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Wildcats Quickies: 'Will a 2016 Contender Please Stand Up... Please Stand Up'

Nobody wants to win this year apparently, The UK Hoops ladies win a big road game, The Oscars were given out, and more random quickies to kick off your week.

By Keith Garrett

One of the things that seems to be discussed year in and year out is how much more parity is in college basketball.  Two years ago we saw the highest total seed number in a National title with Kentucky and UConn.  Last year was definitely more of an outlier than the norm.

This year the parity has reached heights never seen before, just this week 15 of the top 25 teams have lost.  Reread that, FIFTEEN of the Top 25 lost a game just this week.  We have also seen either 7 or 8 different teams ascend to the #1 spot this year, if I recall correctly.

parity

March Madness is going to be the most unpredictable tournament I think we have ever seen in our lifetimes.  Could this be the year that a #16 seed finally takes down a #1 seed?  It may not be that wide open this year but I can guarantee you I will not be very confident predicting anything besides a 1-seed to the second round this year.

TWEETS OF THE WEEKEND

YOUR WILDCAT QUICKIES

  • The UK Hoops team rolled into College Station and did something the men could not, beat a ranked Texas A&M team. The 'Cats had very *team* effort with 4 people scoring in double figures and they were led by Evelyn Akhator going for 15 points and 18 rebounds while Alexis Jennings produced 15 points and 16 rebounds.  The dynamic duo was a prime reason for the 71-58 win over the #11 Aggies.

  • Today was the day that former 'Cat Josh Forrest got to show off his skills at the NFL combine.  Safety A.J. Stamps will be going today.  It was not a very good day for Forrest as he only registered 11 bench press reps at 225 and ran a 4.91 40 time.  The bench press numbers are low for a linebacker and his speed was low for nearly any defensive player (ZaDarius Smith ran a 4.83 last year).  One of the things that is intriguing is that Forrest opted not to train with Erik Korem this off season.  The reason I mention it is that Bud Dupree and Avery Williamson did train with Korem.  Bud ran a 4.56 40, and bench pressed 225 23 times, Williamson ran a 4.66 40, and bench pressed 225 25 times.
  • The ladies of the diamond put in work as well over the weekend. Junior Meagan Prince mowed down 12 batters via strikeout while going the distance in a 7-1 win over Evansville. Prince is lighting it up so far this year with a record of 6-0 and an ERA of just 2.42.  The #17 Wildcats are now 14-2 on the season and primed for a run this season.
  • Kentucky has not had a very good relationship with referees this season.  Between the consistent Technical fouls and being outshot by every team we play, the feeling is it is usually 5 vs. 8 every night away from Rupp.  This is one of the best tweets you will ever see summing up that situation.

  • A former UK Quarterback is trying to work his way into the draft this spring, but I will guarantee you that you do not know who it is.  A former walk-on, Jacob Russell is QB guru George Whitfield's under the radar QB to watch.  Russell was a star at Anderson County high and transferred to UK in 2011 from EKU.  He gave up Football for Baseball but eventually found his way back to Football at Campbellsville.  He threw for nearly 6,700 yards and 66 touchdowns in just two seasons.
  • If you saw the UK-Vandy game then you no doubt saw Jamal Murray go nuts on the Commodores.  Even though the effort was not enough to garner a win, Murray did give the media world something to chew on with his bow and arrow salute.

YOUR NON-WILDCAT QUICKIES

  • Stephen Curry is just absolutely ridiculous, he is a video game cheat character.  If you played video games growing up he is the create-a-player that you put 99 on every shooting attribute.  You have seen him do many many silly things, but Saturday night was one of silliest.  He was in a tie game in overtime with Kevin Durant and OKC, he could have easily dribbled nearly to the rim, but he took his time and pulled up for the win from over 30 feet.  Mind Boggling confidence.


  • There were several good reactions to the game winner and below are just a few.  My favorite is the guy playing a video game and shooting deep shots with Curry and missing them saying the game was fake, LOL.


  • In shocking news, Coach K has come out and supported Grayson Allen and the ACC for not suspending him.  Personally, I could care less if he gets suspended by the ACC, but I do think Coach K should have done more.  We have a coach who absolutely threw Josh Harellson under the bus and ran his ever loving butt off for popping off on Twitter. I think Cal would have either sat him for a game, or live streamed his grueling punishment.  Below is a pretty funny video with Grayson Allen tripping people from pop culture.

  • Boogie Cousins absolutely hates Chris Paul with the passion of a thousand suns.  So when he got the chance to whip a basketball off Paul in a sort of legal way, he could not pass it up:



  • If you thought Jose Bautista had an epic Bat Flip on a walk-off homerun in the playoffs, well, this college player had a walk-off Grand Slam and decided to one-up him:

  • Max Hooper plays basketball for Oakland, Max Hooper's dad is battling cancer and refused to miss his son's Senior Night and came in a hospital bed.  Max decided to run up into the crowd and hug his father, kudos to you son and good luck in the future.  What a touching moment.

YOUR RANDOM QUICKIES

  • My Top 5 french fries from a fast food place:
  1. McDonalds
  2. Steak N Shake
  3. Five Guys Burgers and Fries
  4. Chick Fil A
  5. Arby's (Curly Fries)
  • If you are a fan of the Alien movies with Sigourney Weaver, you probably watched Prometheus.  That turned out to be a prequel of sorts to the Alien franchise and now Ridley Scott is gapping that bridge with Alien: Covenant coming out in August of 2017.

  • Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for best Actor for his role in 'The Revenant.' The movie 'Spotlight' won the best picture Oscar.
  • DiCaprio had not won an Oscar in his 5 nominations and he seems to be the poster boy for that unfortunate stat.  However, he is not alone and in fact he is not the most.  Glenn Close has actually been shut out of an Oscar in 6 nominations.  Amy Adams has also had 5 winless nominations as well.
  1. You believe your story
  2. Your confident without being arrogant
  3. Your verbal and non-verbal communication is in sync

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