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Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider
Dick Gabrielle with you on a Friday edition

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of our program. As we wrap
up the week tonight, we're going to

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talk football, basketball, some volleyball, and soccer. Believe it or not.

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Why well, because the US team
needs a new coach and one of

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the election and sportscasters here in town, Forrest Tucker, reached out to me.

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He's a big soccer nut and wanted
to talk about it. And we

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also talked with Tucker every now and
then about football and basketballs Forrest will join

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us coming up in our number two. We're also going to hear more from

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some of the Basketball wildcasts. We
chatted with them yesterday. I played a

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little bit of our conversation with him
last night, but we're gonna gonna go

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with a deeper dive tonight with the
two of them, and then coming up

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at the bottom of the hour,
Lonnie Green will join us. And if

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you've ever heard him talk about the
UK track and field program, you know

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what to expect. He is vivacious, energetic and very very successful. He

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was an assistant coach at the program
in Arkansas, which is it when it

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comes to track and field and cross
country. Arkansas has built an incredible program

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through the years, with so many
championships team and individual. It's staggering that

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he went as a head coach to
Purdue, very successful there, and when

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coach Florielle left Kentucky for Texas,
Mitch Barnard hired Lonnie Green away from Purdue

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and he is kept right on going
here at Kentucky. And now he has

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multiple athletes in the summer games coming
up, so it's going to be fun

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to talk to him about his role
with the US Olympic team. He is

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not an official part of the team, but he's going over as the individual

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coach for a couple of the athletes. So looking forward to that conversation at

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the bottom of the hour. The
biggest story involving a UK player, well,

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he's a former player now. Tonight, Reed Shepherd makes his debut in

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the NBA Summer League in the California
Classic. But I don't care what happened

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unless he absolutely explodes as the first
American taken in the draft as the number

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three overall pick, number one by
the Houston Rockets. Unless he has just

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a massive game, the headlines tomorrow
will be about Bronnie James because the Rockets

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play the Lakers. And I've talked
about this before. Yeah, it's a

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big story for good reasons and bad. But Bronnie James with the Lakers now,

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every time he steps on the floor, that will be the headline.

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Here's a great example. There's a
preview on the cbssports dot com website.

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I like their website, their sports
page, but and I'm not singling them

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out because i'ven't looked at all of
them, but I'll guarantee you an overwhelming

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majority of any story today looking ahead
to tonight's games in the Summer League,

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they're going to include Bronnie James.
And here's the headline. NBA Summer League

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storylines colon Bronnie James ready for breakout, number one and number two picks set

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for opening matchup. Ready for breakout
means that he hasn't done anything yet and

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that maybe you'll have a good game
tonight. But of course it's clickbait.

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They want people to click on,
which I did, but I was looking

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really for Reed Shepherd and feel quite
frankly, but I clicked onto it,

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and a lot of people will as
well, especially Laker fans and when you

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get into the story, you see
deeper down. They mentioned Reed Shepherd.

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They also mentioned the fact that the
Lakers have Dalton connecting their team and who

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you know some of the other guys
are Zach Edes playing again tonight. But

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I just found it was interesting that
that was the big headline for the CBS

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Sports story. The Las Vegas Summer
League has got the top picks from the

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recent draft going at it tonight.
The Wizard and Hawks are squaring off.

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That will get attention in the headlines
and in the broadcasts tonight and tomorrow.

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But it seems like right now it's
all Bronni all the time. I guess

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we have to get used to it. But Steven Hunter, a former NBA

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player, has lashed out, saying
that Lebron's influence has been what he called

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an abuse of power, you know, taking a position away or taking an

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opportunity away from another player at least, but what do you expect. It

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was a calculated move by the Lakers, and they're trying to resign Dad,

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so they're gonna draft Sonny. He
didn't do it in the first round,

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but they're spending a lot of money
on him in the second round. There

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is a story out right now about
EA sports video game and he's college football

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twenty five. Yeah has revealed its
top one hundred players in the game.

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Three players topping their peers with ninety
six overall ratings, not one of them

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as a quarterback. Oli Gordon,
the second Oklahoma State halfback, talked about

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him yesterday looking at a drunk driving
arrest. Will Campbell of LSU he's at

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left tackle, and Will Johnson of
Michigan is a cornerback. Those are the

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top three players. Caleb Downs of
Ohio State is a free safety. He

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is one of what five or six
seven players ranked with a ninety five after

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them, But if you're looking for
a quarterback, you got to drop down

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to number eighteen. It's Carson Beck
of Georgia and he has rated a ninety

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three, just ahead of number nineteen
Dion Walker of Kentucky. How about that,

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and Dion not the only player listed
for the Wildcats in the top one

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hundred. Maxwell Hairston, talented cornerback, was given a ninety one score and

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he was ranked sixty second. He
is one of twelve players ranked with a

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ninety one. You know, I
don't play these games. I think if

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I did, I would waste entirely
too much time on him. But if

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you play, you know what I'm
talking about. In case you're wondering at

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Louisville has two players. Quincy Riley, a cornerback, is ranked number thirty

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seven with a score of ninety two. Ashton Gillott is a left end and

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he was number seventy one given a
rank of ninety But obviously, the Southeastern

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Conference shows up big but amazingly,
the highest rated SEC player is Will Campbell,

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the left tackle from LSU, ranked
second overall, one of three,

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given a score of ninety six.
Now Tennessee has James Pierce Junior. He's

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a right He is rated with a
ninety five. Georgia's got a bunch of

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guys obviously, but interesting, Dan
Walker ranked right about the same spot as

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Carson Beck. That's pretty cool.
While we're talking about Georgia, they've got

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a problem down there. And seems
like we talked about this last summer orin

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the last year about Georgia players getting
in trouble with the law when it comes

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to driving speeding. And I don't
know if they were Deuis involved, but

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a couple of Georgia players have been
arrested of late on reckless driving charges,

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one of them racing with a third
teammate, and it from everything I've heard

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and read, this is an ongoing
problem in Athens, Georgia, and so

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far they have been really fortunate because
no one has been killed yet. But

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you had a, like I said, a reckless driving charge. You had

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another UGA player arrested on DUI charges, and for whatever reason, they don't

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seem to reacting, to be reacting
very well. And the coaching staff there

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under Kirby Smart has taken some shots
for that. We were just talking the

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other day about Oli Gordon, the
Oklahoma state running back. His coach basically

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all but said we're not going to
punish him. We're going to punish him

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by giving him the ball fifty times. And Mike Gundy took a lot of

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flak, which he should have for
saying, what Ali did, I've done

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it probably a thousand times, meaning
he admitted to driving drunk. Does it

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take a fatal accident for these guys
to respond and react. It shouldn't,

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obviously, but sadly it might,
both in Stillwater and in Athens, Georgian.

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As I mentioned the other day,
if a similar thing happened at Kentucky.

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I'm told it would not be solely
up to the coach's discretion on how

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to handle that. It would be
kind of a group effort. I don't

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know that there's a set policy in
place. I think it's case by case

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when it comes to either traffic violations
or alcohol related violations. But I just

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braced myself for a story coming out
of Athens or Stillwater or wherever they all

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but turn a blind eye to it. Somebody is going to get seriously hurt

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or killed, maybe a player,
maybe an innocent bystander. But it should

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not happen obviously. Up next,
we'll check in on the baseball Wildcats.

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They've got talent coming through the portal, and we'll hear from Craig Skinner,

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UK volleyball coach. On six thirty
WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.

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Coming up in just a few minutes, Lonnie Green, who was ahead

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track and field coach at the University
of Kentucky, looking ahead to the summer

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Olympics. A little bit later on, we'll hear from two of the basketball

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Wildcats in depth. Linked the interviews
with a couple the Cats. We had

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a chance to talk to yesterday.
I wanted to look at UK baseball real

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quickly with the portal door spinning and
right now. The Wildcats have racked up

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some talent and of late they picked
up an outfielder from San Diego State,

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Shawn Montoya, left handed outfielder three
seasons at sd State, transferred in after

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Rich sharded as a true freshman at
UC Irvine and then played for the ASTEC

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second team All Mountain West last year. At three twenty seven, they get

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a pitcher, Matthew Watson, right
handed, transferred in from Texas and m

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Corpus Christi. Began as a juco
at Eastern Oklahoma State, then wound up

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in Corpus Christi. Ahead of the
twenty twenty three season, All Southland Conference

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second team had a three point seven
to four ERA over sixty five innings,

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struck out seventy four, started eleven
games and relieved in two. And then

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another right hander from Indiana State,
Simon Gregorson. I have to go back

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and look at my book. I
probably saw this guy pitch for Indiana State,

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which reached back to back inn SA
tournaments. He transferred in from Ajuco

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in Des Moines and you're asking yourself
Indiana State, I will tell you,

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over the last couple of years at
least Indiana State has been one of the

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best teams in college baseball in this
area. Kentucky swept Indiana State last year

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in Lexington, but just watching that
team, they were contentious ballgames and you

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could tell how good Indiana State was
and ultimately made the NS Tournament, and

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I think hosted two years ago,
should have hosted. But anyway, that's

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a good program and a right hander
transfers in. He was all conference seven

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saves in the Missouri Valley and pitched
against the Wildcats this year in the Lexington

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Regional. Yes, so I did
see him pitch when two and two thirds

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of scoreless relief. He is a
relief specialist. Last year appeared in twenty

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four games, all in relief.
So that's just part of the list of

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players that Nick Bingeon and his staff
that pulled through the portal. Not to

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mention the fact that they've got what
a dozen true freshmen coming in, recruits

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coming in, and what's interesting about
that four infielders and they're all listed as

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shortstops. That's okay because obviously one
or two of them might move to second

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base, maybe to play somebody at
third base. Didn't we see this this

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past year where Kentucky basically had three
shortstops in the infield and Amelian Petrie,

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Grant Smith, and Mitchell Daily And
it's why the Wildcats had the best defense

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in the country according to many,
including myself. So because when you look

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at Kentucky's number of errors, the
Wildcats committed a handful of like six or

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eight of them were by pitchers,
wild pickoff throws and things like that.

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But as far as the infield goes, nobody could top Kentucky this past year.

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So we'll see if the Wildcats can
keep that going. But the portal

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has been good to the Wildcats.
Kentucky Volleyball in the news yesterday Craig Skinner

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appearing over in Louisville in a teaser
event basically previewing the American Volleyball Coaches Association

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Showcase coming up in August. We
had Craig on the show not long ago

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to talk about his team, talk
about the event coming up in the Wildcats

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playing Nebraska, But Skinner talked to
the media over in Louisville yesterday and he

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pointed out that this is a high
profile event, and in fact, the

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worldwide leader will show the showcase event, and that's a big deal given the

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fact that everything in late August is
usually about football. Another first, what

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I learned today is the first time
ever that a match is being played on

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ESPN in the month of August.
So there's so many different first that are

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happening in our score right now.
So many athletes are playing this game.

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We are just in Las Vegas recruiting
the National Championships. It's amazing how many

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elite players are playing this game in
every state in the country, but also

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the state of Kentucky, and we
can't be more excited to be part of

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this event. Blang, a tough
schedule early in the years, nothing new

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for Kentucky. Skinner has done that
for many, many years and of course

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has helped set his team up for
runs in the SEC, which the Wildcats

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have won or shared for the last
seven years. So they've taken their lumps

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early. They've also won some big
matches early. It just goes to help

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you, like I said, in
conference play and then get ready for the

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NCA tournament. That's the goal with
this event. Yeah, I mean,

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we always want to play good teams
at the beginning of the season, and

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when we got invited to play in
this, it was a no brainer because

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there's no better measuring stick for you
to make a run in December than trying

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to play against the best teams.
Now we play against the best teams.

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Now we know what we need to
do, we know how we need to

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improve, we know what we need
to continue to work on. So you

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know, we're always you know,
have an expectation to compete for SEC championships

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and give ourselves a chance to compete
for national championship in December. That's Craig

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Skinner speaking over in Louisville about the
AVCA event coming up on August twenty seven.

