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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Wednesday Morning Quickies.
Today’s lead story is Malik Monk bidding farewell to the Big Blue Nation with a really nice letter. Hat tip: KSR.
Monk talks more about his decision at ZagsBlog, and as usual, it’s one of those bittersweet moments the Big Blue Nation has become used to since Coach Cal came to Kentucky. Monk, of course, has no meaningful reason at all to stay in school, just like his back-court running mate De’Aaron Fox. Both these guys leaving after one year has been fait accompli almost since Big Blue Madness.
But it always hurts a little to see them go. It would be nice if we could get to enjoy players like this for multiple seasons, but it would also be unfair to them, given today’s basketball climate. We both Monk and Fox well at the next level, and I expect to hear from both of them almost immediately.
Tweet of the Morning
Shaquille O’Neal, here playing against UK in 1991, will help honor fallen police officers at University of Cumberland tonight. pic.twitter.com/2C45sgNEz3
— KY Photo Archive (@KYPhotoArchive) April 5, 2017
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
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Sidelined last season, tight end Justin Rigg and wide receiver Kayune Ross are ready to make their mark.
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Eddie Gran and Darin Hinshaw discuss the Kentucky football offensive playmakers so far.
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Momentum from bowl bid carries into spring for the football Wildcats.
Kentucky basketball
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John Higgins thinks he did a good job in the Kentucky-North Carolina game. I respectfully dissent from this view.
But the reaction by Kentucky fans attacking him personally and threating him was reprehensible.
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Eamonn Brennan reckons Kentucky at the top of next year’s NCAA basketball heap. This is a good point:
Broadly speaking, almost every top team will have a ton of turnover in 2017-18; why not settle on the one that thrives on turnover every spring?
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For those who tune in to Matt Jones’ radio show:
Malik Monk will be a guest on KSR Radio tomorrow
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) April 4, 2017Monk had a great year, and it’ll be hard not to remember both the memorable and forgettable games he had.
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Evan Daniels goes one-on-one with UK commit Shai Gilgeous-Alexander:
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As of today, Kentucky has the best odds of winning the 2018 NCAA Tournament according to Vegas Insider.
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John Calipari 30 for 30 is going to be epic. Well, interesting, anyway…
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The very latest on Mo Bamba and Kevin Knox. I think Knox goes elsewhere, but I really want Bamba.
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In case you missed it elsewhere, De’Aaron Fox has also declared for the NBA, to nobody’s surprise.
Other Kentucky sports
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Kentucky baseball, ranked this week as high as #8, drops their first of two games to Louisville this year 5-3. Tragically, it was an error that provided the margin.
Links posts
College football
- Former LSU coach Les Miles spends spring in coaching exile. I doubt it will stay that way for long.
College basketball
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Marques Bolden will be returning to Duke. That could be good news when it comes to Mo Bamba’s recruitment.
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Mike DeCourcy on the officiating in the NCAA Tournament championship game:
Although the crew of Mike Eades, Verne Harris and Michael Stephens were too easily tricked on some calls (UNC guard Joel Berry getting three free throws because he was blown down by Josh Perkins’ jetstream) or did not enforce the rules as directed (Zags center Zach Collins’ second foul came on what appeared to be a straight verticality play), the biggest reason they called so many fouls is because there were so many fouls. That’s possible, you know.
He’s right. They made some obvious bad calls (I thought the flagrant on Karnowski was absolute bullcrap) but they called a lot of fouls because there was a lot of fouling going on.
Other sports news
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Lance Stephenson violates "unwritten rule," reaction causes a fight after leading Indiana over Toronto.
Maybe that is a chump move, but the Raptors’ reaction speaks much more loudly to me. Shut up, you lost. Stephenson rubbed it in a little, but the reaction from the Raptors, to me, is more embarrassing. These are grown men — supposedly. After this, I doubt that very much. Little boy move, Raptors. And Stephenson.
Other news
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Can "Apollo Fusion" bring us clean nuclear energy? The idea is a fusion/fission hybrid that are more fuel-efficient than normal reactors, have no danger of "meltdown," and are cheaper and easier to build.
Faster, please.