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KSR Today: Let the 2022 SEC Tournament begin

Zack Geogheganby:Zack Geoghegan•03/10/22•

ZGeogheganKSR

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(Photo by Brett Carlsen | Getty Images)

Good morning, folks! Wednesday night saw the Southeastern Conference’s bottom four teams fight for their NCAA Tournament lives one more time. Vanderbilt and Missouri both came out on top against Ole Miss and Georgia, respectively, as they move into the real first round of the 2022 SEC Tournament. Your Kentucky Wildcats still don’t play until Friday night, but four games on Thursday will decide those future matchups, which is where our day begins.

12:00 p.m. – Florida vs. Texas A&M
2:00 p.m. – Missouri vs. LSU
6:00 p.m. – Mississippi State vs. South Carolina
8:00 p.m. – Vanderbilt vs. Alabama

All games broadcast on the SEC Network

It’s that Vanderbilt-Alabama game the Big Blue Nation will need to keep a close eye on. The winner of that one will face the ‘Cats in the late game on Friday night.

Elsewhere, basketball fever is in full effect. Conference tournament games first tipoff at 11:00 a.m. this morning between Central Michigan and Toledo to get things rolling in the MAC Championship quarterfinals. 60 (yes, sixty) more Divison I conference tourney games will take place throughout the day. Just go ahead and call in sick, okay?

Historic NIL bill signed in KY

History was made as Gov. Andy Beshear officially signed Senate Bill 6, allowing student-athletes in Kentucky to profit off of their name, image and likeness moving forward — permanently.

SB 6 — sponsored by Senators Morgan McGarvey (D) and Max Wise (R) — was signed Wednesday at Kentucky State Capitol in front of the commonwealth’s top coaches, including University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari, women’s basketball coach Kyra Elzy and head football coach Mark Stoops.

The bill previously passed in the KY House 89-2 and in the Senate 37-0 before being sent to Beshear’s desk for review. The Governor’s signature this morning then turned the bill into law.

The NIL stuff is cool, sure, but the most important takeaway is that Rhyne Howard could run for any form of public office and I would vote for her.

Oscar wins first of many POTY awards

On Monday, Oscar Tshiebwe was named a unanimous First Team All-American by The Sporting News. Two days later, the outlet announced that Oscar is their National Player of the Year as well. He is only the second Kentucky Wildcat to receive the honor, which dates back to 1943. Anthony Davis is Kentucky’s other winner, taking home the award in 2012.

The award is the first of six Oscar needs to win to be a consensus and/or unanimous Player of the Year. The others are the Naismith Award, the AP College Basketball Player of the Year Award, the Wooden Award, the Oscar Robertson Trophy, and the NABC Player of the Year award.

Here’s a running list of Oscar’s accolades so far:

  • Sporting News National Player of the Year
  • Sporting News First-Team All-America
  • Southeastern Conference Player of the Year (coaches/media)
  • All-SEC First Team (coaches/media)
  • All-SEC Defensive Team (coaches)
  • Sports Illustrated First-Team All-American
  • The Field of 68 National Player of the Year
  • The Field of 68 First-Team All-America
  • College Hoops Today National Player of the Year 
  • USA Today SEC Player of the Year
  • USA Today First-Team All-SEC unanimous selection
  • John R. Wooden Award finalist
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award Final Five
  • Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist

2022 Girls Basketball Sweet Sixteen officially underway

March Madness isn’t just restricted to the college ranks. High school basketball across the state of Kentucky is coming down the stretch of its season. First up is the 2022 Mingua Beef Jerky Girls Basketball Sweet Sixteen Tournament which saw four first-round games throughout Wednesday with another four scheduled for Thursday.

I’ll drop our full KSR recaps from Wednesday’s games, but here’s a quick synopsis. A wild finish in the opener saw Meade County beat Boyd County, 6-foot-6 Gracie Merkle and Bullitt East overpowered Bethlehem with ease, Southwestern put an end to McCracken County’s 24-game winning streak, and finally, Franklin County won a tightly-contested back-and-forth affair against Henderson County.

Thursday’s schedule (all games at Rupp Arena)

11:00 a.m. – Bowling Green vs. Letcher County Central
1:30 p.m. – Pikeville vs. Coopers
6:00 p.m. – Corbin vs. George Rogers Clark
8:30 p.m. – Sacred Heart Academy vs. Anderson County

The game to watch is the nightcap — Sacred Heart against Anderson County. In reality, this is a potential championship-round matchup. Either of these squads is fully capable of winning the state title and it feels like the winner of that game has a clear shot at making it to the finals. Sacred Heart beat Anderson County in the semifinals of the Sweet Sixteen a season ago, so revenge will be on the mind.

Sacred Heart has dropped just three games all season long, with one coming against a team from Missouri. Bullitt East also took down Sacred Heart, as did Mercy, but the Valkyries have beaten both, as well. Senior guard Josie Gilvin is a Miss Kentucky Basketball candidate while leading scorer, ZaKiyah Johnson, is already considered one of the top freshmen in the entire country, according to ESPN. Johnson averages 17.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game while shooting slightly over 50 percent from the field.

Don’t count out Anderson County from the 8th Region, though. Led by head coach Clay Birdwhistell, the Lady Bearcats will be a major threat to Sacred Heart and the rest of the tournament if they can pull off the opening-round victory. Senior guard and Kentucky commit Amiya Jenkins can win a game all by herself. She leads the team in scoring at 20.8 points per outing on 47.1 percent shooting and can break down her defender from anywhere on the court.

MBB recruiting updates

A new class of 2022 basketball recruit has popped up on the Kentucky Wildcats radar.

Adrame Diongue, a seven-foot senior out of AZ Compass Prep who is ranked by the On3 Consensus as a four-star prospect and top 60 player, announced his top five potential college choices on Wednesday night and UK made the cut. Joining the ‘Cats are UNLV, Kansas, Texas Tech, and Washington State. If you recognize the school name AZ Compass Prep, that would be because it’s the same program TyTy Washington attended before making the jump to Kentucky.

Despite the inclusion of UK in his top five, Diongue does not currently hold an offer from the ‘Cats. He only recently started hearing from the Kentucky staff, when assistant coach Chin Coleman reached out and expressed interest earlier this week, according to On3’s Joe Tipton. Diongue still has all five of his official visits available, which he will plan out sometime next week.

Around the same time that Diongue made his announcement, five-star wing Mookie Cook from the class of 2023 dropped his top three schools: Kentucky, Oregon, and Gonzaga. Cook sat down with On3’s Joe Tipton for an exclusive interview where they broke down his recruitment and what he likes about each school. If you have On3+, you can check that out at the link here.

Here’s what Cook had to say about Kentucky: “If you want to go to the NBA, that’s definitely the place to be. It speaks for itself. It’s just if you want to do it or not.”

Bat ‘Cats comeback effort falls short

After falling down into an early 7-0 pit against the Ohio Bobcats on Wednesday night, Kentucky Baseball relied on its offense once again to nearly force its way into a win. UK eventually tied the score up at 8-8, but the bullpen did the team no favors, giving up the winning run in the top of the ninth inning. Pitching continues to counteract what has been a potent offense for UK early on in the season.

For a full recap of Wednesday’s game, make sure to check out Eric Decker’s recap here.

That’s all the news and notes I have for you this morning. We’ve got radio from Tampa coming up in an hour. Today’s show is not public though, so find a comfy spot to settle in for the morning. Also, in case you missed it, Tyler Thompson created a handy dandy “Need to know: KSR & Kentucky at the SEC Tournament in Tampa” sheet that is a bit more expansive than the one Ryan Lemond came up with.

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2025-01-26