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Staying with college sports, something really
weird happening. I didn't know this

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was going to go on. I
think it's I think it's great. But

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yesterday was first of all, the
Big twelve Media Day and it was in

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Las Vegas. Sixteen teams in the
Big twelve across town at the same time

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the PAC twelve Media Day. That's
right, the PAC twelve, which is

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down to two teams, Oregon State
and Washington State. They were left behind,

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but a former PAC twelve network analyst
put together an event and actually it

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says here about one hundred people showed
up, including about a dozen reporters,

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and there was an open bar and
the commissioner there's still a commissioner, Teresa

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Gould said, yeah, we got
a bar in the back. We're drinking

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tonight. I would venture to say
that if anybody has earned the right to

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drink, it is the PAC twelve. Okay, And then the tough questions

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began. But among the people who
showed up were alumni from the two schools,

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Steven Jackson, really good running back
from Oregon State, and two former

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Washington State quarterbacks, Jack Thompson,
the throwing Samowen and Ryan Leaf, formerly

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the number two overall pick in the
NFL draft. And Leif told supporters he

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said, the other schools, he
said, or some schools at least,

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they're going to come scrambling back when
a new college football playoff changes in two

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years or whatever. He said,
you guys are going to be the foundation

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of that. So it was quite
the contrast to the Big twelve event,

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which was staged at Allegiance Stadium,
the home of Las Vegas Raiders. There

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were more than five hundred media members
to preview the football coming football season for

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the sixteen Big twelve teams, including
four that left the Pack twelve last year,

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but the Pac twelve was hanging in
there. Go Beavers, Go Cougars.

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And by the way, if you
saw the original version of The Longest

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Yard, you saw Jack Thompson.
He played for a while for the Bengals,

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had a great college career, was
not a great pro played for a

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little while, but he was also
one of the real former football players,

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along with Ray Nitzky and Ben Davidson, among many others who were in the

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original Longest Yard. So I always
said one of the greatest nicknames the throwing

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Samoan. UK track and field coach
Lonnie Green is up next here in The

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Big Blowinsiders six thirty WLA. Welcome
back to the Big lu Insider. Joining

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us now for the first time on
these airwaves is Kentucky coach Lonnie Green track

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and field cross country as well and
coach Congratulations. First of all, welcome

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to the show. Thanks for joining
us. Well, thank you very much,

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I really really sincerely appreciate. Uh. What a busy time, but

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a glorious time for UK track and
field right now heading into the games.

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Uh, I got to think you're
just about as excited as the athletes,

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aren't you? Hey? Man,
I think I think I'm as excited as

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the young baby old Christmas morning.
Tell me a little bit about your role

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going into these games with some of
these athletes, some you coach, some

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you didn't, But of course they're
wildcats forever and will represent UK in one

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way, shape or form in Paris. But what what is your role right

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now? My role is an individual
coach. I think when when when people

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see them, they see them the
team, especially track and field, they

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see the Olympic team, and and
and and and and the media will say,

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okay, here is then mister Gabriel, he's the Olympic coach. Well,

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he's just basically that coach entitle okay, and and and the way we

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look at the sport, that is
the highest honor in our sport that a

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coach could could could attend to to
being named the Olympic coach. Okay,

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But our sport is comprised of twenty
two disciplines, twenty two events, and

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and each and each each country can
ten three or three athletes per event.

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Now, each of those individuals have
their own individual coach. My job going

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to the Olympic Games is going to
to coach Messiah Russell and Devin Charlton.

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You know, that's that's going to
be my job. Get them to the

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podium. My job is when we
started this in September to is to get

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them to the podium in any which
way, shape, form or fashion.

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You know. So I'm knowing that
as a personal coach, I would be

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with the US contingent, but I'm
going to be the coach. I'm going

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to be responsible for when they wake
up, when they when they eat,

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when they train, when and when
they lay down, and I make sure

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they get to the track on time, they do everything they need to do.

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Tell would be called championship day.
Man. That's pressure, isn't it.

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Although that's nice, that's what you
signed up for. Yes, sir,

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it is. It is. It
is pressure. But but that's what

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we all time. What would you
get to the level? You know,

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I just remembered there were many many
years ago one of the Olympics there were

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some athletes who missed their events because
the coach didn't get them up on time

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or something like that. So exactly
exactly, you know what I'm talking about

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you. Remember that, Yes,
I do. You know, basically,

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our job is when we get there
to make sure everything flows. You know,

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communication with the USATF staff has got
to be consistent, but everything flows.

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Our job is to take as much
stress of the student, now of

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the athlete as possible. You know, it's interesting when you're saying this.

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In my world, excuse me.
You know who does that is a great

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producer. And I was told I've
been on the air and I've been a

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producer, and I was told early
in my career that if you can take

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stress off of a play by play
man and just let him concentrate on calling

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a game, you've done a good
job as a producer. You're taking stress

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off these athletes. So all they
got to do is look down the track.

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Is that right? That's it.
That's it. That's our job.

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That's our job once we get them
to that space is to make it as

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stressless or as seamless as possible.
Yeah, you know, so that their

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job is just to wake up,
warm up, and get ready to be

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me. And obviously that will help
them block out whatever's around them. And

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I know they're literally world class athletes. So when they step into the blocks.

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They won't think about it. I'm
in Paris at the Olympics. I

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could win a metal. Look at
all these people, they're looking at the

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finish line right, yes, sir, yes, sir. There's a lot

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of pressure on that. As I
refer to all of them as babies.

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So these young men, you know, they get to that place. There's

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a lot of pressure on those babies, especially the ones who who who the

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media now plays up to the world, that's a favorite or Olympic medalist or

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potential gold medalists. There's a lot
of pressure that comes with this. My

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brother used to say all the time, he said, pressure bus pipes,

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you know. And so at the
end of the day, you know,

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there's a lot of pressure. They
look really relaxed, they look real focused,

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but there's a lot of pressure that
they're dealing with in the moment.

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I can't imagine how they sleep the
night before. You know, most of

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them struggle to do that. So
what sometimes they'll have to go to the

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team doctors just to get a sleeve
bait so that they can rest. Yep,

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I said, a little mellowtonin might
help, you know, but pressure

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also the oak clichde turns coal into
diamonds, So definitely. You know,

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something I've always wanted to ask a
track and field coach is when you're coaching

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a sprinter, obviously there's technique involved
and strategy involved, but there's more to

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it to this, Hey, get
out there and run as fast as you

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can. Just how technical do you
get in events like that? It's very

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technical, you know, But I
think the mistake that coaches make is they

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try to go to the technical component
first, and that's the mistake. You

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have to literally get the athlete fit, get them physically stronger, get them

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faster, and then you bring the
technical component along. But everybody wants to

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go straight to technique. For example, you get coaches talk about speed.

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Oh, we got to work speed. You see a lot of you know,

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I'm specialists around come to me and
I can get you faster, and

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they goes the minute the young man
or woman or the baby comes to them,

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they go straight speed. That's a
mistake in my humble opinion, you

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know what I mean. And you
have to get them fit, get them

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strong, and get the body ready
to handle those stresses. What happens is

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you go straight to the stress and
an injury recur and prep occur prefully.

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The injury won't won't be one that's
going to take them out for a long

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period of time, you know what
I mean, like a tone, hamstring

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or or or something that serious.
You know that sometimes that even surgery will

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have to be done to correct it, you know what I mean. So

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I think the mistake is, Yes, they do a good job of getting

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a kid faster, but you got
to you have to literally prepare the body

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to handle the stress that comes with
sprinting or moving that fast. Talking to

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Kentucky, yes, Kentucky track and
field coach Lonnie Green, who's helping prepare

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some former Wildcat and current Wildcats for
the Olympic Games coming up, you mentioned

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prep work, and we hear a
lot from the football and basketball really in

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baseball people too, about nutrition,
and I'm wondering about I got to think

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it's it's pretty much the same for
all the UK athletes on campus. But

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I know that they've put a lot
of time and resources into nutrition and the

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weight room and things like that.
How do you feel about that on campus?

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I think it's phenomenal. I mean, you know, you can't I

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don't think you can buy a Lamborghini
and put low ofting gases. You've got

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to put high OFFTENE gasses. You
know what I mean. You know what's

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going to happen to the engine?
Enginees gonna start knocking it. Eventually,

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YouTube will fail, you know what
I mean if you don't put the right

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fuel into that into that engine.
And I think the commitment that that Ms

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Mister Barnhardt are athletic director and President
Capaluto and all of our senior staff are

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made to our student athlete, our
student athletes, that is that is paramount.

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If you want to compete at a
very high level, those things have

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to be in place. We the
older, older folk with oh it,

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don't take all of that. Oh
oh I was doing it. You know.

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We didn't do this and we didn't
do that. Yeah, that has

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some merit, but we didn't perform
at the level of these young people.

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What I always want to say,
for very knowledgeable guys, what I always

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want to say is, okay,
but what if you had done that?

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How much better might you have been? I know you drank pickle juice when

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you were getting cramps, but you
know, yes, sir, you've heard

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that one, haven't. But I
think but I think the commitment that the

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commitment that mister Barnhutt it's made to
our athletic department in terms of providing every

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possible thing that he believes our student
athletes need, but our senior staff leave.

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Our student athletes need to be successful
nine seconds none. But you can't

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compete in any sport and I repeat
that again, any sport at a very

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high level if those things aren't in
place. I said, you can compete,

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but it might not be it might
not be fruitfal Absolutely, we're talking

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with Lonnie Green, UK head track
and field coach. He's got athletes going

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to Paris for the summer Olympics.
More to come on the Big Blue and

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Sider six thirty w l a P. We're talking with Lonnie Green is the

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head track and field coach at the
University of Kentucky also cross country, and

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as of July first seven UK Wildcats
from track and field will make the trip

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to Paris. Has that number changed, coach, No, it's remained consistent.

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Right now. Okay, so UK
had four champions at the US Olympic

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team trials. Uh And by the
way, we have you and I have

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spoken now for nine and a half
minutes and I haven't usually our word yet

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recruiting. This has got to be
the ultimate recruiting tool, I would think,

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Am I right? It is?
It is? I mean if if

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if me being the head coach,
you know, being the director of the

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program, if if I don't,
if I don't capitalize, or we as

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a as a department, as an
institution, don't capitalize on the moment,

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we will lose a very, very, a great opportunity to attract athletes with

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such with such talents or even greater. You're or you mentioned Massiah Russell class

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at twenty twenty three and she I
remember I was on a panel discussion show

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on KAT with Miss Barnhardt and we
were talking about social media and he's mentioned

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her name before. She was maybe
the first UK athlete, no matter what

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the sport, men or women,
to really build a following on social media.

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What is it about her that that
people just gravitate to her? She's

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got what She's got what I call
a very gregarious personality, you know what

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I mean? She is one who
she understands the social media platform. She

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understands that she was there was something
she was doing when she was in high

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school and she's very bubbly, she's
very personable, and I think she she

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she figured out a way to capitalize
on on that that that that in those

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platforms, in those arena, in
those spaces. But she's also very very

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passionate to her viewers or her followers, you know what I mean. I've

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followed, I've listened to her talk
to her peer group here on campus and

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talk about how people will in box
her telling her how motivational she is.

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They were about to give up,
and then they watched a video or something

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she posts, and it gave them
that that that exusia, that dynamite that

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they needed to keep going, to
go one more day, you know what

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I mean. And I told her, I said, the beautiful I think

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social media, the Internet failed us, I said, And I said,

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the reason is because you can do
a whole lot of good with it,

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but you can do a whole lot
of bad with it. But you your

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platform is doing good and blessing people. I said, don't ever lose that.

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Don't let people pull you into a
vacuum where you're not doing good with

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it. You know what I mean. You stay there, don't let don't

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let what people think you should be
doing with it. Dictate what you do.

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But she's she's done a great heard. Her family have done a great

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job of capitalizing on She won the
US Championship in one hundred meter hurdles and

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at a world leading time, and
broke Gail Dever's the US Olympic Trials record,

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which had stood for twenty four years. So she obviously is running her

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best right now, isn't she.
She she's one of the favorites. She

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is the She's only three women in
the history of the sport has run faster,

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and they have only done that by
hundreds of a second and in some

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situation thousands of the second. You
know what I mean? Is she going

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in as one of the favorites?
Yes, I personally believe. Now people

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might say, Ana, you got
to start drinking mountain dew. But when

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I make the statement, but I
believe if she if that race that she

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executed at the US Championships when she
said to Bullimpic Trials record shows up on

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the eleventh of August in Paris,
she either breaks the shef that particular race

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with the field that would be that
either the world's record fall while she wins

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the goal, or she will she
will be one of the individuals on the

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party. That would be awesome.
It's broken the collegiate record in both the

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sixty meter hurdles and one hundred hurdles. Uh. Speaking of high profile athletes,

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how about Jazmine Camacho Quinn being chosen
to carry the flag for Puerto Rico.

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What a great honor. Jazzy Jazz, that's what I call all the

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time. When I say, I
call it jazzy jazz. You know,

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you know, she is probably one
of the most humble individuals you would have

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a meet. She's very aggressive and
then when it's time to compete, you

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think she's being difficult. But that's
just what great athletes do. When it's

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00:31:33.359 --> 00:31:38.319
time to do the work, when
it's time to to to present their product,

408
00:31:38.519 --> 00:31:44.200
they they go somewhere and that is
something they learned. That's a that's

409
00:31:44.200 --> 00:31:48.079
a god given gift, you know
what I mean. We all can go

410
00:31:48.160 --> 00:31:52.720
back to high school and even college
and you there's a peer or a friend

411
00:31:52.759 --> 00:31:56.240
that they were great great and the
minute the lights come on, they become

412
00:31:56.880 --> 00:31:59.559
We will say, man, that
person becomes a peace that person because that

413
00:32:00.079 --> 00:32:02.319
comes an animal. That's what you
see with jazz. But at the end

414
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:06.680
of the day, once she's done
working in her craft. She is the

415
00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:13.000
most humble. She has the sweetest
demeanor. You whatever you'd ever you can

416
00:32:13.079 --> 00:32:15.440
even you could have a think of. Well, imagine so for her country's

417
00:32:15.480 --> 00:32:21.200
Olympic Federation to ask her to be
a flag at the opening ceremonies, that's

418
00:32:21.240 --> 00:32:25.079
one of the greatest honor any act
or any person, in my mind could

419
00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:30.359
be asked to do to That's when
national pride really pushes forward, you know

420
00:32:30.400 --> 00:32:31.960
what I mean. At that moment, I don't care where you're from.

421
00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:36.359
You can be from. She brought
in the corner of the east corner of

422
00:32:36.440 --> 00:32:37.599
the world. But they say,
we want you to to bear the flag,

423
00:32:37.960 --> 00:32:40.759
you know what I mean in this
particular situation, that's the greatst honor

424
00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:44.240
one could, one of the greatest
honors one could could be asked to do

425
00:32:44.440 --> 00:32:47.079
the service of her country. Well, she made her debut in Brazil in

426
00:32:47.119 --> 00:32:52.680
twenty sixteen and one hund and then
yeah, helped Puerto Rico win its first

427
00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:58.759
Olympic gold medal in the same event
and the delayed Tokyo Game. So yeah,

428
00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:02.279
she's she's a great commodity down there. She finished up in twenty eighteen,

429
00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:07.880
as did Sidney McLaughlin, which is
when you got her. So I

430
00:33:07.160 --> 00:33:10.240
don't know that there was no overlap
between you all, was there? You

431
00:33:10.279 --> 00:33:15.039
didn't coach them? No, there
was not any overlap. Jazz finished.

432
00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:22.799
She was done with her eligibility.
She graduated in December of twenty eighteen.

433
00:33:22.240 --> 00:33:25.440
She still had a year of eligibility, but she she opted out of that

434
00:33:25.480 --> 00:33:30.799
and went pro, became a professional
apt and yeah, for one year with

435
00:33:30.839 --> 00:33:34.599
Sydney. Of course they wanted to
go pro oaud High School, you know

436
00:33:34.599 --> 00:33:38.200
what I mean, But she opted
to pursue the professional round. You know,

437
00:33:38.559 --> 00:33:40.559
you know, you got to tip
your hat to Edward Floielle, my

438
00:33:40.599 --> 00:33:45.160
predecessor. He had some very very
good, I mean, some of the

439
00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:49.799
most the greatest talents in the world. In that event. You look at

440
00:33:49.839 --> 00:33:54.119
Kenny Harrison, who was the world's
record holder until the last World's two World

441
00:33:54.200 --> 00:33:59.720
Championships ago, who still is the
American record holder, you know what I

442
00:33:59.720 --> 00:34:02.319
mean. All of those wore UK
on the chest, you know what I

443
00:34:02.319 --> 00:34:07.079
mean. So you have to tip
your hat to the work he did prior

444
00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:10.159
to us getting here. Would we
have done? Thanks to be the god

445
00:34:10.239 --> 00:34:15.159
that that all we have done is
tried to maintain it or take it to

446
00:34:15.199 --> 00:34:20.280
another level. You have a freshman
from Nigeria, and I don't want to

447
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:22.599
try his last name because I'm afraid
all you could say it. I'm sure,

448
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:28.079
but Alexander helped me with his last
name. His name is Alexander,

449
00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:36.000
thank you, excellent. But his
opportunity to take part in events like this,

450
00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:38.960
in international events, I've got to
think that's going to set him up

451
00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:44.519
even more for a great collegiate career. I think so he's just a freshman.

452
00:34:44.679 --> 00:34:46.920
As I refer to the freshman's babies, he's just a baby. His

453
00:34:47.119 --> 00:34:52.079
upside is going to be phenomenal.
Before him, we had a young man

454
00:34:52.119 --> 00:34:58.480
here by the name of Daniel Roberts
who who just recently made US Olympic team,

455
00:34:58.599 --> 00:35:00.360
and we had an even the part
of when I was here, Yes,

456
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:04.400
and he just ran twelve point ninety
six. There's only a very hand

457
00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:08.360
few handful of men but in the
one ten hurdles that have dipped under thirteen

458
00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:13.920
seconds, and if my stat's line
up correctly, it might be ten in

459
00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:17.639
the history of the whole sport.
Okay, I think he's got the ability

460
00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:23.440
to surpass Daniel Roberts. You were
part of that great, great tradition and

461
00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:28.639
culture at Arkansas as an assistant coach
there. You went to Purdue and did

462
00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:34.039
a phenomenal job, and Mitch Barnhart
pulled you to Lexington and as you mentioned

463
00:35:34.039 --> 00:35:37.639
that there was a great foundation here
and you said about building on that,

464
00:35:38.559 --> 00:35:43.639
what has that process been like for
you here in Lexington? I mean,

465
00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:47.480
it's just it's the support Mitch,
you know. You know. I would

466
00:35:47.559 --> 00:35:54.719
present a presentation to to Mitch and
his usually his response for me responsibly would

467
00:35:54.719 --> 00:35:59.159
normally be is this good for kids? Is this good for young people?

468
00:35:59.639 --> 00:36:02.159
And I usually would say yes.
He said this this does this help us

469
00:36:02.199 --> 00:36:06.880
to be successful? My response is
usually yes, And he said, let

470
00:36:06.960 --> 00:36:08.760
me see what I can do make
this happen for you, And he's done

471
00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:13.280
that. You know, I mean, you can this long at this?

472
00:36:13.599 --> 00:36:19.800
I think a man every man in
wo likes can they can? They can

473
00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:25.239
toil and be. But when you
get what I call in my mind,

474
00:36:25.280 --> 00:36:30.440
your says, you're the place of
outpouring. You know everything you touched terms

475
00:36:30.440 --> 00:36:34.480
of goo. You know what I
mean, You can think about it and

476
00:36:34.519 --> 00:36:37.800
it's become successful, you know what
I mean? And so and I think

477
00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:40.760
what Missions allowed us, allowed me
and my staff to do is to continue

478
00:36:40.800 --> 00:36:45.360
to work in opposessed. I think
this is the place of about poor.

479
00:36:45.079 --> 00:36:47.519
You know, people have asked me, well, Alani, what would you

480
00:36:47.639 --> 00:36:50.880
entertain anything? I said, No, I said, miss would have me.

481
00:36:50.920 --> 00:36:53.440
I'm he can put me out the
pastor yet and I'm not trying to

482
00:36:53.440 --> 00:36:57.559
look at the next jingling keys.
I said, if he would allow me

483
00:36:57.599 --> 00:37:00.000
to do it, and I'm still
working and we're successful, it would be

484
00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:02.360
this is where I'm gonna go out
to pasture, and this when I'm gonna

485
00:37:02.360 --> 00:37:05.599
look at my wife at sixty five. And so maybe what you want to

486
00:37:05.639 --> 00:37:09.840
do, you know what I mean? You know that sounded like a plan.

487
00:37:10.719 --> 00:37:13.760
I tell you. When I was
growing up in Louisville, I used

488
00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:15.800
to go to the Mason Dixon Games. I loved it. And I'll be

489
00:37:15.880 --> 00:37:20.440
keeping a close eye on the Olympics
as well for the UK people. And

490
00:37:20.480 --> 00:37:22.880
in fact, my nephew, who
was six eight six' nine, did

491
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:27.000
not like basketball. He threw the
shot in the discus in high school,

492
00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:30.000
wasn't great at it, but he
enjoyed it and I enjoyed going to watch

493
00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:32.559
him. So there's a lot to
like, isn't there, Yes, it

494
00:37:32.639 --> 00:37:37.039
is. It's you know, you
know, I don't know about other sports.

495
00:37:37.039 --> 00:37:39.039
I never claimed to know other sports
that would participated in other sports,

496
00:37:39.039 --> 00:37:44.239
but truck and feel like you just
alluded to. It's an addiction. I

497
00:37:44.239 --> 00:37:47.400
don't know. You know what addition
looks like. Maybe me me stopped drinking

498
00:37:47.639 --> 00:37:52.400
four mountain of six mountain dues today. Oh man, you know you know,

499
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:58.239
But but it's an addiction, and
you get to enjoy, just I

500
00:37:58.239 --> 00:38:01.360
guess, the at of competing,
you know what I mean. You get

501
00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:07.440
to appreciate the thriller victory, You
get to to understand the arguay of defeat.

502
00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:08.920
In my mind, that's what track
brings to you. So you wake

503
00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:12.760
up, you lay it down the
knighting to that if I do more push

504
00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:15.000
ups, if I if I can
bench press ten more pounds, if I

505
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.119
can if I can move this a
little fast, I can be better.

506
00:38:19.159 --> 00:38:21.320
I can beat him or be there. You know what I mean. The

507
00:38:21.360 --> 00:38:25.039
sport will consume you. You live
it daily. You know there's something about

508
00:38:25.039 --> 00:38:30.079
it. Coach, thank you so
much for your time. I know your

509
00:38:30.119 --> 00:38:32.719
time is valuable right now as your
prayer to go to Paris safe travels and

510
00:38:32.800 --> 00:38:36.639
we'll do it again soon, I
hope. Thank you so very much.

511
00:38:36.679 --> 00:38:38.920
I appreciate you so much. Thank
you. That's Lonnie Green, Kentucky's head

512
00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:44.960
track and field coach also across country. He has seven UK Wildcats, either

513
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.119
current or former, making the trip
to Paris for the Summer Olympics. Also

514
00:38:49.199 --> 00:38:52.800
one staff member going over as well, and he'll be on hand, as

515
00:38:52.840 --> 00:38:58.360
he said, lend his expertise as
the Cats go for the gold, literally

516
00:38:58.760 --> 00:39:01.280
go for the gold. I re
Number two is up next here on six

517
00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:30.400
thirty WLIP Welcome back to the Big
Moon. Sitar. Joining us now is

518
00:39:30.440 --> 00:39:37.519
a colleague from WTVQ channel thirty six, Forrest Tucker. And Forrest, you

519
00:39:37.639 --> 00:39:42.079
reached out to me and said you
wanted to talk about this US soccer team

520
00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:45.760
situation where they just bagged their coach. And you're a soccer guy, aren't

521
00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:49.840
you? One hundred and ten percent. Hundred and ten percent. That's when

522
00:39:49.880 --> 00:39:52.960
I live, breathe, eat and
sleep, And I honestly I tell you

523
00:39:52.960 --> 00:39:55.440
what. I went to the University
of South Carolina, love the game talks

524
00:39:55.800 --> 00:40:01.320
in their soccer programs. I'm really
ready to root for UK as well this

525
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:06.199
season and plus the Columbus Crew f
C, Cincinnati, Louisville City Racing,

526
00:40:06.280 --> 00:40:10.039
Louisville Lex and Sporting Club. It's
all a really great up and coming sport

527
00:40:10.119 --> 00:40:14.280
here in our area. And I
think the national team plays into that.

528
00:40:14.320 --> 00:40:17.760
They're going to be in Cincinnati on
September tenth versus New Zealand, and they'll

529
00:40:17.800 --> 00:40:22.280
probably hopefully have a head coach by
then, a new one. Will you

530
00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:27.119
be there? I am going to
try my very best, deity. I

531
00:40:27.199 --> 00:40:30.719
just told mister Pikoro, my boss, about that, and you know,

532
00:40:30.840 --> 00:40:35.199
I think that's something that we're this
is this might be an international event.

533
00:40:35.400 --> 00:40:37.920
Yeah, you know, no,
I agree. I agree. It will

534
00:40:37.960 --> 00:40:43.320
be literally one of the biggest events
in the world. So next time I

535
00:40:43.360 --> 00:40:45.199
see him, I'll try to try
to put put in a word for you.

