KSR Today: Mark Pope, Antoine Walker, another Kentucky WBB win, and more

Good morning, friends. It’s a significant day in America as we honor and remember Martin Luther King Jr. with a federal holiday in his name, celebrated on the third Monday of every year. King’s actual birthday was five days ago on January 15.

Today is also a quadrennial holiday, Inauguration Day, when a new president is sworn into office in Washington, D.C. Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration can be seen at noon on whichever of those channels you prefer.

Here on KSR, we are talking about today’s stories in the wide world of sports, mostly Kentucky sports. Let’s get right to it.

Kentucky WBB still unbeaten in the SEC and chasing history

Kentucky Women’s Basketball improved to 5-0 in the Southeastern Conference by beating Georgia at Georgia on Sunday. The 12th-ranked Wildcats were led by Clara Strack with a 25 and 12 day in Athens, her best game to date. Georgia Amoore added 24 points with eight assists in the 78-64 road victory.

At 16-1 under Kenny Brooks, Kentucky is now one SEC win away from only the second 6-0 start to league play (2012-13), and two wins away from matching the best overall stall start in school history (2012-13 and 1982-83). Kentucky heads to Texas A&M on Thursday.

Listen to Mark Pope on the Mark Pope Show

Kentucky MBB does not play a mid-week game this week, so we will not hear from any of the players on Monday. However, Mark Pope still has an hour of Monday air time to fill, so he will be live in his usual place with Tom Leach from 6-7 p.m. for the call-in show. Tune in on the UK Sports Network or read his best comments here on KentuckySportsRadio.com later this evening. If that’s not enough of Mark Pope for your Monday, you can go back and watch Saturday’s press conference here.

Kentucky to slip in the Top 25

Kentucky’s loss to fourth-ranked Alabama shouldn’t weigh too heavily on the Wildcats’ ranking this week. The top-15 win over Texas A&M will also be reflected in this week’s poll, so Kentucky shouldn’t fall more than three or four places from No. 8 in the AP and No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches. Kentucky could even hang onto a top-10 ranking in the AP. We’ll see around noon.

Changes to KSR’s H.S. Boys’ Basketball Top 25

Soon, KSR will reveal its Week 7 boys high school basketball rankings for the state of Kentucky. Last Monday, St. Xavier again held the top spot with a sweep of the first-place votes, followed by Great Crossing, Frederick Douglass, Marshall County, and Bryan Station, up one place from sixth to fifth over Hazard. Come back later this morning to see how it shakes out this week.

Antoine Walker believes UK’s 1996 team is the best ever

While back in Lexington for a game earlier this year, Antoine Walker listed the best college basketball teams of all time with Jeff Teague, Marquis’ older brother, on Teague’s “Club 520 Podcast.” Hear Walker’s thoughts on his 1996 team’s place in history below.

NFL Conference Championship Weekend is set

Super Bowl LIX will feature Washington or Philadelphia versus Buffalo or Kansas City, the four teams that survived this past weekend to play in their conference’s championship game. Last night, Mark Andrews’ bad day helped Ray Davis (who had a TD) and the Bills eliminate the Ravens after a snowy thriller in Philadelphia in the afternoon game. Next weekend looks like this when the conferences crown their champs and set the Super Bowl matchup:

Saturday, Jan. 25
NFC Championship: (6) Washington Commanders at (2) Philadelphia Eagles, 3 p.m. ET (FOX)
AFC Championship: (2) Buffalo Bills at (1) Kansas City Chiefs, 6:30 p.m. ET (CBS)

Where to find KSR this week

KSR’s morning radio show has Monday off for Martin Luther King Day. In its place, Billy R Sports dialed up a replay episode from the past to fill the airwaves from 10 a.m. to noon. Tomorrow and Wednesday, you can find Matt Jones and Ryan Lemond at KSBar and Grille. I will join them there on Thursday, and then the whole crew will be at Don Franklin in Lexington on Friday. Go Cats.