It's Dick Gabriel taking a little bit of time off, so we thought we
would replace some of the best interviews from over the last several months. Please
enjoy the best of the Big Blue Insider. Incredible going, Juega Hota,
spree throwers, they got it they wanted, We'll put it up. It
doesn't matter if it goes as Kentucky has pulled off a comeback miracle in Baton
Road and unbelievable Fetais. Kentucky wins at ninety nine ninety five over LSU.
What better way to open this edition of The Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel
with you live on tape from Spartanburg, South Carolina. I'm with a UK
baseball team. I'll be filling in on the radio tomorrow. Darren Hedrick on
assignment with UK women's basketball baseball Wildcats open up with USC Upstate here in Spartanburg.
But today is the thirtieth anniversary unbelievable of the Marty Gras miracle. When
the Wildcats came from thirty one down. That wasn't the halftime margin. That
was with fifteen and a half minutes to play, but Kentucky still made it
up. Thanks to just an incredible run and a huge game from a lot
of guys, including Walter McCarty with twenty three points four of seven to three
pointers. You heard Brad Nessler and Larry Conley for the SEC TV network ESPN
calling the action. Here is the way it sounded on the UK Radio Network
the final seconds with Ralph Hackery was working with Kyle Macy and I know some
of you had problems with Ralph, but I tell you and both of these
guys are good friends of mine. Full disclosure. Ralph gave me my first
job in commercial radio. But here's what impressed me in the most. Neither
one of these guys lost their friggin minds during this comeback. They stayed very
calm and cool and very professional. And I give Ralph so much credit because
I got to think an overwhelming majority of not just SEC announcers but college basketball,
even pro guys, especially pro guys, would have gone nuts at the
end. Rafts stayed very calm, very professional, and I thought framed it
extremely well with his remarks. And this starts with Travis Ford hitting the game
clinching free throw that made it a four point advantage. Travis Freeze hard bunts
a shot of the air. It rolls good. Kentucky should win it,
no matter what happens. Long past midport two, one shot is up by
Anderson. It is no good And ladies and gentlemen, I've seen the Wildcats
play nearly every game, so it's nineteen and sixty six. Never and I
remember a thirty one point deficit on the road or at home where the Wildcats
came back to when the basketball game, We'll be right back as well as
should have bet a moment you gave basketball not I was actually in China on
a trip with a group of friends when I heard about it. Somebody had
called home, and so I rushed to a newsstand in our hotel grabbed the
International USA Today and they had like one tiny paragraph on it. So when
I got home, I watched the whole thing, and as Larry Connley pointed
out, it was incredible. While we're sharing Playboy play clips, I thought
I would bring up Vern Lunquist, who was announced this will be his final
Master's call. He had retired from calling football games on CBS a few years
ago, and he will wrap things up now from AUGUSTA. Two of his
most famous calls of course, one of them in nineteen eighty six, when
Jack Nicholas dropped in a putt that gave him a surprising victory, and Vern
was at his best. Maybe yes, sir, that might be his most
famous golf call, though later on somebody brought it up, and vern agreed
he had heard somebody else on the broadcast a day or two prior had yelled
out, yes, sir. Vern said he very well could have pulled that
out of the back of his mind and used it when he called the putt
by Nicholas. He freely admitted that that just was siwhere in his brain,
and it dropped onto the broadcast, and we're all better for it. The
other call in twenty oh five, Tiger Woods knocks one in from the sixteenth
and this is the one where the ball hung on the edge of the cup
and dropped in. And here's Vernon, man, Oh my goodness, in
your lights have you seen anything like that? What was so great about that
call was that's what everybody was thinking. In my life, I've never seen
anything like it. So best of luck to Vernon. I don't know the
guy, I think I've met him a couple times. By just a class
act all the way. Of course, the other huge headline in the Big
Blue Nation is the hiring of Handen Bush as Kentucky's offensive coordinator. I had
already left the Big Blue Insider Best of show for you as we left for
South Carolina, so I didn't have a chance to talk about it last night.
But I think it's a good hire. He comes from success, he
comes from a winning program. He's got a good track record. You already
know all about that. But what I find fascinating about college football coaches,
especially a guy like this who has worked his way up, was a backup
quarterback at Boise Boise State. But I just like looking at their track record,
their employment history, because there's such nomads. I mean, here's a
guy who started his career as a student assistant at Colorado's coaching career the Maryland,
Sacramento State, Florida, Arkansas State, Davidson, Washington, where he
worked two or three different jobs, ultimately the passing game coordinator. Then he
goes to the Falcons for a year in the NFL, back to Washington and
then Missouri, back to the SEC. Finally Boise State last year as the
OC and quarterbacks coach, and now with the Wildcats, So that means people
recognized his talent, his abilities. Each time he moved he helped himself.
He moved up either in stature or money or both, and was just gathering
knowledge, collecting information about how to do his job. And now he comes
to a Kentucky program that, like Boise State was back when he was there,
fighting for respectability. So this is gonna be fascinating and by all accounts,
the offense he runs will be the kind of offense that Mark Stroops was
looking for again and had gotten from Liam Cohen. Up next on The Big
Blue Insider, this is the eve, as I said, of UK baseball
season. We'll have the action for you tomorrow three o'clock, first pitch,
two forty five pre game on our FM station ninety eight point five, and
I hope you can join us for that one. I'll be sitting in again
for Darren Hedrick and Darren's gonna have women's basketball coming up at six forty five.
So just a couple of segments left, But in those segments you can
hear my conversation from earlier this year, just a few weeks ago with Nick
Menjeon as we set the stage for Kentucky basketball. I did want to say
one thing before I pitched a break, and that is the events that happened
in Kansas City more madness. I guess all we can say now is thank
god only one person was murdered, but eight children were wounded. And no,
I'm not going to bang a drum for getting rid of all guns.
That'll never happen. But something has got to be done by politicians on both
sides of the aisle. But ken it happened, probably not because they're swimming
in too much blood money. I'll leave it at that. They're listening to
the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty
WLAP Welcome back. It's the best of the Big Blue Insider. Going to
take you back to a segment we did right after Mark Pope was hired.
In fact, it was the Monday after and we had been at the news
conference, had a chance to talk with a lot of the former players about
the hiring of the newest Wildcat coach. We've been hearing from some of the
former players who were there when Mark Pope was announced and introduced, reintroduced really
to the Big Blue Nation. One of the guys who instantly supported him on
Twitter. Was a guy who was right here in the garage with us a
couple of weeks ago, Rex Chapman, who spoke really eloquently for a long
time to whoever would listen about the new head coach, Mark Pope. Mark
Pope and Jeff Shepherd both are two of the more exceptional human beings to come
through here. And when I mean that, I mean morally, socially,
emotionally. They even when they were in school and they were young people while
the rest of us were young, they had a very mature mindset. They
knew that the basketball would stop dribbling someday when most of the rest of us
didn't. They they were sort of the compass moral compass for those teams they
were on in the nineties. The soul of the of those teams. Their
teammates will tell you the same thing Mark Pope learned. As you saw today,
You can't be around Rick Patino for more than an hour and not take
away something that he has said. He's just so motivational and Rick really formed
these guys. They love and revere him and Mark Pope. Mark Mark Pope
plays Rick Patino style basketball. He gets after you gets up and down and
shoots a lot of threes. He's gonna get talent in here. He's gonna
have talent he's never had before. He didn't have that, he didn't have
Utah Valley State or b YU. He's going to have that here. Pressure's
on. He said it himself. But man, am I excited about it?
