Tonight is the night!!

Saturday Down South says that Kentucky may be in the running for best offense in the SEC East. That would be a pretty big step for the Cats, who previously were 13th in the SEC.

There are 10 things to know about the Kentucky football squad for this upcoming season. #1? Mark Stoops is very impressive.

The hittin’ kittens are on their way to the Super Regional. Their first game will be Saturday, May 25th against Arizona State at 10 pm on ESPN2. It is a “best of three” game series that will continue to Sunday if necessary.

In UK Hoops news, incoming Wildcat, Linnae Harper was selected to the 2013 USA Basketball Women’s Under 19 World Championship Team.

In non-UK (but still relevant) news, AL.com has an interview with Bobby Petrino that may be interesting to some of you.

Donte Rumph was named one of the top defensive tackle prospects from the SEC for next year’s draft.

A big congrats is in order for the Harrison twins and Julius Randle who were named Slam Magazine All-Americans yesterday.

And finally for my daily weird news link, Charles Ramsey is coming to Stanville, Kentucky for a meet ‘n greet.  I vote that Matt & Ryan interview him for the radio show.

Also, don’t forget that the NBA Draft Lottery is tonight at 8:30 ET on ESPN. The Orlando Magic have the best chance at getting the number one overall pick at 25% followed by the Charlotte Hornets (have they officially changed their name yet?) with 19.9%. Hopefully the balls fall into Charlotte’s court. I really want to see MKG and Nerlens Noel as teammates.

*****Update: It just got real, yo.

Friday on KSR, Charles Ramsey will be joining us….and yes, I am serious

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) May 21, 2013

- The NBA draft lottery will air at 8:30 ET on ESPN this evening. Your grandmother may tune in tonight, confusing the event for their favorite sport, Bingo. 

- The Chad Ford NBA draft lottery mock draft is always fun if you want to kill some time at work and see where Nerlens may end up!

- Below are each team’s chances at getting that #1 pick. If you want Nerlens going in the top spot, Charlotte is likely his best bet. And watching the two best motors Kentucky has seen under John Calipari on the same team sounds like reason enough to pull for the Bobcats. Although they only have a 3.5% chance at the #1 pick, I would also approve of Noel and Wall teaming up in DC. #Dreams

- In case you missed it, here’s a link to Stephanie Bell of ESPN’s profile of Nerlens Noel as he prepares for the draft and rehabilitates that left knee.

- In news that isn’t really news, the official Bulls website believes this year’s draft is rather uninspiring:

Tuesday is the NBA’s draft lottery, and no one is exactly bringing all their horse shoes and four leaf clovers. This is being widely regarded as the draft you wished was 2014, though they’re never as bad as the scouts project at this stage.

- With the Pacers being pitted against the NBA’s best (and highest drawing) team on TNT Tuesday, you can bet that David Stern, ABC, and those profiting from we, the sportsfan, are praying for a Miami Heat and anyone else NBA Finals. An upset is not to their benefit, as these NBA playoffs have seen low ratings outside of the Miami-sphere.

- The Memphis Grizzlies will take on the San Antonio Spurs on ESPN at 9 ET tonight. The series is 1-0 in favor of the Spurs after a throttling of Zach Randolph and the gritty Grizz by the Spurs Sunday. Although the Grizzlies may be historically an inept (and Canadian) franchise, without a large fanbase, this rather young and scrappy squad would likely be a bigger ratings draw than the veteran San Antonio Spurs. The two lowest-rated NBA Finals ever came in the last decade and each involved the Spurs: 2003 against the Nets (6.5) and 2009 versus the Cavaliers (6.2). People are just tired of the Tim Duncan patented bankshot. Haters gonna hate.

