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Mountaineers beat Kentucky for first time, advance to Sun Belt title game – WV MetroNews

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Mountaineers beat Kentucky for first time, advance to Sun Belt title game – WV MetroNews


MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia isn’t striving to play from behind, but that method has done nothing to harm the Mountaineers through a pair of matches in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

On Wednesday, the top seed Mountaineers allowed No. 4 seed Kentucky to score 2:15 into the contest at Dick Dlesk Stadium, creating an early deficit for the home team.

Less than 3 minutes later, Sergio Ors Navarro provided the equalizer, and the WVU defense buckled down the rest of the way, while Carlos Hernando scored what proved to be the winning goal less than 10 minutes into the second half as the Mountaineers picked up the program’s first win over Kentucky in six tries, 2-1.

“The goal didn’t phase us and we got the equalizer very quickly, but incredibly proud with the quality of performance tonight. Really professional and mature at times and some really nice football at times and felt we were dominant the entire way through,” WVU head coach Dan Stratford said. “The way the guys approached the game and the quality and brand of football the guys played, we very much deserved to win this.”

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The result allows West Virginia (12-1-6) to welcome Marshall for Sunday’s Sun Belt title game. It’s a rematch of last year’s final, which the Herd won, 3-2. Marshall blanked James Madison 1-0 in the other Sun Belt semifinal Wednesday.

“It’s the game we wanted,” Stratford said. “It’s the best RPI game and the best chance of us squeaking us into the top 8 from a RPI perspective and hopefully having as many home games as possible in the NCAA Tournament. It’s the type of game you want to play in.” 

After rallying from a 2-0 first-half deficit for a 3-2 victory over Georgia Southern in Sunday’s Sun Belt quarterfinal, West Virginia was again forced to play from behind after UK’s Logan Dorsey made the most of extended space after receiving a pass, maneuvered around the Mountaineer defense and blasted a shot with his right foot that got by Marc Bonnaire.

WVU got even 4:55 into the match following a corner kick taken by Frederik Jorgensen that was initially touched by teammate Felix Ewald and wound up off the head of Sergio Ors Navarro and into the back of the net.

It was the 14th goal this season for both Dorsey and Ors Navarro.

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“We started the game well and it helps to have such a mature group that has been in this position before,” Stratford said. “It’s something that hasn’t phased us. I assure you it’s not the game plan, but this group has shown time and time again they’re capable of showing really good resilience and coming through adverse moments like this.”

Neither team scored again for the remainder of the first half, though the Mountaineers generated more quality chances.

“We felt like we were the better team. We felt like we had played well. I didn’t feel like a great deal needed to change,” Stratford said. “There were some minor details and the alertness and awareness in some of our communication to nullify their capacity to get behind us or nullify moments where we would lose territory and we’re defending a long throw with a difficult wind. Those details are really important against a team with Kentucky’s athleticism and size. The message was kind of stay the course and continue to trust that the longer the game goes on, the more our depth and energy levels will kick in and we’ll be the team that finishes stronger.”

Jorgensen delivered another gem off a set piece to give WVU its first lead less than 9 minutes into the second half. This time, Jorgensen sent a ball into the box on a free kick and it found the head of Carlos Hernando, who made the most of the golden opportunity and sent it past UK goalkeeper Casper Mols.

“We’ve never beat Kentucky as we talked about,” Jorgensen said. “You could tell from everybody today we wanted to beat Kentucky and be in that final Sunday. It’s a little sweet that it’s against Marshall. We want to beat Marshall at home in the final and get that revenge from last year.”

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It marked WVU’s second goal off a set piece in the match and its third goal off a set piece over its last two games.

“Two games ago, we ripped up everything we were doing and started again,” Stratford said of the team’s approach to set pieces. “Sometimes you just have to give a fresh pair of eyes to it and for the players to see it that way as well.” 

Bonnaire stopped one shot and Mols made two saves.

The Wildcats fell to 6-6-6. They entered the match 3-0-2 all-time against the Mountaineers.

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'We know exactly the heart of this team': Kentucky's offense will continue to fight down the final stretch

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'We know exactly the heart of this team': Kentucky's offense will continue to fight down the final stretch


Kentucky’s 2024 season has not gone as planned. The Wildcats only have three wins in nine outings with a 0-4 record in SEC games at Kroger Field. This team has lost outright as a betting favorite four times but has also gone toe-to-toe with top-15 teams three times, including a road win over Ole Miss that continues to look better. Injuries are piling up, and two more games against top-20 foes remain on the schedule.

It’s been a tough year for Kentucky. Leaving the bye week, the Wildcats will host FCS Murray State in the penultimate home game of the season. The offense will be looking to build off some of the good things accomplished in the last outing against top-10 Tennessee.

