KSR Today: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Cason Wallace are World Champs

We begin the day at KentuckySportsRadio.com with congratulations to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Cason Wallace, a couple of NBA World Champions. Oklahoma City’s two former Wildcats helped the Thunder win Game 7 over the Indiana Pacers last night, scoring a combined 39 points in the 103-91 win. Gilgeous-Alexander had 29 on 8-for-27 shooting with 12 assists, while Wallace added 10 points, three rebounds, and three steals off the bench.

Gilgeous-Alexander was named MVP of the series, part of a historic season for the former Kentucky point guard. He walks away from the 2025-26 season as the champion, Most Valuable Player, NBA Finals MVP, Western Conference Finals MVP, an NBA All-Star, an All-NBA First Team selection, and the NBA scoring champ.

Is Shai the best NBA player to come out of Kentucky? That trophy shelf says so, and he’s far from finished. Oklahoma City is the favorite to win it all again next year, but another team in the West made a big step yesterday to challenge OKC’s repeat.

Reed Sheppard teaming up with Kevin Durant

Before the NBA crowned its champion, trade news shook up the Association earlier in the day, with Kevin Durant heading to Houston in a blockbuster trade. The Rockets landed the 15-time All-Star without including Reed Sheppard in the trade package (Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, No. 10 pick in the 2025 draft and five second-round picks), so the Slim Reaper will team up with the former Kentucky star on a championship-caliber team next season.

With two guards gone in the trade, Sheppard should expect an increased role in his second year as a pro, playing alongside one of the all-time great scorers in Durant. A big weekend for Sheppard, he also released his own Nike sneaker.

LSU won the College World Series again

For the second time in three years, LSU won the NCAA Baseball Championship. The Tigers swept Coastal Carolina, winning 5-3 on Sunday to clinch the title in Omaha. The win gave the Southeastern Conference its sixth straight College World Series championship, continuing the streak started by Vanderbilt in 2019 and carried on by Mississippi State, Ole Miss, LSU, Tennessee, and now LSU again. Kentucky next year, maybe?

Coastal Carolina’s head coach got ejected in the first inning

If you missed Sunday’s College World Series final, don’t sweat it–Coastal Carolina’s head coach missed most of it, too. Kevin Schnall was ejected in the bottom of the first inning of the championship game.

Coastal Carolina head coach, Kevin Schnall and first base coach Matt Schilling have been ejected from what could possibly be the last game of the MCWS finals 😱 pic.twitter.com/NjiVeQ3KKR

— ESPN (@espn) June 22, 2025

Kentucky Football added another commitment

Recruiting has gone surprisingly well for Kentucky Football since losing Vince Marrow. On Sunday, the Wildcats added yet another commitment to the class since Marrow’s exit, landing Isaiah McMillian, a cornerback out of Katy, Texas. McMillian is the latest prospect to commit to Kentucky in a long run of June commitments. He followed tight end Lincoln Watkins‘ commitment on Saturday and several others over the last few weeks.

Kentucky Football’s 2026 recruiting class

With the addition of McMillian, UK’s class is up to nine commitments. All nine were added this month after a slow start to the 2026 recruiting cycle.

Player	Position	High School	Ranking
Jordan Crutchfield	CB (6-2, 195)	Vero Beach (Fla.) High	High 3-star (No. 416 overall)
Messiah Tilson	S (6-2, 165)	Rockford (Ill.) Guilford	High 3-star (No. 450 overall)
Prince Jean	WR (6-0, 170)	Valdosta (Ga.) High	3-star (No. 713 overall)
Davis McCray	WR (6-2, 190)	San Antonio (Texas) Cornerstone Christian	3-star (No. 1,053 overall)
Cameron Miller	T (6-5, 310)	Hammond (Ind.) Morton	3-star (No. 1,320 overall)
Max Mohring	LB (6-3, 215)	Malvern (Pa.) Prep	Unranked
Delvecchio “Deuce” Alston II	RB (6-0, 200)	Hewitt-Trussville (Ala.)	Unranked
Lincoln Watkins	TE (6-4, 225)	North Port Huron (MI)	High 3-Star (No. 591 overall)
Isaiah McMillian	CB (6-0, 170)	Katy (TX) High	Unranked

The latest in Kentucky Basketball

Kentucky Basketball is busy behind the scenes with summer workouts over at the Joe Craft Training Facility. In front of the scenes, Jack Pilgrim still has plenty of stories from his trip out to Colorado last week to follow Mark Pope, Jasper Johnson, Malachi Moreno, and others with Team USA:

• Team USA coaches tell KSR what Kentucky is getting in Jasper Johnson and Malachi Moreno
• Mark Pope won’t give a Jayden Quaintance health update because he destroyed him in chess
• Mark Pope trusts Mitch Barnhart, Greg Sankey on revenue-sharing, future of college athletics
• WATCH: Mark Pope chats with KSR, Cats dominate at USA Training Camp
• Tay Kinney discusses Kentucky vs. Louisville — and potentially following Jasper Johnson to Lexington
• No. 3 recruit Christian Collins mum on recruitment, but “(learned) a lot” from Mark Pope at USA U19 Training Camp
• Mikel Brown Jr. talks importance of Kentucky vs. Louisville rivalry with KSR: “It means everything.”

Watch KSR’s new Happy Hour at 4 p.m.

A new installment of KSR’s Happy Hour web series will go live at 4 p.m. over on KSR’s YouTube channel, featuring a panel of KSR personalities recapping the day’s news and other fun topics around Big Blue Nation. Tune in to the live stream while you wind down from Monday, or catch the replay whenever you can. Go ahead and subscribe to the channel, too, if you don’t mind–it’s almost to 50K.

Tune in to KSR coming up at 10 a.m.

KSR’s morning radio program will be live from the downtown Lexington studio from 10 a.m. to noon. Tune in and Go Cats. Have a great Monday, friends.