Kentucky Wildcats Sunday Quickies: Dean Smith Edition

The world of college basketball lost a giant last night as the legendary Dean Smith passed away at 83 years old. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, and his extended North Carolina Tar Heels family. This is a tremendous loss to the sport of basketball, to sport in general, and to one of the great basketball traditions in America. Godspeed, Coach Smith.

Tweets of the Morning

Dean Smith. With some other fella. pic.twitter.com/Jrue5YGAaG

— Old Style (@OldStyleChicago) February 8, 2015

A long time ago.

Coach Dean Smith wrote the analytics in the book that inspired me in HS, his unique contribution to my career. Basketball misses him.

— Dean Oliver (@DeanO_Lytics) February 8, 2015

Dean Oliver is the author of Basketball On Paper and the father of possession-based analytics, the Four Factors, and so much more. Ken Pomeroy’s site is based on his work. He is a UNC alum.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• The chaos at the end of the recruiting season has convinced both Mark Stoops and Mitch Barnhart that an early signing period is needed. However, as Jennifer Smith reports, the SEC as a whole doesn’t feel the same way:

  It’s not clear how the SEC will vote, though, with Barnhart noting that the push for an early signing period is not big in the conference. He said there are four or five schools in the league that are for it while the rest are not.

  "If I’m sitting in some of the schools that are traditionally powerful, I’d like the ability after my bowl game is over to sit here and say, ‘I didn’t get this person, so I’m going to go take that one from this school. That’s the best player they’ve got and I didn’t offer him early on,’" Barnhart said, noting that it’s something Kentucky similarly could do in basketball.

  You can’t really blame the big-time football schools for feeling this way. Flipping recruits from lesser schools is a very valuable tool for them, and they won’t give it up easily.

  Fortunately, in the NCAA as a whole there are a lot more "have nots" than "haves."

Kentucky basketball

• Interesting. Not surprising.

  Same network… RT @ericcrawford: From Nielsen: hoops in the Louisville market on ESPN: #LOUvsUVA 21.6 rating/ 34 share; #UKvsFLA 23.4/36.

  — Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) February 8, 2015

• Best dunks from last night’s action. Yes, you-know-who is featured prominently. But you have to wait for it.

• Three takeaways from UK’s win at Florida.

• Q&A with John Calipari about the Kentucky victory over Florida last night. I think this is insightful:

  On the free-throw shooting: "There’s something things we’ve been doing. Nah. The right guys shoot the ball. Free-throw shooting is contagious both ways. It’s contagious when you’re making them if the right guys are shooting them. It’s contagious the other way. If you miss a couple, then all the sudden your best free-throw shooter steps up and misses a couple.

  This seems right, although I really can’t explain it. Free throw shooting is much more mental than most people think. Good mechanics help, but I have seen some guys with great mechanics shoot 60% from the line over a season.

• Another view of Willie Cauley-Stein’s dunk:

• Billy Donovan agrees with Coach Cal that UK misses Trey Lyles.

• This is a little worrying: Willie Cauley-Stein’s ankle is hurting him.

Other Kentucky sports

• Jennifer O’Neill is working hard on the quality of her game, not just the quantity.

• UK softball loses to #5 Florida St. 3-2 in Tallahassee, then blasts Georgia Southern 9-0 in a mercy-rule game.

• Makayla Epps aded to the Nancy Lieberman Award watch list.

Links posts

• John Clay’s Big Blue Links

• KSR’s Sunday Morning Links

• The Leach Report: Sunday Wildcat Links

College football

• Is Jim Harbaugh taking shots at Urban Meyer in social media?

• Arkansas extends Bret Bielema through 2020.

College basketball

• Virginia’s Justin Anderson, the most efficient offensive player for the Cavaliers, has a broken finger on his left hand that will require surgery, and 4-6 weeks of recovery. That places his return around the time of the ACC Tournament.

  Tough break for the Wahoos. We know how they feel.

• Mike Krzyzewski, Michael Jordan comment on the passing of Dean Smith.

• Mike DeCorcy’s tribute to Dean Smith.

• SEC basketball week 5 review.

• Vanderbilt rising.

Other sports news

• Anthony Davis and how he feels about the game:

• Awesome article about Anthony Davis. Consider:

  On the court, of course, Davis has been spectacular. His numbers are so absurd it’s hard to even know where to begin, but here’s one: His 31.7 Player Efficiency Rating puts him in company with Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan and LeBron James as the only players to crack the 31 barrier, and none of them were 21 years old at the time they reached that level. AD’s still good for a half-dozen ohmygod plays a night, but he’s also scoring more efficiently and growing as a defender. If you were to take an MVP straw vote right now, he’d be in the top five, if not higher. Still, it’s a lot to carry a franchise on your young shoulders, even on blades as broad as his have grown.

Other news

• News you can use: 7 times when paying more isn’t worth it.

• The dream lives on: Powerball Jackpot approaches half a billion.

• Innovation: An electric scooter you never recharge.