Notes: Cincinnati Bengals possible draft picks; UK basketball transfer news and more
In addition to my random notes for print, here are some more notes:
▪ Who will the Cincinnati Bengals pick with the 31st selection in Thursday’s first round of the NFL Draft?
The Bengals improved their offensive line through the free agent market by signing guard Alex Cappa, center Ted Karras and tackle La’el Collins. Still, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Duke Tobin and Zac Taylor choose another offensive lineman in this spot.
The smarter money seems to be on a defensive player, possibly an edge rusher or a linebacker.
Taylor said of the pool of possible Bengals picks: “I’d say it’s probably a bigger range than five [players], to be honest with you. Yeah, you can pick a guy that you think’s going later in the second round and have a great shot of getting him at 31. But it’s probably a bigger pool than five, I would say.”
▪ Speaking of the Bengals, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Paul Brown Stadium will require $493 million in maintenance and improvements over the next 20 years. Bengals owner Mike Brown stressed the the team does not need a new stadium. PBS opened on August 19, 2000.
▪ Geoff Hobson on the Bengals draft.
▪ Bengals Wire on the Bengals draft.
▪ ESPN’s Matt Miller has seven Kentucky football players being selected in his seven-round mock draft. The first Cat that Miller sees going? That would be Josh Paschal to Atlanta with the 74th pick overall.
▪ Be sure and check out Josh Moore’s “From prospects to pros” series on UK players in this year’s draft.
▪ Former UK offensive tackle Darian Kinnard has launched an apparel collection with BlueChip. The designs include his “Mauler Mentality” mindset, according to the press release.
▪ Many mock drafts believe Georgia linebacker Travon Walker has overtaken Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson as the favorite for the No. 1 pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
▪ If you missed it, UK coach John Calipari was in Memphis for the fifth game of the Memphis Grizzlies-Minnesota Timberwolves NBA playoff series. Cal was supporting former pupil Karl-Anthony Towns of the T-wolves.
▪ Jerry Brewer of the Washington Post says the era of the NBA superteam is fading.
▪ CBS Sports Gary Parrish has North Carolina No. 1 and Kentucky No. 2 in his Top 25 And 1 for college basketball next season.
▪ According to the Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, the SEC has 71 basketball players who have entered the transfer portal. That’s topped only by the WAC with 72.
▪ Kentucky has reached out to South Dakota State star Baylor Scheierman. So has Duke, Kansas, Baylor, Gonzaga, North Carolina, Arizona, UCLA, Michigan State, Arkansas, Louisville, Maryland, Creighton, Wisconsin, Florida, West Virginia, Oregon, Texas, BYU, Memphis, Texas Tech, Alabama, Mississippi State, Wake Forest, Texas A&M and Clemson.
Scheierman has also entered his name into the NBA Draft. He has said he hopes to remain in the draft, but entered the portal just in case. The 6-foot-6 sophomore averaged 16.2 points and 7.8 rebounds per game last season on the way to being the Summit League Player of the Year.
▪ Many believed Illinois State transfer Antonio Reeves would commit to Kentucky over the weekend. Didn’t happen. Now Reeves has cut his list to five schools: Kentucky, Oregon, DePaul, Nebraska and Xavier.
▪ Morehead State guard Ta’Lon Cooper has officially transferred to Minnesota. Cooper averaged 5.9 assists per game last season for the Eagles.
▪ Lexington’s own Lindsay Hieronymus has been named an assistant women’s basketball coach at Miami of Ohio. A 2016 Transy grad, Hieronymous was director of basketball operations at Eastern Kentucky.
▪ UK softball improved to 31-14 with a run rule 14-0 win over Northern Kentucky in five innings on Tuesday night. UK has six games remaining -- three this weekend against visiting Mississippi State; three next weekend at South Carolina. The Cats are 9-9 in SEC play.
▪ Kentucky baseball defeated Dayton 12-1 in seven innings on Tuesday.
▪ Lexington’s Joe Muschong, a graduate student at Morehead State, earned 2022 OVC Men’s Golf Championship medalist honors and an automatic bid to the NCAA regionals.
▪ Our friend DeMarcus Cousins was fined $15,000 for kicking towels into the crowd during Game 4 of the Golden State Warriors-Denver Nuggets series. Cousins plays for the Nuggets.
▪ According to Bobby Nightengale, the homerless Reds-Cardinals series was just the third time in Great American Ball Park history that there were three straight games without a homer. There has never been a four-game streak without a homer in the park’s history. It opened in 2003.
▪ Former Louisville running back Bilal Powell signed a one-day contract to retire with the NFL’s New York Jets.
▪ Reese Witherspoon and Derrick Henry were announced as minority owners of the new Nashville SC team in the MLS.
▪ The Florida High School Athletic Association has voted in the use of a shot clock in high school basketball. It will be on an “optional but recommended” basis for the 2022-23 season.
▪ Congrats to former WLEX sports and news reporters Charlie Walter and Kylen Mills who were married last weekend in Chicago. Walter is currently a CBS sports anchor at KPIX-TV in San Francisco. Mills is sports anchor and reporter at KRON in San Francisco.
