KSR Today: Baseball's last road trip, Pope on hiring a GM, Graduation Day, and more

Good morning, KentuckySportsRadio.com readers. Welcome to Friday. We made it. Great job, everybody. It’s almost the weekend. But first, one more weekday to power through, beginning here with a new edition of KSR Today.

After you read this, find a radio by 10 a.m. to listen to the last KSR morning show of the week. Today’s show will be live from Don Franklin Auto in Corbin, Kentucky. Come out to hear the show and meet the crew if you’re in the area.

Before I head to Corbin to yap on the radio, I’ve been tasked with putting written words on the internet. So, let’s get to it. There are fun things ahead.

Kentucky Baseball begins a weekend series in Gainesville

With only two series remaining in the regular season, Kentucky Baseball needs another good weekend to get further from the NCAA bubble. The Wildcats are on the road for the last time this year, playing three games against Florida in Gainesville. The first one is tonight, starting at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+, the digital-only platform for your SEC viewing. Game 2 is at 4:00 tomorrow and will also stream on SECN+, before Sunday’s game moves to the SEC Network at noon.

Earlier this week, D1Baseball and Baseball America had Kentucky in the NCAA field as a No. 3 seed in a four-team regional, one in Oregon and the other in Kansas. The Wildcats need to keep winning games to protect that spot in the tournament.

UK Commencement 2026: Congrats, graduates

It’s Graduation Day at the University of Kentucky. Today and tomorrow, the May commencement ceremonies will be held at Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington. The College of Design leads things off at 9 a.m. this morning, then it’ll be a busy two days from there as the 2026 graduating class walks the stage and receives their diplomas. Congrats to all.

Part II of Mark Pope’s Q&A with fans

Mark Pope dropped another round of replies yesterday, this time revealing his initial plans for a summer trip and answering five other questions. The trip, he said, was originally going to be to Jerusalem, but he has since changed his mind about taking the team and some of its fans into the Middle East. He asked for new ideas at the end of the video.

Also, more on Malachi Moreno’s upside and a pushback on the narrative that Marcio Santos was already committed to LSU when Pope visited him in Israel. Tomorrow, Pope will get to even more questions, including the most popular. When is he hiring a GM?

Hit on some more questions today, tackling the GM topic tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/3Y3gu5jfs5

— Mark Pope (@CoachMarkPope) May 7, 2026

Zoomin’ with Momcilovic

Mark Pope might’ve missed on his biggest target this cycle, but he’s not done recruiting elite talent to join next season’s roster. Yesterday, KSR confirmed that Pope met with Milan Momcilovic, the Iowa State sharpshooter, over Zoom. Momcilovic is the No. 1 power forward and the No. 3 overall player in the On3 Transfer Portal Industry Ranking. He’s in both the transfer portal and the NBA Draft, with an early second-round projection in the latter. If the All-Big 12 selection returns to school, Kentucky hopes to be the next stop in his basketball career. Pope should have all of the money he needs to make a competitive offer. Something to watch.

NCAA Men’s and Women’s Tournaments moving to 76 teams

There’s an old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” T. Bert Lance made the phrase popular in the late 70s, but it seems the NCAA never heard it, because it voted to change the best thing about college basketball: the tournament.

Yesterday, the NCAA voted to expand its men’s and women’s tournaments to 76 teams. The additional eight teams will be added to the current “First Four” play-in round on Tuesday and Wednesday. In the new format, 24 teams will play over those two days before the winners hurry to join the rest of the field days later.

Aside from the obvious money grab, all this does is let in more undeserving teams and maybe save a few coaches’ jobs each year. Nobody asked for it, nor do they think March Madness needed to be reformatted. It was great as it was.

NBA Conference Semifinals continue with several former Wildcats

If you’ve been keeping up with the NBA Playoffs, you have two more conference semifinal games to watch tonight, featuring several former Kentucky Wildcats. First, Karl-Anthony Towns’ Knicks head into Philadelphia, where Tyrese Maxey’s Sixers are down 2-0 and trying to get a win in the series. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. on Prime Video.

After that, Julius Randle and the Timberwolves host the Spurs after splitting the first two games of the series in San Antonio. Randle led Minnesota in scoring in both games. Tonight, De’Aaron Fox and Keldon Johnson will try to lead the Spurs to a road win in Minnesota to regain control of the Western Conference semifinal.

• Knicks @ Sixers | 7:00 p.m. | Amazon Prime Video | Knicks lead 2-0
• Spurs @ Timberwolves | 9:30 p.m. | Amazon Prime Video | Series tied 1-1

Are you watching KSR’s Happy Hour?

We meet on YouTube at 4 p.m. on Thursday, usually with a Country Boy beer. We’ve been doing it a while now. If this concept is new to you, check out yesterday’s episode to see how it works, then we’ll see you next Thursday for more of the same.

Off to Corbin

I gotta run. Tune in at 10 a.m., and Go Cats.