Mark Story's latest sports column provided by the Lexingon Herald-Leader

Mark Story

UK head coach Mark Stoops stalks the field during the game. The University of Kentucky hosted its Blue/White Spring Scrimmage Saturday, April 13, 2013 at the Commonwealth Stadium. Photo by Jonathan Palmer

Mark Story: Football buzz hits critical mass

When Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops apparently offered a scholarship to a seventh-grade cornerback, UK became part of a distressing 2013 trend: Colleges offering kids in middle school football scholarships.

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Archive by category ''Mark Story

BASKETBALL: WOMEN

Mark Story: Barnhart tenure still lacks a non-hoops breakthrough

Toward the end of each school year, I like to evaluate how the athletics departments at Kentucky and Louisville have fared and declare an overall winner between the two.
MARK STORY

Mark Story: A 5-step plan to rescue college basketball

After the slog that was the 2012-13 men's college hoops season, many observers believe the game is in deep trouble. Outlawing the act of defenders coming from off the ball to take charges and allowing players with five fouls to stay in games are two ways to improve the game.
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS

2013 Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame class

2013 Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame class
COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Mark Story: Centre legend Bo McMillin finally gets the call from the hall (of fame)

On Thursday night, Bo McMillin, the star of Centre College's football "upset of the century" over Harvard in 1921, will enter the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. McMillin's 90-year-old daughter says simply, 'It's about time.'
FOOTBALL

Mark Story: How a dispiriting UK sports season yielded a giddy UK fan base

In the three most visible men's sports — football, basketball, baseball — 2012-13 was a horrid year for the University of Kentucky. Yet UK backers seem almost giddy. What gives? Tom Leach says you can find the answer in old cowboy movies.
MARK STORY

Mark Story: For Keselowski, what makes Kentucky Speedway hard also makes it fun

The Kentucky Speedway racing surface is too bumpy. Last year, the weather for the Quaker State 400 was too hot. Yet for reigning Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, the unique challenges of the Speedway make it one of his favorite tracks
COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Mark Story: Ex-Wildcat to let Rick Pitino know what he really thinks of him

Notes column includes: Cameron Mills planning to send Rick Pitino a message; Jeff Piecoro thrilled by UK football's recruiting invasion of Ohio; slain Bardstown police officer Jason Ellis was 'arguably the best baseball player ever to play' at Cumberlands
COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Mark Story: Julie Hermann has at least one defender in Lexington

Even though coaching rivals at Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1990s, Kathy DeBoer and Julie Hermann became friends. Now, as allegations about Hermann's past coaching behavior have put her future as the new Rutgers AD in question, DeBoer says "she can survive this. Julie's tough."
MARK STORY

Mark Story: How to 'fix' SEC men's basketball

Better scheduling, more emphasis on early-season games and new ways of marketing the SEC Tournament so that more schools' fans care about the event are keys to improving SEC men's basketball.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Mark Story: 'Confusing time' for Kentucky NCAA schools not named UK or UofL

At our state's NCAA Division I schools that are not in the "upper-crust" college conferences, how much do they worry about being "left behind" if the big boys bail?