You gotta be so happy for him, But you also like he deserves
us. Well, I've said this before. No, two guys that played
at Kentucky deserve what's what they're getting anymore right now than Reed Jeff Shepherd,
Stacy Shephard, and Mark Pope. Those guys and Stacy blood sweat and tears
for this program for years. Tough times for Mark, tough times for Jeff,
both of them playing behind really good NBA players. They could have transferred
at any time. Both of them stuck it out. They made it through,
and that sort of stick toitiveness and work ethic. Well, you see
he's now the coach here, and Jeff and Stacey have one of the best
players on the planet. Rag, So did you win Mark from day one?
If you'd have told me Mark was in the mix from day one,
I'd have been like yes, let's go. Well, I mean you saw
this, Dick. I've had a really good time. I need to say
this. I've had a really good time since news broke about Mark's hiring,
because there's a few people in here that just shiit on the whole thing,
and over the last few days, I've had a great time saying, well,
you know what, I kind of like that higher look around here today
they like the hire two Rex. What statement do you think the fans made
today? And that was pretty pretty amazing. I just, you know,
I just feel like that, you know, you did you guys hear the
eruption for Jack Gibbons when he got off the thing, and I was afraid
they might boom me. They even cheered me, and then Chef and Tony
Delk and that those guys. And then when Mark got off the bus.
You know, people who remember that era know what Mark Pope meant to this
this entire state and that he's back here representing us and representing the university.
That bus that we were on out there, Mark got on the bus and
there were guys from fifty sixty years ago on that bus, Jack Gibbons,
Jim Master, it was it was just phenomenal, and you could tell Mark
at one point asked, hey, cut the cameras off. They had the
cameras on people, and he just sat on the back of the bus just
like we were all going to a ballgame, and he laughed with his teammates
for twenty minutes back there. That stuff's invaluable. And you can also see
why he does so well when he sits down with young men in their living
rooms with their parents. I wasn't there when he told him, but Rex
also talked about the fact that Mark's wife bakes cookies for each opposing team that
comes in. I assume she'll be doing that in rupp Aerna. So that
was an incredible story. Speaking of Jeff Shepherd, he said, yeah,
his ex roommate knows what he's getting into and knows Kentucky basketball inside out.
There's gonna be a lot of lot of words that are spoken between now and
the first game, and that's great. It's what makes Kentucky basketball so fun.
We love to talk about it and everything. But Mark knows, as
he said, so good in the very beginning. He understands the assignment and
he has worked do he knows he has work to do, but it's what
he lives for. He lives for hard work. He enjoys it, and
it's neat to see his family all in and the fans all in. So
Funday in Kentucky mentioned earlier, it's my understanding Reid is going to move on,
not a surprise to most people. I sure hope Jeff and Stacey keep
coming to the games front center like they have been. I hope they do,
because they'll be supporting Mark Pope, no question about that. Jared Prickett
banged in practice against Mark Pope, and he believes, of course that his
ex teammate is the right man for the job. The more that people are
around him, the more they'll understand him and how good of a person he
is. But at the same time, you know, he wants to win.
You know, it's a period and he understands that, and that's you
know, I think he said that two or three times over there, like
I'm not here to you know, to not win. He's going to win
the SEC tournament. He's going to win every game, and he wants to
win up banners. So he's like, you know, clear the spot off,
let's put a banner up there. It's a fun style basketball that he
plays. His upbeat's what you can. You know, it's fun to watch.
People will be excited about it, and you know he's a fantastic person.
And when I first heard it that he had the job, I'm like,
he's the perfect fit. Like he can handle the public, he can
handle being down, he's he's going to be great with his team. He's
just going to figure everything out and it's going to be I'm just I'm overly
excited because I just know him inside and out from when I played with him.
So it's it's a good thing. That's Jared Prickett, the new coach,
Mark Cuell introduced, is it. Of course his family, you all
saw it and each daughter and my one of my favorite moments was this one
I'm going to share with you about one of his daughters who came in the
house and almost immediately began chanting something that was quite meaningful. Back during their
title run in nineteen ninety six, when Mitch offered us a job, he
gave us a couple hours to consult to his family. We didn't need it.
He knew I would walk all the way here to take this job.
But as we gathered the girls from all their various places. Layla Pope walks
in the door and I kid you not. Her first words were, because
she knows the deal, tell me who's in the house tonight, UK.
She did exactly that, exactly that. I love that because it was such
a key element to not just that team, but the documentary that camer Mills
and Jason Eperson and I put together on that ninety six ball club called The
Team. It's available on Vimeo for ninety nine cents. Check it out.
And we had to work a little bit to find the clip. The video
clip of Walter McCarty was back in the hallway prior to a game. Walter
McCarty came up with it, shared it with his teammates, so they began
to do that before each game and it was kind of a rare clip of
video. And they came back to that on the party boat where they celebrated
their reunion six years ago with Rick Patino, who told them this, if
I was coaching today, I would The last team I'd want to face on
the face of the earth is nineteen ninety six. I would. There's no
I could not devise anything to beat all basketball team. Nothing Patino said,
you can't go back to the wooden era, but in terms of the modern
era, best team in the history of college basketball. And I do agree
with that. And they chanted one more time on the party boat at their
reunion in the House to Die, in the House to Die. Ye boy,
you're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider. Want to come
here on six thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider, cabrew with
you taking a little bit of time off. So it's the best of the
Big Blue Insider. And I thought we would go back to March when we
had Rex Chapman right here in the garage. Rex, of course, has
written a book with help from Seth Davis about his struggles with opioids and basically
his life in general, and we broke it up into two separate evenings,
but here's part one. Last night we had a chance to sit down here
in the garage with Rex Chapman. We had a long, long conversation.
We'll present some of it tonight and the rest of it next week, but
I wanted to get started with that as we welcome Rex to the garage so
he could talk to us about the book that he has out now, and
as you'll be able to tell, he's still a little bit shy about talking
about himself, and he still has doubts about some of the things he put
out there, doubts in that it was very difficult for him to open up.
He's glad he did, but now he has to go around and talk
about it. That doesn't make him comfortable. But he was more than willing
to come to the garage and we loved having him here. Part one with
Rex Chapman. We've had a lot of people join us in the garage and
I had a lot of fun with him and we opened the door and who's
waiting on us? But Rex Chapman. Good to see him. Man,
good to see you, buddy. Thanks for having me. You've been just
a whirlwind of media stops, so we appreciate you drop by the garage.
