Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Buzz Williams Edition

Buzz Williams shocks the Golden Eagle faithful, and leaves Marquette abruptly for... Virginia Tech? Yes, that's right.

Tweet of the Morning

WSU player on UK frontcourt: "Man, they're beasts. ... If you don't tame a beast, he's going to be a beast." http://t.co/CtFUgstjpK

— Aaron Smith (@ASmithRivals) March 23, 2014

Subscription required for the article, but the quote was priceless.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Can Kentucky sign 5-star players? Maybe ... Via Hank.

• Kentucky recruit Tucker Israel was among the players in the Elite 11 this Friday

Kentucky basketball

• Trey Lyles' team, Indianapolis Tech, dismisses Bloomington North in the Indiana state semifinals. Read about Lyle's huge game over at Hammer and Rails, who has done a spectacular job of covering the Indiana state tournament.

• Wildcats sights and sounds from St. Louis.

• Wichita State sees Kentucky as another proving ground. No reason they shouldn't they have earned the right to view the game this way.

• WSU coach Gregg Marshall doesn't take his team to Las Vegas for a reason:

  "We generally take measures to stay out of Vegas to schedule games," [WSU associate athletics director Darron] Boatright said. "You shouldn’t educate your guys on staying away from gambling and then take them to Vegas. I don’t think that’s consistent."

  I appreciate the sentiment, but I think it's overwrought. This is the second decade of the 21's century, not the second decade of the 20th.

• Kentucky's defensive intensity arrives just in time:

  Don't look now, but Kentucky has entered the Magical KenPom Window. After Friday night's NCAA Tournament-opening win over Kansas State, the Wildcats now rank No. 20 in Adjusted Offense and No. 22 in Adjusted Defense, according to Ken Pomeroy's advanced statistical rankings.

  Why is this significant? Each of the last 11 NCAA champions finished the season ranked top 25 in both those categories. Kentucky's defense had lagged well outside that criteria all regular season, but something changed when postseason play began.

  Let's just hope it continues.

• Kentucky may turn to Aaron for the point guard duties if Andrew can't go today.

  I think you'll see a combination of both Aaron and Polson, if that happens. Polson matches up pretty well against the Shockers.

• Coach Cal praises Gregg Marshall for their undefeated streak, and how he's managed it. I think that praise is deserved.

• The Sunday Leach Report

• Making open shots a must today. Absolutely right.

• Kentucky has ironic chance to spoil the perfect season. How many times have we heard this?

Other Kentucky sports

• Swish Appeal previews the Wildcats Hoops squad in the Tournament.

• Bat Cats claims historic win over the #1 South Carolina Gamecocks, winning the first two games of the series in Lexington. They go for the broom today. This is the second #1 ranked team Kentucky has taken down this season, defeating then #1 Virginia in the first game of the season.

• Softball takes down the Kansas Jayhawks in the Kentucky Tournament, plays doubleheader today.

Links posts

• KSR's Morning Links

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• The Leach Report: Sunday Wildcat Links

College basketball

• Dayton stuns the 'Cuse. Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician wonders what the they are supposed to do now?

• Connecticut upends Villanova. I was never a believer in Villanova, and I'm not a believer in Connecticut, either.

• Georgia falls to Louisiana Tech in the NIT/

• Buzz Williams bails on Marquette, takes job at Virginia Tech. Consider this from Anonymous Eagle:

  Third of all, and this is the one that will sting for Marquette fans, Virginia Tech's basketball program isn't half the program Marquette has been in the past. The Hokies have two NCAA tournament appearances in the past 28 years, they've been to just one Sweet 16 and one Elite 8 ever, which was in 1967. This is a program that ran Seth Greenberg out of town for being a bubble team coming out of a deep ACC for a few years in a row, and now the new athletic director, Whit Babcock is trying to correct the mistakes of his predecessor.

  This is very much reminiscent of Tubby Smith's leaving for Minnesota back in 2007 (remember back that far?) To me, this looks like a coach seeing the handwriting on the wall with a new AD and president coming in. It's also said that the reformation of the Big East was a factor, and that would not surprise me at all.

• Ben Howland reportedly interested in the vacant Marquette job.

Other news

• Heh. Jack Daniels fighting to hold on to their recipe as the only one for "Tennessee Whiskey." I have to say, up front, that I loathe Tennessee whiskey, and not just because it's made in Tennessee. Although that helps a little. Via Hank.