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The Scripps National Spelling Bee has become a national sensation. So much so that it is aired on ESPN every season. Yes, this is somewhat of a dead period in sports as there is still almost a week to go before the NBA Finals begin and baseball is, well it's baseball in May, but the Spelling Bee has captured the nation's attention and it's fun to watch.
For a second straight year, co-champions were crowned. Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, and Vanya Shivashankar, 13 were both named as the best spellers in the USA. I watched Vanya on Lifetime's Child Genius show, which she also won.
Now, to the other sports news!
Tweet of the Morning:
We were one of them. Our four-year APR composite score was 995, and in 2013-14 year we notched a perfect 1,000. https://t.co/owTdP8Orow
— Kentucky Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) May 27, 2015
Kentucky Football:
- Congrats to former Kentucky WIldcat Josh Clemons as he signed to play football with Jacksonville State. Clemons had some major bright spots his freshman year before he was sidelined with a knee injury. Hopes were high that he would return and add some punch to the back field. But unfortunately things never worked out that way as he continued to battle injuries during his entire career at UK. Good luck to Josh and to his new team. He certainly seemed like a quality young man.
Kentucky Basketball:
- The big news yesterday was that the SEC announced a new formatting schedule for basketball and teams got new permanent opponents.The Kentucky Wildcats will play the Florida Gators, the Vanderbilt Commodores, and Tennessee Volunteers twice a year from here on out. This is the right thing to do as I know many fans were upset that the Vols and the Commodores were dropped as permanent opponents a few years ago. The Wildcats have more of a rivalry in basketball with those three teams than any other teams in the conference. Although, the Arkansas Razorbacks certainly have crept back into the conversation due to the last two seasons. It may never as be as hot as it was in the nineties, but it's nice to have a big rival in the West.
- In not so good news, John Wall was booted off of a flight on its way to Las Vegas as one of his entourage got into a verbal altercation with a passenger. No chargers will be pressed but the pilot decided he didn't want Wall and his buddies on the plane. Do yourself a favor and don't listen to Colin Cowherd today.
- Tyler Thompson of Kentucky Sports Radio and Jerry Meyer of 247 Sports take a look at the 2016 targets for John Calipari. It's definitely worth your time. Many think that 2016 will be more of what fans are used to in a Kentucky recruiting class.
- Coach Cal wonders if the refs will have the stomach to actually call fouls this season unlike two years ago when they claimed they would and ended up not halfway through the season. Consider:
"Here's what the question will be: How long will they keep calling the fouls?" Calipari said. "Two years ago, we started this and then no one had the stomach for it. The teams that advanced in the NCAA Tournament that year fouled on every possession. So then we all — me included — went back to football practice. ‘That's it. Put helmets on. Let's go. That stuff was a bunch of BS.' And by the end of the year, that's how we played and basically made it to the Final Four playing football."
- Wildcat Blue Nation's Paul Jordan looks forward to the 2015/2016 basketball season in his final article for the website. Good luck to Paul. He gave me my first real opportunity to blog for the Wildcats and I will be forever grateful. I consider him a friend and I wish him nothing but the best in the future.
College Football:
- The SEC had football meetings yesterday and one of the major things decided is that there will be independent medical observers in order to determine if a player needs to sit out due to concussion like symptoms. Concussions are the main focus in every level of football and last season's debacle in Michigan made that hit home.
- The Louisville Cardinals Devonte Fields is going go to trial for misdemeanor domestic assault. Fields was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman for the TCU Horned Frogs. Fields was booted off the team for the domestic assault charges and he spent a year at a JUCO before transferring to Louisville. Bobby Petrino gonna Bobby Petrino.
College Basketball:
- This is a two-for-one story that deals with college basketball and the NBA. The Chicago Bulls officially fired head coach Tom Thibodeau yesterday after he failed to make the Eastern Conference Finals. The leading candidate for the job appears to be Iowa State Cyclones head coach Fred Hoiberg. Hoiberg turned the Cyclones into a top 10 team and he will be very difficult to replace.
- Of course John Calipari is going to be mentioned in one way or another for the job. And if Bulls fans had their way, they would have either him or Coach K.
Other News:
- Today John F. Kennedy would have been 98 years old. He was arguably the most iconic president in the 20th Century and gave one of the most memorable speeches in presidential history.
- The FCC is set to crack down on robocalls. Thank goodness.
- What's streaming on Netflix during the month of June? Glad you asked!