Kentucky
KSR Game Day: Kentucky faces first true road test against Florida
Ah, Gainsville Rock City. Home of a nationally recognized roadside graffiti wall, the world-famous ska punk band Less Than Jake, and the infamous Gators from the University of Florida. Good morning, Big Blue Nation; while KSR did not make the trip to the late Tom Petty’s hometown, the Kentucky basketball team did, and they are ready to send the Gators free fallin’ into the loss column.
Today’s game will be Kentucky’s first true road test, considering most of the fans in Louisville were wearing blue when the ‘Cats put a beatdown on little brother a few weeks ago. Unlike at the Yum! Center, home orange will be the dominant color in the crowd as the good folks at Florida decided this would be a good opportunity to have an orange-out. Because of course they did.
There is no question that the Stephen C. O’Connell Center will be rocking. Will Kentucky’s freshmen unleash that dog in ’em and walk out with a win? Or will this game serve as a rude awakening to away games in the SEC?
How to Watch
No. 6 Kentucky (10-2) vs. Florida (10-3)
12:30 p.m. ET | Saturday, January 6 | Exactech Arena at Stephen C. O’Connell Center
- TV: ESPN (Jay Bilas, Dan Shulman)
- Streaming: WatchESPN
- Home Radio: UK Sports Network – 630 WLAP, iHeart Radio (Tom Leach, Goose Givens)
- Online Radio: iHeart
- Satellite Radio: Sirius 161 or 191
- Live Stats: StatBroadcast
What Vegas is Saying
Florida opened up as a 1.5-point favorite over Kentucky on Fanduel. Since then, money has trended in Gator’s direction and the line is now up to -3.5. There doesn’t seem to be too much faith in the Wildcats of Kentucky amongst those in the betting community.
As for point total, the over-under is set at 168.5. Florida averages 86.3 points per game while the Wildcats average 91.1. If nothing else, we could be in store for a high-scoring affair.
Prepare for Florida by relishing the past
Kentucky’s history with Florida runs deep. Sure, the ‘Cats have a bigger rivalry with Louisville and Tennessee but the Gators have been the source of some of the most memorable and notorious moments in recent memory. Relive the magic:
Another blast from the recent past, entangled in the Florida-Kentucky series, stopped by practice last night. Former Kentucky legend, current Atlanta Dream star, and temporary Florida assistant coach, Rhyne Howard, paid the men’s team a visit. No word on who she’ll be cheering for when the ball tips, but know that the camera will be sure to find her multiple times this afternoon.
The Scouting Report
The Gators will provide the Wildcats with one of their most difficult matchups to date this season. Specifically, the Gators’ offensive rebounding could pose a serious threat. The Gators rank fifth in the nation in offensive rebounding percentage, corralling 41.3 percent of their misses. Simply put, rebounding will be important for Kentucky in this matchup, one of the few areas where Kentucky has struggled this season.
The Wildcats gave up 24 offensive rebounds in its last game against Illinois State. Kentucky’s two seven-footers, Aaron Bradshaw and Ugonna Onyenso pulled down just two defensive rebounds in 31 combined minutes against the Redbirds. That can’t happen against Florida. Kentucky is going to need a better rebounding effort from top to bottom.
Then again, Florida’s aggressiveness on the offensive glass could lead to more transition points for the ‘Cats. As Tre Mitchell put it, “You’ve gotta think about it in a sense where if you’re sending two, three guys to the glass for an offensive rebound, there’s nobody getting back on defense. That’s an opportunity for us to get out there and run, we just gotta secure the rebound first.”
Easier said than done, but if Kentucky can regularly limit Florida to one chance on offense, fastbreak points will be easy to come by.
For a more in-depth scouting report, KSR’s Brandon Ramsey has you covered. For more Xs and Os from Brandon and Zack Geoghegan, check out the third episode of KSR’s best-named podcast, Floppy Action.
Free Big Z! Free Big Z!
