Thursday, July 14, 2011

Vive Le France: News and Notes



The title of today's News and Notes is meant to be sarcastic. As we all know the USA Women's Soccer Team has advanced to the Finals of the World Cup with a big 3-1 victory over the French. There are few things that we Americans take as much joy in as defeating France.

The hatred we have for the French is mutual. We can all remember in the not so distant past when some of us Americans were so outraged by France's stance on the war in Iraq that we started referring to French Fires, French Kissing and French Poodles as Freedom Fries, Freedom Kissing and Freedom Poodles. Was I one of these folks? I will leave that for you to decide.

But all the animosity towards the French comes from the fact that we bailed them out of two world wars in which they declined to take the fight to Germany. It's not so much that we had to bail them out, it was the fact that they were so ungrateful about it. So, beating France at anything is always a grand thing to do. Napoleon ain't walkin' through that door.

Let's look at the news, shall we?

-The U.S. will face Japan in the finals on Sunday. I don't think I need to go into any detail about the history between our two nations. In short, we fought each other in World War II and we beat them by dropping the only two Atomic weapons ever to be dropped on a population of people. Now our countries are allies and the U.S. was intricate in humanitarian aid in wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that devastated that country. Let's hope it's an exciting, spirited match.

-John Calipari continued his evaluation of high school superstars yesterday at the Peach Jam in Georgia. Cal also made a little side trip to Milwaukee to watch Shabazz Muhammad and Perry Ellis, the two recruits that Cal seems to covet the most. It is still indicated that Muhammad has UCLA as his top choice because of the whole Adidas connection but he still has UK as his lone visit. Cal will land one of these two and it is a high possibility that he will land both.

-4 star corner back Devontre Parnell spurned Joker Phillips and Kentucky for Charlie Strong and the Dirty Birds. I can't tell you how much this bothers me. Whenever Charlie Strong gets a recruit, Louisville fans automatically think he is the best at his position in all of college football. It makes their delusional thoughts of a national championship in Louisville even worse and more absurd. I hope we beat Louisville by 1,000 in Commonwealth this year. That will shut them up for about 24 hours and then they will start talking about next season. Again.

-Rick Bozich wrote an article on how the Big East can improve it's image in football by winning some out of conference football games. On the list are Louisville vs. UK, North Carolina State vs. Cincy, Notre Dame vs. Pitt, LSU vs. West Virginia, Miami vs. South Florida. I see the Big East going 2-3. South Florida will be Miami and Cincy should beat North Carolina State, they are equally horrible but the game is in Cincinnati. But it's just as probable that the Worst College Football Conference in the History of the World will go 0-5.

-Continuing with Bozich's article, he made the point that UK will not have Randall Cobb, Mike Hartline or Derrick Locke this season and that Louisville can win the game by one or more touchdown's. He also failed to mention that Louisville will be without Bilal Powell, Adam Froman, and the fact that their entire offensive line is full of freshmen and sophomores with only one senior. I will take Morgan Newton and a veteran offensive line in a home game against Will Stein and a young offensive line.

-The Courier Journal also includes a nice write up on La'Rod King as the new go to guy in the receiver department for the Wildcats. King showed flashes of brilliance last year but was out shined by studs such as Randall Cobb and Chris Matthews. King will be joined by Matt Roark and Brian Adams as UK's primary receiving core. Has anybody heard from Aaron Boyd lately?

-Did anybody watch the Espy's last night? Neither did I.

That's all for the time being. Enjoy your Thursday you crazy kids.

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