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KSR Today: Mark Pope previews EIU, Reed Sheppard's shooting, and motivated football 'Cats

Zack Geogheganby: Zack Geoghegan3 hours agoZGeogheganKSR
Photos of Mark Pope (left), Reed Sheppard (middle), and Mark Stoops via KSR and Imagn Images
Photos of Mark Pope (left), Reed Sheppard (middle), and Mark Stoops via KSR and Imagn Images

Good morning, folks! Another busy weekend awaits us in the world of UK Athletics, but first, we have to make it through Friday Jr. Luckily, that shouldn’t be much of a problem — we’ll have plenty to discuss throughout the day right here on Kentucky Sports Radio dot com.

For starters, Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope will meet with reporters later today to talk more about what went wrong against Louisville a couple of days ago, while also giving us a taste of what’s in store for Friday. The No. 9 Wildcats will host Eastern Illinois tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. ET (SEC Network+) in Rupp Arena for the final game of the BBN United Tipoff Classic Presented by Kentucky Tourism. After an ugly defensive showing against the Cardinals, this will be a good get-right opportunity for the Wildcats before taking on Michigan State in New York early next week.

As always, stay tuned to the website and the KSR YouTube channel for immediate updates on everything Pope has to say. But while you wait, let’s dive into the rest of this morning’s news and notes.

Join KSR Plus! With a KSR Plus membership, you get access to bonus content and KSBoard, KSR’s message board, to chat with fellow Cats fans and get exclusive scoop.

National media not panicking over UL loss

Kentucky’s loss to Louisville on Tuesday was certainly disappointing, but the time to potentially start panicking is still far away. This was only the third game of the season. The Cardinals appear to be a team that will contend for an ACC championship. We can criticize the way Kentucky lost while also recognizing that there is a long way to go in the season. Several members of the national media chimed in on Wednesday to agree with that sentiment.

“If you’re a Kentucky fan, you never want to lose to Louisville,” Matt Norlander of CBS Sports wrote. “But at least it’s a Louisville team that’s going to have the capacity to really make a push in the ACC.”

[National analysts have Kentucky concerns, but ‘this is not panic mode’ for Cats]

Football Cats playing extra motivated for Stoops

The refusal to quit from this Kentucky football team has been inspiring to watch the last couple of weeks. Last season’s Wildcats buckled under the heat of adversity, whereas this season’s group has used it as extra motivation. The players hear the noise surrounding Mark Stoops‘ job status. They’re playing to win games, but they’re playing equally as hard to keep Stoops in Lexington.

“Just the film, preparation, play every play like it’s a game at practice. Just running around, hustling to the ball,” Sophomore linebacker Grant Godfrey told KSR on Wednesday when asked what has changed with the defense. “I would say the first few weeks we weren’t doing that, but when all that stuff getting mentioned of maybe Coach Stoops leaving or getting fired, I feel like it motivated us more to play harder, make that bowl game. We love Coach Stoops. We want him to stay. So we’re just playing harder.”

This team has rallied around each other and improved week after week. A big reason why is the love and respect they have for their head coach. We’ll have to wait and see if it ends with Kentucky reaching bowl eligibility here in a few weeks.

WBB absolutely smacked USC Upstate

Poor USC Upstate stood zero chance of beating No. 23 Kentucky women’s basketball last night in Memorial Coliseum. Kenny Brooks‘ Wildcats romped the Spartans to the tune of a 60-point win, 90-30 — yes, you read that correctly: a 60-point win. Point guard Tonie Morgan was able to tie the program’s single-game assist record with 16 helpers on the night. She chipped in 11 points as well without a single turnover.

Clara Strack pitched in 18 points, 16 rebounds, and four blocks. UK shot 14-40 from deep as six total Wildcats finished in double-figures for the first time since 2018. USC Upstate’s 30 points were the fewest Kentucky has allowed since giving up just 24 points against Jackson State all the way back in 2015. In short, it was a record-setting performance at home from the ladies as they move to 4-0 on the season.

[KSR’s top takeaways from Kentucky’s 90-30 whooping of USC Upstate]

Reed Sheppard is finding his rhythm

Reed Sheppard is ballin’ out in Houston right now. After back-to-back 16-point performances over the last few days, the former Wildcat posted a season-high 21 points on 8-11 shooting, including a 5-8 mark from long range, in just 24 minutes last night. The result was a dominant 135-112 win over the lowly Wizards.

Sheppard’s shooting is red-hot right now. He’s 15-25 from deep (60 percent) over his last four games. Through 10 games this season, he’s posting per-game averages of 12.2 points and 3.2 assists while shooting 50 percent from deep on 5.6 attempts per outing. He’s looking very good in year two.

More bowl projections!

It sure didn’t feel like it a few weeks ago, but a bowl game is fully on the table for Kentucky football. The 4-5 Wildcats will reach five wins as long as they take care of business this weekend against Tennessee Tech. Then it’s just a matter of splitting the final two games against Vanderbilt and Louisville — a task much easier said than done. But the national media folks are trending toward that ultimately becoming a reality. Below are the latest bowl projections for the ‘Cats.

The KSR YouTube channel is the place to be

The content is always flowing over on the KSR YouTube channel. Along with press conferences from yesterday’s football practice and the women’s basketball win, we also had fresh episodes of Here Comes The Boom, Sources Say, and 11 Personnel go live.

We’ll have even more video content coming your way today, beginning with interviews from Pope and Kentucky volleyball head coach Craig Skinner. And as we do every Thursday, KSR’s weekly Happy Hour show will go live around 4:00 p.m. ET, where we’ll talk about anything and everything that comes to our brains. Make sure to subscribe and tune in throughout the day. Let’s have a great one, BBN.

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2025-11-13