Wednesday Quickies: Vanderbilt Gameday/Lynn Bowden Award Edition

Lynn Bowden is your 2019 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year.

The award recipient is chosen via media members from around the state casting their votes, as Bowden’s heroics during the 2019 Kentucky Football season propelled him ahead of former Louisville QB Lamar Jackson and former Murray State point guard Ja Morant.

For some voters, the fact that Bowden’s performances occurred in the commonwealth helped push him ahead of Jackson and Morant, both of whom either had or are in the midst of fantastic seasons in the NFL and NBA.

This makes the second year that a Kentucky Football player has won the award, with former UK pass rusher Josh Allen taking home the award in 2018.

Also tonight, the Kentucky Wildcats Basketball team hits the court for a home matchup with the Vanderbilt Commodores, who sit at 8-11 and last in the SEC with an 0-6 conference record.

While the Cats come back home following a thrilling overtime win in Lubbock, the Commodores took a thrashing at South Carolina Saturday, losing by 26 as the Gamecocks racked up 90 points and shot 54 percent from the field.

Since narrowly losing at Auburn on Jan. 8, Vanderbilt has lost its last 5 games by an average margin of nearly 20 points per game.

This should be an instance in which Kentucky comes in and is easily able to take care of business, but this Kentucky team hasn’t had very many of those games this year, so it wouldn’t be terribly surprising if midway through the second half, Vandy is still hanging around.

It will be important that Kentucky not get caught looking ahead or back. Last Saturday’s win was a very emotional one and a huge win for this team, but they can’t get caught looking back at that or looking ahead to next Saturday’s road showdown with Auburn. Doing either could leave the Cats vulnerable to what would be a very bad loss on their home court.

You can catch the action tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.

Tweet of the Day

I’m gonna miss Lynn Bowden at UK next year.

Quickies

Vandy’s losing streak on the line against the Cats - Herald Leader

The ‘Dores have to be desperate to end their SEC skid.

Cats have to avoid possible trap against Vandy - Courier Journal

It’s easy to get caught looking forward or backward.

Joel Justus breaks down Vanderbilt - Cats Pause

Justus wants the Cats to make sure they defend against Vandy threes.

Cats have work to do for tourney resume even after Texas Tech win - Courier Journal

Kentucky needs to add a few more quality wins to get a high seed.

247 Sports hammers UK Football commits - KSR

The Cats’ commitments did not receive high marks from the folks at 247.

Kobe’s greatness was both beautiful and maddening - ESPN

Zach Lowe offers his tribute to Kobe.

Raheem Mostert’s long road to this moment - Bleacher Report

Mostert’s journey to playing in the Super Bowl has had a lot of twists and turns.

Allen Iverson reportedly has $500k of jewelry stolen - Yahoo

That’s a lot of jewelry.

Miami (OH) postponing games due to Coronavirus threat - SI

The move is precautionary as two students await test results after visiting China.