** Not sure how it is going to work out but Arkansas OT Devon Manuel is a player of interest for Kentucky. He played 417 snaps for the Razorbacks in nine games this year. All at left tackle. Really big kid at 6'9, 310. He was a redshirt sophomore for the Hogs this year. Has two years of eligibility remaining. Do not know where things stand but this was something that had started to show signs of movement but haven't heard an update.

** Cam Dooley is supposed to be signing on Dec. 20 and as I said, my understanding is that he will not visit Ga Tech this weekend. That bodes well for UK's chances. Put a FutureCast in for UK at the beginning of November and have seen no reason to flip with the GT development. Kentucky has been looking for another safety and he's a good rangy option. Dooley's official visit to Mizzou was what sealed it for them. He also took OVs to UK and Vandy. Dooley is a two-way player at Valley. Had a good season as a passer, actually, in addition to playing full time on defense.

** I like the way UK handled the decommitments from Elijah Groves and Lorenzo Cowan. The more I have heard about those situations, I think it's happening on the best terms possible, so they would definitely be transfer candidates down the road if they do decide to enter the portal. That's not going to make anyone feel great right now about losing those players, if you liked them, but it's a reality because so many players are going in and we are seeing that those preexisting relationships largely determine where players in the portal end up.

** I don't think Kentucky is going to make another move to add another transfer quarterback at the moment. Tennessee ran with two scholarship quarterbacks last year. If I had to guess, based on the lack of activity with additional portal QBs, they will probably go into the spring with a room that includes Vandagriff, Boley, and Allen as the new additions and then reassess after the spring but I could see it working out like that going into the season as well. Might not be ideal for Boley to potentially be thrust into action that quickly but he has talent.

** Tennessee is still pushing very hard for Willie Rodriguez as of this morning. UK had the in-home visit yesterday. I still think he is going to sign with Kentucky and the folks I have spoken with believe that is the most likely outcome too, but it is apparently something that they are at least looking at. Guess they don't want to go through the process and ever wonder "what if" but haven't heard anything that suggests to me that he is going to make the flip. Have always thought he was one of the highest-floor players in Kentucky's class and someone they would make a real part of the offense in the years ahead. Local guys like that are important.

** I do think that Kentucky still has a real chance to land Donaven McCulley. I think it would be a pretty ideal addition for this reason: It could be tough to find another "starter caliber" receiver given they now have three guys lined up who are going to take a big share of the snaps, plus more of a 2nd string depth chart than they had going into 2022. If you were to add McCulley then that would be pretty ideal. He isn't a huge upgrade over the guys they have in terms of explosiveness but would be another very reliable target that makes the room better for next year. Not logging a prediction at this point but I did hear some talk midweek or so which suggested he was still a very possible addition, and I had not posted that until now.

** Have to keep in mind there are a lot more guys who are going to go into the portal. There will be a late wave so plenty more target-worthy players will be going in. Given it's only the first wave Maclin and Cottrell were two big pickups. You could even see Cottrell possibly becoming a big piece for them as early as this season. Just depends on how deep they want the rotation to go and I don't think we know since tempo is likely to be a real focus and they didn't have the depth to rotate more guys in '23.

** I am working under the assumption that Barion Brown will be back for next year. We have heard that there has definitely been some interest. When you put on the highlight tape it's easy to see. He would definitely be a guy that another fan base would get really excited about, even developmental issues remaining aside. But our last info suggested the same thing that I posted here weeks ago: That Deone and Barion are likely to be back.

After the game he was asked if he took this game personal because he’s from North Carolina..his response…”I take every game personal”….i liked that

Transfer Tracker 12/17

Let’s check up on our former Cats still hoopin in college. There’s so many so it’s hard to keep up, hope this helps for the few who may be interested. Only comment I’ll make for now…y’all are about to see what we’re NOT missing out on.

CJ Fredrick: Cincinnati Bearcats - 9 games/8 starts - 23.6mpg/8.0ppg/1.4rpg/1.2apg - 45.1%/48.7%/70%

Sahvir Wheeler: Washington Huskies - 8 games/8 starts - 34.5mpg/16.1ppg/3.6rpg/6.5apg/1.5stls/3.8tovs - 45.2%/25%/66.7%

Lance Ware: Villanova Wildcats - 11 games/0 starts - 11.9mpg/0.7ppg/2.4rpg/0.7apg/0.3bpg - 33.3%/-/50%

Daimion Collins (shoulder issue): LSU Tigers - 5 games/0 starts - 9.8mpg/4.8ppg/2.2rpg/0.0apg/0.6bpg - 69.2%/100%/83.3%

