She was already excited about playing volleyball at Kentucky but Michigan prep phenom Ava Sarafa got even more excited when coach Craig Skinner added Madison Lilley to his coaching staff.
     Lilley was the national player of the year when she led Kentucky to the 2020 national championship before embarking on a two-year professional career overseas.
     Sarafa is a setter like Lilley. The 6-foot Sarafa averaged 11 assists per set last season for Marian High School and many regard her as one of the best setters in high school volleyball history.
     “I was training and my dad sent me the tweet about her getting hired. I started jumping in the air about it. I was so excited. I had no idea about it but I am so excited to learn from her IQ-wise. She was so technical,” Sarafa said. “As a setter, she was one of my biggest volleyball idols. Getting to learn from her is going to have such an impact on me.”
     Sarafa is now on campus but she met Lilley previously at a UK volleyball camp and said in between camp sessions she even played with the campers.
     “It just really can’t be better than to have her on staff,” Sarafa said. “Seeing a big player like that come back to the program says a lot about how she appreciated the program. Her impact on recruiting will be great. She is such a respected player. So many girls my age and younger look up to her and having her at Kentucky is great.”
     Sarafa won the 2022 Audi Collins Award given to the nation’s most outstanding setter and was named the national high school senior player of the year by vballrecruiter.com. She finished her prep career with over 5,000 assists and won three straight state championships.
     Sarafa, who committed to Kentucky on Sept. 4, 2021, admits her senior season was “amazing” after the team lost four talented seniors off its 2021 state championship team.
     “After winning two straight state championships, a lot of people wanted to see us fall down. Pulling it off and proving people wrong meant a lot to me,” the UK freshman said. “My experience at Marian was amazing and I would not be the player I am without my teammates and coaches. All the awards were special and winning the Audi Collins Award meant a lot to me.
     “I feel like I improved as a leader and you have to be a leader on the court as a setter. This year I needed to step up and lead the team more and I did that.”

Kentucky freshman Ava Sarafa was part of three straight high school state championships in Michigan. (Twitter Photo)

     She knows playing at Southeastern Conference power Kentucky is a “big jump” playing against the best of the best.
     “I am just looking forward to learning from and being around the best players in the country. You are never going to be perfect but you want to become the best player you can be.”
     Sarafa has a work ethic similar to what Lilley did at UK. She described herself as a “gym rat” who would stay in the gym as long as she was allowed.
     “I would always go to the gym early. That extra work seems small but helps so much,” she said. “Putting in time and reps improves your game and I don’t ever plan to stop working like that.”

     Kentucky’s defense has been among the best in the Southeastern Conference under defensive coordinator Brad White and defensive line coach Anwar Stewart says he’s a joy to work for.
     “He’s very smart and he actually listens to your ideas,” said Stewart, a former UK defensive player and Canadian Football League veteran. “Brad is the type of guy that when we are going to play a team and that coach is new to the SEC he will go back three seasons and watch every game he had as an offensive coordinator until he gets dialed in on him.
     “He leaves no stone unturned and that makes him great to work for. He’s also a great family guy. That’s one of the things I love most about him.”
     White also likes how even keeled White stays until it is game time.
     “When it is time to go, then he is ready to go. Our game plans are amazing,” Stewart said. “He understands our strengths and weaknesses. He understands how to help certain guys in certain coverages. Coach Stoops comes in and gives

his two cents on what we are doing but Brad is the captain on defense and it’s just great working for him.”
     SEC Network/ESPN college football analyst Cole Cubelic thinks the Kentucky defense might be even more athletic this season than it has been most years. However, Cubelic says Kentucky’s toughness and intensity is the “blueprint” for the defense.
     “That is we’re always going to be a little disrespected but we are going to fight you to make you respect us,” Cubelic said on Kentucky Sports Radio.
     Cubelic believes Kentucky’s front seven defensively should be very good this season. On his podcast — Cube Show Pod — he noted how UK’s front seven is one of the top five SEC position group matchups.
     “They have a chance up front to be pretty good and be that kind of group that you probably don’t want to meet in a back alley after dark,” Cubelic said.

     Freshman guard Reed Sheppard will make his Kentucky debut this week when UK plays in the Global Jam in Toronto and that made me flash back to the extraordinary way his father, Jeff Sheppard, finished his UK career in 1998.
     He suffered a severe ankle sprain in the SEC Tournament and missed the SEC championship game. Many thought Jeff Sheppard might miss at least the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament or maybe even more to severely damage UK’s national championship hopes.
     He spent an entire night having the ankle treated before the NCAA opener, played even though the ankle/leg was noticeably discolored and was UK’s best player in two wins.
     “I was not hurt that bad. I just twisted my ankle and was just trying to embellish the story,” Jeff Sheppard said.
     He had 16 points on 7-for-14 shooting, four rebounds, three assists and two steals in a 78-69 comeback win over Utah in the national semifinals. In the championship game against Stanford, he had 27 points on 9-for-15 shooting, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. He hit two 3-pointers late in regulation and in overtime scored off a drive and then hit a 3 in the 86-85 win with his free throw providing the winning point.
     “I got to be part of an incredible run at Kentucky,” Sheppard, who was redshirted in 1997 when UK was national runner-up. “The 1992 team was phenomenal and lost that incredible game to Duke. The 1993 team lost to Michigan in the Final Four. The 1995 team should have been national champion but lost to North Carolina. In 1999 (coach) Tubby (Smith) lost to Michigan State to go to the Final Four.
     “We won titles in 1996 and 1998 and lost to Arizona in the final in 1997 in overtime. Every single year in the 90’s Kentucky had a national championship caliber team. I am really thankful I learned so many life lessons from my time at UK that I am trying to share today as a father, husband and community member.”

