Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: C.J. Conrad Edition

4-star tight end C.J. Conrad is announcing his commitment today. Kentucky and Indiana are the combatants for his services, but most observers think Conrad will pick Kentucky. Conrad will announce his choice at 1:30. He's the #6 tight end in the nation, according to Rivals.com.

Tweets of the Morning

Two UK teams need the #BBN in big home contests today. @UKMensTennis vs. Denver in the NCAA first round at 3, @UKBaseball-Auburn at 6:30.

— Kentucky Athletics (@UKAthletics) May 9, 2014

Decision day for C.J. Conrad. Possible by end of the day w/ Conrad/Jordan Jones ranking factored in Cats will be near Top 15 nationally.

— Justin Rowland (@RowlandRIVALS) May 9, 2014

We'll be keeping an eye out.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kyle tucker talks to recent UK commitment Jordan Jones. Consider:

  Coach Stoops and Coach Marrow are Mooney graduates, and I felt like I would be taken care of there. It just felt right when I went on my visit. It felt like home.

  That's one heck of an "in" to the Cardinal Mooney program Kentucky has now. The Youngstown Vindicator has more here.

• In case you were wondering about the quarterback situation, Neal Brown reports that it hasn't changed.

• Alex Stump may be commited to Kentucky, but other schools are still chasing him.

• Kentucky moves up 18 spots in the updated S+P projections over at Football Study Hall.

• New offer for football:

  Kentucky offers Va. linebacker target Karafa. https://t.co/Mv8ToMmJUa

  — Justin Rowland (@RowlandRIVALS) May 9, 2014

• Heh:

  If Kentucky keeps this up, it may put the Cincinnatis, Indianas and West Virginias of the football world out of business.

  ...

  More good news should come later today when Ohio native and four-star tight end C.J. Conrad is expected to come on board and become the ninth commitment of Kentucky’s 2015 class. He and Eli Brown would give the Wildcats two top 200 nationally ranked players.

Kentucky basketball

• Jodie Meeks suggests that Coach Cal stay at Kentucky. Good advice.

• John Calipari's new book has been out for three weeks, and it has been on the NYT best seller list all three weeks. It's currently #21

• Kentucky to renew series with Eastern Kentucky University next season. That's excellent. I wish we'd consider playing Western Kentucky as well.

• Happy birthday, Jarrod Polson:

  Happy birthday wishes to @jpolson05 Have a great day Jarrod! #WeAreUK

  — Kentucky Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) May 8, 2014

Other Kentucky sports

• Kentucky softball shuts out Tennessee, moves to semifinals of the SEC Tournament. UK faces LSU today at 3:00.

• Men's NCAA Tennis tournament begins today at noon. Kentucky is hosting a regional in Lexington.

• Huge series for the Bat Cats this weekend as they host Auburn in their home schedule wrap-up series for the season. This is a huge series, and Kentucky desperately needs to, at minimum, take the series 2-1.

• A.J. Reed on Golden Spikes watch list.

• The 5th ranked Kentucky women's track team has two members on the Bowerman Watch List.

• Matthew Mitchell lands Allen County-Scottsville star guard Morgan Rich.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Morning Wildcat Links

College football

• SEC outlook. Consider:

  It is clear that [the UK athletic] administration has stepped up -- jumped up? -- its efforts to make Kentucky a relevant player on the college football landscape. It would only mean so much if they did not commit to the coach who is breathing much fresh air into the program for the long term. It also puts an end to a coaching carousel that cycled Hal Mumme, Guy Morriss, Rich Brooks and Joker Phillips in and out of the program in the 16 seasons prior to Stoops coming onboard last season.

• There is plenty of opposition to the NLRB decision on college football players as employees, and Baylor is one such opponent.

• Will Muschamp's humorous draft-day tweet.

College basketball

• Jabari Parker says goodbye to Duke fans.

• Trey Lyles among the newcomers to watch at the power forward spot, according to Dana O'Neil.

• CBS says that Ben Howland is a perfect fit for Oregon State. He might be.

Other sports news

• The FBI is investigating DerbyDeals.com according to WDRB. It's about some kind of fake ticket and lodging scam.

• Minnesota Vikings pick Teddy Bridgewater. CBS gives them a B-.

• JIm Tressel is the new president of Youngstown State. Luke Zimmerman at Land Grant Holy Land has more.

• DeAndre Liggins has been selected to participate in the NBA DL's Elite Mini Camp. Great news for DeAndre, and hopefully a sign he'll be getting back to the NBA soon. Via Aaron's blog

• SEC has 11 first-round NFL Draft picks, one short of last season's record.

Other news