Hello, friends. How are you? Have you heard the story about the high school football player who hung up his pads for to join the cheerleading squad? No? Well let me tell you about him. Logan Gihring, a junior at Interstate 35 High School in Iowa, quit the Road Runners football team to become a cheerleader. His reasons are pretty simple, too. “Well, girls, for one,” he said. “And you don’t have a coach yelling at you every five seconds.” Gihring’s mother says she was worried about her son’s safety because the town is full of camouflage, pickup trucks, and hunters. Whatever that means.
“I’m having a blast. It’s awesome.”
Okay, moving on…
– The big news around UK land is the insane amount of NBA players training on campus this week. Most of the Oklahoma City roster is already in Lexington and Russell Westbrook is set to join the group on Tuesday. OKC guys already on campus include Kevin Durant, James Harden, James Harden’s beard, Thabo Sefelosha, Nick Collison, and Cole Aldrich. Members from the Boston Celtics are also training at UK and Derrick Rose will be landing in Lexington Tuesday afternoon. The amount of talent in the Joe Craft Center this week is ridiculous.
– Jarrod Polson will be working out with Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, and Russell Westbrook. Only at Kentucky.
– 2012 small forward T.J. Warren cut Kentucky from his final list of schools. He’s down to North Carolina, N.C. State, Florida, and Georgetown. Warren was originally scheduled to attend Big Blue Madness but on Monday we learned that he cancelled his trip to Lexington for a visit to North Carolina’s Midnight Madness. Good luck, .
– We also got some bad news from Warren’s Brewster Academy teammate, Mitch McGary. McGary cancelled his remaining visits, ruining any hope of getting him in Lexington for Big Blue Madness. Evan Daniels, a recruiting analyst so fly the FAA regulates his swagger, is reporting that Michigan has emerged as McGary’s favorite. The 5-star center is also very high on the Dukies. I think it’s time we give up on this one. His AAU coach loves the Wolverines and his parents love the Blue Devils. Plus he says he’d love to team up withPlumlee at Duke. One of those schools will likely win out. I’ve said since Day 1 that thishas Duke written all over him. He just fits that mold.
– To the surprise of absolutely no one, Terrence Jones was one of 50 named to the John R. Wooden Award preseason watch list. The preseason list is selected by college basketball media members based on the student-athlete’s individual performance last season. Other notable names on the list are Louisville’s Peyton Siva and Vanderbilt’s Festus Ezeli, Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins. Damn, Vanderbilt is going to be good. Louisville, not so much.
– Jeff Sheppard, my favorite hall monitor at Rick Pitino’s basketball camp, announced the current confirmed rosters for the Big Blue All-Stars tour. The games will feature some form of a roster combination from the following players: Brandon Knight, DeAndre Liggins, Josh Harrellson, Chuck Hayes, Jodie Meeks, and Eric Bledsoe. The former Cats will be joined by Kenneth Faried and Shelvin Mack at all five stops. Sheppard is also looking to add DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo to the roster for some of the games. These games will be the most lopsided basketball contests in the history of the sport. James Naismith just rolled over in his grave.
– Speaking of DeMarcus Cousins, I’m happy to announce that he and our good buddy Andrew Rogers are alive after surviving a fire over the weekend. The Lexington Fire Department was called to the home those two are staying in after a fire erupted in the laundry room. DeMarcus blamed Andrew. Andrew blamed DeMarcus. I blame the NBA lockout.
– Champions Classic tickets went fast, like Big Blue Madness fast, during Monday’s pre-sale. If you missed out, don’t panic just yet. Tickets will go on sale again Thursday at 10:00 AM on Ticketmaster. That gives you two days to practice clicking and memorizing your credit card information. I don’t want to hear any excuses Thursday afternoon.
– Tickets for the Blue-White game also go on sale Thursday. The scrimmage is scheduled for Wednesday, October 26. Tickets are $10 and they can be purchased at the Rupp Arena ticket office. All seating is reserved (not general admission) so get on it early.
– Breaking Bad. I’m not going to tell you again. Nothing else in the history of television compares. I mean that.
– Lots of Twitter chatter going on right now about West Virginia joining the SEC. We’ve heard it all before. Wake me up when the deal is done.
– Let’s talk about football. I know, it’s hard, but it has to be done. Joker Phillips met with the media Monday in his weekly presser to fill us all in on how things are going after the LSU game and what to expect this week. Our favorite news of the day came when Joker said they will try Bookie Cobbins at multiple positions in practice this week. He will get a lot of looks at receiver and as a run-first quarterback. While I love the idea of Mr. YMCMB seeing the field this season, it’s tough to justify abandoning his redshirt status five games into the season when the season is pretty much over anyway. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to see him out there keeping it 100 against South Carolina on Saturday. Is it time for the Legend of Cobbins?
– Joker also turned heads when he said Mike Hartline, not Randall Cobb, is the biggest loss on offense from last season. I was #TeamHartline last season, but really? REALLY? Cobb is arguably Kentucky’s best offensive weapon ever. Ever. I don’t know what Joker put in his Corn Flakes Monday morning but I want in.
– When asked about Ryan Mossakowski, Joker declined comment. Yeah, you messed up on that one, Coach. Mossakowski is killing it in JUCO.
Kentucky is currently a 21-point underdog at South Carolina. It’s sad but we’ve switched from a philosophy of hoping to win to hoping to cover the spread.
– When you gotta go, you gotta go…
That’s all for now. Tune in to Kentucky Sports Radio radio tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM on Talk Radio 1080.
