Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Cleveland Cavaliers-John Calipari Flirtation Edition

We've all heard now about the John Calipari-Cleveland Cavaliers flirtation. We have plenty of links talking about that, and other things.

Tweet of the Morning

UK & Vandy only SEC schools to never have a team penalized because of poor Academic Progress Rate number.

— Jerry Tipton (@JerryTipton) June 10, 2014

Feather in our cap, to be sure.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Long-time ticketholders have a better chance at good seats in the new Commonwealth Stadium.

• We had this yesterday, but here's more. UK offers Craig Yeast II.

• ESPN names Ryan Timmons a second-year star. Hat tip: John Clay

• UK Football was on a service trip to Ethiopia in late May. UK punter Landon Foster writes about part of his experience there.

Kentucky basketball

• These two guys get several things wrong:

  First of all, Calipari has been with Kentucky five years, not three. Second, nobody, probably not even John Calipari himself, can say whether or not he has any desire to go to the NBA, yet Cornet states it as a matter of fact.

  Third, comparing a college team to an NBA team is just silly. Can we please all stop doing that, except to make a funny? These guys actually analyze the question — and somewhat badly, in my view.

  Finally, if getting to the point of receiving an opening bid for your services constitutes "deep negotiations," perhaps I don't understand the term.

• John Clay talks about the John Calipari-Cleveland flirtation. I think he gets it right.

• The various interested parties plan to meet Thursday to discuss the Rupp Arena matter. Good. I think there is plenty of momentum to get something meaningful done

• More on Calipari-Cleveland:

  Calipari told Sporting News in a recent conversation his restructured contract with Kentucky was in place in April. He said he wanted the performance incentives to be removed but the administration preferred to keep in place the $50,000 bonus for a successful Academic Progress Rate score.

• Tyler Ulis' dad says he's relieved that Coach Cal is not going to the NBA. Hat tip: Aaron's blog.

• Trey Lyles out of Indiana All-Stars game with meningitis. Wow, that's really serious, I hope he's okay. He seems to be.

• Is the guy who follows Calipari screwed? Probably.

• Why John Calipari was right to turn down Cleveland. Consider:

  The context of this isn't lost on anyone. The offer to Calipari essentially amounts to a desperate, all-in attempt by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert to to get James back. As you might remember, Gilbert threatened legal action and embarrassed himself forever with a letter bemoaning James' "shocking act of disloyalty" when he left for the Heat in the summer of 2010. Contrast that against a welcoming and winning environment in Miami, one that's seen the Heat become the first team since the '80s Celtics to reach the NBA Finals four years in a row, and it's easy to see why James' return to Cleveland was always a longshot.

  I think this is right, and Calipari was perfectly well aware of what the agenda was. I don't blame him for being unwilling to play this game.

Other Kentucky sports

• Baylor has been hard on Kentucky. No doubt. This is a classic:

  1. "The Carolina Way." If it were a road, you'd need to go slow — because it looks increasingly crooked.

  Heh. Classic.

• A.J. Reed reaches agreement with the Houston Astros.

Links posts

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• John Clay's SEC Links

College football

• The #1 worst trophy in college football: The Milk Can.

College basketball

• Rashad McCants teammates at North Carolina distance themselves from his claims of systemic academic fraud. So we have proven fraud at the university and claims that it extended not just to the football team but to the basketball team. Comes now some other players to deny that.

  I know who I believe, but then, seeing the arrogant "Carolina Way" take a beating is too rich in schadenfreude to resist.

• Bruins Nation: The crusade continues. If blogs had been around back when Saul Smith was playing, it would have been much the same at Kentucky sites.

• The O'Bannon case moves forward with an air of fait accompli:

  While the NCAA says it’s determined to draw the line on the antitrust claims in the O’Bannon case, the whole tone of the court proceeding yesterday suggested that the association expects to lose before Wilken and is doing what lawyers call “making a record” for an eventual appeal. The trial is scheduled to last for about three weeks. The judge would probably issue a ruling in late summer.

