Kentucky Wildcats 5 for Monday: "Is Boogies Sacramento honeymoon over?" edition

Uh oh.  Several rumors are floating around that several teams have contacted the Sacramento Kings about trading for former Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins, but it appears that the Kings have no interest in trading Boogie.  It has been a rough season thus far for Cousins as he has lost his starting spot to Samuel Dalembert just a few games into the season. It should be noted that Cousins has been pretty productive this season, averaging 10.3 points and  6.2 boards a game.

In addition, there have been reports that Boogie has clashed with the coaching staff and has been a volatile source in the Kings locker room and that he has been fined $5000 by the Kings.  Keep in mind as far as Boogie is concerned that rumors are going to fly fast and freely.  Kentucky fans know to take any Boogie rumors with a grain of salt.  King’s coach Paul Westpahl also denies any rift with Cousins:

"“In general, we are thrilled with DeMarcus.  We are very much on the same page. He’s a young player who has one year of college experience, and he’s played eight NBA games now. We think he’s doing great.”"

There is also a rumor today that UK Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart is one of three finalists for the same position at the University of Kansas and that he will interview for the spot in December.  Supposedly Kansas is considering Barnhart due to his success at running a high profile basketball program and overseeing the resurgence of a football program.  It makes sense for Barnhart as he is from Kansas, and this would involve a raise from about $475K a year to at least a $800K salary.  Reports says that the former Kansas AD made 4.4M a year due to private donations. 

Matthew Mitchell’s UK Hoops team is now off to a 2-0 start, following yesterdays 84-71 win on the road at Miami (OH).  Victoria Dunlap and A’dia Mathies both had 16 points to lead the Hoops team.  It was a cold shooting day for UK as they shot 2-15 on their treys but the defense forced 28 turnovers.  UK Hoops is in action versus Notre Dame on Sunday.

John Wall sprained his ankle in Saturday’s game and was recently seen walking with a boot on his foot.  Word is that he may miss a few games but we will know for sure when the Wizards take the court Tuesday night.

We all know that Joker and his Wildcats will be bowling again this December, but the question for all fans is “where?”.  Well, ESPN has their latest bowl projections and as expected, the results are mixed.  One projection has Kentucky playing in something called the BBVA Compass Bowl against the South Florida Bulls.  Since this is a SEC/Big East bowl, there is some buzz that Kentucky may face Louisville if the Cards can get to Bowl eligibility, but I don’t see that happening.  Another projection has Kentucky in the Autozone Liberty Bowl versus the UCF Knights.  UCF has a dual threat QB, so that can bring up the usual concerns, but UCF has to win the CUSA first for this matchup to happen.

It should be noted as well that both people making the projections also list Tennessee as a bowl team, which means they think it will be a 6-6 Kentucky team going bowling, so if Kentucky knocks off the Vols in two weeks, their bowl projection may improve as a 7-5 team.

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