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Kentucky Basketball: Where Are We Right Now?

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It’s December 17th and we’re nine games into the 2019-20 campaign for Kentucky basketball. If not for a ridiculous loss to Evansville, the Cats would be undefeated and No. 1. but, this isn’t a hypothetical post, so let’s not even think about that.

So far, this season is a bit of a reversal in terms of the flow of the offense and level of defense we see from this team.

The offense has been good, but the teams identity offensively still hasn’t been discovered yet, as well as the go to scorer. We all thought it was Tyrese Maxey after his performance at The Garden, but he has been extremely inconsistent since.

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On the other hand, the defense has been quite good. Only one team has scored over 70 points and Kentucky’s opponents have shot only 36% on average from the field, which ranks 13th among division one teams.

Who has been the best? I think it’s safe to say Ashton Hagans has been the best player on the roster.

Hagans is averaging 13.7 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 7 APG, and 1.8 SPG. Hagans scored 21 points this past Saturday against Georgia Tech and has combined for 30 assists in his last three games.

Who has been the worst? In terms of expectations, EJ Montgomery has been the worst.

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Montgomery was the one guy that everyone thought would make a huge jump and he hasn’t done that. He was injured at the beginning of the season, but hasn’t shown much improvement. He maybe even has regressed a little bit since Calipari claimed that “you can’t be good when you aren’t in shape” when talking about Montgomery’s lack of production.

If EJ steps up, and I think he will, this team will ascend to another level.

Montgomery is only averaging 9.8 PPG and 5.3 RPG. Against the competition UK has faced so far, that’s not good.

We could be getting Nate Sestina back soon. When asked about Sestina, Kenny Payne said, “I’m not sure exactly when he’ll be able to play, but he’s getting in better shape. My guess is we’ll see him in the next week or two.”

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Sestina did practice last night and is looking pretty nimble.

Dontaie Allen is practicing. After seemingly endless injuries that have kept Allen out of basketball for awhile, he is now back practicing.

“Dontaie is practicing, and typically when he practices and goes hard he’s on a modified practice. If he goes hard, he has to take the next day off.” Payne said on this weeks call-in show. “He’s getting more comfortable, but we need to take it slow with him, let him get back and healthy. We don’t want to put him out there at 75-80%.” Payne said.

What’s ahead? The Cats face Utah tonight in Vegas at 11 p.m. ET which sucks, but we’ll all in this together, right?

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After that, Kentucky will face fifth ranked Ohio State, also in Vegas, in the CBS Sports Classic on Saturday. Then Louisville comes to town for a potential top-five matchup.

Back-to-back tough games where we will really see what this team is made of. Maybe the toughest teams the Cats will face all year. Then they hit SEC play.

If Kentucky goes 3-0 in this stretch, they will be ranked second, if not No. 1 again, and have a ton of momentum going into SEC play. But, I think they will drop one if not two of these games.

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Men's Basketball

How a Call with Mark Pope Led Denzel Aberdeen to Kentucky

After winning a national title at Florida, Denzel Aberdeen committed to Kentucky without ever visiting campus—thanks to a revealing three-hour call with head coach Mark Pope.

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Chet White | UK Athletics

As a junior, Denzel Aberdeen was a key part of Florida’s national title run. But a certain phone conversation convinced him to leave his home state and head north to Lexington in hopes of experiencing that feeling once again.

He had never set foot in Lexington before deciding to become a Kentucky Wildcat — and he didn’t need to. All it took was one phone call — three hours long, on Easter Sunday — with head coach Mark Pope to convince him that he belonged in blue and white.

“Our phone call lasted about three hours, to be honest,” Aberdeen said, meeting with the media in Lexington for the first time earlier this week. “A lot of it was just getting to know me and getting to know the school, the university, getting to know him (Pope), how their style was, a lot of film. Once I saw that, I was like this looks like a great guy to play for.”

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The two went on to discuss Aberdeen’s role at Kentucky in more depth, including how Pope envisions him fitting into Kentucky’s new system — a system that, according to Aberdeen, is very similar, if not better than the one he just left.

“We had a lot of great players at Florida, especially the tall bigs. Bigs that love to run there, and we have just as much here; our bigs love to run, they play defense, and they play at a fast pace. So I think the things that we’ve got here are just as good, or even better,” Aberdeen said.

