KSR Today: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in action and Fan Day recap

Good morning, folks! Happy Sunday morning to everyone out there. Unless you were up before 7:00 AM, you’ve already missed out on Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s greatness. But don’t fret, you’ll have plenty more opportunities to watch her dust the competition in the coming days as she looks to defend her gold medal in the Women’s 400m hurdle.

At approximately 6:35 AM this morning, McLaughlin-Levrone made her 2024 Paris Olympics debut. Still fresh off setting another world record time in this event for the fifth time, the former Wildcat, who holds the world record (50.65 seconds), cruised with a time of 53.60 to reach the semifinals set for Tuesday. She appears to be on a collision course to meet in the gold medal round against Netherlands’ Femke Bol.

For anyone who followed the Olympics on Saturday, you’ll know that Bol was the closer for the Netherlands in the 4×400 mixed relay, which saw Bol blow past Team USA down the stretch to steal gold right out from underneath the Americans.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone doing what she does. 🔥

Her gold medal defense opens with another decisive victory. #ParisOlympics

📺 USA Network & Peacock pic.twitter.com/DpkNWPQbqK

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 4, 2024

To see McLaughlin-Levrone in action again, you can watch her in the semifinals on Tuesday afternoon at 2:07 PM. The gold medal round will take place on Thursday afternoon at 3:25 PM.

Now let’s dive into the rest of this morning’s news and notes.

Fan Day is in the books

With summer practice kicking off earlier this week, Kentucky football hosted its annual Fan Day on Saturday. It was a perfect chance for the Big Blue Nation to check out the 2024 edition of Mark Stoops‘ Wildcats through an open practice session. With it being Fan Day, Kentucky allowed the fans to meet with their favorite players for pictures and autographs.

KSR’s Adam Luckett was at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility to take in all of the fun. He’s already provided his optimistic thoughts on Brad White’s defensive unit and the flashes he saw from Bush Hamdan’s offense, including several freshmen standouts.

After practice wrapped up, players RB Chip Trayanum and DB Zion Childress spoke with reporters to talk about the first few days of practice. You can hear everything they had to say below.

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It’s really, truly beginning to feel like football season across the Bluegrass. With Media Day on Friday and Fan Day on Saturday, we can taste the pigskin in the air. Kentucky’s season-opener against Southern Miss is officially less than four weeks away…

Defense stand 🆙 pic.twitter.com/unHqFEZwTl

— Kentucky Football (@UKFootball) August 4, 2024

6 Wildcats make Olympic quarterfinals

The 16-team Men’s Basketball bracket in Paris has been locked in with Team USA and Canada on opposite ends of each other. For the Americans, Devin Booker, Bam Adebayo, and Anthony Davis helped fuel their nation to a 3-0 run in Group C while Canadians Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, and Trey Lyles did the same in Group A.

Team USA secured the top overall seed in the bracket and will enter the quarterfinals as the favorite to win its fifth straight gold medal and 17th overall in Olympic history. Meanwhile, Canada is third in FIBA’s pre-quarterfinal rankings and there’s a real chance they crash against Team USA in the championship round.

On Tuesday, USA will take on Brazil in the knockout stage with Canada going up against France. The Americans haven’t faced Brazil since 1996, but the Americans hold a 23-10 all-time record against them, including a perfect 9-0 stretch in the Olympics.

Surprise Saturday edition of Sources Say

The Sources Say crew of Jack Pilgrim and Shawn Smith blessed your YouTube feeds yesterday with a surprise weekend edition of the podcast. In episode 344, the guys dive head first into the 2025 recruiting class and where Kentucky stands with its top targets. They also break down more film, explaining the whys of Mark Pope‘s offense and what to expect out of the actual on-court product in his first season as head coach.

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TBT championship is today

And unfortunately, it won’t include La Familia, who was knocked out of The Basketball Tournament’s semifinals on Friday night in Philadelphia. It was a terrific run from the former Kentucky Wildcats to reach the Final Four, even more so considering this was their first go in this event. They’ll be back again next summer.

But instead of it being La Familia vs. Forever Coogs (Houston alums) this afternoon in the championship with $1 million on the line, Carmen’s Crew (Ohio State alums) will take La Familia’s place. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m. EST on FOX.