Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 2: Dick Gabrielle with you on a Friday edition of our program,
Speaker 2: heading into a big weekend already underway. The baseball Wildcats
Speaker 2: are playing down at Belmont, weather permitting, so keep an
Speaker 2: eye on that. We pre record, so keep an eye
Speaker 2: on that. And of course you came men on the
Speaker 2: road tomorrow at Alabama. Tough, tough assignment. Alabama came up
Speaker 2: here and beat the Wildcats. Different looking Kentucky team. You
Speaker 2: know about the problems with the injuries, but Kentucky playing better.
Speaker 2: The bigs are playing better, Andrew Carr is healthier, the
Speaker 2: freshmen have played better. That is going to be one
Speaker 2: tough challenge down there. That is a difficult place to
Speaker 2: play lately. Used to be Alabama for basketball, but now
Speaker 2: when Natos gets down there and introduces an exciting brand
Speaker 2: to play defense three pointers of Final four caliber team
Speaker 2: last year, fans show out and show up. And back
Speaker 2: in the day it was like a lot of road
Speaker 2: games for Kentucky. There'd be almost as much blue in
Speaker 2: the stands in Tuscaloosa as there was red or.
Speaker 1: Crimson, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2: But now it is a brutally tough place to play,
Speaker 2: but not a game the Wildcats cannot win. But they're
Speaker 2: gonna have to be at their best and we'll have
Speaker 2: it for you right here on six thirty WLAP the
Speaker 2: UK women with Senior Day coming up Sunday against LSU.
Speaker 1: Kim maulke yep, she knows how to win championships. What
Speaker 1: does she have?
Speaker 2: Four and the Wildcats are in the running for the
Speaker 2: better slid. I'm not gonna win the SEC, but they
Speaker 2: want the best slot. Obviously they can get in the
Speaker 2: SEC tournament, So this one's big. They're all big down
Speaker 2: the stretch, but you're talking LSU Tennessee, South.
Speaker 1: Carolina for Kentucky.
Speaker 2: So it's big that the Wildcats came back last night
Speaker 2: and beat Missouri. Watching that game listening to Darren, it
Speaker 2: was back and forth for much of the game, but
Speaker 2: the Wildcats, who were down at the half, win at
Speaker 2: seventy three sixty five. Clara strack At a huge, huge
Speaker 2: game bounce back after a subpar performance against Texas where
Speaker 2: she got in foul trouble, but she gets twenty two
Speaker 2: and twelve. She played really, really well, so did Georgia
Speaker 2: Amore of course, as usual, nineteen points five assists, only
Speaker 2: two turnovers. George Amore played all forty minutes and by
Speaker 2: the way, hit two really clutch free throws down the stretch.
Speaker 2: And imagine what kind of shape she's got to be
Speaker 2: in to have her legs under her well enough to
Speaker 2: snag those free throws when they mattered the most. Still
Speaker 2: a problem for Kentucky. Rebounding Strack had twelve, team had
Speaker 2: twenty seven. She had almost half Kentucky's rebounds.
Speaker 1: Unusual.
Speaker 2: Tony Key only had five rebounds. She got in some
Speaker 2: foul trouble, only played twenty eight and a half minutes,
Speaker 2: and she is usually just wicked tough on the boards,
Speaker 2: but foul problems hurt her. She had six turnovers. Not
Speaker 2: a great game of forteany j didn't have thirteen points,
Speaker 2: But they're going to have to be better down the stretch.
Speaker 2: On the boards, we're out rebound of thirty nine to
Speaker 2: twenty seven. Kentucky got only five offensive rebounds, and it's
Speaker 2: not because the Wildcats were hitting everything, although it seemed
Speaker 2: like for a while there they were. They hit fifty
Speaker 2: four point five percent in the second quarter, and Kentucky
Speaker 2: when it took command of the game in the third quarter,
Speaker 2: hit seventy to almost seventy eight percent. Took nine shots,
Speaker 2: hit seven of them, including two out of three from distance.
Speaker 2: So for the game, Kentucky hit fifty three percent.
Speaker 1: Still, though you.
Speaker 2: Got to do a better job on the boards. That's
Speaker 2: something Kenny Brooks talked about after the game when for
Speaker 2: one thing he talked about, and this has come up before,
Speaker 2: physicality of his team. Kentucky not the most physical team.
Speaker 2: That's been a knock on his ball club, but he
Speaker 2: has seen progress.
Speaker 3: We're doing enough to win back games. And obviously it's
Speaker 3: not our m it's to be the physicality, but we
Speaker 3: can play with it and we've proven that we can
Speaker 3: beat teams who try to be physical with us. So
Speaker 3: it was really good, really good effort. You know, it
Speaker 3: wasn't always exactly what you wanted, but I don't know
Speaker 3: how many games you go through and you have what
Speaker 3: you want. But we played well enough to win.
Speaker 2: And while the Wildcats are working on becoming more physical,
Speaker 2: they have been and still are really good on defense.
Speaker 2: That has been one of their calling cards. They had
Speaker 2: seven block shots last night and a couple of steals,
Speaker 2: so defense has shown out for the Wildcats and Didding
Speaker 2: in last Night.
Speaker 3: Proof is in the numbers. You know, some things we
Speaker 3: don't do well well with. There's some things we do
Speaker 3: exceptionally well. And you know, we continue to hold people,
Speaker 3: you know, to their average or under tonight. But they
Speaker 3: got a little bit, maybe a little bit under their average.
Speaker 3: But you know, we're just a ben don't break type
Speaker 3: defense and we understand the philosophy, we understand our assignments.
Speaker 3: They do a really good job of listening to the scout.
Speaker 2: So we mentioned the LSU game. That's a four o'clock start.
Speaker 2: It is sold out. It's gonna be on ESPN. It's
Speaker 2: gonna be on the mothership ESPN. Darren will have the
Speaker 2: pregame for you three forty five tip off at four,
Speaker 2: so you can sink your TV and radio, I hope.
Speaker 2: But it will be on ESPN. It's not gonna be
Speaker 2: on any of the Plus channels or whatever. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be on ESPN. So check it out at four o'clock. Now.
Speaker 2: The following Thursday at the Coliseum, Tennessee comes to town.
Speaker 2: That's Pandemonium Night. That's gonna be on the SEC Network.
Speaker 2: And then the Wildcats finish up a week from Sunday
Speaker 2: with South Carolina in Columbia. That game is on ESPN.
Speaker 2: That's a two o'clock start, So two of Kentucky's next
Speaker 2: three games are on the main ESPN channel.
Speaker 1: But I can tell you this.
Speaker 2: I've covered UK women's basketball since the early eighties, and
Speaker 2: I will tell you this is the toughest stretch of
Speaker 2: games that I can ever recall, and it's probably the
Speaker 2: toughest ever in the history of UK women's basketball. Down
Speaker 2: the stretch, you gotta play ls you Tennessee and South Carolina.
Speaker 2: Thankfully for them, two of the those first year are
Speaker 2: at home, but l s U Tennessee and South Carolina.
Speaker 2: As you're playing for wins and seating for the SEC
Speaker 2: tournament and the NCAA Tournament, it's tough. But think of
Speaker 2: the advantage you'll have.
Speaker 1: Just just win one of them. But if you can.
Speaker 2: Pick up a win or two, what that does for
Speaker 2: you going into the postseason. And that's how Kenny Brooks
Speaker 2: was looking at it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like my chances when we got to play
Speaker 3: at home. Uh, just like anybody in the SEC. And uh,
Speaker 3: you know, and and it's once some people will look
Speaker 3: at that situation as a gauntlet, but we're looking at
Speaker 3: it as an opportunity and we're gonna go out, We're
Speaker 3: gonna play. If you want to if you want to
Speaker 3: be the best, you gotta beat the best.
Speaker 2: And that's what the SEC is all about. And by
Speaker 2: the way, since we're talking about numbers, I didn't talk
Speaker 2: about this last night, and I should have. But what
Speaker 2: about Mary Williams and it's perfect game, Basegue. He became
Speaker 2: the first Division one or NBA player to put up
Speaker 2: numbers like this since Paul Gasol did it for the
Speaker 2: Lakers back in twenty ten. It's being called a quote
Speaker 2: unquote perfect game. Six to six from the field, five
Speaker 2: of five from the free throw line, four block shots,
Speaker 2: no fouls. Just an incredible night for him. And now
Speaker 2: he is what tied for second, no second in an
Speaker 2: eight way tie of UK players who put up numbers
Speaker 2: like that. The best by a UK player Rodney Den.
Speaker 2: He won seven for seven against South Carolina back in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three, three for three from the free throw line.
Speaker 2: Rick Roby went six for six against Alabama in the
Speaker 2: championship season seventy seven seventy eight, also six or six
Speaker 2: from the free throw line. They don't mention whether or
Speaker 2: not either I doubt if either one of those guys
Speaker 2: didn't have any fouls. I doubt with all due respect
Speaker 2: if either one had as many as four block shots.
Speaker 2: But either way, phenomenal night from Mary Williams and let
Speaker 2: us remember. And I was one of them who wondered,
Speaker 2: is this guy made of what it takes to play inside,
Speaker 2: playing the paint in the sec And there were of
Speaker 2: course people online, the overreactors, who were asking that he
Speaker 2: just be left on the bench.
Speaker 1: Can we get rid of a Mario? Are we done
Speaker 1: with him?
Speaker 2: Can we please be finished with the Mary Williams, let
Speaker 2: us please not overreact. I mean, the worst, the dumbest
Speaker 2: one of all this year, I can tell you the
Speaker 2: dumbest one of all was a quote unquote UK fan
Speaker 2: who on that great arbiter Twitter acts whatever you want
Speaker 2: to call it. After the old mis loss which was bad,
Speaker 2: which was puzzling, which was ugly, this clown says you
Speaker 2: got to do it now, get rid of Pope, got
Speaker 2: to get rid of him now, don't wait, just cut
Speaker 2: and run. Now take your losses, you know, get rid
Speaker 2: of Mark Pope. Now, please think before you hit send
Speaker 2: or not, and show yourself out to be a fool
Speaker 2: and I think a lot of us clearly were wrong
Speaker 2: about Williams. But as we mentioned last night, and Pope
Speaker 2: has talked about this, it has taken him a while
Speaker 2: and I'm paraphrasing, to figure out what he can get
Speaker 2: away with.
Speaker 1: And he talked about it last night. We had him
Speaker 1: on the show talking about it, that.
Speaker 2: He just needed to figure out how physical he could be.
Speaker 2: Because I don't mean to sound sexist here, but the
Speaker 2: SEC is the men's league. You know, I'm borrowing that
Speaker 2: phrase from Pat McAfee. That's how he talks about the NFL,
Speaker 2: and he compares college players to the pros. Now you're
Speaker 2: in the men's league. Well, in some ways, that's the SEC.
Speaker 2: And that's more about not manliness, but just about how
Speaker 2: games are officiated because players are bigger, faster, strong, just
Speaker 2: a little bit just enough in the SEC. And yes,
Speaker 2: there are kids in the mid majors quote unquote who
Speaker 2: can play that way, but it's more consistently played that
Speaker 2: way in the SEC. And that's what Amari Williams is doing,
Speaker 2: playing more consistently that way. And look, he may lay
Speaker 2: and egg tomorrow for all I know, but he's clearly
Speaker 2: better than he was when he got here, and doesn't
Speaker 2: that mean he's worked hard and accepted coaching.
Speaker 1: I think it does all right.
