When Mark Pope announced that he would be taking questions directly from BBN, we all knew things could get interesting. But honestly, it turned out pretty good; you had some honest questions and some good answers. Sure, there were sarcastic questions that just were never going to be answered, but Pope did address the GM situation. While it wasn’t the answer a lot of people hoped for, at least there is now a clear hierarchy within the basketball front office. Let’s break it down.
Kentucky
Kentucky ‘spell-casting’ woman who allegedly cooked her mother’s severed head had alias as aspiring actor: report
The Kentucky woman accused of killing and dismembering her mother and then cooking her severed head and other body parts was an aspiring actor in California who went by a different name, according to a report.
Torilena May Fields, 32, was arrested on Oct. 9 following an 11-hour standoff with state police after a worker found a disemboweled human torso in the backyard of her mother’s home.
Fields has since been charged with the murder of her mother, Trudy Fields, after she emerged covered in blood from the Mount Olivet, Ky. home where investigators found a charred and severed head, hands, feet and forearm in a “still warm” pot in the oven, Fox56 reported.
Drag marks from the back door to the yard led police to the victim’s torso alongside a pile of hair and blood-soaked mattresses — one that covered human organs and other severed parts, according to police.
Fields first allegedly shot her mother in the head and also “intentionally tortured and killed” a dog, according to the indictment obtained by the local Fox station.
A worker hired by Trudy called 911 after he found the body in the yard and said that a confrontational Fields “was casting spells” on him, cops said.
Fields’ family members were shocked and devastated by the gruesome murder and told the news station she had recently moved back to her mother’s Kentucky house after living in California for several years while pursuing a career as an actor, model and singer.
Fields began going by the name Naomi Navarre while living in the Golden State. The alias was revealed in her indictment, obtained by Fox56.
An Instagram connected to the name shows a woman in a bright and long red wig with blunt bangs, posing for photos with editorialized makeup and clothes. The account’s last post was in September 2022.
“Navarre” aka Fields starred in two 2019 films, “The Desert Project” and “A Dance Story,” according to her IMDb page.
Fields had always dreamed of making it in Hollywood and was voted “biggest flirt” in her high school, according to her senior yearbook obtained by the Fox station.
She wrote in the Bracken County High School yearbook from 2011 that she hoped to become “a famous singer and shock the world.”
She appears to have completed one of those goals.
“Life is what it is. There are two types of people in the world… those who are forgotten and those who are remembered. I choose to be remembered,” Fields eerily wrote as her senior yearbook quote.
Her cousin Olivia Brock told Fox56 that the family is in complete shock.
“All of us have been experiencing shock for the first time, I guess you could say,” she said. “That’s a whole different – grief and shock are two different ballgames.”
A friend of Fields from college described her as outgoing and friendly.
“Just nothing really bothered her. She was very outgoing, energetic, though, funny,” Brandon Shankle, who went to Morehead State University with Fields, told the station. “I wouldn’t say we were best friends forever, but, you know, we were close enough that when I heard this news, I was just stunned. You know, that’s not the person I knew.”
Brock said Fields was in a bad motorcycle wreck in California and wonders if it was the catalyst of a mental break.
“She was an actress and doing her thing out there, and I guess we were told a couple of months ago that she was in a bad motorcycle accident and sustained a brain injury,” she told Fox. “And was, I guess, wandering around Cali. Didn’t know her name. Didn’t know where she belonged. I guess people were trying to get her help down there and couldn’t get it done, so that’s when Trudy stepped in to help.”
After the crash, she moved back home to Kentucky with her mother in August.
“It was a surprise to all of us that she was back here, and we think that Trudy was trying to help her with whatever she had going on mentally,” Brock said.
Fields’ uncle thinks his niece was out of her mind.
“I think somebody has lost control of their mind,” Todd Brock told FOX 56. “Satanism or something had her brainwashed, whatever witchcraft is? I heard she was into it, but the girl in the mug shot? That’s not the girl we know.”
The alleged killer was reportedly under the influence of drugs when police arrested her, according to investigators. The arrest report did not specify what kind of drugs.
Fields is charged with murder, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, torture of a dog or cat, and obstructing governmental operations. She is being held at the Bourbon Count Detention Center on a $1.5 million bond.
Kentucky
Which Kentucky Derby horses are running in the 2026 Preakness Stakes?
Warm and humid weather for Preakness Stakes this weekend
The second race of the Triple Crown is May 16 in Laurel, Maryland. Conditions at Preakness Stakes are expected to be warmer with humidity. There could be a spotty thunderstorm after the race.
Golden Tempo won the Kentucky Derby. He won’t be at the Preakness. And that’s becoming a familiar story.
This marks the second straight year and the third time in five years that the Derby winner has decided not to compete in the Preakness Stakes despite having a healthy horse. The reason is almost always the same: two weeks isn’t enough time.
Trainer Cherie DeVaux made the call quickly after Golden Tempo’s dramatic last-to-first Derby victory on May 2.
“Golden gave us the race of a lifetime,” DeVaux said in a statement. “We believe the best decision for him moving forward is to give him a little more time following such a tremendous effort.”