Keion Brooks: Washington Huskies - 9 games/9 starts - 34.3mpg/19.9ppg/7.9rpg/1.7apg/0.7stls/0.7bpg - 50.8%/33.3%/85.4%

Bryce Hopkins: Providence Friars - 10 games/10 starts - 33.3mpg/16.3ppg/7.9rpg/1.6apg/1.1stls/0.2bpg - 43.8%/21.1%/70.5%

Dontaie Allen: WKU Hilltoppers - 11 games/0 starts - 17.5mpg/6.4ppg/2.2rpg/0.5apg/0.6stls/0.6bpg - 29.7%/31.3%/73.3%

Zan Payne: Louisville Cardinals - 4 games/0 starts - 2.5mpg/0/0/0/0/0 - 0%/-/-

Devin Askew (injured): California Golden Bears - 3 games/3 starts - 33mpg/10ppg/5.7rpg/3apg/3tovs - 37.5%/18.2%/90.9%

Cam’Ron Fletcher (knee injury - out for season): Florida State Seminoles - 7 games/0 starts - 15.9mpg/6.7ppg/5rpg/1apg - 38.8%/29.4%/57.1%

Jemarl Baker: New Mexico Lobos - 10games/8 starts - 21.8mpg/7.9ppg/1.9rpg/1.9apg - 50%/44.2%/85.7%

Re-Watching highlights of the game. Kid is so good. Gotta eat some crow, didn't think he was going to play ever but man the wait was worth it for him.

8-4 since he came to Kentucky and it took the worst refereeing screw job I’ve ever seen in my life to give the cheaters one of their wins.

More impressive: Cal is 6-1 over UNC when the Tarholes are ranked in the Top Ten. Damn, that has to hurt.

I love it. Always been one of my favorite wins of the year. It has been a thrilling ride since John Wall’s “rack attack” to Liggins’ 3 in the Elite Eight to AD’s fabulous block, to Malik Monk’s 47 point barrage, to the brutal beating the Cats administered in Oscar’s first year and so on.

Go Cats. Keep beating the Cheats.

I've got either 26-5 or 25-6. Teams in the SEC play over their heads when they play us so I see 3 or 4 losses as inevitable.

What do you see ?

Intense game. Hard fought by both teams. And why Kentucky won the game.

1. Rebounding. 18 offensive for UK and only six for UNC. Won the battle by 10 boards overall. It is unc's Achilles heel this year. The offensive rebounding Edge created 15 additional points whereas UNC only got six points off there orbs. And for the game UK had 15 more shot attempts. Rebounding was a big part of the difference.

2. The kittens. Freshmen scored 62 points. For the most part they were solid the entire game but most importantly they did not buckle at crunch time.

3. The guys have a refuse to lose mentality and they have the skill to overcome the jitters. They did not fold.

4. A game to be remembered for a long while and it could be the springboard for more greatness in the coming days. Looking over the remainder of our schedule I don't see a team that we cannot beat.

I'll simply go with an extremely young team growing up before our very eyes, after UNC coming back to take the lead, hanging tough and coming back to put this one to bed. Gotta' love it ! So many other interesting tidbits that can be gleaned from this game. Add to the list as to what you think were "salient point tidbits" we can gather from this one......

Keeping him for his junior year and out of the portal is a must this offseason. He’s gonna be a complete stud next year.

I think we got a glimpse of what this team is against UNC. We're not a 75% shooting team from 3, like against Miami and we're not lost and lazy like we looked against UNCW. This team is loaded and built to play any style thrown at us on a given night. If we get hot from outside and continue to share the ball, we're unstoppable but I think we're gonna see a lot of conference games that resemble the UNC game, where it's a dog fight and isn't always pretty.

Nobody lit it up last night. There was no one guy that was hitting from outside and we didn't shoot the ball well overall. But we made enough shots and no one seemed to try to do too much. Wagner played his best game and was able to create shots for himself and led the team in assists. He very much played within himself and had a very solid game. Shep played solid but not his best outing and had some lazy, ill advised passes that led to turnovers...Unlike him. He'll be fine. UNC is good and he looked a little unsure with some of those passes all game. Dilly quietly led the team in points but took a few bad shots too. He probably tried to force things a little more than anyone last night and needed to slow down just a tick at times. He'll find his comfort zone soon.

Thiero is just a dog and a baller. Love the muscle he's added and his maturity is showing in big games. He and Mitchell take a lot of pressure off of Bradshaw while Bradshaw is finding his role and figuring it out fast. He's gonna be a stud by year end. Would love to see him add a little more muscle and size. He looked horrid in his first game but is catching on at lightening speed. He got pushed around a little and didn't block out as well as I had hoped but it'll come.
Ugo gave us solid and much needed minutes that kept Bradshaw from fouling out with dumb, freshman fouls. Our bigs only gave us 4 rebounds, so lots of room to improve there but neither have played or even practiced much yet. I feel good about both of them and I think Ugo is gonna surprise a lot of people very soon.

