News and commentary from around the Big Blue Internet. Kentucky signee Trey Lyles has a big game on ESPN. Mark Stoops continues to recruit well, gets 2 top-100 JUCO players. More
First off, sorry about all the problems with the SB Nation sites today. It's the Internet, and Internet stuff happens.
Trey Lyles showed everybody last night on ESPN why he was so coveted by John Calipari (and lots of others) by putting on a show last night with a double-double. This is something every Kentucky fan wants to read:
Lyles, a 6-foot-10, 250 pound power forward, went for 12 points and 13 rebounds, and was a matchup nightmare for Huntington Prep with his ability to pass, consistently kicking out to Michael Jones, Ball-State bound Jeremie Tyler, and CJ Walker, who combined for 57 of Arsenal Tech’s 78 points. [my emphasis]
Tweet of the Morning:
If you don't believe Mark Stoops & Co. aren't going to turn the football program around.. You better start believing.
— UKWildcatsOnTop (@UKWildcatsOnTop) December 19, 2013
Rah, rah! Sis-boom-bah! I love tweets like this in the morning.
Your Quickies:
Kentucky football
Kentucky spent the 4th most for it's victories of any college football program last season. Ugh. (Via Hank)
Matt Elam eliminates Notre Dame, down to Alabama and Kentucky. Yeah, we need you Matt. More than ever.
Girth has another great FanPost — The 4th Big Day of the 2014 Football Season.
Rank By Offers has Kentucky very high in the 2014 class.
2015 recruiting: (via Hank)
Top 50 (26-50) Ohio prospects for 2015.
Florida 2015 Watch List
Georgia top 30
Elijah Sindelar of Caldwell County, whom Kentucky is recruiting hard along with some other big schools, will announce his choice within the next few months.
This is good news.
Kentucky basketball
KSR remembers Patrick Sparks. (via Hank)
Member Phanatic2011 wonders if Kentucky shouldn't slow down their offense a bit on the road. I think I see his point, and that is you have to focus more on the road, and take fewer chances than you might at home. I think it's worth discussion.
In reality, though, if you look at the numbers, the offense of this team is not its problem, it is the defense. But the same theory could apply — UK had several attempted steals at UNC that led to easy scores for the Heels.
Andrew Harison blames himself for a lot of Kentucky's problems:
"But I’m OK with that, because I feel like I have to pick it up," said Harrison, who shoulders the blame for the Cats’ inability to close out games against the three ranked teams they’ve faced. "That’s pretty much on me, being the point guard. I have to know what to do at certain times in the game, so I’ll take the blame for that."
Andrew me boy, that's ... how do I say it? Bullcrap. There is plenty of blame to go around. Nobody is playing to anywhere near their potential, and everybody is breaking down on defense. Stop thinking about what you're doing, or not doing. Start thinking, and talking, in terms of the team. Habits, me lad, habits.
Forgive yourself, and remember, you're just a role player. Play your role. If we can get all 13 of you young guys just to accept and play your part on the stage, we'll be killing everybody. Trust me.
Wilie Cauley-Stein has a rather pessimistic (or perhaps realistic) view of his team:
Last year’s team, though, never clicked, went to the NIT and went out in the first round. Is this team better equipped to respond?
"We’ll find out. I can’t really tell you," Cauley-Stein said.
That's not exactly out of the player's media manual.
Kyle Tucker says John Calipari's news conference yesterday had a "state of the program" feel to it. He didn't talk much about Belmont, that's for sure.
All offense, no defense. That pretty much describes Kentucky, but also some other top squads like Gonzaga and Duke. Ohio State and Indiana are examples of the flip side.
Other Kentucky sports
The "pack the house" promotion for the UK-Duke game just got a little more awesome.
Links posts
The Leach Report: Friday Wildcat Links
John Clay's SEC Links
The Secondary Break
College football
Top SEC coach reactions for the season. Pretty funny.
Very impressive effort by Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician to send local kids in Houston to the Texas Bowl to watch the game. So far they have raised over $40,000 — enough to send over 1,400 children to the game, and they are going for more. Well done.
Kentucky gets 4 JUCO players, including 2 of the top 100. Tennessee does even better, getting 3 of the top ten.
Kentucky has an incoming player headed to the Semper Fidelis Bowl.
Is James Franklin a "perfect fit" for Texas? Tom Layberger of Al.com think so. I'm not sure his name is big enough for Longhorns fans, but the guy has all the go-get-'em in the world, and you have to consider him an elite recruiter based on his work in Nashville.
College basketball
Tennessee basketball is experiencing a very similar situation to Kentucky — losing to all the better teams on its schedule, and even some of the bad ones like UTEP. Volunteer fans have been in a special kind of hell over the last five years, and just don't have the patience for this.
To add insult to injury, David Climer reminds UT fans that Bruce Pearl ain't walkin' through that door. I think he's right.
Bob Huggins is one of a kind, and God knows, he's liable to say anything.
This:
Auburn gets a nice, and much needed 66-64 win over visiting Clemson tonight. Much needed for both Auburn & SEC.
— Oscar Combs (@wildcatnews) December 20, 2013
It was much needed for Tony Barbee, too.
Is Rick Barnes headed down the same path as Mack Brown?
Duke outplays UCLA, who looks a lot like Kentucky when it comes to who they've beaten vs. who they've lost to.
Other sports news
I totally second this emotion:
I beg of you, FAA, no phone calls on planes. And while you're at it, feel free to nix them on trains, too
— Dana O'Neil (@ESPNDanaOneil) December 20, 2013
Delta is pre-emptingly nixing them, and that's why I fly Delta. Well, also because of the fact that my wife pretty much hates most of the other airlines with a purple passion...
Wanna help John Wall get to the All-Star game? Here's how you can:
@ASeaOfBlue Awesome! Just encourage fans to tweet "John Wall #NBAballot" One tweet per day per user counts as an All-Star vote.
— Bullets Forever (@BulletsForever) December 13, 2013
Note: I forgot about this, and that's why it's kind of old. Memory is the second thing to go with age ...