Kentucky’s latest player enigma, Zvonimir Ivisic, is back from his native Croatia and is with the team in Gainsville. The NCAA eligibility crew is back from their Christmas break as well (purportedly), but continue to keep everyone waiting.
I’m sure it is probably Janice in Accounting’s birthday and a handful of folks have a serious case of the Mondays, but there seems to be little excuse for why is taking so long to make a decision on Big Z’s eligibility. Tre Mitchell told the Lexington Herald, “They just need to free my guy, man. They just need to let him loose.”
One group of Kentucky fans took the cause to the next level. Their idea? Put up a #FreeBigZ billboard outside of the NCAA Eligibility Center in Indianapolis. The targeted location is directly across the intersection, one within walking distance for employees to see going in and out of the office.
The campaign started Friday morning, and within four hours, the $3,600 needed to cover expenses related to the rental and material costs was raised.
You people are crazy.
Kentucky
Several people hurt in Western Kentucky Parkway multi-car accident, officials say
MUHLENBERG, Ky. (WFIE) – Kentucky officials says there are multiple people injured in a three-car accident on Western Kentucky Parkway.
According to a post made by the Central City Fire Department, three vehicles were involved in a crash between the 64 and 65 mile markers eastbound of the parkway.
They say both the eastbound and westbound lanes are closed at this time. The closure should last around 3 hours.
Two people were extricated from a vehicle. Four adults and three juveniles are being taken to the hospital. No update has been given on their conditions.
They say a mass casualty incident was declared, and Ohio County Fire and EMS were called to the scene due to the number of patients.
We will update you when we learn more.
Copyright 2025 WFIE. All rights reserved.
Kentucky
2027 top in-state prospect talks about his Kentucky unofficial visit on Tuesday
Kentucky’s recruiting efforts in the 2026 class have hit a current rough patch, but things are looking promising in the 2027 class, as the staff has already casted a very wide net in the class, with a number of top targets in the fold. As they’re continuing to pursue mostly national targets, a local star is now on the staff’s radar.
2027 in-state guard Braxton Keathley, one of the state’s top prospects even regardless of class, took an unofficial visit to Kentucky on Tuesday for the game against NC Central. Keathley is native of Martin County, KY, and has took the state by storm as he has really stuffed the stat sheet. Just recently, he dropped a triple-double of 34 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds last weekend.
The Kentucky staff has certainly seemed to take notice really quickly. He’s also getting plenty of other interest, too, including having frequent contact with Louisville, LSU, Purdue, South Carolina, and Florida State, plus offers from Eastern Kentucky, UT Martin, Ohio, and Bowling Green, among others. Keathley sat down with Kentucky Wildcats on SI to talk about his recent visit to Kentucky. What were his impressions of the staff? He shared a conversation he had with them before Tuesday’s game. He also had some interactions with others, too.
“They really talked about how well I scored it and how they’ve been hearing about me for a long time,” Keathley said of his conversation with the Kentucky staff. “One of the (Kentucky) assistants mentioned he had a coaching friend tell them that they better jump on me quick cause I was really good. I had several fans come up to me and take pictures. Jack Givens welcomed me and talked to me for a little bit and said he’s highly impressed with my game and plans on coming to a game soon. A couple of other UK players came up, they were really nice and said they been keeping up with me.”
As a Kentucky kid, Keathley says he been a fan of the Wildcats since he was little, even getting to train with Tyrese Maxey this summer, and he also had some great things to say about what he saw from fellow Kentucky natives and current Wildcats Trent Noah, Jasper Johnson, and Malachi Moreno. “I looked up to players like Tyler Herro, SGA, Tyrese Maxey, Devin Booker, Malik Monk and Reed Sheppard. I got lucky that I got to train with Maxey for a week in August,” Keathley said. “I saw Trent Noah last night having great energy and keeping a smile on his face during warmups. You could tell he loved every minute wearing that Kentucky uniform. He cares and it shows. I saw Jasper and Moreno warming up hard. The one thing about it, and my dad always told me, it’s a different place. You got to be special to play there and be willing to accept everything that comes with wearing that jersey.”
