Saturday Quickies: Big Men, Big Problems Edition

Good morning and happy Saturday, Big Blue Nation.

The big news today coming from the basketball side of things is that UK great Tony Delk told the Lexington-Herald Leader that he thinks current UK freshman EJ Montgomery is going to stay in the NBA Draft.

Why does what Mr. Delk thinks matter? Because he has been acting as a consultant to Montgomery throughout the NBA workout process.

Here is what Delk had to say on the matter:

“I think he’s staying in,” Delk said of Montgomery on Friday night. “Just from what I’ve been hearing. He’s already had a couple workouts with teams. So I guess he’s got some good reports from GMs.”

Delk, who said he is serving as a consultant, said Montgomery’s departure to the NBA is not a 100-percent certainty.

That could be really bad news for John Calipari who is fresh off of missing out on Jaden McDaniels. Nick Richards could be the lone big man on the roster after Wednesday.

If EJ does decide to go and Kerry Blackshear decides to do one more year at college, Calipari has to put on a full court press for him. I know Calipari doesn’t make promises, but if I were him I would go to Blackshear and tell him the starting center job at UK is his if he wants it.

And what if Blackshear opts to stay in the draft? Then Cal has to beg a 2020 big man to reclassify.

If Montgomery leaves after a year of mediocre productivity, expect to hear grumblings from fans. They’ve already started and I can’t say I blame them.

Tweets of the Day

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Quickies

Penny says his Swag is different | Lexington Herald Leader- Neither Duke nor Kentucky are sitting at the top of the recruiting rankings according to 247. That honor belongs to Memphis and Penny Hardaway. Is there a new King of the Hill?

Cats drop opening game in Super Regional | UK Athletics- Rachel Lawson and her team had their chances against Washington but came up short, 3-0, in a loss. They will play the Huskies again at 10:00 PM tonight. If they lose, they’re done. If they win, they will play Washington one more time. Winner goes to the College World Series.

Joel Justus breaks down spring signees | Cats Pause- The Cats have a loaded freshman class and the UK assistant coach tells us about each player.

Art Briles lands job as Texas high school coach | ESPN- In a bit of a shocking move, a Texas high school hired the former Baylor head coach. Briles was fired from Baylor for covering up/ignoring sexual assault allegations perpetrated by his football players. High school doesn’t seem like the place for Briles.

Three teams ready to surprise in 2019 | CBS- The NFL is still months away from kicking off but we are starting to get a clearer picture of what rosters are going to look like by that time.

Kevin Durant poo-poos notion that Warriors are better without him | USA Today- It’s a debatable question. Steph Curry and Draymond Green certainly are better without him.

10 best tight ends in 2019 | Saturday’s Down South- Justin Riggs isn’t on the list- understandably so- but I bet he will be by the end of next season.