Speaker 2: When we come back, people keep throwing labels around like
Speaker 2: face of the league and greatest of all time and
Speaker 2: all that, and former players from different pro leagues are
Speaker 2: taking vocal and verbal issue with that. We'll hear about
Speaker 2: it on the other side of the break. Coming up
Speaker 2: at the bottom of the hour, Derek Terry from Batcat Center,
Speaker 2: we'll talk Kentucky baseball season underway. Our number two Keith Elkins,
Speaker 2: longtime sportscaster here in Lexington and now work in high
Speaker 2: school games as well as doing interviews for the WUKY
Speaker 2: podcast and also later on West n Bureau chief Gary
Speaker 2: Moore with us here on six point thirty WLAP. Welcome
Speaker 2: back to the Big Moonsider. As I mentioned, there is
Speaker 2: discussion out there, and there always is because everybody wants
Speaker 2: to have the hot take, the instant take, the lists,
Speaker 2: all that stuff. The greatest of all time is a
Speaker 2: tired argument. But somebody the other night on an NBA
Speaker 2: telecast was talking about, apparently that Victor wimban Yama now
Speaker 2: is the face of the NBA, the new face of
Speaker 2: the NBA. That did not set well with my man
Speaker 2: Charles Barkley, who has really become the voice of the NBA.
Speaker 2: He and Kenny the Jet Smith and Shaq and Ernie
Speaker 2: Johnson on the TNT studio show, which is great, and
Speaker 2: they're going to try to hold it together as the
Speaker 2: NBA moves to.
Speaker 1: ESPN.
Speaker 2: But anyhow, Charles Barkley on set the other night TNT
Speaker 2: wearing a USA hockey sweater.
Speaker 1: He loves hockey. Uh. He had a real problem with somebody,
Speaker 1: be it a player or.
Speaker 2: An im media person, just anointing a youngster as the
Speaker 2: new face of the NBA.
Speaker 4: First of all, you don't give anybody the face of
Speaker 4: the league, Am I right? Shack Shaq took being faced
Speaker 4: with Mike, when Matty Johnson, Lara.
Speaker 1: Bird came in.
Speaker 4: They're like with the new sheriffs in town. Shaq took it,
Speaker 4: Kobe took it, Lebron took it, Steph took it. But
Speaker 4: I get so annoyed when I hear these guys like
Speaker 4: you don't give somebody something. That's one of the problems
Speaker 4: we got. These idiots won't play an All Star game.
Speaker 4: We've given them so much, they don't have no respect
Speaker 4: for the history, but you don't give anybody the face
Speaker 4: of the game.
Speaker 5: You take it.
Speaker 1: And I love what he said, and he's talking about
Speaker 1: becoming essentially the man. You know, you can be.
Speaker 2: The face of the league if you're the guy front
Speaker 2: center and all the promos that the network's run and
Speaker 2: things like that, But in terms of being the guy,
Speaker 2: being the lead.
Speaker 1: Dog, the alpha male in the league, you do that
Speaker 1: on your own.
Speaker 2: You could be talking about the w NBA as well,
Speaker 2: be in the alpha, the lead in that league. Just
Speaker 2: because somebody says, you know, well this person, you know, ok,
Speaker 2: is Caitlin Clark the face of the WNBA.
Speaker 1: Well she is the face, but is she.
Speaker 2: The lead the lead dog if you will not necessarily
Speaker 2: no when it comes to promos. Yeah maybe, but as
Speaker 2: Charles Barkley said, you got to take that, and Clark
Speaker 2: hasn't taken it yet.
Speaker 1: I don't know she ever will. But I thought it
Speaker 1: was interesting that it came.
Speaker 2: Up, as well as Barkley's reference to guys who aren't
Speaker 2: playing in the All Star Game skipping the All Star
Speaker 2: Game and things like that. And yeah, I know the
Speaker 2: w or the NBA All Star situation is becoming a joke,
Speaker 2: but it was really cool when the PK Suban, who
Speaker 2: is a former player in NHL six zero at one
Speaker 2: time the defenseman of the Year. He is now a
Speaker 2: very outspoken broadcaster, and the other night during the Hockey
Speaker 2: covers the Four Nations coverage, he went almost ballistic when
Speaker 2: he talked about people who want to be or have
Speaker 2: been anointed as the greatest. He said, the standards now
Speaker 2: have got to be a lot tougher. And the first
Speaker 2: part of it, he said, is you got to show up.
Speaker 6: If you're really about sports, then you're about two things,
Speaker 6: your teammates and the fans. And I'm sorry, it doesn't
Speaker 6: matter how much money you're making. When you do not
Speaker 6: show up to play, you're letting your teammates down. When
Speaker 6: you do not show up to play, you're letting the
Speaker 6: fans down that are paying you forty fifty sixty million.
Speaker 6: I don't care if you're getting three hundred million, congratulations,
Speaker 6: But these people in here are paying twenty five hundred
Speaker 6: dollars at ticket five grand that are blue collared, hard
Speaker 6: working people. If you don't get your head wrapped around that,
Speaker 6: you shouldn't be in pro sports, because how are we
Speaker 6: gonna grow. How do we expect you to be an example? Well,
Speaker 6: guess what you don't want to be. You are one.
Speaker 6: You're on the biggest stage. You just said it. They
Speaker 6: make the most money. You're an example. You gotta show up.
Speaker 6: You got to take that on. I'm sick and tired
Speaker 6: of making athletes greats, all time greats that aren't the
Speaker 6: best examples. Those are the people that we want our
Speaker 6: kids to follow. That we want athletes to follow. That
Speaker 6: helps us in our game.
Speaker 1: Stephen A.
Speaker 6: You want athletes to be educated on this and understand this.
Speaker 6: They got to understand the importance of showing up to
Speaker 6: the All Star Game and being on the court and
Speaker 6: playing banged up sometimes and playing injured maybe at times,
Speaker 6: thank you, and participating. Because here's the thing. Because you're
Speaker 6: making one hundred two hundredree hundred million, you should be
Speaker 6: out there banged up. You should be That's why we
Speaker 6: pay you.
Speaker 4: Is to max out.
Speaker 6: We talk about greatness in it being the longevity of
Speaker 6: somebody's career. I don't care if you play fifty years.
Speaker 6: I want your best ten. I want you on the
Speaker 6: court dominating.
Speaker 1: I want you to go all out.
Speaker 6: I want Michael Jordan, I want Kobe. That's what I
Speaker 6: want in every sport. That's the guy that I follow.
Speaker 6: You're a different version than that.
Speaker 1: You don't get my respect.
Speaker 2: I can't tell you how much I like that. And
Speaker 2: everybody there was like Stephen A. Smith and three other
Speaker 2: people on the split screen with him, and they were
Speaker 2: all nodding. I think they all agreed with him, of course,
Speaker 2: and a couple of them spoke, but nobody was quite
Speaker 2: as outspoken as he was.
Speaker 1: And this is a guy who was a little bit.
Speaker 2: Of a journeyman. He played thirteen seasons, one of the
Speaker 2: few African Americans. Actually he is from camb was born
Speaker 2: in Canada, and that's kind of a misnomer because he's
Speaker 2: neither an American nor are As people maybe way back
Speaker 2: when they were, but his mom and dad are from
Speaker 2: the Caribbean. So anyhow, And this is a guy I
Speaker 2: saw on wiki who at one point, and I remember
Speaker 2: this was engaged to Lindsay Vaughn. They split up before
Speaker 2: they got married, and they say they remain friends.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, good on you, man.
Speaker 2: But anyhow, I love the fact that Barkley and subon
Speaker 2: Marek Barkley, better known of course in the States, are
Speaker 2: using their platforms though to almost shame current athletes who
Speaker 2: are paid so much money and they don't begrudge them
Speaker 2: the money. But what Barkley and Subon and both said
Speaker 2: about different topics essentially at the same time, get out
Speaker 2: there and earn it and show the people who are
Speaker 2: paying these extravagant ticket prices that you give a crap up. Next,
Speaker 2: Derek Terry to Talkentucky Baseball six thirty WLAP Welcome back
Speaker 2: to the Big Lu Insider and joining us now is
Speaker 2: a long time friend of the show and a guy
Speaker 2: who was on the UK beat for quite a while.
Speaker 2: Get into the private sector but couldn't quite stay away,
Speaker 2: so Derek Terry created Batkat Central. You can be a subscriber.
Speaker 2: We'll tell you more about that a little bit later on.
Speaker 2: But I know so many people, and you among them,
Speaker 2: got a kick out of the World Series run last year,
Speaker 2: and who wouldn't for Kentucky baseball. But in this day
Speaker 2: and age, man, it's really hard to kind of follow
Speaker 2: up and build on success because of the turnover in
Speaker 2: general in college sports, especially college baseball.
Speaker 1: Am I right?
Speaker 7: You're right, yeah, this was a line up on Friday.
Speaker 7: If you maybe hadn't paid too much attention to the offseason,
Speaker 7: but maybe he had gotten into Kentucky baseball last summer
Speaker 7: and during the World Series run that they're just turned
Speaker 7: out a whole lot of familiar names in that lineup.
Speaker 7: The other day, you had a James McCoy, who I
Speaker 7: thought that was kind of surprising, made a start in
Speaker 7: right field. He was Kentucky's right fielder for most of
Speaker 7: last season, but the expectation kind of from what I
Speaker 7: had been told, is that he would be pitching a
Speaker 7: lot more this year. But he got to start in
Speaker 7: the Petrick Herrera, who was a bench player for the
Speaker 7: most part last year, who started a third and outside
Speaker 7: of that, it was a whole lot of New States.
Speaker 7: So they got down to Lipscomb and and really kind
Speaker 7: of had a series that brought off the bat was
Speaker 7: you know, started off very well to win eleven to
Speaker 7: zero and have a mercy role, but Game two was
Speaker 7: not quite as good, and then he ended up in
Speaker 7: a spot with the weather that they only get two
Speaker 7: games in down the air, and then you can't get
Speaker 7: the midweek game in. It's a frigid here in Lexington
Speaker 7: this week, So heading into the second weekend, with just
Speaker 7: two games under their belt, so I'll be curious to
Speaker 7: see and too kind of unfortunate no no ESPN Plus
Speaker 7: or anything this weekend either, So I'll be falling along
Speaker 7: on the radio. If you're going to be following along
Speaker 7: with baseball this weekend.
Speaker 2: It's going to be tough too for both teams because
Speaker 2: obviously their weather is our weather.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you know, I mean that's that's the.
Speaker 2: Nature of college baseball. But getting back to the lineup,
Speaker 2: I was not that surprised that McCoy started because I
Speaker 2: have a feeling they're going to try to run through
Speaker 2: Nick minjeone and Dan Roselle as many of their pitchers
Speaker 2: as they can that that they.
Speaker 1: Really need to find out about it.
Speaker 2: And they know about McCoy, uh, you know, from from
Speaker 2: fall ball and from last year, but they need to
Speaker 2: to see what they've got, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: They do. It's kind of unfortunate too. Fre Ethan Walker
Speaker 7: he was going to be the third game starter. H
Speaker 7: he I'm sure he was ready to go and helped
Speaker 7: the way extra week uh for that. But they got
Speaker 7: a strong start from Nick McKay there to start off,
Speaker 7: and then ideally it's nice you know in a series.
Speaker 7: In game one they only had to use two pictures. Uh,
Speaker 7: Scott Rouse came in after him, but uh, game two
Speaker 7: they worked at a little bit more. He probably saw a
Speaker 7: little bit more true idea of what they would be
Speaker 7: looking at if if uh, you know, it was a
Speaker 7: normal SEC Saturday when when Vin Cleaver got his start,
Speaker 7: and then that's why they got was Hogan and Buyers
Speaker 7: and TV and gregorson. I would say probably the main
Speaker 7: core of what you would expect the bulletend to be.
