Kentucky Wildcats Morning Quickies: Keeneland Edition

Keeneland drew a crowd of over 21,000 for a horse race (the Kentucky Derby) that wasn’t even being run there. Amazing.

Tweet of the Morning

Brain surgery. https://t.co/05zyZVbmUj

— Ben Roberts (@NextCats) May 3, 2015

Lobotomy, more likely. But I guess that counts.

Your Quickies:

Kentucky basketball

• Now, this is interesting. Matt Jones is suggesting that the "platoon" system was used against Kentucky to great effect in this most recent recruiting class. I really don’t know enough about the situation to gainsay him, so I’ll say that the reasoning he offers does make some sense.

  This is one of those things that makes last season more painful than it already is, and it has, if we accept Matt’s reasoning, boomeranged to hurt the Wildcats for next season as much as it helped this season. The good news is that it’s unlikely ever to be repeated, but if things fall just the wrong way, it could leave Kentucky with an underpowered team next season.

  But just so you know, I’m not quite convinced that this is actually right.  I think that opposing coaches did try to leverage the platoon thing, but I think also that this was just one of those years, something like 2013, where a lot of things worked against Kentucky. UK was just so in-your-face all year that it’s possible recruits other than just Jaylen Brown were uncomfortable with the attention. There was never a moment when UK wasn’t scrutinized, analyzed, and SportsCentered to an endless degree. I’m not sure that wasn’t more of a negative than we might think.

Other Kentucky sports

• Bat Cats fall in the third game against Vanderbilt, lose series 2-1.

• Softball loses in regular-season finale to Tennessee.

• Updated SEC baseball standings. Kentucky is firmly mid-pack, and looks to be comfortably out of danger to miss the SEC Tournament. I still think they have work to do to get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, though, and I hate seeing them under .500.

Links posts

• The Leach Report: Monday Wildcat Links

College football

• Tony Barnhart asks if Kentucky is ready to take the next step. I think so. We now have talent, and have developed at least some depth at every position. If not now, when?

• Undrafted SEC players to watch. No Kentucky names on this list.

• 2015 NFL Draft wrapup and analysis from Team Speed Kills. Kentucky had as many players drafted as Texas A&M, more than Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.

College basketball

• Texas A&M continues their stellar recruiting.

Other sports news

• John Wall has a big game as the Washington Wizards upset the favored Atlanta Hawks. Colin Cowherd, your office on line 1.

• It’s got to happen sometime, but it’s hard to imagine the Spurs without Manu Genobli and Tim Duncan. But sooner or later …

• Stephen Curry and the Warriors blast the Memphis Grizzlies in game one. Mike Conley’s absence was surely felt by the Griz.

• Well, if Stephen Curry is the MVP, he certainly is worthy.

• The Bright Side of the Sun says Eric Bledsoe was "Astonishingly unimproved" last season. After a $70 million contract, you can understand their vexation.

• Anthony Davis and the Pelicans have arrived. Yes, it seems that New Orleans is now a team to be reckoned with.

• Hornets.com talks about Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s injury-riddled season.

• Tampa Bay added a "no baseball" clause to Jameis Winston’s contract. Don’t blame them.

• Derby top three headed to Pimilco for the Preakness Stakes. Glad to see that.

Other news

• Star Trek Original Series Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Janice Rand) has died.

• The Justice Department is suspicious about Apple’s move into music via Beats Music.