Kentucky Wildcats Quickies: Kentucky Oaks Edition

Good morning and happy Friday, ladies and gentlemen of The Big Blue Nation. Additionally, happy early Mother's Day to our readers who also just so happen to be mothers. Hopefully you are feted this weekend for your never-ending, year-round efforts. May you spend the weekend overseeing yard work in the cushy shade from afar, being fanned and fed grapes by your familial youth.

Today is the annual running of the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. You know, the day Louisville hipsters trade their flannel for seersucker and proclaim this day is "actually better than the Derby." By the way, do you know how many Louisville hipsters it takes to screw in a light bulb? Well, it's this really obscure number - I doubt you've heard of it.

The Oaks, as most of us know, is a race for three-year old fillies. The top 14 fillies have each qualified using a point system over previous races in the past year. This year, Rachel Valentina, daughter of 2009 winner Rachel Alexandra, is a slight favorite in what should be a competitive race.

Tweet of the Morning

It's funny some coaches didn't like recruiting Ohio now they are somewhere else and they are all up in it. Let's battle go Big Blue.

— CoachMarrowUK (@vincemarrow) May 6, 2016

Speculation: this is a not-so-veiled shot at former Kentucky assistant Derrick Ansley who is currently in Ohio recruiting for Alabama.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• JUCO signee Jordan Bonner appears to have recovered from his stabbing in March. UK will need him this fall, but he was already behind the eight ball being a summer-arriving JUCO.
• Do you like message board meltdowns as much as I do? It's a vice, I know, but this is a fun thread about former UK player Lloyd Tubman possibly transferring to Louisville. Some make him out to be such a totem to liberty you'd be excused if you thought everyone was actually referring to Harriet Tubman.

Kentucky basketball

• Four Wildcats will participate in the NBA Combine. Briscoe will also be doing individual workouts for teams.
• Here's a Mark Story op-ed on UK women's basketball (h/t WW).
• Marques Bolden Watch: Day MMCLVIII

Other Kentucky sports

• This is actually a pretty good analytical breakdown of UK baseball's pending series against South Carolina by KSR. More of this, please.
• The No. 12 softball team hosts Mississippi State this weekend. Saturday and Sunday's games will be on SEC Network Plus.
• The men's golf team's season continues in the NCAA Regional.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Friday Wildcat Links

College football

• Here's our second story to file under "college football assistants subtweeting". Texas A&M lost the commitment to the nation's number one dual quarterback. They seemed to have known it was coming for a while, but then a TAMU assistant expressed his feelings via Twitter. That's just the beginning of the story. The TAMU SB Nation site talks about its feelings in the aftermath.
• Joe Paterno allegedly knew he employed a child predator going back to 1976. Dan Wetzel writes thoughtfully on the latest revelation in this tragic saga.
  
• The Big 12 will be expanding again. It's only a matter of time, and here are some candidate schools. I think you take in Cincinnati and Memphis to bridge the conference towards its easternmost school West Virginia; however, from a quality standpoint, Houston would be the best school.

College basketball

• Sports Illustrated has a series pondering whether specific players should go pro. Here is their profile on UNC sophomore Justin Jackson, and here is their profile on UofL's Chinanu Onuaku.
• SI also had a Q&A with new Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner.
• UNCONN lost their four star forward yesterday.
• The 10 best offensive showings in the past 10 years.

Other sports news

• Getting back to the Derby, here is some analysis of the poll positions. I miss SB Nation's horse-racing blog And Down The Stretch They Come.
• Pat Forde's latest column is about the horse Outwork and his trainer.
• Toronto beat Miami last night.
• I don't think Phil Jackson knows what he's doing.
• Can you name the most common SEC nonconference opponents? Take the quiz.
• Kevin Durant to Miami?
• Parents can hurt draft stock.

Other news

• SpaceX landed their SLV in an even more impressive fashion the second time.
• We have our young Han Solo.
• This year's college grads are the luckiest in a decade, but I wonder how many feel that way.
• Captain America given 4-1 odds to win the Civil War. Thor has a higher power-ranking than Vision? Balderdash.
  
• Comedian/actor Patton Oswalt (the voice of Remy in Ratatouille and Constable Sweeney on Justified) became a widow suddenly and without warning last week. A few days ago he wrote about his wife, his daughter, and the aftermath. After loss - either by death, phases of children's lives hurtling by, or jobs and relationships we never imagine would end concluding, etc. - one of the hardest things to do is making meaning out of that loss. Among other things, our lives are compendiums of loss and change and what we make of it. I think Oswalt's daughter will give him his meaning going forward in ways work, pills, and exercise never could.