Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Elite Eight Edition

Did you hear about Dean Smith leaving $200 to all of the lettermen who ever played for him in his will for a nice dinner out? This is one of the most beautiful gestures I have seen a college coach make, and is worthy of a headline and the lead story here at the very least.

Bravo, Coach Smith. Bravo.

Tweet of the Morning

@ShoobyFims @crimsonquarry Yes, it's a pity you don't have anything worth tweeting about. :-)

— A Sea of Blue (@ASeaOfBlue) March 27, 2015

I tweet so rarely, I’ve never included one of my own, but I have to admit, this one felt good.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Commonwealth Stadium starting to take shape:

  Commonwealth Stadium is starting to get all prettied up, too. pic.twitter.com/FMpmM7d3in

  — Jen Smith (@jenheraldleader) March 27, 2015

Kentucky basketball

• Aaron Harrison dislocated a finger on his non-shooting hand (left) last night, and popped it back in himself. He says he’ll be fine, but I’ll bet it hurts like crap right now.

• Mike DeCourcy says all the sturm und drang about the trash talk from WVU was all noise that meant nothing — Kentucky was always going to get this victory:

  Here’s the thing: The Wildcats would have done this on Thursday night — marauding their way toward the Midwest Region final Saturday against Notre Dame — had the West Virginia players knocked on their locker room door the day before with bouquets of roses.

  This is right. There was no way a rational person could look at this game and conclude that West Virginia did not have to do something miraculous to win, and by miraculous, I mean almost impossible.

• Coach Cal talks about defeating West Virginia:

• Devin Booker’s tweet in response to Daxter Miles Jr.’s comment about 36-1 goes viral. Well, that happens.

Other Kentucky sports

• Softball hosts #1 LSU starting today for a 3-game series. Huge opportunity for the Hittin’ Kittens.

• Bat Cats head to Baton Rouge to take on the #1 LSU Tigers. Even taking a game off the Tigers would be an accomplishment for this year’s team.

• When you’re on, you’re on:

  That was ridiculous, Andrew. Not quite James Young ridiculous, but ridiculous. Hat tip: SB Nation.

• Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.

  UK is the first team to double up its opponent this late in the NCAA Tournament since 1940 (h/t @darrenrovell)

  — Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) March 27, 2015

• It’s time to root for Kentucky, says ESPN’s Ian O’Connor:

  The Kentucky Wildcats are likable, embraceable overdogs. Root for them to pull this off. Now that they have blown West Virginia out by a staggering 78-39 score in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament and find themselves halfway home in a sudden-death event set up for them to fail, go ahead and get behind these tall and remarkably poised kids as they try to deliver the only 40-0 college basketball season we’ll see in our lifetime.

  It’s nice to embrace something other than hate, for a change.

• John Calipari leaving for the NBA would be crazy. I agree. #1 appeals most to reason, but the biggest reason is Coach Cal’s raison d’être — he says he’s coaching here for the young men he brings in. If he leaves, it would be all about him. His family doesn’t need the money, they can’t spend what he’s making now.

• How will the NBA’s "one-and-done" battle affect Kentucky? Unless they make high school players eligible for the draft, it can only help us.

• Message received: Five observations about Kentucky’s destruction of West Virginia.

• Coach Cal’s bringing them around, one at a time:

  It’s not a popular opinion. It’s not one that many share. But every time I see John Calipari, I think to myself: "This guy knows how to get the best out of players. And they like playing for him."

• For the love of God, can we stop this?

• I think Huggins is right. Give the freshman a break. He’s learned a valuable lesson that he won’t soon forget, and it will serve him well in the future. Be hungry, but keep a confident, humble public face and for God’s sake, don’t put yourself at the center of a smack-talk controversy. It never ends well.

Links posts

• John Clay’s Big Blue Links

College football

• Lots of stuff is now public regarding the NCAA smack-down of Southern Cal. It’s sure to be plenty controversial, but I don’t have enough give-a-crap in me to sort through it.

College basketball

• Looks like Donnie Tyndall’s tenure at Tennessee was a very short one indeed.

  Apparently, Tennessee liked him, but the NCAA plans to come down hard on him.

  Rocky Top Talk has much more here, including talk about some possible replacements.

• Arizona escapes Xavier, must now face Wisconsin.

• Arizona favored over Wisconsin. Kentucky favored over Notre Dame.

Other news

• Remembering the Gemini Program. This was always my favorite program. the moonshots were cool, but I came of age as far as space is concerned with Gemini.

• The joy of part-time retirement. I see myself going down this road, I believe it’s important to continue to work as long as possible, at least a little.

• Technology doesn’t just erase jobs, it creates them as well.