MMTTK: It’s Christmas time in the Bluegrass!

DrewFranklinKSR

It’s Christmas week in the Bluegrass!

This Monday is easier than others because Christmas is only two days away. I hope you’re able to get some time off work and find some time with friends and family in the week ahead before Saturday gets crazy with Kentucky and Louisville meeting in Rupp Arena.

We’ll have plenty of time for holiday cheer and all that, until then I have the Monday Morning Things To Know for you.

UK Basketball

Your University of Kentucky Wildcats managed to live out the worst case scenario in Las Vegas with losses in both games. After falling short against Ohio State, the coaches and players went their separate ways for the holiday and they’ll link back up later this week in the Craft Center to get ready for Louisville.

In the meantime, have a look at the numbers to date:

We’ll get ready for Louisville after Christmas. Gotta beat the Cards.

College Basketball Rankings

The updated college basketball rankings will come out later today with Gonzaga all set to take over the No. 1 spot. Gonzaga will be the sixth team to hold the top spot so far this season and it’s not even Christmas, which is madness. The record for an entire year is seven different top-ranked teams.

Where will Kentucky fall this week, you ask? I wish I knew. It’ll be interesting to see what the voters think of losses to Utah (the same Utah that lost by 28 to San Diego State on Saturday) and Ohio State out in Las Vegas. For what it’s worth, Jeff Goodman dropped UK from his rankings. I know you love Jeff Goodman.

The new poll will come out around noon.

Good job, South Carolina

SEC Basketball has been pretty disappointing so far this season, but South Carolina earned a nice win over ninth-ranked Virginia, 70-59, on Sunday. Frank Martin’s club has now won back-to-back road games over ACC schools (the other was Clemson) with this nice double-digit win on the road in Charlottesville.

NFL

— Randall Cobb had five catches for 73 yards but the Cowboys never found the end zone in Philadelphia because Jason Garrett is still the head coach. Cobb’s Cowboys lost a very important one to the Eagles, 17-9, and Jason Garrett better be gone soon.

— Thank you to Benny Snell‘s Steelers for dropping one to the Jets so my Titans can control their own destiny. Tennessee is in a win-and-in situation next weekend at Houston and I’ll be a hot mess that day so don’t bother me. Snell had 14 yards on seven runs in the loss.

— The Bengals took y’all on a wild ride yesterday. And you won the Joe Burrow sweepstakes!

NBA

— With all eyes on Paul George in his return to Oklahoma City yesterday, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stole the show, scoring 32 points in a winning effort over the L.A. Clippers. Paul George had 18 in the losing effort to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Nerlens Noel threw in eight more and five rebounds for the Thunder.

Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning

By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.

— Jamal Murray‘s Nuggets whooped Anthony Davis‘ Lakers last night (without LeBron James) in Denver to give L.A. only its sixth loss all season. Murray had an off-night with only six points scored, but Davis got his 32 in defeat.

— Check out the bounce on Malik Monk:

Malik Monk, this is ridiculous 😲 pic.twitter.com/ALmFt6CwsC

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 23, 2019

— Wenyen Gabriel got called up in Sacramento. That’s cool.

SNL

I’ll say it: I was disappointed in Eddie Murphy’s return. It had a few good moments, but Saturday Night Live just doesn’t do it for me anymore. Am I alone on that island? I was pretty disappointed in Will Ferrell’s return last month too.

I think I regret admitting this publicly.

Rhyne Howard is a bucket.

From the Kentucky women’s win at California over the weekend:

WHAT TIME-ZONE DIFFERENCE?@howard_rhyne #WeAreUK 👀🤙 pic.twitter.com/ZkrqtbZvxm

— Kentucky WBB (@KentuckyWBB) December 22, 2019

The 11-1 Cats start SEC play on Thursday with a trip to fifth-ranked South Carolina.

KSBar/Hammer Bowl Challenge

The KSBar/Hammer Bowl Challenge is rolling along at KSBar and Grille. The rules are simple: one hour prior to each bowl game, get your score prediction in at KSBar. The winners of each bowl game’s prediction contest will then be invited back to watch the national championship game with $5,000 cash on the line for the finalist who comes closest to picking the final score of that game.

Big thanks to Darryl “The Hammer” Isaacs for providing the big prize. Get in there.

What’s Ahead

— Today’s Kentucky Sports Radio radio show is a special ‘best of’ edition as we take the morning off for last-minute Christmas shopping. Shannon The Dude has the show from the White House press briefing room dialed up for this morning’s replay.

— Matt Jones will make his long-awaited return on Thursday, the day after Christmas. Our big pre-Louisville game show at Bearno’s is on Friday.

— KentuckySportsRadio.com will continue to churn out content because we don’t do days off around here. We might take Christmas Day off though, maybe.