A few notes, observations, and thoughts on the opening week of the Kentucky men’s basketball season:
• It’s going to be another homecoming of sorts for Kentuckian and head coach Preston Spradlin as his James Madison Dukes visit Rupp Arena Friday evening (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network) for a date with the Wildcats. Spradlin once took his Morehead State team to Lexington back in 2020, when the Eagles dropped to Kentucky 81-45.
A native of Pikeville, Ky., Spradlin is beginning his third year at James Madison, where he has guided the Dukes to a two-year record of 38-27 (.584), including a share of the regular season Sun Belt Conference championship in 2025.
On Spradlin, who once spent five seasons at Kentucky as a graduate assistant coach (2009-11) and as director of operations (2011-14), UK coach Mark Pope said, “I do think Preston Spradlin is one of the great human beings in the coaching profession. He’s a heck of a coach, man. He’s a big-time coach. He’s a better person. We’ve had a chance over the last few years to have some really, really long basketball-based and spiritually-based conversations. I really admire him. I’m excited he’s coming to the gym. He’s a Kentucky guy and he’s a terrific coach. It’s going to be a great game.”
Before coming to JMU, Spradlin coached at Morehead State, where he guided the Eagles to their second NCAA appearance in four seasons in 2024. During that period, MSU had 22 or more wins in all four years, going 94-40 overall and 58-16 in league games in the Ohio Valley Conference, twice earning Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year.
• Spradlin also will face UK senior Justin McBride, a 6-foot-8 forward who starred for JMU last year, averaging 15.3 points and 5.6 rebounds while earning a third-team All-Sun Belt selection. McBride, by the way, saw action for 16 minutes and hit a three-pointer during Kentucky’s season-opening win over Manhattan Tuesday night.
• Mark Pope said his current Wildcats are “a team of learners. They’ve proven that all summer and all fall and all preseason and they will continue to learn. They learn fast. They will be better when we come out on Friday.”
• Kentucky hit 12 three-pointers against Manhattan, including 6 of 9 by senior Milan Momcilovic and 3 of 6 by sophomore Alex Wilkins. The 12 made three-pointers are the most in a season opener since 2010, when UK hit 13 against East Tennessee State during John Calipari’s second year as the Wildcat boss.
• Manhattan coach John Gallagher is familiar with Wilkins, as the Jaspers faced him last season when the player was at Furman. The coach praised Wilkins’ scrappy performance as the guard came up with seven steals and 11 points.
“The thing that jumps out at me, we just played him last year, he was at Furman. He had seven turnovers (actually five) in the game,” recalled Gallagher. “He’s way more mature. I think he did a great job with the opportunity, and at the end of the day he really understands angles and his length bothers people. He’s a 6-foot-6 point guard. He’s going to be a handful. And he really understands when to go, when not to go. I think he could be a real defensive menace in the SEC.”
• Milan Momcilovic took the game’s scoring honors with 24 points, the fifth-most points by a Wildcat player in his first game.
• Mark Pope was asked about his philosophy on the social media criticism that pops up every now and then.
“Well, we could spend a lot of time on that,” said Pope, who is now beginning his 12th season as a head coach with an overall record of 234-134, including 47-26 in his third season at UK. “The most important thing for our team that we’ve said since the first day we were here is that the only opinion that matters to us is the one in our locker room. And we practice that. We actually talk about it. We’ve broken that down in 100 different ways. We probably address it every day or every other day in film sessions where it comes up somehow and we talk about it.
“You know, you have two options with criticism. You can let the criticism have a impact on you in a negative way, or you can take criticism and it can be something that solidifies a group together. Everybody’s going to face criticism; it’s part of the world today and it’s part of life. But we are not scared of it. We’ve got work to do, and we are focused on the work and we are focused on winning. And so, that’s where we spend our time.”
• Next week, the Wildcats will meet the Jayhawks of Kansas in the State Farm Champions Classic in Chicago. This will be a very good test for No. 23 Kentucky, as Kansas is ranked No. 17. The Jayhawks feature freshman Tyran Stokes and fifth-year Trey Kaufman-Renn, who were named to the 50-member Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Men’s College Player of the Year Watch List. Kentucky’s Milan Momcilovic is also on that list. ESPN will carry Tuesday night’s game around 9:30 p.m. ET or later.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of seven books about UK basketball, including recently published “Unforgettable Journey with the Cats: Inside Kentucky Hoops Madness.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle44@gmail.com.