On another note, here’s how you can help the people of Oklahoma:

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross has several shelters open in Oklahoma and Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles have begun delivering hot meals throughout the affected areas. The Red Cross is also working to link loved ones in Moore who are OK through a website called Safe and Well. Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, donate online, or donate by phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is activating disaster response teams and mobile feeding units to help residents and rescuers in Moore, Okla., as well as in other locations in the Plains and the Midwest that were impacted by tornadoes. Donate online or text STORM to 80888 to contribute $10 to the Salvation Army’s relief efforts or make a donation by phone at 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

@BrennanKSR

Burr

Last night I sat down and, as painful as it was, watched the Archie combine video. After the several minute clip of missed 3′s and heavy criticism from the commentators I began to wonder: “What else was I expecting?” Coming into the year I was ecstatic about getting to see Archie play. His speed was incredible, possessing one of the best first-steps of any guard in the Calipari-era, and his style of play almost made you want to actually yell “BURR” after every dunk(I may have once or twice throughout the season, I’ll admit). But, as we came to know, Archie’s game currently has a flaw or two(or three or four). While Archie is explosive, he’s also very clumsy. Too many times did we watch a fast-break turn into a train wreck of players. And, despite being a shooting guard, too many times did we see Archie miss from behind the arc (about 73% of the time, to be exact).

As negative as I’ve been though, I do think there’s hope for Archie. As most UK fans know, Cal experimented with the idea of Goodwin playing point-guard at the beginning of the season. Considering the results of said experiment, most fans would probably scoff at the idea of moving Archie to the point, but I think the transition is needed if he wants to be successful at the next level. Archie Goodwin is incredibly young for somebody in his position, so saying he has to make the move in order to be successful may be a little premature, but even with that being said I still don’t see him ever being a highly successful 2-guard in the NBA. While his ability to drive to the basket can be impressive at times, there’s a lot of 6’3” guards out there who can do that. For somebody like that to stand out they must have a more well-rounded game. Attacking the basket becomes a lot more difficult when the defender doesn’t fear your outside shooting; something we witnessed first-hand with Goodwin last season.

Archie’s Combine video, in case you missed it. 

It’ll be interesting to see what comes from Archie leading up to the draft. Leading into the combine it appeared that Archie’s draft stock was rising but, after an incredibly rough weekend, it appears that wasn’t indicative of improvement from Archie’s end, just that not many players declared for the draft. More than likely Archie will spend a good chunk of his rookie season in the D League, something that will be very taxing for someone of his age. But, if Archie can evolve not just his game but his mindset to be a point guard then I have hope for “A1LaFlare.” As difficult as last season was to watch, I still rather like Archie and I hope he evolves to the level of player we all thought he could be coming into last season. It appears though that the road to becoming that player may be a lot bumpier than we had hoped.

@DeanBowlingKSR

KWTV, news9.com

Today has been one of those days where you sit back and reflect on what is most important in life; family, friends, and community. This is a sports site, and everyone that contributes to and/or reads this site loves sports, especially UK sports. But in the grander scope of things, sports don’t matter. Other things have much greater importance than the latest AP or Coaches polls, and today is one of those days that we are reminded of that.  As you may well know, tragedy occurred in Oklahoma today as at least 37 people, including innocent children, were lost to the devastating storm that hit Oklahoma City. Today is one of those days that make you want to hug your family a little bit tighter, and make you thankful for another day and all that you have.  While cars, houses, boats, and material things can be replaced, life can not. We can not even  begin to imagine the insurmountable grief of those who lost their whole world to a cloud of dust and wind. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the state of Oklahoma, OKC, and families affected by this tragedy as they pick up the pieces to mourn, recover, and rebuild.

Stay Strong, Oklahoma. The Big Blue Nation is behind you.