What has life been like for you since this book was published? Oh?
Man, A lot of interviews, Yeah, a lot of interviews. It's
been weird, really weird. You know. I feel like I lived so
much in my life that I'm not real proud of, kind of ashamed of
in some ways. And you know, being I know they're not celebrating that
aspect of it, but kind of being celebrated for something like this is very
weird. I didn't you know, I've said before, I didn't set out
when I was a kid. You know, you think I want to.
I want to be like who is it? Joe Theisman and those all American
kind of guys who don't think about you know, live a straight and arrow,
right. So yeah, it's it's been. It's been odd. Ye
been odd because I certainly didn't think that. Aren't people celebrating the fact that
you you've overcome so much? Yes, and you had the courage and it
took courage. What do you think it did or not to tell your story?
And I know it's humbling and you're not a guy likes to talk about
himself, but now here you are, well, I don't know, uh
uh yeah, I I don't know. I guess I had, you know,
just over the years. I honestly thought growing up that as long as
I'm not drinking and drugging and then anything else is fine. And you know,
I just kind of ran and wild, chasing girls. And I played
basketball all the time, sure, which was really an escape and it was
really all I liked, liked to do, you know, I escape from
what though, Yeah, I think depression. You know, looking back,
you know, I always had to be busy. If I wasn't busy,
you know, I could get into trouble. And so basketball really kept me.
I knew I had to make certain grades to be eligible to play.
I didn't care about what those grades were as long as they were eligible,
right, And so I didn't really I didn't really take school that seriously.
I was a good enough student that I could kind of bs my way through
a lot of help. Yeah. Yeah, and then I you know,
I got to UK, and still it was more the same. I didn't
really bust it that hard at school. But yeah, I think, you
know, looking back, there was I didn't feel like there was pressure on
me. Uh because the basketball part, it wasn't easy. It was it
was natural. It was something that I you know, I knew I could
do. Had I not you know, had that had I not been as
good, I think it would have been really tough. Because off the court
was really hard for me. While I was here, I was on the
court was not I mean it was, but it was you know, it
was good what I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so if off
the court when you were here what was going on, it made your life
a little tougher than you thought it might be. Well, so, when
I was in high school, you know, my first real girlfriend, a
girl named Sean Higgs. And then Sean and I are still the best friends,
loved to death. Yes, and Mark Kenny, Mark Kenny's little sister,
Kenny's and Mark's little sister. Yes, Kenny played at LSU and played
in the NBA and was just a great player. And uh, and then
Mark was really good here at UK. In fact, he would have if
I was the best basketball player here at UK. At one time, he
was the best football player at the same time. We all grew up together
in Owensboro, and uh, Sean was two times state one hundred meter champion.
But we had dated and we just we liked each other, and people
didn't. People didn't really like it, and so we kind of kept it
a secret and kind of hid from people. All the kids knew, but
adults for the most part. That was really confusing. Then we got to
Kentucky and Sean came to Kentucky and we just assumed because and the schools that
recruited me news that Sean was my girlfriend, and so we just assumed that
when we got here we'd be able to go to class together. She lived
right across the street at Blazer when I lived in the Lodge, and so
first or second time we walked to class together. I got called into the
office, the coach's office, and and Eddie was in there with James and
Dwayne and James Dicky and Dwayne Casey, and he just he let me know
that, you know, he said, hey, you know people are talking
about you guys. You know, we don't care, but you need to
if you're going to see each other, do it at night time, do
it in private. I thought it was I thought that was I thought it
was a joke. And you know, in that moment, I I really
wanted to get up and leave, and I was content going to Louisville.
But if I hadn't had to sit out like that was my first thought.
And I made eye contact with Dwayne, and he kind of nodded and look
Dwayne, as a young African American coach, that's I think felt very fortunate
and grateful to be at his matter at the time. And he nodded at
me kind of like, you know, hey, get make it through this
meeting and we'll go talk. And so when Eddie said that, I instead,
I you know, did the most cowardly thing possible. And I looked
at him and said, yes, sir. And then you know, over
the next two years I had versions of that meeting several more times. And
I should add this, Eddie, I honestly don't think Eddie had any problem
with it. Eddie was a forty nine year old alcoholic, and he he
had coached black players forever. His black players swear by him. Yes,
I honestly believe, and I've told Sean said in this in the Family a
million times that I don't think it was Eddie. I think he was being
guided by boosters to make sure that you know, they're white. All American
player was not dating a black girl. And when I say that, that's
the meanest thing I think that, you know, I don't. I still
don't understand it, Dick. What Like, you know, the time,
most if not all, of my black teammates were dating white girls. So
what was the They weren't discouraged from this though, What was the difference?
There wasn't one, I know, did you know at the time, Yeah,
yeah, all the young people knew. But again, you were young
and powerless. Yeah, you know, And when I look back on it,
all everybody knew, but U k At the time, you guys couldn't
really, you couldn't say anything because you would lose access to UK. Let
me let me back up. I knew you dated her in high school because
we all knew who Mark was. I don't think I knew that she came
to the UK as well, but I knew, but I did know.
I didn't know if it was it was her, but I knew you were
dating a black woman, Yeah you know. And I was like, all
right, you know, yeah, you know they I think it bothers me
today, and but they're telling me, you know, what are they telling
me? She's you know? And the other part about it is they never
met her. They never met her. Well, so yeah, so it's
just plain racism. It's not anything other than that. And when most of
the best basketball and football players in the school are black. And this is
also Mark and I. Mark and I knew each other from the time we're
ten years old. Sure, we're doing photo shoots and what not together,
and everybody knows that every football player, every basketball player. Every everybody knows
that Shawn's my girlfriend and that I'm being discouraged from seeing her publicly. And
so I I did my best while I was here, to do everything that
UK asked of me. But at that time they were not very good to
me. That was the underlying and happiness. Yes for you here, Yes,
and basketball was your respite. Yeah. And I loved it, and
I loved playing for the fans I loved well, Yes, I did.
However, I also knew that some of those fans did not really like me,
because you know, I would come out and I mentioned in the book
I three different times while I was at Kentucky and one time I caught a
Kentucky fan And after a ball game. Reggie and I are coming out after
a game game, Yeah, Reggie Hansen that we'd won, and we see
some people milling around my car blue. They're leaving rep Aarenas just like we
are, wearing blue and white. And came around and they ran off when
they saw us, went down and saw on the side of my car was
keyed in N word lover so many car that this happened three times, just
like that, and so oh of the and that's very I mean, it's
just confusing. It's you know, all my teammates are are black and you're
how old eighteen unbelievable. Well, I couldn't find my shoes when I was
eighteen, and you're going through this. Yeah, more to come with Rex
Chapman. On the other side of the break, you're listening to the best
of the Big Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty w LAP
It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best of the Big Blue Insider.
