Basketball on Tuesday in February

UK is on bye this week, as they prepare for a very difficult trip to Gainesville against the National Champions.  But the games continue.  Vanderbilt -- which has not recovered from the loss of Duke Miles -- is in Auburn to play the Tigers, who have not recovered from the loss of Bruce Pearl.  A Vandy loss will drop the Commodores to 6-5 in the SEC; an Auburn loss would drop the Tigers to 5-6.  Auburn's at home, and it's really hard to see them losing a must-win game at home.  But if you had told me in December, that after 11 games, Vandy would be two games behind UK, I would not have believed you.

For the record, Auburn v. Vandy is the top-rated game on Ken Pom for today.  The top four games tonight all tipped off at 6 P.M. Central:

Auburn v. Vanderbilt

Nebraska v. Purdue

Baylor v. B.Y.U.

Miami (Fla.) v. N. Carolina

UPDATE:  Here's how those games ended:

Auburn 76 - 84 Vanderbilt

Nebraska 77 - 80 Purdue (OT)

Baylor 94 - 99 B.Y.U.

Miami (Fla.) 75 - 66 N. Carolina

That's a huge win for the Dores, who bounce back from a disappointing loss at home to Oklahoma last Saturday.  Vandy is now 7-4 in the SEC and 20-4 overall.  Ken Pom says that Tyler Tanner is the best player in the SEC, and he looked like it tonight.

Oh, and here's the top of the medal count:

1.  Norway:  12 (6-2-4)

2.  Italy:  11 (2-2-7)

3.  Japan:  8 (2-2-4)

4.  United States:  7 (2-3-2)

T5.  Germany:  6 (3-2-1)

T5.  Sweden:  6 (3-2-1)

7.  Switzerland:  5 (3-1-1)

8.  Austria:  5 (2-3-0)

9.  France:  3 (1-2-0)

10.  Canada:  3 (0-1-2)

XXV Olympic Winter Games, Milan Cortina 2026 (More)

The Winter Olympics over the last few cycles has been turning for me into the World Series of Curling with a whole bunch of other events and hoopla going on around and outside the arena. Kind of like when they used to play some basketball games and have a parade in connection with the Sugar Bowl. Maybe they still do.

Anyway, curling is fascinating, and I love it. The United States’ mixed-doubles team—a Corey and a Corey, “the Coreys”—has advanced to the medal round after two thrilling wins Sunday. Right now on USA Network, I’m enjoying their preliminary-round match, or round-robin match, or first-round match or whatever with the Italians. I’m sure the outcome here has bearing on seeding for the medal round, but I don’t really care. I’m treating this as more of a Monday-morning victory lap, and I’m hoping to not get too worked up because I need to focus on other things.

I enjoyed the Olympics over the weekend, mostly on mute, and I’m enjoying rooting for my American home slices, despite what an awful period we’re in as a nation. 

In his first term, President Trump lied and got a bunch of people killed and clobbered a lot of young Americans’ mental health and good feelings about the country, because he was too scared of what would happen to himself if he told the truth about COVID-19 being an airborne virus in the first several weeks of 2020. In his second term, he appears to be willing to do or say anything he can to enrich himself and his family and to distract his shrinking base of idolators from the pedophilia. (Also, over both terms so far, he has been awful to immigrants, refugees and other groups of vulnerable people, and our best moments in those areas are my favorite things about U.S. history and the primary reasons I am patriotic.) 

There is no plan. Certainly, President Trump doesn't have one; this poor abused and sick fellow is just hurting and lashing out. And while there are people around him who have their plans, it's just that they all think they're actually the smartest ones in the room, cleverly owning the libs or using Trump as a Trojan horse or whatever. But don’t kid yourself—there is no plan, and we’re dangerously lost. You can't fool around with somebody like this. We should've never done so.

It’s hard to imagine how we’re going to ever recover from President Trump, at least in my lifetime. We’re all just going to have to pray however we pray, and we’re all just going to have try our best in our own little ways and places. This is where we are. It’s awful. Please, God, for better. 

And, of course, in the meantime, it’s hard to have fun chanting U! S! A! … U! S! A! ..., as nothing at all feels U or fun. That stinks. But I'm fifty-freaking-seven years old, and the Winter Olympics come around only once every four years. So, go Coreys. It's 6-6 going into the eighth and final end on USA Network.

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, Milan 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