KSR Today: Kentucky Basketball previews Oklahoma; Baseball and Softball Media Day

Good morning, friends. We’re back to the Wednesday midweek game schedule one final time this season, meaning Kentucky Basketball will not be on your televisions tonight; however, we will hear from two Wildcats ahead of tomorrow night’s game vs. Oklahoma. It’s also Kentucky Baseball and Softball Media Day, so we’ll catch up with Nick Mingione, Rachel Lawson, and their respective squads with their seasons right around the corner.

Lots to cover, so let’s get to it.

Collin Chandler, Trent Noah preview Oklahoma

Saturday was a true road win, with every Wildcat playing a role in the 85-77 victory over John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks. Collin Chandler’s three to bring Kentucky within one after Arkansas’ 11-2 run in the second half was massive, as were Noah’s nine points and seven rebounds off the bench. Today, we’ll hear from both sophomores as they preview Wednesday’s game vs. Oklahoma.

The Sooners are struggling, to say the least. After beating Ole Miss to start SEC play, Oklahoma has lost eight straight. The Sooners are at the bottom of the SEC standings and have the toughest schedule left in the country, according to ESPN’s BPI (Kentucky’s is No. 3). Porter Moser’s seat is red hot in season five, and Oklahoma will be desperate for a win.

Coming off the win at Arkansas and with Saturday’s game vs. Tennessee looming, this has all the makings of a trap game, so the Cats must be dialed in. We’ll hear what Chandler and Noah have to say about it in just a bit.

Highlights from the Mark Pope Show

It was a celebratory Mark Pope radio show last night — even if Pope was late due to Lexington traffic. Pope talked about the big win over Arkansas and the changes that led to Kentucky’s fast start for the first half hour. Tony Delk joined the show in the second half hour to discuss the 1996 team’s reunion this weekend at the Tennessee game, which includes the reveal of the throwback denim uniforms (speaking of, throwback denim gear is starting to show up at retailers).

Some quick-hitters from the show:

Otega Oweh played with a hurt ankle vs. Arkansas: Otega Oweh’s performance at Arkansas was big, 24 points on 9-12 shooting with eight rebounds and three assists. It’s even more impressive when you consider he was playing on a hurt ankle. Pope revealed that Oweh rolled his ankle in the days leading up to that game, but battled through it. Pope expects him to be a full-go in practice today ahead of his rematch with his Oklahoma, his former school, tomorrow.

Braydon Hawthorne hurt his ankle in practice: Just as Oweh was healing from his ankle injury, his teammate Braydon Hawthorne suffered one of his own. Pope said that Hawthorne turned his ankle in practice; however, Pope said they’re still considering pulling the freshman’s redshirt this season.

Pregame/practice changes: Kentucky got off to a much faster start vs. Arkansas, thanks in part to Pope switching up the pregame and practice routine. The team usually goes to the opposing gym the night before, but omitted that from their itinerary in Fayetteville. They also shortened their hour-long on-court pregame prep. Whatever it was, keep doing it.

More basketball talk coming today. In the meantime, enjoy Steven Peake’s latest road trip video from the crazy trip to Fayetteville.

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It’s Baseball and Softball Media Day

Believe it or not, the Kentucky Softball season starts this Friday vs. Miami (OH) in the San Diego State Season Kickoff in California. A week later, Kentucky Baseball starts its season at UNC Greensboro. Today, Nick Mingione, Rachel Lawson, and players from both squads will sit down with reporters at the Kroger Field media room to talk about it. Mingione will kick things off at 10:30 a.m., followed by Lawson at 11 a.m. After that, Tyler Bell, Ben Cleaver, Ethan Hindle, Sarah Haendiges, Maddy Clark, and Carson Fall will take their turns. KSR will have boots on the ground to cover it all.

We’re happy to announce that Jeff Drummond and Adam Luckett will be covering baseball for KSR this season, which is expected to be a big one. Nick Mingione’s team is No 18 in the D1 Baseball preseason rankings. Adam Luckett will also be hosting KSR’s newest show/podcast, “Pump It Up,” alongside Derek Terry of Bat Cats Central. The first episode will drop tonight at 7:15 p.m. ET on the KSR YouTube Channel to recap Media Day.

What show will Will Stein pop up on today?

Kentucky’s new football coach is making the media rounds, appearing on “OutKick Hot Mic” and On’s “Andy & Ari” on Monday to promote the program. Having a coach who actively does media is refreshing in itself; having one who isn’t afraid to talk about hot-button topics like tampering in the transfer portal? It truly is a new era.

“There’s a lot of gray, mostly gray, just to be quite frank. And I think you have to do your best job as a coach, operating within the confines of the rules. I mean, you have to. That’s why rules are in place, but the rules get skewed. They get changed. They change almost weekly, daily, sometimes yearly. So how do you keep up with this? You have to have really smart people around you, and you have to do the right thing. It’s really simple.”

You should listen to both interviews in full, but Nick Roush hit the highlights if you don’t have time this morning. These two quotes should be more than enough to get you rolling this morning.

“I always looked at Kentucky as a place where — why can’t this be a premier place? You have everything you want, facility-wise. You have backing from the administration. You have elite fans. You can recruit North, South, go East or West. There’s no reason in hell this place can’t be a destination job for a coach or a player.”

“I really felt in my heart, my soul, and in my brain that this is the spot where we can go win.”

College Basketball on TV tonight

There are just four SEC games this week, with several teams enjoying their midweek byes. Tonight, No. 25 Tennessee hosts Ole Miss, and South Carolina plays at Texas.

Time (ET)	Matchup	TV / Streaming
6:30 PM	#23 Miami (OH) at Buffalo	ESPN+
7:00 PM	Xavier at #3 UConn	Peacock / NBCSN
7:00 PM	Boston College at #4 Duke	ACC Network
7:00 PM	Ole Miss at #25 Tennessee	ESPN2
7:00 PM	South Carolina at Texas	SEC Network
8:00 PM	#22 St. John’s at DePaul	Peacock
9:00 PM	Pittsburgh at #18 Virginia	ACC Network
9:00 PM	#19 Saint Louis at Davidson	CBSSN

Here’s another look at the SEC standings entering another week of play. Kentucky is currently tied for third with Vanderbilt and Arkansas.

TEAM	CONF	GB	OVR
Texas A&M	7-1	–	17-4
Florida	7-2	0.5	16-6
Vanderbilt	6-3	1.5	19-3
Arkansas	6-3	1.5	16-6
Kentucky	6-3	1.5	15-7
Tennessee	5-3	2	15-6
Missouri	5-4	2.5	15-7
Auburn	5-4	2.5	14-8
Alabama	4-4	3	14-7
Georgia	4-5	3.5	16-6
Texas	4-5	3.5	13-9
Ole Miss	3-5	4	11-10
Mississippi State	3-6	4.5	11-11
LSU	2-7	5.5	14-8
South Carolina	2-7	5.5	11-11
Oklahoma	1-8	6.5	11-11

KSR is live from Louisville before flying to the Super Bowl

The NFL Cover Zero crew is headed to San Francisco to cover the Super Bowl. Matt Jones, Drew Franklin, Billy Rutledge, and Mario Maitland leave today for their big trip, but first, they’ll host KSR alongside Ryan Lemond and Shannon the Dude at the Louisville studios. Tune in one hour from now, or right now on the KSR Preshow, to hear all about it.