A Coaching Change After All

In my last post I mentioned that John Calipari had been “confirmed” as the UK coach for next season. But out-of-the-blue, Cal announced that he was leaving for the head coaching job at Arkansas. Apparently he had been in negotiations with them for awhile, and had also talked to Ohio State about their coaching vacancy in February.

That launched Kentucky into a furious search for a new coach, with time of the essence since the transfer portal was opening up. Many “big names” were courted. Scott Drew of Baylor was a prime candidate, but ended up deciding to stay in Waco.

The Wildcats ended up hiring Mark Pope, who was captain of the 1995-96 Kentucky team that won the national championship. Pope had been head coach at BYU for 5 years. The hire initially raised some eyebrows as his head coaching experience is somewhat limited. However, in short order he won over a large chunk of Big Blue Nation and has been doing well in recruiting in the transfer portal. There is a new excitement in the fan base which is good to see.

New Coaches on the Job

Do you like the oldies from the 1960s and 70s? Then I have a stream for you. WNAP-FM in Morristown, Indiana is a non-commercial FM station heard on four frequencies in central and southeastern Indiana. It also streams on wnapfm.com. You’ll hear lots of great oldies from the 60s and 70s but you’ll never hear a commercial. The staff is all volunteer, and they’ve managed to control their operating expenses to where it only costs about $7 an hour to run the station. Naturally they accept contributions. My friend Fred, W8HDU has a show Monday-Friday from 10AM-3PM Eastern time. It’s some of the best radio I’ve ever heard. If you’re like me, you’ll hear a lot of songs you haven’t heard in 50 years.

After the Kentucky women made their expected early exit from the SEC tournament, Kyra Elzy was relieved of her duties as head coach. A week ago, Kenny Brooks was announced as the new coach. He took Virginia Tech to the Final Four a couple years ago. He’ll be the third-highest paid women’s coach in the SEC, behind only legends Dawn Staley and Kim Mulkey. So big things will be expected. The multi-million dollar renovation of Memorial Coliseum should be completed pretty soon.

I had been beating the drums to have the “interim” tag taken off Jake Diebler, and sure enough that’s exactly what the Ohio State administration did. The Buckeyes finished the season 8-3 (including a couple wins in the NIT) and appear to have some momentum heading into next year.

The Ohio State women won the Big Ten regular season championship outright, then stumbled in the Big Ten tournament. As a #2 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Bucks were on their home floor to start. After a first-round rout of Maine, Duke came to Columbus and ended OSU’s season early. Still it was a great year.

That leaves us with the Kentucky men. The Cats had a lot of momentum after a strong finish to the regular-season, which included another big win in Knoxville. But the SEC tournament quarterfinal matchup with Texas A&M resulted in a 97-87 loss. UK was seeded #3 in the NCAA tournament and played Oakland in the first round. Hot shooting by the Grizzlies resulted in an 80-76 Oakland win, and yet another early out for Kentucky. After several days of intense speculation about the future of John Calipari, the administration announced that it was not making a coaching change. It should be pointed out that his contract buyout would amount to around $33 million.

Spring is off to a stormy start here, and today is a day of some nasty weather as a cold front moves through.

An Interesting Weekend

With the exception of the Ohio State women, the teams I follow have not had a particularly good season. But this weekend saw a change in that (at least momentarily).

Last year, Kentucky was a big underdog in Knoxville against a Tennessee team that was one of the top squads in the country. But the Cats surprised everyone by coming away with a victory. Saturday saw a similar situation as UK traveled to Auburn for a meeting with the Tigers who are quite good and generally unstoppable at home. Lightning struck again as Kentucky won 70-59, showing some defensive prowess in addition their outstanding offensive capability. If the defensive intensity can continue, this team can have a great March. In the regular season, some challenging games loom so there is work to do.

Since my last post, Ohio State fired coach Chris Holtmann after seven years at the helm of Buckeye basketball. Assistant coach Jake Diebler was appointed interim coach. His first game was a meeting with #2 Purdue in Columbus on Sunday. A spirited OSU squad picked up a nice win that has to be one of the bigger upsets this season. I hope Diebler will be considered for the permanent head coaching job.

Conference wins have been few-and-far-between for the Kentucky women but they also won this weekend with a nice victory over Florida in Rupp Arena on Sunday. The Blue Jackets are on the road out west, and knocked off San Jose Saturday night in the a game that was played well past my bedtime.

I’ll end this post where it started, on the Ohio State women. With Iowa having lost again, the Buckeyes are now at the top of the Big Ten standings at 13-1 and are ranked #2 in the country. The last game of the regular season is in Iowa City against the Hawks, and that will be a tough one. There are several more conference games to be played between now then as well.

