Welcome, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, to the Tuesday Quickies. Tonight is the beginning of the so-called “First Four,” but which most of us probably think of as the play-in games. Having roundly criticized the selection committee earlier this week, I must now praise the quality of some of the first round games this season, especially Vanderbilt vs. Wichita State for the #11 seed. That game is worthy of an 8-9 matchup, and it happens in the very first game of the tournament, whether or not you think Vandy deserves it’s spot.
Regardless of the competency of the selection committee, this should be a fine game to watch. SB Nation has the entire skinny on the “First Four” here.
Tweet of the Morning
Truly hilarious how Pitino is still pushing the "we were victims screwed by the ncaa" narrative
— Davey Rudolph (@DaveyRudolph) March 15, 2016
In Pitino’s defense, practically every college basketball coach would do/has done the same thing. The NCAA is a very easy target, and trying to shift the blame to them is effortless, and effective.
Also:
Pitino also said women "infiltrated" his program...NO your staff HIRED them...they weren't undercover spies, they came at your behest
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) March 15, 2016
Heh. Ouch.
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
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Drew Barker embraces his new role, his third offensive coordinator, and the quarterback competition:
“I still have a lot to prove,” he explained. “The way I played last season, when I got in, I had some highs and lows and was pretty inconsistent.
Well, kid, don’t let the opportunity go to waste.
Kentucky basketball
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Tyler Ulis has been named by the Associated Press as the Player of the Year in the SEC. He should be POY in all of college basketball.
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John Hale writes about Rupp’s Runts, who’s run to the NCAA Tournament finals began 50 years ago in Iowa, just like the Wildcats of this season.
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There is no doubt that Kentucky looks like a dangerous team. Consider:
There is no better back court in college basketball than Kentucky’s. Flat out. Jamal Murray and Tyler Ulis are a problem, and when those two play the way that they have over the course of the last month, Kentucky can literally beat anyone in the country. It helps, however, to have Derek Willis knocking down threes and Skal Labissiere playing the way he did in the last week of the regular season instead of the way he played in the SEC tournament. But the ceiling is there for Kentucky. John Calipari can get his second ring.
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The Wildcats got back into the top ten in the college basketball poll. More proof, if you need it, of the selection committee’s seeding malfeasance.
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Coach Cal says he likes “tweaking the [NCAA Tournament selection] committee.” I like it when he does that, too.
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Rick Bozich makes the case why Kentucky is not a Final Four contender. His point about defensive efficiency is valid, whether or not you agree. However, keep in mind that strong offensive teams are a huge threat to go deep — recall that Notre Dame, which finished last season 102nd in Kenpom’s defensive efficiency ratings, almost knocked off Kentucky despite the Wildcats’ vastly superior defense. Also, Wisconsin got to the Final Four with the 54th best defensive efficiency.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the “defense wins tournaments” conventional wisdom since last year, and I’m becoming less and less sold on it. The fact that the NCAA is going to make sure officials enforce the freedom of movement rule more rigorously in this tournament (they have mostly done it to a greater extent this season) could mark a turning point in the overall effect of defensive efficiency.
Other Kentucky sports
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UK Track & Field picks up nine All-American honors. Outstanding.
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Junior ace Meagan Prince has been named SEC Pitcher of the Week for softball.
Links posts
College basketball
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How college basketball’s top freshmen fared this season. I have to admit, Skal Labissiere’s freshman year has been spectacularly underwhelming in a way I can’t remember from a highly-touted player in years. Chieck Diallo has also been very quiet, but he was held out for a long while by the NCAA.
Overall, the freshman class this season has been pretty slow out of the blocks.
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TCU fires Trent Johnson. If they wait a bit, they’ll probably be able to hire Johnny Jones and repeat the cycle of futility.
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Larry Vaught gives us the list of people on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament selection committee. Does anybody but me think we need someone besides athletics directors on this committee? I mean, the CFB playoff has a “blue-chip” committee. Why can’t we do something like that with basketball?
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Seth Davis opines on the NCAA Tournament’s best matchups. I mostly agree with him on these, but this was a classic:
Clearly, if Indiana and Kentucky meet in the second round, the entire world will stop. Between 1969 and 2012, these two programs met every year except for one. But the series ended abruptly four years ago and there are no signs it will resume. So there is a lot on the line if this game happens. Again, the dynamic will be unusual for Indiana, because senior Yogi Ferrell will arguably be the third-best guard in the game behind Kentucky sophomore Tyler Ulis and freshman Jamal Murray. The Wildcats really came on during the last six weeks of the season, largely because they healed after injuries to two of their forwards, senior Alex Poythress (knee) and junior Derek Willis (foot). Now that both players are healthy and performing well, and freshman center Skal Labissiere has evolved into a legitimate contributor, I think you should go with the hot team. And that includes in the Sweet 16 as well, where I have Kentucky defeating North Carolina. [my emphasis]
Other sports news
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Top NFL health and safety official acknowledges a link between football-related head trauma and the brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephelopathy.
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The “smart basketball” is here. You knew this was coming, didn’t you?
Other news
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Mother Teresa of Calcutta to be canonized a saint. It’s about time.
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Have astronomers found the fastest spinning object in the observable universe?
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Oh, shiny. Dell’s XPs 13 is now shipping with Ubuntu Linux. Well, the XPS 13 is a nice-looking machine with good specs, but it’s a Dell, and for my money, that’s one strike too many. My experience with Dell laptops has been… less than happy.
I just bought my wife a Lenovo Yoga 3. That is one cool piece of technology. It is shockingly thin and light for such a powerful machine.