Kentucky Sports Radio

On Monday, Tyler Thompson dropped a poll asking you, the Kentucky Sports Radio readers, to cast your realistic opinion on the upcoming football season. No frills, no strings attached. The results seemed optimistic overall, but there was plenty of naysaying and overboard positivity in the comments.

Without a doubt, morale is high around the program. Mark Stoops has sent a massive surge of energy into the recruiting scene and has rallied a dormant fan base around a team that mustered only two wins last season. If what Stoops has done off the field in just a few months is any indication of the product we get on the field, this season will be fun. However, the SEC is still the SEC. It will take time for the young guns to get acclimated to the size and speed. Results will not be immediate, in all likelihood.

That is not discouraging the KSR readers. They have spoken, and the majority says the Wildcats will just miss out on a bowl berth, posting a 5-7 record overall. Twenty-nine percent of the votes say the Cats will be one win shy of the post-season. That is still quite an improvement from what we saw a season ago. Next, with 25 percent of the votes, say 4-8 is most likely. Third was an even 6-6 record, getting 20 percent of the votes.

Kentucky loses five offensive starters from a unit that was among the worst overall in all of college football. That claim was no fault of two veterans on the front line, however, center Matt Smith and guard Larry Warford. Replacing these big boys up front will be no easy task. The quarterback and running back position will be the deepest for offensive coordinator Neal Brown, who can’t wait to air it out.

Defensively, Stoops has a lot to work with. The only major loss is safety Martavius Neloms, and some of the brightest players with the most upside are still young. Fans have a lot to be excited with in defensive end Bud Dupree, along with tackle Mister Cobble and Donte Rumph. Throw in linebackers Avery Williamson and Miles Simpson, and there is plenty of experience in the unit, along with its top three tacklers from last season.

The outlook for the season is not pristine, especially with teams like Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia  on the schedule. But with Stoops at the helm, surely this ship with right itself before long. I have to say the KSR readers are optimistic at 5-7. Pick up one surprise upset and we could be bowling!

Anthony Davis is in New York City to represent the New Orleans Pelicans with his head coach in the draft lottery. The Pelicans have an 8.8 percent chance of receiving the pick for a second consecutive season.

Chad Forde believes the Pelicans will take Otto Porter if awarded the top overall pick. Trey Burke and Ben McLemore are No. 2 and 3 on the Pelicans’ board.

The NBA draft lottery is five hours away and fans are anxiously awaiting the draft order. Once the ping-pong balls are drawn tonight, we will have a pretty good idea whether or not Nerlens Noel will become the third No. 1 overall pick from Kentucky in four years under John Calipari.

Here are the team-by-team and pick-by-pick odds:

SI

Let’s go Charlotte. Or Sacramento.

Follow along on ESPN at 8:30ish.

Every fan base has its trolls. We know them well here at KSR. While most of us just ignore them and wait for them to slither back beneath their bridge, Vanderbilt offensive line/run game coordinator Herb Hand took action. Hand received some offensive tweets about his wife from a Tennessee fan, and replied to them with the following message:

“Feel free to come by anytime so we can talk about this in person like men. …You are welcome to come to my office so we can discuss this face to face…I fully welcome the opportunity.”

He also copied the tweet into a text message and sent it to Tennessee head coach Butch Jones. Here’s a screencap (warning: salty and somewhat blurred language ahead):

Hand has since deleted the tweets from his feed, but posted this message to his followers this morning:

Some will say that Hand went too far and should have just ignored the tweets, but I applaud him for calling the guy out. Next time you guys get unruly in the comments section, maybe we’ll have him pay you a little visit.

Photo by Regina Rickert

After going into the season ranked eighth in the country, it was a sad day in Hoover for your University of Kentucky baseball team, who lost to Ole Miss 4-1 in the opening round of the SEC Baseball Tournament. The Rebel Black Bears jumped out to an early lead, and despite having the bases loaded in the seventh inning, the Cats couldn’t mount a comeback. Their lone run came in the fourth inning off a delayed-steal play with two outs.

The Bat Cats started the season 22-6 and ranked as high as seventh in some polls, but a late season skid has totally halted their postseason plans. They will finish the season with a 30-25 record. Ole Miss will move on to face Arkansas tomorrow.

Get ‘em next year, boys.

Rivals.com updated its 2014 college football rankings today and Drew Barker got a bump up from a 5.8 four-star to a 5.9 four-star player. Barker is ranked No. 117 (previously No. 153) in the list of 250.

Mikel Horton joins Barker as the only other UK commit rated 5.9. Horton is the 131st (previously No. 209) overall player and the 22nd-ranked running back.

