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The Hampton Pirates earns a shot at Kentucky by defeating former UK walk-on Steve Masiello’s Mahattan Jasper team.
Congratulations to the Pirates, we’ll look forward to seeing them tomorrow night.
Tweet of the Morning
A huge, hearty congrats this morning to SEC powers Texas A&M, Ole Miss & Alabama who decided to keep ballin' in spite of spring football.
— Oscar Combs (@wildcatnews) March 18, 2015
Who says the SEC can’t ball?
Your Quickies:
Kentucky basketball
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Kentucky will be facing the Hampton Pirates of the MEAC. I used to live in Hampton back when I was in the Newport News area. Ah, the good old days.
Hampton coach Edward Joyner, Jr. apparently has Jesus Christ’s number on speed dial, and gave him a shout at the press conference after defeating Manhattan. Only a ridiculously inane question by Jerry Tipton could make somebody do that.
For the record, Jesus offered no advice, apparently.
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Coach Cal one of four finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year award. Yeah, when you take your team through the season undefeated, you tend to be a favorite for COY.
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Karl-Anthony Towns named Freshman All-American by USBWA. Definitely deservingly.
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Touching story about Willie Cauley-Stein befriending a young man with brain cancer. We get stories like this from Kentucky players all the time. Remember the recent one about Marcus Lee?
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The seven worst ways Kentucky could lose. Some of these would not bother me, but several of them would drive me right around the bend. You might have to call the authorities and have your humble correspondent committed into custody for his own protection.
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Five teams that can beat Kentucky, yada, yada, yada. I figured I’d bore you since I have to suffer through it as well.
Other Kentucky sports
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Makayla Epps and Jennifer O’Neill are named to the All-SEC team.
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Baseball drops their fourth straight game, this time at home to the Ohio Bobcats.
Links posts
College football
College basketball
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Ole Miss rallies back from 17 down to defeat BYU and advance to the real NCAA Tournament. BYU fell victim to one of the oldest adages in basketball: Live by the three (outside shot for you oldsters), die by the three. They died by the three after making them all in the first half.
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Seth Davis on the Ole Miss/BYU game:
This is how basketball is supposed to be played.
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) March 18, 2015Ah, I see. Basketball is supposed to be played with only a nodding relationship with the concept of defense. Both BYU and Ole Miss are weak defensive teams, and that’s what we are supposed to desire from college basketball.
Great. Paul Westhead, where are you wen we need you?
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Alabama fires Anthony Grant, wins first game of the NIT over Illinois.
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Murray State handles UTEP in the NIT first round. Well done, Racers.
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USA Today has an article on John Calipari today. It’s okay. I’ve read better. Heck, I’ve written better, and I’m not that good.
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Hampton’s Quinton Chievous had a great dunk last night, but he also got injured and may not be available against UK on Thursday.
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This is Larry Brown’s first NCAA Tournament since the 1988 Kansas team. I remember it well. SMU’s really good, and could go deep.
Other sports news
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The San Antonio Spurs lost to the loathsome New York Knicks last night. For that effort, they got to experience, probably not for the first time, the Full Popovich (Hat tip: SB Nation) :
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Anthony Davis not quite ready to commit to a long-term relationship with New Orleans. Interesting, and probably not a bad idea.
Other news
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The 25 best places to retire in 2015. A ton of them are college towns, very few beach spots. Wheatgerm’s favorite, I believe, is on here.
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Later this month, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider will go back on line after a two-year hiatus. There are a lot of potential new discoveries on the line, including supersymmetric particles that could explain dark matter.
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If you are a procrastinator, like me, maybe these tips will help.