Speaker 7: You saw a lot of those arms in game two,
Speaker 7: and I wrote I was going to be curious to
Speaker 7: be for Friday night. Who else would have to come in
Speaker 7: there outside of routes? You know, with Rouse pitching because
Speaker 7: the game was more lop sided, is this going to
Speaker 7: be the spot for him? Is following up after McKay?
Speaker 7: You know who what some of those guys have been
Speaker 7: moved up a game, the guys that throw in game two,
Speaker 7: what they have been pitching in game one had it
Speaker 7: been a little bit more competitive. I think here going
Speaker 7: into the second weekend and we there's still, at least
Speaker 7: in my mind, kind of a lot of unanswered questions
Speaker 7: in terms of the overall depth of this bullpen where
Speaker 7: guys might be used.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you could probably say the same for practically
Speaker 2: every team in America right now. Pitching depth, which of
Speaker 2: course leads into the bullpen. And that's what came through
Speaker 2: for Kentucky last year, both the starters, but especially the bullpen,
Speaker 2: and Hogan was such a big part.
Speaker 1: That's why I was kind of surprised.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's way early, but he did not pitch
Speaker 2: well last weekend. Bobby Spins did not. But I think
Speaker 2: he'll be fine. Obviously we've seen what he can do.
Speaker 2: But that's always the great mystery, isn't it the depth
Speaker 2: of the bullpen?
Speaker 7: It is it is, And you know, Hogan, I felt
Speaker 7: like he had a box where it was maybe just
Speaker 7: a little bit worse. He was not good, certainly not.
Speaker 7: He was giving four wild pitches out of the Twelvey three,
Speaker 7: which obviously looks horrible on the box store. It's one
Speaker 7: third of the pitches for little wall pitches a couple
Speaker 7: that were there. What was really I think that's a
Speaker 7: funny for him, was that he came in in a
Speaker 7: spot where you know you're hoping he can come in
Speaker 7: and gets them out to keep that run off the
Speaker 7: board and he got a head o two to that
Speaker 7: second hitter and he ended up losing them. The command
Speaker 7: just wasn't there. And those are two walks and when
Speaker 7: they he loose them and they'll drive you crazy. Uh
Speaker 7: But you don't have to single him out, but everyone
Speaker 7: else really, I mean through pretty well, honestly, Sleeper, you know,
Speaker 7: it was okay, he was through three innings. He was
Speaker 7: good at that fourth ending, got in a little bit
Speaker 7: of trouble, but not not a bad adding when I
Speaker 7: for his first start either of the season. So the
Speaker 7: pitching depth like another thing too, Dick. I'm really curious
Speaker 7: about some of the younger arms, you know, with any
Speaker 7: of the younger guys about now on Sunday to follow
Speaker 7: up Walker, you know, I've heard some really good things
Speaker 7: in the fall and then two in the I guess
Speaker 7: the early winter here leaning up. I'm Nate Harris, one
Speaker 7: of the freshmen. You also have Layton Harris, who's a
Speaker 7: local kid. But Nate Harris at Illinois Variety, I think
Speaker 7: he was at to ninety five is at one point
Speaker 7: in the fall. So they've got a freshman class of
Speaker 7: arms that I think the don't want to bring along slowly,
Speaker 7: I'm sure, but as the season progresses. I mean, that's
Speaker 7: the one area of this Kentucky baseball program, especially with
Speaker 7: Dan Rosell here, They've always found a way to get out,
Speaker 7: but they've almost always too had, you know, a little
Speaker 7: bit of mixing and matchingg ains the season went along.
Speaker 7: Guys that emerge that didn't start out in that role
Speaker 7: to begin the season. I mean, gosh, if you're to
Speaker 7: go look at their Friday Night starters through the years,
Speaker 7: I mean, how often has it changed. It feels like
Speaker 7: almost every year it ever started the first game. You know,
Speaker 7: last year, Trey Pooster would not have been your first option.
Speaker 7: Travis Smith was, but by the end of the year,
Speaker 7: Pooster was their top guy. And can you go back
Speaker 7: a few more years of Sean Harney kind of being
Speaker 7: that guy. So still still a lot to figure out,
Speaker 7: I think with the pitching staff, but I generally steel
Speaker 7: pretty good about it. But you never know in these arms,
Speaker 7: and then competition will get a little bit better, a
Speaker 7: little a lot better in the SEC and you know,
Speaker 7: either kind of think or one at that point.
Speaker 2: Talking to Derek Terry is the publisher of Batcatcentral dot
Speaker 2: com and of course, uh, we'll be keeping an eye
Speaker 2: on UK baseball this weekend. But as Derek said, each
Speaker 2: to the last two games the Wildcats were scheduled to play.
Speaker 2: They lost to Weather, but opened up successfully last weekend
Speaker 2: in Nashville where they are tonight to Lipscombe, and of
Speaker 2: course Cole Hage had the home run, a.
Speaker 1: Three run bomb. H You know, he did well in
Speaker 1: the fall.
Speaker 2: Tyler Bell at shortstop, one of the storylines to follow,
Speaker 2: had a nice stop in the last scrimmage before the
Speaker 2: Wildcats regular season and then acquitted himself. Well, I thought
Speaker 2: down in Nashville that that is one kid that I
Speaker 2: think is fascinating, Derek. He was the highest rafted player
Speaker 2: to not go pro and to play college ball, and
Speaker 2: he signs with Kentucky, which gives Wildcats now potentially their
Speaker 2: fifth consecutive year with You know, they hope more to
Speaker 2: come of an outstanding shortstop, Ridder for a couple of years,
Speaker 2: a goal Glover, Grant Smith who should have been a
Speaker 2: Gold Glover, and now Tyler Bell. This is quite a
Speaker 2: run for Nickmnjione.
Speaker 7: It is you kind of wonder how much how much
Speaker 7: good fortune they got from that. How many years do
Speaker 7: they get to go now where you know, they can't
Speaker 7: really complain about any bad breaks that might happen to
Speaker 7: get a kid like that to show up. I mean,
Speaker 7: that was a tremendous development in one and just quite frankly,
Speaker 7: you don't really see ever happen, especially you know, guys
Speaker 7: that get drafted that high under these new roles, not
Speaker 7: so new rules anymore, I guess with the MiB draft,
Speaker 7: but the way the bonus full money works, I mean,
Speaker 7: most of these teams have that mapped out well in advance,
Speaker 7: and you're typically the odds are just not good that
Speaker 7: you get him. And I thought he had some good
Speaker 7: at bats, he didn't get a hit, the kid in
Speaker 7: center field made a tremendous play, and yeah, probably the
Speaker 7: probably the best offense to play the weekend, at least
Speaker 7: down in Nashville, to rob him of not only his
Speaker 7: first career ahead, but it would have been an RBI
Speaker 7: as well. And like you mentioned, Age came through as a
Speaker 7: home run there right after, so kind of stepped up.
Speaker 7: But and I thought Bell at least offensively, I mean,
Speaker 7: I think he looked really good in the fall, you know,
Speaker 7: out there on that turf they think they normally do
Speaker 7: at this level, and I think he bounced, so I
Speaker 7: can't remember he was rolled with an air or if
Speaker 7: they give to somebody else. But you know, I thought
Speaker 7: he looked fine, just fine. I mean, he'll get a
Speaker 7: lot better as it goes. I don't know if there
Speaker 7: are any nerves there or not. He don't play poorly
Speaker 7: by any means, but uh, I'll be curious to see
Speaker 7: kind where he settles in the lineup switch hitter that
Speaker 7: you know, he's patient at the plate, I would say,
Speaker 7: and the times I saw him in the fall and
Speaker 7: the one thing I haven't seen from him though, And
Speaker 7: I don't want to ask like I was out there
Speaker 7: all the time, but I was. I was up there
Speaker 7: a little bit more frequently than I had been in
Speaker 7: the past. Haven't really seen him tap into his power
Speaker 7: too much. He had a great scrimmage one of the
Speaker 7: days I went to, Yeah, and it wasn't hard, but
Speaker 7: they were all kind of line drop singles, which is fine.
Speaker 7: I mean, you'll take that, but I'll be curious to see.
Speaker 7: You know, he wasn't really even a guy in high
Speaker 7: school that they hit a lot of home runs. But
Speaker 7: he's someone that maybe not this year, but but by
Speaker 7: next season. I'll be curious to see how he's developed
Speaker 7: physically and if he can tap in and you know,
Speaker 7: be a guy that can hit the double digit home
Speaker 7: runs at some point, because I think that would be
Speaker 7: you know, for his draft probiles. He's a guy that
Speaker 7: part of the reason he probably did come to schools
Speaker 7: because he knew he could re enter the draft in
Speaker 7: a few years. So that'd be a great thing for
Speaker 7: Kentucky to be able to get a kid like that one.
Speaker 7: I mean, they've they've got the hard part. They got
Speaker 7: him to school, but now, you know, can he develop
Speaker 7: him like he developed some of these other guys and
Speaker 7: get him drafted highly because you know down the road
Speaker 7: you'll have something to show pase recruits that they're kind
Speaker 7: of on the fence about coming to school.
Speaker 2: Derek Terry is my guest publisher of bat Cat Central.
Speaker 2: We'll talk more Kentucky baseball on the other side of
Speaker 2: the here in just a moment on six thirty WLAP
Speaker 2: Welcome back. We're talking with Derek Terry. He is the
Speaker 2: publisher of Batcat Central, and that's where you need to
Speaker 2: go if you want to follow Kentucky baseball along with
Speaker 2: UCA Athletics.
Speaker 1: Dot Com. But Derek does a nice job.
Speaker 2: Covering the program and did when he was a journalist
Speaker 2: now back in the private sector, but came up with
Speaker 2: the website and a great way to follow Kentucky baseball.
Speaker 2: Of course, we're talking about the opening series of just
Speaker 2: two games last weekend down at Listscom. The Wildcats with
Speaker 2: a weekend series here at Belmont back in Nashville. One
Speaker 2: of the positions that I think is going to be
Speaker 2: really interesting this year, Derek is catcher because they went
Speaker 2: out and they signed Rafael Peltier and then Devin Brooks
Speaker 2: decided that he's a Devin Berkshuder decides he's coming back,
Speaker 2: you know, which is a plus. I mean, he's a
Speaker 2: great leader and was preseason all Conference. Did struggle last
Speaker 2: year offensively, a little bit defensively at times, but they
Speaker 2: they split shared the two games, I should say, last weekend,
Speaker 2: but Peltier was with a good glove and a pretty
Speaker 2: good bat. I'm curious to see how they share that time,
Speaker 2: you know what I.
Speaker 7: Mean, yeah, very much. I mean, Peltier was one of
Speaker 7: the guys that I thought performed very well leading into
Speaker 7: the season. I mean, this was a guy that, like
Speaker 7: you mentioned, I mean clearly was you know, whenever he
Speaker 7: committed to Kentucky out of the portal at the time,
Speaker 7: I mean, it was widely assumed, I mean even by
Speaker 7: the coaching staff that you know, Devin Burts should not
Speaker 7: be back, yeah, for another season, So he was brought
Speaker 7: in to be the starter this year. In my opinion,
Speaker 7: did nothing in the fall to suggest that he really
Speaker 7: shouldn't be in the running. I mean, I think he
Speaker 7: performed in a way that I was comfortable, at least
Speaker 7: from watching them, thinking that you'd be fine, you know,
Speaker 7: handling that you always want to have more than one
Speaker 7: catcher just because of the toll that that position can
Speaker 7: take over the course of the season. And Bert's was
Speaker 7: really I know, he was all sec part of the
Speaker 7: preseason voting is in some a susponding guys that people
Speaker 7: familiar with, and on paper it makes sense, right, I mean,
Speaker 7: he is a returning player and on a team that
Speaker 7: made it to the College World Series last year. But
Speaker 7: you know, for people who maybe haven't kept up as much,
Speaker 7: Devin didn't really play much in the offseason. He played
Speaker 7: some defense, but he didn't really bad at all on
Speaker 7: the live scrimmages. He had surgery once ball was over.