Thaddeus Snodgrass also made the list at No. 205 overall.

Cats.

UK safety Ashely Lowery is still recovering from his horrific car wreck earlier this month at his mother’s home in Georgia, and according to this picture from Lowery family friend Doug Stutsman, he’s got plenty of reading to do. Stutsman posted the picture of Ashely’s get well cards on Twitter with the caption “Never seen so many get well cards before. #BBN.”

Ashely expects to return to school in June.

“I will make you eat your feet.”

Archie Goodwin is one of four NBA prospects tabbed as combine “losers” in a piece at SI.com. Though the label is only “for the moment,” it is clear that Archie’s inconsistent jump shot may be too much for him to overcome as he tries to improve his stock in these weeks leading up to the draft.

Losers (For The Moment)

Archie Goodwin

Goodwin struggled with his jump shot throughout the combine — “Very flat,” a Western Conference coach said — and looked like the player who said he would be “delusional” to think he was ready for the NBA. There is a raw, Jamal Crawford-like talent in Goodwin, an athletic, dynamic combo guard who can score in a variety of ways. But it could take years to develop that player in him, if it can be brought out at all.

Once a potential lottery pick, Archie is now expected to go in the late first round to early second round range. Draft Express updated its mock draft today and it projects him going to the Suns with the last pick in the first round.

Another combine loser, according to SI.com: Shabazz Muhammad.

[SI.com: Winners, losers from the 2013 NBA draft combine]

While talking about Louisville’s success in an interview with KSR last week, John Calipari said, “We won it first.” Now, that jab at the Cards is a t-shirt in The KSR Shop for members of Big Blue Nation to own.

Pre-order your “We Won It First” t-shirt at TheKSRShop.com today!

One of the few setbacks from Spring Practice was Donte Rumph’s shoulder injury. However, Rumph is recovering nicely from his surgery, and should be ready to play once the season rolls around. In fact, ESPN’s Chris Low says that he’ll be one of the top defensive tackle prospects from the SEC in next year’s draft:

Donte Rumph, Kentucky: He had his spring cut short by shoulder surgery, but the 6-3, 323-pound Rumph is an imposing figure in the middle. If he’s healthy, look for him to be on a lot of teams’ draft boards.

We want the Rumph…gotta have that Rumph…

Have you ever woken up on a Tuesday and wondered, “Man, I wonder what Ramel Bradley is up to these days?”? Apparently Bradley has his team, GreenTops Netanya, one game away from the Israeli Premiere League Final Four. Netanya was down in the series 0-2, but Bradley led them to two straight wins, with 19 points and had 7 rebounds and 6 assists in last night’s victory. Game 5 is Thursday night, and if they win, they move on to the Semifinals.

In case you missed it a few weeks ago, Ramel also accidentally hit his coach in the face while trying to save a ball. Smooth.

On this morning’s radio show, Matt and the crew will discuss the NBA draft lottery, football expectations, and navigating the world the way it’s meant to be navigated: with an atlas.

#TeamNoGPS

Join in on the fun by calling (502) 571-1080.

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It’s never too early to breakdown a schedule, right?  No, not the football schedule, but the basketball schedule.  UK’s non-conference slate this season looks pretty good on paper.  A true road game against a Top 25 North Carolina, a home game against the national champion, neutral site games against Michigan State and Baylor, plus tournament teams Boise State and Belmont as well.  But just how well does it stack up against the previous 4 years of John Calipari non-conference schedules?  And, I put together a little formula to determine the best.  It goes as below:

+2 for every RPI Top 10 team
+1 for every NCAA Tournament Team
+.5 for every true road game
-1 for every RPI 300+ opponent
(some opponents can fall under multiple categories)

Now, we are just ranking these non-conference schedules by their difficulty, not by how successful these teams were against those schedules.  NCAA Tournament teams in bold: 

2012-13 (13 games, 9-4 record)
RPI Top 10: at Louisville, Duke (N)
RPI Top 25: None
RPI 26-50: at Notre Dame
RPI 51-100: Maryland (N), Baylor
RPI 101-200: Lafayette, Morehead St, Long Island
RPI 201-300: Marshall, Portland, Lipscomb, E.Michigan, Samford
RPI 300+: None

Recap: 4 NCAA Tournament Teams (1 Final Four), Five 200+ RPI opponents, 1 true road game
TOTAL: 9 POINTS

