KSR Today: Kentucky prepares for trip to Fayetteville

Kentucky’s stretch of difficult games to close out the regular season is set to continue this weekend, as the Wildcats will take on the blistering-hot Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville on Saturday.

Sitting at 22-6 overall and 11-4 in conference play, Arkansas has won 12 of its last 13 games, with the team’s lone slip-up being a one-point loss at Alabama on February 12. Beyond that, the Razorbacks have coasted through the SEC with ranked wins over LSU, Auburn and Tennessee. As a team, they’re averaging 77.5 points per game while allowing 67.4 points, good for a plus-10 scoring margin.

ESPN’s matchup predictor gives the edge to Kentucky with a 59.2% chance to win, with Barttorvik projecting the Wildcats as 0.5-point favorites. Official odds will be released later today.

Game information can be found below:

When: Sat., Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. ET
Where: Bud Walton Arena (Fayetteville, AR)
TV: CBS
Stream: CBS/Paramount+
Radio: UK Sports Network with Tom Leach and Mike Pratt

Calipari, Grady preview Arkansas

What does John Calipari think of the head-to-head matchup? The UK head coach and guard Kellan Grady will speak to the media at 11:30 a.m. ET to break it all down, with the latter also discussing his upcoming Senior Day next week.

KSR will have all of the coverage you need right here on the website throughout the afternoon.

Will the Wildcats be healthy?

Guards Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington have missed Kentucky’s last two games due to injury, with the former dealing with a wrist issue and the latter battling a sore ankle. In their absence, the Wildcats have been forced to lean on Kellan Grady and Davion Mintz almost entirely in the backcourt, with the guard duo playing at least 38 minutes each in both games.

Will Kentucky return to full strength or close to it? Calipari wasn’t completely optimistic following the team’s win over LSU on Wednesday.

“We get the other guys back, we’ll see how this works when they come back,” he said. “They may not be ready in two days. We may have the same team going down to Arkansas.”

Calipari will provide an official update this morning.

Arkansas will host a Stripe Out vs. Kentucky

Another day, another Super Bowl for Kentucky’s opponent this season, with Arkansas being the latest example.

To celebrate the nation’s No. 6 team coming to town, the Razorbacks will host a “Stripe Out” at Bud Walton Arena, staggering the sections with red and white shirts for the fans.

Arkansas previously hosted a White Out vs. Auburn on Feb. 8 and a Red Out vs. Tennessee on Feb. 19, both wins for the Razorbacks. Needless to say, Eric Musselman is expecting yet another rowdy environment when Kentucky comes to town on Saturday.

“I can tell you from a ticket request standpoint, I told my wife don’t ask about tickets, I told my son don’t ask about tickets, I told the staff,” Musselman said Wednesday. “The ticket requests right now are through the roof as it was against Auburn. I told the team last night, you’ll probably see an environment starting on Friday around campus with the anticipation of the game Saturday. It’s not just going to be on Saturday where the environment is like that. It probably will start on Friday.”

White out ✅
Red out ✅
STRIPE OUT 🔜 pic.twitter.com/Yv5w4eu6EQ

— #18 Arkansas Razorback Men's Basketball 🐗 (@RazorbackMBB) February 24, 2022

Kentucky WBB wins fifth straight

Entering the month of February, Kentucky women’s basketball’s postseason hopes were bleak. Sitting at 9-11 on the year and an abysmal 2-8 in conference play, the Wildcats had completely fallen out of tournament discussion to close out star guard Rhyne Howard’s historic career in Lexington.

Since then, though, Kentucky has rattled off five straight wins, with the latest being an impressive road victory over Missouri (17-11), defeating the Tigers by a final score of 78-63 in Mizzou Arena.

With Missouri shorthanded — Aijha Blackwell, Ladazhia Williams, Kiya Dorroh and Skylah Travis were all unavailable — the Wildcats capitalized in the fourth quarter, starting things off with an 11-0 run and closing out the game on a 21-7 run to finish off the 15-point win.

Kentucky was led by Dre’Una Edwards, who finished with a career-high 30 points on 14-19 shooting to go with 10 rebounds. Howard also added 19 points, 12 rebounds and four assists in the win.

UK will host Auburn on Senior Night at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday in Memorial Coliseum, with the regular-season finale being broadcast live on SEC Network.

A new OC candidate emerges

KSR reported earlier this week that current New York Jets quarterback Rob Calabrese was a candidate for Kentucky’s open offensive coordinator position. And then on Thursday, KSR added another name to keep a close eye on, and it happens to be the coach Calabrese replaced in New York.

KSR’s Matt Jones reported last night that current Arkansas tight ends coach Dowell Loggains is a “serious candidate” for the job, with Jones adding that he is one of four options currently being considered.

“I also have been told there are 3-4 serious candidates for the OC job,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “We know two…Calabrese and Loggains. I am told the other two are one name people have been throwing around (not sure which one) and one is still unknown.”

Prior to his time at Arkansas, Loggains was in the NFL every year dating back to 2008, where he started his career as a quality control coach with the Tennessee Titans. He would go on to be the offensive coordinator for four different teams in the Titans (2012-13), Chicago Bears (2016-17), Miami Dolphins (2018) and New York Jets (2019-20).

Freddie Maggard’s take on the job search is one worth reading. Check it out here.

KSR in an hour

As always, the Kentucky Sports Radio will be live this morning from 10 a.m. to noon ET.

Be sure to tune in. Go Cats.