Speaker 7: You know, he's not someone who you know, coming off
Speaker 7: of a tough year, has really even probably got to
Speaker 7: make many adjustments. So he hit third the other day
Speaker 7: in that second game. You know, I thought it was
Speaker 7: a vote of confidence there from the staff that they
Speaker 7: believe in him coming off of a tough year, that
Speaker 7: he can still get the job done. And he had
Speaker 7: one ball that did pretty well. That's a short start. Yeah,
Speaker 7: just kind of hit it right where he.
Speaker 1: Was really needed it. He put a good swing on
Speaker 1: the ball.
Speaker 7: But yeah, well you take that over some of the
Speaker 7: outcomes that they have some some other guys you know,
Speaker 7: went down swinging or watching in some cases. You know.
Speaker 7: The thing with the catcher spot to on her Menjion
Speaker 7: is they've really kind of whoever the starter has been
Speaker 7: for the for the most part, I wouldn't say this
Speaker 7: is always in the case. For the most part, they
Speaker 7: they kind of ride it out with one guy a lot.
Speaker 7: I mean, they'll and Burks is someone who's logged a
Speaker 7: lot of innings for Kentucky. So but I will be
Speaker 7: curious to know it's healthy a you know, I think
Speaker 7: if you're going to call him a backup or whatever,
Speaker 7: he's much better than than many of the backup catchers.
Speaker 7: I mean that Kentucky's had.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no question about that. Uh.
Speaker 2: And one thing you know they love about Devin is
Speaker 2: the way he handles pitchers, especially young pitchers. They have
Speaker 2: made no secret of that. There have been other catchers
Speaker 2: on roster, on the roster who might hit a little better,
Speaker 2: but even and that's how he kind of broke into
Speaker 2: the lineup. If you'll recall a couple three years ago,
Speaker 2: towards the end of the season, you know, and it
Speaker 2: was just a way that he carried himself. And you know,
Speaker 2: he's they call him the happiest man in baseball.
Speaker 1: For a reason.
Speaker 2: But I really am curious to see how that's going
Speaker 2: to play out. We're talking with Derek Terry Batcats Central
Speaker 2: about the Wildcats, who opened up splitting a series last
Speaker 2: weekend of two games with lifts coming. Of course, they've
Speaker 2: got Belmont in Nashville again this weekend.
Speaker 1: We've gone a while before.
Speaker 2: We've talked about second base and Luke Lawrence wins the
Speaker 2: starting job, leads off both games, has a couple of
Speaker 2: hits and three runs batted in in the series opener.
Speaker 2: You talked about some huge spikes to fill with. Keep
Speaker 2: three moving on, man, But they do like him a lot,
Speaker 2: don't they.
Speaker 7: They do. You know, he's a guy too. Whenever they
Speaker 7: signed him at Illinois State, he played several positions. You know,
Speaker 7: we talked about how they f I'm Peltier coming as
Speaker 7: a starter. He could probably say the same thing about Lawrence.
Speaker 7: He might have been their shortstop, you know, had they'll
Speaker 7: not come to school. So he gives Kentucky another good
Speaker 7: defensive piece up the middle, and he's an the lead
Speaker 7: off hitter. He played that role in the fall, and
Speaker 7: he carried that right end of the season where he
Speaker 7: he's setting the tone for him a good experience veteran player.
Speaker 7: And another thing too that I like. I mean, these
Speaker 7: days he kind of the whole program building aspect that
Speaker 7: still exists, but early it's kind of just year to
Speaker 7: year now. But the biggest thing that I like about
Speaker 7: Luke is you know he's got He's got another year
Speaker 7: after this, so you know, if they do it in
Speaker 7: a way that uh, he's back next year. You know,
Speaker 7: this middle infield of bell And and Lawrence could could
Speaker 7: have sixty something games or whatever potentially under their under
Speaker 7: their belt. This year and come back next year, and
Speaker 7: he's sold bit better about the long term outlook. But
Speaker 7: I mean, I think that the third base spot is
Speaker 7: really that is really the one that as opposed to UH.
Speaker 7: In addition, I guess to catcher, you know who's gonna
Speaker 7: play third He's seen her air, He's seen Hindle, so
Speaker 7: it started. I think Garget could be a guy that
Speaker 7: UH plays over there too, So we'll see. These are
Speaker 7: positions they were so close coming out of the fall
Speaker 7: that you had to expect that. You know, a couple
Speaker 7: of guys are going to get their opportunities. And I
Speaker 7: do like the long term outlook for a guy like
Speaker 7: and handled, but your hero has just stayed in the
Speaker 7: program and he's kept developing and when he's gotten this chance,
Speaker 7: you know, I've always felt like he was a guy
Speaker 7: who could help them. So we'll see. Everything else looks
Speaker 7: pretty settled, but the catcher spot in third base, So
Speaker 7: those are the two that I think as the season goes,
Speaker 7: who's going to step up? And will someone take control
Speaker 7: of those spots? And ended up being their leader at
Speaker 7: those positions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they they've had some question marks. It seems like
Speaker 2: at at third base for a few years now. I
Speaker 2: mean Jace Felker, uh for a while there, you know,
Speaker 2: good stick, but you kind of you had to wonder
Speaker 2: about his glove a little bit. And uh, I remember
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago Isaiah Buyers came in and
Speaker 2: they thought he would be the guy and and and
Speaker 2: had the physical skills, but got hurt and you know,
Speaker 2: they they ended up just kind of trying to patch
Speaker 2: work the lineup together. But you know, but it's college baseball.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's it's always question marks like that.
Speaker 2: And uh, I don't know. I think the things kind
Speaker 2: of leveled off last year in a good way for
Speaker 2: the Wildcats, so you can only hope the same happens
Speaker 2: this season. But you bring up a great point about
Speaker 2: the future and with so much consternation about the portal
Speaker 2: and nil, you know, and now the Skyllie numbers are
Speaker 2: going to go up and finally be a lot healthier
Speaker 2: for college baseball. But it's kind of ironic to me, Derek,
Speaker 2: that college baseball coaches have had to deal with a
Speaker 2: revolving door for years and years. Can as you recalled,
Speaker 2: for a while, there might have been back when you
Speaker 2: were in college if you transferred in college athletics, you
Speaker 2: had to city year unless you were playing women's basketball
Speaker 2: or baseball, and you can play it right away. So
Speaker 2: you know, the constant movement was just a constant, if
Speaker 2: you will. In baseball now it seems like baseball you
Speaker 2: sign a kid and he's going to be there for
Speaker 2: two or three years. It seems like baseball now, oddly enough,
Speaker 2: is more secure than the other sports, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, I think it's a great big picture to
Speaker 7: look at it. I mean, this is a sport that
Speaker 7: is very difficult to understand. I mean I still have
Speaker 7: covered it for a while, still don't know that I
Speaker 7: fully like drafts, everything about some of the kind of
Speaker 7: inside baseball stuff. A scholarship advantages depending on financial aid
Speaker 7: for certain states. You know are in Kentucky we have
Speaker 7: keys money, but other states have some other systems that
Speaker 7: make it a little bit easier. You want to recruit
Speaker 7: more kids in state that you can not have to
Speaker 7: allot some of your eleven point seven on those guys.
Speaker 7: So going to whatever the scholarship numbers end up being,
Speaker 7: I'm still waiting to kind of get the full details
Speaker 7: on that before diving in a little bit more. You
Speaker 7: know what I think is interesting, and this is not
Speaker 7: me commenting saying it's right or wrong. Kentucky still sign
Speaker 7: a pretty what I would consider to be a pretty
Speaker 7: large high school class coming in next year. Any of
Speaker 7: the draft that might take some of that, and we'll
Speaker 7: see if they make any kind of adjustments this on
Speaker 7: thirteen and moving forward, I think rosters are going to
Speaker 7: be right around thirty five. That's a pretty big number
Speaker 7: because I think you see in some other sports football,
Speaker 7: that's what it means all rectatinos quoth the other night
Speaker 7: that they're not even going to recruit high school players
Speaker 7: for this upcoming year. So for Kentucky to make that decision,
Speaker 7: you know, they might still be trying to keep that
Speaker 7: long term. You know, get guys if they like, from
Speaker 7: high school into the program and develop them there for
Speaker 7: a few years. So if there is a payoff there,
Speaker 7: if you're able to do that, well, but what's the
Speaker 7: short term Unless you're signing thirteen guys that you think
Speaker 7: can all help you that one season, it's pretty big
Speaker 7: chunk of of you know, scholarship capital, but you're putting
Speaker 7: on young guys, so it cuts you down in some
Speaker 7: other areas. I'll just be fascinated to see. Is that
Speaker 7: what they're planning going to be moving forward? Do they
Speaker 7: want to keep tilling double digit numbers? I believe. I
Speaker 7: saw Georgia might have only signed four or five guys. Yeah,
Speaker 7: for this upcoming class, they're going to keep recruiting portal guys.
Speaker 7: And it's kind of different than what you would think,
Speaker 7: right because Kentucky has been so good with the portal
Speaker 7: and baseball, ude might think they will leave a little
Speaker 7: bit more space. So we'll see. That'll be one of
Speaker 7: the areas I'm really curious to see how to they
Speaker 7: adjust that year every year moving forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what Derek's referring to as Rick Pattino basically flat
Speaker 2: out said, we're not recruiting high school kids. We got
Speaker 2: to replace X, Y, and Z right now, and you
Speaker 2: can't do that with true freshmen. So they're going to
Speaker 2: hit the portal. Plus he also said in that documentary
Speaker 2: series Money's No Object or something like that. So they've
Speaker 2: got at least one or two sugar daddies for Saint
Speaker 2: John's who are going to pony up the nil up
Speaker 2: there in New York.
Speaker 7: Derek Terry is famous famous Kentucky football and ile downer right.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, Derek Terry is the publisher of Batcat Central.
Speaker 2: Batcatcentral dot com is where you can subscribe. Derek, we'll
Speaker 2: be talking again.
Speaker 7: Thanks so much, all right, thanks for having me on
Speaker 7: up next hour.
Speaker 2: Number two with longtime lexingon sports boys Keith Elkins and
Speaker 2: West End.
Speaker 1: Bureau chief Gary Moore. That's all I add. You're on
Speaker 1: the Big Boom Sider six thirty lap.
Speaker 8: Then teatact given, then.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider joining us
Speaker 2: now is a longtime friend and a guy whose voice
Speaker 2: is very familiar here in Keith Elkins, formerly the sports
Speaker 2: director at w l e X, longtime radio voice of
Speaker 2: the Lexing and Legends. You can hear his podcast the
Speaker 2: Sports Page on w UKY, the UK campus station, and
Speaker 2: also if you're a high school basketball fan, you can
Speaker 2: see him and hear him on YouTube on the glack
Speaker 2: cod broadcasts of a high school basketball girls and boys
Speaker 2: here in Lexing.
Speaker 1: You know, for a guy, you're like me. For a
Speaker 1: guy who's retired, Keith, you're pretty busy.
Speaker 9: Well, I think in retirement you try to stay busy,
Speaker 9: but maybe a little more on your own terms. But
Speaker 9: it is it is fun to stay active and maybe
Speaker 9: with a little more limited schedule, but I'm enjoying it
Speaker 9: very much.
