Kentucky Wildcats Quickies: Road Dogs Edition

Good morning Big Blue Nation. The Kentucky Wildcats are in Morgantown to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers for an evening game in which the Cats find themselves as major underdogs.

-10 is a big number and many in the fanbase and the media alike aren’t giving UK much of a chance.

At least the players are optimistic. Quade Green guaranteed a win vs. the Louisville Cardinals and the Cats won by 29. He’s making similar guarantees going into West Virginia:

A win on the road vs. a top 10 ten would do a lot to calm the fan base and to give the Cats some much needed credit.

Tweets of the Day

Really feel for Demarcus Cousins and the Pelicans. He’s an All Star starter and he and Anthony Davis have the Pelicans in the playoffs right now.

This is the quote from Tom Izzo when he responded to allegations of covering up sexual assaults at Michigan State. Izzo has always been known as a nice guy. You can throw that right out the door.

Mark Emmert has been an incompetent leader for a long time. Maybe this will finally be his downfall.

Quickies

Calipari ramps up practice before West Virginia game | SEC Country- Cal employed the managers as defenders when trying to replicate the Mountaineer press and defense. They always used pads to whack the Kentucky players to simulate the physicality they will experience.

Cal and Quade disagree on the ‘must win’ scenario | Lexington Herald Leader- Here’s more of Quade’s comments:

Kentucky guard Quade Green put a “must-win” label on the game at West Virginia on Saturday.

“We’ve got to win this game,” he said Friday. “It’s a must-win game for us.”

When asked why Kentucky had to win, Green said, “Because we’ve always been losing. Everybody’s doubting us. So we’ve got to punch them in the mouth.”

Here is Cal’s response:

When told of Green calling it a must-win game, UK Coach John Calipari shook his head.

“If that’s what they said, I’ll talk about it,” he said. “This is only a big game if we win.” And if Kentucky wins, “it’s a huge game.

“But short of that, it’s the next game. And it’s not even in our league. It’s going to be a hard game. But it’s not a must game.”

I’m on Cal’s side but not by much.

Demarcus Cousins to have surgery for torn Achilles | ESPN- The worst case scenario happened for Pelicans fans and Wildcats fans. Cousins will be out for the rest of the season and New Orleans bid for the playoffs just took a major hit.

Calipari asking young Cats to rise to the challenge | Coachcal.com- Calipari is imploring his players to play physical and to not let the physicality they experience get to them.

How Kentucky and West Virginia Match Up | Lexington Herald Leader- West Virginia comes out ahead in the advantage column as Mark Story predicts a close game tonight.

UK gymnastics wins at Auburn | UK Athletics- The Cats are 5-1 on the season and 2-1 in the SEC.

Tom Izzo shuts down retirement rumors | CBS- The rumor that both Tom Izzo would retire in the wake of the sexual assault scandals that rocked the Michigan State athletic department. As you read above, Izzo is defiant and he’s not going anywhere. For now.

OTL highlight the Larry Nassar and Michigan State catastrophe | ESPN- Larry Nassar, the former Team USA Olympic doctor that molested young female Olympians and Michigan State athletes, is going to prison for the rest of his life. The Michigan State president and AD have already resigned. OTL obtained reports that both Mark Dantonio and Tom Izzo ran programs rife with sexual assault that was covered up.

Burn it all to the ground.

The XFL must target these 30 players | The Sporting News- Johnny Manziel, Tim Tebow, and Colin Kaepernick highlight a very interesting list.

Outspoken ESPN anchor Jemel Hill out at SportsCenter | Sports Illustrated- Hill gained praised from some and was criticized by others for her social media comments about President Trump. To some, she represented the politicization of ESPN even though she never made her comments on air. She co-hosted SC6, the 6 o’clock SportsCenter, with Michael Smith but the ratings continued to tank. Now she will be writing for The Undefeated and will have other roles at ESPN.

Game of Thrones set to return Spring of 2019 | TV Line- Fans of the epically awesome HBO fantasy series will have to wait over a year for the final season of the dragon drama. Maisie Williams who plays Arya Stark stated that Spring 2019 will be the date for the final season, April to be exact. This is fitting since the last novel of the George RR Martin book series is titled “A Dream of Spring”. Any chance we get “Winds of Winter” before the final season dropes? Yeah, I doubt it too.

And finally, I will be on the radio waves along with Jason Ence after the Cats and the Mountaineers face off at 7:00 PM. Call in 502-267-9680. Here is how to listen: