Kyle Tucker
@KyleTucker_ATH
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Covering Kentucky basketball for @TheAthletic . On the UK beat since 2011 (first for @courierjournal ). Previously: Virginia Tech beat 2004-11.
Nashville, Tenn.
Joined August 2007
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On living a dream:
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Liberty gave up 69 in a losing effort and all Jerry Falwell Jr. could do was watch.
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Oakland coach Greg Kampe sat alone for a while just looking around, soaking this up. You coach somewhere 40 years and win your first NCAA Tournament game, it’s something to savor.
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President of the United States trying to harm an American company over his Chinese-made hats. Got it.
Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!).
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Arizona coach Adia Barnes shot double birds to the haters after beating UConn and, per ESPN's Holly Rowe, pumped breastmilk for her baby at halftime of the national championship game.
She's a badass in every conceivable way.
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Somebody tell me who loves the idea of an overtime where if you lose the coin toss and the other team scores first, it’s over. Who supports that as the fairest way to settle a great postseason game that’s dead even after 60 minutes?
I just cannot get over that. Horrendous.
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John Calipari had the national player of the year and lost to Saint Peter's.
John Calipari had the national freshman of the year and a fifth-year senior who set the Cal-era scoring record at Kentucky and lost to Oakland.
At some point, it's not them. It's ...
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Joe Milton was like, “Y’all said stop throwing things!”
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Mike Krzyzewski had the most talented team in America (by a good margin) and almost lost in the second and third rounds and then failed to make the Final Four with them. If you're going to crap on John Calipari for underachieving, rack up K too.
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UK and UT official accounts have declared rivalry war.
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I’ve been super angry for way too long. Anger eats you alive, so I’m trying to let that go. Now things like this just break my heart.
But if this was my child, it would be blind rage. Please, please, please get vaccinated. It’s not just about you.
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So Kentucky completely melted down on the court. Cam Fletcher threw a fit. Calipari nuked Terrence Clarke all day and Clarke left the court before the game ended. Then no one but Keion Brooks, who did not play, would go do postgame interviews.
The Cats' problems run deep.
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TyTy Washington’s mom is in kidney failure and hasn’t seen him play in two months.
But she got training to give herself dialysis and this morning, green light from docs to travel.
TyTy didn’t know, until now. Surprise! Mama’s on her way to Indy.
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Leave it to John Calipari to upstage the eighth consecutive Final Four he’s not in.
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Hearing 7-foot-2 Zvonimir Ivisic, aka Big Z, will sit down with Mark Pope tomorrow morning and give him a shot at bringing the Croatian Sensation back to Kentucky.
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Calipari said Bam Adebayo kept a photo of the single-wide trailer he grew up in (his mom walked two miles from there to work at a supermarket) on his phone.
Cal would see him in the gym late. "You still here kid? And he'd show me that picture on his phone."
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Shout out to my mom, who just completed 30 consecutive weekdays of radiation treatments. Got zapped every morning, never missed a day of teaching her kids at school.
She’s a warrior. Cancer’s ass has been kicked.
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My 4-year-old has COVID and now, despite being vaccinated, I feel like I got hit by a bus … but I can’t say for sure I’m positive too because every testing site is booked and every at-home test at every drugstore within 20 miles is sold out.
Here we go again. 🤬🤬
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If you fine a school $250,000 for its fans storming the field, bankrupt them for what Tennessee fans did tonight.
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The Tennessee Titans have used EIGHTY-NINE players this season. At most, they’ll finish with 10 guys who played in every regular-season game. They’re 11-5, division champs and a win away from the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Mike Vrabel is absolutely the NFL Coach of the Year.
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Whoever gets the Kentucky job can win the press conference in one easy step:
Show up with Reed Sheppard.
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The coal miner who rushed to the Blue-White game with his son while still covered in dust — and went viral for it — had a shock waiting when he got above ground Monday after work.
John Calipari wanted to talk.
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Kentucky beat North Carolina by 29 on a neutral court.
Kentucky beat Kansas by 18 at Allen Fieldhouse.
North Carolina and Kansas, who lost to Kentucky by a combined 47 points, will play for the national championship on Monday night. Totally insane.
