KSR Today: Merry Christmas Eve!
Good morning, friends, and Merry Christmas Eve to you. Hopefully, you’re enjoying time with family, or will be soon. After a very busy month, we’re laying low down here at the KSR Nashville compound, taking it as easy as a nine-month-old puppy will allow.
With the basketball team in the midst of a ten-day break and football now in a dead period, the news is slowing down, but it never really stops. Here’s what we’re keeping an eye on today.
Quick-hitters from Mark Pope’s call-in show
Kentucky dropped six spots in both polls on Monday to No. 10. Mark Pope still sounded sick about his team’s performance vs. Ohio State on his call-in show. More than once, he talked about the “devastating” loss and how much he’s looking forward to getting his team back on the right track. A few quick hitters:
Surprised by terrible ball screen defense: A lot of things went wrong vs. the Buckeyes, but when asked for specific issues on defense, Pope said he was surprised by how poorly his team did against ball screens. Fixing that will be a priority once the team resumes practice on Thursday.
More threes, including by Andrew Carr: Kentucky made just 4-22 threes vs. Ohio State. Pope once again said he wants the number of threes attempted to rise and also wants Andrew Carr to take more. Carr missed all four of his three-point attempts vs. Ohio State and only attempted one in the three games before that.
Gratitude and gift-wrapping: This being the last show before Christmas, Pope shared his philosophy on gratitude, that you can’t be more happy than you are grateful. He said he keeps a gratitude journal, writing down three things he’s grateful for every night before going to bed. He urged fans to do the same with their families around the dinner table this week. On a lighter note, when asked to rate his gift-wrapping skills, he gave himself an A.
“I have insane gift-wrapping skills. They’re creative. Sometimes it employs several more rolls of tape than Lee Anne would use, but I get the job done, baby.”
Good stuff. We’ll be rolling more out from the Pope show throughout the day. You can also hear Jack and Shawn Smith’s takes on it and the Ohio State loss on a new episode of Sources Say.
What will happen today in the Transfer Portal?
Kentucky added its 14th player from the transfer portal on Monday in Kent State OLB/DE Kameron Olds, one of the top available edge rushers. Could Santa bring the Cats another commitment soon?
Tomorrow, Ball State cornerback Myles Norwood will announce his decision. Norwood is down to South Carolina and Kentucky. He, Olds, and Sam Houston EDGE Chris Murray visited Kentucky over the weekend. Murray got BBN Twitter all a flutter yesterday morning when he posted these pictures from his visit, but he added later that he has not (yet) committed.
A football programming note: 11 Personnel has been going live Tuesdays and Thursdays since the end of the season, but due to the holiday, they’ll move to Friday this week. For a thorough breakdown of where Kentucky stands with its portal additions/targets, check out Adam Luckett’s latest Big Board on KSR+.
Top 10
- 1New
Urban Meyer
Coach alarmed by UT fan turnout at OSU
- 2
Bowl insurance
Historic policies for Hunter, Shedeur
- 3Hot
CFP home games
Steve Spurrier calls for change
- 4
Nick Saban endorsed
Lane Kiffin suggests as commish
- 5
Diego Pavia
Vandy QB ruling forces change
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Need a last-minute gift? Jeff Ruby’s gift cards never disappoint
Still looking for that perfect holiday gift that can still arrive in time for the holidays? Order a Jeff Ruby’s gift card today for the perfect gift idea for family, friends, and coworkers. Make sure to take advantage of their 20% off deal through Christmas Day. The KSR crew would like to put in an order for a Freddie’s salad, Steak Collinsworth, with a side of Potatoes Anna.
Caleb Wilson confirms he will sign in January
On Monday, some whispers went around about five-star wing Caleb Wilson, who is down to Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio State, North Carolina, and Central Florida. Last month, Wilson said he was targeting a December or January decision. When rumors popped up on Monday that he’d already decided, his father confirmed to Joe Tipton that he had not signed with a school yet. Wilson followed up, telling Tipton that he still plans to commit in January.
Oscar Tshiebwe is still an A+ human being
Oscar Tshiebwe is doing his thing as a double-double machine for the Salt Lake City Stars in the G League. The reigning G-League Rookie of the Year, who is on a two-way deal with the Utah Jazz, is averaging 14.8 points and 17.1 rebounds per game with the Stars and continues to be a world-class human being. In an interview at the G League Winter Showcase over the weekend, Oscar talked about how he has partnered with various organizations to help more than 1,000 orphans in his native Congo. In fact, Oscar said his goal is to one day build an orphanage in the Congo, along with an indoor basketball court.
“I just want to help build an orphanage. My dream is to build an orphanage and provide people opportunities to be able to go to school because we have so many talented people down there. I want to build a basketball court. We don’t have an indoor basketball court back home so I want to build one to take care of a lot of people.”
What a great message this holiday season. Good on ya, Oscar.
Warm up with the Hawai’i Bowl
Not a lot of sports on television today, but tonight, you can get a football fix with the Hawai’i Bowl. South Florida takes on San Jose State at the Clarance T.C. Ching Athletics Complex in Honolulu. See it all on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET.
ICYMI on Monday, Northern Illinois beat Fresno State in double overtime in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. They celebrated with a french fry bath, and, in some cases, bites of raw potato.
No radio show today or tomorrow
The radio crew has today and tomorrow off, so you’ll hear “Best of” episodes if you tune in. They’ll return to the airwaves on Thursday at KSBar and Grille before going to Glasgow on Friday for a remote at Don Franklin.
I’ll leave you with Isaac Humprhies’ rendition of “O Holy Night,” a great way to start this very merry day.
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