Kentucky
Kentucky basketball: 5-star 2025 Indiana sharpshooter no longer considering Wildcats
Kentucky coach Mark Pope on how team can find the joys in basketball
Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope discusses how players should care about something more than themselves to find the joys in basketball with their team.
LEXINGTON — Cross one potential candidate off the list for coach Mark Pope and Kentucky basketball’s 2025 recruiting class.
Braylon Mullins, one of the top shooters in the 2025 cycle, cut his list of finalists to three Tuesday. UK was not among that trio.
Mullins will choose among Indiana, North Carolina and UConn.
The Wildcats once were considered one of the leading contenders — if not the odds-on favorites — to land Mullins. Instead, he’ll play his college ball elsewhere.
When Mullins trimmed his list to 10 schools, Kentucky was one of them along with Alabama, Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Purdue, Tennessee and UConn. An official visit to UK had been planned for the weekend of Oct. 26; the trip would have coincided with the football team’s home game versus Auburn. Now, that OV is off Mullins’ itinerary.
Per the 247Sports Composite, Mullins is a five-star recruit, ranked No. 23 in the 2025 class. His ranking among the major recruiting databases has been on a meteoric rise after superlative showings in AAU play this past summer. Earlier this year, Mullins was No. 73 nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings — 50 spots below his current placing.
Mullins is viewed as one of the best pure shooters in the 2025 cycle.
Per Kentucky Sports Radio, Mullins connected on “47.3% of his shots from deep across 17 games played during the spring/summer.” And he achieved that efficient percentage while averaging 7.7 3-point attempts per game for Indiana Elite, which plays on the Adidas 3SSB circuit.
One of his Indiana Elite teammates is Malachi Moreno, a five-star center who on Aug. 16 became Kentucky’s first 2025 commitment. After Moreno’s pledge, he made a spirited pitch for Mullins to join him in Lexington.
“We did have that in mind,” Moreno told KSR. “I knew he was going to be great after — I mean he blew up the last three summers, I just knew he was going to be great. Once we had similar offers I was like, ‘Yo, we actually have an opportunity to be college teammates.’ … I’m gonna make sure he puts this (Kentucky shirt) on.”
Moreno’s dream will remain just that.
The Wildcats have numerous offers out to 2025 prospects. Only one has committed elsewhere (point guard Darius Acuff Jr. to Arkansas), while others (Mullins, AJ Dybantsa, Koa Peat, Darryn Peterson, Eric Reibe, Meleek Thomas and Tounde Yessoufou) don’t have UK as a finalist.
But Pope and his staff have begun to focus their energy on a select group.
Five-star power forward Caleb Wilson was in Lexington earlier this month for an official visit. After that, the Wildcats’ staff visited Wilson at his school, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal in Atlanta.
Wilson has made no bones about wanting to team up in college with another 2025 prospect UK is actively pursuing: four-star guard Acaden Lewis.
According to KSR+ reporter Jacob Polacheck, five-star point guard Mikel Brown will reportedly be in town for an official visit later this week. Five-star center Chris Cenac also will be in Lexington this weekend for an official visit.
The other 2025 recruits Kentucky still is in the running with include:
Jasper Johnson, who became UK’s second 2025 pledge earlier this month, was one of 30 players who showcased his skills in Overtime Elite’s fall combine Tuesday in Atlanta.
About 90 college coaches and NBA scouts observed the session.
Here are Johnson’s numbers from the combine:
Shooting drills
- Pull-up jumpers: 16 for 30 (53.3%)
- Movement 3s: 44 for 70 (62.9%) — Best percentage of all combine participants
- Catch-and-shoot 3s: 37 for 50 (74.0%) — Best percentage of all combine participants
TOTAL: 97 for 150 (64.7%) — Third-best shooting percentage among participants; one of only three to post a percentage above 60%
Measurements
- Standing reach: 8 feet, 5 inches
- Wingspan: 6 feet, 9 inches
- Height (with shoes): 6-foot-4 ½
Athletic drills
- Approach vertical: 32 inches
- Standing vertical: 25 inches
- 3/4 court sprint: 3.44 seconds
- Lane agility: 11.46 seconds
- Reaction shuttle: 3.21 seconds
Watch the entirety of the OTE combine in the embedded video below.
