Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Governor's Cup Edition

This is the last of the quickies before game day. Tomorrow, we'll have the tailgate, as usual, and the game threads. This time, I guarantee the game thread will be up on time.

Tweet of the Morning:

Irony the guys who said they got their grades/work done for em flunked out-- Guys who said drugs were rampant were kicked off for drugs

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) September 13, 2013

This is re: the SI Oklahoma St. article. So we have guys who were kicked off the team for drugs or grades alleging improprieties. Hmmm, do I detect a tiny whiff of cheese? As I said, McJournalism.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Just like Hank predicted earlier, UK is still in the hunt for Marcelys Jones. Via Hank

• Another reason why we've had a coaching change. [Hank]

• How this game tomorrow will affect recruiting...not much. [Hank]

  "In covering recruiting for 11 years, who wins and loses an individual game — I can't think of a single time where it's really factored into a kid's decision," Rivals.com analyst Josh Helmholdt told the Herald-Leader. "What these guys are looking at is not how the team is today, it's how it's going to be for the next four or five years while they're at the school."

  The more I read this, the better I feel.

• I can't figure out if this is pro-Kentucky hyperbole or an honest assessment. I think I'll pick door number two.

• What to look for tomorrow.

• Contra an earlier piece I linked, Jen Smith says that this game does have recruiting implications. I'm so confused ...

• Kentucky plans to "pester" Teddy Bridgewater. How can I say this delicately ... well, I really can't. If they don't "pester" him quite a lot, Kentucky will lose huge. Huge. You give Bridgewater all day to survey the field, and you'll need a Cray supercomputer to count the score.

• Card Chronicle breaks down Kentucky, and does a pretty nice job of it, too.

• Tom Leach previews the UK-U of L game.

• Hope, or just hand-wringing?

  The relatively modest spread for Saturday's game seems to indicate that Vegas isn't buying the U of L hype, which is just a tad unsettling.

  I'm going to admit something to y'all: This game terrifies me.

  I tweeted about the opening line early Sunday morning, Louisville -7.5, and by the time I landed back in Nashville, Tenn., the line had moved all the way to Louisville -13.5.

  Ninety-five percent of all the money is on Louisville, and we've finally settled at two touchdowns.

  Why is this line hanging here?

  Because Vegas believes that the Louisville story is a bit of a myth. First, Outkick told you that Louisville's schedule is so weak that 26 different teams would be favored in every game. Second, look at Louisville's 2012 schedule. Yes, they put a whipping on Florida, which really launched Louisville as a "top 10 team" story. But the Cardinals beat only two teams by more than 10 points last year. (Granted, one of those teams was Kentucky). They also lost to really bad/mediocre Syracuse and UConn teams.

  So, drum roll . . . I'm taking Kentucky plus two touchdowns.

  I believe that Louisville's dominance is a bit of a myth.

  And if I'm wrong on this, you guys can call me a complete and total idiot. (Which happens every day anyway on Twitter, but still, I'll deserve it for not picking Louisville to destroy a bad Kentucky team.)

Kentucky basketball

• The Krossover Blog talks about the John Calipari Fantasy experience. Lots of nice pics and stuff. Take the time.

• JC had this earlier, but here is Ben Roberts story on Coach Cal offering Miles Turner a scholarship. My, but we are recruiting Texas hard these days.

• This is nice, but I wouldn't read a lot into it. We still have a lot of work to do to land Okafor.

• More Alumni Charity game highlights:

• Cliff Alexander plans to visit Illinois. I still like our chances for this guy.

• Tayshaun Prince was one of James Young's favorite players growing up.

• Don't forget Tyler Ulis makes his decision tonight at 8:20 pm.

• Larry Vaught has more on Tyler Ulis, and how he overcomes his diminutive size.

Other Kentucky sports

Links posts

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• John Clay's SEC Links

• The Leach Report — Friday Wildcat Links

College football

• Will Muschamp is now getting compared to Ron Zook at Florida. I have felt this coming for a while now, and here it is. Via Hank.

• Where do college football players come from? Football Study Hall has your answers, and I don't think you will be terribly surprised. Kentucky is very low on the food chain.

College basketball

• Bruins Nation is ripping Steve Alford here and here. If this is indicative of the Bruins fan base overall, Alford has a huge hole to dig himself out of.

Other sports news

• Cincinnati Colerain and Louisville Trinity is a big HS game tonight, but maybe an even bigger game might be Francis Howell (Missouri) and Cincinnati Elder. [Hank]

• In Kentucky, Ft. Thomas Highlands visits John Hardin. [Hank]

• At the national level, the biggest game has Ft. Lauderdale's St. Thomas Aquinas visiting River Ridge's John Curtis for a game in the New Orleans Superdome. Aquinas is ranked #3 and Curtis is ranked #6 by Max Preps. [Hank]

• And The Valley Shook looks at the Alabama problems revealed by Charles Robinson and actually comes down on the side of the Tide. Besides the marvel of seeing an LSU fan do this, he makes a fair, if assailable, point.

• You'll no doubt be watching the TAMU-Crimson Tide game this week (if you're a football fan and near a TV, anyway). Good Bull Hunting tries to find weaknesses to exploit in the Alabama Leviathan.

• I gave you an anti-Will Muschamp perspective earlier. Here is the pro-Muschamp side. Interestingly, like the "Stoops gets a pass this year no matter what" group at Kentucky, this article invokes "process" as well.

  A part of me is starting to hate that. It just sounds like an excuse to me, and a buzzword. I don't necessarily disagree with the reasoning, I have just come to distrust "process" as invoked as a noun by coaches and fans. Leave it as a proper verb, and I am fine with it.

• A moving story about how one baseball game helps heal 9/11 wounds.