KSR Today: The day after a sports-filled Christmas

Good morning, folks! If you’re someone who celebrated Christmas, I hope you had a fulfilling day. My body sure is full after filling it with three courses of excellent homemade meals (too dad-jokey?). It was a day of nothing but being surrounded by family and watching basketball (we might have flipped on the Beyonce halftime performance, too). It’s actually snowing outside as I write this article from the northeast. There are no complaints from this individual.

Actually, scratch that. I do have one complaint: why do we have to keep waiting to watch Kentucky basketball? The women’s team doesn’t return until Saturday when Kenny Brooks‘ squad hosts Western Kentucky. We have to wait even longer until the men’s team hits the hardwood again too. Mark Pope‘s crew is still another five days away from playing again. Kentucky doesn’t host Brown until New Year’s Eve on Tuesday.

So we’ve got a lot of sitting around and waiting to do until then. Transfer portal news will die down significantly over the coming weeks, as well. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty to talk about between now and then. Here’s what you need to know this morning as we all wind down on family time and shift our attention to making our 2025 resolutions.

No decision from DB Myles Norwood

Ball State transfer cornerback Myles Norwood was previously expected to announce his decision on Christmas Day. But he pushed back that timeline due to what he says were “unexpected family issues that arose” the day of his decision. That doesn’t sound fun. The 6-foot-2, 170-pound native of St. Louis is down to just two options: Kentucky and South Carolina. He visited both schools last week.

Due to unexpected family issues that arose today, I’ve decided to postpone my commitment. My focus is on family right now, but I’ll be announcing soon. Thank you for your understanding and support during this challenging moment.

— Myles Norwood (@MylesxNorwood) December 25, 2024

Norwood now says he’ll announce “soon”, although no specific date has been listed. He finished the 2024 season with 38 tackles and five pass deflections. The redshirt junior earned a 70.7 coverage grade from Pro Football Focus.

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Kentucky Football 2025 Transfer Portal Class

Even without a decision from Norwood, Kentucky has still put together a respectable portal haul so far this offseason. The portal officially closes on Dec. 28, so there is still some time left to add another piece or two such as Norwood or at whatever position needs to be addressed (left tackle, primarily). The portal won’t open again until the spring.

As it stands right now, head coach Mark Stoops has received portal commitments from 14 transfers. It’s a group that ranks as the 10th-best in the entire country, per On3, and fifth-best in the SEC. More moves need to be made going into 2025, but this is a good start after a bad season.

Player	Position	Former School	Year
Sam Greene	EDGE (6-1, 255)	USC	Redshirt Sophomore
Landyn Watson	LB (6-1, 239)	TCU/Marshall	Redshirt Senior
Joshua Braun	iOL (6-6, 338)	Florida/Arkansas	Super Senior
Alex Wollschlaeger	T (6-7, 305)	Bowling Green	Super Senior
Wallace Unamba	G/T (6-4, 330)	Florida Atlantic/New Mexico	Redshirt Senior
J.J. Hester	WR (6-4, 203)	Missouri/Oklahoma	Super Senior
Zach Calzada	QB (6-4, 200)	Texas A&M/Auburn/Incarnate Word	Super Senior
Henry Boyer	TE (6-6, 270)	Illinois	Redshirt Junior
Kendrick Law	WR (5-11, 201)	Alabama	Senior
Dante Dowdell	RB (6-2, 225)	Oregon/Nebraska	Junior
Jaden Williams	iDL (6-4, 290)	Wyoming	Redshirt Junior
Kevis Thomas	CB (5-11, 179)	Maryland	Junior
Evan Wibberley	iOL (6-5, 296)	WKU	Redshirt Junior
Kameron Olds	EDGE (6-4, 240)	Buffalo/Kent State	Senior

The sports were good on Christmas

Well, the basketball was, at least. We were treated to five exciting NBA games on Christmas Day. All five were close down the stretch, which included a game-winner from Austin Reaves for the Los Angeles Lakers. Tyrese Maxey was awesome for the 76ers while Julius Randle nearly had a triple-double for the Timberwolves. The two NFL games? Not so exciting. The Kansas City Chiefs won by 19 points before the Baltimore Ravens beat the Houston Texans by the strange, strange score of 31-2. But hey, at least Beyonce was the halftime show for game two.

Even the college basketball was good, but only a true sicko would spend this holiday watching Hawaii beat Oakland (no more Jack Gohlke) in overtime. There’s no college basketball on at all today though. Instead, we’ll stick with the pro ranks. The Bears host the Seahawks for Thursday Night Football with a handful of NBA games sprinkled into the mix tonight.

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A BBN present from Joe Tipton

A decision date for five-star power forward Caleb Wilson is coming down the chimney with an announcement expected in early January. All signs continue to point to Kentucky ultimately being the choice, but the longer this recruitment goes on, the more anxious the Big Blue Nation becomes. On3’s Joe Tipton would tell UK fans not to worry though. He broke off from his family on Christmas to drop some optimistic scoop on Wilson that will be music to fans’ ears.

Click the link here to get the latest on Kentucky’s top uncommitted high school target.