Here is part two of our conversation with Rex Chapman. Here in the garage's
talking about his book and his experiences in UK. Seth Davis helped you with
this book? You know? Was he the guy who and I'm sure you
met him through your work for CBS. Was he the guy who urged you
to write the book because of your your story became public. I envisioned him
saying, hey, man, that's a there's a book in that Yeah,
probably so. I mean I knew several media people pretty well writers, but
I wouldn't have proactively done it. Seth reached out and caught me at the
right time. It was right as the pandemic was starting and so it took
about four years to finish it. And yeah, it's it's just weird.
The response to it. Well, i've heard you and it's been a great
response that I know of. But i've heard you say in multiple interviews every
time I turn on the TV, you're popping up, but which I know
is not your goal. But I heard you talk about how Seth kind of
brought a lot of stuff out of you and encouraged you, and it urged
you tell me about that process. Yeah, you know, he he.
Uh. There would be times that we'd start talking about something that I couldn't
really I didn't want to talk about that day, or for whatever reason,
just couldn't emotionally bring myself to do it. And there were times that,
for lack of a better term, I would ghost Seth for a week or
two. And I think at first he kind of, you know, was
shocked by it, but at some point he just realized that it was a
lot of this was stuff that I'd probably not dealt with and ever, and
so, uh, yeah, we it took a long time and then he
called up about oh man, we'd been working on it for about eight months
and he called up and said, hey, listen, I've got kind of
a time sensitive book that I you know, got a chance to do,
and wonder if we can put yours on the back burner for a few months.
And I went, kidding me, yeah, I love that And I
said, why who is it? He said, it's sister Gene. You
know, he's one hundred and four. And I said to him, that's
a really sweet Seth that you think I'm an outlived sister. The none from
Loyal Seth was great Seth. Again, he did all the heavy lifting kind
of organ well. He did organized my erratic thoughts and helped. So how
did you relay? I don't see you send down on a keyboard. I
can't do that. Yeah, so done you over the phone or in person?
Okay? So he just basically interviewed you. Yeah, and then you
know, he would send drafts and I would again, I can't like sit
at a computer and edit like a document like that's not It's just not something
I can do. I mean, uh so you know that process for him,
I know was maddening because we'd have to get on the phone and I'd
have a paper copy. He would have a computer copy, and the pages
were different. And and but I just couldn't, like, I just weird
with how I learned and how I absorb information. And he you well,
I mean again, he's he's a well respected right. Yeah. And as
as the book evolved and unfolded, was it becoming something that you liked or
I was gonna say, or was it something that was getting tougher? It
was getting harder? Yeah, you know, because a lot you know,
the first part of it is me growing up and playing basketball and yeah,
and then you know the basketball was always good, I mean, or but
you know, I was wrestling with well, I'd always been an addict,
Like I grew up going to the track with my dad. Right from the
time I was a little kid, I just thought that, you know,
that's what adults do. They gamble, And so I gambled from time I
got to UK till you know, till I got arrested in twenty fourteen,
un till I didn't have any more money. So when you were arrested,
you were feeding your drug habit drug and gambling, but at gambling at the
same time. So she had two different sources draining Oh yeah, wow,
yeah, at least two Yeah, did you realize it at the time.
No, well, probably, but you know it's at that point, you
know, I've lost so much money and gone through divorce and all that.
You know, I'm gambling, but it's like emptying a a up swimming pool
with a spoon, you know it. You're so you can't stop and you
can't really start. You just lost and something had to happen to me.
And friends tell me that all the time. You know, I hate what
happened to you, but something had to happen. Yeah, I'm sure you're
like most people. You don't have a lot of really close friends. Very
few people do what was going on with them at the time that you were
approaching rock bottom. Yeah, Well, the thing with a lot of addicts
is you push those people away, and because those people know you the best
and they can see you, and they can immediately they can look in your
eyes, or they can look around your apartment or your house, and they
can tell you're not in a good place. And so addicts a lot of
times push all those people away or have burned those people so much with their
addiction, the lying, the you know, the money, the mainly the
line right that I was just really fortunate that I had so many friends and
and I couldn't really hide anymore once I got in trouble, like everybody knew,
and I had to kind of face you know what was you know again,
face things that happened with when I was younger that I didn't really deal
with, you know, with the stuff at Kentucky and and a lot of
anger and resentment that I had over that, and you know, stuff like
some misplaced like with Eddie regarding his alcoholism. Right I we we hated it,
like we hated Eddie because of this. This was not something again,
this was not something he could control. We didn't understand that at the time.
We didn't understand that this was a like, this was a thing,
and he was. He was really bad for my whole freshman year, but
my sophomore year not a drop. He went to Betty for over the summer.
He called me into the office and told me that personally, and the
problem was I had already lost trust with him with basketball because of my whole
freshman year and personally because of the meetings I keep having with him regarding who
I'm dating, and you know, so some of that was misguided. He
was doing the best he could. He's fifty years old man and going through
alcoholism, which hell yeah. And it wasn't until I finished playing got out
a rehab. I didn't talk to Eddie the whole time I played in the
NBA Wow. And then I went to see a ballgame and scout somebody for
the Suns in Stillwater and made a point to set up a meeting with he
and James Dickey were there at the time, and I think Sean was working
on the staff, And so I got to sit with Eddie and we talked
and I won't say it was it was. I wouldn't say it was a
love fest, but we both said some things that you know, and Eddie
said a lot of things to me that were valid that I didn't like at
the time, like your shot selection this is terrible. And I was like,
man, who, Like I thought, well, who are you to
tell him? What? What do you mean? I can get that shot
off, I can make that shot. That's not what he was saying.
So he was telling me the truth sometimes about things that I had lost so
much trust in him that I just wasn't going to listen. And unless we
played perfect basketball, and we were talented, man, but unless we played
perfect basketball, we were going to lose because we weren't connected, you know,
the you know, and if you think about back about those years,
those three or four years and the guys on those teams that have had issue.
I won't go into everybody, but a lot of guys that have had
some trouble with the law and drugs and alcohol, and you know, those
were formative years for us. It really were. Rex Chapman, the former
Boy King who had quite the fall from grace drugs and gambling and addiction and
rehab and has written a book along with Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated and CBS
Sports and you've probably seen the title by now, it's hard for me to
live with me and yeah, I can understand that. After my conversation,
we are more from Rex, and that comes up in hour number two,
right after the news break at Gabriel with you. We are taking some time
off, so it's the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to come
here on six point thirty wlap, Hey, it's stick Abriel. Welcome back
to the Big Blue Insider. Our number two taking a little time off,
so please enjoy the best of the Big Blue Insider. This is our conversation
with Rex Chapman. He came by the garage to talk about his book It's
Hard for Me to Live with Me, And I asked him about the fact
that a guy who grew up in the spotlight then was out of it for
a while, then back into it for the wrong reasons. But now this
book has cast a spotlight on him again, and you can tell he's not
real happy about that, you know. I Stephan Curry said something the other
day, and Stephan's my little buddy, and he's in the book and that
stuff. But he said something the other day that he's he is perfectly happy
to leverage all of his influence for good in the world. And I thought,
wow, what a what a fantastic statement. And these guys players.