536
00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:51.239
Uh. You reached out right after
they fired their head coach, Greg

537
00:40:51.239 --> 00:40:57.960
Berhalter. Matt Crocker is the director
of the US Soccer Federation, and uh,

538
00:40:58.079 --> 00:41:00.800
I know it was a controversial choice
when he rehired the guy, Wasn't

539
00:41:00.800 --> 00:41:07.039
it one hundred and ten percent?
You know? Greg was a guy who

540
00:41:07.119 --> 00:41:10.639
had gotten them to some good spots
after the twenty twenty two World Cup,

541
00:41:10.800 --> 00:41:15.800
and he shown some success there,
but there was a little drama, a

542
00:41:15.880 --> 00:41:19.599
little soccer mom and dad drama that
reminds me of when I was playing at

543
00:41:19.639 --> 00:41:22.760
the youth level with Gio Urana,
one of the midfielders on the team,

544
00:41:22.840 --> 00:41:24.960
and it was about playing time.
And I'll leave it at that. You

545
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.639
can look into it yourself. It
really doesn't war much attention, but things

546
00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:32.679
are blown out of proportion. People
were kind of sore about some things.

547
00:41:34.079 --> 00:41:37.280
But you know, these national team
coaches don't stick around for much more than

548
00:41:37.320 --> 00:41:40.119
what we call a cycle, which
is about four years. So Greg got

549
00:41:40.199 --> 00:41:44.000
us out of the dark days where
we didn't qualify for the World Cup in

550
00:41:44.039 --> 00:41:46.719
twenty eighteen. That was his job
and for us we should have moved on

551
00:41:46.800 --> 00:41:52.599
then, maybe withholding any of that
drama that you know pops up. Yeah,

552
00:41:52.679 --> 00:41:58.639
and then they fire him fairly early
in this process, didn't. I

553
00:41:58.639 --> 00:42:00.920
mean, that was a big move
by Crocker to cut this guy loose.

554
00:42:02.199 --> 00:42:08.800
Yeah. I think that everybody after
the loss to Uruguay and the pretty much

555
00:42:09.360 --> 00:42:15.079
just an absolute devastation and embarrassment on
home soil in the co of America.

556
00:42:15.119 --> 00:42:19.719
Getting bounce in the group stage led
pundits and fans alike to say, what

557
00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:22.079
do you mean you need time to
do a quote comprehensive review, But crocerd

558
00:42:22.119 --> 00:42:27.079
took nine days. He kept his
word that he would review it. And

559
00:42:27.320 --> 00:42:30.360
he says that he wants a new
era of on field success for this program,

560
00:42:30.800 --> 00:42:35.920
and that has to be making the
quarterfinals and semifinals of big torments,

561
00:42:35.920 --> 00:42:38.920
including the twenty twenty six World Cup
being held here in the United States and

562
00:42:38.920 --> 00:42:44.320
then up Northern Canada, then down
south in Mexico too. And also Crocker

563
00:42:44.400 --> 00:42:46.639
says that you know, in those
games, they should have found a way

564
00:42:46.679 --> 00:42:52.920
to win. And the grit and
enthusiasm that should be displayed by this national

565
00:42:52.960 --> 00:42:57.800
team, which you know for every
player should be a huge source of pride,

566
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:00.639
just has not been there. So
hopefully we have a manager that will

567
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:04.920
come in in the next two months
or so that can do that, it

568
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:08.119
can get the best out of these
players. Talking to Forrest Tucker of WTVQ

569
00:43:08.440 --> 00:43:13.920
about right now about the US men's
soccer team, we'll talk a little football

570
00:43:14.119 --> 00:43:19.519
in basketball, uh in a few
minutes. But Forrest is a soccer fan

571
00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:22.440
and played it, as he said, coming up and covered it at South

572
00:43:22.440 --> 00:43:28.840
Carolina before he came here. To
Lexington, what was the knock on the

573
00:43:28.920 --> 00:43:32.800
way Burrhalter coached? Was it?
You know? The way is his teams,

574
00:43:32.840 --> 00:43:38.559
the formations or motivational style or strategy. And mind you, all I

575
00:43:38.599 --> 00:43:44.360
know about soccer is I never played
it, but I love going to games

576
00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:46.239
in high school because my buddy's played. But all I know is what I

577
00:43:46.239 --> 00:43:52.199
see in Ted Lasso and Welcome Direcsham
so well Harry Show to Learn, Dick.

578
00:43:52.320 --> 00:43:57.039
I'm happy that you watch those shows. They actually provide very good educational

579
00:43:57.159 --> 00:44:00.000
knowledge. So if people need to
learn about soccer, then they should probab

580
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:02.760
watch those two shows. Aside from
that, you know, I think that

581
00:44:02.840 --> 00:44:07.480
the tough thing with Greg was that, you know, when you have a

582
00:44:07.519 --> 00:44:10.079
team that gets called in for a
tournament or windowed international break, you have

583
00:44:10.079 --> 00:44:15.440
about twenty three guys and the roster
was pretty deep. You know, we

584
00:44:15.559 --> 00:44:21.119
have a wealth of talent and optimism
with the players that are suiting up to

585
00:44:21.119 --> 00:44:23.519
play for this national team, and
we had that decades ago. Yes,

586
00:44:23.599 --> 00:44:29.400
but these players have had the krem
Dela creme of everything coming up and they're

587
00:44:29.440 --> 00:44:31.519
a lot younger than the previous part. So Greg brought them all in.

588
00:44:31.559 --> 00:44:37.320
But you know, only really used
the handful to formulate and eleven a starting

589
00:44:37.840 --> 00:44:40.639
side and didn't really extend into much
depth. So, you know, we

590
00:44:40.679 --> 00:44:44.599
talk about a lot of players that
start, but there are a lot of

591
00:44:44.639 --> 00:44:49.320
players that are not starting out playing
and I wonder what are they like on

592
00:44:49.360 --> 00:44:52.039
this team. That's one knock And
the other one is that you know,

593
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:54.679
this team is really good going forward. They can attack well, they can

594
00:44:54.679 --> 00:44:59.400
attack and as they have a lot
of good pieces in place. Now issue

595
00:44:59.480 --> 00:45:02.559
is defensive. You know, you
have a guy outside back, Tim Greene

596
00:45:02.559 --> 00:45:06.679
places for Fulham in England, been
around for a long time. You know,

597
00:45:06.760 --> 00:45:08.400
he's the old guy on the team. You have some up and comers

598
00:45:08.440 --> 00:45:13.719
at the same spant Anthony Robinson aka
Jedi, that's his nickname, on the

599
00:45:13.719 --> 00:45:17.239
outside back slot. On the other
side of the pitch. Green can play

600
00:45:17.239 --> 00:45:22.079
center back too, and other guys
are are pretty versatile. But that unit,

601
00:45:22.400 --> 00:45:23.920
with a lot of you know,
good goalkeeping talent too, is just

602
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:28.840
not come together as much. And
so you know, those are kind of

603
00:45:28.880 --> 00:45:30.960
the two things to stick out to
me. His demeanor overall. You know,

604
00:45:30.960 --> 00:45:34.880
we know coach Cala Perry, right, you know, we can read

605
00:45:34.920 --> 00:45:38.559
some coaches. We know Mark Stoops
his demeanor after these games, said to

606
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:43.280
me that he was really chill with
these guys and there was not a lot

607
00:45:43.320 --> 00:45:45.559
of pressure on them. We need
to have pressure exerted on these players,

608
00:45:45.639 --> 00:45:49.079
because, after all, they're young. We needed to grow up pretty fast.

609
00:45:49.119 --> 00:45:52.360
We've been saying that for years ago, and it hasn't happened. You

610
00:45:52.400 --> 00:45:58.320
know. The knock on America has
been maybe even one of the excuses has

611
00:45:58.400 --> 00:46:04.320
been best athletes play other sports,
whereas in foreign countries, you know,

612
00:46:04.559 --> 00:46:07.559
la la la. But we've also
got three hundred million people, you know.

613
00:46:07.639 --> 00:46:10.960
Yeah, you can say, well, what if Michael Jordan or Lebron

614
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:16.360
played soccer. What if you know, Tom Brady or or you know whoever

615
00:46:16.639 --> 00:46:21.840
other athletes the best athletes in those
sports, what if they played soccer instead

616
00:46:21.840 --> 00:46:24.280
of there? But like I said, and you just talked about it,

617
00:46:24.840 --> 00:46:30.400
three hundre million people there should be
I would think enough talented depth. Well,

618
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:31.440
look what the women have done,
right. Of course they don't have

619
00:46:31.440 --> 00:46:37.960
as many athletic options as men.
But should we be a lot further along?

620
00:46:37.039 --> 00:46:43.880
And it sounds like that's what you're
telling me. I think that's part

621
00:46:43.880 --> 00:46:46.199
of it, Dick. The thing
that I get hung up on is if

622
00:46:46.239 --> 00:46:49.559
you want to talk about that and
go down that route, you have to

623
00:46:49.559 --> 00:46:52.000
open up a Pandora's box of how
we developed in this country, and that

624
00:46:52.280 --> 00:46:58.280
is something that's a whole, entirely
other conversation. Yeah, that requires so

625
00:46:58.400 --> 00:47:00.719
much more researching, kind of in
depth. Not that I wouldn't be prepared

626
00:47:00.719 --> 00:47:04.440
to say a few things on it. I think that the issue is is

627
00:47:04.480 --> 00:47:07.559
there's a lot of debate on how
European we should look, how should we

628
00:47:07.599 --> 00:47:13.039
have all these academies. MLS teams
all have well established academies where players are

629
00:47:13.039 --> 00:47:15.840
in, you know, teams that
are a pipeline to a pro pathway,

630
00:47:15.159 --> 00:47:19.559
but they're you know, that should
not be the only way players should should

631
00:47:19.599 --> 00:47:22.280
be prepared. We come from a
country where we have so many other main

632
00:47:22.360 --> 00:47:25.840
sports. You know, when does
a player want to specialize? When does

633
00:47:25.840 --> 00:47:30.000
a player want to just play soccer
or play basketball? There's some more options,

634
00:47:30.039 --> 00:47:32.079
you know, And I know in
Australia and England there's rugby as well,

635
00:47:32.119 --> 00:47:36.760
there's cricket as well, but you
know, football, soccer is the

636
00:47:36.800 --> 00:47:39.360
main sport in a lot of these
other nations, and that's why that's the

637
00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:42.679
root of the issue. And so
my thing is is, you know,

638
00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:45.320
get kids playing it, If they
like it, they'll stick with it.

639
00:47:45.400 --> 00:47:50.199
You know. Everything between that and
becomeing a national team player, that's a

640
00:47:50.199 --> 00:47:53.679
gray area. Yeah, you know, And I think that when kids are

641
00:47:53.679 --> 00:47:59.320
thrown into soccer right now, it's
as much as anything just to get them

642
00:47:59.320 --> 00:48:01.599
outside, get them out from in
front of the screen, get them off

643
00:48:01.639 --> 00:48:06.719
the video games, and get them
moving well. And there's there's nothing wrong

644
00:48:06.760 --> 00:48:09.800
with that. But what happens after
that, I guess is the question mark.

645
00:48:09.880 --> 00:48:15.039
Right. Yeah, I think that
if you know, people are looking

646
00:48:15.079 --> 00:48:17.039
at soccer is just something to keep
the kids busy. Maybe that's not the

647
00:48:17.079 --> 00:48:20.719
best optic for the game. I
don't think that's the thing in a lot

648
00:48:20.760 --> 00:48:24.039
of people's minds. I think,
you know, having MLS and us L

649
00:48:24.159 --> 00:48:29.679
and a lot of other great competition
in this country become something that people take

650
00:48:29.760 --> 00:48:32.119
seriously and watch regularly, saying on
what you like. I think that's the

651
00:48:32.119 --> 00:48:36.519
thing that these kids need role models. They have them now. You know,

652
00:48:36.760 --> 00:48:38.719
we have a really great player in
someone you might have heard of,

653
00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:43.880
Renal Messing, who plays versions for
Miami, you know, And and I

654
00:48:43.920 --> 00:48:45.679
think people say, oh, we
need to capitalize on that. That's that's

655
00:48:45.719 --> 00:48:49.599
our hope. Yes and no,
it's the World Cup make or break,

656
00:48:50.159 --> 00:48:53.440
you know. I think that's the
thing that we saw us soccer say,

657
00:48:53.519 --> 00:48:58.559
yes, we cannot afford to choke
here because this could be huge, you

658
00:48:58.599 --> 00:49:06.880
know, funding for everything broadcasting to
training pitches to you systems and clubs hopefully

659
00:49:06.920 --> 00:49:10.400
becomes astronomically bigger and better. Because
we play well in twenty twenty six,

660
00:49:10.840 --> 00:49:15.079
I don't think we've proven ourselves yet, and that is as a sport and

661
00:49:15.119 --> 00:49:21.239
that's as a national team. Forrest
Tucker is a sports reporter for WTVQ here

662
00:49:21.280 --> 00:49:25.360
in Lexington and a soccer lover and
wanted to talk from soccer, which we

663
00:49:25.400 --> 00:49:28.880
are glad to do. On the
other side of the break, we'll talk

664
00:49:28.920 --> 00:49:32.880
basketball and football here on The Big
Blue Siders six thirty WLAP. Welcome back

665
00:49:32.880 --> 00:49:37.960
to the Big Blum Sider. We're
talking with Forrest Tucker of WTVQ, who

666
00:49:37.039 --> 00:49:40.199
has been covering sports in this area
for a while and of course came up

667
00:49:40.199 --> 00:49:45.400
from South Carolina, which is challenging
Kentucky Forest in what used to be the

668
00:49:45.519 --> 00:49:50.760
SEC East now just the Southeastern Conference. But these are two teams that have

669
00:49:50.800 --> 00:49:54.239
been trying to climb over each other
to the top in the Southeastern Conference,

670
00:49:54.239 --> 00:49:59.400
and things obviously are getting a lot
tougher with Texas and Oklahoma. Are you

671
00:49:59.440 --> 00:50:02.159
a believe were in what Shane Biemer
is doing down there? And how do

672
00:50:02.199 --> 00:50:07.599
you see this this matchup because it's
going to be early this year. Yeah,

673
00:50:07.639 --> 00:50:10.599
it's going to be hot Roly Gasman
for air down at Croker Field.