Miikka Muurinen is one of the country’s top players in 2026. And he plans to make an official visit to Lexington in the future.
Just not the near future.
Per KSR+, Muurinen likely won’t be on UK’s campus until the calendar flips to 2025.
“I’m probably not going to do it this year,” Muurinen told KSR+. “I have to be with my team and spend time with them.”
Ranked as the No. 12 overall player in the 2026 cycle, per the 247Sports Composite, Murrinen already has taken OVs to Arkansas, Michigan and Utah.
But the Wildcats are squarely in the mix for the second-ranked power forward in his class.
“We’re going to make something happen,” Muurinen told KSR+. “Kentucky is, for sure, one of my favorites, as of right now.”
Muurinen is one of eight prospects Kentucky has offered in the 2026 class.
Other tidbits of note about UK men’s basketball with the 2024-25 season fast approaching:
- The Wildcats started preseason practice Monday. The annual Big Blue Madness event is set for Oct. 11, followed by the Blue-White preseason scrimmage Oct. 18. UK’s first preseason exhibition is Oct. 23 against Kentucky Wesleyan at Rupp Arena. Kentucky opens the 2024-25 campaign at home versus Wright State on Nov. 4.
- Former Wildcat Daimion Collins is ready to take the court once more. Collins, who spent two seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23) at Kentucky, transferred to LSU ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. But he appeared in just six games for the Tigers last year before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury against North Florida. Now, according to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, Collins “has been fully cleared for all basketball related activities.” He played in 47 games for the Wildcats over two seasons but made just two starts. Collins has averaged 2.6 points and 2 rebounds per contest (58 games) in three seasons as a collegian, making 52.8% (57 for 108) of his field-goal attempts.
- Two people with connections to UK were enshrined Monday in the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 2024 induction class. One was Kentucky basketball great Tony Delk, who netted first-team All-American honors en route to leading the program to the national championship in 1996. The other was Oscar Combs, who founded The Cats’ Pause in 1976. The Cats’ Pause was the first independent publication devoted to solely covering the athletics program at one university.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
Kentucky
GE Appliances bolsters ties with US suppliers as it moves production from China to Kentucky
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — GE Appliances on Thursday touted wide-ranging ripple effects from shifting production from China to Kentucky as it announced more than $150 million in new contracts awarded to U.S.-based suppliers.
The supplier contracts range in value from $330,000 to $41 million, span 10 states and cover crucial segments of the supplier chain for the appliance maker’s washer and dryer production — from plastics and castings to steel and aluminum, the company said. The suppliers range in size from U.S. Steel to family-owned companies.
With the new contracts, GE Appliances said it is increasing domestic spending on suppliers by 3.3%.
The suppliers will support production of a combo washer/dryer and a lineup of front load washers, all of which GE Appliances is moving from China to its sprawling Louisville complex known as Appliance Park. The company says it’s investing $490 million to retool a plant for the project, which will create 800 new jobs.
Production is scheduled to begin in early 2027, it said, and will expand the total footprint devoted to clothes care production at Appliance Park to the equivalent of 33 football fields.
“When we invest in U.S. manufacturing and our people, it drives growth far beyond our own walls,” Lee Lagomarcino, a GE Appliances vice president, said Thursday in a news release. “These new supplier contracts represent what ‘Built for America’ is all about — investing in U.S. manufacturing, creating more American jobs and building opportunity that multiplies.”
The announcements come as President Donald Trump attempts to lure factories back to the United States by imposing import taxes — tariffs — on foreign goods. The president recently said the U.S. would lower tariffs implemented earlier this year as punishment on China for its selling of chemicals used to make fentanyl from 20% to 10%. That brings the total combined tariff rate on China down from 57% to 47%.
The $150 million-plus in new supplier contracts reflects the amount GE Appliances will spend each year for shipments of parts, components and raw materials to produce the washers and dryers, it said. Contract values could increase if sales of the washers and dryers grow, the company said.
