Tyler Bell is ready for Kentucky’s baseball season to start even though it is “coming a little quicker” than normal with the Wildcats opening play Feb. 14 in Nashville against Lipscomb.

“Usually my season would start in late March, so this is a little sooner,” said Bell, the highest pick in last year’s Major League Baseball Draft to attend college this season.

Bell was the 66th pick overall by the Tampa Bay Ray and has been ranked as the nation’s 13th best freshman player by Perfect Game. The switch-hitting shortstop will be eligible for the draft again in 2026.

Bell, one of the top shortstops in the 2024 recruiting class, played at Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort, Illinois. That’s the same school that produced Ryan Ritter, a Gold Glove shortstop and fourth-round draft pick in 2022 after playing for Nick Mingione at Kentucky. He is the third-highest rated UK recruit according to Perfect Game, behind Alex Meyer and Ryan Hagenow.

“Nick is the same guy on and off the field. He is a great person who genuinely cares about everything. He preaches the family aspect to this program,” Bell said. “He makes us earn everything. He really cares about all his players.”

Bell communicated regularly with Mingione during the draft process, but the Kentucky coach did not pressure him to turn down a professional contract to play for UK.

“They allowed me to make my decision and they respected the process. I am very happy I am here and think I made the right decision,” Bell said. “I think it did surprise him and make him really happy when I decided to play college baseball. I feel like I have earned respect with how I work since I got here and I also try to be as good a person as I can be but I am very, very happy here.”

Bell got to Lexington in July, took a few classes and “lived” at the baseball facility for eight or more hours daily.

“I was hitting two or three times a day, running, doing glove work and infield work,” he said. “I would also lift (weights) about an hour each afternoon.”

Bell said he could play anywhere in the infield as needed, but shortstop is where he’s the best.

“I am very humble. I work very hard defensively and take great pride in my defense. I feel like defense is always something you have the ability to make every play with,” Bell said. “Hitting is the hardest thing to do in sports and you are going to have slumps.”

That’s why Bell fields ground balls in the practice facility as often as he can because he knows the more reps he has the easier it is to make routine plays and make hard plays look routine.

“I was never the biggest or strongest guy. In middle school I saw guys deadlift 225 (pounds) and I never thought I could do that, but I worked to get stronger and as I did I got more quickness,” he said.

He’s a natural right-handed hitter but at age 3 his father tried to convert him to a switch hitter, an idea he fought before getting comfortable with the move. Now he has more power from the left side because of his dominant right arm, which gives him more loft in his swing from the left side.

“On the right side I hit more singles and doubles,” Bell said. “I probably hit more opposite field home runs on the right side. I like to hit singles and doubles and just let the home runs come. I don’t try to hit 30 home runs.”

Bell followed UK’s historic run to the College World Series in 2024 and likes the high expectations for the Cats going into this season. Kentucky is ranked No. 23 in one preseason poll.

“Now that the team has made it to Omaha, our goal is not to just make it but to win,” he said “Everybody has that mentality on and off the field. You can feel it. That is the standard here now.

“Our team is really coming together. We have about 30 new guys, but the Kentucky culture gives you the right mindset to play with. We have gotten really close and have a chip on our shoulder to prove last year was no fluke for this program.”

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Delaynee Rodriguez is a versatile gymnast who competed in the all-around competition in 10 meets her freshman season with a season-best score of 39.450. She competed in bars, beam and floor in all 14 meets and 10 times was the leadoff on vault with a season best of 9.850. She had a season-best 9.9 on beam, 9.875 on floor and 9.950 on bars.

The Las Vegas native tied for first in the all-around competition in No. 8 UK’s win over No. 3 Alabama with a 39.450 total. She scored 9.8 on vault, 9.9 on bars, 9.9 on beam and 9.85 on floor.

“Beam was our best rotation and Delaynee started it with an amazing routine. Normally you do not get a 9.9 from the leadoff spot,” UK coach Tim Garrison said. “She is such a pleasant young lady and is unfazed at all times. It’s just a personality thing with her.

“Big moments don’t seem huge for her. She enjoys them and doesn’t ever think the moment is too big. She just goes out with the attitude do what you do, have a good time and do not feel the pressure. I think you will always be nervous and will never not have nerves. She gets those like anybody else, but the nerves never overtake her.”

Garrison believes the best is yet to come for his star sophomore.

“She is a special personality, but she is also a special talent. She has unlimited ability to compete, train hard and just be an amazing person,” Garrison said.

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Kenny Walker cannot help but wonder sometimes what his collegiate career would have been like for him and his UK teammates if there had been NIL opportunities then.

“We had so many stars on the teams I was on that I think we would have all done really well with that stuff (NIL),” Walker said.

Walker’s teammates included Sam Bowie, Melvin Turpin, Jim Master, Winston Bennett, Dicky Beal, James Blackmon and Roger Harden.