Averaging 7.7 points and nearly 20 minutes per game off the bench for the Gators last year, it’s clear to see what Aberdeen brings to the team: experience, versatility, calmness in the backcourt, and championship pedigree. Pope’s phone conversation with Aberdeen wasn’t just impactful on the court — it also speaks volumes to what he is doing off the court in pursuit of the goal he laid out in his introductory press conference: to hang banners.

This phone call wasn’t just about Denzel Aberdeen. It was a glimpse into Pope’s player-first, transparent coaching approach, which could define his era at Kentucky — and potentially make this season a special one, with Aberdeen playing another key role in a deep NCAA Tournament run.

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“I know the goal is to win No. 9,” he said. “I know the fans want that, we want that, all the staff and coaches want that. That pushes us. We know what we gotta do when we come here and put on that Kentucky jersey. Just playing for the University of Kentucky is a big thing. Being here is a blessing, and I can’t look back.”

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Men's Basketball

La Familia’s Lexington Regional Bracket Revealed

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Israel Schill | KY Insider

Kentucky’s alumni team, La Familia, has officially unveiled the bracket for The Basketball Tournament’s (TBT) Lexington Regional.

The No. 1 seeded alumni will face off against Stroh’s Squad (Bowling Green) in the opening round on Friday, July 18 with a late 9:00 p.m. ET tip time.

The Lexington Regional will take place at Memorial Coliseum from July 18-22, where Kentucky will host a plethora of teams looking to grab some gold.

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Familiar teams, such as Eberlein Drive, who former Wildcat Archie Goodwin used to play for and who have been around since the beginning of TBT, will lead the bottom of the bracket. In the second round, Big Blue Nation may see a way-too-early SEC matchup, technically, with the Auburn Tigers’ alumni team, War Ready.

The name is definitely fitting, obviously a play on Auburn’s “War Eagle” call, but as a whole defines the type of play that the TBT unleashes against every competitor.

When asked about who the “alpha dog” will be on this year’s team, someone who is going to be ready to go to war, general manager Twany Beckham admitted he emphasized finding guys like that during the offseason.

“That was one thing, you know when we lost last year, I feel like that Ohio State team, I’m not gonna say punked us because our guys played extremely hard,” said Beckham before head coach Sean Woods budded in and said “they were more physical.”

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“When I sat down after the season was over last year I sad to myself, ‘I want nine to 10 dogs’, and I think we did that with this roster,” Beckham added.

The winner of the Lexington Regional will play the winner of the Louisville Regional in the quarterfinals on Monday, July 28, at 6 p.m. ET on FS1, the team also announced recently.

Below is the entire bracket for the 2025 tournament:

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Men's Basketball

Top Guard Prospect Taylen Kinney Takes Official Visit to Kentucky

Perhaps the most highly touted guard in the 2026-27 class, Taylen Kinney has begun his visit to Kentucky – Mark Pope is on the clock.

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Taylen Kinney takes his official visit to Kentucky.
USA TODAY NETWORK

Directly following his involvement with Mark Pope and Jasper Johnson at the USA U19 basketball camp, Taylen Kinney has taken an official visit to Kentucky.

One of the top guards in the nation, Kinney is a native of Newport, Kentucky. As a result, naturally, both Louisville and Kentucky are in strong pursuit — among pulls on both sides, one potential advantage Kentucky has over their in-state rivals is Kinney’s extensive past ties to the aforementioned Jasper Johnson.

The two blue bloods manned the backcourt together for the Overtime Elite RWE team during the 2024-25 season. With Johnson being the first to pull the trigger in taking on the blue and white, the onus is on Kinney to potentially rekindle the duo’s dominant guard play in a new setting.

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Given Jasper’s potential for multiple years in Lexington, the likelihood that he could impact Kinney’s recruitment is all the more tangible.

The 6-foot-2 floor general stayed firmly put in the 2026-27 class, despite rumors of a reclassification, ranking atop national lists across the board as arguably the best available at his position. And while a timetable for Kinney’s ultimate decision hasn’t yet shaken out, it’s clear that the blue and red rivals each hold a powerful stake in his recruitment.

Regardless of the rumors, if Mark Pope gets a guy on campus, there’s a solid shot the Cats can capitalize on a commitment. When one battle ends for Kentucky’s staff, the next begins — if nothing else, it’s clear that the team has already started working towards as solid a roster next season as they put together for the one that’s about to begin.

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