GE Appliances said it spends $4.6 billion with more than 6,500 U.S. suppliers, a 69% increase in spending and a 58% rise in its number of suppliers since 2019. Its U.S. supply chain has grown for more than a decade, it said.
“While tariffs have certainly been a factor, there are also many other benefits such as shorter lead times, reduced transportation costs and the ability to collaborate with your supply chain to ultimately serve our customers better,” Lagomarcino said.
The new contracts were awarded to businesses in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Alabama and California, GE Appliances said. It awarded more than $40 million in contracts to suppliers in Kentucky, more than in any other state.
The contracts are the first of many expected ripple effects from its broader, five-year, $3 billion commitment to strengthen its U.S. manufacturing, reshore certain production and create more than 1,000 jobs, the company said. GE Appliances announced plans in August to shift production of refrigerators, gas ranges and water heaters out of China and Mexico. The company also has manufacturing plants in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Connecticut. The company is a subsidiary of the China-based Haier company.
The Michigan State Spartans picked up a major victory against the Kentucky Wildcats in the Champions Classic, 83-66.
The Spartans get their first Champions Classic victory since 2022, which also came against Kentucky. MSU was in control of the game almost from the very beginning.
One of the most encouraging parts of MSU’s victory was how well the team shot the ball from the floor. Tom Izzo’s team has struggled to score in the first few games, especially from three-point range.
But on Tuesday night, the Spartans saw the ball go in the basket at a higher rate than they have all season. Kentucky has been a middle-of-the-pack defense in the early going of this season, and the Spartans exposed that, despite being a below-average offensive team themselves.
How were the Spartans able to hit so many shots and have such a big offensive performance? Let’s break it all down.
The biggest and most important part of the Spartans’ offense is how point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. sees the floor. He had 13 assists and leads the nation in that category.
Not only does Fears put up assist numbers, but he is seeing the floor so much better than in the last few seasons. He can read the defense and find an open player without letting the defense speed him up.
According to ESPN, Fears’ 13 assists are the most by a Spartan against an AP-ranked team since Mateen Cleaves in 1999. It is clear that Fears is on the path to becoming one of the best Spartan point guards, which is an exclusive list.
The Spartans’ young, unknowns also contributed to the offensive success, as players like Kur Teng and Jesse McCulloch made big shots at key moments throughout the game.
Kentucky went on a 13-4 run to cut the lead to 10, but McCulloch nailed a three-pointer from the corner to push the lead back to 13. The Spartans eventually continued to extend the lead after McCulloch hit that big shot.
Teng, a player the team needed to emerge as a contributor, poured in a career-high 15 points. The sophomore has always been a talented shooter, and he has the opportunity to show he is capable of being a big-time scorer for this team.
Teng hit three three-pointers, including a big-time shot near the end of the first half. This game can give him confidence as the Spartans continue to take on tough opponents.
MSU finally saw the ball go in the basket at a high clip. It may not be like this every game, but the Spartans should be encouraged by what they saw on Tuesday night.
Keep up with all our content when you follow the official Spartan Nation page on Facebook, Spartan Nation, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be sure to share your thoughts on the Spartans’ offensive effort against Kentucky when you join our community group, Go Green Go White, WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on X @MSUSpartansOnSI as well.
On a night where the men’s team was embarrassed by Michigan State, the Kentucky Wildcats women’s basketball team showed once again just how good they can be. They faced Purdue on Tuesday night and thoroughly dominated the game, winning 76-35.
Center Clara Strack had another double-double, with 17 points and 13 rebounds. She also blocked 5 shots, continuing to show that she’s one of the best defenders in the country. Jordan Obi also had 17 points and 8 boards. Amelia Hassett and Tonie Morgan each had 11 points.
The Wildcats beat Purdue in every category. They shot 41% from the field and 37% from three point range. They won the rebounding battle 49-40, and the turnover margin 6 to 9.
Defensively, Purdue was never able to get anything going. Kentucky held them to 20% shooting and 16% shooting from deep. The Wildcats also blocked 10 shots and score 13 points off turnovers.
Kentucky’s next game is a big one. They’ll take on Louisville on Saturday with both teams ranked in the top 25.
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