Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Needing A Win Vs. LSU Edition

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Morning Quickies. Today, the Kentucky Wildcats will face off against the LSU Tigers in Rupp Arena. The ‘Cats find themselves in an unfamiliar place in this game — badly needing to win, after dropping three of their last four contests and falling all the way to #15 in the AP poll.

Justin Rowland writes that Kentucky has a chance to get back on track versus LSU. I am not sanguine about this. Kentucky is broken right now, and it has been a stress fracture we have seen happening since, really, the Vanderbilt game.

You don’t suddenly go from yielding 100+ points per possession to sub-90 in one game, although that may be possible at home against a terrible LSU team who can neither score nor defend. Fixing what’s broken right now is going to take time, at least four or five games to get a good start.

So don’t be surprised to see UK drop two, maybe three more games before the SEC Tournament. They thought they could strut through the SEC, but even though they know now they can’t, you cannot just turn it off and on. Getting back on track will take a while, not one game. Embrace the process, and hope for the best.

The Wildcats certainly have enough talent to win it all, but it remains to be seen if they can develop the mental toughness and genuine refuse-to-lose desire to get it done. Suffice it to say that doubts have been raised by their recent performance, and those doubts will not dissipate quickly without significant improvement which is unlikely to come overnight.

Tweet of the Morning

Coach Cal better have these boys whipped into shape by next month. Tired of watching sloppy basketball

— Elijah McGinnis (@ElijahMcginnis) February 7, 2017

I feel you.

Hardest part of life, they can't play the role. Everybody want to ride the train, but they don't want to pay the toll. I gotta go to work.

— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) February 7, 2017

Apropos to Kentucky right now.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Three-star QB Jarren Williams is an early UK 2018 commitment. He’s fired up to be a Wildcat.

• I hate losing Jimmy Brumbaugh.

• Can Kentucky’s secondary live up to the pre-season hype? It would be great to have an outstanding secondary next season, and we certainly have the players for it.

Kentucky basketball

• LSU is tragically awful, and Kentucky truly needs to win a game. Sounds like what the doctor ordered. The trouble is, awful teams seem to find ways to look good against UK.

• Laughter on the bench is the least of Kentucky’s worries. Well, in all honesty I think it is emblematic of this team’s lack of focus on winning. Nothing could’ve made me (or most of us) laugh if we were on the bench getting our butts kicked. Honestly, I’d have been happy to see a little bit of Grayson Allen come out of our bench rather than this.

  Having said that, I think we all know, and have seen in the eight years of Coach Cal, teams more focused on the future than the present. No matter what comes out of these young men’s mouths, I’m pretty sure that’s what makes this possible.

  Which brings us back around full circle to the debate we’ve been having through all our success — is recruiting such prodigies, who know their time at UK will be less than a full calendar year, the best way to win? We know it is a way, because Calipari has proven that if nothing else. But incidents like this, minor and silly as they are, can cause a few laments for past team-building methods.

  And lest you think I’m being critical of Coach Cal, I’m not, at least, not in this sense. He’s been completely honest about his intentions and methods from day one. But when they sometimes don’t work out quite as well as we hope, we revert to wondering about one-and-dones, or in some cases, come back out of the woodwork with I-told-you-so’s. Just part of the bargain, I suppose.

• More smiling Malik Monk. Yes, this is overblown, but I think it’s a fine lesson for him and other UK players. Let’s give the young man a break and move on.

• Zone no longer a four-letter word to Coach Cal? Well, I don’t like it much except as a change.

• Kentucky and Duke "struggling, but lurking." How do you like being kindred to the Blue Devils in more ways than just pedigree, ‘Cats fans?

• Last time, it was a "tweak." This time, it’s a "reboot." I don’t care what he calls it as long as it works.

• I’m not sure about the selection of pictures for the UK Athletics website for the basketball team. It has a haunting similarity to the "Kentucky’s shame" SI cover — not in composition, but more in feel. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t care for it and find it a poor editorial choice.

Other Kentucky sports

• Rachel Lawson pre-season press conference for UK softball. This will be a young team, and Lawson says that most people returning will be playing in new positions. She also lauds the speed of this team.

• New UK baseball coach Nick Mingione has his pre-season press conference. I’m not quite sold on this guy yet. I can’t wait for him to impress me.

• 23 UK student athletes inducted into the Frank G. Ham Society of Character. Congratulations to all.

• UK women’s golf remains in striking distance of a top three finish in the UCF Challenge.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links

College football

• Tennessee is expected to hire Brady Hoke as D-line coach.

• Back to the 1960’s, only in reverse — California could ban NCAA football games with teams from four states, including Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee.

• Andy Staples writes about why a coach’s second recruiting class may be his most important.

College basketball

• Virginia downs Louisville again, and Rick Pitino is … less than happy with some of his players.

• High Point University will name its new basketball court after Orlando "Tubby" Smith. Outstanding, and well-deserved. Congrats to Coach Smith, and kudos to High Point for honoring one of their most successful graduates.

• Seth Davis’ hoop thoughts. He’s right about at least one thing — there is no dominant team.

Other sports news

• Via Wild Weasel. If you haven’t see this, well, it’s amazing. Yes, it plays a bit on a stereotype, but that doesn’t make it less amazing.

• Dakari Johnson, Alex Poythress named to D-League All-Star game. Congrats, guys!

Other news

• How brewing beer changed a lifeform for good. For good, or for good? Or perhaps, we should embrace the healing power of "and."

• Forget what you thought you knew about chemistry — scientists just created a stable helium compound.

  Well, to be fair, compounds with noble gasses are not really unknown, just fairly rare.

• Is our universe inside a bubble? I doubt it, personally.