Saturday Morning Headlines: Keshad Johnson Decision Day Edition

Good morning and happy Saturday, BBN. I hope your weekend is off to a good start because I think we are going to get some not so great news in the world of Kentucky Wildcats basketball today.

Transfer Keshad Johnson is going to announce his destination school today and it is down between Kentucky and Arizona. It was thought that the 6’7 transfer out of San Diego State was going to ultimately pick Kentucky but news in the last 24 hours is saying otherwise.

If Johnson does indeed go to the other Wildcats, and Crystal Ball indications say that is the case, then John Calipari will have struck out on the two transfer portal players that he went all in on. Hunter Dickinson spurned Kentucky for the Kansas Jayhawks earlier this month.

Normally John Calipari can afford to be selective in the transfer portal and he has been successful in the past couple of years being able to identify one or two guys and getting them to commit. But for some reason this hasn’t been the case during this cycle.

Kentucky’s roster is woefully incomplete with just seven players at the moment and more bad news seems to be on the horizon. Nobody thinks that Chris Livingston is coming back and the chances of Oscar Tshiebwe returning are dwindling. Oscar said this week that he is focused on being a pro and he just needs one team to tell him that they’ll draft him. Antonio Reeves is likely to return but the scuttle is that he is going to exhaust every avenue to turn pro and the G-League is even in play.

At this point John Calipari has to be working the grad transfer market. There will be a number of players that won’t be drafted and will return to college for one more season. Calipari is going to have to throw everything and the kitchen sink at some of these guys to land them. He needs three more players to commit and maybe even four. A reclassification is probably on the table at some point but there’s been no buzz about that.

It will be a shame if Calipari cannot get the pieces to compliment one of his best recruiting classes. I would hate to limp into July’s games in Canada without a full roster.

Tweets of the Day

This is the moment when, as Dave Chappelle once said, “keeping it real goes wrong” for Grant Williams.

It was a big night at Kentucky Proud Park as the Cats took down the Gators.

Headlines

Highlights from Bam Adebayo’s 22 point, 17 rebound performance | Bleacher Report- Jimmy Butler was the spark last night but Bam was the engine for Miami. The Heat are now leading the series 2-0 and one has to wonder if Grant Williams will be allowed back in to the Garden after last night.

Kentucky football officially announces seven transfers | Cats Illustrated- Mark Stoops and his staff focused on offensive line in the portal and did a pretty good job. The rest of the pieces they added will have a chance to play but seem to be more complimentary and for depth.

Chris Livingston’s decision is now more important | Vaught’s Views- While the premise of this is correct I don’t see a world in which Chris Livingston returns. If he did, it would be a massive victory for John Calipari. He needs one.

UK secures winning record in the SEC with win over Florida | Cats Pause- It was a 6-4 win for the nineteenth Cats over the third ranked Gators. A win today would give the series to the Cats along with a huge deal of momentum heading towards the SEC tournament.

Softball advances in regionals | UK Athletics- The Cats won 9-1 over Miami and will play today at 1:00 PM.

Tim Couch high on Cutter Boley | KSR- The Kentucky QB legend watched every snap of Boley’s last season and said he is “everything you want” in a quarterback. I’ll take Couch’s opinion over just about anyone else’s.

Scottie Scheffler is ahead in the PGA Championship | CBS- Bryson DeChambeau was in the lead as of Thursday but fell to -3.

5 easiest non-conference schedules in the SEC | SDS- Kentucky ranks fourth on this list with non-con games against Ball State, Eastern Kentucky, Akron and Louisville.

Jim Brown passes | ESPN- Jim Brown did it all in his illustrious career. Not only was he one of the greatest running backs of all time, he was also an actor and an activist during the civil rights movement. We truly lost a great.