Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: A.J. Reed Accolades Edition

A.J. Reed has won another Player of the Year award, this time from the publication Baseball America. Consider:

Using deadened BBCOR bats, Reed smacked 23 home runs as well, matching Olerud’s total with supercharged bats. Reed led the nation in homers, slugging percentage (.735) and OPS (1.211), while ranking second in total bases (164) and third in RBIs (73). He hit .336 with a .476 on-base percentage, walking (49) more than he struck out (48).

That offensive season alone would make him worthy of the Player of the Year award, but Reed also went 12-2, 2.09 in 112 innings as Kentucky’s Friday night ace in the rugged Southeastern Conference. He ranks just one win shy of the national lead and tops the SEC.

Congrats to A.J. We will be hearing a lot more from him.

Tweet of the Morning

ICYMI: Behold the laser rocket canon bazooka arm. http://t.co/NbQfnUdxwo

— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_CJ) June 11, 2014

Dayuuum!

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Ira Combs wonders in who's hands Stoops & Co. will place the offense, i.e. the quarterback spot:

  In my humble opinion with all of UK’s struggles in football the last (5) years the constant and most inconsistent position that’s hurt the most has been at quarterback . It’s plain and simple to me if you don’t have a special talent their it will get a coach fired quicker than anything short of NCAA rules violations .

  Just ask Joker Phillips .

  It appears Phillips ( who was the primary recruiter ) evidently went brain dead in the evaluation process when he went north to Indianapolis to evaluate what started out being a 5 star blue chip Morgan Newton but ended up being an inept falling fast 3 star by the time he entered the college scene according to most recruiting services . Turns out Newton had slow and lethargic feet & legs plus a right arm that had the accuracy of Tim Robbins in the movie Bull Durham .

  Sigh.

  

• Ranking the 2014 SEC schedule strengths. Kentucky is in the top third of the league, but by no means #1.

• Be sure to read Bud Elliot's evaluation of UK recruit and top running back for 2015, Damien Harris.

• SEC position ratings: Wide receiver. Kentucky grades out above Arkansas and Vanderbilt. I suppose that's okay.

• SEC position rankings: Running back. I think UK is much better than 12th.

• SEC position rankings: Quarterback. UK is ranked last, and probably deserves to be.

Kentucky basketball

• Malik Newman is pretty good. The pope is pretty Catholic. You see what I did there?

  Notice the left hand. This young man uses his left hand very well, even dunking once with it. That is a very rare skill in a high-school player. Obviously, such dominant offensive players are often not very good defensively.

  He reminds me of Eric Bledsoe, not as a freshman, but as an NBA player. Similar body type and athleticism.

• Mitch Barnhart does his best Alfred E. Neuman impersonation. What, me worry?

• The Harrison Twins want to have more fun this season:

  As sophomores, "I think we’ll all have a lot more fun earlier in the season," Aaron added. "The game is about energy, and we’ll have it early on because we’ll be ready for anything. We won’t have to go through that learning curve."

  I think it will be easier, in the beginning. They'll have to come back to school ready, though, and prepared to lead.

• The freshmen are coming! The freshmen are coming! It's never too soon. Consider:

  Having all the new Wildcats on campus for the beginning of summer school is a change from last year, when Aaron and Andrew Harrison and James Young didn't move to Lexington until late August, right before the start of the fall semester. Their lateness to enroll was essentially due to their high school years ending too late to get enrolled in early summer school session.

  More at NBC Sports.

• Why Julius Randle's stake (I think they mean, "stock") should go up come draft day:

• So now we hear that perhaps the Cleveland-Calipari thing was not in "deep negotiations" as previously reported:

  Contrary to reports, the Cavaliers' courtship of Calipari never reached a point where an actual offer was on the table. According to sources with intimate knowledge of the situation, Calipari joining the Cavaliers "had zero chance of happening as of three weeks ago."

  So where did this 7-year, $60 million offer come from? Dare I say, speculation? Rumor? The Force? I don't know.

• Sports Illustrated tries to come up with a successor to John Calipari. They list Sean Miller as #1, and I think that's plausible. I don't think there is anything we could offer Billy Donovan to get him to move, I think he is the SEC equivalent of Mike Krzyzewski. Hat tip: Kentucky Sports Radio.

• Tyler Ulis will wear #3 for Kentucky next season, apparently.

Other Kentucky sports

• NCAA Track and Field championships to begin for the 5th ranked women and 17th ranked men today.

• New Kentucky soccer complex named after Wendell & Vickie Bell, two big UK athletics supporters.

• Kentucky enters the track and field championships favored in three events.

• While Cawood Ledford is remembered most fondly, he followed another UK broadcast legend: Claude Sullivan.

Links posts

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• The Leach Report: Wednesday Wildcat Links

College football

• The Red River Rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas will stay at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas through 2025.

College basketball

• North Carolina AD releases statement supporting Ol' Roy. I don't think we've heard the last of this.

• The Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry is returning. That's good news, I think.

• The nation's leading returning scorer is transferring to Auburn.

Other sports news

• Wow, Donald Sterling. There's a whole lot of crazy, and anger, in this statement. Freedom of speech is a restraint on government, not the NBA. As a lawyer, you should know that.

  As the author says — oddly fascinating.

• Former Wildcat Collin Cowgill hits the game winner for the Los Angeles Angels over the Oakland Athletics.

• Remembering Payne Stewart. Hat tip: Real Clear Sports.

• The War of the Sterlings doesn't quite roll off the tongue like The War of the Roses, does it?

• Day 2 of the O'Bannon vs. NCAA trial.

• The worst NFL draft of the century. Of this century, maybe.

• The SEC's two smallest schools are bound for the College World Series.

Other news

• News you can use: Why sleep deprivation can kill.

• A cow who thinks she's a dog. I wonder if she fetches?

• Kentucky proud.

• Father's day is over coming up, and here are some quality steakhouses if you are in these cities.