DeVaux and Golden Tempo are focused on the June 6 Belmont Stakes instead.
The pattern is pretty clear.
From 1997 to 2018, every Kentucky Derby winner ran the Preakness, keeping the Triple Crown path intact. That streak ended with Country House, who won the Derby on the disqualification of Maximum Security, was scratched from the Preakness. The sport has been wrestling with the question ever since. Maryland’s racing leaders have considered moving the Preakness one week later, from the third Saturday in May to the fourth, though no change has been made.
Of the 14 horses entered in the Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park on May 16, just three made the trip from Churchill Downs. None of them won the Derby. One nearly caused the biggest upset in recent memory.
Ocelli (Post 2, 6-1)
The most intriguing Derby returnee. Ocelli finished third at 70-1 odds on May 2, giving trainer Whit Beckman and jockey Tyler Gaffalione a surprise ticket to Laurel Park. He was the lone maiden in the Derby field and remains a maiden heading into Saturday. Nobody expected him to be here.
Incredibolt (post 12, 5-1)
The morning-line co-favorite among Derby runners. Incredibolt finished sixth at Churchill Downs and trainer Riley Mott moved quickly to point him to Laurel Park. Jockey Jaime Torres won the 2024 Preakness aboard Seize the Grey. The connections believe the 1 3/16-mile distance suits Incredibolt better than the Derby’s mile and a quarter.
Robusta (Post 4, 30-1)
The longest shot of the Derby trio is Robusta, who finished 14th of the 14 in the Derby. The question with any horse coming back this quickly after a tough Derby is how much the race took out of him. At 30-1, it seems the market has answered that question.
Kentucky
Northern Kentucky man accused of abusing missing teen girl found at his home
COVINGTON, Ky. (WKRC) – A Northern Kentucky man is in jail, accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl who’d been reported missing.
Matthew Wade, 40, faces charges, including sexual abuse, unlawful transaction with a minor and assault.
Covington Police say they found the teen at Wade’s home on Highway Avenue on Monday. According to the police report, he was knowingly hiding her, knew she was missing and had cut her ankle monitor off.
Investigators say the teen was given alcohol, marijuana and magic mushrooms.
The girl told police wade slapped her and choked her.
Officers also say they found guns in the home.
Kentucky
Exploring what each member of the Kentucky Basketball GM team does
Mark Pope has confirmed that no official GM position will exist for at least this season, and most likely won’t exist going forward. Why? Because he has the responsibilities spread out across 4 different people, and believes that is the best way forward.
“In this ever-changing college basketball dynamic, everybody is trying a different solution. For us, instead of hiring a singular GM, we’ve gone with a more comprehensive general management team approach. We have four members of the team. Keegan Brown is a data analysis and roster construction expert who’s worked in both college and the NBA. Nick Robinson is our salary cap strategy and management specialist. Kevin Sergent is our compliance officer, and he deals with all of our contracts and legal language. Kim Shelton is our JMI liaison, and she does all of our NIL contracts that deal with corporate sponsorships. That’s our four-person general management team.”
But who is each one of these people, and what makes them qualified?
Who’s doing what in the Kentucky basketball front office?
Well, Keegan Brown has been a video coordinator in the G-League. That essentially means he would go and watch all the videos on league opponents and potential prospects, and come up with data-backed scouting reports for the coaching and front office teams. Pope has worked with Brown at BYU, so there is some familiarity there.
Nick Robinson also worked with Mark Pope in Provo, being an assistant coach from 2019 to 2024 and following Pope to Lexington. He has been on staff all 3 seasons now, and is being tasked with handing out Kentucky’s money and setting a budget for each player.
Kevin Sergent is not new to Kentucky; he has been in Lexington since 2020. But this is his first time handling compliance on his own; his official title is Senior Associate AD for Athletic Compliance. He handles all the rules, applying for waivers, basically making sure the entire staff is doing everything the right way.
Kim Shelton is a UK alum who was more known for soccer than anything else. She was part of the very first Kentucky women’s soccer team and is a former CEO of Lexington Sporting Club. She worked for Kentucky when Commonwealth was renamed as Kroger Field, and played a role in setting up naming rights for Kentucky Proud Park. Right now, she is kind of the bridge between Kentucky and JMI, specifically handling BBNIL Suite.
If you don’t remember what BBNIL suite is, it’s essentially the opt-in program where student athletes agree to only work with deals through JMI. They find offers, broker deals, and help athletes make money. It is, of course, optional, but if players decline, they will not be able to use the University of Kentucky logos in their NIL marketing.
Trent Noah is probably the most successful NIL athlete who opted out. The Kentucky native is handling his own NIL, and by the amount of ads and cardboard cutouts I see littered around the state, he seems to be doing pretty well.
Seeing JMI integrated again into Kentucky Basketball is probably going to make some of you uneasy, and I get that. But everyone who has worked with them who has officially gone on the record says they are a pleasure to work with.
And that’s how Mark Pope wants it done. There is a theory out there that he wants a GM, but JMI won’t let him. Considering he has chosen 2 of the 4 people personally, I highly doubt that’s true.
What do you think of his explanation, and what do you think of how he is handling the GM role?
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