Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Monday Edition

Mondays after a successful weekend in sports are always better. Both the men's and women's basketball teams had big victories and all seems right with the world.

Tweet of the Morning:

I'd like to give Rafael Nadal a trophy made of soft cheese just to see him freak out upon biting it.

— Tom Ziller (@teamziller) January 13, 2014

I have absolutely no idea what this means. None. Which is why it's awesome. I know who Rafael Nadal is, I know what a trophy is, and I know what soft cheese is. How these things come together into a coherent whole completely escapes me.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Where UK and Stoops may have an edge on U of L and Bobby Petrino. You mean, besides the obvious edge in class?

  I suppose UK fans should be flattered that Petrino used to spend all summer thinking about Kentucky. Except, well, Bobby Petrino.

• Since Mark Stoops took over, there has been a fairly large amount of roster attrition. Most of it by design, I'm sure.

Kentucky basketball

• I suppose I agree with Tipton's point here, even though the lede was somewhat off-putting. Contra Calipari, I thought the game against Duke last season was the best Poythres played, although I would agree that he had one of his best games against Vanderbilt.

• Calipari thinks stress and anxiety may be factors in Randle's cramping. This is definitely possible. Doctors are still not sure what brings on athletics-related cramping. Cal raises the point that Randle is really getting physically pounded in games, and that could be a factor. If so, he just needs to get after it more in practice.

• Martin Rickman, writing for SI.com, thinks winning on the road when you're not playing your best is a good sign for Kentucky, and I agree with him. Via Aaron's Blog.

• I think this is right:

  Sure, one of them might still throw an ill-advised lob in the final seconds because, well, who the hell knows why? But the good moments are starting to outnumber the bad moments, and that should be scary for the rest of the SEC (and country in general) because, as Calipari noted, unapologetically, this team still has more upside than any other team in the nation.

  Yes they do. They are getting closer to realizing that upside, but they're not there yet.

• Carlton Bragg (2015 power forward) finally got the offer from Kentucky he has been coveting. Well, I always love it when recruits wear UK gear:

  Bragg was sporting a new UK hooded sweatshirt after his team's practice session Friday and made it clear throughout the weekend that he coveted a scholarship offer from Calipari, who also watched him the week before at an event in West Virginia.

• 2014 commit Trey Lyles was held out of part of a game the other day because he needed to learn a "life lesson," according to his coach:

  "You learn something every day," said Delaney when asked about why Lyles sat out the first part of the third quarter. "It’s a life lesson for him. No, this doesn’t happen often with him. Sometimes you have to make an example out of your best player because the other guys will fall in line, too. Everyone is held to a high standard on our team, and there are times you have to put your focus on the best player. But he is fine. He’s a great kid, coachable. But sometimes we just have to make statements."

  I think that's right.

• Arkansas hopes to wear down Kentucky with its depth?

  "We have a lot of guys playing at a high level," said Arkansas coach Mike Anderson even though his team opened Southeastern Conference play with a loss at Texas A&M and then got beat at home in overtime by Florida Saturday. "Our strength is our depth. We have quality depth.

  Has he failed to notice that Kentucky played 10 guys meaningful minutes against Vandy? Or is he trying to suggest his depth is better? Either one is problematic at best.

• Those who knock Tyler Ulis due to his size do so at their own peril:

  "I think he’s a really important recruit for (Kentucky) because since Calipari has gotten (there), it’s been all one-and-done guys for the most part at point guard," [Baskeball Analyist Evan] Daniels said. "And I think there’s a chance with Tyler Ulis that they can get some continuity at that spot and have a guy who is going to be around for three or four years and really have an impact all those years. I think he’s a guy you can hand the ball to right away, and he’ll be effective. I think when you surround Tyler Ulis with elite players, it’ll raise his level of play."

• Dakari Johnson should stay at Kentucky, says Kevin Boyle. Doh.

Other Kentucky sports

• Be sure to read my postmortem of Kentucky Hoops' defeat of the Missouri Tigers yesterday in Memorial Coliseum.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Monday Wildcat Links

• The Secondary Break

College football

• U of L President Jim Ramsey explains why he signed off on Bobby Petrino's hire.

  The university is fine he says, and would say to Vitale, this is about an individual, forgiveness and second chances.

  Forgiveness and second chances are earned. Petrino's has not been. Ramsey's argument is specious. Via Hank.

• Heh.

• Penn St.'s Franklin begins to assemble a staff. Via Hank

• I'm sure you've heard that Louisville hired Todd Grantham, Georgia defensive coordinator, away for the same job. Here's what SB Nation's Georgia community at Dawg Sports had to say about that:

  The Louisville deal is reported to have a guaranteed term of five years and an annual salary of $1 million per year, which would of course be a nice bump annually over Grantham's current deal. The lengthy guarantee (again, if true) would be a huge upgrade over anything the Georgia administration has ever done for an assistant.

  If true, in my opinion Papa John and the boys are laughably overpaying for a guy who has delivered mediocre to sporadically above average results during his time in Athens. To put it in context, Kirby Smart's deal at Alabama is three years with a $3.85 million total payout. John Chavis's deal at LSU pays him $911,000 per year. Is there anyone who has the sense that Grantham is outperforming those guys.

  That seems to be the consensus.

College basketball

• Tennessee lost to Texas A&M on a last-second three. I saw that game, and UT just didn't really play very well. That three by Antwan Space was cold-blooded

• Tennessee women lose to Vanderbilt. That has to hurt. Kentucky needs to take note.

• UCLA reprises their loss to Arizona with an impressive win over Arizona St.

• P.J. Hairston, formerly of UNC-Chapel Hill, is headed to the NBA Development League, namely the Texas Legends.

• Georgia is on a roll in the SEC early in the season, but can they sustain it? To answer the author's question, aside from the Gators in Athens and the Wildcats in Lexington, the first half of the season seems eminently manageable. They will need to pick up a win on the road against Auburn or at home against Arkansas or LSU (games in which they will be significant underdogs), but getting to mid-season at 5-3 or 5-4 seems possible.

  They don't look good enough to go much above .500 for the SEC season, though. Not yet, at least.

Other sports news

• John Daly's pants. My eyes!

• Phoenix is not the same team with Eric Bledsoe out.

• Kentucky's former players had pretty big nights Saturday in the NBA. Great to see Doron Lamb playing so well.

• A very nice piece on Patrick Patterson.

Other news

• This is sad.
• This is cool.