Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Calipari Social Protest Edition

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Morning Quickies.

Today’s big story is John Calipari counseling his players to be careful about staging social protests a la Colin Kaepernick:

"If there is something happening in the world or around you that you want to make a statement about … , first of all educate yourself," he said. "Thoroughly know what they stand for. Do you stand for everything they stand for? If you don’t, don’t get involved. If you do, that’s the first step."

UK players should be on the lookout for being exploited, Calipari said. "In most cases, they want you in the front of the line. Why do they want you in the front of the line? Because you bring attention to their cause."

I think this is wise advice. My own opinion of protesting during the national anthem is a negative one, mainly because that’s not the way to bring about meaningful change — it’s mainly melodrama, attention-seeking and virtue signaling. There are many ways to become active in a community and seek meaningful change, and athletes both at the college and professional level have vastly more means at their disposal to become an agent for their cause than the average person.

Kneeing during the national anthem, ironically, is a way to close up some of those opportunities, potentially the most valuable ones. Many gatekeepers of those avenues expect athletes to show a modicum of respect to our national symbols.

I consider this form of protest a kind of laziness. Rather than spend their own time seeking meaningful ways to impact society, which is always difficult and time intensive, they take the cheap, easy shot to gain headlines instead. And too often in response to encouragement from others with less than pure motives.

Tweet of the Morning

Mark Stoops said UK is hoping to recruit a lot of defensive linemen in next class, seven or more.

— Jen Smith (@jenheraldleader) October 3, 2016

Great. Don’t forget the O-line…

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• UK basketball is not the main reason UK football has struggled, according to Mark Story. I think this is generally true. The real reason Kentucky football has struggled has been the depth and success of their league, which makes it very difficult to grow a competitive program.

• Kentucky seems to be opening up competition for several positions on offense, and Benny Snell Jr. is up against Jojo Kemp for #2 running back. Boom Williams had better watch his back as well — Bigfoot Benny is coming on like gangbusters.

• Kentucky fans can’t get enough of Benny Snell, according to Buckeyextra.com. I couldn’t agree more. Bigfoot Benny runs like a full-grown man, even as a freshman.

• Mark Stoops sees progress in the Alabama game. I agree with him. The defense did a good job a lot more often, although I agree with my friend Will’s opinion that there are still too many breakdowns in the secondary.

  Also tackling is still a big issue, but looking back at the first three games and comparing it with this one, you can see the defense, as a unit, is playing much better.

  I’ll give the offense a bit of a pass against a vastly superior Alabama defense, but not turnovers. The two fumbles by Stephen Johnson were produced by immature hero antics. I praised him for lacking those instincts earlier, but they showed up in Tuscaloosa. Throw the ball away, kid.

• Damien Harris hugs Mark Stoops after Alabama game.

Kentucky basketball

• Isaac Humphries says he has regained his confidence after going home to Australia for the summer.

• Coach Cal wants basketball in August. Works for me!

• Bam Adebayo a softie off the court, but a brute on it. He is the Brute Squad!

Other Kentucky sports

• Kentucky freshman Leah Edmond is SEC Player and Freshman of the week, again. Also, Kentucky has now entered the top 25, tied with Western for the last spot after beating #5 (now #11) Florida last week.

• Kentucky senior defender Jordan Wilson named CUSA Defensive Player of the Week.

Links posts

College football

• Texas expected/rumored to fire Charlie Strong.

College basketball

• Luke Winn says the three-point revolution is happening in college basketball, not in the NBA.

• Rick Pitino thinks 2016 Duke could be as good as 1996 Kentucky. I think Rick has let his HYPE-othalamus (and his frustration with Kentucky and Calipari) overwhelm his brain just a tiny bit. No doubt he’s also trying to troll Kentucky fans, but it’s a pretty weak effort.

  Not Jerry Tipton has a typical Twitter hot take:

  Pitino: "I think Duke is the best team since 1996 UK." In other words, he doesn't think Duke is the best team since 1996 UK. (Also, whores.)

  — Not Jerry Tipton (@NotJerryTipton) October 4, 2016

• As expected, the US Supreme Court denies cert in the O’Bannon case and will not hear it. Michael McCann of Sports Illustrated explains what that means for the future.

• Duke freshman Harry Giles undergoes another knee surgery, said to be out six weeks. Sorry for Harry’s injury, but will somebody please tell Rick Pitino?

Other sports news

• Laken “Boo” Newsome, a high school girl from Eastern Kentucky who didn’t have a home golf course until she was in the ninth grade, is the favorite to win the State Tournament.

• Poor Odell Beckham Jr. is so mistreated. Those mean old NFL officials won’t let him get in opponents faces and mock them without throwing flags for unsportsmanlike conduct.

  What I want to know if he would like cheddar or Gruyère with that whine?

• Devin Booker and Tyler Ulis with solid games for the Suns last night over the Spurs. Nice to see our former players doing so well at the next level.

• Injury may keep Ben Simmons on the sidelines this entire year.

• Andrew Harrison is fighting hard for the backup point guard position for the Grizzlies.

Other news

• New technique using lasers to remove larger brain tumors. Hat tip: Instapundit

• Myths and reality about interstellar travel. We have a long way to go to get to that point, I’m afraid. Even if we managed to develop some kind of star drive tomorrow that could get us to relativistic speed in a short time, the rest of our tech, such as particle shielding and suspended animation, isn’t up to snuff.

  None of these problems are insoluble, they are merely difficult. The biggest problem for developing a star drive is, and always has been, reaction mass. A reactionless drive (like the EM Drive, for example, if it works) could solve this problem if it can be made powerful enough.