KSR Today: Will Levis draft buzz, Thurby, and Kentucky owns NBA Playoffs

Happy Cinco de Mayo, folks! We’re inching closer to the 148th running of the Kentucky Derby, which really gets rolling on Friday with Oaks Day. KSR’s resident horse aficionado, Nick Roush, has quite literally been preparing all year for this weekend and gave us a reason why every single horse can (or can’t) win the Derby. Make sure to check that out before you do anything.

Today is technically “Thurby”, which is basically a day of fun for Louisvillians with live concerts, plenty of good food, and other random activities (including plenty of horse racing, of course). If you’re someone heading to Churchill Downs for the day to soak it all in, make sure to enjoy it extra for those of us who can’t. The weather looks like it should play nice until at least the late afternoon.

Now let’s dive into today’s news and notes.

Will Levis buzz continues to grow

The Will Levis 2023 draft buzz has not died down since the 2022 NFL Draft came to a close. In fact, it feels like it’s only growing louder. The Kentucky quarterback is finding his name over all kinds of mock drafts, even as high as a projected top-five selection.

On Wednesday, The Athletic’s Dane Brugler put Levis No. 5 in his first 2023 mock, the third quarterback off the board behind Ohio State‘s CJ Stroud (No. 1), and Alabama‘s Bryce Young (No. 2). Fox Sports’ Jason McIntyre went even further, slotting Levis at No. 2 behind Stroud. CBS Sports projected him No. 5 to the Giants earlier this week. ESPN’s Jordan Reid and Matt Miller also mentioned Levis in their 2023 NFL Draft primer this morning.

My personal favorite mock comes from The Draft Scout but has less to do with Levis (who is projected to land 26th) and more to do with rising junior defensive lineman Justin Rogers, who just cracked the first round as the 32nd overall pick. Why, you might ask? Hell if I know. Rogers was a five-star recruit out of high school but has only started four games at UK and has a career-high of four tackles in a single game. That doesn’t exactly scream NFL draft pick — in any round. BUT, it is nice to know that media folks are paying more attention to Kentucky, even if they’re just picking names out of a hat.

Back to Levis, he recently sat down with the Kentucky Roll Call crew to touch on various topics, including the draft hype.

“It’s cool, but I mean, it doesn’t matter,” Levis said. “It’s random media people with their own opinions. Obviously anything you see with that doesn’t guarantee anything. If anything, it’s just kind of cool to hear and see. But I don’t want to spend time and attention on that. I just want to keep doing and working on what’s gotten me so far.”

If you ask Vince Marrow, he’d tell you Levis is going to be the first player off the board next year, because of course he would.

Former ‘Cats shine again in NBA Playoffs

The Miami Heat/Phoenix Suns doubleheader in the second round of the NBA Playoffs has been perfect television for Kentucky fans. Miami, led by Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro, is having little issue dismantling a Tyrese Maxey and a Joel-Embiid less Philadelphia 76ers squad while Phoenix and Devin Booker are doing the same to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. Both Miami and Phoenix went up 2-0 in their respective series on Wednesday night, with all the former ‘Cats showing out.

For Philly, Maxey was spectacular in the 119-102 loss in Miami. The second-year guard dropped 34 points on 12-22 shooting and a 9-11 mark from the free-throw line. Unfortunately, his BBNBA counterparts came out on top. Herro was uber-efficient, popping off for 18 points on 6-10 overall shooting and 3-5 from distance. He also added seven rebounds and three assists to his stat line. Not a bad way to follow up winning Sixth Man of the Year, eh? Adebayo was quietly excellent, going for 23 points and nine rebounds on 7-11 shooting (9-11 from the charity stripe).

Moving on to the second series of the night, Booker had his way with Dallas as the Suns cruised to a 129-109 win. The Phoenix All-Star guard went off for 30 points on 11-19 shooting, including a 5-8 mark from distance. Booker also added four rebounds and four assists in his 35 minutes of action.

There are no playoff games tonight.

Bat ‘Cats hosting No. 1 Tennessee

A Big, BIG home matchup for Kentucky Baseball gets underway later today. The Bat ‘Cats will play host to the No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers at Kentucky Proud Park with game one of the series starting at 7:00 p.m. on the SEC Network.

Kentucky (24-20, 7-14) has not hosted a No. 1 ranked team since Florida came to Lexington back in 2018, only winning one of the three games in the series. Tennessee brings an elite 41-4 overall record and 19-2 mark in SEC play to the diamond this weekend. It hasn’t been a smooth run so far in intraconference action for the ‘Cats, but stealing a game or two off the Vols would provide a massive momentum push heading towards the postseason.

Below are the series details.

Thursday, May 5 vs. #1 Tennessee
     7 p.m.; Kentucky Proud Park
     TV: SEC Network; Radio: UK Sports Network
 
Friday, May 6 vs. #1 Tennessee
     6:30 p.m.; Kentucky Proud Park
     TV: SECN+; Radio: UK Sports Network
 
Saturday, May 7 vs. #1 Tennessee
     2 p.m.; Kentucky Proud Park
     TV: SECN+; Radio: UK Sports Network

Men’s Tennis hosting tournament action

Postseason tennis is coming to Lexington this weekend when the University of Kentucky Men’s Tennis team hosts the first and second rounds of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship. Kentucky is the tournament’s No. 8 seed and on Friday the Wildcats will host DePaul, East Tennessee State, and Northwestern at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex on campus.

Up first in the 10:00 a.m. EST competition Friday morning, ETSU and Northwestern will play to advance to the NCAA’s second round. At 1:00 p.m., Kentucky will play DePaul for a spot in Saturday afternoon’s Round 2 match against the other winner. On Saturday, one quarterfinalist will advance from the Lexington super-regional to the Elite Eight.

Headed into the 64-team NCAA tourney, Kentucky is 21-7 overall and motivated by a runner-up finish in the SEC Championship.

Emoni to UL?

Kenny Payne is looking to take on a potentially high-risk, high-reward transfer prospect. Emoni Bates is currently trending towards landing with the Louisville Cardinals.

Bates, who played last season with Memphis, entered the transfer portal last month and on Monday, announced his top six: Louisville, Seton Hall, Michigan, DePaul, Arkansas, and Eastern Michigan. Since then, the Cards have picked up five predictions in Bates’ 247 Sports Crystal Ball, including one from the outlet’s main basketball analyst Travis Branham. On3’s Jamie Shaw also logged a pick for Louisville in On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine (RPM), which pushed the Cards’ chances of landing Bates to 99.8%.

Since taking over at Louisville, Payne has added two four-star 2022 recruits in Devin Ree and Kamari Lands and Tennessee transfer Brandon Huntley-Hatfield. The Cards return JJ Traynor, Roosevelt Wheeler, El Ellis, Mike James, Sydney Curry, and Jae’Lyn Withers.

Speaking of Louisville… How can we not laugh at this graphic their men’s basketball team dropped on social media Wednesday night?

That fine print is working overtime.

For all the Kentucky fans complaining about graphics over the last 24 hours (of which there have been far too many…), would you rather they put out a message like that? No thank you!

KSR’s graphic wizard, Brent Wainscott, already has a better version anyways.

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That’s all I’ve got this morning. We’ve got Matt Jones and the crew hitting the radio waves live in an hour. Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops will join the show, too. See you then!