Kentucky Wildcats Brunch Quickies: College Football Playoff Edition

Well, today is “selection Sunday” for the college football playoff. I predict acrimony and bitter comments on social media. Pretty much the same as the BCS.

Tweet of the Morning

Baylor trying to get credit for going to play Buffalo on the road is beyond priceless. Come on man.

— Greg (@GregNJ) December 7, 2014

I’ve got a better word — shameless.

CFB world is going to go volcanic in less than an hour and it’s going to be absolutely hilarious. In 48 hrs we’ll have all moved on, though.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) December 7, 2014

Well, some of us, anyway…

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Kevin Durham plays the part of armchair AD for Kentucky football.

• Zy’Aire Hughes still fully committed to the Wildcats. That’s good news. Better news would be an offensive coordinator hire, but I understand that bowl season will likely interfere with that.

• Kentucky Sports Connection says the football rebuild is right on schedule. I think this is right, despite the meltdown in the second half of the season.

• Saturday Down South evaluates the reported interest of Kentucky in East Carolina OC Lincoln Riley.

• Damien Harris pushes back his commitment date to January 9th. I have no idea what this means for Kentucky, but it could be giving them room to hire an OC before making his decision.

Kentucky basketball

• Skal Labissiere can’t wait to get into the Blue and White. I hope he is able to come here, although I’m not totally convinced he can. We’ll see.

• Luke Winn has some comments on the top 25. He has some interesting observations on Tyler Ulis in particular. Hat Tip: Memphis Wildcat

• What happens if the Wildcats discover offense? Pain. Lots of pain.

• Kentucky was watching a lot of recruits on Saturday. Adam Zagoria has details.

• I think Malik Newman would be a great addition to the 2015 UK roster, don’t you. Knew you did.

• Campus Insiders on the Texas-Kentucky game:

• John Clay says Kentucky’s defense is flirting with history. This article is slightly dated, because Texas exceeded Boston College’s 0.8 points per possession mark at 0.94 ppp. Still, Kentucky has the best defense in the nation, and it isn’t likely to get worse tonight against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels.

• Kentucky’s love letter to UNC and Duke:

  So you thought Kentucky basketball fans were obnoxious before.

  You thought all they ever talked about was the eight national titles and Adolph Rupp and the "Greatest Tradition in the History of College Basketball" – it’s not the state seal of the Commonwealth, but it should be – the current coach who has all but retired the best-recruiter trophy, and much, much, much more.

  Just wait, good basketball people of the 919, it’s going to get worse. Much worse.

  Heh. Well, make no mistake, UK fans are elitist every year, but especially so this season. That’s because the program is elite, and everybody knows it. So don’t hate us because we look down at our noses at you this season. It’s just payment in kind.

  It really helps that we can back up our elitism with eight NCAA Tournament titles, and nobody else outside of Westwood can.

• More platoon system analysis from an outsider. We’ve seen how this will work — it will be used, until it doesn’t make sense to use it. Analyzing it to death isn’t really productive.

Other Kentucky sports

• Linnae Harper and Makayla Epps are coming on strong, and leading the Wildcats into battle against Louisville today. The Hoops Wildcats have been on a tear lately, winning 3 in a row after a loss to Illinois in the Paradise Jam.

• UK volleyball’s season is over. It fell in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to #18 Ohio State.

• More on the big game today from Cat Scratches.

Links posts

• John Clay’s Big Blue Links

• John Clay’s SEC Links

• The Leach Report: Sunday Wildcat Links

College football

• Is Mike Riley an upgrade at Nebraska? I guess that depends upon what you want from a coach. This article lays some of it out pretty well.

• Seems the college football playoff is doing little to quell the controversy over picking playoff teams. I think it was easier in the BCS era. There were almost always two teams that were head and shoulders above the rest. That fourth spot has a lot of claimants. Pete Thamel has it thus:

  On Sunday a team with a legitimate case will be excluded from the playoff. Will it be No. 3 TCU, which toasted Iowa State 55-3 on Saturday to finish 11-1? Will it be No. 5 Ohio State, which dominated Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten title game behind its third-string quarterback? Will it be No. 6 Baylor, which turned in an equally impressive victory by thrashing No. 9 Kansas State 38-27 in Waco?

  It can’t possibly be undefeated Florida State, can it? The Seminoles have won 29 games in a row, the 12th-longest winning streak in college football history. They were impressive in beating Georgia Tech on Saturday, even showing a bit of game control that isn’t evident from a simple glance at the final score.

• Teams argue their case for inclusion in the playoff. There will be disappointments.

• Lane Kiffin celebrates a play’s success before the player catches the ball.

College basketball

• The Big Ten tournament is moving to Madison Square Garden. That just seems wrong to me.

• New Jersey Institute of Technology, formerly one of the worst teams in Division I, upsets Michigan. This is definitely their Gardner-Webb moment.

  Honestly, NJIT hasn’t been that bad this season. They gave Marquette a good game, upset Duquesne, and now sent Michigan to the locker room with an L. But they have also lost to the likes of Albany and UMass Lowell (Not the UMass Amhearst that is actually good).

Other sports news

• The Sixers win again!

• Antoine Walker: Life after losing #110 million. This is unquestionably outstanding advice that deserves to be passed on:

  When asked what his #1 piece of advice would be to young NBA players today, Walked said, "Get the word ‘No’ in your vocabulary. You’re going to have to say no to a lot of people that are very important to you. Stick to your financial plan and don’t invest until you’re done with your career when you’re able to be hands-on."

• Heh. Very interesting.

Other news

• Tech gift guide: What not to buy.

• How to make bulletproof coffee, step-by-step. Sounds bizarre to me. I prefer a French press and teakettle.

• Why red wine prevents cancer. It’s the resveratol, apparently.