Five things: Could Justin Powell be headed to Kentucky?
Five things of interest on this Wednesday morning:
Could Justin Powell transfer to Kentucky?
News broke Tuesday that the Kentucky native has left the Auburn basketball program and entered the transfer portal. The 6-foot-6 guard had his freshman season shortened by a concussion suffered Jan. 2 against Texas A&M. He did not play another game for the Tigers and ended up averaging 11.7 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists over 10 games.
Could Powell be interested in Kentucky and vice versa? We shall see. Most believe that John Calipari will be looking for more guard help in 2020-21, but we don’t know yet who’s leaving and who’s staying from the current roster. Just because Powell has entered the portal doesn’t mean he will be a Wildcat next season. He did, after all, play for three different high schools, playing at Louisville Trinity before transferring to Montverde Academy in Florida, then finishing up at North Oldham. So look for plenty of speculation. Stay tuned.
Update: Ben Roberts says Kentucky will be a “major player” for the now-former Auburn guard.
[UK recruiting news, player pages and links at Next Cats]
Louisville must beat Duke a third time
To advance in the ACC Tournament, Chris Mack’s Cardinals must complete a three-game sweep of the Blue Devils. After beating Duke 70-65 at the KFC Yum Center and 80-73 in overtime in Durham, Louisville gets Duke again Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament in Greensboro. The ACC Network has the telecast.
Despite being the No. 10 seed, its lowest seed in ACC tourney history, Duke (12-11) advanced with an easy 86-51 win over Boston College in the tournament’s opening round on Tuesday. D.J. Steward scored 17 points and Mark Williams added 13 as Mike Krzyzewski’s team snapped a three-game losing streak.
A Louisville loss could put the Cardinals right back on the NCAA Tournament bubble. In his latest Bracketology, Joe Lunardi has U of L as one of the “last four byes.”
[ACC Tournament bracket, results]
[Another Dooley Noted with Greg Sankey and John Clay]
Mark Pope’s team will give NCAA foe fits
The former Kentucky star on UK’s 1996 national title team nearly pulled off the upset of the college basketball season on Tuesday night when Pope’s Brigham Young University Cougars led No. 1 ranked and unbeaten Gonzaga 53-41 at halftime of the West Coast Conference Tournament finals only to be outscored 47-25 in the second half and lose 88-78.
Still, the Cougars will be a tough out in the NCAA Tournament. Under Pope, in his second year as head coach, BYU has gone 20-6 this year. Three of those losses were against Gonzaga — 86-69 in Spokane; 82-71 in Provo and then the 10-point loss on Tuesday night. BYU was the last team to beat Gonzaga, winning 91-78 on Feb. 22, 2020.
As for Tuesday night’s first half, Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said of BYU. “We couldn’t stop them. They had us on roller skates.”
Bud Dupree is officially a free agent
After using the franchise tag on their defensive end last year, the Pittsburgh Steelers declined to do so this time around, meaning the former Kentucky star is now headed to free agency.
Dupree recorded a career-high 11.5 sacks in 2019, only to suffer a torn ACL during the 2020 season. Injured in Week 12, Dupree has said he expects to be ready for the start of training camp. He had recorded eight sacks before suffering the injury against the Baltimore Ravens.
Dupree was tagged at $15.8 million in 2020. Spotrac estimates Dupree’s value for 2021 is $18.2 million a year.
The Blue Grass Stakes gets the Kentucky Derby favorite
Or at least one of the Kentucky Derby favorites in Essential Quality, who won the Eclipse Award for 2-year-old male after taking both the Breeders’ Futurity and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland last year. Now, trainer Brad Cox says Essential Quality will use the Blue Grass Stakes on April 3 as his final Kentucky Derby prep race.
That’s a feather in the cap for the Grade 2 race which has not produced a Kentucky Derby winner since 2007 when Street Sense finished second in the race, then went on to win in Louisville for trainer Carl Nafzger. Strike the Gold in 1991 with trainer Nick Zito was the last colt to win the Blue Grass and then the Kentucky Derby.
Essential Quality is a perfect 4-for-4 lifetime after an impressive win in the slop in the Southwest Stakes on Feb. 27. Cox won the 2020 Eclipse Award for top trainer, but the Louisville native has never had a horse in the Kentucky Derby. This year he could have three with Mandaloun, Caddo River and Essential Quality.
[Kentucky Derby leaderboard, prep race results and schedule]
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 7:11 AM.
