Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Independence Day Edition

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, to the Independence Day Quickies.

Today’s big story is, of course, today itself. It is America’s Independence Day, and this little experiment in exceptionalism is 241 years young.

When you think about the millennium or so that Europe has been around, 241 years doesn’t sound like much. But in that 241 years, this breakaway from Great Britain has seen a lot, done a lot, and most importantly (but only to a very few, I’m sure), eaten a lot of hot dogs. For me, hot dogs will definitely be on the menu today.

And even though we celebrate Independence Day on the wrong day (it should’ve been on the 2nd of July, technically), it was perhaps for the right reason — that’s the day the document was sent to the printers for mass distribution, and the printer put that date on the document. The Los Angeles Times has a fine article on the events surrounding America’s birthday that you should take the time to read.

Enjoy our national birthday, whether or not hot dogs are your thing. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson will be smiling down at you.

Tweet of the Morning

241 years ago today, America opted out and became a free agent. Woj had it first, I think.

— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) July 4, 2017

Heh. Happy Independence Day to all.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• UK football commit Jarren Williams is holding his own against the nation’s best quarterbacks at The Opening.

  Interesting that Savage Pro is starting UK commit Jarren Williams over Trevor Lawrence in key elimination game. #BBN

  — Jeremy Birmingham (@Birm) July 3, 2017

Kentucky basketball

• Marcedus Leech, #27 in the class of 2019 (shooting guard) visited both UK and Louisville last week.

Other Kentucky sports

• UK Rifle’s Hanna Carr wins the USA Women’s Shooting Smallbore National title. Hanna also won the Junior national competition.

• Former UK player Scott Padgett signs an extension with Samford through 2021-22. Congrats!

  If he keeps having this much success, though, Samford is unlikely to keep him that long.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links

• Cats Illustrated: Newsstand

College football

• The NCAA is considering stripping the power of coaches to dictate which schools players can transfer to. I think this is a good thing. Coaches get to go to any school they want, so why can’t the players do so as well.

  The biggest complaint I hear from coaches is that it’s wrong to have spent so much time and effort recruiting and developing a player only to see him go to your arch-rival. My response to that is, "Boo hoo."

  I do agree with this, though:

  The working group also suggested that perhaps penalties should be stronger for coaches caught attempting to recruit players from other schools before those players receive permission to be contacted. That might help curb tampering more than the current system in which coaches simply block the player from transferring on scholarship if they even suspect another school got in touch too early.

College basketball

• North Carolina unveils the 2017 NCAA Championship ring. But can they keep it?

Other sports news

• Malik Monk officially signs with the Charlotte Hornets. I must say I was surprised that Michael Jordan picked Monk over Tar Heel Justin Jackson.

• Three former Wildcats — Isaiah Briscoe, Aaron Harrison and Alex Poythress — will compete in this week’s Utah Jazz summer league.

• Could Rajon Rondo be joining the LA Lakers? I wouldn’t mind that.

Other news

• Scientists are getting closer to detecting hidden black holes.

• Could space propulsion be about to undergo a radical transformation?

• This equation represents the grand theory of almost everything. It’s like some crazy movie thing.