KSR Today: The First Four tips off, Kentucky Baseball hosts rival Indiana
Good morning, friends. The 2023 NCAA Tournament officially starts tonight as the First Four tips off in Dayton. That means it’s time to find truTV on your channel lineup and brace yourself for the Impossible Jokers promos. Here’s the schedule:
- 6:40 PM (South Region): No. 16 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. No. 16 SE Missouri State | truTV
- 9:10 PM (Midwest Region): No. 11 Mississippi State vs. No. 11 Pittsburgh | truTV
Tomorrow night, Texas Southern and Fairleigh Dickinson square off for the No. 16 seed in the East Region, while Arizona State and Nevada play for the No. 11 seed in the West Region. Since the brackets came out Sunday night, we’ve been rolling out our previews, so if you missed them, catch up:
Lots to do before the games begin — including signing up for our bracket challenge if you haven’t yet — so let’s get to it.
Kentucky scrimmages as NCAA Tournament prep continues
Last night, we got an update on the team’s preparations for the tournament on John Calipari’s radio show. Calipari said that the team scrimmaged on Monday, and all but one player (Sahvir Wheeler) fully participated. The team will scrimmage again today, which Calipari typically doesn’t like to do in the postseason but felt this group needed it after the loss to Vanderbilt.
“It was good today, good to get back on the court,” Calipari said. “For this time of the year, for me to do scrimmaging — which is what we’re going to do tomorrow — that’s what this team needs. I think we got a little out of sync last game, and I want us to get back in the mindset we need to be in.”
Calipari also teased some rotation tweaks and additional minutes for Daimion Collins. He also received a phone call from 90-year-old Patricia, who encouraged him to bring Kyle Macy in to help the team with their free-throw shooting. The Cats were an abysmal 11-20 from the line in Nashville.
“They better come out with fire in their eyes this week!” Patricia said. Patricia ain’t wrong.
Open Practice Scheduled for Thursday
If you’re getting to Greenbsoro on Thursday, make plans to come see the Cats practice. Kentucky’s open practice is scheduled for 2-2:40 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum. It’s open to the public, so you can get a firsthand look at the Cats and, if you stick around until 3:30 p.m., Providence and Bryce Hopkins. See you there.
ICYMI, KT Turner to UT Arlington
We’re not even to the end of the current season and a domino has fallen for the next one. Last night, word broke that assistant coach KT Turner will be the next head coach at UT-Arlington, bringing his time in Lexington to an end. Turner spent a season at Kentucky, joining the staff after a year as Porter Moser’s associate head coach at Oklahoma. Prior to that, he held the same position on Shaka Smart’s staff at Texas for one year and was an assistant at SMU for seven seasons. His departure makes way for the potential addition of Josh Pastner, Calipari’s former right-hand man who was fired at Georgia Tech over the weekend. Nothing is official yet, obviously, but something to keep an eye on.
Kentucky Baseball hosts Indiana
It’s going to be a cold and sunny day in the Bluegrass. As a result, the first pitch of Kentucky Baseball vs. Indiana has been moved up to 4 p.m. ET at Kentucky Proud Park. The Cats are 14-2 this season, coming off a 21-3 beatdown of Southern Illinois, their 10th consecutive win. Senior first baseman Hunter Gilliam was named the co-Southeastern Conference Player of the Week and one of Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s co-National Players of the Week for leading the league in hits and runs batted in last week. You can watch the game live on SEC Network+.
Softball plays at St. Louis
On a diamond in a different city, No. 16 Kentucky Softball takes on St. Louis University at 5 p.m. ET at the Billiken Sports Complex. The Cats swept No. 23 Missouri in Columbia over the weekend to improve to 16-5-1 and 3-0 in the SEC. They are tied atop the standings with Tennessee, the only other league team to sweep their opening-weekend series.
LIVE at 5 PM: KSR’s Bracket Predictions Show
It’s almost time to hit “submit” on your bracket. If you need some help, the KSR crew is going LIVE on YouTube at 5 p.m. ET to share our predictions for the NCAA Tournament, including Final Four picks, upset specials, and how we believe Kentucky’s season will end. We’ll tip things off at 5 p.m. but subscribe to the channel to get an alert when we go live.
In the meantime, take advantage of our KSR+ launch special to chat about the brackets on KSBoard, our message board. The upset thread is hopping, and Jack Pilgrim has been working the phones to bring you the impact of KT Turner leaving and who may replace him. Before the news broke he and his Sources Say cohost Shawn Smith went live to recap the SEC Tournament and look ahead to the Big Dance.
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