Western Kentucky

George Rogers Clark senior Vinny Zollo has verbally committed to attend Western Kentucky. Zollo attended “Hilltopper Hysteria” Friday night at E.A. Diddle Arena and made his decision to attend the school today. Zollo (6-foot-8, 220) is rated one of the top seniors in the state and helped lead the Cardinals to a 26-7 record last season. The Cardinals lost to Mason County 62-60 in the 10th Region finals. "He visited the campus three times and they wanted him really bad," Zollo's mother Robyn Curry said this morning.

LOUISVILLE - Western Kentucky has left one big impression on Kentucky's players and coaches. “I noticed they liked to rebound a lot, but they really like to play hard. I mean, they do not give up. They just keep competing,” said Kentucky freshman point guard Marquis Teague. “We can't play not to lose against them. We've got to play. If we get up, we better finish them off. We know if we play around, they will come back. They have nothing to lose. We know it will not be an easy game because of how hard they play.” Western Kentucky looked beat against Mississippi Valley State Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, when they were down 16 points with 4 minutes, 51 seconds to play and rallied to win. That was the biggest comeback with under five minutes to play in NCAA tourney history and got the Hilltoppers a chance to play No. 1 UK¿Thursday night in the NCAA Tournament South Region.

Kentucky's 47-14 victory over Kent State included a lot of impressive numbers for the Wildcats as UK had the Southeastern Conference passing yardage leader (Maxwell Smith, 354), rushing yardage leader (Raymond Sanders, 115) and receptions leader (Aaron Boyd, 11) in games played Saturday - something that I can never remember happening before. However, those numbers won't likely scare Western Kentucky, and not just because the Hilltoppers had a great chance to beat UK in Nashville last season before falling 14-3 despite having 234 total yards to UK's paltry 190. Two of Western's last five games have been played against the No. 1 team in the country.

DAYTON, Ohio - Western Kentucky freshman George Fant isn't worried about facing the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. “We're going to keep playing the way we've been playing,” he said following the Hilltoppers' 59-58 triumph over Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday night at the Dayton Arena. The Hilltoppers (16-18) don't plan to change much when they take on overall top seed Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday night in Louisville. Western has less than 48 hours to prepare coming off the come-from-behind victory over the Delta Devils, led by former University of Kentucky guard Sean Woods.

DAYTON - Vinny Zollo left the court waving a towel and hugged Western Kentucky mascot “Big Red” after the Hilltoppers rallied for an exciting 59-58 triumph over Mississippi Valley State Tuesday night in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at the Dayton Arena. His first taste of March Madness was a memorable one. “It was just a mix of emotions that goes on at the end of a game like that,” Zollo said afterward. “We were down pretty much for 35 minutes, playing miserable basketball.

Sometimes it's best to reach out to a more unbiased observer when you wonder how to evaluate a team's performance. After watching Kentucky struggle to a 14-3 win over Western Kentucky last week in Nashville - especially when the previous game had been that dismal bowl loss to Pittsburgh in January - I wondered if the Wildcats had any chance to being bowl eligible or beating any Southeastern Conference team this year. While the defense was more aggressive, it did allow receivers to get open for potential touchdowns only to have poor passes thrown.

LEXINGTON - If Joker Phillips was on the hot seat before this game, he's been thrown into the furnace now. That's what a 32-31 overtime loss to Western Kentucky will do to a coach who has had back-to-back losing seasons and no longer can live off a win over South Carolina in 2010 or Tennessee last season to save his job. Not after his Southeastern Conference team was physically beaten most of the game by Western, a Sun Belt Conference foe. Not after...

LEXINGTON - He's a college basketball analyst, but he's a college football fan. So while Dick Vitale knows Kentucky fans were bitterly disappointed with UK's overtime loss to Western Kentucky, he was also thrilled for WKU coach Willie Taggart because he played “where I lived” in Florida. “He has kids from Bradenton, Fla. He knows how good football is in this area,” said Vitale, who was in Lexington last Friday speaking to those attending the John Calipari Fantasy Experience. “Manatee High School is No. 1 in the USA Today football poll.

Veteran coach Dom Dunn, a Louisville native, is thrilled to be back on the field coaching defensive tackles at Western Kentucky after spending the three previous seasons as the director of high school relations at Texas Tech for a staff that included current Kentucky coaches Neal Brown, Chad Scott and Tommy Mainord. He has 37 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level. He spent 10 seasons at Auburn as the defensive line coach. He also has been an assistant coach at Ole Miss, Nevada, Pacific, Montana State, Tennessee and Lees-McRae Junior College.

