Saturday Quickies: Beat Vandy Edition

Good morning, Big Blue Nation!

It’s a snowy Saturday here in the Commonwealth and Big Blue fans are looking forward to some Kentucky Wildcats basketball tonight. The Cats will take on the Vanderbilt Commodores in their second conference home game at Rupp Arena tonight at 8:30 PM.

The Dores are coming in at 9-5, 0-2 in the conference with back-to-back losses to the Georgia Bulldogs and The Ole Miss Rebels. Both losses were by double digits.

Vandy was considered a dark horse coming into the season but with the loss of freshman star point guard Darius Garland, they’ve struggled mightily.

The Cats are a superior team in every sense of the term yet we’ve seen them play to their competition these past two weeks and the results are 1-1 to start conference play.

It would do the Cats some good to start off hot, get a substantial lead, and step on the gas. Leave no doubt before Auburn.

Tweets of the Day

Don’t tweet this BS at players.

Quickies

UK facing David without his slingshot | Lexington Herald Leader- The matchup between Ashton Hagans and Darius Garland would have been a fun one but unfortunately it won’t happen.

Hagans gaining confidence on offense | Cats Pause- The point guard has scored his career high in three straight games. I think he’s going to have another big game today as Vandy doesn’t really have anyone to stick with him if he cuts to the basket.

Hagans locking down opponents and point guard position | UK Athletics- Hagans’ defense is what got him on the court and his emerging offensive game is what got him the starting point guard position. And even though Immanuel Quickley has been playing really well, I don’t see Hagans giving up his spot anytime soon.

Scottie Pippen’s son commits to Vandy | CBS- While Bryce Drew may be struggling to get this done on the court, his recruiting remains strong. The son of the NBA Hall of Famer is a three star recruit that chose Vandy over Washington State, Colorado State, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Davis.

Za’Darius Smith rated as most underrated free agent | Cats Pause- The Former Wildcat is on the market after another strong season in Baltimore. Hopefully a team will see his value and give him a nice check.

Divisional Weekend picks | CBS- The NFL Playoffs ramp up today as the Divisions are on the line. The slate of games will set up the conference championship games next weekend. The experts REALLY like the road teams this weekend.

Teams should be wary of ‘trap Saturday’ | ESPN- There are some big games next week but teams in the top 25 shouldn’t be looking ahead. Kentucky is one of those teams that need to take care of business at home against an inferior team.

Tune into ESPN 680 tonight at about 10:30 as I breakdown the Dores at Cats.

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