KSR Today: Mark Pope's post-Georgia thoughts and Kentucky WBB in Gainesville

Good morning, folks! Now that we’ve had a full day to recover from Tuesday night’s disaster in Athens, how are we feeling? Cold? Yeah, me too. But mentally, I’m already back on the “Kentucky men’s basketball is good and fun and I’m going to enjoy them” train. Mark Pope‘s post-Georgia radio show last night actually helped me get back on board more than I thought I needed.

Why? Because even he was upset with the officiating during Kentucky’s 13-point road loss — although he didn’t come out and say exactly that. Instead, he broke out a Pope-ism to explain how the staff will handle officiating in the SEC moving forward.

“Based on our whistle in our first two SEC games, we’re doing in-depth study right now on — we’re not interested in what the rules are, we’re interested in the rules that are being called,” he said. “We want to push the envelope as far as we can toward the rules that are being called more than just following the rules that are written. … We’re learning the whistle right now. We got a massive education on the whistle last night.”

I like that, and I’m glad he said it. Pope isn’t going to be a guy who goes after the officials during a game. The rules are the rules and officials are going to call games how they call them. So instead of trying to work around those rules, Pope wants to work within them. We’ll see how that translates on Saturday in Starkville when Kentucky hits the road again to take on No. 14 Mississippi State (14-1).

Pope had plenty else to say during his radio show with Tom Leach, which you can read more about here. He touched on Kentucky’s rebounding issues, the possibility of bringing Jaxson Robinson off the bench, and much more. It was a very informative show from Pope. And it was exactly what the fanbase needed to hear after a very tough loss.

Before we dive into the rest of this morning’s news and notes, make sure you’re up to date on the latest episode of Sources Say with Jack Pilgrim and Shawn Smith. The two basketball bennies had plenty of takes and reactions following the Georgia game.

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Kentucky WBB set to face Florida

The ladies took a break from the cold weather of Lexington and traded it out for the warm (well, warm-er) weather of Gainesville. No. 15 Kentucky (13-1) is on the road today for its third SEC game of the season. This one comes against Florida (10-6) at 5:00 p.m. EST on the SEC Network. UK won both of its first two SEC games in blowout fashion. We’re hoping for a third later today.

Despite sitting on six losses, Florida is currently being considered as a possible NCAA Tournament team (Next Four Out). The Gators lost by 20 to North Carolina earlier in the season, similar to how Kentucky’s lone loss thus far came against those same Tar Heels by 19 points. ESPN’s Matchup Predictor gives UK a 59.5 percent chance at winning. Georgia Amoore has received a handful of awards over the last couple of days for her excellent play as of late. You don’t want to miss her in action.

We’ll have a full preview of this matchup on the website later this morning. While you wait, dive into the latest episode of Memorial Memo as Phoenix Stevens and Katie Hutchison give their thoughts on the state of the program. The vibes are high.

‘Cats adds Clemson WR

Kentucky added its 16th transfer portal piece of the offseason yesterday. Clemson wide receiver Troy Stellato is coming to Lexington after three seasons with the Tigers. He committed to UK over the likes of West Virginia, Michigan, and Louisville. Stellato has 65 receptions for 600 yards and two touchdowns in his career.

The wide receiver from South Florida was a Top-200 recruit when he signed with Clemson. 2023 was a breakout year for Stellato, starting in six games, including the Gator Bowl win over Kentucky where he was the Tigers’ second-best receiver. He caught five passes for 58 yards in the comeback win in Jacksonville. Kentucky has now added three wide-outs through the portal.

Kentucky Football 2025 Transfer Portal Class

Player	Position	Former School	Year
Sam Greene	EDGE (6-1, 255)	USC	Redshirt Sophomore
Landyn Watson	LB (6-1, 239)	TCU/Marshall	Redshirt Senior
Joshua Braun	iOL (6-6, 338)	Florida/Arkansas	Super Senior
Alex Wollschlaeger	T (6-7, 305)	Bowling Green	Super Senior
Wallace Unamba	G/T (6-4, 330)	Florida Atlantic/New Mexico	Redshirt Senior
J.J. Hester	WR (6-4, 203)	Missouri/Oklahoma	Super Senior
Zach Calzada	QB (6-4, 200)	Texas A&M/Auburn/Incarnate Word	Super Senior
Henry Boyer	TE (6-6, 270)	Illinois	Redshirt Junior
Kendrick Law	WR (5-11, 201)	Alabama	Senior
Dante Dowdell	RB (6-2, 225)	Oregon/Nebraska	Junior
Jaden Williams	iDL (6-4, 290)	Wyoming	Redshirt Junior
Kevis Thomas	CB (5-11, 179)	Maryland	Junior
Evan Wibberley	iOL (6-5, 296)	WKU	Redshirt Junior
Kameron Olds	EDGE (6-4, 240)	Buffalo/Kent State	Senior
David Gusta	iDL (6-3, 302)	Washington State	Senior
Troy Stellato	WR (6-0, 175)	Clemson	Redshirt Junior

Notre Dame-Penn State in the CFP semis

The college football season is quickly coming to a close. Just four teams remain in the College Football Playoff. First up in the first-ever CFP semifinals? Tonight’s Orange Bowl matchup, which features No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 6 Penn State in Miami. These two historically great schools haven’t played since 2006. Neither has won a national title since the 1980s — 1988 for the Fighting Irish and 1986 for the Nittany Lions. One will be a step closer by the end of the night.

The folks at FanDuel give Notre Dame the slight edge as 1.5-point favorites with the over/under set at 45.5. The experts are predicting a defensive slugfest. It all goes down tonight at 7:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.

SGA, Thunder come up short against Cleveland

In what was the most-anticipated game of the 2024-25 season so far, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander brought his Oklahoma City Thunder (30-6) team to Cleveland for a showdown between 30-win teams against the Cavaliers (32-4). It’s not often (in fact, it’s incredibly rare) we see two teams with this good of records playing during the regular season.

And we were treated to an excellent game from start to finish, one that featured 30 lead changes and never saw one team go up more than 10 points. But in the end, it was the NBA-leading Cavaliers (my Cavaliers, I’ll happily add) that took down OKC by the final score of 129-122. It felt every bit like a playoff game.

SGA went for 31 points (13-27 FG), five rebounds, four assists, three steals, and two blocks in 38 minutes, although he turned the ball over five times. He was aided by a terrific showing from second-year guard Cason Wallace, who posted 15 points, three assists, and two rebounds in 31 minutes. Wallace shot 6-8 from the field and made all three of his shots from deep. The loss for OKC snapped a 15-game losing streak while Cleveland extended its winning streak to 11.

🇨🇦 Represent The Canadians 🇨🇦

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander | vs. Cleveland

31 POINTS
5 REBOUNDS
4 ASSISTS
3 STEALS
2 BLOCKS pic.twitter.com/AmhOQMriTJ

— NBA Canada (@NBACanada) January 9, 2025

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