Speaker 2: I see you at the basketball games, the men's games Kentucky.
Speaker 2: You bump into each other, and of course you covered
Speaker 2: that program for a long time. Things have changed so
Speaker 2: much since you and I work those games regularly. But
Speaker 2: it's a little bit of a throwback this year, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Where You've got guys who came in and a lot
Speaker 2: of them will just be here for the one year
Speaker 2: the Big Blue Nations really wrapped its arms around this team,
Speaker 2: hasn't it.
Speaker 9: You can feel that at rep Arena. I think the
Speaker 9: atmosphere has lifted this year. There seems to be more
Speaker 9: energy inside the arena, and they've really embraced this team
Speaker 9: and of course this coach. After the initial doubts, everyone
Speaker 9: seemed to be on board just within forty eight hours
Speaker 9: or so of Mark Cope's hiring, and that doesn't seem
Speaker 9: to have changed, even though there have been a couple
Speaker 9: of bumps in the road in this season, but overall,
Speaker 9: it's been great and it's been a lot of fun
Speaker 9: to watch, and they seem to be enjoying playing that
Speaker 9: style for him, and we only hope that things will
Speaker 9: get better as they go on, and they've been pretty
Speaker 9: good this year, so he's off to a great start
Speaker 9: and it is a terrific atmosphere. Good to be a
Speaker 9: fan right now.
Speaker 2: As a guy who has covered this team and has
Speaker 2: just been able to sit back and watch as well.
Speaker 2: You know this though, expectations from Kentucky fans, I don't
Speaker 2: care who's out there are always sky high. And you
Speaker 2: covered some of the best teams, you know, and it's
Speaker 2: understandable that people expected the best. And I think that
Speaker 2: the early wins by this team over the likes of
Speaker 2: Duke and some others suddenly that people thinking not just ooh,
Speaker 2: if we could just be five hundred in the sec
Speaker 2: you know, then it became much more than that. But
Speaker 2: injuries have caught up with them. What do you see
Speaker 2: in terms of the postseason for this team. I'm not
Speaker 2: asking to make predictions, but you know, what do you
Speaker 2: think fans should expect?
Speaker 9: Well, I think obviously the fans are going to want
Speaker 9: a win or two in the NCAAA tournament after what's
Speaker 9: happened over the last few years. But I think it's
Speaker 9: realistic to expect some success in the NCAA tournament, but
Speaker 9: it's so tough that you could I can see them
Speaker 9: beating anybody in the field, but it's hard to see
Speaker 9: them winning five or six in a row against really
Speaker 9: good competitions. So if you can get past the first weekend,
Speaker 9: I think that would keep the excitement going. You definitely
Speaker 9: need a way to avoid having the atmosphere turned down
Speaker 9: a little bit, But I think it's fair to expect
Speaker 9: a win or two from this team in the NCAAA
Speaker 9: and also the SEC tournament. Yeah, gets showing there too,
Speaker 9: And what to feel that is. I hear people saying
Speaker 9: that it's a tougher path to the SEC final than
Speaker 9: it is to the final four, and that may well
Speaker 9: be true. So it's an incredible year in SEC basketball,
Speaker 9: but that will be an especially tough tournament to play in.
Speaker 9: But they'll be looking for some success there too, especially
Speaker 9: after the opening statements that Pope made it his initial
Speaker 9: press conference about putting more emphasis on that. So people
Speaker 9: are looking forward to that. Expectations are high as always.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's common sense it's going to be tougher
Speaker 2: to win to get to the SEC championship game, perhaps
Speaker 2: than the nca tournament, just given how well the SEC
Speaker 2: has shown out this year. But on the other hand,
Speaker 2: what better preparation for the nca tournament than this brutal
Speaker 2: slog of a schedule that all these SEC teams are playing.
Speaker 9: You know, it's true, and each time that the home
Speaker 9: game would come up, and I'm going as a fan
Speaker 9: now and here's another good game. There's another good team
Speaker 9: against the top twenty five team, and you head on
Speaker 9: the road, and any SEC win on the road is
Speaker 9: a good win. But this year it's especially tough because
Speaker 9: all these teams have accomplished so much themselves. So you
Speaker 9: talked about having a five hundred record in the SEC, Well,
Speaker 9: that may turn out to be a pretty good performance.
Speaker 9: You've turned in a lot of good games to get
Speaker 9: a five hundred record. It's just incredible, and it's got
Speaker 9: to be I would think a good training ground or
Speaker 9: a good proving ground for later play in the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 9: But at the same time, you might get beaten down
Speaker 9: a little bit too. So I think they can draw
Speaker 9: on the experience, and we've seen that too, but I
Speaker 9: think they can draw on the experience and be even
Speaker 9: more ready for NCAA tournament. Play having been through this.
Speaker 2: Talking to Keith Elkins. He is a semi retired sportscaster,
Speaker 2: but extremely busy and as I mentioned earlier, one of
Speaker 2: his duties is I doubt if you think of it
Speaker 2: as a duty as hosting the sports Page podcast for WUKY.
Speaker 2: Through the years, You've probably been asked this more than once,
Speaker 2: but did you have you had any and I don't
Speaker 2: want to put you on the spot, but any podcast
Speaker 2: interviews that I don't want to call him a favorite,
Speaker 2: but one that turned out maybe you better than you thought,
Speaker 2: or one that you had really worked like heck to
Speaker 2: get and finally were able to nail it down.
Speaker 9: Well, there's probably been a few that would fall into
Speaker 9: that category. I would say, maybe, speaking more generally, the
Speaker 9: ones that I seem to have had the most fun
Speaker 9: with anyway, and I've enjoyed them all of course, But
Speaker 9: the ones that have seemed to have been the most
Speaker 9: fun are talking to the guys who played back when
Speaker 9: we were in school, back in the early seventies. And
Speaker 9: it was very nice to see that nineteen seventy five
Speaker 9: team honored recently at Rapparta. That was a great team
Speaker 9: who'd gone through a very interesting career with their freshman
Speaker 9: class and then the thirteen and thirteen year and then
Speaker 9: bouncing back with the final game appearance in seventy five.
Speaker 9: So talking to guys from that era like Jerry Hale
Speaker 9: or Jim Andrews, that proved to be the most fun
Speaker 9: for me because that brought back the years of being
Speaker 9: in the colisseum and watching those guys play, and they
Speaker 9: were really fun to watch and so glad to see
Speaker 9: them get that attention at this reason. I can't believe
Speaker 9: it's fiftieth anniversary, but that's what it was, and so
Speaker 9: fifty years since then. I know you were a part
Speaker 9: of that as well, and it was good to see
Speaker 9: those guys out there on the floor and acknowledging the applause.
Speaker 9: So I'd say probably from that era has been the favorite.
Speaker 9: I enjoyed really talking with Marty Brenneman back last year.
Speaker 9: That was fun. I mean I did baseball for on
Speaker 9: a different level, of course, but for a long time
Speaker 9: and get to talk to him and get some of
Speaker 9: his insights. The main thing about the podcast is you
Speaker 9: get to talk to people for thirty or forty minutes
Speaker 9: and you get into a conversation as opposed to trying
Speaker 9: to grab a sound bite and put it together for
Speaker 9: a newscast. So that's been the most enjoyable part about
Speaker 9: the broadcast. And there have been several favorites, so it'd
Speaker 9: be hard to pin down one particular favorite. But as
Speaker 9: far as the era is concerned, I think talking to
Speaker 9: those guys who played I was in school, and it
Speaker 9: goes for football too. I talked to Joe Beettersfield and
Speaker 9: that was a lot of time because I watched him
Speaker 9: play in the early seventies, and he talked about had
Speaker 9: they have to get dressed over in the basketball locker
Speaker 9: rooms memorial colisume and walk over to stall Field, and
Speaker 9: so I thought, well, things have changed a lot there,
Speaker 9: but that's the way it was. That was life at
Speaker 9: a at a basketball school in those days.
Speaker 2: You also talk to Art Still, and you can go
Speaker 2: back and listen to these in the archives at w
Speaker 2: u K Y excuse me, dot Org. Art is a
Speaker 2: character you know whenever you and I love talking to him,
Speaker 2: but you gotta you gotta kind of keep the reins
Speaker 2: in on him, don't you.
Speaker 9: You have to try, But I'm not sure anybody is
Speaker 9: really successful in doing that with Art Still. You asked
Speaker 9: a question, and I'm just reminded of the old Brisco
Speaker 9: Darling lion on the Andy Griffiths Show. If you were
Speaker 9: a fan of that, when they get ready to play,
Speaker 9: and Brisco Darling would say, just jump in and hang on.
Speaker 9: That's right, and that's and that's what you feel like
Speaker 9: when you're when you're talking to art Field, just jump
Speaker 9: in and hang on because the interview.
Speaker 7: Is not going to go.
Speaker 9: You can make some notes that maybe have some more
Speaker 9: questions ready, but you they have no idea whether an
Speaker 9: interview is going to go. But what's funny is.
Speaker 7: To talk to you. Though.
Speaker 9: I got finished with that and I thought, I'm not
Speaker 9: sure what happened there, but I know we got to
Speaker 9: talk for thirty or forty minutes.
Speaker 1: That's all right.
Speaker 2: We'll talk more with Keith Elkins on the other side
Speaker 2: of the break here on the Big Boom Sider six
Speaker 2: thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: We're talking with Keith Elkins, longtime sports cast here and
Speaker 2: lexing in at WLX.
Speaker 1: He worked lexing in Legends games.
Speaker 2: For several years, a host of the sports Page podcast
Speaker 2: for wuky dot org, and also you can hear and
Speaker 2: see his work on YouTube. As he works high school
Speaker 2: games for Black cod along with Sean Woods, who you
Speaker 2: hear right here on my show every week. Anybody in
Speaker 2: the particular caught your eye in terms of the high
Speaker 2: school kids, boys or girls this year. I know you
Speaker 2: see a lot a lot of kids appear in front
Speaker 2: of you, but has anybody jumped off the page at you?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 9: I did get to see the Great Crossing team play
Speaker 9: at Henry Cicky a couple of weeks ago, and of
Speaker 9: course they have Malachai Moreno who is headed for UK
Speaker 9: and it was really nice to get to see him play.
Speaker 9: What an athlete he is. He's very smooth even in
Speaker 9: his high school years. He's a bit thin right now,
Speaker 9: but that's going to change, of course as he gets
Speaker 9: into a college program. And he looks like he just
Speaker 9: has all the skills you need. We didn't see too
Speaker 9: much of outside shooting like you do from the big
Speaker 9: men these days, but he can really get up and
Speaker 9: down the floor and handle the ball well. And he
Speaker 9: has a nice touch the free throw line, which would
Speaker 9: indicate that he could eventually increase his shooting range too.
Speaker 9: But they've got another guy, Vince Dawson, who hit the
Speaker 9: winning shot in the regional final last year, and I
Speaker 9: believe he's headed for Morehead and what a terrific shooter
Speaker 9: he is. And he's about six five, but he seems
Speaker 9: to have almost unlimited range out there. And that's probably
Speaker 9: been the most impressive team that I've seen. But it's
Speaker 9: fun to what's the local schools here too, seeing a
Speaker 9: lot of the Lexington schools. Bryan Station has a fun
Speaker 9: team to watch. They like to pressure the ball, get
Speaker 9: up and down the floor, and score and Mario Owens
Speaker 9: is their standout player, their leading scorer. And it's just
Speaker 9: been getting back into the high school scene and you
Speaker 9: forget about having seen you get to see such good
Speaker 9: athletes on a regular basis. And it's really been a
Speaker 9: lot of fun to do football and basketball with Glycott.
