By LARRY VAUGHT
The season has not gone nearly as well from a winning perspective as what All-American catcher Kayla Kowalik envisioned when she decided to play a fifth season for coach Rachel Lawson. However, from an overall perspective Kowalik has no complaints going into this week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament where UK will play Florida on Wednesday night.
“Honestly I think it is better (than expected). Just the expectation of not getting the COVID year and now I get to get it back and that was not originally part of the plan. All of it is sweet. I feel like there is no bittersweet aspect to it,” said Kowalik.
“I am loving every moment I get to spend with my team, every minute I get with coaches. I think it is even better than I expected it would be.”
Her career has been better than anyone could have expected, including Kowalik when she came to UK after an illustrious high school sports career in Texas. She is UK’s all-time hits leader with 348 and all-time leader in runs scored with 258. She led the nation in batting average in 2021 when she hit a school-record .495, had a school-record 26-game hitting streak and scored a school-record 79 runs.
It was poetic justice that she scored the winning run in a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Florida Saturday on UK’s Senior Day in front of a sold out John Cropp Stadium.
Kowalik is an intense competitor but has “mellowed” to some extent. She’s more patient with pitchers and teammates.
“When you play 55 games in a season and you are young, it’s like, ‘We can’t lose a game.’ Now I know it is all about learning from the losses,” Kowalik said. “You are not going to win every game unfortunately, so you just take what you can from a loss and roll into the next game. You can’t have a loss weigh on you when you have to go play another game the next day no matter how tough the loss is and we’ve had some tough losses this year.”
Kowalik admits it feels “weird” at times when she’s bantering with younger teammates who maybe just turned 18 years old. However, she enjoys being able to offer insights to UK’s younger players.
“Experience is definitely a perk of getting older and probably the biggest perk when it comes to helping younger players,” Kowalik, a Team USA veteran, said.
Kowalik was the eighth pick in the recent Women’s Professional Fastpitch draft that only continued to add to her legacy. She has been so good that it was considered a “down” year in 2022 when she hit “only” .420.
“That is the unfortunate thing. Sometimes I don’t feel I am doing so well compared to last season or the season prior. It’s one of those things I learned from last season, just take it game by game and as long as I am doing my job statistically I am not going to focus on that,” Kowalik, who is hitting .449 this season, said. “If I am doing my job, we are going to roll with that.”
Kowalik admits she has not stopped to fully appreciate what she’s done at Kentucky. Her final home game was Sunday and it was only fitting that John Cropp Stadium was sold out to see her final game.
“When I am officially done and have no at-bats left in this (UK) jersey, then I will kind of be like I had a pretty good run,” Kowalik smiled and said.
After Kentucky beat Florida 1-0 in her final home game Sunday, she did break down and cry as she hugged Lawson just like she did after the Senior Day victory.
While she might be running out of at-bats in the UK uniform, she likely has plenty of games left wearing a Kentucky uniform because she plans to join Lawson’s staff as a graduate assistant.
“After that I guess we are going to flip a coin and figure out what Kayla is going to do,” Kowalik said. “If anybody has any suggestions, let me know. Hopefully there will be life with Lawson again (next year) and she likes me enough to have me back.”
Woodford County sophomore Jasper Johnson is a consensus top 25 player in the 2025 recruiting class and recently became just the fourth player to get a Kentucky scholarship offer to go with the dozen he already had.
The 6-4 point guard has had a terrific start to the Nike EYBL season. Johnson is averaging 12.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game and shooting 54.1 percent overall and 40.7 percent from 3-point range in eight games. He’s a big reason Team Thad is 7-1.
Johnson is not sure whether he’ll be back at Woodford next year after averaging 20 points per game last season when Woodford reached the state tournament semifinals or playing at a major prep school.
“I’ve still got a decision to make,” the 6-4 point guard said.
So what does he see as the advantage of going to a prep school?
“More eyes would be able to see what I can do, better competition day in and day out even in practice and a national schedule,” he said. “You can spend even more time on basketball.”
What about the plus side to staying at Woodford where his father is head football coach/athletics director?
“My coaching staff, I trust them. They have known me forever. Dad is at the school,” Johnson said. “I have been here and got a lot of things I wanted to accomplish done but there is always more you can do.”
Johnson has no timeline for a college decision but he knows he does not have long before he’ll have to decide about where he’ll play his high school junior season.
“It’s going to be a hard decision. I know that but it’s one I will have to make pretty soon,” he said.
Kentucky basketball fans are counting on the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class — Justin Edwards, DJ Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw, Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham — to get Kentucky back in the national championship hunt next season.
“The wild thing about this class is this: You know who people are saying could have the most upside? The 7-footer, Aaron,” Calipari told John Fanta, a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. “Aaron has gotten so much better, and he’s grown up more than I can tell you in the last year.