Honestly folks, I am still baffled as to how this baseball team found their way into the predicament they’re in right now. I mean if you go all the way back to Media Day in February, it’s so hard to see how this club is pretty much going to be missing out on the NCAA Tournament with quotes like these:

“We’re just going to come out with a chip on our shoulder and take it out on everybody.” – Trevor Gott

“This team is a lot more hungry than last years.” – Austin Cousino

” We’ve got all the players we need to be successful in this conference.” – Austin Cousino

So what happened? Was it just too much overconfidence going into this season? Or maybe was it the absolutely brutal SEC schedule that caught this team off guard? Honestly I don’t have an answer for you right now. Despite all of this, the one thing I do know is that this team is going to have to win the whole shebang if they want to go to the NCAA Tournament. Now for UK to end up winning the entire SEC tournament, they would have to win a mind-boggling five games over the course of six days. Oh and yes, every team they would face is ranked in at least one of the major baseball polls. So yeah… let’s just get on to the disappointing Mizzou series recap, as well as all the other sides that this weekly post brings to the table:

Results

Tuesday: Kentucky (5) – #14 Indiana (3) [recap]

Thursday: Missouri (4) – Kentucky (2) [recap]

Friday: Missouri (4) – Kentucky (3) [recap]

Saturday: Kentucky (5) – Missouri (1) [recap]

SEC Tournament Bracket

The Run-Down

Yeah, go take a peak at that bracket above and then try to tell me how realistic it would be to ask UK to win it all. Most of the Cats frustration for this week could have been avoided if they just would’ve swept Missouri. If this would have happened, I would most likely be writing about how this team was only going have to win a game or two in the tourney to secure their NCAA Tourney berth. However, this is not the case, so now I’ve got to make due with what I’ve got:

- First off, Kentucky won their only series against the Rebels 2-1 back in mid-April.

- The Cats got the 11th seed in the SEC Tourney, which is uncharted territory for any SEC team. This is because the tournament  is in their first year of expansion from 10 to 12 teams in lieu of the additions of Texas A&M and Missouri.

- Luck will not be on the Kentucky bench, as the Cats have an overall SEC Tournament record of 18-29. This year also marks only the second time since 1998 that the Cats have made it to back-to-back SEC Tournaments as well.

- In the SEC Tournament last year, the Cats beat Ole Miss 2-0 to advance past the single-elimination round.

- The Cats will go with senior southpaw Jerad Grundy tomorrow against the Rebels. Grundy is 6-5 on they year, posting an ERA of 4.75.

Next Week’s Schedule

Tomorrow vs #6 seed Ole Miss (10:30 a.m. on Fox Sports South)

*IF THEY WIN TOMORROW* Wednesday vs #3 seed Arkansas (10:30 a.m. on CSS)

The Final Say

The fact of the matter is that this could very well be the last week of Kentucky’s baseball campaign for 2013. Despite the incoming gloom, the baseball crew of KSR College will be with you to the (hopefully not) bitter end of this season like always.

#LetsSeeWhatHappensNow

**Side-note: Send a thought / prayer or two for those down in Oklahoma today. Mother nature can be quite scary sometimes everyone.**

After a season of ups and down, the 2012-13 UK men’s golf season has finally come to a close. This past weekend the Cats never really managed to get anything of substance going and finished a disappointing 10th of 14 teams in the regional played at the Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Only the top five teams advanced to the next round of play, and those five teams were Illinois, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma State and Kent State.

Junior Stephen Powers again led the way for the Cats, as he finished tied for 21st in the event by shooting an 8-over 224 (75-72-77) for the tournament. Other upperclassmen Chase Parker and Ben Stow followed Powers, by finishing tied for 26th and tied for 42nd, respectively. Cody Martin finished tied for 58th and Will Bishop finished 63rd.

Obviously this a disappointed end to the season, as I believe the main goal from the start of the season was to qualify for the next round of the NCAA tournament by finishing in the top 5 of an NCAA regional. The main reasons for the disappointing season was the trio of Chase Parker, Cody Martin, and Will Bishop. Parker, a senior, never really got things going this season quite like he hoped and finished with only one top-25 finish in spring play. Martin, a junior, was also rather disappointing, posting only one top-30 finish.

