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Cards Best Cats On National Stage In Volleyball

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The Kentucky Wildcats volleyball team lost to the Louisville Cardinals in a top 10 battle.
Megan Simmons | UK Athletics

The fourth-ranked Cardinals traveled to Memorial Coliseum in Lexington on Wednesday night to take on the 11th-ranked Wildcats. 

The stage was set for another memorable Battle of the Bluegrass with both teams having a national ranking. In addition to that, the game was broadcast nationally on ESPN and was in front of a great crowd of 3,838 in Memorial. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for the Cats to pull through as they lost in four sets, 25-21, 25-18, 20-25, 25-16

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The lady Cats have now fallen to 6-4 on the season, as well as 0-4 against ranked opponents. To make matters worse this is the 4th consecutive loss to Louisville in the annual match-up. However, Kentucky still holds the series 37-29.

After the match, Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner said “Our team did a good job of sustaining their concentration level, but execution suffered at times.” He also gave credit to the Louisville team, complimenting their ability to “play well for a long period of time.” He also credited the 4th ranked team’s ability to “continue to limit options,” and elaborated. “I mean, I think the first several passes, they were doing a good job keeping themselves in the system. And when you’re playing against teams like that, to get blocks when they’re passing the ball within 8 feet of the net, it’s tough. And so it comes down to individual plays, reading the situation of the attacker and making those moves and getting those stuffs. And creating chances by transition opportunities to limit their options that way, too. But yeah, it took a while. And obviously, something we continue to work on.”

Looking to shake off this series the Wildcats will face No.2 Stanford who are 7-1 in Palo Alto, California, on Saturday at 10:30 p.m. Eastern. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

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Other Sports

Kentucky Baseball Transfer Class Ranked Ninth in the Country

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Kentucky Baseball is bringing in the ninth best transfer class in the country.
USA Today/IMAGN

The Kentucky Baseball program is coming off its first-ever trip to the College World Series and they have carried that momentum to the recruiting trail. After losing a large amount of production and experience, Nick Mingione and Co. went and hit the transfer portal hard and are bringing in some talented players.

According to 64Analytics, the Bat Cats are bringing in the 9th-best portal class in the country. The class consists of fifteen players totals, including seven players within the top 250.

92. 1B/DH Cole Hage (Columbia)
114. C Raphael Pelletier (Kansas State)
152. INF Luke Lawrence (Illinois State)
156. OF Shaun Montoya (San Diego State) Transfer Spotlight
168. RHP Nic McCay (South Dakota State)
211. RHP Scott Rouse (Radford)
235. LHP Ethan Walker (Longwood) Transfer Spotlight
272. OF Carson Hansen (Milwaukee) Transfer Spotlight
319. RHP Oliver Boone (California) Transfer Spotlight
398. OF Will Marcy (Memphis)
407. RHP Simon Gregersen (Indiana State)
425. LHP Cole Hentschel (Richmond) Transfer Spotlight
752. 1B Dylan Koontz (Columbia) Transfer Spotlight
2872. RHP Chase Alderman (Eastern Kentucky) Transfer Spotlight
2893. LHP Adam Hachman (Arkansas)

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Mingione is no stranger to the transfer portal as he has effectively used the portal to completely change the outlook of his tenure and the program.

From the brink of being fired in 2021, he has led the Cats to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in program history. In those appearances, they advanced to the Super Regionals in each and the aforementioned CWS this past season. With this incoming class, Mingione will hope to continue that trajectory and become a consistent tournament team and contender.

That said it will be difficult. While Kentucky has one of the top classes in the portal, it is the 7th best in the SEC, with top 25 programs in Oklahoma and Texas joining the conference as well.

There will likely be some fall exhibitions for the Kentucky Wildcats, but it won’t be until February that we get to see how this collection of talent looks and if they can make another run to Omaha.

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Also published on A Sea of Blue.

