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KSR Today: Kentucky vs. Louisville in Men's Soccer, Big Z Watch

On3 imageby:Tyler Thompson•09/05/23•

MrsTylerKSR

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Left Photo: FIBA Basketball; Right Photo: Morgan Simmons, UK Athletics

Good morning, friends. Welcome back to work for those of you who enjoyed Labor Day weekend away from the computer. Hopefully, you’re not too sunburnt or tired from your well-deserved overindulgences.

While the first day back after a holiday is never fun, chin up because tonight, we get to cheer for the University of Kentucky against the University of Louisville in a Top 15 men’s soccer showdown. Today is also a pivotal day in Big Z Watch as we wait to hear if the UK Admissions office will let Croatian seven-footer Zvonimir Ivisic into the university. Add in Liam Coen’s comments after football practice, a new Sources Say, and yours truly seeing Tyler Childers and Margo Price at the Grand Ole Opry and it’s a mighty big Tuesday.

Let’s run through it.

No. 2 Kentucky Men’s Soccer at No. 12 Louisville

After picking up their first loss of the season at Wisconsin on Friday, the No. 2 Kentucky men’s soccer team looks to rebound in a big way tonight. At 8 p.m., the Cats (2-1-0) play No. 12 Louisville (3-0-0) at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium in Louisville. Kentucky is on a three-game winning streak vs. the Cards, the most recent victory coming last season in Lexington. The Cats are 11-4-3 on the road vs. Louisville.

On Monday, Aboubacar Camara, the former Louisville star who transferred to Kentucky during the offseason, called for BBN to fill the Cardinals’ stadium with Kentucky Blue. Camara led Louisville in scoring for three straight seasons before making the wise decision to come to Lexington. He scored his first goal as a Wildcat on a penalty kick in the season-opener vs. Florida Gulf Coast and also has one assist.

If you can’t make it in person, you can watch the match on ACC Network or stream on ESPN+.

Big Z Watch; New Sources Say

On Monday, Matt Jones came out of blogging retirement to share the latest he’s hearing about Zvonimir Ivisic, the seven-foot Croatian who committed to Kentucky in July. Ivisic has yet to join the team in Lexington due to some issues with his enrollment, specifically, an English equivalency exam UK requires international students to take. As of yesterday, Ivisic had not passed the test and without it, he cannot be granted a student visa. So now, we’re in a stalemate between Ivisic and the UK Admissions office, with John Calipari and the basketball program frustrated and anxious for a resolution.

On today’s episode of KSR, Matt will discuss what he’s hearing about the situation. Tonight at 8 p.m., Jack Pilgrim and Shawn Smith will go LIVE on Sources Say to discuss the latest developments. We’ll bring you any news that breaks throughout the day here on KSR and the stuff that’s not fit for print on KSBoard, KSR’s message board.

Got thoughts? Subscribe to KSR+ to continue the conversation on KSBoard, the KSR+ Message Board. New subscribers can try 1 month for $1 or get 25% off an annual subscription.

Kentucky Football news you may have missed on Monday

Yesterday may have been a day off for most, but not for the Kentucky Football team and those who cover it. Mark Stoops held his usual Monday press conference, the biggest takeaway from which is that super senior left guard Kenneth Horsey will NOT miss the season with the injury he suffered vs. Ball State. Stoops said that Horsey will be out “a couple of weeks,” which could put him back on the field in time for the Florida game, which is absolutely huge. Phew.

Here’s a rundown of the other big stories from Stoops’ presser. Barion Brown and Trevin Wallace were named SEC Players of the Week (Special Teams and Defense), which is pretty great. Congrats to them.

If you prefer video, here’s the replay of Stoops’ presser and Nick and Drew’s Rapid Reactions to it.

A few hours later, Nick and Drew were joined by Adam Luckett and Freddie Maggard on the KSR Football Podcast to break down the win over Ball State and look ahead to EKU.

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

Liam Coen Day at Kentucky Football Practice

Today, we’ll get to hear from Liam Coen and members of Kentucky’s offense after practice. Check the site and YouTube Channel around dinnertime to hear what they have to say after watching film of the season opener. Saturday’s performance was far from perfect, but Stoops and Coen seemed confident that the mistakes that were there are easy enough to clean up, and that Devin Leary will knock the rust off soon enough.

We’ll hear from Walt Wells

Saturday’s foe is a familiar one, especially the head coach. Walt Wells worked on Kentucky’s staff for two seasons (2018, 2019) as a quality control assistant, and last season, almost died after suffering a heart attack in his office. The story made national news as the EKU staff and paramedics sprang into action to save his life. He returned to the sideline later that season and now uses his story to raise awareness for heart disease; it struck a chord with Mark Stoops, whose father died of a heart attack.

“Well, I think I always pay attention to that, being what happened to my father,” Stoops said yesterday. “When that happened to Walt, very scary moment, obviously. For us as coaches, we all have to watch that. I mean, we could talk about it until we are blue in the face, but we’re going to do what we do.”

Yesterday, UK Healthcare teased a profile on Wells, who recovered at UK Chandler Hospital. As you can see, he’s a character. He will also Zoom with reporters this morning to preview Saturday’s game vs. Kentucky. We’ll be on to bring you the highlights — and maybe ask to hear some GNR or Freebird.

OTE docuseries featuring Dillingham, Cyril premieres

The Overtime Elite (OTE) to Kentucky recruiting pipeline is now established, with Rob Dillingham joining the Cats this season and Somto Cyril next. Today, a six-part docuseries on OTE titled One Shot: Overtime Elite debuts on Amazon Prime. Dillingham is prominently featured, as you can see in this clip exclusively obtained by KSR:

We have another clip from the series featuring Cyril to share with you later today, so make sure you’re subscribed to @KSRonX, KSR’s official new Twitter/X account, to see it.

USA Basketball in the World Cup, US Open Quarterfinals

Sadly, our five-day college football marathon is now over, with Duke upsetting No. 9 Clemson last night 28-7. We’ll have to wait until Thursday for more football (college and NFL), but there are plenty of sports still happening. In fact, right now, Team USA is playing Italy in the quarterfinals of the FIBA Basketball World Cup. On Sunday, the Americans were upset by Lithuana 110-104 but still advanced to the quarterfinals and qualified for the Olympics. You can watch that game right now on ESPN2.

The quarterfinals are also underway in the US Open. No. 6 Coco Gauff faces No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko at Noon ET, followed by No. 2 Novak Djokovic vs. Taylor Fritz on the men’s side at 1:30 PM. You can see both matches on ESPN.

KSR is back

After getting Monday off, the radio crew is back to discuss the win over Ball State and the latest with Big Z. The fun starts in one hour on 630 WLAP or right now on the KSR Preshow with Shannon the Dude and Billy Rutledge.

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