KSR Today: Hello from beautiful Starkville!
We did it, folks. We beat the UK basketball team down to Starkville. Why, you’re probably wondering? Is it because we’re go-getters, ready to take this world by storm one SEC road trip at a time? You could call it something like that, I guess. There’s definitely a storm involved, but it’s another snowstorm, and it’s hitting basically everything between Kentucky and Mississippi. It’s a mix of freezing rain, snow and ice, making the trip south about as fun as the smell of body odor in a packed elevator. That’s set to take over Friday and into Saturday, making our options pretty limited on getting down here in one piece. What’d we choose? Leaving Thursday and arriving a whole 48 hours before tip-off inside Humphrey Coliseum, meaning we’ve got all day today and tomorrow to kill before things get rolling at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Brilliant, huh? Needless to say, we’ll need some ideas on what to do in Starkville, one of the 16 most beautiful cities in the SEC, for the next couple of days.
Don’t recommend trivia at Mellow Mushroom in Decatur, the home of Jordan Burks. We already crushed that, taking home the No. 1 prize and ultimate bragging rights that no one will ever be able to take away from us.
We’re on our way to Starkville and stopped at a Mellow Mushroom so that @JackPilgrimKSR and I could win a trivia contest real quick before getting back on the road. pic.twitter.com/zaDoGMbzJK
— Steven Peake (@StevenPeakeKSR) January 10, 2025
One night down, two more to go. Hopefully we’re not stuck in this luxurious three-star Russell Inn & Suites the entire time because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Anyway, let’s get to the news.
Mark Pope knows the challenge coming in Starkville
At some point, the Wildcats will be joining us here in Mississippi for yet another Quad 1 opportunity away from home. Kentucky is still looking for its first true road win after starting 0-2 at Clemson and Georgia, this challenge being the toughest yet.
MSU is currently ranked No. 12 in the NET, No. 14 in the AP Poll and No. 17 in KenPom’s latest update. What does Mark Pope see in Chris Jans’ group of Bulldogs?
“They’re good — oof, they’re good. They’re really good. You just clip and paste that on to the next game, too, whatever team we have. This team is really, really talented,” Pope said Thursday. “… They’re really aggressive, they’re a high-turnover-forcing team. They’re really aggressive on the glass, a top-30 team on the offensive glass. It’s kind of the bio of everybody in the SEC. I know Coach Jans really well, he’s a terrific coach. He’s done a great job. It’ll be in a venue that’s going to be a terrific, spirited venue. So it’ll be a great challenge for us.”
He sat down with the media for nearly 30 minutes yesterday, so plenty of good stuff to dig through there, if you’re interested. If not, we’ll have plenty more content coming here on KSR.
Kentucky WBB steamrolls Florida in Gainesville
Kenny Brooks and the Kentucky women’s basketball team are having no problems taking care of business in the SEC, moving to 14-1 on the year and 3-0 in the league with a 71-55 win over Florida in Gainesville on Thursday. It’s the Wildcats’ seventh consecutive victory, this one led once again by superstar Georgia Amoore with a team-high 18 points on 8-17 shooting with five rebounds, four assists and four steals. Dazia Lawrence added 14 points, followed by Clara Strack with 12 to round out double-figure scorers.
As a team, the Cats shot 48.3 percent from the field and 29.6 percent from three while holding the Gators to 38.6 percent overall and 27.3 percent from deep.
“It’s a different league. We’re just trying to get used to it. We just focus on ourselves. It’s a physical league,” Brooks said after the win. “… That was fun.”
KSR’s Phoenix Stevens was in attendance at the O’Dome and shared his thoughts afterward:
No. 15 Kentucky WBB beat Florida 71-55 on the road to move to 14-1 (3-0 SEC).
— Phoenix Stevens (@PStevensKSR) January 10, 2025
Tune into KSR’s Rapid Reaction from the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. pic.twitter.com/KKoN2KHikH
And the highlights:
The CFB Playoff is fun again!
After some duds in the first round of games, we’re starting to get the gems rolling here in the College Football Playoff, the latest being a late thriller to get the semifinals rolling. No. 7 seed Notre Dame took down No. 6 seed Penn State by a final score of 27-24 to win the Capital One Orange Bowl and advance to the national championship.
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The matchup featured three ties and three lead changes — plus 31 points in the fourth quarter alone.
With a chance to win the game in the final minute — or run the clock out to send it to overtime, at worst — Penn State QB Drew Allar threw a crucial interception at midfield to set up a game-winning chip shot for Notre Dame. Luck of the Irish, the program is now in position to bring home its 12th championship and first since 1988.
They’ll have to take down one of No. 5 seed Texas or No. 8 seed Ohio State, though, with that Cotton Bowl matchup scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday, live on ESPN.
If it’s anything like the other semifinal game, it’s sure to be a classic.
North Carolina surging for Caleb Wilson?
While we were braving the elements on our way to Starkville, Caleb Wilson had the recruiting world flipped upside down with speculation that the longtime Kentucky lean had started to like North Carolina’s pitch a little bit more in recent days with an announcement coming sooner rather than later.
On3’s Jamie Shaw and 247Sports’ Travis Branham both shared updates on Thursday indicating the Tar Heels may have overtaken the Wildcats in this recruitment. From there, though, On3’s Joe Tipton joined KSR+’s Jacob Polacheck to give his best Lee Corso impression: “Not so fast!”
“Everything I’ve heard suggests UK is in the driver’s seat,” Tipton said. “However, last night I got a text from a source that said Carolina has made up ground, and to be honest, I was shocked to read that text. Everything had been pointing toward UK, so since then I’ve hit the phones to gather more intel and the synopsis is if Carolina has made up ground, it’d be a surprise to many of the sources I’ve spoken to.
“It is possible Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels are motivated to land him — they’ve missed on a lot of other prospects and Caleb is their top priority in this class. A decision is still expected by the end of the month.”
Watch the full update below:
I shared my own update over on KSBoard late Thursday night after brushing the snow off my boots after (safely) working the phone on our drive down to Starkville. My view? With respect to all parties involved — Shaw and Branham are two of the best in the business and good friends — I’m leaning toward Tipton’s intel on this one for now. You can read that HERE.
That’s all from the great state of Mississippi this morning. We’ll be trying to keep ourselves busy clanging cowbells or whatever the hell else you’re supposed to do down here.
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