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
Top 25 Kentucky high school football rankings (10/22/2024)
Week 9 of the Kentucky high school football season is in the rearview and the top 10 teams in the state remain unchanged after all 10 won their games on Friday night.
South Warren is the biggest riser this week following a 28-24 thriller on the road at Bowling Green, who dropped more than any other team in the latest Top 25.
Which other teams rose in the this week’s rankings and who else took a step back?
Here’s the complete breakdown of the elite Kentucky high school football teams heading into Week 10 of the 2024 season, as we see it.
The top-ranked Rebels went on the road and cruised to 8-0 with a 41-0 shutout at Lincoln County. They’ll be on the road again at Wayne County this week before closing the season out at home against Frederick Douglas.
A 48-14 win on the road over Boone County makes the Jaguars the first Top 25 team to reach 9-0. One more win at Dixie Heights this Friday is the final piece needed to complete a perfect regular season.
Tha Shamrocks picked up their second straight shutout with a 49-0 beatdown at Eastern. They’ve now allowed just three points in as many weeks.
Male shutout Fern Creek 17-0. The Bulldogs travel to face Bullit East this week before closing out the regular season at home against No. 7 DuPont Manual.
The Flyers tallied at least 45 points for the third consecutive game, blowing out Henry County 47-0.
The Blue Tornado put up 56 points on an opponent for the second time this season in their 56-6 win over Warren East. They have yet to score less than 41 points in a game this season.
The Crimsons won their second game in a row, topping Pleasure Ridge Park 40-14. They’ll host Meade County this week before a huge road showdown at No. 4 Male in the regular season finale.
St. Xavier picked up its fifth win with a 45-21 victory at Meade County.
A 44-0 win at Edmonson County has the Aces outscoring their opponents by a combined score 184- 6 of over their past four games.
The Raiders improved to 6-2 with a four-touchdown win against Great Crossing.
The Broncos added a nice win to their belt with a 24-6 victory at home over Bryan Station. They travel to face George Rogers Clark Friday before a massive showdown on the road at No. 1 Boyle County to wrap up the regular season.
Make it back-to-back shutouts for the Redhounds, who hosted Whitley County and hung seven touchdowns on them.
The Spartans jumped back into the Top 15 with a thrilling four-point win on the road against Bowling Green.
The Eagles beat W.E.B. DuBois by 36 points and have averaged 55 points over their last three games.
The Centurions suffered their worst defeat of the year with a 20-point loss on the road at Central. They didn’t fall too far though as all three losses have come against teams in the Top 25.
The Bluebirds rose one spot this week with a four-touchdown win at Conner.
Ashland Blazer dropped one spot following a bye week.
The Purples put up a great fight, but South Warren was just the better team last week. They’ll have a chance to shoot back up the rankings when they close out the regular season on the road at St. Xavier in two weeks.
Scott County gave the Yellowjackets all they could handle, but Woodford County escaped with a three-point victory.
The Colonels won their game by 50 points and have now tallied at least six touchdowns in each of the last six games.
Central began the season with back-to-back losses to teams in the Top 25, and the Yellowjackets’ only other defeat was a one-point loss to a team from Ohio. They made a statement with a 20-point victory over Christian Academy Louisville last week.
The Dragons hosted North Bullitt and won by 32 points.
Johnson Central won a shootout against Greenup County that saw the two teams combine for 109 points.
The Tigers registered their fourth consecutive shutout and scored at least 61 points for the third time in the past four games.
Campbellsville is now two wins away from an undefeated regular season after beating Holy Cross 36-7.
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— Sam Brown | sam@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports
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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