Now I think about Reed Shepherd right now, right the power that he has
right now. If I knew what I knew now back then sixteen seventeen,
what would you have done? Well? You know, I joke about this,
but like Mitch McConnell, for instance, Mitch was a you're not a
fan, not a fan, brilliant man, had a good, really good
career, don't agree with almost anything policy wise, and he was a freshman
senator when I was a junior in high school. And I talk about this
in the book. So and he flew in a helicopter from Frankfurt to Owensboro,
and for whatever reason, we had to go school assembly out on the
football field and meet the new senator out on the football field. And he
got off the helicopter and right behind him he had a, you know,
a couple of guys that were assistants or whatever. One of them had a
briefcase that had a Confederate bumper sticker on super And so I just turned right
around and went in school. And I passed by the teachers and said f
this guy, and went inside. I got detention for three days. But
you know, looking back at that time, I'm a rising senior. I'm
about to be a senior, about to make my decision where to go to
school. Everybody wanted you if I just said I'm going to go to an
out of state school, well, unless this dude just steps down, what
happens? Maybe nothing, but maybe something? What if reed? What if
reed? Shepherd said that right now, you know what, I'm going to
the NBA next year, or I'm transferring to Louisville unless rand Paul resigns.
Would people put pressure on rand Paul to resign? Some would question, is
how many? Yeah? Yeah, weird, Yeah it is weird. Of
course, Reid's not cut out that way. Oh he's not now, and
that's why near nor were you? No, Reed is Read's perfectly wired to
do what he's doing. Is raised not perfectly, but so best. His
parents are the best anybody, anybody that knows them. Uh, it can't
be totally surprised by what's happening with Ree. I don't know mom. I've
interviewed her when she's playing, but I know dad, you know, And
got to reacquaint with him when we did the documentary female version of him exactly,
and God could she play? Oh yeah, steals, assist, handle,
pass, tough, tough, tough Jeff run and jump. And I
tell people Jeff was a better poundful pound, a better athlete than I was.
He was he he was bounce here, he had better feet my opinion.
I was just longer and had bigger hands, and I and Jeff would
miss a shot or two and never shoot again. I was didn't wasn't wired
that way. Read run and jump just like Jeff. I mean, maybe
even bounce here. He's a point guard like his mom. Though he can
pass the ball, seals assists. Yeah, he's just he's he would be
a dream of to measure your peripherals sometimes athletes, Yeah, I wonder what
has Reid has incredible instant and his feet are great. But his hands,
he's got like boxer's hands, and he can disrupt things. He can move
his body without moving his arms. He's very well balanced, and his anticipation
is out of this world. Off the charte. Now once in a while
he'll make a freshman mistake. Yeah, yeah, Oh, I watched man,
he's so much better than we were. I mean, he's just he's
just good. Do you see him though at the top of the NBA draft,
Yes, really, yes, even though his defense is a little suspect
and nobody can guard anymore. That's true. I heard Gilbert Arenas believes it's
because of the European influence in the league now. He said, those guys
don't play any defense overseas. They don't play any now, and there has
been good defense in the league, but of late, do you think it's
just eroded? No, the rules, Oh yeah, you can't. You
can't touch anybody anymore. They're gonna have to out some more, and I
think they will over the next few years because the numbers that got this it's
just not I really enjoy it, but there's got to be I don't like
watching a basketball game that there's seven straight threes taken and nobody makes a shot
and there's one pass and it's just not aesthetically pleasing. I like a little
bit of defense. You know, you'd like to be able to, you
know, guide a guy a little bit, but you can actually body guys
on the perimeter more so in college now than you can in the NBA.
So now it's a good time for Reid or Rob Dillingham. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah. Something struck me when you were talking about the struggles you
had emotionally and mentally. I thought the most fascinating storyline and with this team
was read helping Justin Edwards was his emotional wellness and I and when Justin I
don't know who wrote the story when when Justin said I wanted to quit basketball
in high school and his mother, I mean, you never hear that.
I thought that was fascinating and good on read Shepherd good on read Shepherd good
on Justin Edwards for pub admitting that, yes, I mean, that's just
something that you know, we wouldn't do. I I don't This is not
in the book, but there was a guy when I was playing in Charlotte
and I was starting to realize that I was sleeping a lot. You know,
I was, you know, still barely twenty and all of my friends
were in college and most of my teammates were married and had children. Yeah,
so I was kind of going through it. It's a depression, right,
Yeah, but I didn't know that. And so, and I took
naps on every game day my whole life, so you know, I felt
that was normal, yes, yeah, yeah, and so so I really
didn't know, but I knew something. I just wasn't happy. And and
so there was a guy named Willie Burton that played at the University of Minnesota.
It was a couple of years younger than me, and he played with
the Miami Heat. And Willy had several really good years in the NBA,
but he got fifty one night down in Miami and a couple of weeks later
he had had an issue. He had had a mental episode episode and he'd
been out and then was probably drinking and whatnot, And everybody was like,
what happened to Willie Burton? And so within a couple of weeks, you
know, he revealed that he suffered from depression. The media and athletes in
general crucified withal and like, what would a million, multimillion dollar athlete have
to be depressed about? Well, that's not what he was saying, that's
not what but it made it sure made people like myself zip right up and
not. You know, you can't admit that that If you admit that,
they're going to think you're soft. They're gonna think you you know. So
the mental health stuff for a long time has just been very taboo, not
now, thankfully. Uh. And you also you've mentioned more than once things
that aren't cooks, things that aren't beverage. Again, we can pop that
in a washer if you want. You talked about stuff that's not in the
book. Were there things that you just chose clearly not to put in there,
consciously said no, I don't want that, and you don't have to
tell me what they are. But things that you and Seth talked about.
I know that I'm sure everything and everything I could remember, and there were
things that you know, it just didn't make sense to tell you know things
too that you know, when you when you blow as much money as I
did and take it, oh it's around forty million dollars. When you blow
as much money as I did and do as much many drugs as I did,
there's a lot of things you do that you're not really proud of that
are you know, instances and different things that you know. I included many
of those in the book, but all of them. Jeez, you're right
forever. I was going to say, yeah, uh. And I also
know obviously from putting documentaries together and news stories that it's tough some you can't
get everything and that you want, you got to leave things on the edit
room floor. Then there's legal stuff you know that I even thought about that.
