Saturday Headlines: Waiting Period Edition

Good morning, Big Blue Nation. It’s a gloomy looking Saturday around the Bluegrass State and rain is in the forecast for many of us. The Masters and Major League Baseball can provide some entertainment for us now that college basketball is officially finished, but the conversations around the sport are nonstop.

As the transfer portal dominates the offseason, Kentucky fans-along with the majority of college basketball fans- are in a “wait and see” mode that is starting to cause a little consternation.

Roster construct talk has taken on a new life where fans aren’t only worried about who their team can add, but now the added dimension of who is going to leave adds to the anxiety. This week we saw Devin Askew enter the transfer portal after he declared he was returning immediately after the season ended.

This sparked think pieces on news outlets and blogs about what Askew’s transfer means, specifically that it meant that John Calipari is going to add significant pieces at the guard position and that he’d be doing that sooner rather than later.

Many of the stories of the offseason have focused on “Kentucky is in a good place with fill in the blank player in the transfer portal” or “rumors about fill in the blank player is looking to transfer”. It’s exhausting. It’s like high school recruiting on steroids.

As John Calipari and the rest of college basketball continue to figure how to navigate this new ship, fans are having to deal with the reality that patience is more important than ever but, for someone like me that hates waiting in just about every aspect of life, it’s frustrating.

I’m an advocate for player empowerment and I like the transfer rule. If coaches can come and go with the wind, players should be afforded the same right, especially since their decisions aren’t tied to a paycheck. That doesn’t mean I, along with many fans, am not left confused and sometimes overwhelmed with the constant fluidity of this new frontier.

All that being said, I expect John Calipari to make a few more major moves before this is all said and done. I also expect that at least one more player on the current roster will transfer. But there is some old familiarity to all of this because, in the end, the roster is going to look vastly different than it did last season and Kentucky Wildcats basketball fans should be pretty used to that by now compared to other fanbases.

Tweets of the Day

That made me chuckle.

“It’s Dark and Hell is Hot” is one of my favorite rap albums of all time. DMX was as big as it gets in the late nineties and early two-thousands.

Quickies

Adam Miller is a potential transfer for Kentucky | Cats Pause- Guard is the position of most need for John Calipari and Adam Miller is one of the top players in the transfer portal. The Illinois guard averaged eight points and 3 rebounds in 2021.

LSU spanks Kentucky in series opener | UK Athletics- The Wildcats were throttled 15-2 in the first game of a three game series against LSU, 15-2. That’s a big set back after the Cats took care of the top ten ranked Cardinals on Tuesday. Rain is in the forecast so maybe a double-header on Sunday will conclude the series.

Four questions as Kentucky looks to end the spring | Cats Illustrated- There are only four days left of spring practice and there are some questions surrounding the new look offense as well as questions about the defense.

Not an ideal start for Josh Heupel at Tennessee | SDS- The Tennessee football head coaching job is about as toxic of a job that there is in college football right now and Kentucky needs to take advantage here. Getting the Wade twins out of Tennessee would add another piece to that puzzle.

Kentucky reaches out to Bryce Hamilton | Review Journal- Bryce Hamilton averaged 17.9 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists as a junior at UNLV. He is testing the NBA Drafter waters but he will not hire an agent. Kentucky will be a major player if he decides to stick in college for another season.

Defending champ Dustin Johnson misses the Masters cut | CBS- Johnson is the third champion in a row to miss the cut a year after winning the Masters.

Pelicans win with Zion at point guard | ESPN- With Lonzo Ball out with an injury, Zion Williamson took over point guard duties for the Pelicans and came away with a 101-94 win.

Reds continue streak with 10 inning win in the desert | Redleg Nation- The hottest team in baseball survived 6-5 in an extra innings win against the D-Backs in Arizona. Tucker Barnhart hit the game winning homer and the Reds improved to 6-1 on the season.

Top 10 WrestleMania feuds | Sporting News- I haven’t watched professional wrestling in over a decade but I used to be a huge fan. I have no plans to watch WrestleMania tomorrow but this was a fun trip down memory lane.