Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: NCAA Tournament Kickoff Edition

Today, the NCAA Tournament begins in earnest, the First Four having been completed yesterday. Here we go.

Tweet of the Morning

Infographic to get you ready for #UKbaseball's series with No. 1 South Carolina, starting Friday at 6:30 pm: pic.twitter.com/thYJUKBQ4C

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) March 20, 2014

Baseball, baby!

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kentucky, Maryland in a recruiting battle for Myles Hartsfield.

• Blue/white game ticket info.

Kentucky basketball

• Florida players praise Kentucky's improvement. They say you can judge someone by the quality of their foes, and I suppose that could be true of basketball teams as well.

• Now is the time to go out there and play. For sure, if there ever was a time to be playing well, this is certainly it.

• Willie Cauley-Stein finds the pressure this year a lot less than last year. Yeah, and the misery index is a lot lower, too.

• Easy? Who said anything about easy? I think going the hard road is best for this Wildcats team. They know they have what it takes to make a full six-pack, but can they find the little plastic thingy to hold it together?

• Julius Randle knows John Calipari has his back. And so does the rest of the team.

• Randle's longtime mentor helps him through.

• Kentucky vs. Kansas St. preview

Links posts

• The Secondary Break

• The Leach Report: Thursday Wildcat Links

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• Luke Kennard named Ohio Mr. Basketball. I'd love to land this kid.

College basketball

• Time for #16 to beat #1? Nope.

• Ashley Judd accidentally swaps phones with Terrence Jones. Oops.

• Why won't college basketball coaches stay off the court? Good question. I've got nothing.

• Some questions are better left unasked:

  Another I’d rather not hear asked of John Calipari or any other coach to whom it could apply: "You continue to recruit one-and-done players. Last year your team had to settle for the NIT. This year you are a No. 8 seed. Do you think you would be better off not going that route?"

  To stop recruiting players projected as one-and-done or those who think they are would mean bypassing Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, with whom Calipari won a national title in 2012.

  Finally. And to think I found this one a Kansas-centric site.

• Gotta give Kansas (the state) credit, they are well-represented in the NCAA Tournament this season. I think the Jayhawks have a decent chance of getting to the Final Four.

• Tennessee moves on in overtime.

• Chasing Cinderella 2014: North Dakota St.

  Fargo. Ugh. Saw the movie. Didn't like it.

Other sports news

• Kicking, officiating the focus of NFL bigwigs in the off season. A 43 yard extra point?

• The NCAA's five biggest existential threats. Honestly, I hope the full cost of attendance thing actually gets settled with the NCAA agreeing to ... you know, pay the full cost of attendance. I think the O'Bannon case is the only one likely to succeed at any level, and it may be at a rather lower level than most people hope.

• Uplifting story about how tragedy informed Fran McCaffery's son's recent surgery.

• All fine choices:

  Billy Donovan among 5 finalists for Naismith Coach of Year award. Others Gregg Marshall, Larry Brown, John Beilein, Tony Bennett.

  — Jerry Tipton (@JerryTipton) March 20, 2014

• Looking at the Midwest Bracket.