Julius Mays' Mondays News and Views

If I were a bettin' man, I'd say 99% of the people reading this have a big smile on their face after receiving word that Kentucky basketball added another on Sunday evening. The other 1% are either wearing Purdue pajamas or still sobbing over the Desperate Housewives series finale. Whichever category you fall in, thanks for joining us and welcome to the Monday News and Views. It was a pretty average Sunday in Big Blue Nation through most of the day until news broke that Julius Mays committed to Kentucky. The Wright State transfer will be able to play immediately for the Cats, ending any debate over how Kentucky will handle such little depth at the guard position. He told Rivals.com that he's excited to join the Wildcats and looking forward to being the third piece in Kentucky's backcourt. "That's obviously two very talented guys," he said about Ryan Harrow and Archie Goodwin. "We all bring something different to the table. It'll be exciting. We'll have a lot of fun and hopefully get a lot of wins." Mays is a combo-guard so he'll see time at both spots, filling in for Goodwin when he's tired of scoring 15 per game or taking the point for Ryan Harrow any time he gets a stinger in his hand from rattling the rim. It's a role Mays is already looking forward to playing for a team that is undoubtedly a national title contender. Again. "I'm all about winning and not about myself," he told Rivals. "I'm ready to get there and start working." It sounds like we're really going to like this one, especially if he puts up anywhere close to the numbers he did at Wright State from beyond the arc. We might not be missing Doron Lamb's 46%, after all. Welcome aboard.    While Big Blue Nation let out one big sigh of relief after Mays' commitment, John Calipari is still on the trail, working to complete his roster for the 2012-13 season. The Cats are all set at the guard position, thankfully, but Cal is still looking to add one more player before he is completely satisfied with his new team. Two names are out there as potential options as the final Wildcat, both highly-ranked power forwards in the 2012 class. Would you like to talk about them? Of course you would. But let's do it with cute little UK bullet points to keep this thing looking purdy.  The ideal prospect to fill the paint with Nerlens and the boys is McDonald's All-American Amile Jefferson. Jefferson, whose recruitment has had more delays than a flight out of O'Hare, will finally announce his decision at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. He is considering NC State, Duke, Kentucky, Villanova and Ohio State, although the latter two haven't been mentioned as a contender in quite some time. The two North Carolina schools have always been believed to be the leaders, but if there are two things we know about John Calipari, it's that he plugs the hell out Orange Leaf yogurt and you never count him out when he wants a recruit. We'll just have to wait until Tuesday afternoon to find out Jefferson's future, unless of course he pushes it off again.  If Jefferson elects to throw up the Wolfpack sign or be a third Plumlee, Montrezl Harrell is the other name out there to join the Cats. Virginia Tech granted Harrell a release from his LOI and he should expect an offer from John Calipari this week, if he doesn't have one already. Harrell's strong, physical game would be a perfect complement to UK's current frontcourt and at least one member of Big Blue Nation is already recruiting Harrell to Lexington. Harrell responded by saying, "I feel yuh brahh," which translates to "Yes, Nerlens, I would love to chase a ninth banner for UK with you," when thrown into the KSR Tweet Translator.  The Herald-Leader added a new paragraph to its own obituary on Sunday when Joel Pett put down his colored pencils to write a response to those UK fans who are upset over his cartoon of Coach Cal's trophy case. If you'd like to read what Pett had to say, you could walk a couple blocks around town until you find a house that still gets the newspaper, or you could scroll down these easy, convenient, cost-free pages of KSR to see where it was posted Sunday afternoon. Personally, I don't mind Joel Pett or his cartoon, I'm just completely baffled as to why the Herald-Leader would run it, knowing it would infuriate the newspaper's audience. I feel bad that Pett has had to put up with threatening calls to his home phone, there is no excuse for that, but Pett isn't making things easier on himself with the interview he gave us last week and this response, which adds more light to a situation nearly everyone had moved on from. After reading it, I was absolutely shocked that Pett said dozens of people have cancelled their subscriptions. Who knew dozens of people still had subscriptions??? That's like knowing dozens of people with a VCR.  Speaking of newspapers, we'd like to give a special shoutout to the Courier-Journal for charging its online readers. I like some of the writers over at the C-J and I can't imagine them being happy with the decision to cut the readership in half. The only time we ever considered charging our readers was back in 2008 when we were strapped for cash to cover the cost of BTI's ball removal surgery. Those were tough times.  Congratulations to UK softball for receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. It's the fourth consecutive year Kentucky's softball team will play in the big dance. The Cats have the opportunity to end Louisville's magical season, but up first is Michigan on Friday in the Louisville regional. The game will air on ESPN 2.  I know I'm one of about 77 people in America who enjoy watching a good English Premier League contest, but even the soccer haters have to be pretty impressed by what went down in the league championship on Sunday. I'm sure you've seen it by now if you own a television, and for those who still don't understand, it was the equivalent of a game-tying three-pointer with 20 seconds to go in the NCAA title game, followed by a steal and a three at the buzzer to win it. By Lehigh.  Also from the world of sports on Sunday, Eric Bledsoe and the Clippers won game 7 on the road against Memphis. Bledsoe played a great game, scoring eight points in 14 big minutes off the bench. Afterwards, the former UK guard said, "That's what we do, the bench comes in and we try to change the pace of the game and change the momentum of the game. We come in and get stops and just run." It was a lot of fun to watch for fans of Kentucky basketball. Mr. Crank That Mustard made us very proud.  We'll end with a big thank you to all who came out and auditioned for the KSTV Casting Call. It was great meeting all the Kentucky fans, many of whom read this site everyday, and we appreciate you taking the time to come out and take a shot at joining our crew. We saw a lot of good contestants and a lot of bad ones, but everyone who tried out was extremely nice and fun to be around at all three locations. I'm looking forward to seeing who emerges from the next round to take a seat at the prestigious KSTV desk across from Matt Jones. Go Cats.