Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: 2015 NFL Draft Day Edition

Tonight is the NFL Draft,and Kentucky has what looks like a certain first-rounder in Bud Dupree. Za’Darius Smith and Darian Miller figure to be drafted later. Also, Braylon Heard is entering the draft early, and it will be interesting to see where he goes, if he does.

Tweet of the Morning

If Billy Donovan has the first pick on tonight's draft, we'd be waiting until August.

— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) April 30, 2015

Heh.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky football

• NFL Draft is a dream come true for Bud Dupree. No doubt, he has earned all the interest.

• Doug Farrar of Sports Illustrated writes that Za’Darius Smith is one of the most underrated prospects in the draft.

Kentucky basketball

• Will the Kentucky-Indiana series renew? There’s talk about it. The source is Fred Glass, and if you’ll recall, it was Glass who was the most vehement opponent of the conditions requested by Kentucky. I’m not sure what a compromise would look like, except perhaps having the on-campus games once in a while instead of every year.

  IU supporters speculate that bitter loss elevated Calipari’s desire not to play in Bloomington. Glass is ready to let bygones be bygones.

  No, it was the absurd bad behavior of the Indiana fans. It’s always been about that. Why give them a chance to injure and abuse more of our fans with their reckless, irresponsible behavior? Personally, I don’t think Calipari should agree to a game in Bloomington without assurances from IU that it will be different than last time as far as fan behavior is concerned.

• Kentucky, Duke, Michigan St. and North Carolina all sit at 10/1 in the latest NCAA Tournament championship futures.

• Marcus Lee’s new sanctuary is the Craft Center practice floor. That’s what it will take, Marcus. Show us.

• Lee, Alex Poythress and Tyler Ulis have a press conference. Not sure why the other members of the team weren’t invited?

• Shaun Kirk signs with N.C. State. Good. I don’t really think he was right for Kentucky, and apparently, he didn’t think so, either.

• Don’t underestimate the returning Wildcats, says Eric Crawford. Indeed.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Thursday Wildcat Links

College football

• Who really puts good quarterbacks into the NFL? Team Speed Kills looks at the question.

• The Big 12 is considering asking for an NCAA rule change so it can hold a championship game.

College basketball

• Dismissed Duke player Rasheed Sulaimon talks about the rape allegations against him.

• Will Billy Donovan go to the OKC Thunder, or stay in Gainesville?

Other sports news

• Today is "Thurby," or the Thursday before Derby as it is known around these parts. The pill-pull was yesterday, and 22 horses have been entered into the race. I think two of them will have to drop out.

• Former Louisville guard Chris Jones has been cleared of rape charges. I was somewhat skeptical of this charge from the beginning, and based on the characterizations in the article, it seems the skepticism was warranted.

• Via UKSprinter:

• Danny Trevathan’s knee is on the mend, says he’ll be full speed by camp.

Other news

• Will the F-35 be the last manned fighter jet?

• Microsoft reveals new web browser, will call it "Edge." Sounds interesting, but they have a long way to go to make up the advantage Chrome and Firefox have on them.

• NASA’s Messenger capsule is about to smash into Mercury and die, but it has had a remarkable life.