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Just to reiterate: I've never seen anything like that in my life.
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Kentucky in the NBA the last 24 hours:
Anthony Davis: 42 points, 12 rebounds
Devin Booker: 35 points, 8 assists
De'Aaron Fox: 28 points, 9 assists
Bam Adebayo: 21 points, 12 rebounds
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 24 points, 5 rebounds
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Lance Ware was a top-40 recruit. As a junior, he’s still behind the national player of the year in Lexington.
So why not transfer?
“Because I love Kentucky.” And because finding and accepting a role is “real life.”
✍🏻
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Certain people: The NFL can and should fire players who kneel for the anthem!
Many of those same people: The NFL cannot and must not tell players to get vaccinated!
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John Calipari was loving it. The final moments on Cal Cam:
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Kentucky goes 10-3 and beats Penn State in a bowl game, loses *nearly* every star, top two QBs go down and they go 8-4, beat Virginia Tech in a bowl game with a wide receiver at QB. That’s a remarkable thing at a program bereft of much modern football success.
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John Calipari and the Kentucky basketball team are in Boston today for Terrence Clarke's funeral. Going to be a very hard day for a lot of people who loved him. Thinking of those guys and TC's family as they have to do the unthinkable.
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I feel compelled to tell this guy to eat shit.
Here’s video of Scottsdale City Councilman Guy Phillips shouting "I Can't Breathe" before removing his mask at today's Anti-Mask Rally in Arizona:
Mocking Eric Garner & George Floyd and many others in this moment is something I feel compelled to expose...
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Spotted on a Lexington playground today: Kentucky’s Isaiah Jackson, Lance Ware, Jacob Toppin, Dontaie Allen and Zan Payne hooping with a bunch of random dudes.
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Cal wasted his most talented, most fun team in years. It’s a fireable offense.
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Reed Sheppard + Rob Dillingham = six combined starts, zero SEC or NCAA tournament wins.
It’s hard to fathom having those two — and Antonio Reeves! — in a backcourt and failing to maximize them better than that.
We’ll look back on 2023-24 Kentucky and wonder, HOW THE HELL?!
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Oscar Tshiebwe has won:
SEC Player of the Year ✅
AP National Player of the Year ✅
USBWA POY (Oscar Robertson 🏆) ✅
NABC POY ✅
Sporting News POY ✅
The Athletic POY ✅
Next up: Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy. Gonna be ✅✅ there and he’ll be Kentucky’s first unanimous POY
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Anthony Davis becomes just the eighth player in history to win NCAA, NBA and Olympic championships. That’ll do.
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Apparently John Robic leaned over to the official scorer and called him a cheater as the teams shook hands. I assume for fouling out Maxey when he wasn't fouled out?
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The only logical decision. Tough one for Kentucky, but the right one for Reed Sheppard.
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Immanuel Quickley said John Wall was one of the biggest reasons he came to Kentucky. To have Wall here, score 26, get Wall out of his seat cheering for him? “It don’t get no better than that.”
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Kentucky is now tied with Clemson for No. 1 nationally in scoring defense, ranks 5th in passing TD allowed, 10th in total defense, 15th in ypc allowed. Josh Allen No. 1 nationally in forced fumbles, No. 2 in sacks, No. 4 in tackles for loss, leads SEC in all three.
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How is Nate Sestina coping with no sports? Just as you’d imagine. Kickball with the neighborhood kids in Emporium, Pa.
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That he was going to give a free concert for students at the University of Kentucky.
He did not.
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Oscar Tshiebwe: "When we play like this as a team, I don't think anybody can stop us."
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There it is: unanimous national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe announces he's coming back to Kentucky for another season.
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UK asked the Sheppard family if they wanted some crowd control for autograph seekers at Rupp.
“Absolutely not, because this is home, and that’s who we live with. That’s the difference. When all this is done, we’ll still be here. These are our people.”
✍🏻
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Kentucky needs to put CJ Fredrick in a bubble between now and the start of next season. Get him healthy, keep him healthy, run actual plays to get a 50% 3-point shooter in the Big Ten lots of great looks. And yes, it’s time for Cal to hire an offensive coordinator.