I think Edwards and Reeves are still searching for where and how they fit in. We all know Reeves can get hot and can create his own shot against most defenders. Edwards shows flashes of greatness but just needs time. He'll be huge for us this year, just a little later that I hoped. He and Reeves both had off shooting nights but they both played solid and didn't force things too much, which Reeves does at times.

We have other scorers on this team. Reeves doesn't have to carry us offensively.

The big question with this team is defense. Last night was by far our best defensive game, I think. The chemistry seems to be there and Reeves and Thiero need to set examples and lead these young kids on d. I haven't been to a live game yet this season but I wanna see them communicate on defense. I think the older players can play big roles there. If the defense catches up with the offense, which still needs a lot of work, we'll be crazy good by March. If we end up playing UConn, we'll have to be much, much better on defense to win that game, just my own eye test in that regard. They have shooters that stretch any team and open up lanes to the basket. They're just a very good team overall and are a tough matchup for anybody, but we have the pieces to do it if we progress on defense, substantially. If Big Z gets cleared, he might be the difference maker in that game because we can give them a taste of their own medicine, hopefully better than anyone in the country by then.

I'm far from any kind of expert but just my thoughts after seeing the growth this team showed in this win. Lace em up tight and hang on. It's gonna be fun!

That was a thing of beauty. Wagner is a tough SOB.

If so, this will really help us in the NET rankings

Great game! You guys have tremendous athleticism. Every time we made a run, your freshman responded with big time shots. Again, congrats!

Where we gonna be in the polls?

For punking us, by showing this commerical during a nationally televised game between 2 teams that hate Duke 🙄 Login to view embedded media

A weakness to a strength. Outrebounded the Heels and Bacot by 10. Neutralized Ingram.

Nice having some length. Impressive.

I thought he couldn't do these type of things

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Onyenso only scored one point but blocked three shots in his 10 minutes. Great to have another 7 footer back.

They never did show a replay of it or I missed it if they did.

John Calipari​

Tre Mitchell​

Rob Dillingham​

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

State Farm Arena​

Kentucky Wildcats​

Press Conference​

Kentucky 87, North Carolina 83

Q. Rob, you’re a North Carolina kid. Was this game personal to you?

ROB DILLINGHAM: I mean, a little bit. My dad always wanted me to go to Carolina. I mean, I take every game personal, so I just look at it as another game for us, but I’m happy we got the W..................... https://ukathletics.com/news/2023/12/16/kentucky-north-carolina-postgame-quotes/

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KENTUCKY HC JOHN CALIPARI, UK NETWORK POSTGAME Q&A:

* Liked how they fought most of all.

* Had to take Justin Edwards out, gave up three 3s. Just wasn't his day. Good thing about this season, they have options if one guy isn't on his game.

* Ugo is BIG. It matters. You have to have a guy like that if you're gonna be a real team.

* Tried to downplay it being a big game to the guys before the game... but will play it up "huge" since they won. Ultimately, it's December, not March.

* Smart team. They learn. Proud of them.

* Gives Rob Dillingham some leeway because he goes and gets buckets. Will live with a couple of mistakes here and there. The net positive is worth it. Still a bit sloppy at times. Work in progress.

* Talked to team, they did not want to foul at the end. Cal still thought they should foul. Didn't want to give Davis a chance to make a four-point play or do something crazy. But the UNC kid threw it off Davis' back before they had a chance to foul him. Some good fortune.

* Thiero didn't start but played well when his number was called, "did some stuff. Was physical." Says Adou should live in the gym -- put a bed in the locker room -- because if he had a consistent J, he'd be a Top 5 pick.

* There was some pushing and shoving and jamming today by UNC, but they figured it out and the kids fought like heck.

*****

KENTUCKY C/F AARON BRADSHAW, UK NETWORK POSTGAME Q&A:

* Thankful to be back on the court. Thanks God and his family for helping him get back to this point and have days like this.

* A little foul trouble tonight. Had to be careful late in the game, but still have to play defense. You can't stop playing defense, even with 4 fouls.

* On the late FTs... I just go to my happy place, my room, think about my mom and dad and sister. Ha.

* Asked about his conditioning, says he feels great. "I think I can go again. "

I think all of our players will finish much better at the rim. Many of them are getting routinely there, but often missing.
That part will improve. When it does, we can be incredibly tough to beat.
GO CATS !!!

So if we beat Louisville do we win the acc? 3-0 Maybe we can hang an extra banner like North Carolina (helms)....