674
00:50:10.840 --> 00:50:16.079
It's going to be so aired and
just dry and hot. So aside from

675
00:50:16.119 --> 00:50:20.719
that, Dick, yes, I'm
on the beamer train. I think this

676
00:50:20.920 --> 00:50:23.199
year, if he doesn't start producing, his clock is sticking. And it's

677
00:50:23.199 --> 00:50:29.760
so hard because you know, the
Chansfer portal is difficult, and we kind

678
00:50:29.760 --> 00:50:34.519
of saw for a lot of coaches
things swing in and out of their favor

679
00:50:34.559 --> 00:50:37.280
based on the popularity that just booming
over the past. You know, i'd

680
00:50:37.280 --> 00:50:42.320
say year and a half, Hey
have you a degree? So yeah,

681
00:50:43.159 --> 00:50:45.880
I'll give I'll give him a couple
more years. I think that it's really

682
00:50:45.920 --> 00:50:50.880
difficult because Kentucky and Te Carolina have
the same goal. They want to challenge

683
00:50:50.920 --> 00:50:53.079
Georgia, and how can you do
that at this point? Right? You

684
00:50:53.079 --> 00:50:57.119
know you can't. I don't think
you know I don't think winning the SEC

685
00:50:57.320 --> 00:51:01.159
East is on their radar. Upsets
always possible, uh, but you know,

686
00:51:01.320 --> 00:51:07.920
it's one of those things where this
conference has turned into having This isn't

687
00:51:07.960 --> 00:51:10.119
any team's went on any given day
conference to me, And I don't think

688
00:51:10.119 --> 00:51:13.599
he used to be that way.
I think he kind of had a hierarchy.

689
00:51:14.280 --> 00:51:15.960
But now, you know, I've
been impressed with what Soups has done

690
00:51:16.039 --> 00:51:21.320
and he's really, you know,
kind of falling back or not really I'd

691
00:51:21.360 --> 00:51:23.360
say falling back not to be an
insult, but he's gotten a lot of

692
00:51:23.400 --> 00:51:27.719
good guys from Ohio, his home
state, coming in here. So I'm

693
00:51:27.760 --> 00:51:30.480
optimistic and I think that's really good
for Mark because if he wants to win

694
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:35.599
recruiting battle, he has to win
it against Ohio State and Louisville. If

695
00:51:35.840 --> 00:51:39.079
suck Calanda wants to win recruiting battle, it's Clemson in Georgia. And I

696
00:51:39.159 --> 00:51:43.159
think we're gonna have to, you
know, see a lot of in state

697
00:51:43.199 --> 00:51:45.639
guys or guys who have a tie
to like someone like Mark. You know

698
00:51:45.679 --> 00:51:51.000
an Ohio kid, an Ohio coach, you know Shane Charleston born head coach,

699
00:51:51.599 --> 00:51:53.559
Guys who are you know from from
place he's been. You know,

700
00:51:53.559 --> 00:51:57.199
you have to report these guys,
you have to have them want to stick

701
00:51:57.199 --> 00:51:59.880
around for longer than the season.
I look at what La Motte Parris is

702
00:52:00.159 --> 00:52:02.039
with the men's basketball program in Columbia, and I say, man, you

703
00:52:02.119 --> 00:52:06.280
got camp Scott out Election High School. He's a great kid. He's an

704
00:52:06.280 --> 00:52:08.920
in state guy, and other in
state guys who come around. Uh I'm

705
00:52:09.159 --> 00:52:12.800
missing on the name, but a
kid from Whale Branch High now where near

706
00:52:12.840 --> 00:52:15.320
my parents live now in Suport.
He's committed. So you've got to get

707
00:52:15.360 --> 00:52:20.039
the culture going early, you know, or else it's not going to be

708
00:52:20.079 --> 00:52:23.880
there. Uh. And I'm hopeful
for this season. I want it to

709
00:52:23.920 --> 00:52:29.679
be back because there's nothing there's nothing
like SEC football. But I'm not too

710
00:52:29.760 --> 00:52:31.760
much in favor of the expansion.
I think it's a little bit. You

711
00:52:31.760 --> 00:52:37.000
know, they're two great brands.
You know, it's I guess it does

712
00:52:37.079 --> 00:52:39.960
just mean more, uh, for
for a lot of other reasons than just

713
00:52:39.960 --> 00:52:46.239
the football. Absolutely absolutely, I
mean obviously financially better for the league,

714
00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:51.320
But is it is it best for
college football? I think we'll all agree

715
00:52:51.559 --> 00:52:53.880
the answer is no. But you
know, you got to move forward.

716
00:52:53.880 --> 00:52:59.320
Now you've got you just mentioned Clemson
in Florida State seemed bound and determined to

717
00:52:59.400 --> 00:53:02.800
leave the are trying to drag two
or three other schools with them? Oh

718
00:53:02.880 --> 00:53:07.199
yeah, exactly. Well, I
think the thing that is something that we

719
00:53:07.239 --> 00:53:09.400
can't forget. And I asked Trex
Skinner about this about a year ago a

720
00:53:09.400 --> 00:53:14.440
little bit less. I said,
Craig, of course you hit head men's

721
00:53:14.519 --> 00:53:17.639
volleyball. It had had a women's
volleyball head coach. You know, hey,

722
00:53:17.639 --> 00:53:22.119
what do you think as a as
a as an Olympic female sport head

723
00:53:22.119 --> 00:53:24.519
coach about expansion? And he was
happy as the yeses. He wasn't doing

724
00:53:24.519 --> 00:53:27.320
too much, but that not a
lot of re alignment, you know.

725
00:53:27.559 --> 00:53:30.360
Yeah, football has these big budgets, Basketball the same. These smaller sports

726
00:53:30.400 --> 00:53:32.840
don't have as big of a budget. It's hard on these athletes who do

727
00:53:32.960 --> 00:53:37.159
not play the big sports, and
including baseball. So like really, you

728
00:53:37.199 --> 00:53:40.760
know, feel comfortable in my opinion
sometimes so I kind of feel for them,

729
00:53:40.840 --> 00:53:45.679
you know, oh yeah, yeah, definitely, because not everybody charters,

730
00:53:45.239 --> 00:53:49.079
you know, and Kaylee Clark kind
of brought that to the attention of

731
00:53:49.119 --> 00:53:52.039
the way. But as someone who
has done both, I've been very fortunate

732
00:53:52.119 --> 00:53:57.840
enough to do both obviously football charters. But I've traveled with baseball when it

733
00:53:57.920 --> 00:54:01.239
has not, I've traveled with women's
basketball when it has, and as you

734
00:54:01.280 --> 00:54:06.119
know, it makes a huge difference. Oh yeah, one hundred and ten

735
00:54:06.159 --> 00:54:07.920
percent. I mean, you know, it makes difference for everybody if they

736
00:54:07.960 --> 00:54:10.519
get on a plane or not.
I love flying, so I you know,

737
00:54:10.599 --> 00:54:13.800
I'm cool with it. I hate
driving, so I don't like it.

738
00:54:13.840 --> 00:54:16.000
But you know, I've never been
a student athlete before, so I

739
00:54:16.039 --> 00:54:19.480
don't have the idea of what it's
like to be on a bus with all

740
00:54:19.519 --> 00:54:21.880
of your you know, twenty of
your best friends, or fit for a

741
00:54:21.960 --> 00:54:24.599
hundred of your best friends if you're
a football team. So i'd imagine that

742
00:54:24.760 --> 00:54:30.599
you know, anywhere you can get
some extra Lagrim's probably pretty good, that's

743
00:54:30.639 --> 00:54:34.719
true. And uh, plus on
the football charters, they feed these guys,

744
00:54:35.239 --> 00:54:37.920
uh to keep that Cali level up. You know, that's that's huge

745
00:54:37.920 --> 00:54:40.519
for football. Obviously, a couple
of minutes left with Forrest Tucker. I

746
00:54:40.559 --> 00:54:43.840
don't know if you've had a chance
yet. I don't think you were at

747
00:54:43.840 --> 00:54:47.440
the gathering yesterday with the basketball players. But one thing I noticed, and

748
00:54:47.480 --> 00:54:51.480
you will too, A team full
of veterans. Man. They are all

749
00:54:51.559 --> 00:54:55.239
really experienced or a little experience at
being interviewed. That's going to be make

750
00:54:55.280 --> 00:55:00.880
our lives a little easier, isn't
it. I was not there. I've

751
00:55:00.880 --> 00:55:02.559
been out. I'm actually at it. I'm sitting on a golf cart and

752
00:55:02.679 --> 00:55:06.280
he traced golf club right now.
That's what I've been all week, and

753
00:55:06.320 --> 00:55:08.239
I plan to be there through Sunday. So that's that's a fun assignment.

754
00:55:08.320 --> 00:55:15.280
But yeah, I think that a
marks very uh what's the word here?

755
00:55:15.320 --> 00:55:19.079
I'm looking for. He's friendly and
familiar with the media, and his players

756
00:55:19.119 --> 00:55:22.840
are seeming as you kind of say, I trust your instinct there or are

757
00:55:22.039 --> 00:55:24.519
taking after him, which is really
good, Dick, because you know,

758
00:55:24.760 --> 00:55:29.000
we want to tell stories on these
guys. Sometimes it's hard to tell stories

759
00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:30.519
on these players when they're freshmen coming
into college. There's not a lot of

760
00:55:30.559 --> 00:55:34.760
STPs to them. You know,
everyone could do the Reed Shepherd story and

761
00:55:34.880 --> 00:55:37.679
read you know, he's gotten good
in front of camera, right, but

762
00:55:37.760 --> 00:55:39.519
you know, I want to know
about these guys. And Marion Williams is

763
00:55:39.559 --> 00:55:43.679
a guy from Nottingham, England.
Obviously I've probably spoken before. I have

764
00:55:43.719 --> 00:55:46.800
family over there. That's part of
where my lineage lies, and basketball is

765
00:55:46.800 --> 00:55:50.199
an up and coming sport in that
country. I don't really think he has

766
00:55:50.199 --> 00:55:52.760
an accent if we haven't seen in
front of the camera before. So I'm

767
00:55:52.800 --> 00:55:57.320
interested to see what he's like and
see what it was like coming up and

768
00:55:57.320 --> 00:56:00.360
playing basketball in that country, because
there's a pro league there out and I

769
00:56:00.400 --> 00:56:05.280
think that'd be really cool to talk
to him. So I'm looking forward to

770
00:56:05.280 --> 00:56:08.559
this basketball season having a coach that's
not to stand offish with us. And

771
00:56:08.599 --> 00:56:14.480
also if he just cookies, that's
true. I did that at the last

772
00:56:14.480 --> 00:56:17.079
press conference. And the other thing
too. We've talked before about this a

773
00:56:17.079 --> 00:56:20.679
lot of us. Have he answers
your question, you know, I mean,

774
00:56:20.760 --> 00:56:22.159
he doesn't try to control the narrative. Yeah, the other guy,

775
00:56:22.440 --> 00:56:27.760
his predecessor, brilliant at controlling the
narrative, but got a little frustrating when

776
00:56:27.760 --> 00:56:30.400
you were going after a particular storyline. So we'll see how that plays out.

