Refs’ monitor mania, Chiefs’ spin-o-rama, NCAA bracketology and more random notes
Random notes:
▪ College basketball must find a way to curtail the “monitor mania” going on in games. Officials do not need to go to the television monitor for every little thing.
▪ And while I’m on an officiating rant, officials should hit coaches with coaching box warnings early and often.
▪ Before Tuesday night’s action, ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi had eight SEC teams making the field of 68. The Big Ten with 11 was the only conference with more teams in Lunardi’s Big Dance.
▪ FYI: Lunardi has Kentucky as a No. 5 seed in the East Region.
▪ LSU is 8-0 in the SEC heading into Wednesday night’s game at Vanderbilt, but our analytics friend Ken Pomeroy has the Tigers losing four games before season’s end. He sees LSU falling at Auburn, Alabama, Florida and Arkansas.
▪ I thought Kentucky football’s Super Bowl commercial this year ranked No. 2 only behind the second one, back in 2014.
▪ Looks like new Mississippi State coach Mike Leach has found his quarterback in graduate transfer K.J. Costello. The former Stanford Cardinal will battle sophomore Garrett Shrader, who started five games last year as a freshman at MSU. Leach and the Bulldogs come to Kroger Field on Nov. 14.
▪ Kyle Shanahan may have been part of two teams (Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator in 2016; San Francisco 49ers head coach in 2019) that blew Super Bowl leads, but he’s still a terrific young football coach. Lots of NFL teams out there would change places, if they could.
▪ I remember when then Eagles head coach Andy Reid came to UK to check out Tim Couch before the 1999 NFL Draft. Everyone around the program talked about how nice Reid was and how much fun he was to be around. Now, as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, Reid is Super Bowl champion.
▪ That “spin-o-rama” play the Chiefs ran near the goal line where quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City running backs did a 360-spin move before the ball was snapped came from the 1949 Rose Bowl between Michigan and USC. The high school coach of Reid’s brother played in that game and the Chiefs coach had film of it.
▪ There will be no more auxiliary gate for the Kentucky Derby. Churchill Downs announced this week that it has purchased a 20-stall gate from an Australian vendor, ending the need for an auxiliary gate to go with the 14-stall “main gate” for the Derby.
▪ Big news Tuesday when Vanderbilt announced that athletic director Malcolm Turner had resigned after one year. Personally thought basketball coach Bryce Drew got a raw deal from Turner. After taking Vandy to the NCAA Tournament in 2016-17, Drew was fired after going 9-23 overall and 0-18 in the SEC in 2018-19, the season he lost star freshman guard Darius Garland to injury early in the year. After becoming AD, one of Turner’s first moves was to fire Drew and replace him with Jerry Stackhouse.
▪ On Feb. 15, Alabama will retire the jersey of the great Wendell Hudson, the first black scholarship athlete in any sport for the Crimson Tide. Hudson was signed by former Kentucky player, Transylvania coach and UK athletic director C.M. Newton. When Newton was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, he took Hudson as his guest.
▪ For those who think Billy Donovan is itching to get back to college basketball, his Oklahoma City Thunder have the second-best record in the NBA since Thanksgiving. That’s without Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook or Paul George.
▪ The NBA trade deadline is Thursday and there’s talk that ex-UK star Julius Randle, now with the Knicks, could be joining ex-UK stars PJ Washington and Malik Monk with the Charlotte Hornets.
▪ The XFL debuts Saturday with former UK head coach Hal Mumme as the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Renegades.
▪ The league also features a team named the Los Angeles Wildcats.
▪ The best review of the Super Bowl’s controversial halftime show featuring Shakira and J-Lo came from Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who tweeted, “Halftime show almost got me in trouble.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2020 at 3:36 PM.
