Five things: SEC Network’s documentary on UK’s 1978 title team, plus ESPN’s bad habit
With the late basketball game on Tuesday night, we’re a little late on Wednesday’s five things:
1. SEC documentary on UK’s 1978 national title team
March 15 is the date the SEC Network will debut its documentary on Kentucky basketball’s 1978 national championship team. Title is “SEC Storied: Win or Else.” The doc will get its first airing at 9 p.m. that night with Jack Givens as narrator.
“Even though I grew up 15 minutes from what was one of the best basketball schools in the country, I didn’t dream of playing basketball at Kentucky like most of my white friends did,” Given said in a press release. “Coach Rupp was winning games and championships, but I never watched because I didn’t see anyone on the team who looked like me. Coach Hall started changing the culture and I started thinking about going there for my college basketball career. Still, when it came time for me to pick a school, the decision was not as easy as you would think. But it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life!”
ESPN press release on UK documentary
2. Kentucky’s two-point shooting
As bad as this Kentucky basketball team has been at shooting the three-point shot, the Cats are even worse from two-point range. After Tuesday night’s 70-62 loss at Ole Miss, Kentucky ranks 248th in three-point shooting percentage at 32.2 percent. But the Cats rank 312th in two-point percentage at 45.5 percent.
Recently, CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander and Kyle Boone wrote about how newly crowned SEC champ Alabama treats both pace and shot selection.
“Modern basketball, you’re not catching a ball and putting it on your hip and staring at the defense for five seconds before you do anything. That’s not how basketball’s played anymore,” Alabama Coach Nate Oats said. “But I’m sure dad, uncle, grandpa, professional skills trainer, you’re gonna do all this mid-range, triple threat, all this old-fashioned garbage.”
Alabama is 174th in two-point shooting at 49.8, but the Tide is 97th in three-point shooting at 35.2 percent. And Alabama is 17th in the number of three-point shots it takes among its total field goal attempts. It is 12th in the percentage of its points that come on three-pointers.
By the way, Gonzaga is the No. 1 two-point shooting team in the country at 64.4 percent, followed by Furman, Belmont, Loyola Chicago, Davidson, Weber State and Creighton.
3. ESPN can’t stop talking about everything but the game
I wrote about ESPN’s annoying habit back in December and fact is it hasn’t gotten much better as the college basketball season has progressed for the World Wide Leader.
Tuesday night was especially egregious with analyst Jimmy Dykes going a full 3:53 without interruption giving his view on Kentucky’s problems and what needs to be fixed. Play-by-play man Karl Ravech then joined in, prolonging the discussion for another couple of minutes.
All told, from the 15:54 mark to the 11:43 mark of the first half not a single word was used to describe what was taking place on the floor. Kentucky made seven offensive trips up the floor and Ole Miss six without a single word about the actual game being played out on the screen.
Some people like that — my Herald-Leader colleague Josh Moore being one — but from the reaction of Kentucky fans on social media, most don’t.
4. Hunter Greene hits 103
The No. 2 overall selection in the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft, Cincinnati Reds right-hander Hunter Greene made his Cactus League pitching debut on Tuesday night, giving up three hits and three runs in one inning on the mound.
But the real news was how hard Greene threw in his first appearance after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2019. The 21-year-old’s first three pitches to the Los Angeles Angels leadoff batter hit 101, 102 and 103 mph respectively.
“His fastball is elite,” said Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart. “If you look in the baseball dictionary, and ‘easy cheese’ was in there, it would be like a picture or video of him. It’s incredible how hard he throws.”
Cincinnati Reds 2021 spring training schedule
Hunter Greene gives Reds fans reason to hope
5. Kudos to Rhyne Howard
It’s one thing to win SEC Women’s Player of the Year honors once, but the Kentucky junior has now done it in back-to-back years, the league announced on Tuesday.
Howard is averaging 19.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists for the Wildcats, who open play in the SEC Women’s Tournament on Thursday at approximately 1 p.m. in Greenville, South Carolina. UK will face the winner of Wednesday night’s Auburn-Florida winner.
The SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament bracket
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 2:10 PM.
