Friday's Top 10: Beat Louisville

[caption id="attachment_222989" align="alignnone" width="2400"] Photo by Chet White | UK Athletics[/caption] Let's not mess around. There's one story and one story only right now: Kentucky's showdown with Louisville in the Super Regional. We're about three hours from the first pitch, so let's get to it.

1. You can watch the game on ESPN2

The game is completely sold out (although tickets have been available at weird hours because UofL is shady), but you can see it on ESPN2 at high noon. In the meantime, keep refreshing. Trey Hunstman has had about fifteen cups of coffee and is already waiting outside the ballpark to bring you the latest. This is his Super Bowl.

2. Zack Thompson will be UK's starting pitcher

The freshman left-hander will get the nod today. He's got an 80% win-loss percentage in his first year in Lexington, the best on the team this season, and a 3.52 earned run average. He started both games vs. Louisville this season, one win, one loss, and allowed seven earned runs in 7.2 innings while striking out 11 batters and walking nine. Most recently, he led the Cats to the win over Indiana in the Lexington regional last weekend, giving up four earned runs and striking out seven players in seven innings. Meanwhile, Louisville will start Kade McClure, setting up a Sean Hjelle/Brendan McKay showdown for Saturday.

3. Here's everything Nick Mingione, Connor Heady, and Riley Mahan had to say yesterday

4. The UofL Foundation audit is out

And, not surprisingly, the foundation found ways to hide millions of dollars of spending. Drew had a good rundown of the juiciest parts of the audit last night, but here's a very quick summary:

• Tom Jurich was paid $19 million (!!) over seven years
• For some reason, his son (who did not work for the foundation) was paid almost a million
• The foundation paid $300,000 for Captain Suntan's terrible radio show, which was created to counter KSR
• The UofL IT department erased and repurposed James Ramsey's hard drive just before the audit
• Ramsey's former aide Kathleen Smith basically did everything she could to hide their shady dealings
• The foundation spent more than $800,000 on season football and basketball tickets just to turn around and sell them

And that's just the tip of the corrupted iceberg. Check out Drew's post for more. WDRB's Eric Crawford also has a good, in-depth summary.

5. Three Cats will try out for Calipari's U19 National Team

The final list of players invited to try out for John Calipari's U19 National Team came out yesterday and three Wildcats are on it: Hamidou Diallo, Kevin Knox, and PJ Washington. Four of Kentucky's top targets in the 2018 class also made the list: Romeo Langford, Immanuel Quickley, Cameron Reddish and Bol Bol. The group of 28 will compete against each other at training camp in Colorado Springs June 18-25. From there, a group of 12 will travel to Cairo, Egypt to compete in the FIBA World Cup July 1-9.

6. Calipari's excited

Cal has waited for years to get into USA Basketball and couldn't help but share his excitement when the training camp invitations went out yesterday.

“I wanted to take a moment to reiterate how excited I am to be a part of USA Basketball. I’m excited about the opportunity on a lot of fronts. To be able to coach a team that represents the United States is a true blessing. And then to be able to do it with Danny Manning and Tad Boyle, who I coached at Kansas and have great respect for, will be an amazing experience. I can’t wait to have an opportunity to teach and coach some of the best young talent in our country. I want this to be an experience that is impactful for these young players.”

7. Calipari is also excited about the Penguins

Sadly, my Preds crapped the bed last night in Pittsburgh, and John Calipari was in the house to witness it: https://twitter.com/UKCoachCalipari/status/872998450706690049 If "amazing" means turning the game off in the third period because you can't watch any more in fear of puking, then yes, it was amazing, Cal. Alas, today's a new day, and the series comes back to Bridgestone Arena for Game 6. There's no way the Preds will lose at home on what will possibly be the most insane day in Nashville's history. The gods of Broadway and 2nd Avenue just won't let it happen.

8. The team's making themselves at home in the gym

  Kevin Knox and Hamidou Diallo uploaded pictures from the Joe Craft Center late last night and this morning, so they're making themselves at home, which I'm sure makes the "get in the gym!" part of our fanbase very happy.

9. Ohio State is hiring Chris Holtmann

Holtmann, a Nicholasville, Kentucky native, has coached Butler the past three seasons. He'll replace Thad Matta, who was fired earlier this week.

10. Ryan and Amanda Lemond are hosting KSR today

Which means it will be awesome. Tune in an hour from now to hear Amanda drop some truth, Ryan drop some uncomfortable bedroom talk, and Drew Franklin play referee.