Defense Leaving A Lot To Be Desired

Although Kentucky has easily one of the top offenses in college basketball this year and is fun to watch, it is becoming clear that a lack of defensive intensity is going to hold this team back. After last night’s home loss to Florida, the Cats are 5-3 in the SEC, and two games out of the lead. UK can certainly rack up the points, but the opponents can as well.

Ohio State is now 3-7 in conference play and in the lower echelons of the Big Ten standings. I noticed that The Columbus Dispatch had an article recently about what would be involved in buying out Chris Holtmann’s contract. I hope it doesn’t come to that but Buckeye Nation is getting restless.

The Ohio State women pulled off a nice home win against #2 Iowa which features Caitlin Clark who will probably become the all-time leading scorer in the women’s game. The Hawkeyes and Indiana lead the league at 9-1, the Buckeyes are a half-game back at 8-1. OSU will host Indiana Sunday, then end the season with a second meeting with the Hawks in Iowa City.

The Kentucky women have won two conference games but are otherwise suffering through another difficult year. The Cats play South Carolina twice, and the first meeting was a 98-36 rout, doubtless one of the worst in UK history.

Columbus continues to be a cellar dweller in the NHL. Patrick Laine is out indefinitely with mental health issues. Adam Fantilli got cut by a skate and will be sidelined 8 weeks (pretty much the rest of the season).

We had probably about 4 inches of snow in January but are moving into a warm spell. As I type this it is 55 degrees and mostly sunny.

2024 Off To A Reasonable Start

The Kentucky women sure surprised me last week as they opened SEC play with a win over Arkansas. The Cats visited Knoxville Sunday and had a 17-point lead early. But the Vols came storming back and ended up winning by 18. It will be interesting to see if UK can continue to at least win a good number of home games against SEC competition.

Meanwhile the Ohio State women are 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten. To compete for a conference title the Bucks will have to crank it up a bit though, as Iowa and Indiana are Final Four caliber teams.

On the men’s side, Kentucky is currently ranked #6 in the country with a team that I think is well balanced, and, importantly, plays well down the stretch. It looks like Tennessee will be the toughest competition in the SEC.

The Ohio State men have had a lot of trouble with giving up big leads. The Bucks are 0-2 on the road in the Big Ten, and will need to pull off some wins in other gyms to stay competitive in the conference. The team is definitely better this year than last.

Columbus has actually pulled out of last place in the Metropolitan division of the NHL. But at 9 points out of a wildcard playoff spot, the Blue Jackets would have to get hot quickly to salvage the season.

We’ve had plenty of cold weather here, and expect lows in the teens by the weekend. But no significant snow has fallen yet.

Three Losses In-A-Row to TTUN

Ohio State has now lost the last three football matchups with arch-rival Michigan. So the undefeated season is over, and Michigan won the Big Ten East. Currently, in the College Football Playoff rankings, the Buckeyes are ranked #6. With some losses by the higher-ranked teams, OSU could still get into the playoffs. Alabama plays Georgia for the SEC title, Washington faces Oregon for the Pac12, and Florida State and Michigan still have conference championship games to play Saturday.

Kentucky basketball is fun again, as the Cats have a good team that shoots well and is playing together. The only loss so far was to #1 Kansas, and the game was close. Kentucky has three 7-footers that are on the bench right now do to injury or eligibility issues. So there is a chance they will get even better. With luck, the several years of mediocrity is over.

The Ohio State men have a fine team with only a loss to Texas A&M marring the record. The guard combo of Bruce Thornton and Roddy Gayle is one of the better backcourts in the conference.

The Ohio State women are ranked in the Top 25. The Bucks lost their opener in Las Vegas against Southern California but otherwise have not been challenged. Unfortunately, the Kentucky women are not playing good basketball at all right now. After a couple wins over unheralded opponents, the Cats have not been competitive at all. I could see them not winning a conference game this season unless Coach Elzy gets things turned around, and fast.

Cats Back on Track

After winning their first five games, Kentucky stumbled and lost three in-a-row, to Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee. But in the game with the Vols, the Cats’ passing game seemed to find its footing. Last night in Starkville, UK came away with a convincing 24-3 victory. It was the first win at Mississippi State since 2008, an opponent Kentucky faces every year in the current divisional alignment (soon to change). That gave UK six wins, and they became bowl eligible for the eighth straight year. The Cats finish out the season against Alabama, South Carolina and Louisville.