  This, however, is bizarre:

  Ed O’Bannon, a former college basketball player suing the National Collegiate Athletic Association in a bid to let student-athletes share in $800 million in annual broadcast revenue, said even Little League players should be paid if their games are televised.

  “Yea, absolutely, if they are generating revenue,” O’Bannon, who was the Most Outstanding Player of the 1995 Final Four while playing basketball at the University of California at Los Angeles, testified at an antitrust trial that started Monday in Oakland, Calif.

• Dan Reubenstein tries to explain O'Bannon vs. NCAA:

• Roll 'Bama Roll has a very interesting post on the O'Bannon case. You should read it.

Other sports news

• Steve Coburn, co-owner of California Chrome finally comes to his senses. Good. I'm not upset with him; it's common to say ridiculous things under the stress of severe disappointment, and now it seems he has regained his momentarily lost sanity. We have all done things like this, whether or not we're willing to admit it. The difference is, we probably haven't done it on national TV in front of millions.

  Ah, the price of Warhol's 15 minutes is sometimes very high.

• John Clay is right, and he's wrong when he says that if you change the schedule or the entrants, the Triple Crown won't be the Triple Crown anymore:

  So sure, go ahead and change all you want.

  Change the dates. That would be the ultimate admission today's thoroughbreds aren't tough enough to handle the stress of three races in five weeks.

  The Triple Crown race dates have changed several times in history. Consider:

  Since 1931, the order of Triple Crown races has been the Kentucky Derby first, followed by the Preakness Stakes, and then the Belmont Stakes.[2] Prior to 1931, the Preakness Stakes was run before the Kentucky Derby eleven times. On May 12, 1917, and again on May 13, 1922, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes were run on the same day.

  Does that mean that the Triple Crown winners prior to 1931 really didn't win the Triple Crown? Sorry Sir Barton. Tough luck, Gallant Fox. Somebody arrest somebody over 1922.

  Still, I take Clay's point. If you dilute the achievement, then it is lessened. He's right about that. To what degree, though, I'm not really sure.

  Humanity is fond of handing out trophies, and once enough time goes by without doing so, a debate about modernity catching up with possibility is legitimate. I just don't think enough time has passed. When its 50 years and nobody has won, maybe we should acknowledge it's no longer possible. But not yet. Not yet.

• So. Donald Sterling decided, apparently, that he's not going to roll over after all. Well, let me get my popcorn, this should be fascinating.

  He's certainly got a lot of money riding on this, so the huge price his wife negotiated is clearly not a motivator. And the contract language that binds the Sterling Family Trust to indemnify the NBA would seem to make the STF liable should Sterling win, although the silliness of Sterling collecting money from himself is overlooked by many in the commentariat disinterested in the merits of Sterling's case. He'd just forgive the debt, since his real objective is winning against the NBA, not any financial damages. He has more money than he can ever spend right now.

  This whole thing hinges on the declaration of incompetence, if it exists, that provided Shelly Sterling the legal right to negotiate the sale. Sterling will doubtless attack that first and foremost, because if that stands, his case falls. If Sterling can cast legal doubt on the declaration of incompetence, the sale becomes suspect and a judge would likely grant a restraining order preventing the sale from going forward until the competence of Sterling can be adjudicated.

  The problem is, this could all take longer than Sterling has to live, but if Sterling is able to overcome the declaration of incompetence, this gets interesting real fast. If he fails, his effort is stillborn and will be a simple sideshow of no great interest to anyone.

• Derek Fisher is poised to make some coin as the New York Knicks coach. I predict he'll last at least a year, but no more than two.

• That reaction by Dwyane Wade on the swipe by Manu Genobili the other night was ruled to be a violation of anti-flopping rules, and will cost Wade $5000. Heh. It was probably worth it to him for that possession.

• Former Olympic swimmer Amy Van Dyken severs her spine in ATV accident. Man, that's just tragic. Stay away from those things, they're killers.