Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Lance Armstrong's Wallet Edition

Lance Armstrong apparently lost a defamation suit with an insurance company and now must pay them $10 million:

SCA said: "The award, which must be paid directly to SCA, is believed to be the largest award of sanctions assessed against an individual in American judicial history."

That ought to put a dent in the ol’ bank account, eh Lance?

Tweet of the Morning

ESPN scrambling to get crew to Kentucky-Tennessee game. Jerry Tipton … sideline reporter? (I happen to look good in a sleeveless dress)

— Jerry Tipton (@JerryTipton) February 17, 2015

Very witty repartee, Jerry.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• The SEC replacements: Kentucky. This article looks at who Kentucky must replace next season, starting with Bud Dupree. I’m not sure we have a player like him available, but I felt the same way about Avery Williamson, and Bud Dupree proved that worry unfounded.

Kentucky basketball

• Ira Combs sees Kentucky getting closer to a #1 seed. Frankly, I think it would take a legendary collapse to avoid one.

• Donnie Tyndall praises Kentucky. Flattery will get you nowhere.

• Karl-Anthony Towns wins the Freshman of the Week award he deserved last week.

• Will Kentucky be the best team to ever play in Thompson-Boling Arena? That’s a debate that will never be fully resolved unless the Wildcats go undefeated on the year. Then, the argument that others were better will ring hollow.

Other Kentucky sports

• UK preparing for the SEC swim/dive championships.

• Makayla Epps is your SEC women’s basketball co-Player of the Week.

• Calipari worries about the disruption of having to leave Lexington early for Knoxville in order to avoid the weather.

• Is Malik Newman setting his decision for April Fools Day?

Links posts

• John Clay’s SEC Links

• John Clay’s Big Blue Links

• The Leach Report: Tuesday Wildcat Links

College football

• Rivals.com is now listing sixth graders in its recruiting rankings. How much is too much? I don’t know, but I doubt if they’d do this if they didn’t think it would be worth something.

  Still, a part of me wants to call this a bridge too far. Bud Elliot sort of agrees for far more technical reasons:

  The idea that top recruits can be identified at this age is suspect. For every Dylan Moses (6’, 218, 4.5 40-yard dash at 13 years old), there are hundreds of Pop Warner legends who never become high school stars. It’s one thing to profile a player who already looks like a top high school recruit, but projecting a 5‘2, 105-pound QB throwing a tiny football is another thing entirely.

  Also:

  And even if an eventual star recruit is identified at such an early age, it’s still worth asking: is this attention at this age taking away from his ability to be a kid?

  That’s a great question. Ah, the Internet age. It encourages us to forgo our childhood in almost every conceivable way, from porn to Rivals Ratings. Glad I missed it as a kid.

College basketball

• SECBasketballFever for this week. I’m sorry the Wildcats are boring the rest of the SEC.

• Kansas falls to West Virginia in Morgantown. Once again, I find myself unconvinced that Kansas is a worry for Kentucky

• Who’s #2? Well, the poll says the Hoos, but I think probably the Zags with Justin Anderson down.

• Kyle Wiltjer was the WCC Player of the Week. Good on Kyle.

• John Gasaway’s Tuesday Truths are a not-to-be-missed feature at his blog. Great stuff. There’s a great bit in there about Karl-Anthony Towns, plus a pretty good examination of the 2-point jumpshot and how analytics argue against it.

• Kentucky is not the only team on a big-time roll. Murray State is also the author of a 21-game winning streak.

• Las Vegas strip will dim lights in order to honor Jerry Tarkanian. Fitting.

Other sports news

• Who would’ve thought a unibrow could become such a thing? From All-Star weekend.  Courtesy of Red Bull:

  Lolo Jones
  
  

  

  Others
  

  

  @BBN knows the power of the brow! @AntDavis23 @redbull #givesyoubrow #PickMe @whas11 pic.twitter.com/QkNm6Y2kq3

  — Kelsey Starks (@WHAS11Kelsey) February 10, 2015

• SEC baseball’s hits and misses during opening weekend. More over at Team Speed Kills.

Other news

• Pimp yo’ Ramen. Hey, I have become a huge fan of Ramen noodles done right, like at the Milkwood in downtown Louisville. If you live around here, you haven’t tried it and you like Asian noodle dishes, you should give it a try. I promise you that you won’t be disappointed.

• "Female Viagra." What say you, guys — blessing or curse? My minds eye rebels at the vision of randy women hopped up on this stuff chasing guys around for satisfaction — "What do you mean, only 2 hours???"

  Yikes.

• Oh, boy, robot shuttles. All I can see in my mind’s eye is this: