KSR Today: Happy Valentine's Day, BBN!

Love is in the air on this beautiful February 14th morning — even waking up way down here in Austin ahead of Kentucky‘s matchup at Texas this weekend. I made the early trip to the Lone Star State to hang out with family, my brother and sister-in-law full-time Texans living in the Live Music Capital of the World. If you thought KSR did it big on these road trips, imagine what’s possible when you have your own local tour guides showing you all the good stuff around town.

We’re off to a heck of a start, eating P. Terry’s Burger Stand — better than In-N-Out and Whataburger, if you ask me — right when my feet hit the pavement off the plane. If you haven’t had it, change that quickly. After knocking out some afternoon work responsibilities, my tour guides took me to an Indian Tex-Mex fusion spot (didn’t even know those existed) called Nasha for dinner — get the Tikka Masala queso — followed by one of the funniest comedy shows I’ve ever seen. All within hours of my first-ever trip to Austin, just day one. Not too shabby, right?

We’re having a great time, but this is also a business trip and the Cats have plenty of business to take care of on Saturday against the Longhorns. It’s a first for the program, Kentucky coming in 2-0 against Texas all-time, but never in Austin — they played once in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge at Rupp Arena in 2014, a 63-51 win for the good guys, then another 86-61 blowout win in the Maui Classic back in 1993.

We’ll start there this morning, then hit all of the other important news items on this Valentine’s Day.

Mark Pope shares the latest injury report ahead of the Longhorns

All eyes are on Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson both this weekend and beyond — two crucial pieces for the Cats, both dealing with ‘complicated’ and ‘pretty serious’ injuries, according to Mark Pope.

Will they play in Austin?

“The guys are desperate to play and desperate to get healthy, both short-term and long-term,” he said. “It’s balancing all that out with the calendar not just for the season, but for the summer and for next year. Trying to put all those things together and see the returns day-by-day on their medical treatments. That’s where we are right now. I know that’s super vague, but — we could potentially find some clarity on both of those guys in the next couple of weeks, but we’ll see.”

So, uh, not Texas then? We’ll get the official availability report tonight to find out one way or another, but considering Pope said ‘we’re going to piece it together,’ it’s not looking promising.

Hear everything else Pope had to say about the road matchup below:

Nate Ament rocks Kentucky blue on his official visit

The No. 3 recruit in the country just wrapped up his official visit to Lexington and we have the pictures to prove it. Nate Ament, Kentucky’s top remaining target in 2025, shared some of the best shots from his photoshoot wearing what could be his future uniform.

How did things go on his official visit? KSBoard has the latest intel on Kentucky’s chances right here — you don’t want to miss that update, folks.

Kentucky WBB falls to No. 3 Texas

Early foul trouble hurt the Cats’ chances in their own matchup against the Longhorns — a top-10 battle inside Historic Memorial Coliseum on Thursday. Kenny Brooks’ group battled to get things started, but with Teonni Key and Clara Strack earning two fouls apiece to open the second quarter, Texas would take an eight-point halftime lead, which grew quickly to double digits down the stretch.

Georgia Amoore led the Cats with 14 points, followed by Key with 12 and 10 while Dazia Lawrence closed out double-figure scorers with 11. As a team, UK shot just 34.7 percent from the field and 20.0 percent from three — not enough to get it done against the No. 3 team in the country, certainly not being outrebounded 45-28.

It was a heartbreaker that ended with a reminder that life is bigger than basketball, Brooks sharing the news that his wife, Chrissy, was cancer-free following ‘the hardest year of my life’ in the game that served as the team’s annual Play4Kay awareness matchup for breast cancer.

Kenny Brooks talks about his wife, Chrissy, being cancer free and how the power of prayer helped him during the hardest year of his life. pic.twitter.com/pzNzvNzlBv

— Phoenix Stevens (@PStevensKSR) February 14, 2025

Check out Brooks’ full postgame presser alongside Amoore:

Baseball season is here!

Who is ready for some baseball? The season is here for the Bat Cats, who take on Lipscomb in the first series of the season this weekend from Feb. 14-16 — a double-header getting things rolling on Friday. On the road, Kentucky will start at 1 PM ET, followed by the second matchup at 4 PM ET.

Led by Nick Mingione, UK is coming off a trip to the College World Series with the Cats an impressive 86-37 since the start of the 2023 season — seventh-best in baseball in that span. They earned a program record 46 wins in 2024 with their first-ever trip to Omaha.

What do you need to know about this group? KSR’s Daniel Hager has you covered with the most extensive preview you’ll find on the internet, mandatory reading ahead of first pitch this afternoon. The journey to back-to-back CWS trips starts today for Kentucky.

Come get your BBN Valentines!

Speaking of brilliant work from the KSR crew, we wrap up today with more of it from Drew Franklin as he rolls out his annual BBN Valentines — this batch my favorite yet.

He dropped them on Thursday so you could get them ready for your loved ones with flowers and chocolate today, but in case you missed it, I’ve included a few of the best.

I mean, come on. It doesn’t get any better than that. Find the rest here and make sure you get those printed at Walgreens on your way home from work if you forgot. She certainly won’t!

Happy Valentine’s Day, BBN!