Jodie Sweetin's Saturday News and Views

The best way to describe the above picture? Through the words of the Full House Theme song, of course..."Whatever happened to predictability?" If you had told me that sweet little Stephanie Judith Tanner from Full House would grow up to become "Jodie Sweetin, a recovering drug addict," I would have said, "No way. Child actors never face any kind of issues as they transition to adulthood. That simply can't be so." Then I would probably follow that by saying, "I always liked Kimmy Gibbler better anyway." Jodie Sweetin's most memorable/literally the only thing I ever remember her doing role was as Stephanie Tanner on the hit TV series Full House in the late 80s and early 90s. In fact, Sweetin's TV acting career reads much like this: Full House - 192 episodes A bunch of other stuff you've never heard of - 1 episode a piece Following her role as the middle daughter on Full House, or as I thought of her, the other annoying one after DJ and Michelle (I actually loved that show, even though I found them all annoying) ....Sweetin's career took a bit of a nose dive. In 2009 Sweetin wrote a cleverly titled memoir called "UnSweetined" which depicted her downward spiral into drug and alcohol abuse. Sweetin famously once explained her usage of methamphetamine as being because she was "bored." I can think of at least 3 things I would do to cure boredom before turning to meth: 1) Re-read Ryan Harrow's fake Twitter accounts' tweets 2) Try to date Manti Te'o 3) Beat the entire Donkey Kong Super Nintendo game in 1 night (that may or may not have ever happened in my life). To Jodie's credit, she has since turned her life around and is now the proud mother to two children. Happy 31st birthday, Jodie. Hope you found a way to "Sweetin" up your birthday. In a legal way, of course.   And now, would you care to have some news and views?... ----- John Calipari's teams have been rather fortunate in his tenure at Kentucky not to be Louisville men's basketball team plagued by the injury bug. Considering his propensity for short rotations, the fact that he hasn't lost a key player to a major injury has been a huge plus. (Find some wood. Now knock on it). Unfortunately today we learned of a "minor" injury to one of Kentucky's two big men, Willie Cauley-Stein. According to Calipari, the injury is a nagging one he has had since high school. Cauley-Stein could have probably continued to play with a sleeve over it, but the staff decided that it would be better to take care of it now. (Billy Gillispie does not approve this message) Cauley-Stein will not be playing in tomorrow's games against Auburn. His absence is not expected to last the entire season, though the length of his time off is unknown at the moment. Calipari described the team's situation in the following terms: "We're just one short for a short while." ----- John Calipari also let us in today on what has been a continuing question about Twany Beckham's health status. At various times during the season, Beckham has either not been with the team at all or has been in street clothes. According to Calipari, Beckham will be out indefinitely because of soreness in his lower back. (Billy Gillispie does not approve this message either). ----- Kentucky opens up as an eight point favorite over Auburn in tomorrow night's road game. The Cats have struggled mightily on the road, most recently narrowly leaving Nashville with a win in their back pocket after a too-close-for-comfort game with a lowly Vanderbilt squad. Auburn has clearly dubbed this as the marquee game on their SEC schedule. According to reports out earlier this week, Auburn is expecting a sell-out. ----- Although Auburn's record sits at 8-8 on the season, Tony Barbee has his team playing it's best basketball to kick off SEC play. The Tigers were 2-0 to start the SEC for the first time in a decade (sadly this is true) before dropping their first conference game to Arkansas on the road in double overtime on Wednesday. Barbee is extremely pleased with the strides his team has taken in the past few weeks. He describes his group of players as a "beautiful meld of veterans and fresh faces." Looking at Auburn's wins and losses though, it's hard to gauge exactly which team will show up on Saturday. Will it be the team who narrowly lost to Illinois and then defeated Florida State? Or will it be the team who lost at home to DePaul, Winthrop and Rhode Island? Auburn has two players who average double figures, neither of which you have probably ever heard of: Frankie Sullivan (17.8 ppg) and Chris Denson (15.2 ppg). They do have 1 Rob Chubb though and you may remember his famous quote from last year: "We were in them. We were on them. (In the second half) We came out flaccid."  Here's to hoping that Kentucky is able to cover the 8-point spread and that Chubb gets interviewed after tomorrow's game. ----- Kentucky will have to make some adjustments to their game plan without Willie Cauley-Stein in the line-up. Cauley-Stein had found a permanent spot for himself in the starting line-up over the course of the past few games. His high energy on both ends of the court around the basket have served as a spark for this Kentucky team as of late. Alex Poythress and Kyle Wiltjer will both have to step up to attempt to fill Cauley-Stein's shoes. Following a strong 17-point performance earlier this week against Tennessee, Wiltjer seems like the likely candidate to replace Cauley-Stein in the starting line-up. ----- With the loss of a big body down low to saddle up alongside Nerlens Noel, Alex Poythress will be presented with yet another opportunity to step up to the plate for this Kentucky team. Offensively Poythress might find himself with his back to the basket more often to work on the post. At times this season he has shown flashes of doing well when put in this situation. Poythress has been called upon to play a lot of the "3" position this season. Perhaps with Cauley-Stein out of the line-up for an undisclosed period of time (at least for tomorrow), Poythress will have a more defined role as a more traditional forward type of player. Poythress has spent most of the season looking like a player unsure of what exactly his role is on this team. As Andrew McCarthy pointed out in his post earlier tonight, Poythress is essentially in a must-perform/produce type of situation now, with his team needing him to fill a specific role. Will the shift (assuming it takes place) result in a big game for Poythress? ----- If we had a dollar for every time we predicted a breakout game for Alex Poythress, we would have enough money to buy Manti Te'o a clue. ----- Pete Thamel would ignore the clue. ----- Speaking of Alex Poythress' role, Mike DeCourcy of AOL Sporting News put out a list of 5 freshman who he thinks "need to change" in order for their teams to fully succeed. Not too surprisingly, Alex Poythress made the list. DeCourcy's explanation for some of Poythress' struggles though actually might tie into the less clearly defined role that players who play the small forward position sometimes find themselves in during the transition from high school to college.