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When Craig Skinner got to Kentucky in 2005, the volleyball team hadn’t been to an NCAA Tournament in a dozen years.
Now they haven’t missed one in 15 years and just won the national championship. Remarkable.
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Whoever made this, please step forward and take the lavish praise you deserve.
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The two teams playing for the national championship tonight have a combined one five-star recruit on their rosters. The fear of breaking up with John Calipari because nobody recruits like him has never been less warranted.
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Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart declined an interview in the locker room.
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Check on your people.
Kentucky football’s head athletic trainer noticed that JJ Weaver was in a dark place and he did something about.
It changed Weaver’s life. Maybe saved it.
✍️
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If we can’t agree that attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was bad and a vaccine that’s 99 percent effective preventing death is good, then universal truths have been obliterated and there’s no point trying to “understand” each other.
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Everyone in Kentucky's locker room said John Calipari was looser and funnier than he's ever been leading up to a game. Wanted the pressure off.
Oscar Tshiebwe said before the left Lexington, Calipari grabbed him, kissed his forehead and said, "I love you, kid. Let's go do this."
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There are more credentialed media here today than at any Kentucky home game this season. Yes, really.
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Calipari: UK has facial-recognition software on the baskets in the practice gym to track how many shots guys get up.
Toppin leads the team with 2,800 extra shots in three weeks. "He is living in the gym. Every player I've ever coached who lived in the gym had a breakthrough."
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You may have noticed special assistant John Robic is not on the sideline tonight for Kentucky. I'm told he is with his daughter Hayley, who is battling liver cancer, in Pittsburgh for the next 3-4 days as she meets with doctors.
Prayers for Robes and Hayley.
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John Calipari clearly still has serious juice as Kentucky’s coach. In 48 hours, he pulled together a Gonzaga home/home, got an open practice moved to Rupp, had hundreds lined up for hours, a few thousand attend, and organized a telethon that raised $2.4 million in an evening.
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If this season is, in fact, over ...
John Calipari just coached a team that led the nation in free-throw percentage.
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Assuming DJ Wagner joins teammate Aaron Bradshaw in committing to Kentucky (I do assume that), the Cats will have the No. 1 combo guard, No. 1 small forward, No. 2 center and No. 2 point guard and No. 9 combo guard in the 2023 class.
That’ll do.
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When a student grabbed Ashton Hagans at Auburn, Bruce Pearl told his dad that guy would never be allowed back. When another Auburn fan shouted racist trash at a UT player, they booted him. This lady should never set foot in Rupp Arena again.
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The thought that stands out today:
Kentucky took this. Went into Auburn, where they've lost three games in three years, and took it. Start to finish.
HUGELY impressive win.
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No. 2 Arizona lost.
No. 3 Auburn lost.
No. 4 Purdue lost.
No. 5 Kansas lost.
No. 6 Kentucky lost.
No. 9 Texas Tech lost.
Quite a day in college basketball.
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If Nate Oats told Will Wade to GTFOH, as it appeared he might've, then put his ass in the Hall of Fame.
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TyTy Washington: "If we win the natty, everybody will see Coach do hit the Griddy."
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Dontaie Allen's message to Kentucky fans:
“I’d say to stay with us for the following seasons." You can say they weren't good enough, he says, "but this team fought EVERY single game. So I would just say to stay with us."
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Mark Pope says he's going to leave here and get on the phone with recruits, which is exciting because (smirk), "Kids are answering a little bit different now when I talk about Kentucky." And that's a wrap on an insane Day 1 of the Pope Era.
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This, from Devin Askew's dad, is exactly how PJ Washinton's father used to talk about being patient and not skipping steps at Kentucky.
It's one of the most level-headed blue-chip parent quotes I've ever heard.
📝
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Tubby Smith did a lot more than win.
Wayne Turner: “I had never been around a successful Black man. He showed me how.”
Chuck Hayes: “One of the best humans I ever met. There was always a bigger purpose with Tubby. He was building men.”
On a banner life:
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Obama's eulogy of John Lewis, which he turned into a national call to action, was wonderful. And whatever your politics, just looking at it from purely a technical perspective, he's the greatest orator ever to hold the presidency.
