KSR Today: UKWBB's bounce back, Super Bowl LIX, Ansley Almonor, and more

Good morning, KSR readers. I hope you had a great weekend before you tackle the week ahead. Whatever you have in front of you, you’ll crush it, and it’ll be out of sight and out of mind before you know it. You got this.

While you’re handling that, I’ve been busy collecting the most significant news topics for an easy Monday morning read for you. Below are some of Sunday’s headlines and what to expect around the Kentucky Wildcats in the coming days.

Super Bowl LIX is set with the Chiefs and Eagles

Conference Championship Sunday crowned winners in the NFC and AFC while setting the stage for Super Bowl LIX. First, the Eagles defended home field in Philadelphia with a convincing win over the Washington Commanders, a surprise participant in the NFC’s final game. I hope Paul George made it home.

Then, in the night game, the conspiracy theories around the Kansas City Chiefs were given more fuel for their fire with a couple of questionable calls in the Chiefs’ win over Buffalo. Patrick Mahomes is now 5-2 in AFC Championship games and has the Chiefs within a win of the first three-peat in Super Bowl history.

Kansas City opened as a 1.5-point favorite.

Kentucky WBB got back on track with an 89-69 win

Kentucky Women’s Basketball responded to its disappointing loss at Texas A&M with a home victory over Arkansas on Sunday. Five Wildcats scored in double figures, led by Georgia Amoore with 19 points and eight assists, as UK improved its outside shooting from 1-for-18 in Texas to 13-for-27 in Historic Memorial Coliseum. Clara Strack and Teonni Key each had double-doubles against the Razorbacks, Strack with 17 and 10, and Key with 13 and 11.

Kentucky (17-2, 6-1) hosts Alabama on Thursday.

Watch Kenny Brooks, Teonni Key, and the game’s top plays

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Q&A with Ansley Almonor and Jaxson Robinson

Ansley Almonor and Jaxson Robinson will represent their locker room as the player representatives at Monday’s Q&A on campus. Almonor and Robinson started the game at Vanderbilt and led the Wildcats in scoring in the loss in Nashville. Today, they will speak for Kentucky before the team’s trip to Knoxville to play Tennessee on Tuesday. KSR will have it covered for you, so come back here later for those conversations.

No Mark Pope Show until Wednesday

Due to Kentucky‘s Tuesday road game in Knoxville, Mark Pope will not host his weekly call-in show until Wednesday night when the team returns to Lexington. All of Pope’s call-in shows are broadcast on Wednesdays when Kentucky has midweek road trips. He and his staff will spend tonight getting ready for the Vols.

KenPom predicts

The line for Kentucky’s game at Tennessee won’t come out until later today, but you can go ahead and expect Kentucky to get several points in Knoxville when it hits the board. Over at KenPom, the analytics predict the Vols will win, 77-68. Gross.

Kentucky in the Top 25

Kentucky doesn’t have a win on its resume since the last time the college basketball polls were updated, so a small slide to reflect the loss at Vanderbilt is expected later today. However, the teams ranked 11-20 in the AP poll also suffered a loss last week, so the fall shouldn’t go far for the ninth-ranked Wildcats. No. 10 Marquette went unbeaten, so, at best, Kentucky will trade places with Marquette for tenth. We’ll find out around lunchtime.

College Basketball Rankings: Predicting the AP Poll Top 25 after another week filled with upsets

Week 8 update to KSR’s H.S. Boys’ Basketball Top 25

In two months, Rupp Arena will host the 2025 UK Healthcare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Boys State Basketball Tournament, where one state champion will be crowned in the Bluegrass. Until then, the best we can do at KSR is rank the top teams across the state, the schools most likely to be playing in Lexington.

In two hours, the committee will reveal KSR’s Week 8 edition of its boys’ high school basketball rankings for the state of Kentucky. Last Monday, the top four schools remained unchanged, with St. Xavier, Great Crossing, Frederick Douglass, and Marshall County leading the way, in that order. Behind them, Bryan Station and Hazard have gone back and forth for fifth. Station took the No. 5 spot in the poll two weeks ago, but Hazard took it back last week. We’ll see how it shakes out in the Week 8 reveal soon.

Where to find KSR this week

If you’re looking for KSR’s morning show at KSBar, you’ll have to wait until Thursday. Matt Jones is out of town, so Ryan Lemond and I are in the studio until his return. Still, tune in at 10 a.m.

We're in the studio today, tomorrow, and Wednesday this week, then back at KSBar on Thursday.

Tune in at 10 a.m. Go Cats. pic.twitter.com/FIpP8Ia1FA

— Drew Franklin (@DrewFranklinKSR) January 27, 2025