Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Clippers Collapse Edition

In case you missed it last night (and I confess, I did), the Los Angeles Clippers were up 13 points with 4 minutes left and managed to lose the game to the OKC Thunder. I blame Donald Sterling. There's more about this below.

Tweet of the Morning

ACC schools considering having non-conference games vs. other ACC teams, ADs/coaches tell @ESPN

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) May 14, 2014

This is so ACC.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kentucky is involved in a recruiting battle with Ohio St. (among others) for 2016 QB Zedrick Cooper.

• These (Conrad, Hiers,etc) are the kind of kids we want.....Like Barker, they recruit. {Hank}

• Kentucky's coaching staff has really changed the mentality of players like Ryan Timmons. I like to hear stuff like this. Via Hank

• Will high school football become the new BCS? {Hank}

Kentucky basketball

• John Calipari is doing fine recovering from hip surgery. On CoachCal.com, he talks about this as a "process." You all know I hate that word, but it is appropriate and I'll just have to live with that.

  The physical therapist came and met with me yesterday and we went out and walked for a bit. As we were getting done with physical therapy, he turns to me and says, "I know how much you want to skip steps and get this over with, but you just can’t. Your body won’t allow it. Just do a little bit more every day. If you get to the point where you’re trying to do too much, pull back."

  Sounds familiar to me. I'm sure it does to you.

• Barry Rohrssen's introductory press conference.

  I like this guy. His articulation is very clear, and mostly concise. Seems like a really smart man, and he's definitely a smooth talker.

• Three quick thought on Barry Rohrssen's presser.

  1. Grateful to be here. At one point, when Rohrssen talked about being here at Kentucky, his eyes got watery. Rohrssen said he came from a single-parent home in New York and that it was a dream come true to make it to this spot.

  I noticed this too. He got a little misty at one point. Made me feel good.

• Position battles for next season from Eamonn Brennan. Today, shooting guards:

  Kentucky: Aaron Harrison versus Devin Booker

  Kentucky's most fascinating positional intrigue will come from the frontcourt, where John Calipari has approximately 754 NBA-prospect forwards to parse into some recognizable rotation. It's harder to imagine him shaking things up in the backcourt after March's runner-up run, especially now that the Harrisons seem to have figured things out. But Booker is absolutely a player to watch, especially if one or both of the Harrisons regress.

  I don't think either Harrison will regress, but I think Booker will get plenty of minutes.

• Potential UK basketball target reclassifies to 2015 from 2016.

• Eron Gordon is now on Kentucky's 2016 radar. We have a nice pipeline going from Indianapolis.

• Kentucky comes after a Pittsburgh recruiting target. Cardiac Hill blames Barry Rohrssen.

Other Kentucky sports

• Bat Cats lose to Murray St. in extra innings. After such a promising series this weekend — this.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Wednesday Wildcat Links

• Tennis player Tom Jomby named conference Player of the Year.

• UK Athletics will host the 2014 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships starting today.

College football

• Vandy has the easiest strength of schedule in the SEC next year, according to Jon Cooper at Saturday Down South.

• Jason Kirk says that BYU deserves to be included in the new SEC/ACC schedule plan that is requiring members to schedule a FBS opponent among their non-conference slate. I think he makes a very good argument.

College basketball

• Anthony Hickey has left LSU, destination unknown.

• Former UK coach Billy Gillipsie testified at Jim Donnan's fraud trial, and allegedly lost about $700,000 dealing with him.

• Tennessee adds four players in two days. Well, you go, Donnie.

Other sports news

• Jodie Meeks wonders what would have happened if he'd stayed, but doesn't regret leaving. Via Aaron's blog.

• Wild game last night between the Clippers and the Thunder. Check out this video explaining the last 40 seconds, where all the drama took place:

  That last call looked bad to me, and to Doc Rivers as well. Obviously, this dovetails into a "quality of officiating" debate, something which does get remarked upon (fairly infrequently) here.  More at Clippers Nation, who describes it as "Theater of the absurd"

• Kentucky High School Athletics Association approves some realignment in boys football.

• The Preakness Stakes draw for post position will take place today.

• While I don't pay much attention to the NFL Draft, this is an interesting story concerning star power. {Hank}

Other news

• I'll be ripping this idea off from Team Speed Kills. Look for it next week.