Apolo Ohno’s Tuesday News and Views

If you were to ask me to name my five favorite ice skaters in the history of the world, I would give you Nancy Kerrigan and Apolo Ohno, and then ask you why we’re talking about ice skating. It’s not a conversation I generally like to have with friends. But tonight, on the eve of Ohno’s 30th birthday, we’re going to talk about ice skating. At least for a paragraph or two.

Apolo Anton Ohno was born on May 22, 1982 in Seattle, Washington. Almost 15 cold years later, he became the youngest U.S. national champion, winning the 1997 U.S. Senior Championships overall title and taking a gold medal in the 1500 meter. Today, he is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist and the most decorated American Winter Olympic athlete of all time. He also won Dancing With The Stars in 2007, according to BTI’s Tivo.

While his success on the frozen water is truly remarkable to those who find skating accomplishments remarkable, Ohno is most known for his goatee, which he has asked that you not call a soul patch.

“That sounds kind of weird,” he once told ESPN. “A soul patch? I don’t know how ‘soul’ it is.”

I don’t know how soul it is either, and I’m not reading into Ohno’s story any more than I already have to find out. What don’t we just move on from the Apolo Ohno talk for now. Happy Birthday and all that stuff.

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 There is potentially a new point guard on the market in the 2012 class and he’s very interested in the Kentucky Wildcats. Unfortunately for him, Kentucky hasn’t called. And probably won’t. Top 60 2013 prospect Stevie Clark out of Oklahoma City is contemplating a jump to 2012, but he wants to hear from the Cats before making his move. He already has offers from Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Florida State, Missouri, Louisville, Arkansas, Memphis, Baylor, Tulsa and Stanford. The problem for Clark is he’s a couple inches shy of six feet, he’s not highly ranked, and Kentucky just landed Julius Mays to back up Harrow and Goodwin. On top of that, Coach Cal isn’t in the business of tossing around scholarships just to fill the roster, so I can’t imagine Kentucky looking too hard into him. Clark wouldn’t contribute in his freshman season and the Harrison twins are the priority for 2013. Sorry about your luck.

 On a related note, whatever happened to the days of going to high school for four years? Had I known I could’ve just “reclassified” and skipped my senior year at Madisonville North Hopkins, I would’ve jumped all over the opportunity to get a head start on sleeping late, not going to class, and eating fast food everyday. The golf team would’ve missed those 40s I always posted in matches, though.

 In what-the-hell-is-he-thinking news, Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com has lost his mind and we’re very concerned about him. We were tipped off to his lunacy after reading his NBA Draft prospect rankings, where he ranked Harrison Barnes ahead of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at small forward. I would expect childish behavior like this from Jeff Borzello or Gary Parrish, but Goodman knows better. Harrison Barnes??? Are you serious?????

 After seeing the success of the Big 12 Network, the SEC is ready to have its own channel to keep up in the fight over which is the best conference in college athletics. And to make a lot of money. The SEC is in talks to launch the SEC Network by 2014, with ESPN being the likely television partner. There are entirely too many details for me to regurgitate in this bullet, so go over to The Sporting News to read all about it. I’m hoping Mike Slive can work something out with cn|2 if the ESPN deal falls through.

 The USA Men’s Select Team officially announced its roster on Monday, and just as we’ve mentioned on here too many times this month, John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins will be participants. The select squad will train against the 2012 USA Basketball Men’s National Team during the July 6-12 training camp in Las Vegas and there is a very good chance KSR will be in the building when they do. Pack your bags.

 Just a friendly reminder: Please don’t put your child in the washing machine.

It’s just a bad situation for everyone, especially the little one.

 Speaking of dirty laundry, Monday was the 23 year anniversary of Rick Pitino’s trip to Lexington to listen to C.M. Newton about the Kentucky job. According to our friend Big Blue Booyah, Rick said, “Joanne and I are going out Tuesday. I plan to make this decision as quick as possible. I’m hoping I’ll be back, but if not, the Knicks will have the biggest cheerleader in Lexington.” Of course, Rick took the job and UK raised its sixth national title banner just seven years later.

 Kentucky baseball opens up the 2012 SEC tourney with a game against Ole Miss on Tuesday morning. The first pitch is at 10:30 a.m. and you can listen to the game on the radio on the station you normally listen to during that time. 1080 AM in Louisville and 630 AM in Lexington are airing the game instead of Kentucky Sports Radio radio, so you’ll get more Gary Henderson and Austin Cousino, and less Shannon The Dude and Drew The Employee. You can also watch the game on Fox Sports South, which will probably be more enjoyable than listening to it. I can’t imagine a radio broadcast of a baseball game being all that exciting. Ball. Ball. Strike. Ball.

That’ll do it for now.

Go Cats.