Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Congratulations to LSU Edition

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

Well, the CFB Playoff Championship is now in the books, and the LSU Tigers with Heisman winner Joe Burrow have completed the perfect season with a less-than-perfect but still pretty fantastic win over a tough and powerful Clemson Team. It was an exciting game — especially the first half — but LSU took control in the middle of the second half, and their defense stood strong against the powerful Clemson offense, keeping the game from becoming the shootout that seemed likely at halftime.

Congratulations to coach Ed Orgeron and his charges on a dream season. Also, congratulations to coach Dabo Swinney and Clemson for yet another final game appearance and an outstanding season by any measure. These were two outstanding college football teams competing at a very high level, and it was a pleasure to stay up late watching it.

In other news of some relevance, Kentucky is now 3-0 in SEC play and sinking like a rock in the KenPom rankings, now barely a top-20 team.

This is what happens when you’re pretty good at everything, but every game is close, and that goes a long way to describe Kentucky this year. With their guards driving the ball and Nick Richards patrolling the paint, they are a tough out under any circumstances, but they often look vulnerable doing it.

Such was the case on Saturday versus the Alabama Crimson Tide, when Kentucky tried very hard to make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse, and ultimately failed. This is a team that just does not know how to win convincingly, and is vulnerable to medium stretches of repeated mistakes, allowing opponents to cut into big leads.

But one thing is for certain in this version of the Wildcats — they can win games under duress, and there are a lot of teams this season that wilt rather than buck up. That will serve them well as the season wears on and we get to the really tough foes like Auburn on the Plains (who would’ve ever thought I’d write a line like that back in the early aughts?) and Florida in the Swamp, not to mention LSU and Arkansas.

Tweet of the Morning

As it should be. And it’s “Burreaux,” isn’t it? Well, in Louisiana, anyway...

Heh. I’m sure he lived it vicariously through his son, who caught two touchdowns.

And...

Impressive. Most impressive.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Respect.

• How early enrollees will help Kentucky football in 2020.
• Kentucky offers a promising 2022 dual-threat QB from Ohio.
• Somebody I’ve never heard of has Kentucky ranked #25 to open next season. Plausible pick, but probably not a popular one.
• Kentucky gives an early scholarship offer to 20203 linebacker Caleb Herring.

Kentucky basketball

• Contra KenPom, the AP has Kentucky at #10 this week.
• Kentucky seriously considered by Isaiah Todd, a 2020 top 10 forward, but it just “didn’t work out.”
• Wildcats sweep weekly SEC awards.

Other Kentucky sports

• Cawood Ledford voted into 2020 National Sports Media Hall of fame. One question — what took so long?

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links

College football

• The way-too-early SEC outlook by the Herald-Leader has Alabama and LSU at the top and Kentucky as a “fringe contender” at #7. “Fringe contender” is definitely an upgrade from “co-doormat.”
• Mike DeCourcy says this list is a better all-time top ten list than the one presented at the game last night. From a purely college football perspective, I agree.
• The Head Ball Coach’s son joins Mike Leach at Mississippi State.

College basketball

• The nightmare season continues for North Carolina as one of their players gets minor injuries in a car crash.

Other sports news

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander having a pretty good season:

More here.

Other news

• Can a pill replace exercise? Well, this is the second decade of the 21st century, you know...
• Oldest material on earth appears to be older than our solar system, and obviously, of extraterrestrial origin.
• Strange particles in Antarctica can’t be explained by physics as we currently understand it.