Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Summer Stories Edition

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Big Blue Nation, and welcome to the Tuesday Morning Quickies.

It’s hard to tell what the “biggest news” is around Kentucky these days, since there seems to be a lot of it, and most of it very good. Mark Stoops has delivered a number of quality recruits lately on the heels of the best Kentucky football season in decades, and has Mark Story wondering what he can do for an encore. He has five suggestions, and here are three:

• Beat an SEC West team other than Mississippi St.;
• Beat Louisville in Lexington (that sounds weird, doesn’t it?);
• Beat Tennessee in Lexington for the second straight time.

Read the rest of the piece to see the rest, but these three are worthy all on their own.

The other story that is being closely followed is that of former Virginia Tech power forward Kerry Blackshear Jr., who will be a graduate transfer next season and is currently ranked as the top grad transfer in the country. Ben Roberts has the goods on this for the LHL, along with our own reporting from Jason (in case you missed it.)

Apparently, Blackshear will visit both UK and Tennessee in the coming few days, having already been to Arkansas and Florida.

The Vols don’t have any scholarships available, apparently, but Kentucky has three. The problem is, Blackshear will have to compete with a lot of people for playing time now that E.J. Montgomery and Nick Richards are returning, and former Bucknell star Nate Sestina is transferring in to play for Kentucky.

Having an embarrassment of riches in the front court is a nice problem to have, but as they say, it’s still a problem. Stay tuned.

Tweet of the Morning

Man, I remember seeing Louie playing for the Colonels in Freedom Hall just after a Kentucky State Basketball tournament session one year.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kentucky raids Ohio for football talent, and keeps moving UK’s class up the rankings.
• Could the 2020 recruiting class be the highest rated by Mark Stoops at Kentucky? “Yes” is looking good right now…

Kentucky basketball

• What John Calipari and the returning Wildcats are saying about the incoming group of freshman and transfers. I like hearing this:

Calipari: “This could be one of the longest teams that I’ve coached. I looked at Keion, and shoot he looks at least 6-9, maybe 6-10. I mean, he’s long. So, we’re going to have a pretty long (group). When you talk the guys that we have, a pretty long team too.”

• Coach Cal is wary about the SEC decision to allow schools to sell alcohol at athletic events. I can understand his concern. I’m generally in favor of alcohol sales as long as it doesn’t extend past the third quarter in football games, and the start of the second half in basketball.
• Heh. Calipari appears to be talking about Indiana in a recent article, casting aspersions on their fans and arena. Speaking of the Hoosiers, here’s a little Hoosier hate for ya:

ther Kentucky sports

• Zach Thompson named 3rd team All-America by Baseball America.
• Two UK volleyballers, Madison Lilley and Gabby Curry have been invited to an extended tryout for the U.S. Volleyball Women’s National Team this summer.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links

College football

• Former Auburn coach Terry Bowden to join Clemson staff as GA. At 63. Well, I guess age really doesn’t matter anymore…

College basketball

• Big get for Clemson:

• Arkansas loses Iowa grad transfer Isaiah Moss to the Kansas Jayhawks via transfer.

Other sports news

• Boogie holds nothing back.

• Mississippi St., Vanderbilt advance to the College World Series. Also, Auburn apparently got in as well.

Other news

• Are scientists on the brink of discovering a mirror universe? Mr. Spock’s goatee wants to know…
• How gravity waves effect our weather.
• What is quantum entanglement? Think the Ansible in Ender’s Game.