“On the other hand, it made us better men staying in school longer. We got a chance to grow on and off the court at a natural pace,” Walker said. “It is tough to have kids thinking down the line and getting as much money as they possibly can now or they hit the transfer portal.”

Walker did not always see eye-to-eye with former UK coach Joe Hall during his career — he was on Hall’s last team and then finished his UK career playing for coach Eddie Sutton.

“I would say coach Hall and I were close when I played, but over the years we became great friends,” said Walker, who played in the NBA for the New York Knicks. “We ate lunch together. We traveled together if he needed me. About a month before he passed away I got a chance to visit.

“He did not say a lot. He just listened to me talk and rubbed the top of my head. That just made me smile. He always wanted us to be clean shaven and I had a beard, but he still rubbed my head. He even had a little beard and I had never seen that, so that was kind of funny.”

Hall passed about three years ago at age 93. He won almost 300 games, including the 1978 national title, at UK and led the Cats to 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.

“I loved coach Hall. He was a disciplinarian, but he was fair,” Walker said. “He always had our best interests at heart. He protected us from ourselves. We wondered why we had a curfew, dress code and other stuff but he knew we were under a spotlight and looked out for us. It took me a while to learn to appreciate that.”

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What can sophomore Brooklyn DeLeye, the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, do to be an even better player for Kentucky volleyball next year?

She averaged a team-leading 4.87 kills per set last season, hit .294 and had over 500 kills. She also played all six rotations and averaged 1.64 digs per set. She led Kentucky with 56 aces and amassed 609.5 points.

DeLeye was a finalist for national player of the year and is one of four finalists for the 2024 HONDA Award for volleyball.

“When you are a national player of the year finalist, you are already in a good spot,” UK coach Craig Skinner said. “As you get older your margins for improvement get smaller. You try to get better at all the little things. Her shot selection continues to improve. Her serve receiving was better. I do think her blocking can take a step forward.

“You saw her serve take over matches at times and then there were times it was a struggle to get the serve in. Consistency is important and she knows that.”

The 6-foot-2 DeLeye is what Skinner considers a “great receiver” for her size and position.

“She has so much natural ability. But it is like chipping and putting in golf. It just takes time and repetition got get a feel for the angles and touches,” Skinner said. “She has only played two years of full-time volleyball and with another two years under her belt she will be pushing the best players in the country even more.”

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Since she was 4 years old, Clara Silva says she has “always been taller” than everyone, one reason she played basketball like her brother did. Her parents were both former basketball players and used to coach her.

“My brother is taller than me,” said the 6-7 Silva. “My dad is taller than me, too. I don’t remember a lot about them coaching me because I was so young, but I do remember they always wanted me to follow my dream.”

She did that by leaving Portugal to play for Kenny Brooks at Kentucky.

“Basketball is not really that big in Portugal. I went to play in Spain because basketball is bigger there, and I improved a lot there,” Silva said.

Silva played three seasons for Unicaja in the Spain-LF Challenge League and was playing there when she signed with UK last April. Silva played in several international competitions and some recruiting analysts considered her the best center prospect in her recruiting class.

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Kentucky players have had their draft stock improve, but none are still ranked as a likely 2025 NBA Draft choice.

ESPN released its top 100 player ratings for the upcoming draft – before UK lost to Alabama and then Vanderbilt – and Koby Brea was UK’s highest rated prospect at No. 60 — just outside of the final pick in the second round. Center Amari Williams is next at No. 75.

Jaxson Robinson transferred to UK to continue playing for coach Mark Pope in part to enhance his NBA draft options. However, he’s ranked only 78th by ESPN followed by Andrew Carr at 91 and Otega Oweh at 92.

Oweh is the only one who will have collegiate eligibility left after this season. Oweh has scored in double figures every game this season – something no other SEC player has done – and could be ranked as UK’s best player. If he returns, he certainly would be UK’s top returning player for the 2025-26 season and team leader on a roster that could also bring back Brandon Garrison, Travis Perry, Trent Noah and Colin Chandler off this year’s team.

Former Kentucky player Adou Thiero, who transferred to Arkansas to play for coach John Calipari, was ranked No. 23 and a potential first-round pick at ESPN.

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Quote of the Week:” I think it’s the best job in all of basketball. I don’t think there’s any job that comes close. It’s not the easiest job, it’s a hard job, but it’s the best job. The thing that makes it the best job is the people that I get to be around,” Mark Pope, on coaching men’s basketball at Kentucky.

Quote of the Week 2: “Once you start living in the moment, it’s 100% different when it comes to the fan support. I never expected so many fans to stay around after games to get autographs and pictures or just to talk. It’s a blessing to be part of this,” junior Otega Oweh, on playing basketball at Kentucky.

Quote of the Week 3: “She is the key to our play. When she’s out there playing free, she has a tremendous, tremendous connection with Georgia (Amoore) in transition. We unleashed her game by instilling confidence in her,” UK women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks, on Teonni Key.