“I think we know exactly the heart of this team and the fight of this team. Again, I think they played extremely hard. We’re probably a couple plays away from getting that one done. A work in progress, obviously. Constant state of improvement,” Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan said on Tuesday. “I thought there was a lot of good things in that game. We, just from a consistency standpoint, have gotta get that stuff done to finish a game.”

“The focus is on us playing good football and continuing to find the identity.”

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That identity is beginning to include some younger players as Malachi Wood, Jamarion Wilcox, and Hardley Gilmore IV have all stepped into bigger roles in recent weeks. Kentucky is not ready for a full-on youth movement as the goal is to give the team the best chance to win football games on Saturdays, but it’s clear the coaching staff is willing to try something different. True freshman quarterback Cutter Boley received a ton of reps with the first unit last week and is expected to get extended game action on Saturday.

Kentucky is looking for answers and attempting to fix all the mistakes plaguing the offense all season. However, this is a group that has not quit yet. The Wildcats have continued to go back to work and are fighting through this tough slump.

“I’ve been super fortunate of this group. I really have. I mean they are out there today ready to get back to work just like they have been all year,” Hamdan said. “I’ve been appreciative of those guys and their buy-in, and I think it speaks volumes of the culture of this program.”

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How strong is that culture? We got a positive answer with how Kentucky performed against Tennessee. Will that effort translate into the last three weeks of the season after another bye week? Stay tuned.



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Maker’s Mark To Launch 2024 Holiday Cocktail Popups In Kentucky And NYC

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Maker’s Mark To Launch 2024 Holiday Cocktail Popups In Kentucky And NYC


A new Maker’s Mark activation is bridging Kentucky and New York City this holiday season. Dubbed “Le 46,” the limited-time pop-up will launch at the Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, before transferring for a longer stint in one of New York City’s busiest hubs. To create a bespoke cocktail menu bridging the two locales, the brand has tapped one of the world’s most celebrated cocktail mavens: 44 year industry veteran Colin Field.

For consumers and brands alike, the holidays are often the busiest time of year. That’s doubly true in the whiskey world, when American brands vie for attention with limited bottlings positioned as ideal holiday gifts (or rare personal splurges). The past two years, Maker’s Mark has followed that trend, dropping their highly limited Cellar Aged expression — the brand’s first-ever age-stated bourbon — right as Fall whiskey shopping ramps up.

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But with Le 46, Maker’s is taking a different approach, focusing instead on the readily available Maker’s 46. Initially launched in 2010, Maker’s 46 starts with the brand’s mature wheated bourbon and finishes it for an additional nine weeks with seared French oak staves. Maker’s 46 is now a part of the brand’s core lineup. In a world of allocated, hard-to-find bottles, it’s a reliable standard that’s almost always on shelves.

The first iteration of Le 46 kicks off at Maker’s Mark’s Loretto, Kentucky, distillery on December 6th. The $35, reservation-only experience includes after-hours distillery tours, cocktails, and snacks. (And, yes, guests can dip their own bottles in the famous red wax.)

A few days later, on December 11th, Le 46 moves to NYC’s Union Square Park at 31 East 17th Street (2nd Floor) for a one-night experience. The brand’s Union Square popup then continues as “Maker’s Mark Winter Wheat Wonderland” through December 22nd. According to the brand, registered Maker’s Mark ambassadors will get first dibs at reservations throughout the NYC run.

Of course, seasonal popups are nothing new in the cocktail space. New York is likely to be chock-full of them this season, which can give bargoers decision fatigue on where to sip the holiday spirit.

To stand out from the crowd, Maker’s tapped noted mixologist and author Colin Field to create a bespoke cocktail menu for the events. Field is one of mixology’s most veteran superstars, best known for helming Bar Hemingway in Paris. He’ll be hand-mixing cocktails at the distillery on December 6th, as well as the NYC event on December 11th from 6-8pm.

“I’m looking forward to embracing southern hospitality and marrying it with my French-bartending influence,” Field tells Forbes.

As of this writing, Field — who often works through five or more iterations in designing cocktails — was still tweaking the Le 46 drinks menu. That has involved a deep dive into the Maker’s Mark flavor profile, including pairings with potential food items on offer at the Kentucky and New York City popups.

“My first tip for aspiring mixologists is to get to know the bourbon. Sip it neat, add a drop of water, or enjoy it alongside something simple like bread and butter.”

But when it comes to bourbon cocktails, emphasized that over-complication can be any mixologist’s Achilles’ heel.

“Sometimes, the most memorable cocktails are those with just a few well-chosen ingredients that allow the bourbon to shine.”

