Kentucky
Kentucky Baseball will face six preseason Top 25 teams in SEC play
The Southeastern Conference continues to shine as the nation’s premier baseball conference in 2025.
Nine of the top 25 teams featured in D1Baseball’s Preseason Top 25 Rankings hail from the SEC, including No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 3 LSU, No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 8 Georgia, No. 10 Florida, No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 18 Mississippi State, and No. 19 Texas. Kentucky will face six of these nine teams in conference play this season.
Along with the nine teams ranked, other teams who were left out will likely be ranked at some point this season, including Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Winning the conference or notching a top-four seed in the SEC Tournament will be an extremely hard challenge this season, especially with the inclusion of two more teams.
March 14-16: @ No. 8 Georgia
The Cats open SEC play in Athens, Ga. on March 14 at No. 8 Georgia. The Bulldogs, who were led by the No. 3 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft Charlie Condon, were swept by Kentucky last season in Lexington. That series served as Nick Mingione’s team’s coming out party, as the Cats outscored then No. 25 ranked Georgia 37-15 over the three game span.
This series will feature even more juice this season, as Kentucky will be facing former Cat Nolan McCarthy, who transferred to Georgia over the offseason. McCarthy spent three seasons at Kentucky (2021-2024), hitting for a .279 AVG with 13 home runs and RBI.
March 28-30: @ No. 1 Texas A&M
Following a home series against Auburn and two non-conference matchups against Murray State and Xavier, Kentucky heads to preseason No. 1 Texas A&M on March 28. These teams did not face off in the regular season in 2024, but they did meet in the Men’s College World Series. Kentucky fell to A&M 5-1, giving the Cats their first loss in the event.
April 11-13: vs. No. 19 Texas
Kentucky gets its first home series against a preseason top-25 team on April 11 when the No. 19 ranked Texas Longhorns travel to Lexington. The 2025 season will serve as the first in the conference for new head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s Longhorns. Texas is most recently known around the Kentucky program as the college Mitchell Daly transferred from before hitting the biggest home run in Wildcat baseball history.
April 18-20: @ No. 4 Tennessee
Although Tennessee lost some major stars from its 2024 Men’s College World Series winning team, Tony Vitelli’s Volunteers will open the 2025 season ranked at No. 4. Kentucky hosted Tennessee at Kentucky Proud Park in 2024 and lost the series two games to one. In 10 SEC series last season, it was just one of Kentucky’s two losses (Tennessee & South Carolina).
May 2-4: @ No. 18 Mississippi State
The road hits keep on coming as Kentucky travels to No. 18 Mississippi State on May 2 for a road series at Dudy Noble. The Bulldogs were the lone SEC team that did not encounter Kentucky last season.
May 15-17: @ No. 16 Vanderbilt
Finally, Kentucky closes out the regular season on the road in Nashville at No. 16 Vanderbilt. The Cats won the series over the Commodores in 2024, securing a share of just their second ever SEC Regular Season Championship in the process. It was Kentucky’s first series win over Vanderbilt since 2017.
Five of Kentucky’s six series against ranked teams are away from Kentucky Proud Park, where the Cats are 53-13 since the beginning of the 2023 season. Since the beginning of the 2023 season, Kentucky is 27-18 in games on the road.
Kentucky
Kentucky is poised to land either Donnie Freeman or Sebastian Rancik this weekend, per report
Jones posted on Twitter that “Kentucky will have (absent a major change) either Freeman or Rancik by tomorrow,” while also noting the Wildcats still need to add another shooter and another big to round out the roster.
One of the top targets is Donnie Freeman, a 6-foot-9, 205-pound sophomore forward transferring from Syracuse. Freeman arrived in Lexington on Tuesday night and began his visit on Wednesday before leaving without a commitment. While there was concern he could land at UConn, that visit has since been canceled, leaving Kentucky and St. John’s as the top teams.
Freeman averaged 16.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game last season, while adding nearly a block and a steal per contest. He shot 47.4% from the field but 30.2% from 3-point range across 23 games.
The other option is Sebastian Rancik, a 6-foot-11, 220-pound sophomore forward transferring from Colorado. Rancik visited Kentucky starting Wednesday through Thursday and brings a versatile skill set, averaging 12.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2 assists per game while shooting 33.1% from 3.
Either Freeman or Rancik would provide a significant boost at the power forward position for head coach Mark Pope. Kentucky has already added guards Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins in the portal.
Kentucky football coach Will Stein reflects on new position
Will Stein was officially introduced to fans and media as the head coach for the Kentucky Wildcats, replacing Mark Stoops.
LEXINGTON — Kentucky football had its first spring game under new coach Will Stein at Kroger Field on Saturday.
The offense, in blue jerseys, had its moments. So too the defense, donning white uniforms.
Ultimately, the blue squad earned a 23-18 victory in a game called just after noon because of inclement weather.
Stein admitted he “got emotional” as he charged onto the field prior to kickoff.
“I know it wasn’t a real game, but when I ran on the field, I definitely — man, I felt it,” he said. “It was like a wave running over me. And very, very, just cool.”
While it doesn’t count in the standings, Stein walked away pleased.
“I think we got a lot of really good work,” he said. “That’s the goal of spring is to improve with fundamentals and technique, learn how to practice, learn what winning edges that we need throughout spring to go into summer and fall and prepare the team for play. And we came out of the scrimmage clean. There (were) no injuries, which to me, that’s the biggest win of the day. I could (not) care less about the score.
“If we come out clean, that’s good. The Wildcats won.”
New starting QB Kenny Minchey looked about as expected, with sharp passes evened out by moments of inconsistency. Martels Carter Jr., a defensive back who is lining up at running back this spring, scored a touchdown and had several nice runs.
And the defense forced multiple three-and-outs and also picked off one Minchey pass on a two-point conversion.
This story will be updated.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
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