Interestingly enough, Keathley’s dad coached former Kentucky greats Anthony Epps and Wayne Turner after their time at Kentucky, so Keathley has a family history of being around all that comes with the passion of Kentucky basketball. What did Keathley’s dad learn about the two former Wildcats he got the privilege to coach? “He said they carried a chip on their shoulder and were great leaders always humble but tough. and I have to do the same.” Now, for Keathley, it’s about climbing the ranks nationally. “A couple (recruiting services) don’t have me ranked yet and that’s ok. I’m going to walk in the gym every night and know I outworked you and I’m going to outplay you,” he said. “I’m going to compete like every game is a championship. I’m going to to play with the same passion that the fans have. I’m always all in there’s no going back or in-between.”
Keathley has so much passion for his community in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, and he has plans of doing big things at Martin County. He also shared a message Trent Noah’s dad had for him during their interaction at Tuesday’s Kentucky game. “Something he said that really stuck out. ‘Us mountain people have got to stick together.’ He’s right, Eastern Kentucky has great people and basketball players. Kentucky basketball as whole, we got to stick together through the highs and lows. That’s what we do.”
That’s a great message from a parent of a current Wildcat who was in his shoes before, being a fellow native of that part of the state. The Kentucky staff is certainly going to keep an eye on him as he continues the impressive run he is on so far this season, because he just continues to catch more and more people’s attention with his play.
Kentucky
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduces legislation for U.S. to leave NATO – UPI.com
Dec. 10 (UPI) — U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican serving a House district in Kentucky, introduced legislation for the United States to pull out of NATO.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, posted on X that she would be a co-sponsor of the Not a Trusted Organization Act, or NATO Act. Utah Republican Mike Lee introduced the same legislation in the Senate earlier this year.
“NATO is a Cold War relic,” Massie said in a statement Tuesday. “We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries.
“NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed over 30 years ago. Since then, U.S. participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk U.S. involvement in foreign wars.”
He added: “Our Constitution did not authorize permanent foreign entanglements, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against. America should not be the world’s security blanket – especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense.”
NATO was founded in 1949 by 12 members as a military alliance involving European nations, as well as the U.S. and Canada in North America. There are now 32 members, with Finland joining in 2023 and Sweden in 2024.
The NATO Act would prevent the use of U.S. taxpayer funds for NATO’s common budgets, including its civil budget, military budget and the Security Investment Program.
Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty allows nations to opt out.
“After the Treaty has been in force for 20 years, any Party may cease to be a Party one year after its notice of denunciation has been given to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the Governments of the other Parties of the deposit of each notice of denunciation,” the treaty reads.
During the last NATO summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, President Donald Trump told reporters he agrees with NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense treaty.
“I stand with it. That’s why I’m here,” Trump said. “If I didn’t stand with it, I wouldn’t be here.”
Article 5 was invoked for the first time after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, leading to NATO’s involvement in Afghanistan.
The Kentucky Republican, who calls himself a “fiscal hawk” and a “constitutional conservative,” has been at odds with Trump on several issues, including fiscal spending, foreign policy/war powers, government surveillance and transparency.
Trump has also been critical of NATO.
During his 2016 election campaign, Trump called the alliance “obsolete.”
He urged nations to spend at least 3.5% of gross domestic product on core defense needs by 2035.
In June, NATO allies agreed to a new defense spending guideline to invest 5% of GDP annually in defense and security by 2035.
Five nations were above 3% in 2024: Poland at 4.12%, Estonia at 3.43%, U.S. at 3.38%, Latvia at 3.15% and Greece at 3.08%. In last is Spain with 1.28% though Iceland has no armed forces and Sweden wasn’t listed.
Some Republican senators want stronger involvement in the alliance, including Joni Ernst of Iowa and Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi. Wicker is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
For passage, a House majority is needed, but 60 of 100 votes in the Senate to break the filibuster and then a majority vote. Trump could also veto the bill.
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