Kentucky Wildcats Saturday Quickies: Leonard Nimoy Edition

Leonard Nimoy, the iconic Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame, has died at age 83. This saddens me greatly, it represents the passing of a childhood icon. There has perhaps never been a more thoroughly typecast actor in human history. Nimoy turned that into a positive, and will never be forgotten. His prowess as both an actor and director was extraordinary.

Mr. Spock is making his final journey into the greatest of adventures, one that awaits us all. Godspeed, Mr. Nimoy, you’ll be missed.

Tweet of the Morning

My fave in depth, intense reading as Hogs call on 'Cats & our #QuestForPerfection : http://t.co/zT6He2JW9k @KentuckyMBB @ASeaOfBlue

— ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) February 28, 2015

Always a pleasure to be read by the most famous and beautiful Wildcats fan of them all!

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Henderson County’s Mason Wolfe is proud to join the Kentucky Wildcats.

Kentucky basketball

• Arkansas reminds Kenny Payne of Louisville. Yeah, I can see that, in a very general way. But Arkansas has nothing like the half-court defense of Louisville. Not even remotely close.

• Seth Davis is spot on:

  When I am appointed czar of college basketball (which will happen any day now), I am going to reserve the option of moving the site of a game where conference opponents play just once. Because this game should be played in Bud Walton Arena, where Arkansas is nearly impossible to beat. The Razorbacks have been clearly the second-best team in the SEC this season, which means there is zero chance Kentucky will overlook them.

• Several people sent me this. It is a really good piece. I take issue with this part, though:

  Towns is a main reason for the University of Kentucky’s undefeated season so far, his quirky personality matching the Wildcats’ 28-0 record and more often than not silencing "Karlito," the imaginary friend who sits on his shoulder.

  Has this guy ever watched Kentucky play? Towns is a piece of the puzzle, but isn’t the "main reason" for anything. This is sports cluelessness, and it’s very hard to defend.

  But I do think Towns would fit with the Lakers, or rather, I’m willing to take his word for it on that — it isn’t like I watch the Lakers play basketball, especially with Julius Randle out.

  Also consider this:

  "Karl is way better than [NBA player Will] Bynum," said Jerry Smith, in his 11th year as the St. Joseph athletic director. "I don’t want to talk negative about [Bynum] but there’s no comparison whatsoever. This kid works, this kid is really the total package. He’s one in a million. Everything I say to you, you won’t believe."

  I think he’s better than Bynum as well. In fact, he may be better than anyone coming into the NBA draft this year, including Jahlil Okafor. Hat tip: uksprinter

Other Kentucky sports

• Bat Cats beat Nebraska-Omaha in 14 innings, 6-5 on a walk-off single.

• Women’s Tennis upsets #15 Ole Miss in Lexington.

Links posts

• John Clay’s Big Blue Links

• Saturday Morning Links (KSR)

• The Leach Report: Saturday Wildcat Links

• John Clay’s SEC Links

College football

• Ranking SEC football coaches by salary.

• Ohio State has no in-state rivalries. I find that a touch weird, but I think they’re right. I don’t necessarily agree that is awesome. It may help recruiting, but I think it hurts in other ways.

• Mississippi State extends Dan Mullen’s contract. He’s been doing a good job, no doubt.

College basketball

• Breaking down the SEC Tournament seeding possibilities. Obviously, the main interest in this is for other teams. Kentucky is going to be the #1 seed absent some kind of historic, epic collapse.

• Indeed.

  Glad to hear @RealJayWilliams and @JayBilas shoot down silly argument that court storms are "a part of the game." Such a weak argument.

  — Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) February 28, 2015

• Billy Donovan learned at the foot of Rick Pitino in more ways than one.

• Viewing guide for college hoops today, courtesy of SB Nation.

Other sports news

• Tony Kornheiser says the Washington Wizards are "dissolving." I don’t watch enough NBA to really know whether that’s right or not, but it seems to me teams trying to get back to a consistent playoff team often stumble. We’ll have to see if what we’re seeing now is a stumble or a collapse.

  Perhaps this will start Calipari to Washington rumors. Hat Tip: Memphis Wildcat

• Nerlens Noel and Terrence Jones had big games last night.

• This is a remarkable bit of good sportsmanship by a Texas high school team.

• Anthony Mason survived the heart attack the other day, but unfortunately he did not survive for long. Our prayers go out to the family and friends. He was 48 years young.

Other news

• Young adults have more credit-card debt than savings. This isn’t that surprising to me. I was like that when I was young, but it can be hard to dig out of.

• Three of the worst ways to spend your tax refund. Back when we had debt, we always used it for debt reduction.

• How’d you like to surf these "slurpee" waves? I get the chills just thinking about it.