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
West Michigan farms ship 360 Christmas Trees to military bases in Kentucky, Tennessee
VAN BUREN COUNTY, MI — In 2006, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, 10 volunteers and a few staff members gathered at Wahmhoff Farms Nursery in Gobles.
A tradition was born.
That tradition was packing up Christmas trees to have delivered to military members and their families as part of the Christmas Spirit Foundation’s Trees for Troops program.
Every Monday after Thanksgiving since, more and more volunteers have joined Wahmhoff Farms employees in packing up trees so families on military bases can feel the spirit of Christmas.
This year, on Dec. 2, a record 120-plus volunteers, along with staff members and some active duty military members loaded 363 trees onto two FedEx trailers. The trees were shipped to Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, as well as Fort Knox and Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
Wahmhoff Farms Nursery in Gobles, Michigan, hosted 120-plus volunteers on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024, as 363 Christmas trees were packed up and shipped to three military bases in Tennessee and Kentucky. Pictured are some of the volunteers.Provided by Betsy Wahmhoff Perales
The three bases are among 93 across the nation and overseas where the Trees for Troops program will provide free, farm-grown Christmas trees to U.S. armed forces members in all branches of services.
“We just want to say thank you to the troops themselves, they’re there for us, they’re keeping our country safe and we appreciate them,” said Betsy Wahmhoff Perales, executive assistant at the farm.
Wahmhoff Perales grew up in a military family, raised by an Army veteran, Carl Wahmhoff Jr.
Her grandfather Carl Wahmhoff Sr. planted the first Christmas trees at the Gobles farm in the 1950s and her father harvested them. The farm has been run by her brothers Dan and Ken Wahmhoff since 1996.
“Our family business my whole life has been Christmas trees,” she said. “And to be able to donate Christmas trees to the military families who we appreciate so much, not just because we have family members that were in the military, but because we love our country.
“These families, they are away from their homes. They are on military bases surrounded by other soldiers. And to be able to get a Christmas tree and celebrate, to me that is the Christmas spirit. It lifts you right up.”
Wahmhoff Perales said they couldn’t do this without the volunteers. Her family farm was one of five area Christmas tree farms shipping out trees on Monday morning.
Other Christmas tree farms who brought trees to Wahmhoff Farms this year included Armintrout’s Nursery, Janke Tree Farm and Badger Evergreen Nursery in Allegan, along with Circle B Tree Farm in Battle Creek.
“It’s definitely not just a Wahmhoff Farms thing, it’s a community event and it’s so cool to be a part of it,” she said.
The farm, in its 19th year of participating, is one of three across the state that serves as a pickup location for Trees for Troops. Through the first 20 years of the Trees for Troops program nationwide, more than 309,000 trees have been donated to military families, according to the Christmas Spirit Foundation website.
Each of the trees that left for Tennessee and Kentucky on Monday from Gobles also came with a handwritten tag from a Gobles Elementary School student, along with a handmade ornament from a student.
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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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