KSR Today: Kentucky Volleyball heads to Kansas City

Good morning, friends. It’s finals week at the University of Kentucky, so there is no basketball game tonight to entertain us; however, big games are just on the horizon.

Today, the Kentucky Volleyball team heads to Kansas City for the Final Four, which starts Thursday. Back on campus, Mark Pope’s team is preparing for Saturday’s game vs. St. John’s in Atlanta, with all eyes on a certain Cat as he inches closer to his debut. In the other practice gym, Kenny Brooks’ squad is gearing up for Friday night’s game vs. Wright State. Across campus (and across the country in Oregon), Will Stein’s staff build continues as current players contemplate whether to stick with the program or enter the transfer portal when it opens on January 2.

So, contrary to what you may think, there is plenty to talk about. Let’s start with volleyball, the best team on campus.

Kentucky VB leaves for Kansas City

Kentucky’s second Final Four appearance in program history is almost here. Today, Craig Skinner’s Cats depart for Kansas City, and the Big Blue Nation is invited to wish them well. The team is holding a public send-off at Signature Aviation at the Blue Grass Airport in Lexington at 5 p.m. ET. The team is expected to arrive at the airport around 5:15 p.m. ET with a wheels-up time of 6 p.m. ET.

Parking is available on the south side of Airport Road in the grass/gravel parking lot across from Signature. UK is kindly asking fans not to park on the paved surfaces of Signature Aviation’s footprint to save space for team personnel. 

I hope they get a huge crowd. We’ll be there to bring you the highlights. Wednesday is Media Day in Kansas City, so get ready for more volleyball content as we get ready for Thursday night’s big match vs. Wisconsin.

2025 NCAA Volleyball Championship Final Four
T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, Missouri

Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025
Match 1 // 6:30 p.m. ET – (1) Pittsburgh vs. (3) Texas A&M [ESPN]
Match 2 // ~ 9 p.m. ET – (1) Kentucky vs. (3) Wisconsin [ESPN]

Match 2 will begin 30 minutes after Match 1

Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025
National Championship // 3:30 p.m. ET // Winner Match 1 vs. Winner Match 2 [ABC]

One more piece of volleyball news: outside hitter Eva Hudson was named a finalist for the 2025 American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I Women’s Volleyball Player of the Year Award on Monday. Hudson has already been named SEC Player of the Year, SEC Newcomer of the Year, and First Team All-SEC. She has 504 kills (4.54/set) this season while hitting .317. She is awesome.

Jayden Quaintance starts fullcourt live action in practice

There are two questions on Big Blue Nation’s mind this week after the win over Indiana — well, actually, three: 1A) Can the Cats build on it by beating St. John’s; 1B) How will Mark Pope handle going up against his old coach, Rick Pitino; and 2) Will Jayden Quaintance be on the floor? Whispers about Quaintance’s potential return were everywhere on Monday, further fueled by Pope himself on his radio show.

“He’s getting closer. We had a long, long practice today, but it was mostly, in terms of live play, just half-court. He’s engaged in most of that; he’s flying around. Tomorrow we’ll actually cross half-court with a bunch of live stuff, and it’ll be his first time doing that,” Mark Pope said during his call-in radio show. “He’s floating around in that proximity.”

When pressed for a timeline for Quaintance to make his debut, Pope said that “we’re down to days and hours — maybe a week or so, in there — not weeks and months.” So, if you go by days and hours, potentially St. John’s. Maybe a week or so, Bellarmine. Exciting stuff.

Other Pope Show quick-hitters

A few more basketball notes from Mark Pope’s show and beyond:

Pope’s on voice rest: Mark Pope has done plenty of yelling the past few weeks. As a result, he’s almost lost his voice. Pope told Tom Leach that he’s only speaking in a whisper over the next few days to make sure his voice doesn’t completely go away. He’ll need it on Saturday in Atlanta, just the second time in his coaching career that he’ll square off against Rick Pitino.

