Thursday's Top 10: Switching gears from football to basketball recruiting

by:Mrs. Tyler Thompson07/13/17

@MrsTylerKSR

Good morning, friends, and shoutout to these Kentucky fans for climbing Grays and Torreys Peaks in Colorado recently. Well done pairing that UK Football shirt with that gorgeous view. With football in mind, let’s hop right into today’s top 10:

1. Mark Stoops seemed loose and confident

As we’ve seen all week, Media Days can be a boring affair, with coaches gliding by on coach speak and roster talk; however, in his fifth year at the event, Mark Stoops looked more relaxed and confident than ever. Whereas some coaches seemed to have a stick up their butt (cough, McElwain, cough), Stoops cracked jokes about Bret Bielema’s small dogs and Mike Edwards’ ripped pants. Stoops seemed relieved to finally have some results to point to in his rebuilding project, and preached the importance of continuing to build a winning culture, select the right players, and develop them.

Aside from the confirmation that Stephen Johnson is the starter at quarterback and JuCo defensive lineman Phil Hoskins not being ready to go by game one, there wasn’t a lot of big news yesterday; however, when the main story about your team is your junior safety ripping his pants on the plane ride down, that’s probably a good thing.

Watch a portion of Stoops’ main podium speech below:

2. Catch up on all the headlines from yesterday

Build, Select, Develop: Mark Stoops in Hoover
WATCH: Behind-the-Scenes Photos and Videos from UK’s Appearance at SEC Media Days
Mark Stoops Describes the 2016 Season as “Nut-Cuttin’ Time”
WATCH: Mike Edwards Explains How He Ripped His Pants
Mark Stoops Provides Updates on Four Players
Courtney Love Didn’t Let Matt Elam Shy Away from Criticism

Don’t forget to listen to the latest Depth Chart Podcast to hear Nick and Freddie recap the day in audio form. If that’s not enough, Nick will be on The Leach Report at 9:35 a.m. to talk about it some more.

3. Check out Freddie’s recaps of all the other teams

Arkansas
LSU
Tennessee
Georgia
Vanderbilt
Mississippi State
Florida
Alabama
Missouri

4. Up today: South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Auburn

Normally, reporters look for every excuse to get out of the hotel as fast as possible on the final day of Media Days, but given yesterday’s news, that may not be the case this time around. Not only is Ole Miss wrapped up in an NCAA investigation, former head coach Houston Nutt sued the university yesterday for breach of contract, arguing that current head coach Hugh Freeze and school officials created a “false narrative” in order to pin the blame on him for the violations. Something tells me that will come up.

5. Basketball everywhere at the Peach Jam & adidas Gauntlet Finale

It’s the first full day of action at two of the biggest recruiting events of the year. Here’s when UK’s primary targets will be playing today:

PEACH JAM (Games streamed live via FloHoops on Facebook)

  • 12:30 PM: Expressions Elite vs. Cal Supreme (Bol Bol)
  • 2:00 PM: Nike Phamily (Marvin Bagley) vs. Mokan Elite
  • 8:00 PM: Nike Phamily (Marvin Bagley) vs. Team Melo
  • 9:30 PM: Cal Supreme (Bol Bol) vs. PSA Cardinals

adidas Gauntlet Finale

  • 11:20 AM: Team Knight vs. SC Supreme (Zion Williamson)
  • 11:20 AM: Basketball University (Quentin Grimes) vs. Ohio Basketball Club
  • 12:40 PM: Twenty Two Vision (Romeo Langford) vs. AC Georgia
  • 3:20 PM: Team BBC (Immanuel Quickley) vs. TBD

For more on each recruit, check out my preview from Tuesday night. Sadly, we won’t get to see anymore from Cameron Reddish, whose team lost their play-in game at the Peach Jam yesterday despite his 44-point performance.

6. Alex Poythress said no to Lonzo Ball’s shot

The 76ers played the Lakers in the Summer League last night, and Lonzo Ball rallied from the sore groin injury that held him out of Monday’s game vs. De’Aaron Fox’s Kings to put up 36 points, 11 assists, and 8 rebounds. That’s impressive, but so is Alex Poythress blocking this shot by Ball in the third quarter:

7. That block also broke a laptop, apparently

Alex finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds in the 76ers’ loss. Here’s how all of the Cats did in the Summer League last night:

PLAYER TEAM MIN FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PTS
Alex Poythress 76ers 21 7-11 1-3 1-2 3 2 5 0 1 1 1 16
Aaron Harrison 76ers 8 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 1 1 0 0 0
Isaiah Briscoe 76ers 8 5-7 0-2 2-2 0 2 2 2 1 0 2 12
Skal Labissiere Kings 34 8-13 0-0 3-8 2 7 9 1 3 2 3 19
Dominique Hawkins Kings 11 1-2 1-1 0-2 1 1 2 0 0 0 1 3
James Young Pelicans 21 3-8 2-7 0-0 0 3 3 1 1 0 1 8

De’Aaron Fox (Kings) and Bam Adebayo (Heat) sat out.

8. This video from the ESPYs may make you cry

I only watched a few minutes of the ESPYs, which apparently included lots of Peyton Manning jokes and Kevin Durant memes, but I did see 15-year-old Saints superfan Jarrius Robertson win the Jimmy V Perseverance Award. Warning, you may need tissues as you watch his story:

Jarrius was a star last night, taking over the red carpet and charming everyone with his sense of humor and incredible positivity.

Suddenly, all the little things I’ve complained about lately don’t seem like such a big deal.

9. Lexington lost a restaurant pioneer yesterday

If you live in Lexington, odds are you’ve been to one of Lucie Slone Meyers’ restaurants. The veteran restauranteur passed away yesterday after a battle with lung cancer at the age of 68. Meyers’ latest venture was the Red Light Kitchen & Lounge, which opened in February, but she was most well known for a la Lucie, which closed in 2015 after a 31-year run. Meyers also opened Rosebud, Roy & Nadine’s, the Phoenix, Pacific Pearl, and the Julep Cup.

Growing up, dinner at Roy & Nadine’s or a la Lucie was the epitome of a big night out in the city for this Danville girl, so I know I’m not alone when I say Lexington has lost a culinary star. Rest in peace, Lucie.

10. Today on KSR: The Sklar Brothers

Get your Conway Twitty jokes ready! The Sklars return to KSR in one hour.

Discuss This Article

Comments have moved.

Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.

KSBoard

2024-03-27