Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Brad Calipari Edition

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Quickies. Today’s big story is Coach Cal’s son Brad officially joining the Kentucky basketball team. Apparently, Brad can shoot the basketball, and you can never have too many shooters:

Brad Calipari shot 47 percent from behind the three-point line last season. The freshman-to-be averaged 15.3 points last season, 3.6 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game.

Not exactly McDonald’s All-American numbers, but pretty good, and 47% from three is outstanding even in high school.

But more importantly, Brad’s presence puts a strong presumption on Coach Cal being at Kentucky for the next four years. We can never say that it’s a sure thing — the NBA will always be a temptation whispering sweet dollar signs in Calipari’s ear, especially now that Billy Donovan has enjoyed early success.

But I think Calipari wants to coach his son all the way through. And if so, that’s great for Kentucky fans in more than one way.

Tweet of the Morning

Should launch one so he could take lessons on playing help D. https://t.co/D7qlaBZDd1

— Michael DeCourcy (@tsnmike) June 7, 2016

Ouch, Mike. But very true.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kentucky -7 vs. Southern Miss for the season opener.

• Wildcats expand their presence in the Sunshine State. Lately, it’s been all Ohio all the time, but that figures to change with the addition of Eddie Gran, Darin Hinshaw and Lamar Thomas.

  Good. We’ve had some fine players come out of Florida, and we need to get more.

• The Governor’s Cup Golf Classic is today. at the Frankfort Country Club. Hard to imagine better weather.

Kentucky basketball

• Five offseason UK basketball storylines. The most interesting to me will be Dominique Hawkins — can he find playing time in a roster loaded with guard talent?

• Long trip from Australia…

  Lex bound! Lets go BBN! ✈️

  — Isaac Humphries (@IsaacHumphries7) June 7, 2016

• Calipari advises De’Aaron Fox on the best way to follow a great player like Tyler Ulis:

  “Just be who you are. Don’t try to be Tyler,” Calipari said. “The kid is fast. He has a great basketball feel, can really defend. Long and 6-4. You just be you. Tyler was Tyler. I’m not looking for anyone to be anything other than the best version of themselves.”

  “Just be yourself” is always great advice, whether in life or basketball. I think Fox has tremendous potential. He reminds me of a combination of John Wall and Brandon Knight.

Other Kentucky sports

• UK volleyball reveals their SEC slate for this season. It’s a typically tough one.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links

College football

• Gus Malzahn signes a one-year extension with Auburn through 2020.

College basketball

• Losing Malik Newman: addition by subtraction for Ben Howland?

• Arizona commit Terrence Ferguson is thinking about going the same route as Brandon Jennings and Emmanuel Mudiay, directly from high school to the European pros.

  Some see this as a trend, but so far, it’s limited to players who have serious question marks surrounding their college eligibility. Don’t look for it to become mainstream anytime soon, although it has proven to be a serviceable route to the NBA.

• Coach K vs. Coach Cal — a rivalry that exists only in our minds. So true. There’s just a vested interest by lots of people in creating this as a rivalry, whether it actually is or not.

Other sports news

• Steph Curry won’t be on Team USA in Rio this summer. Well, that sucks.

• Women’s basketball players supplement their WNBA income by playing abroad. This is a story about Diana Turasi and Brittney Griner in Russia. Pretty interesting stuff.

• Yet another in a seemingly unending line of retrospectives on Muhammad Ali. He had a memorable life, to be sure.

• WCS, the ever-enigmatic:

  I miss the old Willie. The ones that got to meet him was blessed let me tell ya lol

  — Willie Cauley-Stein (@THEwillieCS15) June 7, 2016

• Wait until Thursday.

  Floral tributes accumulating outside Muhammad Ali Center. pic.twitter.com/KWx1vdeKRl

  — Tim Sullivan (@TimSullivan714) June 7, 2016

• Mixed Martial Arts pioneer Kimbo Slice has died at 42 years old. Way too young. Our prayers go out to his family.

• How LeBron can save the Cavaliers. Honestly, I don’t think he can do it no matter how well he plays. He needs help, and he’s not getting any. The Warriors are just too good defensively.

Other news

• New algorithm could lead to a picture of an actual black hole. Okay, if you just read that, you’re probably like me wondering what could possibly be fascinating about a black spot in the endless blackness of space.

  What they are really talking about is the manifestation of that gravitic energy in the universe around it.