Pope Update

At the half, UK trailed Tennessee 47 to 33 in Rupp.  But, for the fifth time this season, the Cats rallied from a double digit deficit to win the game -- beating UT 74 to  71 thanks to a suffocating second-half defense that held Tennessee to only 24 points.  It was Pope's fourth win in four regular season games against the Vols, and underscored the point that there's a weird rock/paper/scissors thing going on in the SEC:

Kentucky has won four of its last five against Tennessee.

Tennessee has won five straight against Alabama.

Alabama has won four straight against Kentucky

Anyway, the Cats have now won eight out of nine.  They are 8-3 in the SEC and 17-7 overall.  To put those figures in perspective, here's UK's record after 11 SEC games since 2022:

2022:  9-2, 20-4

2023:  7-4, 16-8

2024:  7-4, 17-7

2025:  6-5, 17-7

However, it's important to understand that analytically, Kentucky is basically the same team it was before the winning streak began.  After UK lost to Mizzou to begin SEC play at 0-2, Ken Pomeroy moved UK from 25 to 30 on his rankings.  Nine games later, eight of which were wins, Ken Pom now has UK ranked . . . 31.  In fact, the analytics support such a result -- six of UK's eight wins in this streak were by less than double digits.  They beat LSU by one on a buzzer beater, won at Knoxville by two, edged Texas at home by five, survived Ole Miss at home by nine, upset Arkansas on the road by eight, and squeezed past Tennessee at home last night by three.

So from Ken Pom's perspective, UK hasn't gotten better -- they've just gotten luckier.  The Cats are now up to 98 in Pomeroy's "luck" score -- meaning that their record is now a game or two better than their scoring margin would have indicated.  Still, nothing makes fans happier than winning close games, so the mood in the camp has improved dramatically.  Cats now get a week off, and then they play what is probably their toughest game of the year -- at Florida.  Believe it or not, if the Cats win that game, they will be in first place in the SEC.

Speaking of the Gators, they went to Aggieland and humiliated Texas A & M, 86 to 67.  Florida is really good.  Meanwhile, Vanderbilt suffered a terrible defeat -- 92 to 91 at home against Oklahoma -- that pretty much ends their chances of competing for the SEC title.  

Here's the top of the SEC standings:

Florida:  8-2

Kentucky:  8-3

Arkansas:  7-3

Texas A & M:  7-3

Vanderbilt:  6-4

Tennessee:  6-4

Alabama:  6-4

Missouri:  6-4

Texas:  6-5

Auburn:  5-5

Georgia:  5-5

And here are the classic SEC rankings, based on Ken Pom:

7.  Florida:  17-6

14.  Vanderbilt:  19-4

18.  Tennessee:  16-7

20.  Alabama:  16-7

30.  Auburn:  14-9

31.  Kentucky:  17-7

37.  Georgia:  17-6

51.  Louisiana St:  14-9

68.  Mississippi:  11-12

88.  Mississippi St:  11-12

XXV Olympic Winter Games, Milano Cortina 2026

I sent off my $11 or whatever last week and got set up to watch all of the NBC Peacock Olympics coverage over the next couple weeks plus, and I started nosing around over the last few days--some preview stuff, some skiing qualifications a couple of days ago, some curling yesterday, etc. I love the Olympics.

But I've also been all over the place emotionally about the whole affair because I don't at all feel like having fun in cheering for the United States or giving money to any entity that is going to build up Donald Trump's wealth so he can better defend himself or escape from ... oh, my ... I see just now that this dude has shared some video depicting President and Mrs. Obama as primates.

Oh, forget it. What a disaster.

No medals awarded yet. Opening ceremonies are tonight. Please, God, for better.

Pope Update

Kentucky whomped Oklahoma 94-78 at Rupp Arena last night.  The Cats have now won seven of their last eight games.  They are 7-3 in the SEC, and 16-7 overall.  They are ranked 31 on Ken Pom, and they have eight games left.  In their first ten SEC games, they have outscored their opponents 780-760 -- meaning that the average score of a UK SEC game this year has been 78 to 76.  Their luck score is up to 137, meaning that their record is now better than their offensive and defensive efficiency would indicate.

Ken Pom thinks they will finish 11-7 and 20-11.  Here are his predictions for the last eight games -- games where UK is favored are in bold.  It looks like the UK fans are in for a bunch of nailbiters:

2/7:  TENNESSEE:  73-72 (53 percent chance of winning)

2/14:  at Florida:  72-81 (19 percent chance)

2/17:  GEORGIA:  84-79 (69 percent chance)

2/21:  at Auburn:  76-80 (35 percent chance)

2/24:  at S. Carolina:  76-71 (68 percent chance)

2/28:  VANDERBILT:  78-79 (47 percent chance)

3/3:  Texas A & M:  77-81 (38 percent chance)

3/7:  FLORIDA:  75-78 (38 percent chance)

Notice that even though Ken Pom only has UK favored in three of these games, he thinks they will likely pull out one more.

Here are the Classic SEC rankings, according to Ken Pom:

7.  Florida:  16-6

13.  Vanderbilt:  19-3

17.  Tennessee:  16-6

21.  Alabama:  15-7

27.  Auburn:  14-8

31.  Kentucky:  16-7

41.  Georgia:  16-6

48.  Louisiana St:  14-8

66.  Mississippi:  11-11

84.  Mississippi St:  11-11

NBA27 Update

Cannot wait to read what The Washington Post sports section has to say tomorrow morning about today's big trade of Anthony Davis to the Wizards!

I am officially excited:

1-Trae Young, Bub Carrington, D’Angelo Russell

2-Bilal Coulibaly, Tre Johnson, Otega Oweh

3-Kyshawn George, Justin Champagnie, Zach Tow

4-Anthony Davis, Caleb Wilson

5-Alex Sarr, Skal Labissiére

Maybe Popeye Jones will come over with A.D. from Dallas to join the coaching staff.

Seriously, this projects as perhaps my favorite Bullets lineup since about 2002, when they had Popeye, Hoptown's Chris Whitney, Rip Hamilton and Michael Jordan.

Classic SEC Update

Based on the Ken Pom rankings, an old-school 10-team SEC men's basketball tournament would look like this (seeds in parentheses):

Upper bracket:

(1) Florida (16-6) v. (8) Louisiana St (14-8) or (9) Mississippi (11-10)

(4) Alabama (14-7) v. (5) Auburn (14-8)

Lower bracket:

(2) Vanderbilt (19-3) v. (7) Georgia (16-6) or (10) Mississippi St. (11-11)

(3) Tennessee (15-6) v. (6) Kentucky (15-7)

There are some really good quarter-final matchups here.

However, in terms of the modern SEC, the top of the league looks like this:

Texas A & M:  7-1

Florida:  7-2

Vanderbilt:  6-3

Arkansas:  6-3

Kentucky:  6-3

Tennessee:  5-3

Auburn:  5-4

Missouri:  5-4

Alabama:  4-4

Texas:  4-5

Georgia:  4-5