KSR Gameday: No. 4 Kentucky vs. No. 7 Gonzaga in Seattle

ZGeogheganKSR

Mark Pope - Dr. Michael Huang, Kentucky Sports Radio

Good morning, folks! It’s Gameday once again.

Your No. 4 Kentucky Wildcats will look to bounce back this evening with a tough matchup in Seattle against the No. 7 Gonzaga Bulldogs. Mark Pope‘s team is coming off their first loss of the season, a road defeat to Clemson on Tuesday. Tonight’s matchup isn’t technically a true road game, but it might as well be. Gonzaga fans will flood into Climate Pledge Arena and likely fill the 18,000-plus capacity gym.

Pope said following the loss to Clemson that he’s more confident in his team now than he was going into the matchup. I’m inclined to believe him. Despite the loss, Kentucky did show resolve in the second half after getting thoroughly outworked in the first. It’s been three straight games of under 30 percent three-point shooting — that has to change soon. The unknown status of Lamont Butler‘s ankle injury still looms large.

Just in case you were waiting for me to say it: Gonzaga is a deep, experienced, and talented group. Five Bulldogs average in double-figures. Nolan Hickman (best shooting percentages of his career) and Ryan Nembhard (10.8 APG) are a deadly backcourt combo. Graham Ike leads the team in scoring (13.8 PPG) with Braden Huff right behind him (13.5 PPG) coming off the bench. Mark Few‘s squad shoots the three well, but not at a high volume. They’ve scored fewer than 80 points just once this season and it was the only game they’ve lost. Pope compares the Zags stylistically to Clemson in how they work through the post.

“They’re probably, over the last 10 years, the best in the country at working through the post in the way they do — maybe stylistically a little different than Purdue, but it’ll be a great challenge for us,” Pope said on Thursday. “This will be a — if Clemson, at Clemson, felt like a second-round game in the NCAA Tournament, this Gonzaga game will feel like a Final Four game. That’s what it’s supposed to be. We’re gonna go out there and we’re gonna really fight and perform.”

📍 Space Needle, Seattle, WA pic.twitter.com/9NRFg1saq7
— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) December 7, 2024

Kentucky will enter as the underdog. Gonzaga is currently a 6.5-point favorite. Wouldn’t it be higher if Las Vegas knew Butler was officially ruled out? That’s just me optimistically reading the tea leaves in hopes he plays. KenPom calls for an 86-80 Gonzaga victory. With it being early December, a second straight loss for Kentucky wouldn’t ruin any chances of long-term success, but it sure would be nice to reel off another Top 10 win early into the Pope era. There’s a short-term sting that comes with back-to-back losses.

Tonight’s tipoff is a late one for us East Coasters. ESPN2 will broadcast this one starting at 10:00 p.m. EST. Make sure to get your midday nap in with a pot of coffee rolling around dinner time. Now let’s dive into the rest of this Saturday morning’s news and notes.

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Kentucky Volleyball advances to Sweet 16

Kentucky volleyball is off to a great start in search of the program’s second national championship. The Wildcats opened up the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Thursday at Memorial Coliseum with a clean sweep of Cleveland State. But Friday’s opponent would be a massive upgrade in competition. Even still, the 3-seeded ‘Cats came out ready to play and beat 6-seeded Minnesota in four sets (25-11, 23-25, 25-22, 25-24) to reach the Sweet 16.

During the match with the Golden Gophers, senior setter Emma Grome broke the program’s all-time assists record, surpassing her current assistant coach, Madison Lilley. Grome needed 50 assists to break the record and she finished with 51 against Minnesota, putting her at 4,963 helpers as a ‘Cat.

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“It’s been incredible. It really hit me today,” Grome said of her college career coming to an end. “I honestly didn’t realize until someone said it to me earlier that today was my last game in Memorial ever and I got kind of emotional, it’s sad. But my four years here have been absolutely incredible. Every year I just feel like our team grows so much and the people here are just so awesome.”

🏆4⃣,9⃣6⃣3⃣🏆

The new rally-scoring era leader of Kentucky Volleyball in assists by one is now 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

‼️‼️@EmmaGrome‼️‼️ pic.twitter.com/VMSeCBUj9i
— Kentucky Volleyball (@KentuckyVB) December 7, 2024

Up next in the Sweet 16 is a rematch against the 7-seeded Missouri Tigers. Kentucky will have the edge in this one. UK already beat Mizzou twice this season, one a 3-0 sweep and the second a 3-1 victory. Will they make it a third win with a spot in the Elite 8 on the line? The matches next weekend will either be Thursday and Saturday or Friday and Sunday.

For a full recap of last night’s victory, click here.

3 state champions crowned, 3 more to go

Throughout a frigidly cold Friday at Kroger Field, three Kentucky high school football state champions were crowned. Sayre opened things up by winning the school’s first-ever state title after just six years of the program being brought back. Beechwood rolled over Owensboro Catholic for the school’s 18th state championship while Paducah Tilghman (led by Kentucky signee Martels Carter) was able to hold off Franklin County down the stretch for the school’s fourth title.

That’s just the half of it though. We have another three games on the docket throughout Saturday. We’ll see a pair of Top 10 matchups in Class 5A and Class 6A. KSR will have boots on the ground at Kroger Field for all of it.

Friday, December 6

TIME \| CLASS	MATCHUP	FINAL SCORE	RECAP
12:00 PM \| 1A	No. 25 Raceland (10-4) vs. No. 22 Sayre (14-0)	27-22 (Sayre)	CLICK
4:00 PM \| 2A	No. 7 Owensboro Catholic (14-0) vs. No. 12 Beechwood (13-1)	50-34 (Beechwood)	CLICK
8:00 PM \| 4A	No. 5 Franklin County (13-0) vs. No. 1 Paducah Tilghman (14-0)	27-20 (Paducah Tilghman)	CLICK

Saturday, December 7

TIME \| CLASS	MATCHUP	MASSEY PREDICTION	KSR PREDICTION	GAME PREVIEW
12:00 PM \| 3A	No. 11 Christian Academy-Louisville (11-3) vs. No. 23 Union County (12-2)	45-13 (Christian Academy-Louisville)	30-16 (Christian Academy-Louisville)	CLICK
4:00 PM \| 6A	No. 6 Ryle (12-2) vs. No. 3 Trinity (12-2)	34-14 (Trinity)	22-21 (Trinity)	CLICK
8:00 PM \| 5A	No. 2 Cooper (14-0) vs. No. 9 Bowling Green (12-2)	35-28 (Cooper)	38-26 (Cooper)	CLICK

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Kentucky football transfer/NFL tracker

A handful of Kentucky players announced their intentions to dip into the transfer portal, which officially opens Dec. 9, on Friday. But more notably, a couple Wildcats also elected to declare for the 2025 NFL Draft. DT Deone Walker and OT Gerald Mincey will head off to the pros. I’ll add that Kentucky is currently working on bringing in Western Carolina OT transfer Derek Simmons for a visit.

Below are Kentucky’s current outgoing transfers so far this offseason. Expect the list to continue to grow over the next couple of weeks.