Five things: Isaiah Jackson’s foul trouble; Dan Dakich’s Twitter trouble and more
Five things of interest on this Monday:
1. Isaiah Jackson’s foul problems
May do a deeper dive into this at some point, but the next step in Isaiah Jackson’s development is avoiding cheap fouls. The 6-foot-10 freshman played a major role in UK’s three-game win streak, but foul trouble limited the Michigan native to just 16 minutes in Saturday’s 71-66 loss to Florida.
For Jackson, it’s a disturbing trend. He scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds in UK’s 82-78 win at Vanderbilt on Feb. 17, but fouled out after just 20 minutes on the floor. At Tennessee on Feb. 20, Jackson scored 16 points and collected seven rebounds, but his four fouls limited his time on the court to just 21 minutes.
Jackson scored 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked three shots against the Gators on Saturday, but played just six minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls. He picked up his third foul less than five minutes into the second half, then his fourth with 10:25 left. He needs to find a way to stay on the floor.
2. Dan Dakich is in trouble again
The ESPN college basketball analyst and Indianapolis radio talk show host either deleted his Twitter account or had it suspended after getting into a Twitter spat with Nathan Kalman-Lamb, a Lecturing fellow at Duke, over the issue of athletes compensation.
Awful Announcing has the whole back-and-forth, which was joined by others, and where Dakich was called out for using misogynistic comments and for doxxing. ESPN told USA Today’s Dan Wolken it was looking into the matter. Dakich has been in trouble/suspended before for his behavior. You wonder when ESPN will have had enough.
[Duke teacher says he was doxxed by Dakich]
3. Essential Quality and Greatest Honour pad resumes
Two 3-year-olds high on the Kentucky Derby prep list solidified their standing on Saturday. In his 2021 debut, Essential Quality won the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. Meanwhile, down at Florida’s Gulfstream Park, Greatest Honour recorded his third straight victory by taking the Fountain of Youth Stakes.
Trained by Brad Cox, Essential Quality won both the Breeders’ Futurity and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year at Keeneland. Cox is the sport’s next big star — he won four Breeders’ Cup races last year — and Essential Quality appears to be a horse that will showcase his talents in front of a national audience.
Greatest Honour is trained by Shug McGaughey, who famously trained Easy Goer and who won the Kentucky Derby in 2013 with Orb. McGaughey usually doesn’t put a colt on the Derby trail unless he believes he has a legitimate chance to win. At this point, Greatest Honour looks very much legit.
Ben Roberts has another installment of his Kentucky Derby Watch.
[Kentucky Derby leaderboard, prep results and schedule]
4. Louisville punches its NCAA ticket
It says here the 80-73 overtime win at Duke on Saturday punched Louisville’s ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Carlik Jones was terrific down the stretch, making big play after big play as the Cardinals overcame a magnificent performance by Duke’s Matthew Hurt, who scored 37 points in the loss.
I know, Louisville is only 46th in the NCAA NET rankings and still has two tough games remaining — at Virginia Tech on Wednesday and at home against Virginia on Saturday — before the ACC Tournament. Still, Chris Mack’s team is 13-5 overall and 8-4 in the ACC. I’d be surprised if they are snubbed by the committee.
5. The OVC Tournament starts Wednesday
Morehead State is the No. 2 seed and Eastern Kentucky is the No. 3 seed for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, which begins Wednesday night at the Ford Center in Evansville.
Top seed Belmont had a tough trip to Kentucky last week, taking their first two OVC losses, falling at Eastern Kentucky on Thursday and then 89-82 in overtime at Morehead State on Saturday. The Bruins were without top scorer Nick Muszynski for both games. Coach Casey Alexander said Muszynski will be back for the tournament.
Click here for the tournament schedule.
This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 8:03 AM.
