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KSR Today: Kentucky prepares for the start of SEC play

Jack PIlgrimby:Jack Pilgrim•01/03/25
SEC Tournament in Nashville - Dr. Michael Huang, Kentucky Sports Radio
SEC Tournament in Nashville - Dr. Michael Huang, Kentucky Sports Radio

The great Tony Neely of UK Athletics hit us media folk with a strong dad joke to wrap up Mark Pope’s press conference, so I’ll follow in his footsteps with the same one a day later: only one percent of the vote is in, but how are we feeling about 2025, BBN? Are we sticking with those New Year’s resolutions? Will today make three for three at the gym or eating better or drinking less — whatever goal you’ve set for yourself this calendar year? I’m rooting for you to knock out another one and roll into the weekend strong. It’s a big one, so we need you at your best, bright and early inside Rupp Arena on Saturday. Deal? Time to make some magic happen.

Mark Pope previews No. 6 Florida

You don’t need me to tell you why it’s a big weekend. It’s the third top-10 opponent of the season for Kentucky, but the first at home with the No. 6 Florida Gators coming to town. As things stand today, there are six more top-10 battles to come in the SEC regular season for the Cats with 14 of 18 league matchups considered Quad 1 opportunities.

How is Pope preparing for the undefeated Gators? And what does he know about the Todd Golden-led squad?

“In the half-court defense, they’re in the top-one percentile. They’re one of the top teams defensively in the half-court in the country,” Pope said Thursday. “They’re the No. 2 ranked team on the glass in the country. They’ve got three veteran guards that just score in bunches and a phenomenal talent coming off the bench that can really hurt you. Their bigs are just relentless and veracious and physical and skilled and can shoot it. …

“It’s gonna be a great test for us and to see where we are right now, the lessons we’ve learned and how we implement them.”

Listen to all of his pregame comments below:

Cats open as 1.5-point favorite

What does Vegas think about Kentucky’s chances? The Cats will host the Gators as slight favorites with the opening line coming out late Thursday evening.

Pope’s group officially opened as a 1.5-point favorite with the over/under set at 165.5 points, the moneyline favoriing UK -115 compared to -104 for UF — about as close as you can get.

KenPom projects an 83-82 loss for Mark Pope’s squad while Bart Torvik sees UK coming away with an 83-82 win inside Rupp Arena. ESPN’s BPI likes the Cats by 3.0 points while giving the home team a 61.8 percent chance to pull off the win.

Where will Saturday rank among all-time crowds?

BBN has been elite all season, no matter the day, time or competition. What’s going to happen with a top-10 SEC foe coming to town? I’m counting down the hours to find out.

KSR’s Daniel Hager compiled a list of Rupp Arena’s all-time loudest moments. Will UK vs. UF on Jan. 4 make the list?

Kentucky WBB cruises to record-setting win in SEC opener

As the men’s team prepares for its SEC opener, the women’s team already took care of business in theirs. That came in the form of a 91-69 blowout victory over Mississippi State inside Historic Memorial Coliseum on Thursday.

Dazia Lawrence led the way with 28 points on 8-12 shooting and 7-11 from three, followed closely by Georgia Amoore with 27 points on 9-18 overall and 7-10 from deep to go with nine assists. Those two became the first duo in program history to his seven triples in the same game while the team as a whole hit a record 18 3-pointers on 54 percent shooting. Amelia Hassett also added 14 points and nine rebounds while Teonni Key finished with an impressive 10 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks.

It was that kind of day for the Cats.

“Really good win for our kids,” Kenny Brooks said. “There’s a lot of fun watching them. Right from the start, the preparation was really good — communication. [They were] locked in on the scout, did a really good job, and we came out and we did what we are capable of doing. You know, we hadn’t shot the ball extremely well early on in the year, and anytime we can step up and knock down shots, if we can make half of those shots, we’re going to be a really good team and hard to aim.”

From here, Kentucky will take on Vanderbilt on the road on Sunday, January 5 with tip-off scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.

College Football Playoff semifinals are set

The College Football Playoff quarterfinal schedule was thrown off with the Sugar Bowl postponed to Thursday, spreading those games out across three days. Things finally kicked off, though, leading to a 23-10 victory for No. 7 seed Notre Dame over No. 2 seed Georgia to advance to take on No. 6 seed Penn State in the semifinals. That will pair with a head-to-head battle between No. 5 seed Texas and No. 8 seed Ohio State to give us our final four.

A look at the updated schedule and bracket:

  • Capital One Orange Bowl: Jan. 9 – No. 6 Penn State vs. No. 7 Notre Dame (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
  • Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic: Jan. 10 – No. 5 Texas vs. No. 8 Ohio State (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)

The national championship game will then take place on Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET, live on ESPN. The Longhorns are the lone representative in the SEC still alive.

Seven Cats included in early 2025 NBA All-Star voting

The first returns are back for All-Star voting, and things look great for the Kentucky basketball program. A whopping seven BBNBA members were among the top vote-getters — four from the Western Conference and three from the Eastern Conference.

Western Conference frontcourt

Western Conference backcourt

Eastern Conference frontcourt

Eastern Confernce backcourt

All-Star voting will conclude on Jan. 20 with the 2025 All-Star Game set for Feb. 16 in San Francisco. How many Cats will we see in the prestigious contest? You can help push that number up by voting here.

Keep those resolutions rolling, folks. I believe in you. Go Cats.

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2025-01-04