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Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Red, White, Blue and Boogie Edition

News and commentary from around the Big Blue Internet. Great article at Grantland featuring DeMarcus Cousins. Volleyball goes 2-1 in North Carolina. More.

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Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno

Great article by Andrew Sharp for Grantland today entitled Red, White, Blue and Boogie: Your Gold-Medal Game Recap.

In 2010, in Turkey, we saw Kevin Durant go from a great, young player to the leader of Team USA — and, ultimately, to one of the two best players on the planet. He had previously led the NBA in scoring, but soon he was in the Finals, and last year he was MVP. Those two weeks in Turkey were when you started to feel everything click for him.

This year that didn’t quite happen with Davis. The offense didn’t flow through him, so he had trouble getting involved, and the takeover we were hoping for never really got going. Instead we got Boogie and Faried.

Neither player has made an All-Star Game, and they’re both stuck in hopeless NBA situations that compound their shortcomings and make us focus on everything they can’t do. Nobody knows what the Kings or Nuggets are doing, and if there’s no clear plan now, things probably won’t get that much better in the next few years. That cloud of uncertainty (Nuggets) or misery (Kings) makes it much harder to enjoy them all year.

Great stuff, but it’s only a tiny piece. You really must read the whole thing.

Tweet of the Morning

Heh. No, he’s not satisfied, nor should he be.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football
  • There’s plenty to like about Kentucky’s future. I could not agree more. And this:

    Kentucky didn’t lose the game because of the clock non-call — Florida would still have had another fourth down — but you could argue it went a long way toward Kentucky not winning. I think Stoops would make that argument.

    I think this is right. I’ll have more about this later in response to the SEC’s statement, but other than that, I think we just have to let it go.

    Also this:

    UK’s lack of quality depth on the defensive side of the ball was exposed in the second half as Florida’s running game went smashmouth with much success. And yet the UK defense made enough plays down the stretch to extend the game to overtime.

    Yeah, that’s right as well, although one could make a similar argument about Florida, I think. If one is true, the other should be as well.

  • Patrick Towles ceiling continues to rise after Florida effort. Towles has looked the part of a quality SEC quarterback all year. I think we should all be stoked that it took such a long time to name him to the starting spot.

  • The Leach Report: Takeaways from the Swamp.

  • The kick that defied physics. I commented on this in the postmortem. That kick should not have gone through, but somehow it did. I guess there was a gust of wind up there or something, as the atmosphere was unstable in the area. My wife said it looked like the finger of God moving the ball.

  • Patrick Towles takes a big step. Indeed.

  • Three leftovers from Saturday night at the Swamp.

  • USA Today says Kentucky is #71, up 14. Hat tip: @KyleTucker_CJ

  • Florida film study. I think this illustrates very well Kentucky’s improvement. The fact that they brought so many blitzes and felt comfortable enough to let their corners be alone on an island with the Florida receivers is a sign of confidence. I think Andy’s right that Florida’s execution could have been sharper, but the example he shows had the receiver well covered. Yes, Florida’s player had a step, but perfectly thrown footballs in that situation are rare, and Driskel was coming under some pressure.

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