Bao Xishun's Wednesdays News And Views

While looking around for a person to dedicate today’s news and views to, no one of particular note was having a birthday tomorrow.  At least no one that I knew too much about.  But you know what I did find?  The worlds second tallest man, Bao Xishun.  Bao stands at 8 ft 1 inch tall after a ridiculous seven year growth spurt starting when he was 16.  He played basketball for the People’s Liberation Army for some time until his rheumatism started acting up and he was discharged.  He has worked as a greeter at a restaurant, taken care of his mother full time, and even had a stint on The Amazing Race as a greeter just a few days prior to being dethroned as the Worlds Tallest Man.  But the reason I’m dedicating today’s post to Bao is because in 2006, when science failed to be able to remove some plastic shards from two dolphin’s stomachs, science turned to Bao. He used his long arms to reach into the dolphins and take out the foreign objects, saving their lives.  Who needs ‘science’ and ‘veterinarians’ when you have Bao Xishun?  Plus he doesn’t have a birthday listed on Wikipedia, so for all intents and purposes it very well may be today.  So happy birthday Bao.  If you ever want to pick up basketball again, I’m pretty sure BTI will challenge you to a one on one.

On to the news and views.

— It was a surprisingly newsy sports day yesterday, despite most of it not having implications to the Kentucky program.  Still, some of it did, as early yesterday we were treated to the news that Athletic Extraordinaire Mike Hamilton announced he would be resigning in a couple weeks.  A bit strange to give himself a lame duck period like that, but it was well over due after the botched Lane Kiffin experiment and the UT Basketball program going down in flames thanks to one Bruce Pearl – not to mention Hamilton’s shadiness in that whole process as well.  So UT is looking for a new AD, big deal right?  Well one of the names being floated as his successor is UK’s own Mitch Barnhart.  Mitch has ties to the UT program and has shown a lot of success at Kentucky.  With the transition to a new President, it might be decent timing for him to make a leap.  I know the feelings on Mitch remain to be mixed, but you can count me as a fan as he has done wonders for the fringe Kentucky teams and really made up for the BCG experiment with hiring Calipari.  But it’s still early in the UT search process, as you know, Mike Hamilton hasn’t officially left his post yet.

— Not too much is going on in the Draft scene that you don’t already know about.  Kanter and Knight are both projected in the top 5, and despite some negative publicity for Enes stemming from some prep school tape of games a couple years ago, they will both likely stay there through the draft.  At worst I could see Knight slipping a few if someone decided to go with Kemba Walker instead, but it would be surprising.  Deandre Liggins is continuing his work to get in the first round, doing his best to convince teams that they could use a defensive stopper with he ability to knock down a three or two when needed.  To be honest, I think he will be a steal for a team in the late first, but I’m not sure that any of them have decided to take that risk just yet.

— Enough of last years class though, it looks like the freshmen are now on campus.  Can you feel the excitement?  We already have one new-comer picture with Ryan Harrow making his Kentucky debut in his ‘The Most Fly’ shirt coincidentally in the airport. Harrow also reached out to former Big Blue Star John Wall on twitter last night asking him to help steer him in the right direction.  Gotta say, even if Harrow won’t get to play for another year, his sense of wonder with the BBN is evident and because of that he is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  That and his fly shirts, of course.

— Congratulations are in order for Jordan Cooper for being the 5th Bat Cat selected in this years MLB draft.  Cooper was selected in the 23rd round by the Pittsburgh Pirates, which coincidentally was my high school mascot.  I say coincidentally, because Chad Wright was another UK player drafted (in the 9th round by the Detroit Tigers,) and I went to high school with him.  Well, moreso his brother, Brock, but it was all the same place.  The other three Cats drafted were Alex Meyer (1st round to the Nationals, but you knew that already,) Braden Kapteyn (15th round to the Red Sox,) and Taylor Black (16th round to the Phillies.)  Congratulations guys.

— You know how I mentioned it was a big non-UK sports day?  Well in a brief recap, more drama unfolded at Ohio State… and now Texas is looking a little sketchy, too, but we’ll get to that.  First the Buckeyes.  It looks like Terrel Pryor has decided to end his career at OSU instead of returning to a likely awkward home environment playing for a new coach.  It’s not too surprising of a move, as he now avoids having to comply with NCAA questioning.  The next move will be to decide if he enters the supplemental draft or decides to go the route of the UFL.  Personally – and no ill wishing on my part – I kind of hope he gets wrongfully accused of a crime, ends up in Jail and leads a tough but good hearted group on convicts to a victory over the much hated prison guards.  But that’s just me.  (And for you sensitive types out there – I don’t actually want Pryor to serve jail time.  Sheesh.)

— As far as Texas goes, while there likely won’t be much done about it, Colt McCoy’s wife went on the radio with Colin Cowherd yesterday and alluded to the idea that some Longhorns players received benefits from boosters (or agents.)  She went on to kind of ramble about respecting adults, but who cares what some dumb kid has to say about all that.  If you want to listen to the audio, you can read the transcript if you’re interested over at TheBigLead.

— Meanwhile, perhaps the biggest sports story of the day… Deandre Daniels committed to a school! Towards the end it was pretty obvious that his choice would come down between Kansas and Texas, but the recruitment was so bizarre that it was still a fun story to follow.  So of course it came as no surprise that he decided on… UConn?  Wait – what?  They weren’t even one of his listed schools like… at all.  And so wraps one of the more bizarre recruiting stories I can remember.  At least until he decommits and decides on going to Baylor.

— Not sure if you saw this, but if you didn’t scroll down a couple posts and check it out.  Bryan “The” Intern (that’s right, his last name is Intern,) will be taking on a Louisville women’s basketball incoming freshmen this Thursday.  He’s going to get his butt kicked.  But it’s all in good fun, and if someone will go out and video tape it for us, I promise to edit it to make it look like BTI won.

— One last quick congratulations to our friend Gregg Doyel for getting in LeBron James’ head and costing Miami the game in Dallas last night.  Okay, it probably had nothing to do with Doyel at all, but LeBron did have a pretty poor game finishing with only 8 points on 2/10 shooting in a three point loss to Dallas.

That’s all the News and Views she wrote for Wednesday.  Stick around tomorrow as we go through more news than Terrel Pryor does friends that sell him out for an interview with ESPN.