777
00:56:31.159 --> 00:56:35.679
Forrest Tucker, watch for his work
on WTVQ, and I hope you

778
00:56:35.679 --> 00:56:38.119
get to cover that soccer match up
on September tenth. All right, Well,

779
00:56:38.159 --> 00:56:43.880
Thomas Tukele for national team manager or
other people who knows, just make

780
00:56:43.920 --> 00:56:47.239
a decision. By the way,
September tenth is a Tuesday, so honestly,

781
00:56:49.000 --> 00:56:52.519
if I were still running sports at
WKYT, I would love to cover

782
00:56:52.599 --> 00:56:54.960
that match. I may try to
get up there myself. That's going to

783
00:56:55.039 --> 00:56:59.960
be fascinating. That is a huge
deal when one of the US teams,

784
00:57:00.079 --> 00:57:05.280
men's or women's comes anywhere close to
Lexington to play soccer. Yeah. I

785
00:57:05.360 --> 00:57:08.000
know we've joked about soccer in the
past, but it is It is a

786
00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:13.039
big deal and I appreciate for us
reaching out and wanting to talk about it

787
00:57:13.320 --> 00:57:15.960
up next, couple of basketball wild
Cats, we get to know them a

788
00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:21.159
little better. On six thirty WLAP
Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider

789
00:57:21.199 --> 00:57:22.719
Dick Gabriel with you on a Friday
as we wrap up the week. I

790
00:57:22.800 --> 00:57:28.159
thought we would do something a little
bit different given the fact that yesterday UK

791
00:57:28.440 --> 00:57:31.280
trotted out three of the new basketball
players, first time they've done that.

792
00:57:31.840 --> 00:57:35.559
Some people have had one on ones. I have not yet had a chance

793
00:57:35.599 --> 00:57:37.440
to sit down with any of the
players. I had a chance to talk

794
00:57:37.480 --> 00:57:43.280
to Mark Pope, but they're giving
us a bit more access now as the

795
00:57:43.480 --> 00:57:46.239
season draws near, the semester draws
near so yesterday and I played a little

796
00:57:46.239 --> 00:57:51.239
bit of it on the show.
Last night. They brought out to Andrew

797
00:57:51.280 --> 00:57:55.440
Carr, Ansley Almanpor and otega Oway, and I thought I would share the

798
00:57:55.440 --> 00:57:59.679
interviews with you. I will tell
you this. You're gonna hear from Andrew

799
00:57:59.719 --> 00:58:05.039
Carr, and you're gonna hear from
Angeley Almanor, but not otega Oway,

800
00:58:05.159 --> 00:58:08.639
simply because and I played a little
bit of his interview last night. He

801
00:58:08.800 --> 00:58:14.079
is such a soft spoken young man. He has a beautiful deep voice and

802
00:58:14.719 --> 00:58:19.920
his speaks really well. Gave a
great interview, but because of the way

803
00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:23.199
he his voice was so deep and
soft, and he was at a big

804
00:58:23.280 --> 00:58:29.320
table and those of us would handheld
microphones, I for one, could not

805
00:58:29.480 --> 00:58:35.320
get close enough to him to pick
it up on my mic without having all

806
00:58:35.320 --> 00:58:38.639
the other voices in the background bleeding
over. I was able to find a

807
00:58:38.639 --> 00:58:42.840
little bit last night to play for
you, but I want to get another

808
00:58:43.360 --> 00:58:45.320
conversation with him, because he's a
really good interview and, like I said,

809
00:58:45.360 --> 00:58:50.760
as a beautiful deep voice. But
in trying to play back the entire

810
00:58:50.800 --> 00:58:53.639
interview, there's so much room noise. You can if you're watching him on

811
00:58:53.719 --> 00:58:58.559
YouTube or TV or whatever. You
can tell what he's saying, but just

812
00:58:58.719 --> 00:59:00.679
listening it's very, very, very
difficult. So we'll have to come back

813
00:59:00.719 --> 00:59:06.519
to him another time. But let
us start with the big man, Andrew

814
00:59:06.639 --> 00:59:12.519
Carr six' eleven transfer from Wake Forest
from Westchester, PA. He will wear

815
00:59:13.000 --> 00:59:17.199
number three Rex Chapman, and he
talked to us yesterday about the joys of

816
00:59:17.239 --> 00:59:21.599
being a big man, playing for
Mark Polpe and playing at Kentucky. Just

817
00:59:21.679 --> 00:59:24.320
touching on keep chemistry. This is
a small amount of time, at a

818
00:59:24.360 --> 00:59:28.360
short period of time to come together. How does that work for you guys

819
00:59:28.360 --> 00:59:30.159
thus far with this small period of
time. Yeah, you know, I

820
00:59:30.159 --> 00:59:35.079
think it's been. It's actually been
a lot of fun. A lot of

821
00:59:35.119 --> 00:59:39.800
guys you know who are older,
fourth, fifth year guys, and you

822
00:59:39.800 --> 00:59:45.960
know they're coming in with the emphasis
on trying to get to know everybody.

823
00:59:45.119 --> 00:59:51.280
And when you got you know,
ten to twelve guys who are trying to

824
00:59:51.320 --> 00:59:53.960
put in effort to get to know
each other, it becomes a whole lot

825
00:59:54.000 --> 00:59:59.719
easier when when everybody's trying to learn, you know, learn about each other.

826
00:59:59.760 --> 01:00:01.960
And and it's been it's been really
awesome. You know, it's it's

827
01:00:02.320 --> 01:00:06.719
my my third team that I've been
on and and so I've been able to

828
01:00:06.760 --> 01:00:09.840
be around a lot of college basketball. But you know, whenever you get

829
01:00:09.880 --> 01:00:13.960
to be a part of a team, it's really special. And these guys

830
01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:16.800
are really awesome. It's been really
really great people and there are a lot

831
01:00:16.840 --> 01:00:20.239
of fun to be around, so
that that part makes it a little bit

832
01:00:20.360 --> 01:00:24.239
easier too. So have you been
the most impressive so far in practice?

833
01:00:25.079 --> 01:00:28.320
You know, that's a hard question. You know, I think a lot

834
01:00:28.360 --> 01:00:31.880
of people have have done a really
great job, and I think for for

835
01:00:32.039 --> 01:00:36.440
us, it's it's been really cool. It's not just one person every day,

836
01:00:36.519 --> 01:00:39.159
so you know, it switches up
every single day. Different people have

837
01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:45.039
good days on different days, and
I think that's what I'm super excited about

838
01:00:45.039 --> 01:00:47.800
with this team in general, too, is the depth. And you know,

839
01:00:47.920 --> 01:00:52.000
we got two of everything, so
you know, it's been it's been

840
01:00:52.039 --> 01:00:57.159
really fun to see that throughout practice. Did everybody surprised you, like,

841
01:00:57.199 --> 01:01:00.440
maybe a little better than you thought, or maybe even just different, different

842
01:01:00.440 --> 01:01:05.079
skill set that he maybe thought coming
in. You know, I definitely tried

843
01:01:05.119 --> 01:01:08.760
to watch as much film on my
teammates as possible, so I felt like

844
01:01:08.840 --> 01:01:15.239
I had a pretty good grasp of
what they like to do and and everything.

845
01:01:15.280 --> 01:01:19.440
But I'd say BG is super physical, and you know, I think

846
01:01:20.360 --> 01:01:23.639
he's made a really concerned effort to
keep his super high motor all the time

847
01:01:23.719 --> 01:01:28.360
in practice and and give it his
all, and it's been really apparent.

848
01:01:28.480 --> 01:01:31.719
So you scattered your own teammates,
of course, yes, so you've done

849
01:01:31.719 --> 01:01:37.239
that before, uh, somewhat,
you know. I think whenever you go

850
01:01:37.320 --> 01:01:40.559
to a new spot or have new
teammates, I think this year is a

851
01:01:40.639 --> 01:01:45.440
little bit easier, a little bit
different, just because you have a lot

852
01:01:45.440 --> 01:01:49.920
of film from a lot of guys. There are a lot of transfers and

853
01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:52.559
a lot of people who played a
lot of minutes at other places, so

854
01:01:52.639 --> 01:01:55.639
it's pretty easy to kind of find
that you know. And you have other

855
01:01:55.760 --> 01:02:00.360
transfers for me as people who necessarily
didn't play as much or things like that

856
01:02:00.400 --> 01:02:05.239
at their last school. So it's
been really fun to to really be able

857
01:02:05.280 --> 01:02:10.000
to kind of dive deep into some
of my teammates and see where they like

858
01:02:10.079 --> 01:02:15.880
and where they thrive on offense,
defense. And this is not your first

859
01:02:15.920 --> 01:02:20.280
transfer, but this is so new
for everybody. I mean, the entire

860
01:02:20.360 --> 01:02:22.599
team, a new coach and all
that. I mean, how crazy.

861
01:02:22.679 --> 01:02:27.239
Is it been to be a part
of just getting to know everybody? Yeah,

862
01:02:27.440 --> 01:02:29.639
you know, I think it has
been. I think it's been pretty

863
01:02:29.639 --> 01:02:32.159
crazy. But I think also that's
the blessing and all of it too,

864
01:02:32.239 --> 01:02:38.039
is everybody's new, So everybody's experiencing
the same thing. You know, Coach

865
01:02:38.079 --> 01:02:43.159
Pope and the coaching staff are trying
to feel each other out and figure it

866
01:02:43.159 --> 01:02:45.440
out, just as you know,
the players are trying to figure feel each

867
01:02:45.480 --> 01:02:50.320
other out, figure it, figure
it out. And so that just I

868
01:02:50.360 --> 01:02:54.480
think, you know, the the
perspective that gives everybody in the program is

869
01:02:54.519 --> 01:03:00.920
really special, just a super graceful
perspective, and you know, I think

870
01:03:01.320 --> 01:03:06.679
that allows for growth, you know, not only with the coaching staff,

871
01:03:06.679 --> 01:03:09.320
but with us as well, just
to be able to, you know,

872
01:03:09.320 --> 01:03:15.639
know that everybody is in a new
situation and everybody's gonna give as much effort

873
01:03:15.679 --> 01:03:19.119
and try as hard as they possibly
can to make it work. And so

874
01:03:19.199 --> 01:03:22.639
that's been been really cool, and
to have that perspective has been I think,

875
01:03:22.679 --> 01:03:28.599
on both sides, really beneficial for
relationships. Your new coach six practices.

876
01:03:29.320 --> 01:03:32.280
Yeah, so I think I don't
know if it's necessarily new, but

877
01:03:32.400 --> 01:03:37.559
I one thing I love. And
one thing I know about Coach Pope and

878
01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:43.599
he showed it definitely in in recruiting
as well. But he just he loves

879
01:03:43.719 --> 01:03:47.320
people, you know, and and
Coach Pope is just a really really great

880
01:03:47.360 --> 01:03:52.400
personality, and you know, it
bleeds into everything that he does and with

881
01:03:52.440 --> 01:03:55.239
his family. You know, the
way he the way he coaches us,

882
01:03:55.280 --> 01:03:59.840
the way he acts with the coaching
staff, and all the way down to

883
01:04:00.119 --> 01:04:04.679
the way he acts with the janitor
janitorial people here and just like everybody.

884
01:04:04.719 --> 01:04:10.599
And I think it rubbed me a
really great way. And just the way

885
01:04:10.639 --> 01:04:14.199
that he cares about people, the
way that he goes out of his way

886
01:04:14.280 --> 01:04:19.360
to you know, to to love
on other people, and endless gratitude with

887
01:04:19.480 --> 01:04:24.639
him. And that's been really special
to see out of someone who's a leader

888
01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:30.239
at University of Kentucky. Especially,
So how is he practices? How involved

889
01:04:30.280 --> 01:04:35.440
is he with Yeah, very involved? That was pretty cool, especially you

890
01:04:35.440 --> 01:04:40.079
know, uh, for me being
able to to go first day, within

891
01:04:40.119 --> 01:04:44.719
the first couple of minutes of the
first practice, Coach Pope has this in

892
01:04:44.760 --> 01:04:48.599
the post, is doing post moves, guarding me and showing me tis and

893
01:04:48.599 --> 01:04:53.559
tricks and things like that, which
has been really really cool and you know

894
01:04:53.639 --> 01:04:57.280
he's out there, you know,
directing everything. It's been. It's been

895
01:04:57.280 --> 01:05:00.239
a lot of fundering practice. Andrew's
part of question, You've gotten a lot,

896
01:05:00.280 --> 01:05:01.360
But why I Kentuck you? What
made you want to come here?

