Kentucky
Brown: UK baseball aims to avoid first-time flameout at College World Series
Kentucky baseball embarks on a difficult task as a first-time participant in the College World Series on Saturday. Omaha hasn’t been so kind to first-timers in the recent past.
The Wildcats aim to be an exception.
“It feels like we’ve really kicked the door down now,” said UK outfielder Nolan McCarthy after the Super Regional series-clinching win against Oregon State on Sunday. “We have unfinished business. It feels amazing to be the first ones.”
Since 2000, 17 schools did not advance to the finals in their first appearance in Omaha, including seven teams that promptly dropped their first two games and were eliminated.
(In Louisville’s inaugural appearance in 2007, it lost to No. 2 seed Rice, beat Mississippi State in an elimination game, then was knocked out of the CWS by No. 3 seed North Carolina.)
TCU was the only notable team among those 17, winning three games in 2010 and finishing just shy of the finals losing an elimination game to UCLA.
And then there was Coastal Carolina.
The Chanticleers made it 18 teams since 2000 who reached the CWS for the first time. They made good on their first and only appearance in Omaha in 2016 by taking down Arizona to win the national title.
The Cats could duplicate Coastal’s improbable run as a newcomer to the biggest stage in college baseball, but it wouldn’t be considered much of a surprise.
Kentucky earned its No. 2 national seed.
Most first-time teams pulled off some kind of upset to get to Omaha. Of the previous teams to make the CWS for the first time this century, only Nebraska (8) in 2001 and Vanderbilt (6) and Tulane (5) in 2011 were national seeds.
While the Cats haven’t been a perennial baseball power, they have played like it this season. So the allure of just getting there, which leads to some teams undoing, won’t be a factor for the Cats.
This is a veteran team.
Redshirt sophomore James McCoy is the youngest player in terms of eligibility who is a regular starter. And everyone else who is a mainstay in the lineup has at least three years of experience.
The same goes for its starting rotation of pitchers. Trey Pooser and Dominic Niman are both graduate students. And Mason Moore is a junior.
The Cats embody the “get old, stay old” mantra shared by many coaches in college sports.
UK won the Southeastern Conference regular-season title in a year the league sent a record 11 teams into the NCAA Tournament and placed four teams in the CWS along with the Atlantic Coast Conference. In winning a school-record 22 league games, UK won a program-record 11 of those on the road.
None of this was a surprise in Lexington. The Cats simply lived up to the expectations they set for themselves.
Pitcher Cameron O’Brien, a graduate transfer from Campbell, said during his recruitment coach Nick Mingione told him they could “do something that’s never been done.”
“So to sit here and be doing something that’s never been done before is pretty awesome,” O’Brien said. “And we’re definitely not done yet.”
Kentucky’s pitching staff only ranks fifth in earned run average among the eight teams competing in Omaha. Its overall hitting doesn’t jump out either, as its .287 batting average ranks seventh, above only Florida of remaining teams.
But what the Cats do have, and Mingione is banking on, is a group that pushes each other to be great. The team ranks in the top 25 nationally in doubles, total stolen bases, sacrifice bunts, hits allowed and fielding percentage.
“The strength of our team is our team,” he said.
Kentucky accomplished a lot of firsts this season, be it “first-ever” or “first in a long time,” just to get to Omaha. The Cats have one more first to check off the list.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville celebrated Juneteenth with music, dancing and a parade highlighting Black culture, history and unity.
The Kentucky Black Festival’s Juneteenth Unity Parade brought hundreds of people to west Louisville, with marching bands, dancers, community organizations and families joining together to honor the meaning behind the holiday.
“Seeing the families having a good time seeing everyone dancing, with everything that’s happening in this city and happening in the world, a moment to just take a breath and smile and relax your shoulders is what this is all about,” said Walter Murrah, executive director of the Kentucky Black Foundation.
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
For organizers, the celebration is about more than a parade. It’s about recognizing the history that paved the way for future generations.
“Celebrating Juneteenth is more than just dancing and singing. It’s also reaching back and looking at the giants that paved the way for us, but also taking a moment to just celebrate our blackness because I think oftentimes it’s looked down upon, left out, overlooked, and those kind of things,” Murrah said. “And so being Black is beautiful. Being Black is, you know, it should be celebrated, and that’s what Juneteenth is about, is, you know, marrying the history but also looking ahead to what’s in the future.”
Attendees said the event created a space to celebrate their heritage and come together.
“We’re not celebrated enough, so with this being Juneteenth for freedom and unity to come together, this is the day for us to do that,” said Tara Britt.
Community members also emphasized the importance of teaching younger generations about the holiday and its history.
“It’s very important because if we don’t tell them, they won’t know. We have to get educated to educate them because it’s not in the schools right now,” said Shannon Gilbert. “So we get all the knowledge and give it back to them and make sure they’re educated because they’re the future.”
Organizers said the goal is to make sure Juneteenth is not only remembered but experienced through community celebrations like the parade.
Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, but communities across the country have recognized and celebrated the day for decades.