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Incredible.
Kentucky completely blew an eight-point lead in the final minute at Mississippi State — then Reed Sheppard hit a game-winner and the clinching steal to win.
Sheppard: 32 points, 7 assist, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals. Huge performance and a big-time road win.
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I can’t believe Arkansas punctuated that thing with a self-oop, monster jam, teabag, lights-off, fireworks-exploding, massive and instant court storm. The poor Auburn dude who took a swinging crotch to the face then had to escape the melee in darkness.
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Auburn fans are very proud of their home-court advantage lately, and they should be. It's become an awesome venue.
But make no mistake: Arkansas' Bud Walton Arena is the toughest place to play in the SEC when the Hogs are good and fans are fired up.
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This is not not $9 million worth of coaching. Period.
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John Calipari says when Kentucky was dying offensively in the second half and the lead was drying up, then Keion Brooks took over, when Cal went to put in Jacob Toppin, he told Cal to just ride KB's hot hand.
"It tells you how happy they are for each other."
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South Carolina won the women’s title. North Carolina or Kansas will win the men’s title. So it is true that Kentucky beat the men’s and women’s national champion and lost in the first round of both tournaments. That’s brutal.
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Oscar Tshiebwe: "If I see you not making shots, I'm going to knock on your door and say, 'Get in the gym.' "
Says he doesn't let things slide with this Kentucky team.
"We've got to face the mistakes."
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Legit cannot believe UNC did that. What an all-time rivalry moment.
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Good grief, this officiating is terrible.
Sorry, reflex.
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This is very funny. I’m a big Mrs. Cal fan.
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Johnny Juzang in the NCAA Tournament:
First Four vs. Michigan State: 23 points
Round of 64 vs. BYU: 27 points
Round of 32 vs. Abilene: 17 points
Sweet 16 vs. Alabama: 13 points
Elite Eight vs. Michigan: 28 points
Final Four vs. Gonzaga: 29 points
Dude scored 137 points. Mercy.
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The only player in UCLA history with more points than Johnny Juzang (107) in his first five NCAA Tournament games is ... Kareem.
🤯
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Calipari on the environment: "Oh, this was great. We drove by the tents last night. I wanted them to see, 'You bring out the best in people.' " And he calls Texas Tech a "classy crowd," not "just disgusting" like some places he won't go back to.
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WOW, this feeling. Like nothing you ever did before now mattered. Meet Stroud and Elliot.
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Duke is 12-1, LSU is 14-1, Notre Dame has won 6 of 7.
Those are Kentucky's three losses, all away from home, and the Cats were in it at the end of each game. They've pretty well thumped everyone else they've played.
Suspect this will be a very good UK team by March.
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So in the end, Kentucky was an LSU putback at the buzzer from having closed the regular season with eight straight wins -- on the road at Auburn, Tennessee and Mississippi State + home blowout of Alabama -- and an SEC championship. Nobody wants to see the Cats right now.
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Can confirm that Antonio Reeves is back at Kentucky for good and planning to begin practicing with the team for the trip to Canada. Major development, obviously.
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I'm not sure I've ever heard a CBS crew less informed or engaged in the game. They're typically excellent. That was just atrocious today, though.
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Life comes full circle. This is the little duplex where I lived as a boy, where a lot of kind church folk help me and my teen parents get by. Today, my dad showed up for a church program building wheelchair ramps for those in need and imagine his surprise at the address.
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*** FINAL UPDATE ***
Most single-season rushing yards by a QB in SEC history:
1. Cam Newton 1,473
2. Lynn Bowden 1,468 ⬆️
3. Johnny Manziel 1,410 ⬇️
4. Nick Fitzgerald 1,375 ⬇️
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So here’s a thing: I’m told Shaedon Sharpe is not only enrolled in both summer school sessions at Kentucky — but also fall classes. Can’t imagine you’d bother doing that if you had zero interest in coming back. I remain skeptical, but that’s pretty fascinating.
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Thinking of Brandon Boston Jr. today, because I cannot fathom the trauma he’s going to carry, and of all Terrence Clarke’s teammates. John Calipari gathered some of them to grieve together last night and there are some really broken young men today.
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