Speaker 9: And you mentioned working with Sean Woods on some of
Speaker 9: these games, and he really brings the energy to the broadcasts.
Speaker 9: And so whatever audience you're broadcasting to, Dick, as you
Speaker 9: well know, and I'm sure you could approach it this way.
Speaker 9: You want to do your very best possible job. So
Speaker 9: it's been fun to work at this and try to
Speaker 9: do the best job I can on the play by play.
Speaker 9: And it's still As we said earlier, it's nice to
Speaker 9: be active. It's nice to be doing some things, but
Speaker 9: maybe on a little more reduced schedule. But this high
Speaker 9: school thing has really been fun. We're looking forward to
Speaker 9: at tournament.
Speaker 1: Time, Keith.
Speaker 2: Recently there was a survey of media people here in
Speaker 2: town who voted the top high school players of all time,
Speaker 2: which is a fool's er and really because how do
Speaker 2: you compare eras? But it was kind of fun for
Speaker 2: me going back. You and I would go back essentially
Speaker 2: the same amount of time. But you know, Jack Gibbins
Speaker 2: was voted the all time great player coming out of election,
Speaker 2: but just in the time you and I have covered
Speaker 2: election in high schools, I mean, I never got to
Speaker 2: see these great teams from the fifties and sixties play,
Speaker 2: but it is pretty incredible. And I don't know if
Speaker 2: UK set the tone or vice versa. You know, just
Speaker 2: the incredible high school players that have come.
Speaker 1: Out of this city.
Speaker 9: Oh yes, there have been just a great number of them.
Speaker 9: My time in lection goes back to the seventies, and
Speaker 9: of course during that time they were regularly playing high
Speaker 9: school games a Memorial Coliseum scheduling. Then it wasn't just
Speaker 9: like a last minute thing where suddenly somebody had a
Speaker 9: good recruit coming in or something and you moved it.
Speaker 9: These were scheduled at the beginning of the year. It
Speaker 9: would indicate on I'll say a Lafayette scheduled that Lafia
Speaker 9: would play Bryan Station at Memorial Coliseum, and so it
Speaker 9: was just a great era at that time. Dirk Minifield
Speaker 9: was probably the best that I covered during that time
Speaker 9: at nineteen seventy nine Lafayette team. For those old enough
Speaker 9: to remember those of a certain age, that's probably the
Speaker 9: best high school team I've seen in person. And I
Speaker 9: really enjoyed watching those guys play, and Dirk was the
Speaker 9: leader of that team, as you know. And then of
Speaker 9: course Jack Gibbons and James Lee were there at the
Speaker 9: same time at Jacket Bryan Station and James Henry Clay
Speaker 9: and there were some other great players around the city
Speaker 9: too at that time. So I guess maybe we have
Speaker 9: a tendency to go back to when we were young.
Speaker 9: But those guys that would certainly get a lot of
Speaker 9: the support from me if I were voting in that poll.
Speaker 9: But there have been some great ones down through the
Speaker 9: years that seemed to be a particularly good Ere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up that seventy nine team.
Speaker 2: And you know, they had some of us voters come
Speaker 2: together and they put a TV special together our discussions
Speaker 2: about the high of the kids that we all voted on.
Speaker 1: Of course they had to edit it down.
Speaker 2: One of the comments I made that didn't make the
Speaker 2: show was I mentioned Minifield's Lafayette team, and I'd love
Speaker 2: that team. I covered that season start to finish, and
Speaker 2: we probably I worked at WVOK at the time, probably
Speaker 2: broadcast a third to a half of their games when
Speaker 2: you factor in the Sweet sixteen and the regional and
Speaker 2: district tournaments. But that, as you well know, that team
Speaker 2: saved the Sweet sixteen in my opinion, because it was
Speaker 2: the first the Sweet sixteen format as we know it,
Speaker 2: so the first time it was played in Rupp Arena,
Speaker 2: and as you know, the crowds really turned out. And
Speaker 2: then two years later when it rotated back with Vergie
Speaker 2: and Mason County and those teams, I mean, it was
Speaker 2: crazy the crowds. But that's seventy nine team with mister
Speaker 2: Basketball who was going to Kentucky, sold a ton of
Speaker 2: tickets and it really I think revitalized the Kentucky State
Speaker 2: Tournament because there were factions that won class basketball. You know,
Speaker 2: the way they tore up the Indiana State championships. They
Speaker 2: ruined it in Indiana and they've tried to go back
Speaker 2: to it and they can't. And now what I think,
Speaker 2: Kentucky and Delaware are the only states that have, you know,
Speaker 2: the format where even the smaller school can jump up
Speaker 2: and win, and that has happened. It happened with Lion
Speaker 2: County last year. But yeah, that was a that was
Speaker 2: a great moment, I thought, and a vital one in
Speaker 2: the history of high school basketball.
Speaker 9: It was very important at that time because things were
Speaker 9: beginning to shift. And Indiana a few years later did
Speaker 9: go to class basketball. And I don't talk to many
Speaker 9: fans anywhere near my age who like it at all.
Speaker 9: So I think they've lost they've lost something special. I
Speaker 9: grew up in southern Indiana, so I know what the
Speaker 9: tournament was like when I was growing up in our
Speaker 9: sectional time, which comparison to district here, that was just
Speaker 9: the community just stops to follow basketball. And so that's
Speaker 9: just the way it was. But the tournament here, with
Speaker 9: the success of the and the attraction of that nineteen
Speaker 9: seventy nine Lofia team that really did, I think, keep
Speaker 9: things in place for a while. And it was it
Speaker 9: was more than just a good team. It just seemed
Speaker 9: to be a team that you just couldn't you couldn't
Speaker 9: turn away from. Jock Sutherland was the coach, and yep,
Speaker 9: he was a character as we all know, and he
Speaker 9: had his what do he called the jail house junk
Speaker 9: defense and it helps, you can call it whatever you want.
Speaker 9: When you got Dirk Winnifield and Junior Johnson and Tony
Speaker 9: Wilson to protect the rim, and they just had a
Speaker 9: great team full of great athletes. One of the reserves
Speaker 9: on that team was Jeff Parrott who went on to
Speaker 9: a long career in the Big League and yeah, it's
Speaker 9: for UK, but so they had some great athletes and
Speaker 9: it all came together for him that year and they
Speaker 9: played an important role in keeping the tournament where it
Speaker 9: is and the atmosphere at that time and the crowds
Speaker 9: at rough I mean, it was just really something to
Speaker 9: see and something to experience.
Speaker 2: And you know, one of the teams that Lafayette had
Speaker 2: to get past, as you know, it was Brian's Station
Speaker 2: with Melvin Turpin, and they had more than just Melvine.
Speaker 1: They had kids who went on to play Leroy Byrd
Speaker 1: who played Contempt. He was on that team.
Speaker 2: So just imagine high school basketball back then. A couple
Speaker 2: of minutes left with Keith Dilkans, I did mention that
Speaker 2: you were the voice of the legends, and that is
Speaker 2: a tough grind doing those minor league games, I know.
Speaker 1: And now they're the legends again.
Speaker 2: I got to think that when they were the counter
Speaker 2: clocks for a while, and that's that's part of I
Speaker 2: think some of the charm of minor league baseball's names
Speaker 2: of change and merchandising and all that.
Speaker 1: That was just pretty awkward, though.
Speaker 2: I got to think, you're you're relieved because you were
Speaker 2: a legend that they are the legends once again.
Speaker 9: Oh absolutely yes. There are nicknames around the minor league
Speaker 9: baseball like the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and the and some
Speaker 9: of the others, some things called the sat Poodles, I think,
Speaker 9: and all sorts of odd names. It's part of it
Speaker 9: is part of as you say that the charm and
Speaker 9: marketing of minor league baseball and minor league baseball's about
Speaker 9: the fans having fun. But sometimes, to borrow baseball metaphor,
Speaker 9: you swing and miss, and I think they swung and
Speaker 9: missed with the with the counter clocks, and now back
Speaker 9: to the Legends is a good thing. They don't have
Speaker 9: the affiliation anymore, which which I kind of miss. I
Speaker 9: always enjoyed looking at on the field and thinking three
Speaker 9: or four of these guys, whether it's the Legends or
Speaker 9: their opponents, are going to be in the big league
Speaker 9: someday and we'll all enjoy watching them play. I mean,
Speaker 9: Bryce Harper hit his first professional home run at this ballpark,
Speaker 9: and so you have that kind of good working for
Speaker 9: you when you have an affiliation. So I do miss
Speaker 9: having an affiliation. But it's great that they're back, and
Speaker 9: great that they're the Legends again. I think that's a
Speaker 9: good thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hunter Pence came through here. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of Jose l two V games through here. They're just
Speaker 1: it's all part of the fun.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 7: J D.
Speaker 9: Martinez is three hundredth home run in the major leagues
Speaker 9: this past season, was a legend. You know, a few labor
Speaker 9: teammates in twenty ten.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Keith, thank you so much as always, and keep
Speaker 2: an eye on w uky dot org. If you haven't
Speaker 2: heard the podcast, go back and listen to the archived episodes.
Speaker 2: I promise you you'll find them entertaining. And I hope
Speaker 2: to see you at a high school game soon.
Speaker 9: I'm sure we will meet up soon, Dick.
Speaker 2: Thank you up next, Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore, as
Speaker 2: we wrap up the week here on six thirty WLAP,
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Big Boon Cider. It is Friday,
Speaker 2: but we were bumped Wednesday by Bashky Boo. So our
Speaker 2: West End Burea Chief Gary Moore is joining us to
Speaker 2: wrap up the week basically, and he is on the
Speaker 2: other end of sixty four.
Speaker 1: And I guess you had to throw another couple of
Speaker 1: logs on the fire.
Speaker 10: That's a chili one out there, isn't it. Yeah, Buddy
Speaker 10: wind Child even in here, well, we got two guys
Speaker 10: in a six pack, you and me, and six things
Speaker 10: to talk about.
Speaker 1: We'll lead off with the beauty of seeing spring.
Speaker 10: Training return yesterday on an MLB network near you.
Speaker 1: And I was so into I was.
Speaker 10: Just loaded with good vibes yesterday, Dick, until about the
Speaker 10: second inning when former Louisville pitcher Bobby Miller, who's trying
Speaker 10: a comeback this year, took a comebacker off of his
Speaker 10: forehead at about one hundred and five miles an hour.
Speaker 10: And if you saw that, but man, you talk about it,
Speaker 10: that's always a scary scene, especially with somebody that you
Speaker 10: kind of know. And he got up. He's in concussion
Speaker 10: protocol right now, but man, that.
Speaker 1: Was scary for a while.
Speaker 10: Anyway, It's good to see baseball back. Also, it was
Speaker 10: yesterday Dick was the debut of the automatic ball strike
Speaker 10: or ABS challenge system. We've talked about it before, now
Speaker 10: in the majors sort of. Now it's in the minor
Speaker 10: league's Triple A teams have been using it for the
Speaker 10: last couple of years. Sixty percent of MLB spring training
Speaker 10: parks have this ABS, including the Dodgers obviously in Arizona.
Speaker 10: It seemed to work okay the couple of times that
Speaker 10: I saw it kind of reminds me of like if
Speaker 10: you're watching Wimbledon or some of the tennis, you can
Speaker 10: see when they challenge a ball being in or out.
Speaker 10: It's kind of the baseball version of that. It only
Speaker 10: takes about ten to fifteen seconds to do it, so
Speaker 10: it's done very very quickly. Dodger pitcher Landon Nax's seen
Speaker 10: it himself the last couple of years being in the
Speaker 10: minor leagues and said that it seems to be calibrated.