2011-12 (15 games, 14-1 record)
RPI Top 10: North Carolina, Kansas (N)
RPI Top 25: Louisville, at Indiana
RPI 26-50: None 
RPI 51-100: Loyola (MD)
RPI 101-200: Old Dominion (N), Lamar, St. Johns, Penn State (N), UALR
RPI 201-300: Marist, Portland, Samford
RPI 300+: Chattanooga, Radford

Recap: 6 NCAA Tournament Teams (2 Final Four), Five 200+ RPI opponents, 1 true road game
TOTAL: 8.5 POINTS

2010-11 (14 games, 12-2 record)
RPI Top 10: at North Carolina, Notre Dame (N)
RPI Top 25: UCONN, at Louisville 
RPI 26-50: Washington  
RPI 51-100: E.Tennessee St., 
RPI 101-200: Portland, Oklahoma, Boston U, Penn, Indiana  
RPI 201-300: Winthrop, Coppin St, Mississippi Valley St
RPI 300+: None

Recap: 6 NCAA Tournament Teams (1 Final Four), 3 200+ RPI opponents, 2 true road games
TOTAL: 11 POINTS

2009-10 (15 games, 15-0 record)
RPI Top 10: None
RPI Top 25: None 
RPI 26-50: Louisville
RPI 51-100: UCONN (N), Sam Houston St, Morehead St, North Carolina
RPI 101-200: Long Beach St, Rider, Miami (OH), Drexel, Austin Peay, Stanford (N), Cleveland St (N),  
RPI 201-300: UNC-Asheville, at Indiana
RPI 300+: Hartford

Recap: 2 NCAA Tournament Teams (0 Final Four), Three 200+ RPI opponents, 1 true road game
TOTAL: 1.5 POINTS

Let’s get the obvious out of the way.  Calipari’s first team had one of the more laughable non-conference schedules ever.  Admittedly, much of that came from their good teams having down years.  But their lone road game was against the worst Indiana team in 50 years.  The faced ZERO teams in the RPI Top 25 and their “marquee” games came against North Carolina and UCONN, both of which missed the tournament that year.  No wonder they went 15-0.

Now, the other 3 schedules are fairly comparable.  But the Brandon Knight-team gets the BTI nod for the best schedule of the bunch.  2 true road games against Top 20 teams, and 2 more Top 20 games.  Plus 2 other NCAA Tournament teams and nobody above 251 in the RPI.  If I remember correctly, that team had many question marks coming out of non-conference play, but looking back, the fact they went 12-2 against that slate of game was pretty impressive. 

The last 2 years have had very respectable schedules as well, although not up to the 2010-11 team.  They may have been a little heavy in the 200+ teams, but not at Gillispie levels.  This season, UK has what amount to 6 bunnies on the schedule (UNC Asheville, Northern Kentucky, Robert Morris, UT-Arlington, Cleveland St, Eastern Michigan), and 3 more opponents that should be more than beatable but inside the Top 150 (Boise State, Belmont, Providence).  And obviously the schedule is held up by MichiganState, Louisville, North Carolina, and Baylor.  So, here is the BTI prediction for this year’s schedule in terms of finishing RPI:

Top 10: Michigan State, Louisville
Top 11-25: at North Carolina
Top 26-50: Baylor
Top 50-100: Belmont, Boise State
Top 101-200: Providence
Top 201-299: Cleveland St, E.Michigan, Northern Kentucky, Robert Morris, UNC-Asheville
Top 300+: UT-Arlington
TOTAL: 9.5 POINTS

Not looking too bad, eh?

Follow me on Twitter @BryantheIntern.

Lets get started with my favorite video of yesterday, Jim Ross calling the Miguel Leg Drop from the Billboard Awards:

Then we can add a rapper (who admittedly I have never heard of) Mac Miller deciding to rep the Cards jersey. I know nothing of him, but by appearance alone, if we get Drake then the Cards deserve Mac:

Now you might have a job you don’t like, but my guess is that this guy’s office experience is worse than yours:

And we finish with the official hello in the KSR Office when BTI returned to work this week as acted out by Colorado Rockies Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki:

Have a great Tuesday and remember, you will have to stream the radio show online, since we are preempted on air in Lexington and Louisville due to the UK Baseball game. Use IHeart Radio or go to TalkRadio1080.com.

Ladies, gentlemen and Louisville fans, something we never thought we’d see again popped back up Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. and smacked us all square in the mouth. It was a post from Bryan The Intern. Yes, the same Bryan The Intern you once despised on KentuckySportsRadio.com. BTI made his return Monday after 556 days away from the website and he’s back for good, like he never really left.

