KSR Today: Day 1 of the SEC Baseball Tournament, Lanier at Tennessee and More
Hello, KSR readers. How are you this Tuesday morning? Do you have big Taco Tuesday plans? Before you get too far into your Tuesday, below you’ll find a brief rundown of events as we are one day closer to Kentucky Baseball playing its first game of the 2024 postseason. At the same time, Kentucky Basketball battles Tennessee and BYU for one of the Wildcats’ top remaining targets out of the portal, and the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals Game 1.
The SEC Baseball Tournament begins today
Today marks the beginning of the 2024 SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Alabama. Your University of Kentucky Wildcats have a bye into tomorrow’s round, but Cats fans should pay close attention to Game 1 between No. 6 Georgia and No. 11 LSU. The Dawgs and Tigers play at 10:30 a.m. EDT, with Kentucky waiting to play the winner on Wednesday morning.
Today’s SEC Baseball Schedule
#6 Georgia vs. #11 LSU – 10:30 a.m. EDT, SEC Network
#7 Alabama vs. #10 South Carolina – 2:00 p.m. EDT, SEC Network
#8 Vanderbilt vs. #9 Florida – 5:30 p.m. EDT, SEC Network
#5 Mississippi State vs. #12 Ole Miss – 9:00 p.m. EDT, SEC Network
Odds To Win The SEC Baseball Tournament
Tennessee +350
Texas A&M +360
Arkansas +500
Kentucky +650
Mississippi State +900
Georgia +1100
Alabama +1200
Florida +1400
LSU +1400
South Carolina +2000
Vanderbilt +2000
Ole Miss +3000
Kentucky’s SEC Baseball Awards
Before the tournament begins, the SEC handed out its postseason accolades on Monday, including recognition of several Kentucky Wildcats. Starting at the top, head coach Nick Mingione was named SEC Coach of the Year for guiding Kentucky to a share of its second-ever league championship. The award is Mingione’s second SEC Coach of the Year trophy in his eight seasons in Lexington.
Joining Mingione with accolades, grad transfer Nick Lopez was named First Team All-Southeastern Conference at DH, and Ryan Waldschmidt made the Second Team as an outfielder. The SEC All-Defensive Team included second baseman Émilien Pitre, third baseman Mitch Daly, and pitcher Mason Moore.
Read more about Kentucky’s postseason honors here.
Bat Cat Beat previews the SEC
Chaz Lanier visited Lexington; now in Knoxville
North Florida grad transfer Chaz Lanier–one of Kentucky’s top remaining transfer portal targets–visited Kentucky on Monday. The trip included Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse and an evening stroll through Triangle Park with Mark Pope, but no BOOM to signal a commitment. Now, Lanier is in Knoxville, Tennessee, to hear the Tennessee Vols’ recruiting pitch for his services. He arrived at UT late Monday night to begin his official visit, the last stop of his BYU-Kentucky-Tennessee tour of opportunities.
Lanier was greeted by that stupid rock on campus with “Come Home Chaz!” written on it.
Kentucky can’t lose to a rock.
Rob Dillingham Quote of the Day
Over at the Herald-Leader, Ben Roberts spoke to several players from last year’s Kentucky basketball team for their reactions to John Calipari leaving Kentucky for Arkansas. In the story, Dillingham told Roberts, “I’ll come back, for sure, to Kentucky. Because, obviously, they protected me. And it wasn’t just (Calipari). It was the fans. It was the teachers. Everybody there. I love Mitch Barnhart, the athletics director. I love all of them. So I really liked the UK experience, because they helped me as a whole, and they treated me like family.”
Happy Birthday, Jamaal Magloire
We celebrate Magloire’s 46th birthday with a grainy YouTube replay of his interaction with Wojo in the 1998 Elite Eight.
Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals
Tonight at 8:00 p.m., the Boston Celtics host the Indiana Pacers (ft. Isaiah Jackson) in the first game of their Eastern Conference Finals series. As I write this, Boston is a 10.5-point favorite. You can watch the game on ESPN.
KSR will have a special guest host for the final segment of the show
Today’s the day our contest winner, Darren, tries his hand at Kentucky Sports Radio. In the second hour, he will take over for Matt Jones for 15 minutes, hosting alongside Ryan Lemond and me at KSBar and Grille. Then in the final 15 minutes, Darren is on his own (with a friend) to finish out Tuesday’s show.
Before Darren, KSR will be in its regular format, although Matt is in Louisville with Shannon The Dude in the iHeart studio. We’re a house divided from 10 a.m. to noon.
Go Cats.
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