Sports

Marcey Bronczyk was beaming and breathless Monday afternoon as she stood outside the ticket booth at Memorial Coliseum. Bronczyk, 53, and her son Chris Bronczyk, 24, both University of Kentucky students, had just won the right to buy tickets to the UK men's basketball team's opening-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in Louisville.

Louisville and Kentucky both begin play next weekend in the women’s NCAA basketball tournament. The pairings were announced tonight. The seventh seeded Cardinals will take on number ten seed Michigan State Saturday in College Park, Maryland. UK is a number two seed and will face 15th-seeded McNeese State Saturday in Ames, Iowa.

Tickets for the NCAA Tournament games at Louisville’s Yum Center are hard to come by and as Alan Lytle reports,  that could open the door to a variety of scam artists.  Heather Clary with the Better Business Bureau of Central and Eastern Kentucky says it’s a good idea to do some checking on who’s selling before you start buying.

UK freshman Anthony Davis was named the Sporting News 2012 College Basketball Player of the Year on Tuesday. And teammate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was named to the Sporting News Second Team. Rounding out the first team along with Davis were Draymond Green of Michigan State, Isaiah Canaan of Murray State University, Thomas Robinson of Kansas and Jared Sullinger of Ohio State.

A state historical marker that will eventually be placed at the childhood home of Muhammad Ali was unveiled today. The bronze marker is currently on display at the Kentucky Center for African-American Heritage. It will be moved to the west Louisville home in the spring.

E.A. Couch, who was among the starting five of the 1956 Carr Creek basketball team that won the state high school championship — and who played for legendary University of Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp — died Wednesday at his home in Paintsville after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 75. "He was an excellent ball shooter. A fine gentleman," said Freddie Maggard of Corbin, a guard on the 1956 Carr Creek team.

Starting tonight in Nashville, tournament play begins in the Ohio Valley Conference.  Three Kentucky teams are vying for the OVC title.  This year’s competitors include frontrunner Murray State, the veterans of Morehead State, and Eastern Kentucky University, which just squeaked into post season play.  EKU goes into the OVC tournament, fresh off a victory over Eastern Illinois.  Colonel’s coach Jeff Neubauer says that must-win game had a tournament feel.  “I think it could be good thing when you stare the end of the season right in the eye and then play really well, I think that can be really healthy for a basketball team,” said Neubauer

Kenneth Faried never took the easy path. Raised in Newark, N.J., Faried could have fallen into the traps — drugs, gangs — that snare too many young people who grow up in the grittiest American cities. He didn't. When he chose to leave Newark to play college basketball in small-town Kentucky at Morehead State, Faried could have given in to the homesickness that overwhelmed him at first. He didn't.

If you're trying to sell one of those Anthony Davis "wingspan" posters on an Internet auction site or anywhere else, the University of Kentucky has a message for you. Stop it. The university is "in the process" of issuing a cease-and-desist order to people attempting to sell the popular posters that depict the shot-blocking forward with his arms outstretched over 10 basketballs, UK spokesman Jay Blanton said Thursday.

Heading into another full weekend of college basketball, there are no undefeated teams in Division One-A.  Murray State suffered its first loss of the season last night at home at the hands of Tennessee State 72 to 68.  Murray was the last remaining no-loss team before last night’s tight contest.  It’s a big weekend for a number of schools including Eastern Kentucky University, Morehead State, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Louisville.

Aiming to promote the newest Camry, Toyota will return to Super Bowl Sunday advertising this weekend for the first time in three years, and the automaker has turned to its workers in Georgetown to help. Among Toyota's advertisements during Super Bowl coverage will be one that features the Scott County plant and eight of its workers, and showcases Kentucky's role in building the vehicle that has been the best-selling car in America for 10 years straight and 14 of the past 15 years. The Camry has been assembled in Georgetown since the plant opened in 1988.

The Super Bowl is one of the most watched sporting events in the country every year. People tune in for a variety of reasons – the game, the commercials or the halftime show. This year when the New England Patriots play the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, Hardin County residents will have another reason to watch the game. Former Elizabethtown standout Brandon Deaderick is a starting defensive lineman for the Patriots.

Tonight, a national award will be presented to college football’s most versatile player. It’s called the Paul Hornung Award, named for the Kentuckian who excelled at several positions during Hall of Fame careers at Notre Dame and the Green Bay Packers in the 1950s and 60s. For Hornung, this Super Bowl week also stirs some memories from his NFL playing days.

The Jockeys’ Guild says it has reached a multi-year agreement with Churchill Downs Incorporated to continue annual payments to the guild, but details of the agreement are being kept quiet. The Jockeys’ Guild held a press conference last year requesting CDI continue its $330,000 contributions, which help the guild subsidize health insurance and disability benefits for members.

It is marketed as "probably the toughest event on the planet," and it's coming to Maysville. In October 2012, Big Rock Off Road Park in Mason County will host a Tough Mudder competition. The site is the only location in Kentucky selected to host one of the grueling events, which has the potential to bring 6,000 to 8,000 people to the area for two-days of competition.

University of Louisville football coach Charlie Strong says he’s not interested in any other coaching jobs and wants to continue building the Cardinal program.   

Strong’s name has been mentioned for coaching vacancies at Texas A&M and Penn State.

Star Wars lightsaber battles and other sword-fighting cinema helped spur Sawyer Cornett’s early interest in fencing. But the 11-year-old possesses the manners and maturity of a man at least twice his age. A man who would choose a “gentleman sport” over more popular alternatives. In short, Edmond Dantes without the goatee and vendetta. While his Garrard Middle School classmates make rugged tackles and scramble for basketballs, Cornett travels to Lexington several times a week to train with former Egyptian national fencing team coach Amgad Khazbak.

Northern Kentucky University will accept an invitation Thursday to join the Atlantic Sun Conference, putting NKU in Division I collegiate sports. NKU has scheduled a special Board of Regents meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss intercollegiate athletics. Spokesman Chris Cole would not confirm that the university would join the Atlantic Sun, but representatives from that league have been on the Highland Heights campus and have expressed interest in NKU before.

The Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame is looking for a leader to shepherd its development. The Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches is seeking an executive director to take the helm of the Hall of Fame, guiding fundraising and establishing it in Elizabethtown.

State Rep. Jody Richards knows a thing or two about lobbying. And about Western Kentucky University football, for that matter. As WKU football fans intensified a grass-roots effort Tuesday to send the Hilltoppers to a postseason bowl game for the first time since the school joined the ranks of the Football Bowl Subdivision, Richards said the first key to successful lobbying is having a good case.

At an age when many children are still mastering the art of walking, Matthew Dedden was riding a horse. Dedden, 13, has been riding since he was 2 and those years in the saddle paid off last month when he became the National Cutting Horse Association Junior World Champion. "That was my goal at the beginning of the year and it took a lot of work, but I got there," Matthew said. He is believed to be the first NCHA world champion at any level from Kentucky.

A field goal with one second remaining in the game lifted James Madison over Eastern Kentucky University in the Football Championship Series playoffs.  The 35 yard kick by J-M-U’s Cameron Starke into a stiff wind capped a comeback of 13 straight points.