Lamont Butler called in: Pope had two guests on his show last night, Lamont Butler and Craig Skinner. Butler called in to update BBN on his recovery from a torn ACL four weeks ago. Pope’s beloved former point guard said he’s walking on his own now without crutches and is becoming more independent. Pope said that when he found out about Butler’s injury, he was ready to hire him to his staff, but Butler turned him down, insisting he still has plenty of basketball to play once healthy.

Kentucky is still outside the Top 25: The new AP and Coaches Polls were released on Monday, and Kentucky remains on the outside of the Top 25. If you count up the points of the teams receiving votes, the Cats are No. 30 in the AP Poll and No. 31 in the Coaches Poll. St. John’s is No. 22 in the AP Poll and No. 20 in the Coaches Poll.

Will Stein’s staff build continues

News about Will Stein’s staff has been trickling out for the past few weeks, but on Monday, we got an actual announcement from UK. Joe Sloan was officially announced as Kentucky’s new offensive coordinator. With several more hires made, it’s only a matter of time before more press releases come out featuring quotes on the additions. Here’s a running list of the hires Stein has made thus far:

• Will Stein: Head Coach
• Joe Sloan: Offensive Coordinator
• Jay Bateman: Defensive Coordinator
• Cutter Leftwich: Offensive Line
• Joe Price III: Wide Receivers
• Josh Christian-Young: Safeties
• Anwar Stewart: Defensive Line
• Mike Hartline: Offensive Analyst
• Pat Biondo: General Manager
• Pete Nochta: Director of Player Personnel

Speaking of Stein, he’s back in Oregon, helping the Ducks prepare for the College Football Playoff. During a press conference on Monday, he talked about juggling the two jobs, telling reporters that he felt a responsibility to stay with the team through the playoff run.

“I would feel like a complete fraud if I left these guys throughout this playoff run and this opportunity in front of us to coach in Autzen (Stadium) another time. It’d honestly be crazy,” Stein said. “The last thing I would ever do would be to leave these players.”

No. 5 seed Oregon hosts No. 12 seed James Madison in the first round on Saturday, Dec. 20 (7:30 p.m. ET | TNT/truTV). I have a feeling the ratings in Kentucky for that one will be pretty high.

College Basketball on TV today

Kentucky may not be playing tonight, but there’s a ton of good college basketball on, with No. 11 Louisville at No. 20 Tennessee leading the way. You can also pull up Peacock to do a little scouting on St. John’s, which hosts DePaul at the same time.

Tipoff (ET)	Matchup	TV / Streaming
6:00 PM	Lipscomb at #3 Duke	ACC Network
6:30 PM	Toledo at #9 Michigan State	Peacock
7:00 PM	Kansas City at Oklahoma	SEC Network
7:00 PM	South Carolina at Clemson	ESPN2
7:00 PM	#11 Louisville at #20 Tennessee	ESPN
7:00 PM	DePaul at #22 St. John’s	Peacock
7:30 PM	Long Island University at Mississippi State	SEC Network+
8:00 PM	Le Moyne at Texas	SEC Network+
8:00 PM	East Tennessee State at #12 North Carolina	ACC Network
8:00 PM	Northern Colorado at #19 Texas Tech	ESPN+
8:30 PM	Butler at #5 UConn	Peacock
9:00 PM	Abilene Christian at #1 Arizona	ESPN+
9:00 PM	Pacific at #10 BYU	ESPN+
9:00 PM	Queens University at #14 Arkansas	SEC Network
9:00 PM	Towson at #17 Kansas	ESPN2

Movie Recommendation: The new Knives Out mystery

Need a night off from college hoops? We watched the new Knives Out mystery, “Wake Up Dead Man,” this weekend, and I highly recommend it. Daniel Craig is back as detective Benoit Blanc to solve a mysterious death at a church in New England. Craig, as always, is great, but the entire cast is incredible, featuring Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Jeremy Renner, and Thomas Haden Church. Give it a spin if you need a break from Christmas movies.