RICHMOND - Minutes before he announced his college of choice Wednesday morning, Dominique Hawkins reached under the table and pulled out a University of Kentucky cap, ending speculation concerning his future plans. It was a moment he had been waiting for as a lifelong Kentucky fan. Hawkins kept the secret to himself, mother Denise and girlfriend Sara Shackelford for nearly a month. Hawkins admitted that it was hard to keep silent on his intentions, but he knew of three people in his inner circle who wouldn't reveal the Wildcats had an offer waiting on the table a week after leading the Indians to the state title.

RICHMOND - Minutes before he announced his college of choice Wednesday morning, Dominique Hawkins reached under the table and pulled out a Kentucky cap, ending speculation concerning his future plans. It was a moment he had been waiting for the lifelong Kentucky fan. Hawkins kept the secret to himself, mother Denise and girlfriend Sara Shackelford for nearly a month. Hawkins admitted that it was hard to keep silent, but he knew of three people in his inner circle who wouldn't reveal the Wildcats had an offer waiting on the table a week after leading the Indians to the state title.

RICHMOND - It's no secret Dominique Hawkins wanted to play basketball at the University of Kentucky. This morning, the Madison Central standout made it official after announcing his plans to sign with the Wildcats in front of his family, friends and classmates during an assembly at the school. Hawkins turned down offers from Purdue, South Carolina, Tennessee Tech, Valparaiso, Western Kentucky, Murray State and Morehead State to sign with Kentucky. Butler coach Brad Stevens showed interest in Hawkins earlier this week, but Hawkins already had Kentucky penciled in as his school of choice.

RICHMOND - It's no secret Dominique Hawkins wanted to play basketball at Kentucky. This morning, the Madison Central standout made it official after announcing his plans to sign with the Wildcats in front of his family, friends and classmates during an assembly at the school. Hawkins turned down offers from Purdue, South Carolina, Tennessee Tech, Valparaiso, Western Kentucky, Murray State and Morehead State to sign with  Kentucky. Butler coach Brad Stevens showed interest in Hawkins earlier this week, but Hawkins already had Kentucky penciled in as his school of choice.

LEXINGTON - With the largest crowd ever for a Kentucky Blue-White Game expected on April 13, new UK coach Mark Stoops is now extending a plea for fans to make sure they come to Nashville Aug. 31 to watch the Wildcats open the season. The Wildcats will play the first game of the Stoops era against Western Kentucky at LP Field, home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans, in Nashville and tickets are now on sale. Ticket prices in the official UK sections are $63 for club level, $43 for lower level sideline and $38 for lower level end zone.

He's a four-star quarterback who has impressed recruiting analysts and will be one of the leading contenders for Kentucky's Mr. Football honors next season. Yet Kentucky was not one of the 10 schools that had offered Conner's Drew Barker a scholarship until offensive coordinator Neal Brown changed that after watching Barker throw during a recent morning workout. “It's not like he has just surfaced as a top quarterback. Louisville offered him last spring. He has 10 other others.

Two Florida prep standouts - running back JoJo Kemp and receiver Jeff Badet - both will make their college choices tonight and both could pick Kentucky. Here is what Scout.com's evaluation of Kemp says:  "At 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, he has enough size already to grow into a potential 210 plus  pound running back who will be able to carry the rock 20 times a game and get the tough yards inside. He's a tremendous athlete who can make a lot of people miss in short space, too. He changes directions well.

STANFORD - Lincoln County assistant football coach Travis Leffew played for coach Bobby Petrino at Louisville from 2002-05, starting 37 straight games on the offensive line. The Boyle County graduate earned second team All-America honors in 2005, as well as all-Big East and academic all-Big East. He was a third-team All-American in 2004 and first team all-Conference USA. Under Petrino, Louisville achieved some of its greatest seasons ever before Petrino left for the Atlanta Falcons and later Arkansas.

Nov. 28, 1987 It's back to the battlefield for the Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky football teams. For the first time since 1916, the intrastate rivals are playing each other twice in a season. Eastern Kentucky won 20-10 when they met Oct. 3 in Richmond during the regular season. This Saturday night they'll meet again at EKU's Hanger Field for the first round of the NCAA¿Division I-AA playoffs. Drizzle was expected to change to snow flurries tonight as cold weather continues to keep a grip on Kentucky, according to the National Weather Service.