Yeah, there's I mean, And this was again, this was I'm
not This book is not to diminish you know. You don't want to hurt
anybody, No, not at all. And this is just about me and
you know, me trying to take be accountable for what I've done. I
say this would love. Why are you not dead? I know? Oh
you know what I mean. I mean when I heard you and you told
me five years ago about the appendicitis in oxy and I'd heard you say more
than once how many pills you took a day? And obviously you you you're
an athlete, You've got the constitution, You're still in shape relatively speaking,
like we all are. But I'm like, how did he survive all that
in your system? Probably because I didn't drink? Okay, if I had,
I had I been drinking when and I didn't. When I say I
didn't, like I never did, right, And so had I been drinking
at all, you know, taking the amount of fills that I was taking,
you know, forty fifty a day, you would just die, you
would you would die. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's really the only I
think, probably the only reason I am here. Plus drinking alcohol is a
depressant. Lord knows what that would have done if you. Well, now
I can't say that I've never done like before I was ever addicted. I
remember I got had had had a surgery, and I was still playing and
we were in the playoffs, and I was anyway, after a game,
I took a Viking and had a beer and I was so messed up,
like I was, it was it felt like I had drank a dozen beers.
So I knew that from that experience and probably a couple others like those.
I knew that alcohol lit the light opioids like a match wow, and
just that alcohol and opioids are just a horrible, horrible mix. So that's
really the only only reason. And don't you find it fascinating there were people
who seek that out, who want to feel that way. That's what amazes
me. I understand it completely. Yeah, because you're well. For me,
I just didn't want to deal with other stuff that was going on in
my life, and so yeah, I can understand completely why they're doing that.
I had your running bunny Josh Hopkins on the show. You were doing
a podcast with him, But you got to bring that back at any time.
I wish you would really entertaining. I learned so much from book Club.
But I know that, and I've heard you tell people about how you
slept on his couch. Yeah you know. I mean he was one of
your friends that came to the rest of Rescue. Yeah, yeah, no
question, man. You got to appreciate people like that. Man, there's
so many people, Josh, my sister, countless those people. Is it
difficult now with the book to relive those parts of your life. Yeah,
it's that's been hard because you know, I'd kind of dealt with a lot
of that stuff, and my family, my kids, my ex wife have
dealt with a lot of that stuff. Bringing all this stuff back up and
in a public way, that's really hard. It's opening up old wounds.
And did that give you pause when you know? I mentioned in the book
that while I was at UK, I had a panic attack. I didn't
know what it was. Nobody really did, and they hit it from the
media. And was that when they they didn't want to take you to a
hospital. Yeah, they and so because we'd find out, because you guys
would find out, and they didn't know what to say. They also didn't
know what was wrong with me. This was the day after they told me
for the first time that I shouldn't be dating Sean, and so I woke
up that morning and I do remember feeling like a big fraud, Like here
I am, I'm the poster boy for everything they have going on. But
they are ashamed. They are ashamed of me and how I handle my private
life. And I felt I was just overcome and I couldn't move, and
I asked Reggie to go get Dwayne to tell them to take me to hospital.
I need to go to the hospital. Dwayne came in, he had
Reggie go get James Dickie, and they both came over and huddled up and
decided that what needed to happen was that Sean lived at Blazer and they needed
to go get Sean and take the two of us out to Don Johnson's farm
out at Bryan Station Road. Don knew about Sean and I, and he
was great, and they took us out there. The reason that I'm in
this position is they're trying to keep me away from her, and when I
get in a bad way, they go get her. And so we stayed
out there for two days and then came back and I was fine, got
I was fined. Well, yeah, I was fine. And I never
remembered it again ever until we started doing this. And about six months ago,
I had another panic attack in Brooklyn and Whitney lost and my girlfriend was
there and took great care of me for a couple of days, two or
three days, and I started triggered it all this stuff. Oh really,
yeah, the book and yeah, I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm
all right now. Okay, Like I said, I'm glad you're in the
garage. Yeah, thank you. Thanks. More with Rex Chapman on the
other side of the break here on six point thirty Wlap Welcome back to this
special edition of The Big Blue and Cider. More of my conversation with Rex
Chapman, who came by the garage to talk about his memoir. It's hard
for me to live with me listening to you describe yourself back then. And
I do remember this, and I remember thinking this back then. I was
impressed with, God, what's the word I'm looking for? You were despite
your high profile. I was pleasantly surprised with how grounded you were, you
know what I'm saying. And maybe it was just a facade because you're grinning
right now. Well, my parents, No, my mom and dad,
they did it great. That's what I was raising do. Yes, you
know, yeah, there's some things that look their parents, we're all parents,
right, there are things that they wish they'd have done different, blah
blah blah. But no, they're great parents and they know they raised me
and my sister to be polite and respectful. And what you were not was
you did not as far as I could tell, have a feeling of entitlement.
No, and that's what we see now. That's also my dad because
I didn't. He never let me believe that I was really very good.
Like, uh, I liked it. I kind of liked it because yeah,
because I you know, I knew I was decent, because I'm better
than all the players around us. But also, Kentucky's a small state,
you know, I know there's other people out there, but you know,
he, yeah, he messed with me from time to time. Like I
remember being a sophomore at Apollo and I'm averaging I don't know, twenty points
a game, and he's recruiting a couple of kids that I'm playing again who
are like juniors and seniors and they're not like I'm, in my mind,
I'm better than they are. And I asked him one day, like why
are you ignoring me? Like you can't recruit me or you know he and
he looked at me and like what are you talking? And he said,
Rex, you might be You're probably gonna be too good to play for Kentucky
west Lynn, And like I thought he was joking in that moment, and
like, what are you talking about? Like I never thought he because coach
there. Yeah, but also like he didn't give compliments, so I didn't
know if he thought I was any good or not. Because and then you
gotta remember, like the next week, maybe I might have played a game
that he saw and on the way home he might say something like you couldn't
play for me at Kentucky West Lynn, you know. So I was constantly
trying, well, I was trying to please him. Yeah, but yeah,
And I also think he recognized that I was very nice, Like I
was polite and all that stuff, and my mom is very much that way.
And you can't really be that way and be you can maybe maybe get
through college, not you know, being a little nice. You can't do
that and play professional basketball. And I think my dad saw that, you
know, if he didn't toughen me up some, that I was probably just
I could flitter away more with Rex Chapman on the other side of the break
here on six point thirty wlap. Hey, it's Dick Gabriel and you're listening
to the best of the Big Blue Insider. Welcome back to my conversation here
in the garage with Rex Chapmin. When we left off, he was talking
about growing up with a father who played pro ball and was a college coach,
and how tough he was on Rex. I tell a story in the
book about being at Apollo and I was a and I was, looking back,
I was probably the best player in the state. Yeah, at the
time, you were. He got to you know, he may have only
seen five games a year, but because his teams were playing and when he
came to watch me, usually afterwards he was he would like, let me
know how hard I didn't play. And you know, at the time,
I'm a kid, I'm I feel like I'm playing hard. And when I
look back, I understand, you know, I wasn't. I didn't know
how to play hard like it was. The competition wasn't very good, and
I only played hard when I felt challenged. So I understand now at the
time, I didn't. And I remember getting like forty points and you know,
fifteen twenty rebounds, ten blocks. We played at Butler County. We
should have won by a million, but we won by like fifteen or whatever.