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Football

BREAKING: University of Kentucky Placed on Probation Due to Multiple NCAA Violations

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The University of Kentucky has been placed on two years of probation as a result of NCAA Investigations into the UK Football and Swimming programs.
Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Just after Kentucky football media day on Friday, the NCAA published findings from investigations into the Kentucky football and swimming programs. As a result, the University has been placed on two years of probation.

According to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, “violations involve at least 11 football student-athletes receiving payment for work not performed between spring 2021 and March 2022. Eight of the student-athletes went on to compete and receive actual and necessary expenses while ineligible.”

In 2022, the program self-reported violations of NCAA bylaws as several players were discovered to have falsified work hours. The players were paid as “patient transporters” at UK Hospital and according to video evidence at the hospital, they would arrive, clock in, leave and, in some cases, come back hours later to clock out. The UK compliance office discovered that the hours worked conflicted with players’ class and football schedules.

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In addition to self-reporting, several players were suspended or dismissed from the program in 2022. Linebacker Jordan Wright was suspended from the season opener, and running back Chris Rodriguez was suspended for the first four games of the season. However, the NCAA says multiple players should have remained ineligible to play.

The NCAA enforcement staff and school agreed that no staff member in the athletics department “knew or reasonably should have known” about the payment for work not performed and there were ‘no failure to monitor’ violations.

In addition to probation, the level-II violations found in the football program will result in the wins from the historic 2021, 10-win season being vacated.

The investigation also included the Kentucky men’s and women’s swimming programs for unsanctioned practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the committee, the violations involve “exceeding limits on countable athletically related activities when student-athletes were not provided with required days off and exceeded practice hours for nearly three years.

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The school agreed that it failed to monitor its swimming and diving program and that the underlying violations demonstrated a head coach responsibility violation.

Read the entire NCAA press release here.

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Men's Basketball

Oscar Tshiebwe Involved in NBA Controversy with Giannis Antetokounmpo

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Oscar Tshiebwe and Giannis Antetokounmpo involved in NBA controversy.
Tshiebwe: © Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports, Antetokounmpo: © Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Oscar Tshiebwe is one the of most beloved players in Kentucky basketball history. Always talking about fighting on the court, Tshiebwe is peaceful and kind off the court, but on Wednesday he found himself in the middle of controversy, to no fault of his own.

On Wednesday, the Indiana Pacers traveled to Milwaukee to take on the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Bucks. While the final score wasn’t particularly close, the game was one for the record books, as Antetokounmpo scored a franchise-record 64 points and Tshiebwe scored his first point in the NBA (note: his point scored in the NBA In-Season Championship does NOT count). Given the achievement of both, who is to receive the game ball?

That was the controversy after the game as Antetokounmpo rushed off the court into the Pacers tunnel along with several other Bucks payers in search of the ball. A scuffle then ensured which even led to Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan being elbowed in the ribs by one of the Milwaukee players.

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Interestingly, Antetokounmpo says he didn’t want the game ball for himself, he wanted it for teammate Damian Lillard, who moved into fifth place all-time in three-pointers made, making his 2,451st on Wednesday night.

“I understand. When you score your first point in the NBA, you want to have the ball or whatever the case may be,” Antetokounmpo said of the Pacers honoring Tshiebwe’s feat. “But at the end of the day, you’re talking about the guy that just skipped Kyle Korver in the all-time list. In my opinion, we should all stop what we’re doing and appreciate greatness.”

So where did the ball go? No one is quite sure. While the Bucks believe a Pacers assistant grabbed the ball, the Pacers claim that it was a reserve game ball. One video even appears to show the actual game ball being collected by a member of the Bucks staff.

“I have no idea. I’m not going to lie,” Antetokounmpo said. “I really don’t know. I have a ball, but I don’t know if it’s the game ball. It doesn’t feel like the game ball to me. It feels like a brand-new ball. I can tell. I played, what, 35 minutes today. I know how the game ball felt. The ball that I have, which I’ll take and I’ll give it to my mom, for sure — but I don’t know if it’s actually the game ball.”

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Tshiebwe hasn’t commented on the situation, but is giving the glory to God for his first NBA point.

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