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
LIVE BLOG: Kentucky vs. Clemson in the SEC/ACC Challenge
After four easy wins at home, it’s time to see what this Kentucky team can do on the road. KSR’s new and improved LIVE BLOG will bring you all the sights and sounds from Littlejohn Coliseum as No. 4 Kentucky takes on Clemson in the SEC/ACC Challenge (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Kentucky is 7-0, the best start since the 2016-17 season. If the Cats win tonight, it’ll be the best start since the 2014-15 season. Tonight, they’ll face a Clemson team that is 7-1, the only loss coming at Boise State. The Tigers made it to the Elite Eight of last year’s NCAA Tournament but lost seven players from that squad. This year’s team was picked to finish fourth in the ACC preseason poll and is led by Chase Hunter (16.4 points per game) and Ian Schieffelin (11.6 rebounds per game).
Refresh the feed below for updates and our takes on the game, from both Littlejohn Coliseum and the couch. You can also join the conversation on the KSBoard Game Thread or by texting your observations to 859-587-3828 (standard messaging rates apply).
Special thanks to today’s live blog sponsor, Ole Jim’s BBQ:
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Andrew Carr picks up his 2nd foul
12/03/2024 09:09:04 PM
The fouls are mounting at Littlejohn Coliseum. Andrew Carr picked up his second, bringing Kentucky’s team total to five. Lamont Butler has been on the bench after picking up his second foul at the 15:11 mark. Brandon Garrison also just picked up a foul to take Kentucky’s total to six. Clemson has eight fouls total. This game could drag on well into the night.
Score Update: 11:40 1H – Kentucky 17, Clemson 15
12/03/2024 09:02:03 PM
It’s a back-and-forth battle so far. After missing two free throws Andrew Carr hit a huge three to put the Cats up 17-12. Clemson’s Dillon Hunter responded on the other end to cut that lead to three at the Under-12 media timeout. The Tigers are having their way on the offensive glass so far, with five offensive boards to Kentucky’s three for six second-chance points.
Clemson takes the lead, but Koby Brea takes it back
12/03/2024 08:58:55 PM
Myles Foster gave Clemson its first lead of the game but Koby Brea stole it back with his first three of the game. Unfortunately, he picked up a foul on the other end, but we’ll forgive it if it means more threes.
Score Update: 15:11 1H – Kentucky 11, Clemson 8
12/03/2024 08:51:49 PM
Good news or bad news? Good: Kentucky leads Clemson at the first media timeout. Bad: Lamont Butler just picked up his second foul. Butler’s been playing great otherwise, leading Kentucky with five points, so this is not ideal.
Both teams are a little cold early on. Kentucky is 3-9 from the floor, Clemson 2-8.
Christian Reeves picks up his second foul
12/03/2024 08:49:07 PM
Clemson center Christian Reeves just fouled Otega Oweh on a three-point shot, his second foul of the game. Oweh made two of three from the stripe to make it 9-5 Cats with 16:11 to go until half.
Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr pick up early fouls
12/03/2024 08:44:07 PM
The refs are already making themselves known, calling two early questionable fouls on Lamont Butler and Andrew Carr. Mark Pope, who famously attended a referee symposium to better understand officiating, is unhappy with them so far.
It’s okay because a Lamont Butler and-one makes it 6-2 Kentucky with 18:13 to go.
Birthday boy Jaxson Robinson starts things off with a three!
12/03/2024 08:41:44 PM
Today is Jaxson Robinson’s 22nd birthday and he tipped off the celebration with a big three-point bucket on the opening possession.
Tennessee cruises past Syracuse
12/03/2024 08:33:02 PM
If you’ve got ESPN on waiting for Kentucky vs. Clemson, you watched the end of Tennessee vs. Syracuse. I hate to say it, but the Vols looked very good, cruising past the Orangemen 96-70. Add in Missouri’s win over Cal and the SEC now leads the SEC/ACC Challenge 5-0.
Time for the main event. The crowd at the KSR Road Trip watch party in Fort Collins, Colorado is ready:
10 minutes to go until tipoff
12/03/2024 08:30:29 PM
The crowd at Littlejohn Coliseum looks ready to roll:
Usual Starting Lineup
12/03/2024 08:22:16 PM
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Kentucky will go with its usual starters vs. Clemson.
00 Otega Oweh
01 Lamont Butler
02 Jaxson Robinson
07 Andrew Carr
22 Amari Williams
Pope confirms Brandon Garrison will play vs. Clemson
12/03/2024 08:18:49 PM
Jack Pilgrim said Brandon Garrison looked good in warmups after sitting out the Georgia State game as a precautionary measure (soreness). In his pregame conversation with Tom Leach, Pope confirmed Garrison will play vs. Clemson.
“He got in a really light workout on Sunday evening, got to practice yesterday. So, he’s should be a full go today.
Love to hear it.
Good crowd at the KSR Road Trip Watch Party in Fort Collins
12/03/2024 08:13:33 PM
The radio crew is in Fort Collins, Colorado tonight and, of course, some fans showed up at the Grey Rock Sports Grill to watch the game with them. I’m sure that’s just the beginning of Blue getting in.
Arkansas comes back to beat Miami
12/03/2024 08:08:18 PM
Miami led almost the entire game but Arkansas came back to win it 76-73 thanks to some big buckets by Boogie Fland. Miami has now lost five straight games.
The SEC is now 3-0 in the SEC Challenge, as South Carolina beat Boston College 73-51 and Georgia beat Notre Dame 69-48. No. 3 Tennessee is cruising vs. Syracuse and it looks like Missouri will beat Cal too. So far, it just means more.
Brandon Garrison looks good to go
12/03/2024 08:02:57 PM
Held out “more as a precaution than anything else” due to “a little bit of soreness” against Georgia State, it appears Garrison will make his return for the Wildcats following the one-game absence.
The sophomore forward went through full warmups with no apparent setbacks.
Looks like Kentucky is back at full strength.
Sights and sounds from Littlejohn Coliseum
12/03/2024 07:55:28 PM
KSR has arrived for Kentucky’s matchup at Clemson inside Littlejohn Coliseum ahead of the opening tip. Students flooded the venue as soon as doors opened while the rest of the orange and purple have trickled in since.
They’re not alone, though. Big Blue Nation has showed out, too, with most sections featuring at least a couple of Kentucky fans and several with a good chunk of blue. Talking with BBN members around the arena, many made the short trip from Atlanta over to Clemson — just two hours away.
Plenty to get a “Go Big Blue” chant going if things swing Kentucky’s direction this evening.
Take a look at some of the early views from Littlejohn Coliseum:
Tip time now 9:41 p.m. ET
12/03/2024 07:38:04 PM
The game is already being pushed back. According to Dave Baker on the official UK pregame show, tipoff has been pushed back to 9:41 p.m. ET, probably because Tennessee/Syracuse, which is also on ESPN, is only at halftime. Yawn.
Here are your How To Watch Details for whenever this one does tip off.
Television: ESPN (Karl Ravech, Jimmy Dykes)
Home Radio: UK Sports Network – 630 WLAP, iHeart Radio (Tom Leach, Goose Givens)
Online Radio: iHeart
Satellite Radio: Sirius 158 or 190
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
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.
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.
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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