49 Kentucky players were drafted into the NBA during the John Calipari era. Despite having a couple of guards in Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham expected to hear their names called early later this summer — has the Wildcats’ NBA Draft tradition left with Calipari to Arkansas?

According to new head coach Mark Pope, he doesn’t think so.

“It’s been a mainstay of Kentucky basketball since the beginning of time,” Pope told local reporters. “I mean, my senior season (1996) we won a national championship and we had nine guys for that team going into play at least seven years in the NBA. Nine — that’s 75 percent if my math is right, so this brilliant relationship between Kentucky basketball and the NBA is something that’s been long-standing and I think it’s vital and important.”

Calipari had a first-round draft choice in every year that he was head coach in Lexington. Before that, Kentucky produced just six draft choices from 2000-2009. That group included legends of the program in Jodie Meeks, Rajon Rondo and Tayshaun Prince, but pales in comparison to what came after.

However, the NBA was very kind to UK in the 80s and 90s, seeing 29 Wildcats — including Pope in 1996 — hear their name called in the draft over those two decades.

“For us, it’s a manifestation of the success that we have here,” Pope continued, alluding to the eight national titles UK has won under five different head coaches across all eras of college basketball. “When you see teams win, and win at the highest level — it’s because they have good players and those players become great. Players that become great have a chance to play.

“Our relationship with the NBA — if we do well and our guys do well — it will continue in massive earnest, clearly like it did with Cal. Like it did with Tubby [Smith], with coach [Rick Pitino, Joe B. [Hall]. Hopefully we will continue down that road because it’s a really important part of what we do.”

It will be tough to surpass the 50+ former Kentucky players that Calipari will ultimately have drafted by the beginning of next season.

Mark Pope will look to keep the tradition going as Kentucky moves forward with its new head coach. As for year one, he has put together a team full of college veterans. Whether their game will carry over to the NBA isn’t as easy to predict as one of Calipari’s five-star recruits, but Pope’s squad will likely still get looks from NBA scouts simply from the name on the front of the jersey alone.

After a years-long rule-making process at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), coal mines will have to keep workers safe from toxic silica dust by lowering the legal exposure limit from 100 micrograms to 50 micrograms over an 8-hour work shift.

Experts have long-known that silica dust is causing a surge in the incurable black lung disease among central Appalachian coal miners. It’s caused as miners inhale bits of the rock that’s being pulverized to get to harder-to-reach coal seams.

“You want to know what it’s like to have black lung?” John Robinson, a former miner battling the disease asked at a roundtable discussion in Louisville on Monday. “Grab your pillow off your bed, go outside, and get your push mower going in your yard.”

Other industries who extract things like metal, sand and gravel will also need to comply with the silica standards. For the first time ever, they’ll also be required to X-ray workers’ lungs. Those X-rays will be stored in a database managed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Those industries have said they don’t see the same epidemic coal has with black lung, but regulators hypothesize that’s because they don’t look.

“My guess is, that when we go looking for a problem, when we go looking at these miners and their chest films, we’re probably going to see silica in those lungs,” NIOSH researcher Scott Laney said.

U.S. Representative Morgan McGarvey hosted Monday’s roundtable in Louisville with federal experts discussing the impact of the rule. There are no active coal mines in his district, but he is the only Democrat in Kentucky’s congressional delegation.

Officials have lauded the Biden administration for the measure, which was promised but undelivered in multiple previous administrations.

“I’ve always considered myself, yes, representing my district, but also being a representative of our state,” McGarvey said. “When you talk about the safety of our workers, to me, that’s never been a political issue.”

McGarvey’s office said the lawmaker wanted to learn from federal experts about what is needed “to ensure effective implementation and enforcement of this rule.”

One thing that might make it difficult to implement and enforce? A flat budget at the federal mine agency. Congress recently denied a $50 million budget increase for more mine inspections and more silica dust sampling.

“We just need to help get MSHA more money to help enforce this,” National Black Lung Association Vice President Vonda Robinson said. “They need more guys to go out and help, to be able to enforce this.”

“MSHA has had flat budgets for, I don’t know how many years now,” MSHA Assistant Secretary Chris Williamson said at a panel earlier in June. “You’re talking about people because in almost every federal agency, the cost driver is personnel. We will do the best we can with what we’re given to work with, but it will remain a priority.”

Appalachian advocacy groups have criticized the measure for largely relying on companies to accurately self-report high silica dust samples. They say it gives companies “every incentive to continue cheating and hiding dangers” and compared it to letting a “fox guard the hen house.”

Williamson has repeatedly promised that any companies caught cheating on the silica testing and reporting requirements will be dealt with severely.

Meanwhile, the silica rule is facing two separate legal challenges from mining industry associations. They’re asking federal judges to analyze the rule for its legality.

“Worker safety and health is a core value of our association, but unfortunately, this rule has missed the mark,” National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association CEO & President Michael Johnson said in a written statement. “MSHA’s crystalline silica rule includes provisions that were not included in the proposed rule, for which we were not provided the opportunity to comment, as required by law.”

Although companies are expected to begin lower silica dust levels now, enforcement will begin in April 2025 for coal companies and 2026 for non-coal.

State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

BELL COUNTY, Ky. (WATE) — One man has been injured and another man has been charged following a reported shooting at a Bell County, Kentucky residence Sunday night.

The Bell County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post shared overnight Monday that deputies responded to a residence on Blue Ridge Church Road around 10:05 p.m. for a report of a man being shot. The victim, who had been shot twice, was initially taken by a family member to Middlesboro ARH Hospital. They were later taken by AirEvac and unable to give a statement according to BCSO.

At the scene, Bell County deputies made contact with a 20-year-old suspect identified as Matthew Shelton, of Page.

Shelton told deputies that the victim had left the residence running with his hand behind his back, and Shelton felt he was “going to be hurt, so he discharged his firearm striking the individual,” BCSO’s post states.

Based on the on-scene investigation, deputies arrested Shelton and charged him with assault in the first degree. He was taken to the Bell County Detention Center. The investigation is ongoing.