Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Rivalry Redux Edition

Tonight is the big night that we've been waiting for all week. The Louisville Cardinals and the Kentucky Wildcats, for the second time in three years, get a rivalry redux.

Tweet of the Morning

God is obviously a Kentucky fan...why else would the sky be BLUE!! #gocats #BBN 💙👍

— Emily Beeman (@Steamin_Beeman2) March 28, 2014

Contra the sockpuppet Kent Sterling below.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Karl Towns Jr. is the Gatorade National Player of the year. I'm sure this has been linked already, but just in case you missed it.

• SEC spring football forecast: Kentucky Wildcats.

• What to watch as Kentucky begins spring practice. I'm even more excited about this spring than last, and what I really want to focus on is our defensive line and secondary. If those are much improved, Kentucky could be a minor factor this season.

• Three burning questions as Kentucky begins spring drills.

• College football teams that could learn from their basketball counterparts. Kentucky sits at #2. I don't know if being pegged as one of the "most dismal football teams in the country" is quite fair. A lot of football teams would look dismal in the SEC.

• Entering spring practice, Kentucky is expecting a boost from their redshirt players. Erik Korem's High Performance training will come into stark focus this season.

Kentucky basketball

• This ought to get you going:

• Patrick Patterson thinks Kentucky will win. I like this:

  "You see the fans, you see the students, the amount of passion and hatred for one another is there," Patterson said.

  "When you’re staring the Cardinals in the face, the history, the criticism, it all comes out on the court. You embrace it and you go out and play for UK."

  Patterson's favorite player on this season's team is Julius Randle. That's no surprise to me. Read the whole thing.

• What will be the consequences if the game is called tight? I'd say that's a big advantage for UK, which is why it probably won't happen. That's not a conspiracy theory, I just think that college officials sometimes want to negate any potential advantage/disadvantage they can produce in games.

• Kentucky vs. Louisville in the Sweet Sixteen is a must-watch event.

• According to the sockpuppet Kent Sterling, Louisville will win because God hates Calipari. Sometimes, laughter is the best medicine for hatred. Usually, in fact.

• The New York Times has a piece today about Jon Hood, noting that although he doesn't get many minutes on the court, he's played with more NBA players than anyone in the history of college basketball — 17 and growing. Great article, you should read the whole thing.

• The New York Times is all about Kentucky today. This article deals with the UK-U of L rivalry.

• MassLive writer Jay King still mad that UK beat Wichita State. Very happy to disappoint you, Jay.

• This game is about more than bragging rights. No doubt. Louisville is just the team between the Wildcats and the next game, according to Willie Cauley-Stein, and I think he's right.

• Did criticism bring the Wildcats together? I suppose it's possible. Calipari has always been real big on the "Us against the world" dynamic on his teams.

• Most successful NCAA Tournament coaches. Calipari and Pitino are neck-in-neck.

• Tomorrow, Indiana Tech, led by Trey Lyles, will battle Lake Central for the 4A Indiana basketball championship.

• Jay Mariotti, frequent John Calipari critic, has another hit piece out on him. If you don't want to give him clicks, you can get the gist of it by reading this response. It's pretty darn good. In fact, it's really darn good!

• Don't like the one and done? Change the rules. This is more of what we've discussed a hundred times.

• Mike DeCourcy says that Kentucky and Louisville are more "Opponents than rivals." I actually think this is right in this game. The players see the other team as an obstacle to be overcome, not a rival to be destroyed. Frankly, I feel a little bit that way myself in this game, and I suppose it's because of the way the season went.

• Kentucky vs. Louisville is a clash of styles. Consider:

  The Wildcats are the sleeping giants of this tournament. They began the season as the presumptive No. 1 team in the nation and had the Big Blue Nation dreaming of an undefeated season. Instead, they grew and they sputtered, looked inspiring and awful at various times throughout the 26-10 season, and had rocks thrown at them for being a bunch of youthful underachievers.

  Note to the author: The sleeper has awakened.

Other Kentucky sports

• Baseball faces #5 Vandy this weekend, starting today. Be sure to read our Q&A with Anchor of Gold.

• Softball has their SEC home opener today against #21 Auburn. The Wildcats are winners of eight of their last nine games. Two more games of the 3-game series will be played this weekend.

Links posts

• The Secondary Break

• The Leach Report: Friday Wildcat Links

College football

• Experts debate the impact of the NLRB ruling that football players are "employees."

• Maryland's Randy Edsall has an idea that could change the face of college football recruiting. Interesting, but doomed to fail, I think. There's just going to be too much opposition, although I think the idea has considerable merit.

College basketball

• Florida defeats UCLA 79-68. Bruins Nation reacts:

  In the end, the Bruins never had an answer for the Gators defensive pressure. They could neither control the pace of the game or generate a consistent half court offense. Despite U.C.L.A. having what many experts said were more talented players, Florida's preparation and execution were the clear difference tonight.

• Wisconsin defeats Baylor convincingly.

• Arizona turns back San Diego State, but it was a close, tough game.

• Dayton handles Stanford.

• SB Nation's Sweet Sixteen power rankings.