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Kentucky gets early signature win at Champions Classic against Duke | Opinion

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Kentucky gets early signature win at Champions Classic against Duke | Opinion


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ATLANTA — We’re going to have plenty of time, like maybe a decade or two, to talk about Cooper Flagg. And in the aftermath of Tuesday’s Champions Classic, the presumptive No. 1 pick is going to get his first real taste of what the world of sports takes is all about. 

That’s how it works when you live up to the hype for 39 minutes but mishandle a ball in a crowd and then dribble it off your foot with the game on the line. Better get used to it. 

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But Flagg is 17 years old and Duke is still Final Four caliber team. It’s way too soon to start nitpicking. 

It is not, however, too early to render a judgment on the other big storyline from a remarkable night of college basketball.

Mark Pope? Yeah, he’s the real deal, too. Just a couple weeks into the college basketball season, he’s already made Kentucky basketball fun again. 

It’s been awhile. 

“This group is special,” Pope said after Kentucky’s 77-72 victory, giving him a signature win right out of the gates and at a time when there was — and probably still is — some uncertainty about whether he’s up to this mammoth job. 

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Time will tell. But one thing you can already see: There’s a major vibe shift around Kentucky basketball.  

Freed from the tension of John Calipari’s stubbornness, his deteriorating relationship with Kentucky’s administration and his antagonistic posture toward a fan base that cares like no other in sports, Big Blue Nation will not find this kind of basketball difficult to embrace. 

It’s beautiful, it’s energetic, and most of all its drama-free. 

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Yeah, Kentucky needed a change. They got it. And it looks as if they’re really, really going to like it. 

Nothing against Calipari, a Hall of Fame coach whose first 10 years there were phenomenal. But the whole operation got stale, it got contentious, and his last four seasons were a slow-motion train wreck that ended with some embarrassing NCAA tournament defeats. 

Still, when Calipari left for Arkansas, there were no guarantees about how it would go for Big Blue Nation. After all the big names said no, the initial reaction to Pope was strongly negative. 

Despite being part of Kentucky’s 1996 national title team, he was still a coach with no NCAA tournament victories in nine years at Utah Valley and BYU. 

Kentucky fans, of course, quickly embraced Pope because there was really no other choice. He wasn’t just one of theirs, he reminded them what that actually meant. For 15 years, the program was about the Calipari brand. From the first moment he got the job, Pope was determined to flip that back around and make Kentucky the star of the show. 

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That’s a great way to start a honeymoon, but you also have to show it on the floor. And with a roster that Pope pulled together largely from the transfer portal, there was a scenario where Year 1 was basically a write-off.

“Nobody knew each other,” Pope said. 

But you can already see that Pope is really good at three things that will serve him well as Kentucky’s coach. 

The first is that he is incredibly dialed in to how players interact with each other and feed off each other. He talked, for instance, about the human nature for people to pull away from problems and the intentionality it takes to do the opposite. You saw that Tuesday when Kentucky got down 10 points in the first half and just kept hanging in the game until the experience and physicality of its older players took over in the final minutes 

“I felt like it was really special for us,” said senior Andrew Carr, a forward who transferred from Wake Forest and scored 17 points with two huge and-1 finishes in the final minutes. “Not everything was going our way, and coach talks about turning into each other, the people that matter, and the closer we get it’s harder to beat us.”

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The second big trait of a Pope team is the offense. It just flows. For years, one of the big frustrations fans had with Calipari is that the ball didn’t move enough, there wasn’t enough spacing and he didn’t emphasize 3-point shooting until his final season. With Pope, that’s not an issue. The ball zips around, guys move off the ball and everyone has the green light to shoot when open. This was the ballgame: Kentucky made 10-of-25 threes to Duke’s 4-of-23.

And the third thing is that Kentucky just plays really, really hard, which it will need to do against most teams. The Wildcats have some good pieces, but they won’t have a huge talent advantage in most of their big games — and they certainly didn’t against a Duke team with multiple future NBA draft picks. That’s arguably the biggest reason why Kentucky’s effort just wore down Duke to the point where Flagg was too exhausted to execute down the stretch after scoring 26 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in 32 minutes. 

“Guys went and sat in the locker room (at halftime) and it was constructive,” Pope said. “Guys do most of the fixing before I get in the locker room. It was just sheer resolve and determination. There was a lot of ebb and flow, and the game almost swung away from us, and the guys reeled it in.”

It’s still too early in the college basketball season to draw a whole lot of conclusions about where either Kentucky or Duke is going to end up. But for Pope, a man who arguably has the best but toughest job in college basketball, it was a validating night. 

He said after the game that he’d have felt the same way about his team whether they won or lost, and that’s probably true. But beating Duke is no small thing, and the amount of belief and credibility Kentucky will get from this win will have a cascading effect on the fan base, on recruiting and on the confidence of a team that believes it might have something special. 

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All in all, Big Blue Nation couldn’t have asked for anything more.

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