So LeBron James is returning to Cleveland. Good for him. I thought his essay talking about his decision was very classy and speaks very highly of LeBron. I know Miami fans are disappointed, but there is a part of me that has always thought the Heat were just renting LeBron, and that Cleveland was always his ultimate destination.
After all the drama last time, I’m glad to see all concerned have lost their taste for it. It’s good to see adults acting like adults. I will say this — I think Vegas making Cleveland the favorite next season is one of the more absurd things I’ve seen, but remember — bettors have a whole lot to do with where that line is set, which may say more about them than Vegas.
I found this piece interesting, and not just for the simile that the author drew with Rupp’s Runts (Hat tip: Real Clear Sports ):
The Cavaliers, almost in spite of themselves, through lottery luck and lack of on-court pluck, have assembled younger talent (or, should it be “talents?”) with higher performance ceilings than anything Riley, now the Miami Heat’s generalissimo, has in Miami. The Cavs now offer the better chance to win in the East for James. (The shortcut to the Finals, particularly for someone who values shortcuts as much as James, is through the Eastern Conference.)
I suppose this is true, but one is forced to wonder. Yes, Cleveland is talented and young, but are they too young, and will that change before James is past his prime?
Tweet of the Day
Saw this:
I even made poke sallet. No really... pic.twitter.com/0903QijYM2
— Anthony Wireman (@awireman) July 12, 2014
And it reminded me of this:
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
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Who will improve the most this season in the SEC? Consider:
As for Kentucky, Stoops will continue to struggle getting the type of players necessary to compete in the forever football conference.
Has this guy been living under a rock? I’m thinking yes.
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Very cool from the UK media department. Hat tip: John Clay.
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2015 Virginia safety Jahque Alleyne has Kentucky in his top six, along with Louisville and Virginia, among others.
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What intrigues the media about the upcoming football season.
Kentucky basketball
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Consider:
At least the SIXERS finished second in the pursuit of the dude.... still have better recruiting skills than kentuckys coach #EMB11D
— Joel-Hans Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) July 11, 2014I see this as one as two possible things: Embiid is upset Calipari didn’t recruit him harder, or this is meant as some kind of attempt at reductio ad absurdum. I’m not sure he accomplished either one. Hat tip: John Clay.
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Remember John Stewart, a big recruit of Tubby Smith’s back in 1999 who perished before he could get to Kentucky? There will be a documentary about him today on cn|2. Hat tip: John Clay.
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So Coach Cal could have coached LeBron James after all. Maybe this is a little off, but whoop-de-doo. Hat tip: John Clay.
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Would John Calipari have turned down Cleveland if he’d known LeBron was coming back there?
Whether he knew it or not, Calipari did have that chance and he passed on it to return to Kentucky to coach a loaded team with nine McDonald’s All-Americans and aspirations of winning a second national title in four years.
All this assumes that Calipari didn’t know. But what if he did? He and LeBron are friends, and I guarantee you, Calipari would not breathe a word to anyone if he knew LeBron was changing teams.
Anyway, I prefer to believe, given what he has coming next season and what it represents to his legacy, that he would have made the same decision even if LeBron had announced his intentions to the world the day after the NBA Finals. I may be wrong about that, but who can gainsay me?
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Where in the world is John Calipari? Right where he should be.
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2015 Danjel Purifoy says Kentucky is one of the schools recruiting him the hardest. Hat Tip: Aaron’s blog
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Some observations about the 2015 and 2016 studs in Las Vegas, many of them being recruited by Kentucky. I am a big fan of Skal Labissiere.
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Karl-Anthony Towns Jr. trains by pushing his SUV. That is so awesome.
Other Kentucky sports
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UK women’s golfer wins local golf tournament while fighting through a back injury.
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The SEC Network requires some heavy lifting by UK:
UK’s part will be to produce 80 (or more) events a year that are not picked up by the major networks but will be shown live in most cases on the SEC Network Plus platform.
At least 40 of those events will be funded by ESPN with a $3,500 reimbursement; then UK has the option of producing up to 40 more events with a partial reimbursement ($1,500) each season, Peevy explained.
Links posts
College football
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Final rankings of the SEC offensive lines from For Whom the Cowbell Tolls. I guess our ballot didn’t get submitted in time, alas. I’ll make sure the next one does.
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Texas is creeping toward beer sales at games, but isn’t going to sell it at football games this season.
I am of two minds on this. I know that selling adult beverages invites drunken bad behavior, but honestly, there are many ways around that, such as arriving to the game barely coherent and using plastic flasks to smuggle in harder stuff. Those who are determined to drink at games probably will.
Perhaps selling beer up until half time with a strict limit of, say, two per purchase would be a plan. I’m just spitballing here.
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LSU has expanded their football stadium capacity to 102,000. I doubt they’ll have trouble filling it.
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Athlon Magazine ranked Les Miles the 17th best coach in the country. And The Valley Shook had this observation:
Only six coaches ranked ahead of Miles have won a national title, and only seven have more career wins. He ranks behind a guy with a career .500 record (David Cutcliffe), a guy who has only won one conference title (Art Briles), two guys who have only been head coaches for three years (James Franklin and David Shaw), and Bobby Petrino. I can’t even explain that one.
He can’t explain it because it is frankly in-freaking-sane. Les Miles is maybe the most unfairly disrespected coach in the country, and it’s completely inexplicable.
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Auburn QB Nick Marshall cited for having a bit of ganja. Naughty boy. You can always transfer to Colorado, I guess. Or Washington.
College basketball
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The Cardinals’ Terry Rozier thinks Louisville is going to be good:
Two days after Pitino said, “I like this team’s potential a great deal,” Rozier told CBS Sports from the LeBron James Skills Academy that “we’re going to be darn good. I’ll leave it at that.”
Perhaps. But probably not good enough.
Other sports news
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"I think one of the big differences that’s very rarely articulated is the fact that while Tiger in his dominance always – for whatever reason – was in this quest to get better, I don’t remember Jack ever saying that," Azinger said in an ESPN conference call Thursday advancing the network’s British Open coverage. "Jack might have made some tweaks and twerks, here and there, minor tweaks and twerks, but Tiger has made astronomical changes in a quest to get better. As a result, Tiger has actually gotten a little bit worse. I think we can all pretty much see that."
The quest for perfection is fraught with peril. It’s usually best not to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. I think Tiger has done just that, to his woe. Hat tip: Real Clear Sports.
Other news
- Sad to hear. The last of The Ramones has died.