Will the last one out the Kentucky basketball door please turn out the lights?
Random notes:
▪ Eight scholarship players who were on the Kentucky basketball roster at the start of 2019-20 will not be on the roster for the start of 2020-21. The eight: Ashton Hagans, Tyrese Maxey, Immanuel Quickley, Nick Richards, EJ Montgomery, Kahlil Whitney, Johnny Juzang and Nate Sestina.
▪ The Cats will lose 94 percent of the scoring off last year’s team.
▪ Keion Brooks is the only Kentucky player that scored last year who will be back next year. Brooks scored 138 of UK’s 2,307 points.
▪ There’s no truth to the rumor UK signee Terrence Clarke is going to the G League, the player tweeted Wednesday. Others apparently will give it a shot, thanks to the fact the league can now offer money to players coming out of high school. Sources told Evan Daniels of 247Sports that the G League is “now willing to pay more for the right prospects” than the $125,000 first announced.
▪ An NBA scout told Rick Bozich of WDRB, “I’m a big Immanuel Quickley fan. He’s one of the best shooters in the country who can make three-point shots with confidence. And he’s a terrific free-throw shooter. I think he’ll be a first-round pick, but he’s probably ranked from 20 to 40 on boards across the league because he’s a very good athlete but not a great athlete.”
▪ The departures of Hagans, Quickley and Maxey make the pickup of grad transfer Davion Mintz, via Creighton, that much more important.
▪ Florida basketball received good news the last two weeks with both Scottie Lewis and Keyontae Johnson announcing they will return to school. If Andrew Nembhard also stays, the Gators should be a preseason top-20 team next season.
▪ Reports say the American Athletic Conference and Conference USA are among leagues that have asked for the NCAA’s help in cost-containment matters. The NCAA has certain requirements for schools to remain in Division I. With the coronavirus pandemic, leagues are asking for rollbacks on those requirements. Just this week, the University of Cincinnati dropped men’s soccer.
▪ Here’s an idea: Return to being geographically smart. There is no reason for Temple athletic programs to travel to Houston or Tulsa or SMU when there are other Division I programs such as La Salle, Penn, Villanova, Penn State, etc., so close. Why is West Virginia in the Big 12 or Texas A&M in the SEC or Rutgers and Maryland in the Big Ten? Might those alliances be re-examined?
▪ Eliminating the Cincinnati men’s soccer program reportedly will save UC $800,000. Consider that Georgia recently gave defensive coordinator Dan Lanning a $750,000 raise from $500,000 to $1.25 million. Together, Georgia’s football assistants will earn $7.2 million next season.
▪ ESPN’s lead college football play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler said this week he’s hearing more and more talk of the 2020 college football season being pushed back to the spring of 2021.
▪ There were reports Wednesday that in a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence, the college commissioners were clear they would not play games until students are back on campus.
▪ Count me among those who think that the NFL Draft, which will be conducted virtually next week, will be better without the booing, the hugs, the clutter. Just give me the picks and a little analysis and I’m good.
▪ On the one hand, Santa Anita Park backstretch workers fear they will lose their jobs if racing is not re-started at the track. On the other hand, Belmont Park has had a stable hand die of coronavirus complications. Twenty backside workers at the track have tested positive for COVID-19.
▪ Del Mar’s president said Wednesday he is confident that his track will be horse racing, as scheduled, on July 18.
▪ Ordinarily, we’d be just over two weeks from the Kentucky Derby. Instead, we’re just over two weeks from the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn. A not-too-shabby field is shaping up for that race, including Bob Baffert’s pair of Charlatan and Nadal.
▪ Best news of the week: Jody Demling, publisher of Cardinal Authority and a fixture on U of L radio broadcasts, was released from the hospital Wednesday after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Jody went through a rough trip, including a few days on a ventilator, but is back home with his family.