Speaker 10: The strike zone seems to be calibrated from park to park.
Speaker 10: In the minor leagues, that might be something to look at.
Speaker 10: But you, being a former umpire, do you like this
Speaker 10: now coming into vogue in the majors.
Speaker 2: Well, quite frankly, no, But I cannot defend and professional
Speaker 2: umpires anymore. My brother has been one for fifty he's
Speaker 2: been an umpire and filled in on the Triple A
Speaker 2: level at one point. No, I can't because simply because
Speaker 2: the strike zones have become so wildly inconsistent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they are not called per the rule book.
Speaker 2: If they were, I firmly believe that it would speed
Speaker 2: up the game, you know. But it's just incredible when
Speaker 2: you see pitches that are, you know, two to six
Speaker 2: inches off the plate called strikes. You cannot defend that,
Speaker 2: even the guys at the highest level anymore so. And
Speaker 2: of course, Gary, this is one door. When you go
Speaker 2: through it, it's gonna slam shut. You're not gonna go back.
Speaker 10: You get to Each team gets two challenges, and if
Speaker 10: you keep winning the challenges, you get to keep the challenge,
Speaker 10: so it's not like you lose the challenge even if
Speaker 10: you win or lose. So yeah, but only two is good, right,
Speaker 10: so it's not overdone. Are a second swig in the
Speaker 10: six pack, also with the arrival of spring training, and
Speaker 10: it's actually been the case all winter, incessant whining about
Speaker 10: payroll disparity with the Dodgers world champion, Dodgers leading the way,
Speaker 10: the Mets in second place so far in opening day payrolls,
Speaker 10: Smaller market teams and their fans complain, well, we can't compete,
Speaker 10: even though every team is worth at least a billion dollars,
Speaker 10: and others can spend the money however they want to
Speaker 10: spend it or not spend it. Last year, the Mets
Speaker 10: had the biggest payroll on the opening day. Now, how
Speaker 10: did that work out? And how soon people forget dick that? Arizona, Arizona.
Speaker 10: The Diamondbacks got to the twenty twenty three World Series
Speaker 10: with the twenty first highest payroll. But it's true eight
Speaker 10: of the last ten World champions are top ten in payrolls.
Speaker 10: Dodgers are paying about one hundred and sixty million in
Speaker 10: luxury tax these this year, which is about the combined
Speaker 10: total payrolls of the regular players for the White Sox
Speaker 10: and the Marlins. But look, people want to see stars. Okay,
Speaker 10: Dodgers are paying for stars. Team in Pittsburgh or Cleveland
Speaker 10: or Cincinnati can get stars. That's what people come out
Speaker 10: and want to see. And I give you the minor
Speaker 10: league example of that. Whenever there's a minor league player,
Speaker 10: or whenever the major league player going to the miners
Speaker 10: to rehab, whether it's a Kershaw or maybe a Joey
Speaker 10: Vado here in Louisville, attendance goes up normally. Why Because
Speaker 10: they're stars. People want to see stars, and you can
Speaker 10: pay for them no matter what market that you're in.
Speaker 2: Look if the Kansas City Royals can jump up and
Speaker 2: win the World Series, yep, it can happen. But it's
Speaker 2: hard to argue against the payroll driven teams. But you
Speaker 2: know what the Dodgers also showed us is at least
Speaker 2: for a while there last year you got to say healthy. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, so that's also a factor you got to go.
Speaker 2: But I'm glad you brought up the Mets because and
Speaker 2: I'm really curious to see what they do this.
Speaker 1: Year with Juan Soto. Now, but you know, as you.
Speaker 2: Said, money talks, but everybody has it. And because you're
Speaker 2: in a smaller market, yes, you don't get as much
Speaker 2: TV and radio revenue. We're going to talk about TV
Speaker 2: here in a minute. But your overhead isn't it tough either, right,
Speaker 2: So it can't happen. But I think for the good
Speaker 2: of the game, a team like Cincinnati or Pittsburgh jumping
Speaker 2: up and making a run would really help Major League Baseball.
Speaker 10: And here's the thing about the luxury tax. Some of
Speaker 10: that money goes back to the small market exactly, and
Speaker 10: how they want to spend it or put it in
Speaker 10: their own pockets is up to them, right. But when
Speaker 10: the Dodgers are paying a big chunk of that because
Speaker 10: oh there can't believe they're paying this guy so much money, well,
Speaker 10: some of that money maybe going back to your team
Speaker 10: in luxury tax tax. Good wisely, yep, third swig in
Speaker 10: the six pack for major League baseball. Let's go to
Speaker 10: college baseball. This week, Mother Nature beat UK Louisville and
Speaker 10: Western altogether. All three had to postpone or cancel games
Speaker 10: because of well to step outside that weather that Canada
Speaker 10: sent us some sort of payback for that fifty first
Speaker 10: state nonsense.
Speaker 1: I guess yeah.
Speaker 10: The number twenty three Cats, as we speaker in Nashville
Speaker 10: for three with Belmont. Western was to play the first
Speaker 10: of three in Bowling Green with loafeyet the day, but
Speaker 10: they've kind of compressed those into tomorrow and so. And
Speaker 10: as for Louisville, same deal with Western Michigan Game one tomorrow,
Speaker 10: two on Sunday. The wrap up things on Monday. And
Speaker 10: by the way, in case anybody missed it, Louisville unranked
Speaker 10: to open the season. They opened with a four to
Speaker 10: three win over number seven Texas we could go today.
Speaker 10: Then they lost to number thirteen Oklahoma State twelve to three.
Speaker 10: Then they whipped number twelve Arizona thirteen to one. Not
Speaker 10: bad to come out of that weekend with a two
Speaker 10: to one record. It's too early, obviously to tell if
Speaker 10: he's turned things around, but we've talked about this before.
Speaker 10: Do not count out Dan McDonald and his staff.
Speaker 2: No, those were big wins because for one thing, I
Speaker 2: clearly they instill confidence, sure, you know, and I always
Speaker 2: go back to the first series Nick Minzione. Ever coached
Speaker 2: as the headman at Kentucky when he took his team
Speaker 2: to North Carolina, ranked tenth in the country, got swept,
Speaker 2: but each game went to the ninth inning, and he
Speaker 2: spent forty five minutes after the third game explaining to
Speaker 2: his players, guys, you can do this.
Speaker 1: We're good. We have a good team.
Speaker 2: I don't know if McDonald needed that level of confidence building,
Speaker 2: but he certainly has it at his disposal. The look
Speaker 2: he's the fifth all time winning his coach since he
Speaker 2: arrived of active head coaches at u of L five
Speaker 2: College World Series.
Speaker 1: Guys, knows what he's doing. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they dipped last year, but don't be surprised if
Speaker 2: they come back now. You know, dollars are being spread
Speaker 2: out in college baseball a bit more equitably now, and frankly,
Speaker 2: U of L had some advantages that other schools had
Speaker 2: for quite a while. But if anybody's going to figure
Speaker 2: it out, it's him, and I really look.
Speaker 10: Forward to the UK versus u of L this year. Said
Speaker 10: something I was just thinking about. I was thinking about
Speaker 10: the UFL players and their minds are thinking, hey, we
Speaker 10: can do this. Yeah, yeah, a number in front of
Speaker 10: our name right now, we can do this.
Speaker 2: We just think that the other thing at UFL though,
Speaker 2: is the guys there's you know, they're standing on the shoulders.
Speaker 1: Of guys who have done it. Yep, just like the
Speaker 1: UK players.
Speaker 10: It's a great legacies there, all right, our fourth swig,
Speaker 10: we're talking college stuff. Let's talk college hoops, and let's
Speaker 10: dedicate one to the ladies.
Speaker 4: Dick.
Speaker 10: Last night, number fourteen, UK wins at Missoo. Not an
Speaker 10: easy thing to do, men or women. That's their second
Speaker 10: road win and actually their second win in a row
Speaker 10: after they lost to in a row.
Speaker 1: Put it that way.
Speaker 10: Number seven Luca's in town Sunday, Dick, Yeah, little miss
Speaker 10: Liberaci wardrobe. Number seven LSU. That's a four o'clock on
Speaker 10: the ESPAD mothership. Also last night, number eleven, Duke goes
Speaker 10: down at Cameron Indoor. Unranked, but not for long. Louisville
Speaker 10: is now nineteen and seven after beating the Duchies. That's
Speaker 10: two road wins in a row over ranked teams with
Speaker 10: the cards who get number nine Cara, North Carolina here
Speaker 10: at the Youum Center two o'clock. That'll be on ESPN
Speaker 10: just before UK and LSU. So you got your Sunday afternoon,
Speaker 10: already scoped out for you. And on down I sixty
Speaker 10: five my WKU Lady Toppers eighteen and seven. They're third
Speaker 10: in Conference USA. And did you know, Dick Gabriel, the
Speaker 10: third best scoring team in women's hoops is right here
Speaker 10: in the state of Kentucky. It's not UK, not Louisville Western,
Speaker 10: my hometown, Murray State Racers eighty seven eighty seven points,
Speaker 10: seven points per game behind Tennessee and number one Florida State.
Speaker 10: The Racers are seventeen and seven. They're third in the
Speaker 10: Missouri Valley Conference. They are coached by a former Murray
Speaker 10: High alum. My high school alma mater, Rochelle Turner. Watch
Speaker 10: out for them in the tournament. They will be there
Speaker 10: in March.
Speaker 1: That's great info.
Speaker 2: Good for them, And it's not easy building a program,
Speaker 2: as you know at Murray, you know, it's kind of
Speaker 2: out there.
Speaker 1: But they've had good baskets.
Speaker 2: They've had great basketball, both men's and women's in the past.
Speaker 10: That was kind of a cool stat They just need
Speaker 10: more support, as all of the women's teams do in basketball.
Speaker 10: Now for the dudes, number seventeen UK, what Mark Pope
Speaker 10: has and you've talked about this, a brand new team
Speaker 10: or less goes against the very pissed off number four Alabama.
Speaker 10: It's lost two in a row. Tomorrow night, six o'clock
Speaker 10: ESPN mothership Bama is fit to be their name after
Speaker 10: Miszoo rang up one hundred and ten on them on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: And we know.
Speaker 10: Exactly about shootouts with these guys, especially at RUP. A
Speaker 10: month ago, Cats lost by five at home against Bama, which,
Speaker 10: by the way, shot fourteen more free throws, as you've
Speaker 10: mentioned than UK did in that game. Something to keep
Speaker 10: an eye on tomorrow and upside, of course, the Cats
Speaker 10: are five and two against teams with winning SEC records.
Speaker 10: On the downside, Cats have only played seven games fully healthy.
Speaker 10: And so here's another one in it's gonna be against
Speaker 10: the number one scoring team in the country. And overhere
Speaker 10: Dick number twenty five Louisvill'es had the whole week off.
Speaker 10: They'll face sixteen and ten Florida State high noon tomorrow,
Speaker 10: Young Center c W Channel Cards are twenty and six
Speaker 10: second in the ACC. They're winners of fourteen of their
Speaker 10: last fifteen. They just keep rolling. And speaking of the
Speaker 10: Cats and the Cards, and if.
Speaker 1: You've seen this you've talked about.
Speaker 10: The Vice Channel has two shows documenting Patino and Caliperie
Speaker 10: that are worth watching.
Speaker 1: I know if you've seen them.
Speaker 10: I mean, there's nothing really edgy or controversial about them
Speaker 10: by design, by the thanks to the coaches, of course.
