Random notes: John Calipari is touring the state this week, with a tribute to Joe B.
To help provide continued relief for areas hit by last year’s tornadoes in western Kentucky, John Calipari is on a five-stop autograph tour at Kroger stores around the state this week.
The tour began Tuesday at the Kroger on LaGrange Road in Louisville, with stops in London (Wednesday), Georgetown (Thursday), Somerset (Friday) and Morehead (Saturday) this week.
The London stop is at the Kroger on 1732 West Highway 192 from 1-2:30 p.m. Thursday’s stop is at the Kroger at 106 Marketplace Circle in Georgetown from 1-2:30 p.m. Friday’s stop in Somerset is at 50 Stonegate Center from 1-2:30 p.m. And Saturday’s stop is at 300 Kroger Center in Morehead from noon-1:30 p.m.
At each stop will be available a program for fans to sign. As he did last season, Calipari plans to use the rolled-up program at games this year as a tribute to the late UK coach Joe B. Hall.
▪ Phil Steele’s College Football Yearbook ‘22 is out. Steele picks Kentucky to finish fourth in the SEC East. He does so with this caveat, “(Mark) Stoops almost always outperforms my expectations (sign of a very good coach).”
▪ NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said he began his quarterback evaluations for the 2023 draft with none other than Kentucky’s Will Levis. Jeremiah said he found Levis to be an intriguing prospect with a lot to like but “he’s not a natural thrower.” Jeremiah compared Levis to a “young Dak Prescott,” adding that the UK QB “has everything, he just needs to put it together.”
▪ Levis is ranked 19th in Pro Football Focus’ list of top FBS quarterbacks for 2022. PFF ranks Louisville’s Malik Cunningham at No. 14.
▪ Steele ranks Levis as his fourth-best draft-eligible quarterback for 2022, behind Bryce Young of Alabama, C.J. Stroud of Ohio State and Tyler Van Dyke of Miami. He ranks UK’s Chris Rodriguez as the 12th-best draft-eligible running back.
▪ Levis will be joined by teammates Kenneth Horsey and DeAndre Square at SEC Football Media Days in Atlanta on Wednesday, July 20.
▪ Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post on UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten: “All of the people saying college football would lose the character that made it distinct if players were ever allowed NIL payments? They didn’t recognize that the real people leeching it of originality and distinctiveness were the ones sitting in the corner offices.”
▪ If you missed it, Florida veterinarian Seth Fishman was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his role in the horse racing drug scandal that involved trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro. He is the 11th person to be sentenced as part of the federal investigation. Navarro pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years. Servis is awaiting trial scheduled for January 2023.
▪ In his first starts since serving out his 90-day suspension, Bob Baffert won two races on Saturday, including High Connection’s triumph in the Los Alamitos Derby. Baffert had not started horses in a race since April 2. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s suspension of the trainer began April 4 and was reciprocated by tracks around the nation.
▪ The Western Athletic Conference has come up with a wacky idea. According to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, the seedings for the WAC basketball tournament will be determined by a Kenpom-created formula that utilizes the NET rankings. Seedings will not be determined solely by conference wins and losses.
▪ The hiring of Jen Hoover as an assistant coach is a smart move for Kentucky women’s basketball. Hoover’s 11 years as a head coach — one at High Point, 10 at Wake Forest — should aid UK’s Kyra Elzy, entering her third season as a head coach.
▪ SEC volleyball coaches have picked Kentucky to win the conference for the sixth straight year. UK received 10 of the 13 first-place votes. Florida received two. Tennessee received one.
▪ After 21 years of the Pittsburgh Steelers playing in Heinz Field, the name Acrisure Stadium is not going to cut it.
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