Warren Buffett's Thursday News and Views

by:Matt Jones11/03/10

warrencal

In the past 18 months, it seems that John Calipari can end up meeting with any person at any time, and none of the meetings really ends up being a surprise. We have seen Calipari with Drake, Mike Tomlin, Ashley Judd and even the Heavy Hitter, all of whom get their picture with the UK Coach and a tweeted out message to the mass of UK fans everywhere. Thus while we should almost never be surprised, one cant help but find it a little bizarre that today John Calipari had lunch with the most famous investor in the world, Warren Buffett. For reasons only known to them, Calipari took Buffett to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken on what would normally be classified as a “Drew Franklin date.” According to Calipari, Buffett is one of his heroes and meeting him was on his “bucket list”, which makes me think that Cal may need to add a bit more excitement to his future (I mean Buffett is great and all…but #7 for a man who has the money to do almost anything?….come on Cal, a little more creativity please). Buffett, who was listed as the 3rd richest man in the world in 2009 but has said that his plan is to give away more than 99% of his wealth, is truly an American icon and a symbol of the American entreprenuer. His philanthropy is legendary and his success as the primary decision maker for Berkshire Hathaway will be studied in Business schools forever. But even with all of that success, in Kentucky he is primarily known as the guy who ate with Calipari at KFC. I am sure that would make him smile.

Lets get some quick hitters:

— The UK basketball team faces off against Dawhares tomorrow night in their final exhibition game before regular play begins. The debate continues to be whether UK can play for long stretches with its small starting lineup that allows the five most talented players to be on the floor, but hurt on Monday in terms of rebounding and defense. Calipari went with the small five as a starting unit on Monday, but then basically stayed away from playing the crew as a group again. Whether that lineup will be able to be utilized falls primarily on Terrence Jones as he HAS to rebound and protect the basket better than what we saw on Monday.

— Speaking of Jones, the fallout over the water bottle toss might be one of the most overplayed moments in UK internet history. The controversy, which raged without a video for a long time, was shown to be absurd when the video hit online today. While Jones may have seemed a bit upset, think about this for a minute. He didnt play in Canada, just started his first exhibition game at Rupp, gets two quick fouls and then has to sit out a half…you might be frustrated too. As a couple of former managers emailed me today (we can find any profession in the KSR fanbase), if you think that is bad, you aint seen nothin’. A silly controversy for sure.

— What wasnt a silly controversy was the reaction to the ridiculous “Selfish” comment by Colin Cowherd today when referring to John Wall. Cowherd said that Wall dancing showed he was a “me-first” guy in the vein of Allen Iverson or Steve Francis. Everyone who knows anything about Wall has blasted that view, including guys like Jeff Goodman, who thought the comments were silly. Cowherd throws bombs…I get that…its what most sports radio folks do. But if he is that far off of someone we know well (Wall), then imagine how far off he is on all topics. The lesson…dont listen to sports radio hosts (including me).

— One person who took up for John Wall today was the UK women’s soccer Coach Lipsitz, who tweeted out that Wall sent a note of encouragement to the UK women’s team wishing them good luck before the SEC Tournament this week. Seriously, who does that? He is in the NBA and remembers his college’s soccer team. That is not the act of a selfish person.

— On the football side of things, Joker said the season so far was a “failure” unless they play better and get wins towards these last three games. That strikes me as kind of harsh, but is the type of honesty you dont often see from big time college coaches. I cant deem the team a failure at all, as they have been in every game but one and we have seen a lot of positives. But if they dont beat Vandy or Tennessee, then failure may be the kindest thing we say. For now, finish 7-5 and end the UT streak and people will look back fondly at this year.

— I must say that I am more than a little excited that in 16 days I will be in Maui, ready to watch the Cats play basketball. It doesnt get a whole lot better than that.

— A simple reminder for everyone…no one knows when Enes Kanter’s eligiblity ruling will be reached. If people tell you they know, they are lying….literally no one knows. At some point, someone will guess at get the right date…but remember, it was just a guess. This one is as hush-hush as it gets.

— For those of you that wonder about the business/commercial side of KSR, we joined forces in August with Fantasy Sports Ventures, which became Big Lead Sports, the group that bought the Big Lead and provides a network of sports blogs for advertisers, etc. Our arrangement with them has been very beneficial for the site and has been a major step in moving the entity forward in the last few months. Here is an article about the group and what it does.

— Finally, with election results in from all over, a couple of things are important to note. First of all, we learned that advertising with KSR (Jim Gray) helps a candidate…being a fan of KSR but having your campaign media director tell us that we arent the kind of entity the candidate would like to speak with (Andy Barr) is not helpful….and maybe most importantly, being a former Real World cast member can get you elected. Below is a picture of Sean Duffy from “Real World Boston” who won a seat in the US Congress last night. You may remember that he married Rachel from “Real World San Francisco” and they have like 500 kids. He won in Wisconsin and is now a 39 year old GOP Congressman. Good for him. I hope as his first order of business, he orders Puck to get his hand out of people’s peanut butter.

duffy

If you havent yet, subcribe to the podcast of the radio show on iTunes. We had a big day today and gave away tickets to the Breeders Cup and will give away more $50 gambling prizes on Thursday. Plus it gives us a chance to talk UK, openly root for them, not be boring and make fun of Louisville. Listen up if you can. More later today as we get ready for Dale Brown on Friday

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2024-03-29