Kentucky
Kentucky was going to have wins over both teams in the national championship — then Duke collapsed
This was going to be a post talking about how Kentucky beat both teams in the national championship game, starting with Florida to open the night, followed by Duke to close things out. The Gators certainly took care of business, beating Auburn 79-73 to advance to the title game on Monday. Walter Clayton Jr. made history, scoring 34 points with five made 3-pointers to make him the first player since Larry Bird to score 30-plus in back-to-back games this deep in the NCAA Tournament.
Bird did it in the Elite Eight and Final Four with Indiana State in 1979. Now, Clayton has matched that mark, doing it on 11-18 shooting in 35 minutes. His historic performance ended Johni Broome’s career after the fifth-year senior earned SEC Player of the Year honors, going for 15 points and seven rebounds in the loss.
Kentucky defeated Florida to open SEC play on January 4 by a final score of 106-100 — an instant classic inside of Rupp Arena, one of the most memorable performances of Mark Pope’s debut season in Lexington.
Duke was right there to continue that trend, taking a 14-point lead with 8:17 to go while staying up nine with 3:03 on the clock. Cooper Flagg seemed to be writing his storybook finish, sinking two free throws with 1:26 left to go back up seven and push his total up to 27 points with seven rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals in what was a dominant all-around effort.
Then Houston would close out the game on a 9-0 run in the final 33 seconds to pull off the 70-67 win and advance to the national championship to face Florida. The Cougars finished on a 15-3 run in the final 2:05 while the Blue Devils scored just one field goal in the final 10:30 — an epic collapse for Jon Scheyer’s group, ending with a missed Flagg go-ahead jumper to win with eight seconds left. That would wrap up the all-time comeback for Kelvin Sampson’s squad.
The Coogs have never won a title. Now, they’ll get that opportunity to bring home the trophy on Monday while Duke goes home very, very sad.
Florida vs. Houston for all of the marbles, folks. Who you got?
Until then, let me leave you with extended highlights of Cooper Flagg’s clutch moments from his time at Duke:
Cooper Flagg 2024-25 crunch time highlights 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/7FgTMUN1p9
— Big Osc (@bosbbn) April 6, 2025
Anthony Davis remains the only freshman in college basketball history to earn National Player of the Year honors while winning a national championship. Sorry, Cooper.
GRAYSON, Ky. (WSAZ) – New information has been released in the search for a missing woman at Grayson Lake.
According to game wardens with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Marly Kinney, 19, of Ashland, was last seen at Grayson Lake on Wednesday afternoon.
They say search efforts are focused on the water at this time and include Kentucky State Police aerial support, drones, boats, and K9 assistance.
Crews suspend search for missing teen for the night
The search is now into its third day, with officials saying on and off rain has hindered their search and that a group of 50 volunteers are walking the banks of the lake to help in the search.
Search and rescue boats have been seen at the lake as well.
Officials say there are still many questions, including if Kinney is still alive and where exactly she went missing.
They also say they’ve been using a variety of equipment, including sonar and thermal detectors, as well as helicopters and underwater drones.
WSAZ received a statement from Kinney’s family Friday afternoon:
“We are very appreciative of the absolute surplus of support from law enforcement, search and rescue, 1st responders, and all of the community and its volunteers that are here with us and for us searching for Marly. We do not even know how to express our absolute gratitude to you all. We continue to have faith she will be found and brought back to us. We know we have the very best people doing all they can to bring her home.”
Anyone with information is asked to call 911.
We are still working to get more information.
Previous coverage can be found here.
Copyright 2026 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
13 things more likely to happen than winning the Powerball jackpot
Hoping to win the Powerball jackpot? Here are 13 things more likely to happen than becoming an instant millionaire.
The Kentucky Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at Thursday, June 25, 2026 winning numbers for each game.
Cash Ball
02-08-24-32, Cash Ball: 09
Check Cash Ball payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 3
Evening: 6-3-0
Midday: 9-6-0
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Pick 4
Evening: 5-7-6-0
Midday: 5-2-6-6
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Millionaire for Life
03-13-14-34-45, Bonus: 01
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Courier Journal digital producer. You can send feedback using this form.
On Thursday, Kentucky’s home and away SEC opponents for the 2026-27 season were revealed and on top of learning the three opponents who they will play twice, there are some very intriguing matchups. In conference play, Kentucky will face six teams who are among the top 25 in many preseason rankings.
In SEC play, Kentucky will play Tennessee, Vandy and Ole Miss all both home and away. The home matchups include Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vandy. As for the road tilts, the Wildcats will face Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee and Vandy. Let’s take a look at some interesting developments from the schedule release.
John Calipari returns to Rupp Arena (again)
In Calipari’s first year with Arkansas, he got the best of Kentucky when he came into Rupp Arena and left with a 10-point victory, a game where you could really feel the tension all game long in the building from Kentucky fans, which translated onto the court with the players. Last season, it was Kentucky who shocked everyone when they stole one on the road against a top 20 Arkansas team after a rough up-and-down season up to that point. Now, the two will face off again as Kentucky will look to get the win in Rupp and make sure Calipari doesn’t get two in a row in the building. It’ll be another highly-anticipated showdown.
Kentucky hits the road at Texas
This is shaping up to be a major challenge for Kentucky next season and may even end up being one of the biggest games of the season. Texas is seen by many as a clear top 10 team, with some even having them within the top five and when you combine that with the fact that the game is on the road, the Wildcats will have their hands full. The Wildcats fell to the longhorns in the 2024-25 season, and it’ll be a much stiffer challenge this time.
Which game could be a trap?
We don’t have the game-by-game dates yet, so it’s hard to say with a lot of confidence, but opponent-wise, Georgia could really give Kentucky fits. In Pope’s first year, his team struggled handling the physicality of the Bulldogs and now, they’ve retained one of their best guards for another year and have added physicality through the portal. Mike White’s teams love to make opponents uncomfortable and they could do that once again down in Athens. Another sneaky team to watch is Oklahoma, who will have very good guard play. Kentucky will face both teams on the road.
Overall, it’s a pretty fair SEC schedule for a Kentucky team who has the capability of a return to being atop the conference once again. Mark Pope has such a system-fit squad and he can do some damage in the SEC.
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