But I remember riding home on the bus thinking he's gonna have to love
me up tonight. And I got home and he didn't say a word.
Finally, I like said, what'd you think? He said, oh,
you want to know what I think? I want to know when you're going
to take an effing charge? Are you ever going to take a charge?
He said, stand up. He started running into me, and my mom
came in and she said, break it up, break it up. I
went upstairs. She came up to apologize to me and said said, listen,
honey, I'm sorry, And I said, get off me, Mom.
If he doesn't tell me, how am I going to know? And
so I took up for him, which is really weird. It's really weird,
but I knew he knew like he was right. Also, I was
a high school junior. If I file out in a game, we're going
to lose. So I but he always let me know the truth about my
game, and I knew because he'd done it. He had done it.
Yeah, good college player and a lot of times we need that, you
know. But that gave me a lot of confidence to know that, you
know, hey, look so and So's dad didn't do that, and you
know, but it gave me confidence that my dad knew what he was talking
about about basketball, right right, right right. A few more questions for
you. You've been very generous with your time. But hell, we haven't
seen each other forever. We talked on the phone, texted a little bit.
You used to do some TV shows and radio shows. But I'm so
happy, even if you're not comfortable with it, with the success of the
book that I'm very proud of you. I don't know if I have the
right to be proud of you, but you're a friend, so you know,
all right, it's stay tournament time, girls and boys. You got
there once, as I recall, Yeah, tell me about your memories of
that. And I don't mean where you depressed right here, but I mean
just that has to be a happy memory. And people are amazed when I
tell them. They're like, well, there, we're Rex's teams that they
dominated here. I said, no, no, I said, he got
to the same tournament once. That's hard to do. It's hard to do,
but it's really hard to do in Owensboro because Owensboro High every year,
oh and Red Devils. Yeah, and for people that don't know, it's
a predominantly black athletic high school as far as sports are concerned, and they
go, I don't know if it's still the case, but three out of
every four years to the state term, and we had a big rivalry with
them, and they had very good players who were also my AAU teammates all
growing up, so and they were good. And those games against Owensboro High
School my last three years of high school, especially the last two years,
really helped prepare me for college basketball. We had two good players on my
team, Greg Bond, my high school teammates, one of the best point
guards I've ever played with. Teams are terrified of Greg and me. And
they had five guys on their team that were really good, and had three
guys on their bench that were really good. And in two years, our
last two years, we split with them five five, five to five in
those games, and they were wars. And we were also like the top
two or three or five teams in the states, and we drew each other
in the first game of the district oh No, my senior year, oh
again, we had We were up five games to four going into that and
they beat us on a last second show and we were out in the first
game. We had gone. We had beaten them in the finals of the
region the previous year, and we ran through Somerset and then We played Oldham
County in the second game and we were running through them and I broke my
finger, right index finger on a one three to one trap to start the
second half. I played the rest of the game and I couldn't do anything,
but I really felt like we were gonna win it. That year,
Hopkinsville won it, but I felt like, yeah, it was eighty five.
It was eighty five. And then Reggie and them won it the next
year and they beat Reggie and them beat Owensboro, and that let me know
because Owensboro was good and Reggie was really good high school, Yeah, really
good. Anti shot ninety percent from the free throw line and got there like
fifteen times a game in high school, so they we might not have been
able to beat them, But yeah, I remember I was working at another
radio station. We broadcast the state tournament, so I had the best seat
in the house. And seventy nine was Dirkshire la fayette first year for the
Sweet sixteen in rupp Arena, and some think it saved the Sweet sixteen from
classes and all that stuff, and the crowds were phenomenal. The following year
back to Freedom Hall, crowds weren't quite as good. Owensboro wins it.
Yeah. Man, Then the following year, following a couple of years,
it comes back to Rup. That was when Darren Field House in Mason County,
Virgie with Todd May and there were people hanging from the rapt no question.
You know that was such a great period. Uh. And then after
I left, well, you know, my first couple of years out of
high school, Richie Farmer and law Yeah, Alan Houston were emerging, and
so you know, just what a where are those days gone? You know,
the Internet took them. Now everybody's got their phones out. Yeah,
so much more to do. I also feel too that great players like a
rajah On Rondo didn't play a senior year at Eastern High School, right,
he left a lot of guys leave. Let me steer you real quick,
real quick to the Wildcats. You've tweeted the other day how much you love
this team and love watching what's not the love? Are you envisioning yourself how
you would have in that line? What's fun? I'm I'm just amazed that
you know, guys like Reed and Rob Are you know, who are unquestionably
the best players on the team have no ego about starting and maybe they do
and if they do, great, but they've handled it. They've handled it.
Do you think that I think that's hell yes, hell, yes,
I like yeah not I so, But you know, again, Kyle does
his thing, and Cal's got these guys believing and believing at the right time
of the year. And he should talk as much junk as he feels like
he should because this is what he preaches. Wait till March, wait till
the SEC tournament. And how many times has this happened? It happened that
team with Julius Randall in them. My gosh, that team was bad all
year long. But what happened ran through the tournament. And this team,
man, there's not a there's not a team in the country that it wants
to face this this concern concerned about their tournament. So why not? No,
Because I think the offense is so good. I think it's such a
potent, powerful offensive, powerful offensive team. Yeah, I'd like for the
defense to be a little tighter, but you know, got shot blocking back
there. Guys are giving effort. It's not an effort thing. It's just
they're freshman freshmen, you know, dearon Fox and Bam and Maleak. If
we have played that game against whoever it was that they got beaten, right
Carolina, and a month later we beat them. Our guys were just a
month too young, just a month too young. You know, look at
those guys now from those teams. I mean, so yeah again it's it's
Cow's teams. I'm just thrilled. You know, we've had such good freshmen.
But I'm just thrilled that we have such valuable and important upperclassmen like Antonia
Crage. Is that, you know, you might not think a lot.
I remember being an eighteen year old and having a twenty two year old Paul
Andrews in the locker room, and for Reggie and I who were Reggie was
seventeen, and so Reggie and I would get you know, we were kids,
and we would be goofing around, maybe during a film session or something,
and Paul could look over at us and be like, hey, pay
attention. Really well, yeah, but that's that's the difference in eighteen and
twenty two, and when you don't have those twenty two Paul didn't even play
right. But I knew I better listen to Paul Andrews because he goes to
class all the time and he's a serious person, and he's telling me to
pay attention because I'm playing, you know, pay attention to what they're telling
you. Rex. So those things are valuable, and if you don't have
those old guys with that experience, it's really hard. Team that won it
for Caldar Miller absolutely, I mean, so it's not it's not a secret.