897
01:05:03.159 --> 01:05:06.360
You know, this is a really
special place. I think for me,

898
01:05:09.039 --> 01:05:11.960
I knew what I was looking for
when I went into the transfer portal,

899
01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:15.239
and this is a combination of everything
that kind of came together for me.

900
01:05:16.440 --> 01:05:19.920
First and foremost, it was a
basketball fit, and I think, uh,

901
01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:25.199
Coach Pope did a really great job, you know, showing me how

902
01:05:25.239 --> 01:05:29.000
I would fit within the team and
in the recruitment and just the way that

903
01:05:29.039 --> 01:05:32.000
I've been able to play. But
also, uh, it's been was really

904
01:05:32.039 --> 01:05:35.199
cool for me to say, hey, you need to get better at this

905
01:05:35.440 --> 01:05:40.719
and this, and this is how
we can help you do that. And

906
01:05:41.079 --> 01:05:44.519
you know, for someone trying to
to continue to get better obviously has aspirations

907
01:05:44.559 --> 01:05:46.440
to to go play in the NBA. That's that's all you want to hear

908
01:05:46.480 --> 01:05:50.840
when you're in the recruitment process.
And so that was really cool to to

909
01:05:50.960 --> 01:05:58.000
understand my fit. And then the
second part was just the embracement. Embracement

910
01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:00.800
from the fans. You know,
I think, uh, Big Blue Nation

911
01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:03.440
is is just I think you said
it before. It's just it's just different.

912
01:06:03.639 --> 01:06:08.599
You know. I think it's a
really special place and been my dream

913
01:06:08.639 --> 01:06:13.480
ever since a little kid coming and
watching basketball. You always, you know,

914
01:06:13.519 --> 01:06:16.320
you hear about Kentucky, Kentucky basketball. You watch Kentucky basketball, and

915
01:06:16.400 --> 01:06:19.159
you know you want to be a
Kentucky basketball player. So we've heard a

916
01:06:19.199 --> 01:06:24.679
lot about this team's shooting ability right
early practices. Who's who's the one guy

917
01:06:24.719 --> 01:06:31.639
that you you just cannot ever leave. I think it's pretty cool. You

918
01:06:31.679 --> 01:06:36.000
know, Travis Perry has done a
really you know, great job, just

919
01:06:36.000 --> 01:06:41.400
be working on going in and seeing
them in there. You know, sometimes

920
01:06:41.400 --> 01:06:45.480
you walk in and he's at five
hundred and six hundred shots up right in

921
01:06:45.519 --> 01:06:49.079
the day and something like that,
and he's still at like eighty five percent,

922
01:06:49.199 --> 01:06:53.880
and I'm like, like, how
is that possible? Walk over it's

923
01:06:53.920 --> 01:06:57.519
all threes and he's at eighty five
percent. It's pretty crazy. So I'd

924
01:06:57.559 --> 01:07:00.480
say, you know, Travis Perry
has been lighting it up. You know,

925
01:07:00.519 --> 01:07:04.280
I made fifty nine in a row
from a corner the other day.

926
01:07:04.320 --> 01:07:09.280
It's just it's incredible. So what's
it been like getting acclimated. I know

927
01:07:09.440 --> 01:07:13.440
Wakes, I'm from Winston, Okay, very good Wakes, kind of shell

928
01:07:13.320 --> 01:07:17.400
Ansler. You get here, everybody's
recognized automatically because you play. Yeah.

929
01:07:17.480 --> 01:07:20.559
Yeah, No, it's been definitely
a little bit different. I think my

930
01:07:20.679 --> 01:07:26.559
favorite part has been, you know, you get downtown and been able to

931
01:07:26.559 --> 01:07:30.360
go out to eat it some some
really beautiful places downtown and things like that.

932
01:07:30.199 --> 01:07:33.000
A lot of rooftop places I didn't
know a city, you know,

933
01:07:33.800 --> 01:07:38.519
try to get you on the roof
for some extra space or something like that.

934
01:07:38.599 --> 01:07:42.519
But it's been cool going there.
My favorite part is also just you

935
01:07:42.519 --> 01:07:46.079
know, you go ten fifteen minutes
and it's just green for forever, and

936
01:07:46.400 --> 01:07:51.199
like, you know, it's just
been a beautiful I just love nature and

937
01:07:51.239 --> 01:07:56.239
things like that going outside. So
for me, it's been really cool to

938
01:07:56.239 --> 01:08:00.360
to you know, drive fifteen twenty
minutes and you know, get to a

939
01:08:00.480 --> 01:08:03.760
taste of your hometown. And for
me, West Ester is really similar to

940
01:08:03.880 --> 01:08:06.800
that, a lot of green,
a little bit more hills, but a

941
01:08:06.840 --> 01:08:12.719
lot of green, and so Lexington
has really felt like home and you get

942
01:08:12.719 --> 01:08:15.800
a taste of both in city and
the country. So it's been a lot

943
01:08:15.800 --> 01:08:19.800
of fun, you know, being
able to explore and experience it, and

944
01:08:21.239 --> 01:08:25.079
you know, pretty comfortable being away
from home at this point in my life.

945
01:08:25.119 --> 01:08:30.439
So it's been it's been great.
Welcome back to the Big Blue and

946
01:08:30.439 --> 01:08:34.840
Cider final segment of our show.
We are presenting the full interviews with some

947
01:08:34.920 --> 01:08:39.840
of the basketball Wildcats we had a
chance to talk to yesterday. Shared a

948
01:08:39.840 --> 01:08:45.880
little bit last night. Andrew carr
otega Oway and Angeley Almanor, who is

949
01:08:45.920 --> 01:08:49.680
the six to seven wing player from
Upstate New York. He transferred in from

950
01:08:49.720 --> 01:08:56.000
Fairleigh Dickinson, and he spoke to
us yesterday first of all about the Kentucky

951
01:08:56.039 --> 01:09:00.920
non conference schedule, how he's looking
forward to those marquee matchups. You you

952
01:09:00.920 --> 01:09:02.199
can't wait to get out there and
play, you know, actually play against

953
01:09:02.199 --> 01:09:06.199
other teams. Obviously excited for some
of the bigger games like Duke Louisville and

954
01:09:06.239 --> 01:09:09.760
stuff like that, but just can't
wait to get out there and go compete

955
01:09:09.840 --> 01:09:13.840
other guys. Is that kind of
why you came here playing those marquee games?

956
01:09:14.199 --> 01:09:15.159
Oh yeah, it's definitely a reason. You don't get to play in

957
01:09:15.159 --> 01:09:19.239
that type of exposure playing national television
games a lot those big time teams,

958
01:09:19.239 --> 01:09:23.159
big time players, you know,
definitely, definitely was the reason why I

959
01:09:23.199 --> 01:09:26.520
came here for sure. How are
games like that gonna help you, guys

960
01:09:26.680 --> 01:09:30.720
gel maybe even quicker than a game
against a team that's not quite up to

961
01:09:30.760 --> 01:09:32.880
the same part, Because you know, you face adversity. University brings you

962
01:09:32.880 --> 01:09:35.119
closer. So when you play those
bigger teams, you're gonna go through a

963
01:09:35.159 --> 01:09:39.079
lot of tough stretchers. They're gonna
go make runs because there's a lot of

964
01:09:39.119 --> 01:09:41.920
talent on those types of teams.
So when you when you face adversity,

965
01:09:41.920 --> 01:09:44.800
you end up becoming quicker and jail
quicker and stuff like that. So those

966
01:09:45.159 --> 01:09:46.640
those games definitely help us. What
do you mean by adversity there? I

967
01:09:46.760 --> 01:09:48.479
think I know, But what do
you mean? Just you know, when

968
01:09:48.560 --> 01:09:51.279
another team goes on a run,
they're gonna hit shots. They're they're obviously

969
01:09:51.319 --> 01:09:54.520
talented too. You know, they're
gonna go there, hit shots, going

970
01:09:54.520 --> 01:09:57.399
a little run. How we're gonna
respond to that, the little things like

971
01:09:57.439 --> 01:10:00.760
that that help build us to where
we're a competing in March. And how

972
01:10:00.920 --> 01:10:03.760
practice is going so far? What? What what have you seen in the

973
01:10:03.840 --> 01:10:06.039
practices? Oh? Practice is great? You know, I love it.

974
01:10:06.119 --> 01:10:09.359
I love the lay coach runs things. You know, we got a lot

975
01:10:09.399 --> 01:10:11.720
of skill development and we get to
play a lot go up and down,

976
01:10:12.119 --> 01:10:14.399
uh, and then putting in his
system and stuff like that. So it's

977
01:10:14.439 --> 01:10:19.439
just been great. I love this
so far. Let's talked about communications and

978
01:10:19.479 --> 01:10:23.319
how vital that is. I mean, how quickly has this team picked up

979
01:10:23.319 --> 01:10:25.439
on that? Uh? I feel
like since we have a lot of vets,

980
01:10:25.479 --> 01:10:27.800
has something we've we we knew,
we know and f uh coming in

981
01:10:27.880 --> 01:10:30.680
for sure. So we're I feel
like we're pretty good communicators, all of

982
01:10:30.720 --> 01:10:32.079
us top to bottom. You know, all all of us were out there

983
01:10:32.159 --> 01:10:34.800
talking, you know or c We're
a pretty close team too, So I

984
01:10:34.800 --> 01:10:39.960
feel like it's something that we definitely
have is a strength of us. What

985
01:10:40.079 --> 01:10:42.520
makes you say you're close? I
mean, how do you get that feeling?

986
01:10:42.560 --> 01:10:45.920
What? How does it manifest itself? I you need to spending so

987
01:10:45.960 --> 01:10:47.560
much time with the guys, like
living in the lodge and stuff like that.

988
01:10:47.680 --> 01:10:50.199
Just I feel like it just made
us jelt quicker. Like I feel

989
01:10:50.239 --> 01:10:53.760
like all these guys are my brothers, Like I know them, I could

990
01:10:53.800 --> 01:10:56.399
h t text them, call them
whenever I need'em. Like I feel

991
01:10:56.399 --> 01:10:58.800
like everybody has that same type of
feeling when it comes to this team.

992
01:10:59.640 --> 01:11:01.840
Yeah, in the same boat.
I mean, you're all new coming into

993
01:11:01.880 --> 01:11:04.720
the program new year. I feel
like that definitely does play a part too.

994
01:11:04.720 --> 01:11:08.439
You know, everybody is news first
time here and we're all learning these

995
01:11:08.479 --> 01:11:12.199
things together, so uh that that
definitely does play a part in it for

996
01:11:12.239 --> 01:11:16.199
sure. You guys be a team
building you guys on the football field yesterday?

997
01:11:16.680 --> 01:11:19.000
Who who stood out on the on
the football field? Who? Who?

998
01:11:19.840 --> 01:11:23.119
I mean? Colin did pretty good? He has a good little arm?

999
01:11:23.199 --> 01:11:27.119
Uh uhh? Who else is pretty
good? Uh? Bg is pretty

1000
01:11:27.159 --> 01:11:29.720
good. You know, I feel
like we are. We're pretty pretty solid

1001
01:11:29.720 --> 01:11:31.680
as a team. You know,
what was your reaction to Coach Pope in

1002
01:11:31.680 --> 01:11:34.439
the helmet? Oh? Yeah,
I was laughing. He came out of

1003
01:11:34.479 --> 01:11:38.479
nowhere with the helmet on. It's
like he was a tight end out there.

1004
01:11:39.600 --> 01:11:45.079
You know, talk about you know, on paper, you guys can

1005
01:11:45.119 --> 01:11:48.439
shoot the ball, and Mark recruited
guys who can all shoot it. Can

1006
01:11:48.479 --> 01:11:51.800
you just talk about the ability of
this team to shoot from from depth?

1007
01:11:53.039 --> 01:11:55.239
Yeah, it's not just on papers
in real life too, you know,

1008
01:11:55.600 --> 01:11:59.199
like you we really got a lot
of shooters. That's something he emphasizes even

1009
01:11:59.239 --> 01:12:00.960
in every day in pract This's where
he makes us everybody go take a lot

1010
01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:03.600
of threes, a lot of shots, make sure we're prorecting our craft,

1011
01:12:03.760 --> 01:12:08.600
and that's something that he emphasizes a
lot as a key to how we're gonna

1012
01:12:08.600 --> 01:12:10.960
play this year, how we're gonna
beat teams. Just we're gonna take a

1013
01:12:10.960 --> 01:12:13.000
lot of threes. We're gonna make
a lot of threes, and that's definitely

1014
01:12:13.039 --> 01:12:15.880
a big part of us for sure. Is that something you're looking forward to,

1015
01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:17.159
Yeah, it's something I'm definitely looking
forward to. You know. It's,

1016
01:12:17.359 --> 01:12:20.439
uh one of my strengths. So
definitely can't wait. Can't wait to

1017
01:12:20.439 --> 01:12:25.079
do that. How much different in
say, offense from what you ran previously?

