Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: NCAA Action Edition

Yesterday, in response to Jay Bilas' exposure of their hypocrisy, the NCAA said it would no longer sell jerseys. Why can't everything with the NCAA happen this fast?

Tweet of the Morning:

In no way attacking Bilas here. But we're all a part of it. Are we gonna boycott bc players aren't paid? Not me. I got 2 kids and a mortgage

— Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) August 9, 2013

We are all hypocrites, right? Not me. I don't think the players should be paid. So there.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Za'Darius Smith can't wait to play in the Southeastern Conference. This is a good one, folks. The more I think about our defensive line, the more excited I get.

• Marcus McWilson's standout performance at his former school, Cardinal Mooney, raises expectations about his chances to get on the field as a freshman at Kentucky.

• Jason Hatcher comes from a house divided between Louisville and Kentucky, but he's all Blue and White now.

• There was a lot of negative recruiting going on with Jojo Kemp's suitors, especially bad-mouthing Kentucky. It did not work, and here's why:

  "It wasn't all the coaches that were doing negative recruiting, but once some of the guys started doing negative recruiting I knew it wasn't guys I wanted to be around," Kemp said. "I don't like to speak negative about nobody, I like speaking positive about everybody. So once the negative recruiting started going around I knew it wasn't the place for me. I wanted to be around a place of people that are respectful, that will stay positive and keep me going."

  I like it.

• The receiver position is a "blank canvas" this year.

• What SEC coaches are saying about Kentucky. Also via that same post, SEC coaches are not big fans of Bobby Petrino and say he was guilty of "bad recruiting" at Arkansas.

  [Editorial mode] Bobby Petrino is a douchebag, and I regret my alma mater chose him to coach there. [/editorial mode]

Kentucky basketball

• Tyler Ulis, a 5'9" point guard in the class of 2014, is interested in Kentucky, and says its mutual. I would just like to point out that as far as I know, Calipari has never considered a point guard this small. That may change, but it would be a change.

• Will Australian star Dante Exum play for Kentucky? I think it's more likely he'll try to go pro. I also wonder if he could have Enes Kanter issues.

• Is a Kentucky-UCLA game coming to an arena near you? Calipari seemed to hint at it. I think it would be great, I'd love to play the Bruins again. We owe them at least one.

• In case you missed it, Eric Lindsey over at CoachCal.com says Calipari will be looking to identify the leaders early in this group.

• So what about this Blackmon kid, y'all? Think we could use another shooter? I know I would enjoy the schadenfreude of possibly taking two recruits away from Tom Crean's 2014 class. And he does have Kentucky connections. Coach Cal, your office on line 1 ...

• Comes now a tweet from Rivals.com that UK might end up on Blackmon's list. I like it.

• 2014's Myles Turner still has the Wildcats on his list.

Links posts

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• The Leach Report — Friday Wildcat Links

College football

• You know, this whole memorabilia-signing nonsense just needs to die. Unless you have a bunch of eyewitnesses seeing players take cash for autographs, or a check from an autograph seller deposited to the bank account of a player or his family, you have shiznit. Just move fricking on, please.

• Steve Spurrier does his best Bruce Perl imitation, only without the hot young chick on his arm, and on the football field instead of a boat. Yikes. My eyes.

College basketball

• I think this blog post by John Clay is right. I think Bilas misses the mark when he talks about the power conferences leaving the NCAA Tournament to form their own. That argument is really a football issue, because football is where the money is.

• Andy Katz's 3-point shot.

Other sports news

• For all the racing fans in our audience, here is some pretty good stuff from our longform group. Myself, I don't know Dick Trickle from a load of coal.

• NBA teams don't seem to be tanking for Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins. I think that's wise.

• Mark Emmert says the NCAA is getting out of the jersey-selling business. That didn't take long. Now, if we could only get a few more NCAA reforms pushed through at that pace, and a new president, I think we might be getting somewhere.

  I suggest you ignore the self-serving blather about why Manziel can't profit off his signature. There are very good reasons for that. If he wants to sell his signature, let him leave school and sell it. This "only the kids needs matter" is crap, and it needs to stop. But it won't.

• Heh. Shabazz Muhammed scores, then gets the heave-ho from the NBA's Rookie Transition Program. Keep it in your pants, kid. You don't have to try to outdo Wilt Chamberlain in your rookie year.

• Julius Mays will be playing basketball overseas. So proud of him, and I wish him all the best. I think he'll enjoy it for all kinds of reasons.