins? Barnes came in with similar, albeit rather less hype, and failed to live up to it. This is the dark side of being considered in the same category as guys like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

• Mike Krzyzewski criticizes Notre Dame (and implicitly, the ACC) for being unwilling to fully join the league, opting not to participate in ACC football and hockey.

  The hockey part I get — does the ACC even have a hockey league? But for football, I don't blame Krzyzewski for his complaint. Notre Dame is getting special treatment, and I do wonder if the dollars and cents actually make sense in this arrangement.

  I think the ACC was willing to enter into this arrangement in hopes that eventually, the Irish would relent and fully join the league. I think that's unlikely. Notre Dame is perhaps the most narcissistic religious institution in America.

  Mike Brey's response was, well, questionable at best. He'd have been much better of to say nothing than invoke Catholicism, and I think telling the dean of ACC coaches to shut up and embrace the "Hey, we're talkin' money YO!" is just a little disrespectful. Yes, I know you don't like Krzyzewski, dear Duke-hating Kentucky fan, but sometimes, he's right.

• I never thought realignment was bad in the first place, so I'm not sure what nouveau basketball Luddite Dana O'Neil is talking about.

• UCLA and Steve Alford are joined at the bank account:

  The Los Angeles Times reported Monday night that Alford’s contract with the school has huge mutual buyout provisions, with both UCLA and Alford on the hook for as much as $10.6 million in restitution should either terminate their relationship before three years have elapsed. From that point, the two-way buyout drops by a further quarter each year. If Alford is fired or quits before April 30 after his fourth season in Westwood, the price is $7.8 million. It moves to $5.2 million and then $2.6 million after years five and six of the seven-year, $18.2 million contract.

  Guess Bruins fans better get used to Alford, because he's unlikely to be getting fired or leaving. Bruins Nation is not pleased with this revelation.

• As reported earlier in yesterday's comments, Chris Walker, highly-ranked incoming Florida player, is still in academic limbo, and some people reported yesterday that he was declared ineligible. That doesn't seem to be the case ... yet. But there's more to the story, and Andy Katz has it.

Other sports news

• Sports video games drop Aaron Hernandez. Wise.

Other news