Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Winning Time Edition

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Morning Quickies. It’s NCAA Tournament Time, spring is in the air, and basketball insanity is taking over the country.

First, a brief comment on Kentucky’s situation. I am satisfied with the seeding, it is fine. No, it’s not ideal, but it’s about what you would expect after you lose a semifinal conference tournament game that you had mostly in hand due to lapses in focus and effort. In all honesty, I think the wear of the season finally got to this young group, and I’m not sure I totally regret the extra day of rest.

I’m not going to analyze the bracket, but suffice it to say that Kentucky has some challenges to overcome, although they are significantly less daunting than last season. Just win, baby.

Next is a breathless article in USA Today reporting that Calipari got (gasp!) paid about $1 million dollars for an all-access docu-series about the team last season, which he then promptly donated to charity. You can read the whole thing, but I was astonished at the “expose!” treatment of the giant nothing-burger that most people, let alone non-Kentucky fans, could give a rip about. Alas, that’s today’s media for you – everything is some kind of scandal if they can massage it into one.

Finally, the seed complaints. Please get over it. The NCAA is not out to screw UK, the sky is not falling, and the sun will (probably) rise tomorrow. If UK can get to the NCAA Tournament championship game from the #8 seed, it should be able to do it from the #2 spot.

No matter what the seed, you have to win the games, and getting to UNC should be no harder than it was in 2017, assuming they get through. We just need to make it a different result.

Tweet of the Morning

I don’t know, I think I’d rather face UNC than UVA in the regional final. So there’s that. But not playing in Louisville is a definite negative.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• CJ Conrad, who had to sit out the NFL Combine due to a heart problem identified during a physical, has been cleared to resume his pursuit of an NFL career. Great news!

Kentucky basketball

• I don’t care if it’s mocking Calipari, it’s really funny. Cal is a huckster, we all know he’s a huckster, and even he knows he’s a huckster. But he’s our huckster and we love him for it, because it’s all to promote Kentucky and UK basketball. He also happens to be one of the finest coaches ever to stalk the sidelines.

• Kentucky announces open practice in Jacksonville.
• Midwest regional bracket analysis by CBS, and they pick Kentucky to make a “far-too-early exit.” Matt Norlander seems to think Wofford will defeat the Wildcats because UK doesn’t shoot enough threes.
• Kentucky to be featured on the “NCAA March Madness Confidential” all-access series.
• The Courier-Journal weighs in on Kentucky’s chances.
• Former Dookie-turned-ESPN analyst Jay Williams likes the cut of Kentucky’s jib in the NCAA Tournament.
• How John Calipari redefined his school, his sport, and his era.
• Will Wade’s troubles at LSU could be recruiting gold for Kentucky when it comes to 2020 prospect N’Faly Dante. Dante is seriously considering reclassifying to 2019, and could help with UK’s 2019 front-court uncertainty.
• None of Sports Illustrated’s analysts pick Kentucky to win the NCAA Tournament.
• Calipari mentions Grant Williams “flopping all over the place.” I thought I saw that as well. We got a pretty rotten whistle versus the Vols, and I haven’t complained about the officiating much this season. It happens, but let’s hope that’s the last time we see it this season.
• SB Nation talks about the reasons that you should have Kentucky at the top of your bracket in the end.
• UK basketball assistant Joel Justus mentioned in this article about Appalachian State’s search for a new coach.

Other Kentucky sports

• Hoops gets a 6-seed for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
• Go, Bat Cats!

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links.

College basketball

• CBS does computer simulations of the NCAA Tournament and has some surprising upset picks, including LSU losing in the first round, Arizona losing to Buffalo, and Miami losing to Loyola-Chicago among others.

Most of these don’t seem that surprising to me.

• BPI says Duke was harmed, UNC helped by the brackets they were placed in.
• Kiss of death? Duke heaviest favorite since 2014-15 Kentucky.
• Bill Self to the Chicago Bulls? Nah. Self scratching his head about the rumor, along with… well, everyone else. But who knows?
• UNC Greensboro coach Wes Miller was devastated by being left out of the NCAA Tournament. I was very surprised that the Spartans were snubbed, they gave us a tough game.
• Good to hear.

Other news

• A meteor as powerful as 10 Hiroshima bombs exploded in the sky, and we all missed it.
• Surprising: Some humans can sense the Earth’s magnetic field.
• Jurassic Park? Japanese scientists attempting to clone a woolly mammoth cell.