KSR Today: SEC Media Day recap and the return of the BBNBA

Good morning, folks! We’ve got some Kentucky sports to talk about today. For starters, Wednesday was the conclusion of 2022 SEC Media Days, which began with the women’s teams on Tuesday and finished up with the men on Wednesday. If you’ve been on this beautiful website over the last 24 hours, you’ve probably noticed that KSR was down in Birmingham, AL to cover all of the action.

The event took place in an actual hotel ballroom, which I personally kinda enjoyed. The free food was admittedly better than anything I’d eaten in weeks. But it’s the content we made along the way that you’re here for. We couldn’t even get to the Media Day hotel before Oscar Tshiebwe was taking home preseason awards.

Let’s start there, actually. The reigning National Player of the Year was picked by the media to win the SEC’s Player of the Year award while Kentucky as a team was picked to win the conference outright. Both Tshiebwe and senior point guard Sahvir Wheeler (who made the trip to Birmingham along with head coach John Calipari and junior forward Lance Ware) were tabbed to the preseason All-SEC First-Team.

Check out the full preseason poll and All-SEC teams.

2022-23 SEC Preseason media picks

1. Kentucky
2. Arkansas
3. Tennessee
4. Auburn
5. Alabama
6. Texas A&M
7. Florida
8. LSU
9. Ole Miss
10. Mississippi State
11. Missouri
12. Vanderbilt
13. Georgia
14. South Carolina

SEC Player of the Year

F Oscar Tshiebwe (Sr.), Kentucky

Preseason All-SEC First-Team

G Nick Smith Jr. (Fr.), Arkansas
F Colin Castleton (5th), Florida
F Oscar Tshiebwe (Sr.), Kentucky
G Sahvir Wheeler (Sr.), Kentucky
G Santiago Vescovi (Sr.), Tennessee

Preseason All-SEC Second-Team

F Brandon Miller (Fr.), Alabama
G Jahvon Quinerly (Sr.), Alabama
F KJ Williams (5th), LSU
G Josiah-Jordan James (Sr.), Tennessee
G Zakai Ziegler (So.), Tennessee

KSR’s 2022 SEC Media Days content dump

• Tshiebwe to miss Blue-White Game; Toppin and Ware temporarily out too
• John Calipari predicts breakthrough season for Jacob Toppin
• Maddie Scherr bringing that “it” factor to Kentucky WBB
• G.G. Jackson anxious to face Kentucky, Oscar Tshiebwe in debut season
• John Calipari wants Oscar Tshiebwe to come back for another season
• Kyra Elzy on new-look Kentucky WBB roster: “You don’t replace a Rhyne Howard”
• John Calipari on Kentucky’s schedule and opponents
• D.J. Jeffries appreciates Kentucky, “difficult” basketball journey

John Calipari

A full transcript of everything Calipari said can be found here.

Sahvir Wheeler

Lance Ware

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Calipari says UK-IU series is back on

On Wednesday, Calipari confirmed recent reports of negotiations to revive the annual Kentucky-Indiana basketball series. Calipari even revealed the series’ restart date is a couple of years away in 2025-26.

“We’ve agreed in principle that we’ll be playing them,” Calipari told the Herald-Leader’s Ben Roberts and a room full of reporters. “It’ll start in 2025-26. But it’s at the administrative level now, so all of the details will be worked out.”

The timeline matches what Jon Rothstein reported last week, that the two schools are in “advanced discussions” to play a multi-year series with games on both college campuses and at neutral sites.

The Wildcats and Hoosiers haven’t met in the regular season since 2012 when the series ended after 43 consecutive years of the border rivalry.

Mark Stoops made his weekly teleconference appearance

With extra time to spare during Kentucky Football’s bye week, Mark Stoops was readily available for Wednesday’s weekly SEC coaches teleconference. Stoops made his regularly scheduled appearance to take questions from faceless reporters around the league, and today’s topics included turnovers, high-scoring games, third-down defense, and pride in how Kentucky responded versus Mississippi State.

More Kentucky football talk during the bye

On Wednesday, KSR was let in the door of the Joe Craft Football Training Facility to speak with offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello, defensive coordinator Brad White, linebacker DeAndre Square, and center Eli Cox. The Cats are riding high from a big win over Mississippi State and are ready to take a swing at No. 3 Tennessee.

Rich Scangarello

Brad White

DeAndre Square

Eli Cox

Tashawn Manning’s awesome NIL deal

A few days after Tashawn Manning was brutally attacked during the middle of a college football game, he’s using that attention to add some extra money to his pocket. Below is the hit Manning absorbed by a Mississippi State defender over the weekend, along with the t-shirt Manning released on Wednesday.

Kentucky deserves to win this game pic.twitter.com/HR63fEZYn9

— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) October 16, 2022

T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, and sweatshirts of “The Flop” are all available at Kentucky Branded.

I’ll take 40.

UK men’s soccer stays undefeated

No. 2 Kentucky men’s soccer (8-0-5, 3-0-3 Sun Belt) left The Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex on Wednesday with a 0-0 tie over Coastal Carolina, but it was still enough to keep the Wildcats’ undefeated season alive. UK attempted 15 shots on the night but failed to bury one in the back of the net. On the flip side, Kentucky’s defensive line of Lucca Rodrigues, Luis Grassow, Max Miller, and Robert Screen kept Coastal Carolina to just three shots all match long.

We end with a draw in Lexington.#WeAreUK | #GBED pic.twitter.com/E24ZiiP66p

— Kentucky Men’s Soccer (@UKMensSoccer) October 20, 2022

Kentucky is one of just five remaining undefeated teams in the country. The ‘Cats will hit the road next as they travel to Bloomington, IN for the final nonconference matchup of the season against the Indiana Hoosiers. That game is set for Sunday, Oct. 22 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

The NBA season is in full swing

The 2022-23 NBA season officially began on Tuesday with a primetime, two-game matchup on national TV. But Wednesday night was the true beginning of the year. 24 of the league’s 30 teams were in action on day two of the season, including plenty of former Kentucky Wildcats.

I’m not sure where to even start. Jamal Murray made his return from an ACL injury that kept him off the floor for well over a year. Karl-Anthony Towns played his first game alongside defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert. Shaedon Sharpe is drawing early rave reviews. Devin Booker popped off in a wild comeback against the Mavericks. Nick Richards was incredible in limited minutes. And much, much, much, MUCH more.

We’ll have a full BBNBA recap of everything that happened coming to the site shortly. While you wait, tune into the KSR Pre-Show at 9:00 a.m. EST then stick around for KSR an hour after that.