KSR Today: Mark Pope, Antonio Reeves, and injury updates

Good morning, folks! Buckle in for another busy day here at the KSR headquarters.

Later today, we’ll have our weekly Thursday press conference with Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope. The Wildcats have another game on Friday against Jackson State after a 29-point win over Lipscomb earlier this week. Pope will surely give us plenty of insight on what he expects to see out of Jackson State, which is coached by former NBA All-Star Mo Williams, but has yet to win a game this season (0-5).

Then, following afternoon football practice, we’ll hear from head coach Mark Stoops for the final time this week and he continues to prepare his team for a road game with No. 3 Texas on Saturday. Kentucky is coming off an easy win over Murray State last weekend. The Longhorns on the road is an entirely different level of opponent.

While we wait, make sure to catch up on everything we heard following yesterday’s football practice. Defensive coordinator Brad White was expected to talk, but defensive backs coach Chris Collins replaced him the day of. Quarterback Brock Vandagriff and defensive back Alex Afari also took questions from the media. Listen to everything they had to say below and then dive into the rest of this morning’s news and notes.

First injury report of the week

The first of four injury reports ahead of Kentucky vs. Texas this Saturday was released last night. Stoops’ team is actually quite healthy going into the weekend, at least compared to past games this season. Thanks to the bye week and then a non-threatening challenge against Murray State, Kentucky is in good shape to close out the 2024 schedule. We’ll receive another injury update later tonight.

• Jantzen Dunn | DB | Out
• Darrion Henry-Young | DL | Out
• Gerald Mincey | OL | Out
• Daveren Rayner | LB | Out
• Terhyon Nichols | CB | Out
• DJ Waller Jr. | DB | Out
• D’Eryk Jackson | LB | Out
• J.J. Weaver | OLB | Probable
• Courtland Ford | OL | Questionable
• Kahlil Saunders | DL | Questionable

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9 straight wins for Kentucky VB

Another day, another sweep for Kentucky volleyball. The No. 12 Wildcats took down Mississippi State 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-11) last night at Memorial Coliseum. Senior outside hitter Megan Wilson racked up nine kills and did not record an error as Kentucky is on the verge of clinching an eighth straight SEC championship. If the ‘Cats win one of its final two regular season matches, they’ll at minimum share the title. Win both games and Kentucky locks up the championship outright.

Up next for Kentucky is the final home game before the postseason. UK hosts Arkansas this Sunday for Senior Day at 4:00 p.m. EST (SEC Network).

Vince taking a look at Southern Miss?

Rivals’ Justin Rowland and KSR’s Matt Jones both put out reports yesterday saying that Kentucky associate coach Vince Marrow is a candidate for another job. And this one is a head coaching gig. Southern Miss has made serious inquiries with Marrow about filling its head coaching position.

Southern Miss fired Will Hall after a 1-6 start to his fourth season in Hattiesburg, including a season-opening loss at Kentucky. The Golden Eagles are currently 1-9. One thing to note is that Hall made $824,000 in 2024, well below the $1.3 million annual salary for Marrow, who signed an extension with UK ahead of the 2024 season.

Michael Bennett of Just The Cats Radio reported that Marrow pulled his name from consideration.

Antonio Reeves had himself a NIGHT

Welcome to the NBA, Antonio Reeves. Due to a rampage of injuries to the New Orleans Pelicans roster, the rookie Reeves was given a real chance to shine last night against the NBA-leading Cleveland Cavaliers. Alongside Brandon Boston Jr. (who finished with 14 points, five assists, and three rebounds), Reeves poured in a game-high 34 points on 14-25 shooting, including a 4-12 clip from long range. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists in his 39 minutes. He came into the night averaging just 6.5 minutes per outing.

And oh yeah, it was Reeves’ birthday yesterday too!

Stoops is “excited about the future”

Whispers of Mark Stoops potentially leaving his position as head coach following this season have grown louder and louder each week. Stoops has continued to shoot those rumors down, but not without saying that something in between that makes you raise an eyebrow. He was asked about roster management during yesterday’s SEC teleconference and had this to say:

“That tells you roster management, the plan, all that, it’s a real challenge. It certainly is. I think — without whining or crying or any sour grapes — I think some institutions are built different than others if you don’t have to fundraise, you know what I mean, if the resources are there,” said Stoops.

“I think the only thing that really has been new, or extremely challenging, has been for myself of raising all the money for NIL, relatively by myself and with Eddie Gran doing that. And that’s really not something I signed up for, being a fundraiser. I’d like to spend my time with my players and developing them and being around them and having strong relationships with them. I think that’s just the one area.

“But again, I don’t want to make too much of that because it is what it is, and we’re figuring it out. And I’m completely excited about the future and getting these problems solved.”

Podcasts! Come and get your podcasts!

Wednesday night is becoming a busy time for the KSR YouTube channel. Once again, we had three new podcasts covering women’s basketball, men’s basketball, and football come out last night.

• Memorial Memo: Phoenix Stevens and Katie Hutchison break down a terrific past week for Kentucky WBB. They go in-depth on what the commitment of Maddyn Greenway means moving forward, the significance of beating Louisville, and what lies ahead with a trip to Nashville next week.
• Sources Say: Jack Pilgrim and Shawn Smith had plenty to say about Kentucky’s most recent blowout win over Lipscomb, including Jaxson Robinson‘s bounce-back performance following the Duke game.
• 11 Personnel: Nick Roush and Adam Luckett dive into the status of Marrow and White, as both continue to be mentioned with other job openings. They also give their thoughts on this weekend’s matchup with Texas and what the rest of the regular season could look like.

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