Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Vinsane In The Membrane Edition

Vince Carter hit a last-second 3-pointer yesterday to push the Dallas Mavericks over the San Antonio Spurs. Here is a neat video comparing a shot Carter missed versus Toronto back in 2001 that is eerily similar to the one he made last night:

Amazing.

Tweet of the Morning

Kentucky's Harrison twins have a simple reason for wanting to return for their sophomore seasons. pic.twitter.com/0ct12iByzJ

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 25, 2014

Indeed.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Jojo Kemp was really impressive yesterday. He had surgery to remove bone spurs from his ankles, and that has really helped:

  "I feel good, coming out of my cuts a lot faster," Kemp said. "I'm not feeling the pain in my ankles. That was what the major deal was last year, I was feeling pain in my ankles."

  Kemp says the bone spurs first bothered him at DeLand (Fla.) High School, but that he was usually able to outrun opponents at that level without relying on change-of-direction. But pain became his constant companion last fall, and a recurring source of frustration.

  "Every time I was making the cuts in practice I was feeling the pain," he said. "(Now) I feel good, coming out of my cuts a lot faster.

  That makes a big difference.

• Damien Harris and several other Kentucky recruits tweet about the Wildcats' spring game. I thought it went off swimmingly — very nice crowd of about 35K, some pretty good football played.

• Patrick Towles was the starter yesterday, and he looked the part. Yes, he did, very much so. In my mind, Towles was much the best yesterday. Neal Brown doesn't agree, but that may be posturing as much as anything. It's pretty clear Towles was the best of the three yesterday, and by a substantial margin.

• Running backs stole the show yesterday. No doubt about that. Jojo Kemp. Braylon Heard, and Josh Clemons were all very impressive, and Mikel Horton as well.

• Blue/White game recap.

• Five things we learned from the Blue/White game.

• Ground game precedes Air Raid in spring game.

  Meanwhile, Towles, who many assumed might be headed out of the program after not playing last season, now emerges from spring practice as the front-runner to be the starter this fall.

  Towles looks physically different from the last time he took the field for Kentucky. He looks leaner, stronger, and much, much more confident.

• Nice:

  Another Vicky Graff photo from Blue-White Game pic.twitter.com/GGWcgf5AQV

  — Vaughts' Views (@vaughtsviews) April 27, 2014

Kentucky basketball

• Nice article about Calipari's philosophy. We've heard this bit of reverse psychology before, but it's wort seeing again:

  Calipari is completely honest with his players: "Playing for me is going to be the hardest thing you've ever done. If you're not up for that, go somewhere else. Please go somewhere else."

  This reminds me very much of my sales training. It's a very effective closing technique. Having said that, it's much more effective when you really mean it than when you employ it as part of a process.

• Kentucky deserves the hype for next season, according to Adam Himmelsbach:

  I can't imagine there has ever been a time when six — six! — players who could have been drafted all returned to school. And then, ho-hum, you add in four more McDonald's All-Americans. And then you realize what the fuss is about.

  Yes, Kentucky deserves some hype, but forget the 40-0 crap that has started floating around. Let's just enjoy the ride.

• For the first time as Kentucky coach, John Calipari will have a point guard with experience in his system.

  I think that's kind of a big deal.

• Kentucky recruiting 2016 prospect Doral Moore, along with just about everybody else in America.

• Calipari in California with Barry Rohrssen, John Robic headed to Texas.

• Calipari says Kentucky has "...a lot of work to do."

  "There may not be as many minutes," Calipari said. "We'll coach every player like he's a starter. We did that this season. That's what we did with Dominique Hawkins and that's why Marcus Lee was ready. Each of them have things they must work on."

• UK seniors not ready to get full-time jobs, exploring playing professionally somewhere.

Other Kentucky sports

• Bat Cats crushed by Ole Miss for the second straight game 18-5, losing the series.

• Softball evens the series at Tennessee 5-2, rubber match today at 2:00 PM.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Sunday Wildcats Links

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

College football

• Jim Delaney thinks that there may not be enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all the bowls next year. A minimum of 78 teams will be needed.

  Perhaps we should have fewer bowls, then.

College basketball

• Indiana in a state of turmoil. Star guard Yogi Ferrell arrested for presenting a fake ID.

• Jordan Adams of UCLA changes his mind, decides to go to the NBA Draft.

• Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn recruiting players for Bruce Pearl? Well, until his show-cause order expires, I guess that's a plan.

• SMU had to break the bank to hire Larry Brown. Seems to be paying off.

Other sports news

• Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling allegedly made racist remarks that were obtained by TMZ. The NBA Commissioner is looking into the matter, but they were pretty awful and if true, will surely result in some kind of league action.

  Silver plans to afford Sterling due process:

  "All members of the NBA family should be afforded due process and a fair opportunity to present their side of any controversy," Silver said. "The core of the investigation is understanding whether the tape is authentic, interviewing Mr. Sterling and interviewing the woman as well and understanding the context in which it was recorded."

• Bo Ryan receives a contract extension at Wisconsin. Well deserved, I'd say.

• Tom Ziller blasts Donald Sterling.

• Dane Kane is the Jerry Tipton of North Carolina sports.

  There have been violent threats, angry screeds, Twitter flame campaigns and an entire website predicated on the putative hideousness of Dan Kane’s existence. Someone sent Kane an email wishing him a lingering death by bone cancer. Someone else tweeted him a photograph of a noose.

• Nene suspended after altercation. That's bad news for John Wall and the Wizards.

Other news

• A true Blue and White wedding.