KSR Today: Tre Mitchell, MBB assistant rumor, and KSR guest hosts

Good morning, folks! Are we enjoying our weekend so far? I used my Saturday away from blogging as an excuse to visit the pool for a few hours and check out Lexington’s annual Pride Festival, which took over the newly renovated Central Bank Center that’s hooked up to the back of Rupp Arena.

While there, I noticed that the vendors inside serving alcohol were doing much more than just handing out Bud Lights and Michelob Ultras. There was a handful of beer selections that included West Sixth Brewing and even a line of liquor bottles for easily made mixed drinks. I’m not saying that’s what we should all expect at basketball and football games this fall, but I thought it was interesting that it was being served. The UK-colored stands being used looked a lot like the ones I saw at the baseball games earlier this year, so it’s something I figured would be worthy of a mention.

But I digress. Let’s kick off our Sunday by diving into some news and notes from the weekend so far.

Tre Mitchell visiting Kentucky

West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell is in the middle of his visit to Kentucky this weekend, which he began on Saturday. The 6-foot-9 stretch forward is viewed as a heavy lean towards landing with the Wildcats following the mass exodus that took place at West Virginia amid the resingation of now-former head coach Bob Huggins. The expectation is that things could wrap up quickly with Mitchell and UK once the visit comes to an end. He would be a much-welcomed addition to the 2023-24 roster.

Mitchell will have one year of college eligibility remaining after starting his career at UMass for two seasons, spending one year at Texas, then his most recent season with the Mountaineers. During ’22-23, he averaged 11.7 points and 5.5 rebounds in 30.0 minutes per game for WVU across 34 appearances (32 starts). Mitchell shot 47.0 percent from the floor, 36.4 percent from distance, and 78.9 percent from the line.

If we want to believe some Twitter scuttlebutt, Mitchell has already enjoyed himself a nice meal at Jeff Ruby’s in downtown Lexington.

Chuck Martin rumored as MBB assistant

John Calipari still has one open spot on his coaching staff for next season. While recent rumors pointed to the possibility of Kentucky adding someone off of the Miami Heat staff — a franchise that only just wrapped up its season — it would appear that Calipari might be headed in another direction after all.

Stadium’s Jeff Goodman is reporting that the frontrunner to fill out UK’s staff for the 2023-24 season is Oregon assistant Chuck Martin, who was once an assistant under Calipari for a couple of years (’06-08) during their time in Memphis together. Martin, a native of Puerto Rico, was most recently a member of Dana Altman’s staff at Oregon and even spent a few seasons as the head coach at Marist (’08-12), although he finished with an overall record of just 41-118.

If he were to take the job at Kentucky, Martin would bring nearly 25 years of college basketball coaching experience to Lexington.

Chuck Martin Coaching Résumé

1999–2000	Seton Hall(assistant)
2000–2001	Umass (assistant)
2001–2004	Drexel (assistant)
2004–2006	St. John’s (assistant)
2006–2008	Memphis (assistant)
2008–2012	Marist (head coach)
2017–2022	South Carolina (assistant)
2022–present	Oregon (assistant)

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Kentucky football misses out on two targets

You can’t win them all, it turns out. After a massive recruiting week for the football program that saw the Wildcats add five commitments in five days, Kentucky missed out on a pair of targets on Saturday. Most notably, four-star tight end Damarion Witten is staying close to home after committing to the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Cleveland (OH) Glenville product was on UK’s campus for an official visit the weekend of June 9-11 and was considered the top option alongside Ohio State.

Kentucky already picked up a tight end commit earlier this week in three-star Willie Rodriguez, but the staff has always made it the plan to bring in two TEs. Witten is considered a top 400 rising senior in the country according to the On3 Industry Ranking.

Additionally, the ‘Cats also missed out on a low-three-star talent in athlete Antonio White, who committed to Rutgers. The Lilburn (GA) Parkview product officially visited UK — the first SEC school to extend him an offer — during the middle of last week, but the versatile playmaker ultimately elected to land with the Scarlet Knights, which he OV’d at the weekend of June 9-11.

Kentucky is now up to nine commitments for the class of 2024 following this week, but there is still plenty of work to be done while more and more targets come off the board.

Cason in his OKC gear

Cason Wallace was only drafted on Thursday night, but the new member of the Oklahoma City Thunder is already getting comfortable in his new threads. Check out Wallace, who was taken No. 10 overall in the NBA Draft, in his No. 22 OKC jersey next to fellow incoming rookie Keyonate Johnson of Kansas State.

Rooks checkin’ in 😎 pic.twitter.com/T3jJcFN6Od

— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) June 24, 2023

Wallace seems excited (or, excited relative to his personality) to begin his NBA career alongside someone he’s long modeled his game after in former Wildcat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. While he didn’t exactly give OKC the most ringing endorsement, if you’ve followed Wallace closely during his time in Lexington, you’d know he likley didn’t mean any harm with what he had to say. And to be fair, he’s not exactly wrong, either.

“I definitely will be fine in Oklahoma,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after getting drafted. “There’s not much to do, but it lets you stay focused, and that’s the main goal. I was out there for a workout, and I have been to a game before, so I’m perfectly fine being in Oklahoma.”

KSR lined up with guest hosts

Starting tomorrow, KSR host Matt Jones begins his two-week vacation, which means it’s that time of the year when a slew of guest hosts take over the airwaves. Check out who will be in front of the mic over the next two-plus weeks.

Week One

Monday, June 26: KSR Football Podcast (Adam Luckett, Freddie Maggard, Drew Franklin)
Tuesday, June 27: Field of 68 (Rob Dauster and John Fanta)
Wednesday, June 28: The Ringer’s J. Kyle Mann and The Athletic’s Kyle Tucker
Thursday, June 29: ESPN’s Peter Burns
Friday, June 30: The Lee and Hayley Show (Lee Cruse and Hayley Harmon)

Week Two

Wednesday, July 5: Matthew Mitchell and KSR’s Ryan Lemond
Thursday, July 6: KSR’s Jack Pilgrim and Jacob Polacheck
Friday, July 7: Billy Rutledge and ESPN’s Myron Medcalf
Monday, July 10: ESPN’s Laura Rutledge
Tuesday, July 11: Brandon Walker and Barstool Football

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