“But all these kids are that way with their upside and talent. That’s why I’m excited. They understand what it means to be a great teammate. But more than anything they’re gym rats. If you look at some of my best players — Tyler Herro or Brandon Knight come to mind — they were always in the gym working. Brandon would head to the gym, then go and study for his chemistry test. And he was doing that with a month left in school.”
Bradshaw vaulted to No. 2 in the Rivals.com and 247Sports.com 2023 recruiting ranks and was sixth in the ESPN ratings. He played in both the McDonald’s All-American Game and Iverson Classic.
Calipari also told Fanta something about Bradshaw that should really intrigue Kentucky fans.
“He may be the most consistent shooter we have. He’s a 4-man and if he’s your 5, we can play 5-out unless he wants to run to the post because he can score there,” Calipari said. “The key for him at the 4 is that you’ve got to learn how to guard the 4. That’s what we are here to help him learn about.”
The 7-1 Bradshaw has indicated he will play the 4 and not center but with UK not getting transfer Hunter Dickinson, Oscar Tshiebwe still in the NBA Draft and Lance Ware transferring, Calipari mentioning Bradshaw at the 5 could indicate he’s already thinking ahead to what he might do with Bradshaw.
Kentucky running back Chris Rodriguez talked to several NFL teams during the draft process, including the Washington Commanders, but still had no idea it would be the Commanders who drafted him in the seventh round.
“They love to room the ball. They have big physical backs and I feel I can fit in well,” Rodriguez said. “Whatever it takes, even if it is special teams. Maybe I can be the missing piece and fit in as needed.”
He came back to Kentucky for the 2022 season to improve his pass protection, He said playing for offensive coordinators Liam Coen and then Rich Scangarello he learned a lot because they “preached the same things but in different ways” to him.
“Pass protection is one of those things that kind of helped me (with the draft),” he said. “I feel like it will come easy to me once I get there (Washington).”
Former UK all-SEC defensive back Van Hiles played for the Chicago Bears when current Washington coach Ron Rivera was an analyst with the team. Hiles likes Rodriguez’s chance to succeed with the Commanders.
“He (Rivera) is a great man and great coach for C-Rod. Coach is all about a running back going downhill and that is C-Rod’s forte. He has a great shot at making that team,” Hiles said.
Rodriguez had watched Kentucky quarterback Will Levis drop from a likely first-round draft pick to the second pick in round two by Tennessee. He said he “understood” how the draft process worked and had no idea when he would be drafted or by who.
“It’s just a waiting game,” Rodriguez said. “For Will, and I don’t want to get into details, but I think he ended up where he was supposed to. God has a plan for him and where he went he is going to shine.”
The Sacramento Kings won 48 games this year and took Golden State to Game 7 in the first round of the NBA playoffs — a dramatic improvement over last season’s 32-win total.
Three former Kentucky players — All-star guard De’Aaron Fox, guard Malik Monk and forward Trey Lyles — all played key roles for the Kings and that did not surprise John Calipari.
“I know this, all three of them will fight,” Calipari told Luke Clearly of ABC -TV10 in Sacramento.
Monk and Fox were teammates on the 2017 UK team that reached the Elite Eight. Lyles was a starter on the 38-1 team in 2014-15.
“What I loved about (Fox) was he was able to just go get a basket. Do you understand how much as a coach that takes off your plate?” Calipari said.
What about Monk?
“The biggest thing is, they’ve always loved each other and love playing together,” Calipari said of the duo.”They know each other, they trust each other. They love each other and they got a will to win. You never had to draw up a play for Monk. He could score.”
Fox’s 192 points in his playoff series debut against Golden State were the most ever behind only LeBron James’ 214 points in 2006.
Fox averaged 25 points, 6.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game during the 73-game regular season while Monk contributed 13.5 points, 3.9 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game in 77 games. Lyles played in 74 games and added 6.7 points, 2.2 rep bounds and 1.0 assists in just 16.9 minutes per game.
Quote of the Week: It’s not going to change my work ethic, regardless if I went first overall or 33rd,. I can’t let the circumstances dictate my work ethic. I ended up where I was meant to be, and I’m just looking forward to competing and getting started,” Kentucky quarterback Will Levis on not getting picked in the first round of the NFL draft.
Quote of the Week 2: “It’s going to sting for a long time, but you have to come back ready from the get-go, from training camp. I definitely want to be playing again at this time next year. You can’t dream of anything like this unless you’re doing it,” former Kentucky guard Malik Monk after his Sacramento Kings were eliminated from the NBA playoffs by Golden State.
Quote of the Week 3: “He has these guys up watching film until 6,7, 8 at night. That’s what you want. You want them to be together because that chemistry and connection off the field will carry over to the field,” UK offensive coordinator Liam Coen on quarterback Devin Leary building connections with teammates.