1018
01:12:25.920 --> 01:12:29.560
Uh, it's p It's pretty different, you know, cause it's is

1019
01:12:29.720 --> 01:12:32.439
just like these types of players,
these types of coaches, like they just

1020
01:12:32.479 --> 01:12:35.399
go out there, they let you
play like there's no really set plays like

1021
01:12:35.439 --> 01:12:38.239
that. You're really gonna go out
there and read each other, read a

1022
01:12:38.319 --> 01:12:41.880
defense like you know. That's why
being a close team really matters when it

1023
01:12:41.880 --> 01:12:43.920
comes to this type of system,
cause you got to know each other.

1024
01:12:43.960 --> 01:12:46.199
You gotta know where this person's gonna
be or well, how this person's gonna

1025
01:12:46.199 --> 01:12:49.520
react to a certain movements. So
I feel like that's really like, uh,

1026
01:12:49.880 --> 01:12:53.079
how this offense works, you know, just being able to read each

1027
01:12:53.119 --> 01:12:55.880
other and that something that's different that
I haven't really is there a thing?

1028
01:12:55.960 --> 01:12:58.960
Is it gonna make it juts?
But uh not really. I feel like

1029
01:12:59.760 --> 01:13:02.439
you I played basketball for almost all
my life, so once you play basketball,

1030
01:13:02.439 --> 01:13:04.279
like you're a basketball player. At
the end of the day, you

1031
01:13:04.279 --> 01:13:06.079
know, you know what the right
players, you know the wrong players.

1032
01:13:06.079 --> 01:13:09.319
So as long as you out there
trying to make the right play, everything's

1033
01:13:09.319 --> 01:13:13.039
gonna fall into place. For sure. We're not playing with six you guys

1034
01:13:13.079 --> 01:13:16.319
have got six fifty year seniors.
What's that gonna mean for you guys?

1035
01:13:16.680 --> 01:13:18.920
Or just experience? You know,
we're an older team when it comes to

1036
01:13:19.159 --> 01:13:21.760
compare, Like comparing us to the
rest of the country's gonna be older than

1037
01:13:21.800 --> 01:13:25.319
a lot of these teams. You
know, fifty your seniors, they've been

1038
01:13:25.359 --> 01:13:27.760
through a lot. I mean I'm
a senior myself. I've been through a

1039
01:13:27.760 --> 01:13:30.199
lot. Like I know college basketball
like the back of my hand, Like

1040
01:13:30.479 --> 01:13:31.880
I've been through the ups and downs
that they've definitely been thro the ups and

1041
01:13:31.880 --> 01:13:33.960
the downs. So I feel like
that's gonna help us, especially when it

1042
01:13:34.000 --> 01:13:36.680
comes to later in the season,
like when we're pushing making a play for

1043
01:13:36.720 --> 01:13:40.359
Marshall, stuff like that. I
definitely think that's gonna be a key to

1044
01:13:40.439 --> 01:13:44.520
while we win games and being able
to put pull them out. The championship

1045
01:13:44.560 --> 01:13:48.479
team coach played for had so much
talent, and they told us that going

1046
01:13:48.520 --> 01:13:51.560
into that year, they were all
talking among themselves like, how is Rick

1047
01:13:51.600 --> 01:13:56.840
Patino gonna do this? Who's gonna
play what position? And how much are

1048
01:13:56.880 --> 01:14:00.359
you guys going through a similar thing
because you've got so much experience talent on

1049
01:14:00.399 --> 01:14:03.279
this roster. I mean, I
feel like we're not even work like right

1050
01:14:03.279 --> 01:14:05.760
now. I don't think anybody's really
worried about that right now. We're just

1051
01:14:05.880 --> 01:14:10.720
really focused on trying to learn his
system. Yes, I think it's a

1052
01:14:10.760 --> 01:14:13.520
little too so as you get closer
to this season, we'll start figuring that

1053
01:14:13.560 --> 01:14:15.000
out. But like, we're still
just trying to learn everything. You know,

1054
01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:17.239
It's there's a lot of it's a
lot of this stuff is coming out

1055
01:14:17.239 --> 01:14:20.800
as fast. We're trying to learn
his system, excuse me, trying to

1056
01:14:21.079 --> 01:14:25.159
learning system, learning things that he's
teaching us and trying to learn each other

1057
01:14:25.279 --> 01:14:28.119
like on and off the court.
So that's that's something a little too early

1058
01:14:28.159 --> 01:14:30.479
for us to really think like that. But like you said, there's a

1059
01:14:30.520 --> 01:14:31.920
lot of talent on this team,
so they got a tough job. I

1060
01:14:31.920 --> 01:14:35.279
feel like trying to figure out what
was your impression of when he took you

1061
01:14:35.359 --> 01:14:39.439
over it? It was unbelievable.
You know, you see it on TV

1062
01:14:39.560 --> 01:14:42.520
and stuff like that. You see
see the games on TV, but being

1063
01:14:42.520 --> 01:14:45.520
in there, sitting like like sitting
at the top, just seeing the whole

1064
01:14:45.520 --> 01:14:48.119
arena from that point of view is
just crazy. Like I'm gonna be able

1065
01:14:48.119 --> 01:14:50.960
to get to play there and represent
those fans, and I can't wait to

1066
01:14:51.000 --> 01:14:56.479
do that. There's always coach Pope's
system that's very advanced, and it's hard

1067
01:14:56.520 --> 01:14:59.000
to learn from a lot of people. What a lot of people have said,

1068
01:14:59.319 --> 01:15:00.640
can you maybe just just kind of
go into a little bit of death

1069
01:15:00.640 --> 01:15:05.079
of what you've seen from his system
so far? Just just like a lot

1070
01:15:05.079 --> 01:15:09.000
of reads, That's what what it
is like. You play fast, you

1071
01:15:09.159 --> 01:15:12.319
p you make a lot of reads. You play basketball with a hot Q.

1072
01:15:12.960 --> 01:15:15.880
You've tried to find your teammate to
open shot and that's really what it

1073
01:15:15.960 --> 01:15:17.680
is. And it sounds easy,
but to really not, like you know,

1074
01:15:17.760 --> 01:15:20.840
it takes a lot of movement.
It takes a lot of practice and

1075
01:15:20.880 --> 01:15:25.399
a lot of hard work to be
able to you know, mastur it and

1076
01:15:25.479 --> 01:15:29.520
perfect it. But it's been fun
so far learning it. So what do

1077
01:15:29.560 --> 01:15:32.000
you If there's one thing you want
BBN to know about you? What is

1078
01:15:32.039 --> 01:15:38.000
it? Uh? Know that I'm
here to represent you guys, and I'm

1079
01:15:38.039 --> 01:15:42.239
only here to win this national championship. You're not gonna see nobody go out

1080
01:15:42.239 --> 01:15:44.800
there and like I mean a person, I'm gonna go out there and give

1081
01:15:44.840 --> 01:15:46.039
them my all every time I get
out there, you know, like I'm

1082
01:15:46.199 --> 01:15:49.560
then to comfort the the glids to
the glamor. I just came here to

1083
01:15:49.600 --> 01:15:54.119
win a national championship and represent you
guys. That's all I came here for

1084
01:15:54.239 --> 01:15:56.800
and com for, none of the
fancy stuff, you know. So that's

1085
01:15:56.840 --> 01:15:59.800
definitely something I want them to know
about me. What about defensively? What

1086
01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:03.399
have you seen defensively in their practices
so far? Defensively, what he teaches

1087
01:16:03.439 --> 01:16:06.359
us like really fun, Like I
feel like you've got a lot of good

1088
01:16:06.359 --> 01:16:11.399
defenders and that's something that he emphasized
that people don't really realize that he's really

1089
01:16:11.760 --> 01:16:14.840
a big, big emphasis on defense. We do that every day. We

1090
01:16:14.960 --> 01:16:17.279
you know, certain schemes and stuff, the way we play it's that's something

1091
01:16:17.279 --> 01:16:19.640
that it's important. We got to
get stops and we got to be able

1092
01:16:19.680 --> 01:16:24.439
to rebound on the defensive end.
So it's something that people don't don't really

1093
01:16:24.439 --> 01:16:27.239
talk about when it comes to coach
Pope, but that's something we definitely emphasize.

1094
01:16:27.520 --> 01:16:30.680
Defense is fun. Yeah, the
way like defense is fun, Like

1095
01:16:30.840 --> 01:16:33.880
the way the way we want to
play like defense is fun. You get

1096
01:16:33.920 --> 01:16:36.079
stops, you've got, you get
out and you go make them guard us.

1097
01:16:36.159 --> 01:16:39.800
Like it's just fun. You know, what do you see from Amari

1098
01:16:39.960 --> 01:16:44.640
so far? I mean, medium
have you seen from Weed? He's been

1099
01:16:44.680 --> 01:16:45.960
He's been great. You know,
he probably got to get to talk to

1100
01:16:45.960 --> 01:16:48.279
them in a couple of days.
But you know, everybody's been great.

1101
01:16:48.279 --> 01:16:51.600
Like I said, everybody is just
a great player out here working their butts

1102
01:16:51.640 --> 01:16:55.960
off and you know, doing their
best. So it's been a great,

1103
01:16:56.079 --> 01:16:59.800
greatperience so far. Sure you guys
don't worry about this, but the prese

1104
01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:02.119
he's in way too early. Top
twenty fives, probably don't have you guys

1105
01:17:02.159 --> 01:17:06.079
anywhere. How good can this team
be? I know, the sky's a

1106
01:17:06.159 --> 01:17:10.039
limit and all that, but you've
seen a lot of basketball, Like you

1107
01:17:10.079 --> 01:17:13.439
said, just just how good is
this team gonna be? I feel like

1108
01:17:13.439 --> 01:17:15.119
this team's gonna be really good.
Like I said, it's gonna really shock

1109
01:17:15.159 --> 01:17:19.760
a lot of people how good we're
gonna be, especially especially when it comes

1110
01:17:19.800 --> 01:17:24.319
to playing some of the teams on
our schedule, Like we're gonna we're gonna

1111
01:17:24.319 --> 01:17:26.239
go out there and shock a lot
of shock a lot of people in this

1112
01:17:26.279 --> 01:17:28.880
country. And we're definitely gonna make
a deep run when it comes to March,

1113
01:17:28.920 --> 01:17:30.600
because that's the goal is anyway,
it's the goal. Obviously when of

1114
01:17:30.640 --> 01:17:33.600
those non conference games in those conference
things early, they matter, but the

1115
01:17:33.880 --> 01:17:38.239
end goal is getting that band number
nine, and that's what all of our

1116
01:17:38.279 --> 01:17:41.920
goals are. So so you think
those big non conference games could be statement

1117
01:17:42.000 --> 01:17:44.520
games, They're definitely gonna be statement
game. Especially you got a lot of

1118
01:17:44.520 --> 01:17:46.319
guys who are you know, we
want to be here, we want to

1119
01:17:46.319 --> 01:17:49.560
represent Kentucky. So we're gonna go
out there and make statements and hopefully,

1120
01:17:49.760 --> 01:17:54.000
you know, show people that we're
not someone to play with so yeah,

1121
01:17:54.039 --> 01:17:56.760
we're definitefinitely gonna go out there and
make some statements in others in those games.

1122
01:17:57.039 --> 01:17:59.720
That'll do it for now. Next
week I actually get a chance for

1123
01:17:59.800 --> 01:18:02.079
one on one with Trent Noah.
I'm really curious to talk to that young

1124
01:18:02.119 --> 01:18:06.000
man after seeing him play in the
state tournament and we're all asking each other

1125
01:18:06.039 --> 01:18:11.399
why hasn't this guy at least been
recruited by Kentucky and now he's a Wildcat

1126
01:18:11.439 --> 01:18:15.279
instead of a South Carolina game Cock. Next week, of course, SEC

1127
01:18:15.359 --> 01:18:17.600
Media Days down in Dallas. I'll
be attending toward the end of the week.

1128
01:18:17.840 --> 01:18:20.840
Tell you more about that coming up
on Monday. Have a great weekend.

1129
01:18:20.880 --> 01:18:25.319
That's a good night. From the
garage in Lexington, Mama says that

1130
01:18:25.560 --> 01:19:19.159
Alligate is the owner because they got
all empty but no toothbrush.