Those those are the teams that do it. It's the Best of the
Big Blue Insider, my conversation with Rex Chapman. More to come on six
thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Best of the Big Blue Insider as we wrap
up my conversation with Rex Chapman back in March. With Reid and Rob arguably
being the best players on the team, what's that say to the guys in
the lineup? It says, hey, you better you better play because I
got two guys over here that are dying to come in and they have no
ego about it. So that has to be a very well connected team to
function as it is functioning right now. And that is that's a recipe for
success. I mean, when you care about guys enough on the teams where
you don't care if they play or you play or whatever, celebrate their success.
You celebrate their success and Okay, tomorrow night's going to be my night,
or tomorrow night's going to be someone else's. That they're able to do
this with so many young kids is special. But also read Shepherd is special
man, and so is Rob and you know they're they're And you mentioned yeah
who you know talks to the NBA and they told him you need to do
this, this and this, And he's done it all, hadn't he It's
hard to average twenty points a game in college and about that, and uh,
you know he's done it for I mean, he's a professional. He's
really a professional scorer. He will go somewhere, whether it's the NBA or
wherever else and make money for a long time. I went to Toronto because
I've never been awesome city, as you know. But watch this team and
everybody saw it back here on TV. When you were watching that, were
you and I don't know how cludeing you were at all, but were you
at all surprised at the way they shared the ball, move the ball,
the flow of their offense because we were all sitting up there going, oh
my god, no, And here's why, Because you can't play with Reed
Shepherd and not play that way. It's not it's not. It's just something
when you see a guy that gets the ball off the board and you're ahead
and he hits ahead, that that that's a that's something that used to be
just the thing that players did and hit ahead, hit ahead and play play
the game that way instead of coming up and dribbling fifty times and throwing it
between your legs. And when you play with a guy that hits ahead and
he makes the right that that can't make the wrong basketball play like it makes
the game really easy. And I like guys like DJ and Rob and Justin
and those other guys eating even the older guys. When you play with a
guy that's so good and so unselfish like that, you realize, oh,
this is how the game is played. And if I do this too,
then man, we're all really good. And so I think it just and
it's nothing. Read again, I don't think it's anything Red does by design.
It's just who he is. As Yeah, well I remember the first
game up here in Toronto. He doesn't score. Yeah, okay, you
know what he said, I had a bad game. We're like, no,
you didn't, Yeah, because look at the rest of the stats and
then the scoring game, and same thing with Justin Edwards. He kind of
floated through those first two games, but then in the third and fourth games
when they were replaying some of those teams, and those teams up there were
like, we're not gonna let these kids beat us again, so they really
amped it up and the game came to Justin and he was the man.
Yeah, and it takes a lot, Like not everybody, it's really hard
to come into the University of Kentucky and play as a freshman. I don't
care who you are, whether you're Anthony Davis or Michael kid Gilchrist or John
Wall whoever it is. And think about it, those are some of the
greats, and it's hard for them. Imagine coming here and you struggle like
Edwards, like Derek Miller, like Richard Madison, like Derek Horror that you
come here when all that pressure is on you, Richie Farmer, uh and
you and and the actual playing part is hard, like too hard. Initially,
that's hard, man, that's hard digging through that, and that's when
you have to have teammates that are that are solid. Joe hal once told
me along these lines that I'm not going to recruit a local kid unless I
know he's gonna play a lot or start. I'm like, really, like,
I thought he might want to have him on the bench or whatever.
He said. No, he said, because they hear it from everybody,
mom, dad, girlfriend, minister, male, man, barber. Why
aren't you playing war? That never occurred to me. You know, I'm
not very bright, but that never occurred to me. Some guys aren't fine
with that, and that I'm fine with. If you know, there have
been guys who they're Kentucky fans. They grow up and they're really good players.
They just want to come to Kentucky. And if they're and if they're
fine with that, great, But it's really hard. You have to be
I say it. You don't have to be, but it's it's hard to
come to Kentucky if you're not really good. And that goes for whether you're
a local kid or from out of state. Unless you're really good, it's
hard to come here and have success because you're broken down so often, and
the and the fans love it so much. You know, it's hard to
not hear all the negative stuff. I've had it very easy as far as
that that went. The basketball stuff was all glowing, and I still felt
bad here, so you can imagine it was off the court stuff off the
court, which was most of the time. Dick. Yes, now you're
making me understand that. But to your point, I'll let you go with
this. I was on I don't know why, but I was on the
team Bust and at LSU. I guess I was doing something for the coaches
show whatever, and I was talking to Pelfrey and Feldhouse and again back when
we could forge relationship with guys, and we were talking about her. I
was talking about the guys who had left. You had gone pro, and
the nsafe stuff happens and guys transfer out, and I was saying, you
know, yeah, you know a lot of good guys left. And they
were like, oh my god, just imagine what our team would be like.
And I said, yeah, but you guys wouldn't have all the minutu're
getting now. You guys wouldn't be scoring all these points you're getting now.
And they both said we'd have rings. Yeah, it didn't matter. Didn't
matter to them. Yeah, like when I on my my sophomore year,
So my sophomore year, Reggie and I sophomore year, Derek Miller sophomore year,
Sean Sutton and John Pelfrey and Darren Feldhouse were all freshmen and they didn't
like they didn't play. They in fact, I think, huh, maybe
they weren't. They were gonna red shirt with John and and Darren, but
they ended up not not doing that, I believe. But those guys didn't
play. They were not a they they were practice players. And they were
different than I was, especially John and Darren in that I did not grow
up dying to go to Kentuck. I grew up really dying to go to
Louisville, and so that was but it was really cool for me to see
because they knew they weren't gonna play, and they loved it, and they
were seriously, the three of those guys, Sean, John and Darren three
of my most favorite teammates ever, because they would go nuts on the sideline
when anything would happen for us. They loved it. They loved it like
they loved it that their team was winning, that we were doing well,
but they loved it from a uk. They were those kids that grow up
dying to go there, and for me, that was really cool to see
because you know, if everything would have stayed the way it was, they
those guys might not have played until they were seniors. If then, if
then, yeah, and uh so, just to see what happened after,
you know, I left school and those guys just with Mash and Rick Man,
man, it was just the best man. Well, hey, Dan's
on a sad note, but I know that you really like Kenny Payne.
Yeah, and obviously things didn't work. He loses his job. I hope
you gets a chance to be ahead coach again. I think you will.
Kenny's the best Kenny, and I said this on social media last night.
Kenny Payne is the best of us. And when I say that, he's
one of the best guys I've ever known, don't don't don't judge a window.
Don't confuse what his success at Louisville as a head coach in two years
where they were decimated. There was no talent left there. That has nothing
to do with who he is as a man. And Kenny Payne, anybody
that knows him will tell you Kenny Payne is the best of us as human
beings. So he will bounce back. He will get back. I hate
to see this happen like this because you know, Oh Kenny in Purvis took
me on my visit to Louisville. I've known them that long. Wow,
we go back that far. Kenny will land on his feet. I love
him to death. Rex can't thank you enough for dropping by the garage.
You are welcome here anytime. Thanks Pal. That'll do it for now.
Thanks for joining us for this special edition the best of the Big Blue Insider.
That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington, sang