KSR Today: Another blowout basketball victory, plus Citrus Bowl prep

ZGeogheganKSR

Keion Brooks — Photo by Aaron Perkins for Kentucky Sports Radio

Good morning, folks! Kentucky Men’s Basketball has won its last three outings by an average of 30.3 points per game. On Wednesday night, the latest victim was the Missouri Tigers, which showed brief signs of life throughout the affair before getting crushed by 27 points.

Kentucky is trending in the right direction following an infamously tough loss to Notre Dame a few weeks ago. That game doesn’t even feel like it featured the same UK team we’re watching now, though. The Wildcats of the last three games have seen a far more confident Sahvir Wheeler and Kellan Grady. Oscar Tshiebwe continues to make his case for National Player of the Year. TyTy Washington is quietly budding into a star. There’s a healthy battle for minutes between Keion Brooks Jr. and Jacob Toppin.

It’s a complete 180 from what happened in South Bend.

A few more games like the one that went down in Rupp Arena on Wednesday will have the BBN forgetting all about that Notre Dame loss. Now let’s dive into some links and talk about it a bit more.

Postgame links

Citrus Bowl prep

KSR has boots down in Orlando right now as Kentucky Football continues to practice and prepare for Saturday’s Citrus Bowl showdown against Iowa.

Wednesday morning at the Citrus Bowl started early with coordinators from each program taking the podium to preview the upcoming game at Camping World Stadium. A couple of players spoke too. Will Levis joined Liam Coen and Yusuf Corker accompanied Brad White. Highlights from the conversation begin with hilarious quotes about Iowa’s offensive identity.

Nick Roush has you covered with everything they talked about right here.

In injury updates, Josh Paschal was spotted at practice after being notably absent the first two days of the week.

Paschal, a 6-3, 278-pound defensive end out of Prince George’s County, Md., suffered a leg injury in the third quarter of Kentucky’s win over Louisville. It was an ailment Mark Stoops later described as “a little more serious” than some of the other issues he’s dealt with this season.

Now, though, it appears Paschal is trending toward being available for Kentucky’s matchup against Iowa in the Citrus Bowl.

👀 pic.twitter.com/mVtrtsW3Y2
— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) December 29, 2021

In Hawkeye news, Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz did not reveal who will start at quarterback for the Hawkeyes in the Citrus Bowl.

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Former four-star recruit Spencer Petras has been Iowa’s primary passer this season, completing just 56.9% of his passes for nine touchdowns and six interceptions. Petras was replaced by Alex Padilla in the second half of the Big Ten Championship Game loss to Michigan. Padilla, seen as more of a running threat than the former, appeared in eight games, completed just under 50% of his attempts for a pair of touchdowns and interceptions.

Finally, for any members of the Big Blue Nation currently down in Orlando looking for something fun to do, we’ve got you covered there, too.

There’s a watch party for the Kentucky-High Point game on Friday, a pre-Citrus Bowl pep rally, a FanFest, and a CatWalk. You can find all of that information at the link here.

Iowa player doesn’t pay attention to college football

Whether it was an intentional shot at Kentucky Football or not, this was an indicator that the Wildcats still have some barriers to break outside of the area. During a recent media availability, a current Iowa football player said that UK hasn’t “made a bowl game in how long.”

Iowa player says Kentucky hasn't been to a bowl game in a really long time so the Cats are probably super excited to play the Hawkeyes. pic.twitter.com/XaX0G2WPix
— Justin Rowland (@RowlandRIVALS) December 29, 2021

So how long has it actually been since UK’s last bowl game? A whole 12 months. And oh yeah–and most importantly–this will be the sixth straight bowl game appearance for UK.

Of course, Vince Marrow found the video.

Wow. I’m glad this is our first bowl game. @wanda1erobinson @CROD_JR @UKFootball @MccallMarquan . @d_square10 let’s go. https://t.co/rboKv8U4p2
— CoachMarrowUK (@vincemarrow) December 30, 2021

That’s all I’ve got for you this morning. Make sure to tune into KSR in an hour to listen to Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the radiowaves.