Full results from this past weekend are here:

NashvilleSports.com

Not much longer until the “official” kick-off to the Stoops era. The betting lines were released this morning for the first week of college football and BetOnline has the Cats taking the Toppers by 3 in the season opener in Music City.

It’s not long until football season starts!

Last year was rough to say the least. Anything that could have gone wrong did. One thing (of many) the Joker staff lacked was a strong presence during practice. But things have turned around with Coach Stoops and his coaching staff. Neal Brown, the new offensive coordinator, was mic’d up during one of the spring practices.  It’s cool to get an inside look at how Coach Brown conducts his practices. 

There’s only 102 days left until kick off! Get hyped, BBN. @CarolineHallKSR

It’s actually pretty cool looking this time.

But I still vote we take photoshop away from him.

Last night in Kent, Washington, (why?) former #L1C4 forward and current Boston Celtic, Terrence Williams was arrested in a domestic violence dispute, involving a gun.

According to the Kent Reporter:

The victim reported that the father of her 10-year-old son in common, identified as NBA basketball player Terrence D. Williams, arrived to her home for a scheduled visitation exchange of their son. She said during the exchange in the parking lot area an argument ensued. The victim reported that during the argument Williams brandished a firearm and made threats.

 T-Will has a 10-year old “son in common” that he brandishes handguns around. Sounds about right.

@BrennanKSR

In case you missed it, Randall Cobb dressed up as a firefighter. You’re welcome, ladies.

I know it’s early to proclaim this, but Marcus Lee is one of my favorite players coming in this upcoming season. Apparently he doesn’t just dominate in basketball alone. In Cali he is also known for being a beast on the volleyball court.

With the NBA Combine, We’ve been hearing a lot about Archie Goodwin’s draftability. Bleacher Report has his full scouting report and draft breakdown here.

We’ve been asking ourselves lately if K-Wiltj can step up this year and become a leader. Other people are also asking this question.

In case you missed it, Oxbow won the Preakness with Gary Stevens, the oldest jockey in the race, on his back. Kentucky Derby winner Orb’s trainer Shug is disappointed that there will not be triple crown winner this year.

I knew it wouldn’t last…. Coach K is considering returning to Team USA.

In the biggest news of UK sports yesterday, the softball team is rocking on to the super regionals. Also, the SEC tournament bracket was announced for the baseball side.

Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky, Louisville, and Chane Behanan were all featured on ESPN.com today. Kentucky is still considered the favorite to win it all next year, says Jason King, but Dana O’Neil disagrees and picks the Cards to win it again. WCS is picked as the key returnee for UK, and Behanan for Louisville. “You won’t find many 7-footers as athletic as Cauley-Stein at any level…”

-Cauley-Stein is key returnee

-Kentucky or Louisville?

@armonnett_KSR

Poor Archie. The video above shows Archie Goodwin at the NBA Combine struggling with his jump shot as the announcers give the break down on the projected first rounder. Although the commentators start off with some compliments, they quickly take a sour note with a lot of criticism. I personally think he would be better suited as a NBA PG than as a two-guard, and I hope that is what the team that drafts him will get him for. I would love to see him excel as a point guard in the NBA, but time will only tell. Go Archie.

The 2013 regular season is now officially in the books for Gary Henderson’s squad and, following yesterday’s win over Missouri, the Southeastern Conference released the seedings and matchups for this year’s SEC Tournament, which UK essentially has to win if they are to have any more post-season fun. The downward spiral of UK’s season has been documented and will be discussed a little more in depth when the season is officially over, so I won’t get into too much detail about it just yet; however, the Cats’ 30-24 overall record and their 11-19 record in the conference has earned them the 11-seed in the tournament. Kentucky will play 6-seeded Ole Miss in a single elimination game in the opening game of the tournament on Tuesday, May 21 at 9:30 in the morning in Hoover, Alabama.

Take a look at the rest of the bracket and who UK might play should they beat Ole Miss…

-We’ll have all of the games covered, so stay tuned for more info and happenings surrounding the tournament as it plays out. And, as always, Go Cats.

