Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Lucy Li Edition

11-year old Lucy Li will be playing in the Women's U.S. Open this year as a qualifier. How awesome for such a young star.

Tweet of the Morning

Former UK wide receiver AJ Legree transferring to USF http://t.co/bXupJPn3rn

— Chris Fisher (@ChrisFisher247) June 18, 2014

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Justin Rowland of Rivals.com talks about some of Kentucky's recruiting prospects:

• Tyus Battle has received an offer from Kentucky, but he doesn't look like a point guard to me. Here's a recent mix tape. You decide:

• Kentucky lost two of their biggest linebacker targets yesterday, Nick Connor and Marquise Copeland.

• Darius Fullwood will announce his choice of schools on Saturday, June 28th. Ohio St., Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Kentucky and Miami are his top five, but don't rule out his home school, Maryland.

• Louisville vs. Kentucky makes Athlon's list of top-30 games for next season. Hat tip: NextCats.

• According to Phil Steele, Kentucky has more experience returning than all but two of their foes.

• More on Nick Connor's commitment to OSU. It's tough to beat Ohio St. for Ohio kids, and no mistake.

• Team Speed Kills says Kentucky's schedule provides a little bit of hope, at least early:

  Aug. 30 vs. UT-Martin

  Sept. 6 vs. Ohio

  Sept. 14 at Florida

  Sept. 27 vs. Vanderbilt

  It starts off as good as it gets. Aside from the trip to Gainesville to take on the Gators, this is about as favorable an opening schedule as Kentucky could get. If there is any faint hope of the Wildcats of making a bowl game -- if -- it has to start with a 3-1 record in these games. The layout is just too perfect: the FCS cupcake and home games against a midmajor and the Commodores, the latter coming off of a bye week. That's not to say that a 3-1 record here is likely, just that it's the best chance for Kentucky to set itself up for success. Even then, a postseason berth could be difficult to get, because things only get harder from here.

  Read the whole thing.

Kentucky basketball

• Chad Ford is bearish on Julius Randle's draft position. I think this is mostly overblown nonsense. We'll have to wait and see.

• Speaking of Randle, he had a great workout for the Lakers.

• Randle says that changing the NBA age limit is not in the best interests of players like him. Of course, changing the age limit isn't about the players' best interests, it's about the best interests of the league. Hat tip: Aaron's blog.

• Josh Pastner defends John Calipari from the latest accusation of impropriety.

• At The Hive, the Charlotte Hornets SB Nation community, compares James Young and Gary Harris. Here's what they say about Young:

  His shooting form looks smooth and reliable. Many scouts and GMs think he is a lot better than his shooting percentages suggest, similar to how scouts viewed Bradley Beal in 2012. Personally, I think Young is an underrated athlete, I think his style of game is more "finesse," but I saw him go up and try and dunk over big men two or three times this year showing impressive hops.

  ...

  I would categorize Young's personality on the defensive end as lazy. I never really saw him locked in, and this seriously worries me. Young has good size for the position, but he doesn't have a great understanding of where to be or what to do. I think this could really limit his playing time in his early NBA career.

  This is pretty spot-on for a guy who was not likely to have seen a lot of Young. Many times we complained about Young's defense, which was indifferent at the best of times. But he did make big shots, and I totally agree that his athleticism is underrated.

Other Kentucky sports

• In case you missed it, A.J. Reed made Perfect Game's All-American first team. They also called him the best player in college baseball last season.

• Austin Cousino has been named a Capital One Academic All-American.

Links posts

• John Clay's Big Blue Links

• John Clay's SEC Links

College football

• Alligator Army has more commentary about Joker Phillips.

• Buffalo Wild Wings pulls its sponsorship of whatever bowl they were sponsoring.

• Heh. Well, this is one way to ensure you don't have to deal with a bunch of recruiting from a rival team.

• Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney continues to toll the "autonomy from the NCAA" bell. I note that while Mike Slive clearly supports autonomy, he has kept his profile much lower.

• Okay, Jameis Winston is clearly the new Johnny Football. But you have to admit, this is pretty funny.

• Former Tennessee star Janzen Jackson accused of murder.

• Alabama's Lane Kiffin will be the most scrutinized assistant football coach ever, according to Mr. SEC. I think that's right. Consider:

  In Knoxville, Kiffin spent his first 12 months talking, committing secondary NCAA violations, and committing secondary NCAA violations by talking. From telling a booster club that Florida’s Urban Meyer cheated to dropping the name of then-star prospect Bryce Brown on a radio show, Kiffin’s mouth became a constant topic on the ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” “Pardon the Interruption,” and “SportsCenter.” He claimed that Steve Spurrier had accused him of cheating just as he’d accused Meyer of missteps. (Spurrier hushed him on a Destin elevator with the media on hand for the SEC meetings watching/chuckling.) Kiffin supposedly told eventual South Carolina receiver Alshon Jeffery that he would wind up pumping gas for the rest of his life if he inked with the Gamecocks.

  Heh. Every time Kiffin opens his mouth, something risible falls out.

College basketball

• Mark Emmert is slated to testify at the O'Bannon trial on Thursday. Considering his propensity to contract foot-in-mouth disease, that should be interesting.

• Speaking of O'Bannon, the judge in the case, Claudia Wilken, will be involved in a lot of other NCAA suits.

• Again speaking of O'Bannon, the plaintiffs are through and the NCAA begins making its case for preserving their model.

• Kansas will play in 2015 World University Games.

• Minnesota coach Richard Pitino talks to SI.

• Top incoming Ohio St. recruit D'Angelo Russell has not been cleared yet by the NCAA. The hold-up seems related to academics.

Other sports news

• Five overrated draft prospects. I'm surprised to find Doug McDermott in this group.

• Situational statistics: the 2014 point guard crop. Honestly, I prefer Marcus Smart over Dante Exum, but I don't think you could go wrong with either player.

• Johnny Manziel and the Cleveland Browns reach an agreement.

• Draft profile for Nik Stauskas.

• Well, we discussed this at length a while back, but it's worth mentioning again. Dwyane Wade's decline is the biggest problem the Miami Heat have right now. No doubt about it.

Other news

• It's been 20 years since the infamous O.J. Simpson low-speed chase.

• Digital scent transmitted across the Atlantic. Can "smellavision" be far behind?

• DNA evidence frees wrongly convicted man, who has spent 14 years in prison. At least he's still young.