Kentucky
Demetrus Liggins disputes Fayette County board’s claim he resigned, attorneys allege misconduct
LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — The attorneys for Dr. Demetrus Liggins issued a press release Friday alleging the Fayette County Board of Education publicly announced a resignation that never happened, cited the wrong Kentucky statutes to justify placing him on administrative leave, and installed a replacement superintendent without legal authority to do so.
The press release, dated June 19, 2026, gives FCPS a four-day deadline to rescind the administrative leave, withdraw the replacement-superintendent designation, and correct the public record. If the district does not comply, Dr. Liggins’ legal team has reserved the right to pursue contractual, statutory, constitutional, defamation, false-light, civil-rights, and tort claims.
According to the press release, Dr. Liggins proposed discussions toward a possible separation agreement — he did not submit an unconditional resignation. His attorneys allege he expressly corrected the Board’s characterization before the Board acted, yet the Board publicly announced a “resignation notice” anyway.
The press release also notes a striking internal contradiction in the Board’s own June 11 letter: the document’s letterhead continued to identify “Superintendent: Demetrus Liggins, PhD” even while the body of the letter announced an “Acting Superintendent.”
Dr. Liggins’ attorneys argue the Board’s June 11 leave letter cited KRS 160.160 and KRS 160.370 — neither of which, according to counsel, expressly authorizes a board to indefinitely suspend a contracted superintendent, bar him from communicating with district-affiliated persons, exclude him from all school property, and install a substitute officeholder.
Counsel argues the Board deliberately avoided KRS 160.350, the statute that specifically governs superintendent terms, vacancies, acting appointments, and removal for cause, according to the press release.
The press release also invokes Lexington-Fayette’s unique status as Kentucky’s sole urban-county government under KRS Chapter 67A, arguing the Board’s legal framing is further flawed because Fayette County is not governed by the special Chapter 67C school-governance provisions applicable to a consolidated local government such as Louisville–Jefferson County.
Attorney Amos N. Jones issued a direct on-the-record statement in the press release.
“This is not administrative leave in any meaningful sense. They announced a resignation that never happened, displaced the lawful superintendent, installed another superintendent, silenced Dr. Liggins inside his own system, and then hired investigators to determine whether the result already imposed should be imposed. Kentucky law does not allow a school board to manufacture a vacancy, perform a removal first, and search for a justification afterward,” Jones said.
According to the press release, Dr. Liggins’s contract runs through June 30, 2029. His attorneys allege the Board’s actions breach that contract by stripping him of his office, authority, professional standing, and future-career value while continuing to pay his salary. The contract reportedly prohibits reassignment without Dr. Liggins’s express written consent.
The press release notes that any litigation or settlement arising from this dispute could carry significant financial consequences for Fayette County taxpayers.
The press release places individual Board members — not just the institution — on notice of potential personal legal exposure. Attorneys cite what they describe as a false resignation narrative, the alleged creation of a fictitious vacancy, concerted displacement, and a false-light portrayal of Dr. Liggins. The notice also warns Board members that attorneys retained by FCPS may not represent their individual interests and that they should have received Upjohn warnings about privilege and conflicts.
According to the press release, counsel has demanded preservation of all communications, drafts, closed-session materials, media contacts, video records, investigative instructions, succession discussions, and communications with public officials, unions, employees, activists, and outside counsel. The inclusion of “media contacts” and “communications with public officials” in the demand suggests Dr. Liggins’ legal team believes there may be involvement by parties beyond the Board itself.
As of Friday, June 19, 2026, the four-day deadline issued to FCPS is running. If the district does not comply, Dr. Liggins’ legal team has indicated it will pursue legal action.
Summer practice is full underway for the 2026-27 Kentucky men’s basketball squad. And while the on-court teaching is critical to the offseason, what’s happening off the floor is equally as important.
Earlier this week, head coach Mark Pope and the entire team made a trip to the Kentucky Children’s Hospital, where they helped put together Father’s Day goodie bags, built toys, played board games with the kids, and shared laughs all around. Watching Franck Kepnang, Mason Williams, and Jerone Morton smile ear-to-ear while losing in a board game will make your heart full.
This was more than just a quick stop, though. This was about building real relationships and putting smiles on the faces of kids who deserve it. Returning center Malachi Moreno even reconnected with one of his new friends.
“There was a kid I’ve actually kept in touch with for a while. His name’s Jackson,” Moreno said Thursday. “Took some of my teammates in to meet him. I met him at Dance Blue. We’ve been playing Fortnite together. Got his PSN (PlayStation Network) tag and we’re going to play some Fortnite. Me, him, Kam (Williams), and Trent (Noah), we’re gonna play some Fortnite together.
“He’s such a cool kid. I think the guys really took in what it means to be at this brand. We walk in any room, we’re gonna brighten someone’s day. They might not be as fortunate as us but we’re taking time out of our day to go see them, and we’re having fun with it. I just wanted them to realize how much fun these kids are having with us.”
Judging by the video that UK put out on Thursday (which you can watch below) , it sure looks like everyone was having a blast. Some things are bigger than basketball.
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