Now wipe that vomit off the floor and get that dry wall fixed. You could’ve hit a stud, you know.

The coveted 9:00 a.m. time slot saw seven different authors over his 18-month hiatus, but none could provide the level of suck it takes to start our day like BTI. He has such an amazing ability to rile everyone up with each and every Rant and Ramble, and he came back to use his weapons of mass despicable to reclaim his throne atop Mt. Opinionated in the Land of Argumentative. The surprise return yielded so many great responses:

The Water Boy: “ugh… I feel like someone just pissed in my Frosted Flakes.”

Walden Schmidt: “Missed you like I would a bleeding hemoroid.”

Frew Drunklin: “KSR must be desperate to bring this chotch back.”

BTI Sucks: “With all due respect… now remember I said with all due respect… I am pretty sure I felt a little part of me die with this news.”

Nick, a commenter on Monday morning’s post, hit the nail on the head when he suggested this video is a reenactment of our reactions to BTI’s return at the KSR compound:

But in all seriousness, welcome back, BTI. You complete us.

 There isn’t a ton of news flying off the KSR newswire at this time of the year but I guess we have Tuesday night’s NBA draft lottery to look forward to tomorrow. We should have a pretty good idea about where Nerlens Noel will end up once the selection order is decided, and whether or not he’ll become Kentucky’s third No. 1 draft pick in four years of NBA. That’s absurd, by the way.

However, Noel is not a sure thing to be the first name called at next month’s draft, according to Chad Ford. Ford believes as many as five lottery teams will pass on Noel if they hold the top pick. Utah, Portland, Minnesota, Detroit and New Orleans are franchises he lists with interest in other players. New Orleans has the highest odds among those teams at 8.8 percent. The other four have little to no chance at winning the top pick, although the Chicago Bulls shocked everyone by receiving the top pick, Derrick Rose, with a 1.7 percent chance in 2008.

Ford also wrote that very few teams believe any of the prospects are worth a first round pick this summer, so some teams will be more inclined to take a gamble. He also thinks Nerlens Noel’s weight from the NBA combine is causing his stock to slip a little. At 206 pounds, Noel is one of the lightest big men to ever enter the league.

 Archie Goodwin is No. 37 on ESPN’s Top 100 draft prospects list. His ESPN scouting report opens with this sentence: “Everyone still wants to love Goodwin, but every time they go to the tape it’s brutal.”

Make them eat they feet, Archie. Burr, burr, burr.

 In football recruiting news, Denzel Ware tweeted that he will visit Kentucky June 9-11. The four-star recruit committed to Kentucky on February 12 but changed his mind two months later with a tweet suggesting he will commit to Florida. Now, Kentucky is getting another look at the Alabama defensive end. He has offers from Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas and USC, to name a few. It was huge news for UK football when he committed the first time.

 Mike Edwards, the 27th-ranked safety in the class, visited Kentucky on Monday. He and his parents drove down from Cincinnati to meet face-to-face with the staff. He will attend college with Darius West, the 13th-ranked safety in the class, and both are announcing soon. West’s announcement is scheduled for May 30 and Drew Barker plans to drive to Lima, Oh. to attend.

 SLAM Magazine named its High School All-Americans Monday and there was no shortage of Kentucky players on the squads. Julius Randle and the Harrison twins were named to the first team, along with Aaron Gordon, Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker. James Young received second team honors; Dakari Johnson the third; and Marcus Lee was named honorable mention. The magazine called this crop of talent “a potentially historic class of up-and-comers,” the best since 2007 when Derrick Rose, OJ Mayo, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin and James Harden were graduating high school.

 Former Louisville Cardinal Terrence Williams was arrested over the weekend on gun charges. He was waving his pistol around while visiting his child, allegedly. #L1SeeThis is why we make fun of you.

 In gambling news, Kentucky is a 3-point favorite over Western Kentucky is the season opener in Nashville, according to BetOnline. The website released its Week 1 college football lines on Monday just minutes before UK fans hammered the bet. I think the Wildcats cover for one reason and one reason only: Za’Darius Smith.

 Kansas basketball got even better Monday when the Jayhawks added Tarik Black, a transfer from Memphis. The six-foot-seven forward started five games for Josh Pastner last season with averages of 8.1 points and 4.8 rebounds. He will be eligible to play immediately as a graduate student. Bring it.

 #PrayForOklahoma

BTI’s up next…

The Calipari Foundation will be donating $10k to the Red Cross for the victims & families effected by this horrendous tornado in Okla.

— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) May 21, 2013

It’s a heartbreaking scene in Oklahoma right now. Keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers.