KSR Today: Kentucky Basketball's Season Opener + Alabama Week for Kentucky Football

This is no ordinary Monday, Big Blue Nation. Tonight, Kentucky Basketball begins its new season in Rupp Arena with the home opener against New Mexico State. Before that one tips off, Kentucky Football begins Alabama Week on campus with the first Week 11 practice and a Monday with Mark Stoops.

We’re probably going to clear 1,000 words on this one…

Kentucky Basketball’s Opener

At 8 p.m. tonight, SEC Network will broadcast Kentucky’s home basketball opener against New Mexico State. The Wildcats begin the season ranked No. 16 in both the AP and the Coaches Polls and enter tonight’s game after two preseason exhibition victories against Georgetown College and Kentucky State University.

Antonio Reeves averaged 19 points per game in the preseason wins. Tre Mitchell was a close second in scoring at 18.5 per game while leading UK in rebounding with 9.5 rebounds. Mitchell is Kentucky’s only player over 6-9 until it returns one of its three unavailable seven-footers.

On the other side, New Mexico State begins a new era against the Wildcats, debuting a new coach, Jason Hooten, and a completely new roster. New Mexico State was picked eighth out of nine teams in the preseason Conference USA poll.

Kentucky is currently a 17.5-point favorite. We’ll have plenty more about the game throughout the day.

Enough talking. Let's ball. pic.twitter.com/DcN9bznXTT

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) November 5, 2023

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How To Follow Kentucky-New Mexico State

TV: SEC Network (Tom Hart, Dane Bradshaw)
Streaming: WatchESPN
Home Radio: UK Sports Network – 630 WLAP, iHeart Radio (Tom Leach, Goose Givens)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

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Monday with Mark

NOON PRESS CONFERENCE

In the other major sport in Lexington, Kentucky Football returns to practice on Monday after a day to rest and enjoy the weekend’s road trip to Mississippi State. But first, Mark Stoops will hold his weekly Monday afternoon press conference. Stoops will face the media at 12 o’clock to answer questions about the Wilcats’ win in Starkville and the challenge ahead against Alabama.

You can watch a replay of that press conference here on KSR once it ends.

CALL-IN SHOW

Curveball! Due to the basketball activities on the radio, Mark Stoops’ call-in radio show will wait until Tuesday night.

You can listen to the KSR Pregame Show in its place, beginning at 5:30 p.m. from KSBar and Grille.

How’s Devin Leary?

Stoops will almost certainly be asked about the health of starting quarterback Devin Leary, who missed the entire fourth quarter with vision issues in Starkville. Stoops said after the game that Leary couldn’t see clearly, and today an update should give further explanation about what exactly is wrong, and if it could keep Leary from playing against Alabama. Liam Coen mentioned blurry vision in his postgame press conference.

New ‘KSR Football Podcast’ at 2 PM

Since John Calipari’s Wildcats have an 8 p.m. start time tonight, the KSR Football Podcast will get out of the way earlier in the day by moving the show from its usual 8 p.m. time slot to a 2 p.m. launch on KSR’s YouTube channel. Tune in live, if you can, as Nick Roush, Drew Franklin, Adam Luckett, and Freddie Maggard celebrate Kentucky’s win and look ahead to Bama.

You can find the new episode on KSR’s YouTube when it goes live or consume the audio-only version of KSR’s podcasts on Apple and Spotify.

Want more coverage of the Cats? Join the KSR Club.

Take advantage of the KSR+ BIG GAME SPECIAL to get bonus coverage of Kentucky vs. New Mexico State and Kentucky vs. Alabama, including live game threads, practice reports, an in-depth scouting report, and the latest recruiting intel.

50% off the annual price or $1 for 1 month.

Alabama Is The Betting Favorite In Lexington

For all of you gamblers out there, Kentucky is getting 11 points when the Cats host the Crimson Tide next Saturday. The total on the game is 48.5.

Or if you’re feeling really confident, you can get Kentucky on the money line at +350.

Coaches Poll Love

Kentucky did not receive any votes in the Associated Press Poll, but the coaches sprinkled some votes on the Cats. For the win at Mississippi State, UK was 12th in the Others Receiving Votes subsection, which, by my math, is a No. 37 ranking.

Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Florida State, and Washington make up the top five, in that order.

Kentucky-South Carolina Game Time To Be Announced

Around lunchtime, the Southeastern Conference will release its kickoff and television schedule for the league’s 10 Week 12 games. That’s the Saturday, November 18 slate of games when Kentucky plays at South Carolina, so we’ll know the start time for the Cats’ game in Columbia soon.

DATE	AWAY	HOME	GAME INFO
11/18 – TBD	(2) Georgia	(17) Tennessee
11/18 – TBD	UL Monroe	(10) Ole Miss
11/18 – TBD	Florida	(12) Missouri
11/18 – TBD	Georgia St	(14) LSU
11/18 – TBD	FIU	Arkansas
11/18 – TBD	New Mexico St	Auburn
11/18 – TBD	Kentucky	South Carolina
11/18 – 12:00 PM ET	Chattanooga	(8) Alabama	SEC Network+ | ESPN+
11/18 – 12:00 PM ET	Southern Miss	Mississippi St	SEC Network+ | ESPN+
11/18 – 12:00 PM ET	Abilene Christian	Texas A&M	SEC Network+ | ESPN+

New KY High School Rankings, Kroger Game of the Week

In high school football, the playoffs continue throughout the Bluegrass this week. A new KSR Top 25 will soon be revealed with an update to the Kentucky state high school rankings.

KSR will also soon name the location of the Week KSR/Kroger Game of the Week.

Kentucky Men’s Soccer Still Alive In Sun Belt Tournament

Kentucky Soccer is still alive in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. On Sunday, the fifth-seeded Wildcats beat the fourth-seeded James Madison Dukes, 2-1, to move on to the tournament’s semifinal round in Huntington, West Virginia.

Kentucky will play the host and No. 1 seed, Marshall, in the Wednesday night semifinal at 7 p.m.

Kentucky upset Marshall in Huntington late in the regular season on October 22.

10 Straight For First-Place Kentucky Volleyball

Kentucky Volleyball won in four sets against the 20th-ranked Gators in Gainesville on Sunday. The win was Kentucky’s TENTH straight, extending the Wildcats’ lead in the overall SEC standings.

Hunter Mitchell has more.

UK heads to Auburn to play the 24th-ranked Tigers on Wednesday.

The Other Top 25 College Basketball Games To Watch Tonight

In addition to No. 16 Kentucky in action in Lexington, nearly every preseason-ranked team will make their 2023-24 debut tonight. Kentucky will play the teams in bold later this season, so start your scouting now.

6:30	(3) Purdue vs Samford – BTN
	(6) UConn vs Northern Arizona – Fox App
	(9) Tennessee vs Tennessee Tech – ESPN+/SECN+
7:00	(13) Miami vs NJIT – ESPN+/ACCNX
	(19) North Carolina vs Radford – ACCN
7:30	(22) Villanova vs American – Fox App
8:00	(1) Kansas vs NC Central – BIG12/ESPN+
	(7) Houston vs UL Monroe – BIG12/ESPN
	(14) Arkansas vs Alcorn State – ESPN+/SECN+
	(15) Texas A&M vs Texas A&M-Commerce ESPN+/SECN+
	(18) Texas vs Incarnate Word – LHN
	(24) Alabama vs Morehead State – ESPN+/SECN+
	(25) Illinois vs Eastern Illinois
8:30	(4) Michigan State vs James Madison – BTN
	(5) Marquette vs Northern Illinois – Fox App
9:00	(2) Duke vs Dartmouth – ACCN
9:30	(12) Arizona vs Morgan State – PAC12
10:00	(21) USC vs Kansas State (Las Vegas) – TNT
	(23) Saint Mary’s vs Stanislaus State – ESPN+
10:30	(17) San Diego State vs Cal State Fullerton – FS1

Freddie Maggard on KSR

Matt Jones has the week off, so Ryan Lemond, Shannon The Dude, and I will carry the KSR morning radio show while he is away. Today, Freddie Maggard will join us to look back on Saturday’s football game at Mississippi State and more. Tune in at 10 a.m.