In the first College Football Playoff Rankings, Ohio State was listed at #1. But Michigan looms ahead on the schedule (in addition to Michigan State and Minnesota). The Bucks will be looking to break a 2-game losing streak to the Wolverines on November 25th in Ann Arbor.

With 10 points, the Blue Jackets are in the bottom half of the NHL East right now. It’s early yet, but Columbus needs to ramp it up soon to be competitive.

College basketball season starts tomorrow. The Ohio State women have an afternoon game against Southern California. The men face Oakland and the UK men host New Mexico State. The UK women open Tuesday against East Tennessee.

Football Off To a Good Start

I hope all readers had a good summer. Despite hotter than average weather in much of the country, it was a close-to-average summer in central Kentucky. We’ve had very little rain over the last month and are in moderate drought.

As I type this, Kentucky has a 23-0 lead over Florida in Lexington. The Cats are trying to win their third game-in-a-row over the Gators. Ray Davis has already run for over 150 yards, and it isn’t even halftime yet. The Cats won their first four games of the season, including last week’s 45-28 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville.

Ohio State scored a touchdown with one second to go to beat Notre Dame 17-14 last week. That kept the Buckeyes undefeated. The season opened with a conference win at Indiana, followed by home wins over Youngstown State and Western Kentucky.

Online sports betting became legal in Kentucky last Thursday at 6 AM. I installed the BetMGM, FanDuel and DraftKings apps, and have been having some fun. There are so many bonus bets and profit boost offers that I have only placed bets when I’ve been able to take advantage of a special promotion. I tripled the balance in one of my accounts in the first couple days.

Shortwave radio propagation continues to improve as we continue into Sunspot Cycle 25. As I type this I am working a number of stations in Europe using the FT8 digital mode on the 10-meter band. Later this afternoon it will probably open up to Asia and I will be able to work Japan and other places in that neighborhood.

Wrapping Up The Season

The Ohio State men had a disappointing year, finishing under .500 for the season. But they did have a nice run in the Big Ten tournament, with wins over Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan State, before losing to Purdue in the semifinals. Purdue went on to be a #1 seed in the NCAA before losing in the first round.

The Kentucky women had the same situation with a last-place finish in the SEC regular season. But the Cats beat Florida and Alabama before losing to Tennessee in the quarterfinals.

The Kentucky men managed to get the first-round-loss monkey off their back by beating Providence. That gave the Cats their first NCAA tournament win in several years. In the second round, UK lost to Kansas State, a team that has given them fits in other recent tournaments.

The OSU women had a nice run in the NCAA with a regional semifinal win over Connecticut. That ended a LONG streak of Final Four appearances for the Huskies. In the regional final, the Bucks lost to #1 seed Virginia Tech.

I follow Ohio State hockey and the Buckeyes finished in the middle of the pack in the tough Big Ten. In the NCAA tournament, OSU routed Harvard before losing to Quinnipiac in a regional final.

The OSU women’s hockey team made it to the national final game where they lost to Wisconsin 1-0. The Badgers have won a bunch of national championships in women’s hockey. OSU won it all last year, but fell one-game short of a repeat.

Spring weather has arrived here. I’ve had the air conditioning on a couple days. We hit 87 degrees here yesterday, falling one degree short of tying a record. I’ve mentioned Parks On The Air here in the past, and I activated a park Tuesday for my first activation of 2023.

I hope all readers have a great summer!

Things Looking Up a Bit

After starting the season looking like an NIT team, the Kentucky men have finally gotten going and picked up some impressive victories recently. So, barring a complete collapse, the Cats look good for an NCAA tournament bid, with only the seeding to be determined. If you are going to be late, at least be here by March. And it looks like UK has arrived.

The Kentucky women ended up finishing in last place in the SEC and will play tomorrow in the SEC tournament.

The Ohio State men are not much better. They are in 13th place in the Big Ten. But Sunday’s win over Illinois ended a long losing streak. The Big Ten is interesting in that if Purdue should happen to lose its last two games, there are potentially a number of teams that would share the regular season title with 13-7 conference records.

The Ohio State women won their first 19 games, but then ran into the cream-of-the-crop in the Big Ten and finished in fourth place. It’s is obvious the Buckeyes were not at the same level as teams like Indiana, Iowa and Maryland. Injuries were a problem but that is not uncommon in sports. OSU is the #4 seed in the Big Ten tournament, so the Bucks got the double-bye into the quarterfinals.

Meteorological winter ends today, and it looks like we had the second-warmest winter on record. This despite bitter cold right before Christmas. Our January and February were probably the warmest on record. No need for the snow blower or even salt melting so far. We’ve set some new record highs recently and could do it again tomorrow.