Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Mychal Mulder Edition

Mychal Mulder is now securely in the fold, taking Kentucky’s recruiting class to four players. But we’re losing seven to the ranks of professional basketball. That leaves three open scholarships, and by my lights, that’s too many.

Tweet of the Morning

Calling on #BBN to show support & join me in donating to his Memorial Scholarship fund to keep his spirit alive at UK http://t.co/yh5XqZrRhA

— Anthony Davis (@AntDavis23) April 29, 2015

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• Craig Stephenson says Mark Stoops is overpaid, if anything. He has a point.

• Alright, football guys and gals: What do you want from football coverage this season? Will has a special thread for you, it’s time to provide a little guidance.

• Jon Gruden apparently likes Bud Dupree — a lot.

Kentucky basketball

• De’Aaron Fox, one of the top players in 2016, calls UK "every kid’s dream school." Nice compliment, but not quite true. Just ask Cheick Diallo, Brandon Ingram et. al.

  Still, it’s good to hear, and with the NBA Draft this year, Kentucky will likely prove once more that if the Association is your dream, nobody puts more players there than Kentucky.

• Calipari looks like he’s just trying to fill out the roster with guys like Shaun Kirk, who apparently has a UK offer. There is certainly playing time available at the three, and this move makes me think that Jaylen Brown is very unlikely to pick Kentucky. Calipari does not offer 3-stars lightly.

  Kirk has some nice offers and apparently committed to North Carolina State, but make no mistake, he's not the type of player we are used to recruiting. So I’m not quite sure why Calipari is dropping offers to committed players. Some might say it is redolent of desperation.

• Kentucky gets a Pittsburgh-area player to commit to walk on at Kentucky. Johnny David is a 6‘2" 175# point guard from Mount Lebanon, PA. An assist goes to Orlando Antigua.

• Kentucky offers 5-star Miles Bridges from Huntington Prep for their 2016 class.

Other Kentucky sports

• Women’s tennis earns 2nd consecutive NCAA Tournament berth.

• Baseball loses to Louisville in extra innings, 2-1. The Wildcats return to action on Friday in a series with the Vanderbilt Commodores.

• Streaking the Lawn evaluates Kentucky baseball's chances to make the NCAA Tournament.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Wednesday Wildcat Links

College football

• The anti-Mock Draft: Who should teams pick? Looks a lot like the regular mock draft to me.

College basketball

• How concerned should North Carolina fans be that Brandon Ingram passed them by for Duke? Pretty concerned, I’d say.

• Nobody can say Bruce Pearl isn’t entertaining. Nobody.

• Vanderbilit’s Riley LaChance earns a tryout with Team USA. He’s a good player, and you can never have too many shooters.

Other sports news

• Rajon Rondo and Rick Carlisle simply didn’t like each other, and by the end of the season, the combination was absolutely toxic. Rondo is a tough guy to coach, and always has been.

  I want him to find a place where he can thrive. He is an outstanding point guard with a unique skillset that is undervalued in the NBA today — the trend is away from driver/finishers and more towards Stephen Curry-like shooters who can space the floor.

  I’m confident there is still a place for Rondo in the league, but it isn’t at Dallas. He’s made enough money so that he doesn’t really need that max contract. What he does need, though, is to decide if he wants to remain in the NBA. If he can’t adapt to the changing game and reach detente with his coaches, he’s probably better off thinking about early retirement or a stint overseas. There’s no shame in either one given the extent of that ACL injury that appears to have thrown his once-legendary career off the rails.

• The grand jury looking into rape allegations against Chris Jones will be delayed at least a day in their decision due to legal maneuvering.

• Remember when NBA brawls used to be de rigueur during the playoffs? Matt Ufford takes us back.

• Rockets apologize to the Dallas Mavericks for taunting tweet.

Other news

• The coroner rules out foul play in Mike Phillips’ death. He apparently fell down a flight of stairs.

• IBM scientists achieve critical steps to building the first practical quantum computer. Consider:

  "Quantum computing could be potentially transformative, enabling us to solve problems that are impossible or impractical to solve today," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president and director of IBM Research. "While quantum computers have traditionally been explored for cryptography, one area we find very compelling is the potential for practical quantum systems to solve problems in physics and quantum chemistry that are unsolvable today. This could have enormous potential in materials or drug design, opening up a new realm of applications."

• A Russian cargo spacecraft filled with supplies bound for the International Space Station is out of control. Flight controllers are still trying to solve the problem.