     Kentucky football started July with quite a hot recruiting streak as it landed four-star athlete Elijah Groves of Tennessee, four-star defensive back Terhyon Nichols of Cincinnati and three-star defensive back Quaysheed Scott of South Carolina in a three-day span.
     “All of the work was done in June to land these commitments,” said 247Sports/Cats Pause recruiting analyst Josh Edwards. “They just didn’t announce until July.
     “With the exception of Scott, all three took official visits to UK last month and they obviously went very well. It’s just a matter of building those relationships and being consistent. I think UK does that as well as anyone.”
     Edwards said being able to attract high school defensive stalwarts fills obvious needs.
     "Kentucky has had upperclassmen playing in the secondary and linebacker. Once thosE COVID seniors moved on, it created an opportunity for others but it also created a need for players at those positions,” Edwards said.
     “UK has seen Groves and Scott work out in person over the past few months. Groves is a top-150 recruit at 247Sports now but he wasn’t when they offered. They don’t care about rankings as much as they trust their own evaluations and identify players that fit the culture in the locker room.”
     Edward thinks UK’s “hot streak” will cool because the number of roster spots available is smaller. The Wildcats now have 13 commitments in the 2024 recruiting class.
     “They still have some big targets, like edge rusher Brian Robinson, running back Jason Patterson and wide receiver Hardley Gilmore, to announce but the sheer volume of potential commitments has gone down drastically over the past few weeks,” Edwards said.

     Former LSU basketball coach Dale Brown had some bitter battles with Kentucky during his legendary 25-year career that included two Final Four berths but probably respects UK basketball as much as any coach who competed against UK.
     “I liked Sam Bowie a great deal,” said Brown, who won 448 games at LSU and made 10 straight NCAA Tournaments from 1984-93. “But they had so many great players, and we were so far behind them when I first started. The average loss at Kentucky for LSU was like 25 or 26 points when I took over.”
     He said former UK All-American Kyle Macy was always a “thorn in our side” but still vividly remembers a game UK won because a foul was not called on Bowie.
     “We had won 17 league games in a row and had one game left at Kentucky. We called a timeout to set up a shot for Howard Carter on the last play to win the game,” the former LSU coach recalled. “Howard went up for a shot, and he could really shoot, and Sam Bowie came over and fouled him and the ref did not blow the whistle.”
     Years later Brown was at an event with Bowie when the coach asked Bowie if he did indeed foul Carter.
     “He said, ‘Yes I fouled him twice. I hit him in the head and then on the arm. I thought for sure the foul would be called.’ But Sam was a sweetheart and gentleman so you couldn’t be mad at him.”
     Brown admits his favorite Kentucky was Kenny “Sky” Walker.
     “He always played his heart out. We had a great game with them for the right to go to the Final Four (in 1986) after they beat us three times during the season,” Brown said. “We beat them and I saw he had tears in his eyes after the game, so I gave him a big hug because he played great. Kentucky probably would have won the national championship that year if we had not beat them.”

     Recent Kentucky basketball signee Jordan Burks knew immediately he was going to sign with Kentucky after he got the scholarship offer.
     “It was honestly just — it’s like it’s made. Like, I want to do it. I was ready for it, like, I embraced it,” Burks said last week. “Like, it’s basketball. That’s all I want to do is play basketball.”
     Burke led Overtime Elite in scoring last season but some have questioned his attitude. However, he's saying all the right things about next season no matter what role coach John Calipari has for him. He knows he has to be a “good student” and learn what's expected quickly.
     “I do my work but obviously I'm ready to see – like coach Cal says – fail fast so we can see what we need to work on when we get back (from playing in the GLOBAL Jam in Canada this week),” Burks said. “I'm just ready for it.”

  Quotes of the Week

Quote of the Week 1:

     "We're not going to be in the business of sharing all the stuff that we are doing here. There's going to be things that are said, some of them are right, most of them are wrong. We got the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. That doesn't happen if we're not on top of what we are doing,” John Calipari on rumors/speculation about UK basketball.

Quote of the Week 2:

     “I am a guy who likes to win. I am just a guy who likes to knock ‘em down and just keep doing it every play so my team can keep gaining yards. I love a physical game,” Connecticut offensive lineman Jadon Lafontant after his commitment to Kentucky.

Quote of the Week 3:

     “He can run the floor and create early guard pickups and mismatches. He posts a smaller defender and scores easily with the left hand jump hook. Keep in mind he is right handed,” Rivals.com college basketball analyst David Sisk on recent UK signee Tre Mitchell.