Kentucky Wildcats Quickies: 'Cats Drafted Edition

The NBA draft occurred last night while the world's stock markets were taking a nose dive for the time being. Australian Ben Simmons was selected with the first pick, and he would later be followed by two 'Cats in the first round. Jamal Murray was drafted seventh by Denver, while Skal Labissiere was drafted by Sacramento joining WCS and Boogie. If you combined Phoenix's backcourt with Sacramento's front court...

For those keeping score at home, that makes 21 first round picks for UK under Calipari to go along with two Final Fours, one NCAA Runner-Up, and one NCAA Championship in seven seasons. Not a bad run for the program or the individual players involved.

Other trends of note from last night include Tyler Ullis being drafted 34th overall by Phoenix. Ullis will join a backcourt currently consisting of former UK guards Devin Booker, Archie Goodwin, Eric Bledsoe, and Brandon Knight. It feels like at least one of the latter three will be traded, but Ullis isn't a combo guard so who knows? Maybe the Suns want to play small ball with three guards on the court if they can't find a deal they like.

The SEC was also well represented. The conference led the nation with five first round draft picks. Next year that number could be far higher thanks to UK, but also players returning to college for another year at LSU, Vanderbilt, and Florida.

Additionally, 28 of the 60 players selected last night represented foreign citizenship. Australia had two players selected in the top ten. Five players hailing from France were drafted. Croatia, a country with only four million people, had three players drafted. It's a connected and globalized world.

Tweet of the Morning:

Calipari again owns Thursday in late June. Jay Wright, Coach K, Kevin Ollie and Rick Pitino have owned the last four first Mondays in April.

— Pat Forde (@YahooForde) June 23, 2016

I know Pat Forde.

As a teen, Pat Forde was the kid who would show up to your house uninvited wanting to play the guitar you saved months to buy. He knows its brand new. He knows you're enjoying it, but he doesn't care that it's your new toy. He wants to play. He wants his golden egg now, dammit.

He, of course, has zero idea how to play, but he's insistent, arrogant, and not letting it go. He will play your guitar. He will also try to flirt with your sister. Possibly your mother too.

You eventually decide to give in to the smug intruder, only because you hope it will hasten his departure. So you give him the guitar, and ask him to "just take it easy". With a deep breath, and a bad feeling, you plug him into the amp.

What happens next turns out to be worse than you imagined. Forde attacks the guitar with a passion similar to how he will one day grow up to attack his listicles. He makes up for his lack of technique with sadistic enthusiasm which destroys your new strings; meanwhile, he’s got that white guy over-bite and head nod going on.

Gazing at him with a mystified expression you wish you could trade places with the slug you saw in your garden the day before. Your amp is creating a noise that makes fingernails on a chalkboard seem pleasurable. You don’t know it yet, but upstairs, your pets have fled your home and will never return.

Forde, the attention-seeking narcissist that he is, tries a windmill but misses. Forde looks up and tries the "I meant to do that," look, and continuing with his mummer's farce, he drops down to his knees and shoves his fist in the air as if he was Keith Richards at Wembley in '76, and not the worst person in the world at that moment (and most moments). The feedback echoes in the room for a bit longer. It will echo in your soul for years to come.

Forde grunts to himself, "Awesome. I'm a natural," as you ponder if Pat Forde will one day grow out of his self-delusion.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Phil Steele's preview magazine is out, and he predicts UK will win six games. If memory serves, he had UK winning four games in 2014, and five games in 2015.
  

Kentucky basketball

• Alex Poythress unfortunately went undrafted last night. He'll get a chance somewhere.
• The Phoenix Suns site discusses the Tyler Ullis pick. They seem happy.
  
• Sactown Royalty reacts to the Skal pick. They seem tepid.
• The Denver site reviews the Jamal Murray pick. It's described as "phenomenal" with 79% approving in the poll.
• Here's an overview from the H-L on last night's proceedings.
• Skal talks about his draft plummet.
• Cal clarifies his recent comments weren't directed towards Pitino. What's one more news cycle with this story?

Other Kentucky sports

• UK had a golfer make third team All-America.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Friday Wildcat Links

College football

• Baylor releases five 2016 signees. Good on them.
• Georgia kicked a former blue chip off their team. This is when you joke, "Bobby Petrino is already in contact about getting his transfer."

College basketball

• Bryce Drew era at Vandy has begun.
  

Other sports news

• The Thunder traded Ibaka to Orlando last night for several pieces. This seems like a trade in OKC's favor.
• The Bulls nearly made a trade with Minnesota.
• Speaking of the Bulls, they traded Rose to NYC. The Ringer wonders if the Knicks have decided not to tank. The Ringer also provides its list of winners and losers from last night (two UK players get mentioned). Is it just me, or is The Ringer...not that good. When taking a break at the office, I want to read things with substance but their posts are all much shorter compared to Grantland stories and often don't seem like reporting just...blogging. Also, while all the writers are fine to good, let's be honest and acknowledge there ain't a Wesley Morris, Rembert Browne, Molly Lambert, Bill Barnwell, Zach Lowe, or Holly Anderson among them. I'm enjoying the tech coverage though!
• Lebron declines joining the Olympic team.
• Gareth Bale is doing big things for little Wales.
• Great reporting on the sports betting industry by Deadspin.
  
  

Other news

• As previously mentioned, today is a good day not to pay attention to the stock market (really any individual day unless its your profession or passion). Trading in Japan was halted, the world economy looks to be impacted, the pound is down 8.4%, while "1% is considered massive". But hey, what's wealth good for besides purchasing goods and services? In a few years we could have an independent Scotland and a reunified Ireland. I'm so old I remember the United Kingdom.
• Rogue One might not have an opening crawl.
  
• Do you know the oral history of Pixar?

...Aaaannnnd with that, my Quickies watch has ended. The tribe has spoken. I am fired. I hope I've provided 5-10 minutes of useful workplace distraction on Fridays for the last while. I will now go listen to Kanye, eat hot dogs sans ketchup, and begin writing a bunch of words for our football season preview series. Until then, have a great weekend!