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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Morning Quickies.
Today’s lead story is the presentation of the annual CATSPY awards, which happened last night at Memorial Coliseum. Here are a few highlights:
- Malik Monk: Rookie of the Year
- Danielle Galyer: Female Scholar Athlete of the Year
- Women’s tennis: Academic Team of the Year
- Supporting role: Dominique Hawkins
- Mr. Wildcat: John Toth
- Miss Wildcat: Danielle Galyer
Congratulations to all the honorees for this season’s awards. Check out the entire list here.
Tweet of the Morning
Mr. Basketball winner Mark Smith will announce his college decision at 6 p.m. CT on Wednesday. #Illini https://t.co/6XxsnapvhS
— Derek Piper (@DPiperScout) April 24, 2017
UK has been recruiting this young man pretty hard. Stay tuned…
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
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Uh oh. Kentucky will likely lose 2018 QB commit Jarren Williams. He’s opened up his recruitment. Well, this is nothing new, and depth at QB for Kentucky is looking stronger with Gunnar Hoak performing so well in the spring and Drew Barker on the mend.
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Heh. Mark Stoops’ 2018 recruiting class is ranked higher than Nick Saban’s. Of course, that won’t last.
Kentucky basketball
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Pittsburgh graduate transfer Cameron Johnson visits UK on Wednesday. He’s from John Calipari’s home of Moon Township.
Johnson shot 41.5% last year from the arc and 81% from the free throw line. He also takes good care of the basketball and has great size at 6‘8”.
More Johnson:
Adding a 6'7 wing who's a 44% 3pt shooter can make a good team great. Amazingly Johnson wasn't rated as a Top 250 recruit. They missed one.
— Greg (@GregNJ) April 25, 2017 -
CBS Sports says next season will be Coach Cal’s youngest team ever. It does look that way, but that’s what happens here.
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Bam Adebayo will stay in the NBA Draft, hire an agent. I have been expecting this, he is certainly physically ready for the league. He may be ready to join a team, but I think he’ll need a stint in the NBADL.
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I think Kevin Knox goes elsewhere, especially if Johnson decides to come to UK.
Hearing from multiple sources #Mizzou won’t be the choice for Kevin Knox. Tigers made strong late effort, but that leaves NC, Duke, UK, FSU
— Gabe DeArmond (@GabeDeArmond) April 24, 2017 -
UK has had several “none and done” players other than Hamidou Diallo (if he actually decides to stay in the draft). I actually think it’s likely Diallo stays at UK. He’s talented and athletic, and would be drafted, but he’s not ready for the league. You never know, but I think he’ll be back.
More: C-J writer Fletcher Page thinks Diallo can’t lose by entering the draft. I think he’s right.
Still more:
Only smart for Hamidou Diallo to gather feedback from the NBA. My guess would be backend first this year. Potential lotto pick next.
— Evan Daniels (@EvanDaniels) April 23, 2017 -
SEC commish Greg Sankley thinks ESPN missed the academic performance side of Calipari’s teams in the One and Not Done 30 for 30 movie.
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I’ll go further and say what Matt meant — it’s stupid.
I want Diallo to play here. He could be really good..but fans being furious about decision of player who never played one game, is odd to me
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) April 24, 2017 -
Jemarl Baker, who committed to UK earlier this month, will be in town for a visit this week. I have a good feeling about this kid.
More: Basketball 24/7 at UK works just fine for Baker. See? I already like him.
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Memories.
25-APR-1967 Happy 50th birthday to Todd Bearup. Younger brother of Bret.https://t.co/LJBIegjLnZ
— bigbluehistory (@bigbluehistory) April 25, 2017
Played one season for UK in 1990-91. pic.twitter.com/CYz2YLbKpy
Other Kentucky sports
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Kentucky baseball is rocking like a hurricane. They defeated #2 Louisville last week, took down #8 LSU in the weekend SEC series 2-1, and finished 3-1 over top ten teams overall last week. To top all that off, former UK basketball player Chuck Hayes’ cousin Justin Lewis pitched the Bat Cats to the win on Sunday.
Kentucky is now ranked in the top ten in all major polls, the highest being #6 in D1Baseball’s poll. The Wildcats have Xavier Wednesday for their midweek game and South Carolina, ranked as high as #21 in USA Today, in Columbia this weekend.
Kentucky leads the SEC east by two full games over Florida with only 12 games remaining in the SEC season, including six against the two weakest teams in the East (Georgia and Tennessee). It’s too early to get excited, though, as they face the Florida Gators in Gainesville in their last series. and they trail Mississippi St by one and are tied with Arkansas and Auburn for the regular-season SEC title.
Finally, a word about baseball coach Nick Mingione; no matter what happens from here on out, he has done an amazing job. I had serious doubts about his hire (he comes off a bit too touchy-feely), but no longer. I don’t think anyone expected Kentucky to over-achieve like this in any coach’s first season, and the fact that they could actually win the SEC, even at this point, obliterated my expectations for this team.
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It isn’t just the baseball team that’s been hot of late — Rachel Lawson’s softball team has been making a move.
Links posts
College football
College basketball
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UNC’s Tony Bradley has declared for the draft, won’t hire an agent.
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A number of UK recruits in here:
5 best prospects I saw over the weekend (in no order). Charles Bassey, Romeo Langford, Zion Williamson, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Hampton.
— Eric Bossi (@ebosshoops) April 24, 2017
Other sports news
Other news
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Rolling Stone says Guardians of the Galaxy sequel is a blast. I loved the first one, so I can’t wait to see the new one.
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Scientists close in on the cause of multiple sclerosis. Understanding a disease is the first step to curing it.