Speaker 10: But Rick's return to the Top ten glory with Saint
Speaker 10: John's has been pretty interesting despite the differences in the
Speaker 10: team's trajectories that you're seeing on TV. I kind of
Speaker 10: liked the Caliperi when better. The Razor's Edge is the
Speaker 10: name of it because fewer cuss words are getting bleeped out,
Speaker 10: so already I like that. And the one really good
Speaker 10: episode that just ran think the latest one with John.
Speaker 10: It covered his return to rupp Arena. Yep, and all
Speaker 10: the kids that are out front.
Speaker 1: Well we're going to boom him. Yeah, we're gonna but
Speaker 1: we can't wait to boo him.
Speaker 10: Hey, Junior, you were in Huggies when Cal was here,
Speaker 10: saving the program that you're now a part of. Okay,
Speaker 10: so how about a little spec for the Karmen next time?
Speaker 2: Okay, buddy, That's just not the way social media works now,
Speaker 2: does it. But you're right, you know, if you had
Speaker 2: been here I think the people were saying, let's be civilized.
Speaker 2: Are the people who were front and center when Kentucky
Speaker 2: was the thing again in college basketball. I mean, you
Speaker 2: talk about instantaneous. You remember how Kentucky went from irrelevance
Speaker 2: under Gillispie to back to the top of the mountain,
Speaker 2: not just trying to get there, the top of the mountain.
Speaker 2: And Caliperry did it and it was fun. But yeah,
Speaker 2: the people who were doing the loudest, they weren't even
Speaker 2: aware of that.
Speaker 1: And Rick did it too. Sure did took him a
Speaker 1: little longer, but not nearly as long as people thought
Speaker 1: it might.
Speaker 10: No, even the first year was entertaining, that's true, because
Speaker 10: he got him in condition and they shot threes. That
Speaker 10: was one thirteen games, and we didn't think he'd wins
Speaker 10: six final swig in the six pack. Just because a
Speaker 10: college coach gets a big paycheck doesn't mean they're mature,
Speaker 10: responsible men or women, Because with those megabucks comes a
Speaker 10: number of duties, one of which is doing those old
Speaker 10: antiquated radio shows dick where they get paid and sometimes
Speaker 10: get paid extra bucks to do them. Most are happy
Speaker 10: to sing like canaries after when we know that, But
Speaker 10: after a tough loss when fans in the media really
Speaker 10: want to know what went wrong and.
Speaker 1: How are you going to fix it?
Speaker 10: Some head coaches, as we know, send out an assistant
Speaker 10: or an assistance assistant. Cali Perry did it more times
Speaker 10: than I can count because I was bad at math Dick.
Speaker 10: But there's a couple of that come to mind. Well,
Speaker 10: last year after losing to that team from Knoxville at
Speaker 10: Rupp Arena, then you had that course he was Mia
Speaker 10: after that loss to Saint Peter's three years ago, and
Speaker 10: of course there was the only questions from social media.
Speaker 4: Deal.
Speaker 10: Of course that was a pre recorded show, so at
Speaker 10: least he did one of those. But I bring this
Speaker 10: up because up at Indiana, lame duck coach Mike Woodson
Speaker 10: has stopped all together doing post and pregame shows with
Speaker 10: their k wood lad for Don Fisher, even though Woodson's
Speaker 10: contract allegedly requires both. I say, if you don't want
Speaker 10: to talk after a game, then don't take extra dollars.
Speaker 10: If you take the dough man up or woman up
Speaker 10: speak when you lose, evolve, it's unfortunate. I'm glad you
Speaker 10: brought the contract is because it used to work. This
Speaker 10: way head coaches men and women would sign their contract
Speaker 10: with the school, then to sign a contract with the media, partners,
Speaker 10: with the apparel companies, with the shoe companies, and they
Speaker 10: get a variety of paychecks. Now it's all funneled into
Speaker 10: I'm talking about a Kentucky now, but I'm sure it
Speaker 10: has other places.
Speaker 1: It's all funneled into.
Speaker 2: One big pile, and they get one fat paycheck. So
Speaker 2: you can't hold them responsible. I can tell you this
Speaker 2: for a fact, on more than one occasion, more than
Speaker 2: one UK coach heard from Jim Host or whoever saying, look,
Speaker 2: don't do your show. That's fine, you don't get paid,
Speaker 2: and it worked, trust me on that. Gary Morre is
Speaker 2: our West n barrel chief. We'll come back with a
Speaker 2: couple of hot reads for in just a minute here
Speaker 2: on the big bloon Sider six thirty wlap. Welcome back.
Speaker 2: We're talking with our West End beer chief, Gary Moore.
Speaker 2: We have gone through two guys in a six pack.
Speaker 2: Couple of hot reeds will throw at Gary. Hey them,
Speaker 2: you New York Yankees finally are going to be allowed
Speaker 2: to wear beards. They have to be trimmed, you know,
Speaker 2: closely cropped or whatever. But they are relaxing a rule
Speaker 2: that George Steinbrenner Big George big Stein instituted in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy six. Gary, they've been able to wear mustaches. I mean,
Speaker 2: gidry without a mustache. Come on, David Wells had an
Speaker 2: angry mustache. But now they can wear beards. That's gonna
Speaker 2: help him win, isn't it. Goose gossage?
Speaker 10: Yeah, Thurman Munson, you can tell Thurman Munson you got
Speaker 10: a shave.
Speaker 1: Good luck with that.
Speaker 2: Yeahdays, but they was back then it was stash only.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Yeah, Well, Garrett Cole has worn a beard for a
Speaker 10: long time until he got to the Yankee.
Speaker 1: So you gotta be comfortable play the game. It's not
Speaker 1: high school.
Speaker 10: Remember in high school, all the guys got their their
Speaker 10: basketball haircuts, at.
Speaker 1: Least at our high school did. Uh.
Speaker 10: So he didn't look like some kind of a hippie
Speaker 10: running down with you know, he's got hair and a
Speaker 10: shirt collar.
Speaker 2: Get that, get that cleaned up. Who was the one
Speaker 2: of the Phillies who has like a duck dynasty beard?
Speaker 2: I can't never remember, but oh yeah, I'm not a
Speaker 2: Phillies fan. So when everybody you know you saw him
Speaker 2: in the playoffs. Like, wow, I can't imagine playing quote
Speaker 2: unquote the summer game with that kind of hair. I mean,
Speaker 2: you remember, I had a beard for a long time,
Speaker 2: but I kept it pretty close. But we had a
Speaker 2: guy on our adult league baseball team it's actually a hairdresser,
Speaker 2: had a big full I mean, dark hair, beard and
Speaker 2: hair down to his shoulders.
Speaker 1: Didn't bother him, and he was a hell of a hitter.
Speaker 1: M was it hot in the summer for you? Not really, buddy.
Speaker 2: If you keep it clean, you know you're in good shape.
Speaker 2: I can't speak for others, but that's where I was.
Speaker 2: Our second hot read. Uh, this is probably going to
Speaker 2: impact more people than beards. Major League Baseball in ESPN
Speaker 2: are breaking up. I saw that rob Man and Fred
Speaker 2: has said that he thinks they're going to be better
Speaker 2: off going elsewhere because apparently he's not pleased. And I'm
Speaker 2: quoting with the quoting of the New York Post. Well,
Speaker 2: the minimal coverage Major League Baseball has received on ESPN's platforms.
Speaker 1: Over the past several years outside of actual.
Speaker 2: Game coverage, so I guess they're not hearing enough about
Speaker 2: baseball on Sports Center.
Speaker 10: I guess, well, they don't who baseball to night really anymore?
Speaker 10: And must watch TV, And then they spent so much
Speaker 10: money on NBA and football that this is just going
Speaker 10: to kind of take a back seat. Plus MLB has
Speaker 10: kind of farmed out some stuff to like well Apple TV.
Speaker 1: Well now they're going direct to consumer.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, I think I heard Comcast NBC with Peacock
Speaker 10: might be a possibility on this.
Speaker 1: I don't know that.
Speaker 10: The It just seems weird because ESPN has set has
Speaker 10: been set well, he've been with him since nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Do you think losing Baseball Tonight, which baseball fans adored,
Speaker 2: that you had to I guess that was the last straw?
Speaker 10: Maybe, well, and then they kept watering down Sunday Night baseball.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 10: I'm not a fan of Jessica Mendoza at Wardo Perez,
Speaker 10: so I miss Joe Morgan. Joe Morgan and John Miller
Speaker 10: were the best.
Speaker 2: Yeah, rest in peace, Joe Morgan. John Miller sensational, But
Speaker 2: you know, he's he represents one of the dumbest moves
Speaker 2: ever made by a local team when the Orioles let
Speaker 2: him walk and he.
Speaker 1: Goes to the San Francisco Giants.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'm a big fan of his, well, not
Speaker 2: just for his impressions. ESPN is gonna slide college baseball
Speaker 2: into Sunday night into that time slot, which is great
Speaker 2: for the college game.
Speaker 1: Maybe Kentucky pops up.
Speaker 2: I don't know how that's going to be accepted, but
Speaker 2: we'll be able to see.
Speaker 1: A lot of good young talent. I watch it.
Speaker 10: I have MLB, I have MLB Network, and I've got
Speaker 10: the the games on my phone as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with the program.
Speaker 10: So there you go.
Speaker 1: You gotta wonder about the.
Speaker 2: College games if you're on the road and you're playing
Speaker 2: a Sunday night game getting back for that Monday morning class.
Speaker 1: Good luck with that. He is Gary Moore.
Speaker 10: Follow him on Twitter and the X at at nine
Speaker 10: five five, Gary, the same joint you're found at at
Speaker 10: Big Blue Insider one.
Speaker 2: Stay warm over there, my brother, Back at you, brother,
Speaker 2: and that's going to do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Gary, Thanks to Derek Terry and Keith Ewcans.
Speaker 2: A reminder, Kentucky basketball tomorrow, the guys take on Alabama.
Speaker 2: That's a six o'clock start on ESPN. We'll have it
Speaker 2: for you with local coverage of three point thirty network
Speaker 2: coverage four thirty Tom and Jack with a call for
Speaker 2: you at six o'clock as the cats try to come
Speaker 2: up with a big one over the Crimson Tie. Gonna
Speaker 2: leave you now now with a movie or TV clip,
Speaker 2: well with a little song about genealogy. This is a
Speaker 2: tune from nineteen forty seven. To try to follow along.
Speaker 2: It's called I'm my own Grandpa. That's right, thanks so
Speaker 2: much for joining us. Stay warm out there, everybody. That's it.
Speaker 1: Good night from the garage in the Lexington.
Speaker 5: Many years ago, when I was twenty three, I was
Speaker 5: married to the Winner, who was pretty asking me this
Speaker 5: switter had a grown up daughter, had hair of red.
Speaker 5: My father, Benny, love with her and were when this
Speaker 5: made my dad a son in law and changed my
Speaker 5: very life. My daughter was my mother, No, she was
Speaker 5: my father's wife. To complicate the matter, even though it
Speaker 5: brought me joy, I soon became the father of.
Speaker 1: A fountain baby boy.
Speaker 5: My little baby then became the brother in law to death,
Speaker 5: and so became my uncle, though it made me very
Speaker 5: sad or if he was my uncle, and also made
Speaker 5: him brother all the Winner's growed up daughter, who of
Speaker 5: course was my stepmother. I'm out grandpa, He's his own dampall.
Speaker 5: It's out funny. I know, Buddy really is a he
Speaker 5: had a grandpa.
Speaker 8: Such seat, such stakes taking the show, anything, anything on
Speaker 8: such back stain. I think the thin tap. Then do
Speaker 8: don't do