Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Steve Nash Edition

This is very sad news. Steve Nash will miss the entire season with a nerve problem. I don’t think we’ll see him back in uniform, but you never know for sure. If he can’t come back, this will be an unfortunate way to end a sterling Hall of Fame NBA career.

We wish Steve a speedy and complete recovery, and if retirement is his immediate future, thanks for the memories.

Tweet of the Morning

Throw Syracuse and North Carolina pending infractions hearings on top of Miami’s issues and Georgia Tech’s probation, quite a #goacc

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) October 24, 2014

Ouch.

Calipari is supposed to know a recruit 1,000 miles away cheated on SAT. Roy isn't supposed to know his own players are taking fake classes.

— Not Jerry Tipton (@NotJerryTipton) October 23, 2014

Double-ouch.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kentucky is asking more from Ryan Timmons. I think it’s about time, he isn’t providing the kind of explosive play that we had come to expect from him last season.

  "He needs to compete at a higher level and needs to step it up," Stoops said. "We need him to. If we’re going to win games at LSU or if we’re going to win a game at home against the No. 1 team in the country, some of our playmakers need to step up and compete at a high level and make plays and win some one-on-one’s and make some plays. That’s what he needs to do."

• Nice UK-UL connection here, the kind that we rarely hear of.

• Jen Smith says that we should look for Mikel Horton to get more carries against Mississippi State.

  I think it’s important that Kentucky find the hot ball carrier early. By the time Horton began to do his damage last week, the game was long over. How much was due to him and how much due to "garbage time?"

• Kentucky’s recruiting guest list is long with Mississippi State in town.

  One of the great things about this game is that with all the media attention, it points up the value of playing in the SEC. That’s a big component of Mark Stoops’ recruiting strategy in Ohio, and it’s working very well.

• Will previews the MSU-Kentucky matchup. I love this:

  UK cannot get embarrassed in front of Rich Brooks, plain and simple. The man could just as easily be spending his free time at the craps tables in Macau, squeezing in eighteen at Pebble Beach, fly-fishing in Patagonia, or tending to his tomatoes. The stakes have never been higher.

• Mark Story on the matchup with Misssissippi State. Not very even.

• Stoops pleased with preparation for Mississippi State.

Kentucky basketball

• Calipari ready to unleash "Blue Platoons" on college basketball.

  While I like the idea of platooning, I am somewhat skeptical that it will work well enough. I’d very much like to be proven wrong about that.

• Harrison twins at SEC Media Days:

• John Calipari at SEC Media Days:

• Five Kentucky players on the All-SEC teams. While only Aaron Harrison made the first team, the second team contains four Wildcats.

• Every team storms the court, according to Mike Rutherford. Apparently Kentucky even did it in 1973. Wait, what? 1973?

  Court-storming needs to stop, and as soon as possible. It is dangerous in today’s modern arenas with steep seating and huge sizes. While it may be fun, so is driving while tipsy and (apparently) burning couches on public thoroughfares.

Other Kentucky sports

• Women’s soccer travels to Georgia and LSU for the final road games of their SEC season.

• Matthew Mitchell honored by the Rotary Club for his service to the Boy Scouts.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Friday Wildcat Links

• John Clay’s Big Blue Links

College football

• Mississippi State is having a problem in their home state and town with local businesses selling unlicensed merchandise with pictures of student-athletes.

• From Whom The Cowbell Tolls: This week in gifs - Kentucky.

• Jon Solomon, CBS Sports: Judge expresses concern about NCAA concussion settlement. Consider:

  U.S. District Judge John Lee’s major issue appears to be whether non-contact sport athletes should be part of the settlement, Steve Berman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs who wants to get the agreement approved, said after Thursday’s hearing.

College basketball

• Bruce Pearl is promising five bids for the SEC this season. Well, one of them is unlikely to go to his team, but I think the SEC has a very good chance to get five in this season, most likely Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas and LSU.

• Mike DeCourcy: UNC too eager to write off their scandal as purely academic. Consider:

  If the NCAA is going to do anything to Carolina over what occurred with the creation of — to use the university’s original term — "aberrant" classes, the guiding of athletes into those classes and the ability of its athletic teams to succeed as a result of eligibility illicitly achieved – if the NCAA is going to hammer the Heels, maybe it ought to be because it took four years for the school to come clean.

  Indeed.

• Rush the Court: Morning Five, SEC edition.

Other sports news

• SB Nation’s 2014-15 NBA Preview. Awesome stuff.

• Randall Cobb has his groove back. Yes, I do believe he has.

• John Wall moves up quite a bit in ESPN’s player rankings.

Other news

• Coming attractions: Tractor beams becoming a reality? That’s pretty cool, if pretty low-powered. It seems a really long way from this to towing starships. Via Instapundit.

• Those of you with infant car seats that are still in use, heed this news of a recall.