"It’s possible there’s no position where the transition from high school to college is more complex than small forward. Those who manage it well more often than not will be third guards, shooters in the 6-4 or 6-5 range like Michigan’s Nik Stauskas or Duke’s Rasheed Sulaimon. Bigger players who’d otherwise fit the position often excel by playing power forward, as with Michigan’s Glenn Robinson. Poythress, in that sense, is a victim of circumstance. The Wildcats have had freshman Willie Cauley-Stein and sophomore Kyle Wiltjer at power forward, but no obvious answer at the “3” spot — other than Poythress. UK has tried to help by running 6-7, 239-pound Poythress on post-ups against the many smaller defenders he faces, but he hasn’t shown a comfort level there or an eagerness to embrace those opportunities. A general lack of intensity has been evident in Poythress from early in practice, and it has frustrated his coaches. If only he’d play hard, the mistakes that come from struggling with his role might be overlooked."

----- Does tomorrow's road game against Auburn fall into category of a "must-win" game again for Kentucky? After a shaky start to SEC play with a home loss to Texas A&M, the margin for error continues to shrink for Kentucky. Kentucky is considered by many to be either a "bubble team," a 10-ish seed team, or if you ask Jerry Palm...an NIT team. Can Kentucky recover and make the NCAA tournament if they lose tomorrow? I think there are still enough games left on the schedule, including prime chances for signature wins against Florida and Missouri...and of course the automatic bid earned by winning the SEC tournament. Considering the general "h0-hum" feeling about Kentucky right now, especially in the national media and bracketology realms, a loss to Auburn (even on the road) would probably stifle an already quieting hope that this team will make a big turnaround. Kentucky could probably still recover from a loss to Auburn, but the perception of this team nationally would probably fall off the map completely. At least for a while. ----- The Kentucky football program is hosting yet another very crucial set of recruiting visits this weekend. Although the numbers aren't quite as gaudy as last weekend's, one of the prime in-state targets will be on campus this weekend. Ryan Timmons is one of those Kentucky recruits that just feels incredibly important. He's an in-state talent who has the potential to be a big time Division I football talent. Timmons has been courted by some big names, including Ohio State. Ohio State was thought to be one of the front runners, but Timmons recently canceled his visit to the Buckeyes. Timmons is a special wide receiver who has big time play-making ability. Considering his high school team essentially runs the same offense as new offensive coordinator Neal Brown, the transition to playing early at Kentucky would seem in Timmons' favor. The talking heads always talk about how a state like Kentucky--not considered to be rich and fertile recruiting ground-- always has 3-5 big time D-1 prospects each year. They always talk about how important it is for Kentucky and Louisville to try to find a way to keep talent like this at home. Ryan Timmons is one of those guys. Go get em', Stoops/Brown. ----- Some other important recruits are on campus this week as well. Rashawn Franklin broke down the visits earlier today on KSR.  Jeff Badet (3-star WR), Marquez White (4-star CB), Marcus McWilson (4-star S), David Maka (4-star C), and David Kamara (3-star CB) will all be on campus this weekend. I still haven't lost the excitement over typing the words "3 and 4 star" behind the names of recruits visiting Kentucky. #StoopsEffect ----- One of last week's visitors, Asiantii Woulard, is visiting Clemson this weekend. Woulard told Rivals that there is "no chance he commit on his visit to Clemson this weekend." Many believe that the Tigers hold the slight edge with his recruitment right now though. ----- In other news, UK signee Derek Willis had a big night tonight. Willis finished with 19 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 blocks for Bullitt East as they topped Little Rock Hall 68-58. ----- DeMarcus Cousins notched yet another double double tonight for the Kings. Cousins finished with 22 points (30th game in double figures), 12 rebounds (17th double-double), 1 assist, 2 steals and a block.     See you tomorrow. Go Cats. Screw Auburn.