@DJohnson_KSR

Photo by Regina Rickert

In two games the Wildcat offense could only muster up one run, but it would be all that they would need to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals for the second time in school history.  The Hokies took the first game of the day 2-0, which set up a winner-take-all game two.

The lone run of the day for the Cats came with a bit of luck and a couple of Hokie miscues in the fifth inning.  Leadoff hitter, Sylver Samuel, popped up what should have been the first out of the inning but it was dropped by the Virginia Tech second baseman.  Two productive outs later, Samuel was standing on third.  Lauren Cumbess, who was the starting pitcher before moving to first, hit a hard liner off the Hokie first baseman’s glove and was able to leg out the infield single which allowed what would be the winning run to score.  Cumbass and staff ace Kelsey Nunley combined to to throw a five hit shutout to secure the win.

In game one, UK simply  could not get anything going offensively as Hokie starter Kelly Heinz, who was tagged for four runs in the loss to the Cats yesterday, held the Cats to just three hits and no runs in a complete game effort.  The Hokies got both of their runs in the fifth inning on a RBI double and bases loaded walk.

UK now awaits the winner of the Tempe Regional between fifth seeded Arizona State and Georgia.  The Sun Devils, who finished second in the PAC 12 this season, would host UK next weekend if they win one of the two games tonight. If the Bulldogs win twice, it will be an all-SEC best of three series in Lexington next weekend with the winner advancing to the Women’s College World Series.

We are all Georgia tonight.

Go Cats

UPDATE: Arizona State defeated Georgia 2-0.  The Cats will be heading to the desert next weekend.

There was some horse race yesterday that people care about, mainly for betting, but also for the potential to see sports history if a Triple Crown horse is in the making. Alas, Orb didn’t win, and neither did Pitino’s horse, but Oxbow, a horse with 15-1 odds took the race from the favorite on a grey Baltimore afternoon. Orb finished in fourth behind Goldencents and the lady jockey (who really knows the horse’s name?).

Congrats to the Lexington horse from Calumet Farms. Kentucky horses are rocking it this spring.

It’s summer and while UK sports are in a general lull, Kentucky’s second favorite; horses and horse racing has the spotlight as we get ready for the final triple crown race.

With that being said, HBO’s Real Sports and Bryant Gumbel will spotlight the Kentucky thoroughbred industry on Tuesday. Bernie Goldberg will have the segment “Out to Stud”, which will recount the death of the legendary sire Storm Cat, the recession of a few years ago and where things stand today with the horse industry itself.

The show will air Tuesday night at 10 pm with repeats on HBO, HBO2, and on demand.

For the second day in a row, the UK Softball team will face Virginia Tech but this time, a trip to the NCAA Super Regionals is on the line.  The Cats defeated the Hokies 6-2 yesterday afternoon behind a one hit, complete game effort by Lauren Cumbess.

Virginia Tech, meanwhile, had to play Marshall, who defeated Notre Dame in an elimination game earlier in the day,  to advance to the Regional Final.  That game would last an incredible 13 innings as the Hokies tied the game at two with a two-out rally in the sixth and did the same in the 13th.  Marshall had a chance to blow the game open in the top of the 13th as they had the bases loaded with no outs but failed to score.

Hokie starting pitcher, Jasmin Harrell, who pitched two and two-thirds innings against the Cats earlier in the day, went wire to wire against the Thundering Herd for a total of 207 pitches on the day. She was topped by Marshall’s Andi Williamson, who pitched complete games against Notre Dame and Virginia Tech for a grand total of 20 innings and 334 pitches on the day.  334 pitches!!!

UK will have two chances to win the Regional due to the double elimination elimination format.  If they Cats lose the 1pm game, they will play the Hokies again at 3:30 with the winner advancing to the NCAA Super Regionals.  Let’s hope they get it done in game one.

Follow me @mulloyksr for game updates.

Go Cats