Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: NCAA Tournament Game 1 Edition

Tonight, the Kentucky Wildcats spring into action versus the Hampton Pirates in the home of our most bitter rival, the Chicken Bucket KFC YUM! Center. I’m sure there will be plenty of people cheering for the Pirates, but me, I’m not a big fan of the underdog.

I think I’ll cheer for the badass.

Tweet of the Morning

My #TBT for GAME DAY! @KentuckyMBB @whas11 @universityofky @bbn #bbn pic.twitter.com/Uz7g2HFq0X

— Kelsey Starks (@WHAS11Kelsey) March 19, 2015

Aww, man, I got a cavity!

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• "Will Kentucky football ever be as good as Kentucky basketball?" Is this a trick question?

Kentucky basketball

• Yet another "You people are crazy" moment in the Yum! Center yesterday. I think Louisville needs to cut us a check after that.

• Lexington police will not tolerate couch burning and violent behavior this year. The question should be, "Why did they ever tolerate it?"

• Players talk to the press after the open practice yesterday:

• If you can’t pick Kentucky then who? The consensus is a tie between Duke and Arizona. I like Wisconsin, but they are a bad matchup with Duke. I think Arizona handles Duke in that matchup. Sort of a rock-paper-scissors thing.

  But none of them are capable of beating a fully-engaged Kentucky.

• Tracy Wolfson sees Kentucky as the #1 NCAA Tournament storyline.

• "… death is always just 40 minutes away, even for Kentucky"

  As usual, a very thoughtful and chewy article by John Gasaway. Must read, in my opinion. He also laments the current "crisis theory" of college basketball that I referred to in an earlier post.

Other Kentucky sports

• Preview of the Kentucky Hoops squad over at Swish Appeal.

• Hittin’ Kittens defeat the Indiana Hoosiers. Beating the Hoosiers is always good.

• UK Swim and Dive to compete at NCAA Championships this weekend.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Thursday Wildcat Links

College football

• Steve Spurrier’s penchant for jabbing Tennessee knows no offseason.

  Oh, snap! Another reason to admire the Ol’ Ball Coach, and lament the fact that his retirement is closer than not.

College basketball

• Dayton squeaked by Boise State to win their way into the main NCAA field last night. This was Derrick Marks’ last shot for Boise. Foul or no foul?

  By my lights, no foul. It looks like Marks initiated the contact, and I’m pretty much a believer that when an offensive player initiates the contact, it’s not a foul on the defense. Note, however, that initiating contact and drawing contact, in my mind, are two entirely different things.

• Steve Alford defends UCLA’s selection, says UK has embarrassed a lot of teams. True, dat.

• Would Kentucky make the Eastern Conference playoffs? No, but thanks anyway, Larry Brown. We know you meant it as a compliment, and it is.

Other sports news

• Nerlens Noel shows you his offense:

• John Wall and Anthony Davis pick their brackets. It’s easy to be loyal when your school is an even-odds favorite.

Other news

• Do wearable cell phones increase cancer risk? Good luck getting people to care about that — I watch people will cellphones glued to the sides of their heads all day. Gotta be worse for you than a cell watch.

• Forbes asks, "Should you pay off your mortgage before you retire?" The answer might surprise you.

• Most women who write about sports on Twitter face abuse. Twitter is the Devil.