Wildcats

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -   The seventh-ranked Kentucky women's basketball team finds itself in a familiar territory when it meets third-ranked Connecticut on Monday, April 1 in the Bridgeport Regional Finals. Game time in the Webster Bank Arena is 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN and UK IMG Sports Radio Network.   For the second straight season, the second-seeded Wildcats will meet the top-seeded Huskies with a trip to the Final Four on the line. Last year, UK fell 80-65 in the Elite Eight as UConn shot 51.1 percent from the floor, compared to UK's 31.1 percent, and outrebounded the Cats 40-26.

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.

LEBANON - The first time Trent Milby saw Makayla Epps play was when she was in the sixth grade, but even then the Marion County basketball coach knew he had a special player headed his way. “You could tell then she would be a special player,” said Milby Tuesday. “She's by far the best guard ever to come through the state of Kentucky.” She turned out so special that she led Marion to an undefeated season and state championship this season and is one of the frontrunners to be named Miss Basketball this weekend after averaging 22.8 points, 4.8 assists, 4.3 steals and 4.2 rebounds per game this season.

LEXINGTON - On a day where the defense got to see the “angry Mark Stoops,” Kentucky's offense showed a continued sense of urgency in the second week of spring practice. Stoops, who has stressed tempo since his time began here in Lexington, was disappointed with the lack of effort put forth by the defense in its Monday morning practice. “They know what's going on now,” he said. “Now it gets back to habits. Now it gets back to, 'This is Day 5, Monday morning. I'm going to go back to my old ways and just get out here and BS around and mill around for a few periods and then we'll play a little bit.' “It's not good enough.

Kentucky got its second verbal commitment for the 2014 recruiting class when linebacker Dorian Hendrix of Huber Heights, Ohio, committed during an unofficial visit this weekend. The 6-1, 215-pound Hendrix is rated as a three-star prospect and the nation's 59th best outside linebacker by Scout.com and had scholarship offers from Illinois, Indiana, Bowling Green, Ohio and Toledo. He was also receiving interest from Michigan, Ohio State and West Virginia but did not have offers from those schools.

Former Kentucky high school coach Maurice Dixon is glad to see that Kentucky is interested in Dante Sawyer, a defensive end he now coaches at North Gwinnett (Ga.) “Dante is upper echelon. He is a legit big-time player,” said Dixon, a former coach at Hazard who is now the defensive coordinator at North Gwinnett. “My talk to him is keep your mind open and see this Kentucky offer as an opportunity, and I think he is very interested in Kentucky. Being from Kentucky, I would love to see some of our kids get a chance to go to UK. “Kids down south have a lot of opportunities, and they just don't know about Kentucky unless they get a chance to go and see the facilities.

Rick Pitino didn't gain any satisfaction in Kentucky's tumble from a national champion to a first-round flameout in the National Invitational Tournament. He wasn't all smiles or marveled in excitement after the Wildcats lost to Robert Morris Tuesday night in Moon Township, Pa. The loss ended a roller-coaster season for Kentucky, which closed the season with four losses in its final five games. It's not in Pitino's nature to wish bad  omens against any program, most notably the Wildcats, the school that, to this date, has given Pitino his only national championship as a college coach.

LEXINGTON - Patrick Towles said everyone got a fresh start when the new Kentucky coaching staff came aboard, and he's hoping that will give him his chance to show he should be the Wildcats' starting quarterback this season. “It's what sport is all about. You want to come out here and prove to whoever you need to prove it to that you're better and you deserve to play. And we're all out here trying to show coach (Neal) Brown and coach (Mark) Stoops we deserve to play,” Towles said Wednesday after Kentucky's practice.

LEXINGTON - Kentucky offensive coordinator Neal Brown said the Wildcats may have their new offense in by the end of the week. But getting it down may take a while, and a lot of that will be on the players. “We'll have everything put in for the most part by Friday. And the guys, that's the number one thing they've got to learn, probably, they've got to learn how to prepare,” Brown said Wednesday after Kentucky's second practice of the spring. “You're not just going to go out here and be a winning team.

MOON, Pa. - Alex Poythress was just as “shocked” as the rest of Big Blue Nation following Kentucky's 59-57 loss to Robert Morris on Tuesday night in the opening round of the NIT. “We just couldn't do it at the end,” Poythress, a freshman forward, said. “It's real disappointing.” It was a similar road loss for the Wildcats, who failed to gain traction in games played away from home during most of the season. Kentucky, the top seed on the NIT, won just four games in eight attempts in hostile environments, inducing an 0-3 mark against non-conference foes.