Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Oh, guess what day it is? Guess what day it is?
Speaker 3: Huh anybody, It's day.
Speaker 4: What better way to start off hump Day than with
Speaker 4: the way the Kentucky fans were showing their appreciation or
Speaker 4: take a oh Way down the stretch. This happened in
Speaker 4: the closing moments. It was right after Kobe Bray. I
Speaker 4: think it hit him with a lob pass and Ohway
Speaker 4: throws down a dunk and really sealed the game to
Speaker 4: win over Tennessee. Welcome to the Big Boon Sider. Dick
Speaker 4: Gabriel with you on this Wednesday following the Wildcats crucial
Speaker 4: win over Tennessee. And this was I've heard the Way
Speaker 4: chant before, but this was the best example of it.
Speaker 4: And in case you're wondering, and you might already know this,
Speaker 4: if you're a soccer fan, you hear this at soccer games.
Speaker 4: It's it originated in Spain. I had to look it up.
Speaker 4: But what the soccer fans are chanting as olay, which
Speaker 4: means bravo. But where you hear it as often as
Speaker 4: not from what I've read, you hear it from some
Speaker 4: of the fans in Great Britain. You hear it from
Speaker 4: Irish soccer fans. They like to chant olay olay, olay olay.
Speaker 4: Here's what it sounds like from an Irish soccer game.
Speaker 4: So it's only natural that UK fans pick up on it,
Speaker 4: especially when Oway does something terrific like he did last night.
Speaker 4: Coming up tonight, we're gonna hear from Sean Woods, who
Speaker 4: joined us every week, the unforgettable Guard. He'll break down
Speaker 4: the Wildcats win over Tennessee. We'll hear from Gary Moore,
Speaker 4: West End Bureau Chief. I know we'll talk Cats in
Speaker 4: balls with him. Also going to hear from the Wildcats
Speaker 4: from the seven twenty four to seventy five team who
Speaker 4: hated Tennessee, love beating the balls. They were honored over
Speaker 4: the weekend. During that went over South Carolina, which seems
Speaker 4: like it's too far back in the rearview marror. That
Speaker 4: was a great performance by Kentucky against one of the
Speaker 4: have nots, maybe the worst have not of the league,
Speaker 4: but a team that had given other SEC teams fits
Speaker 4: South Carolina, and the Wildcats put everything together and destroyed
Speaker 4: the game Cocks. And during that game, the seventy four
Speaker 4: to seventy five team that made the Final four was
Speaker 4: honored and They had a reception after the game, friends
Speaker 4: and family, and I was actually invited to join them,
Speaker 4: which was very I was very appreciative of that, and
Speaker 4: we talked to some of the players, so we'll hear
Speaker 4: from them coming up in our number two. But last
Speaker 4: night's win, I will admit, surprised me because there was
Speaker 4: no Jackson Robinson. And you remember he had such a
Speaker 4: great game over Tennessee down in Knoxville when the Wildcats
Speaker 4: pulled off a surprise win there, when Kentucky went down
Speaker 4: there and played a really good Tennessee team. How good, Well,
Speaker 4: I don't know, but I will tell you this that
Speaker 4: Kentucky put it all together down there, and Jackson Robinson
Speaker 4: was a big part of that. And as you know,
Speaker 4: he could not play last night, didn't play at all.
Speaker 4: And then with eight minutes and forty one seconds left
Speaker 4: to go, the Wildcats lost Lamont. Butler had played so
Speaker 4: well opened the game with a steal, I mean just
Speaker 4: strips of Kai Ziggler stole the ball, took it in instead,
Speaker 4: a defensive tone for the Wildcats. They played one of
Speaker 4: their best defensive games. Then he goes down hard on
Speaker 4: that shoulder. He was an absolute agony. And left the game,
Speaker 4: and I tweeted about it and I marked it on
Speaker 4: my computer. You know, remember this point in the game
Speaker 4: because we didn't know obviously what would happen next. We
Speaker 4: just knew it would happen and without Lamont Butler, and
Speaker 4: you know what, the Cats went on a tear and
Speaker 4: closed out the game. Depending on where you want to
Speaker 4: start measuring what it was basically seventeen to four to
Speaker 4: twelve to two, and it won the game for the Wildcats.
Speaker 4: And after the game, Mark Pope is opening comments talked about,
Speaker 4: of course how much they respect Tennessee, but what it
Speaker 4: meant to him to get this win and complete the
Speaker 4: sweep of the balls in this his first year.
Speaker 5: We have so I mean, I personally have so much
Speaker 5: respect for coach Barnes. He's one of the best in
Speaker 5: this business. He's got a great team. They're playing amazing basketball.
Speaker 5: They're a top five team in every statistical you know,
Speaker 5: the net, the ap the whole thing. They play hard,
Speaker 5: they played right, they played together, and it was really
Speaker 5: great to be a part of this epic, epic game tonight.
Speaker 2: It just was like it was awesome. I'm so proud
Speaker 2: of our guys.
Speaker 5: We have guys that that I just want to fight
Speaker 5: and compete, and and and we got ballers, right, They
Speaker 5: just want to be ballers, man, They just want to
Speaker 5: come play, and we have guys step up and make
Speaker 5: huge plays. We had some of the young guys step
Speaker 5: up to make huge plays. Really really proud of our guys,
Speaker 5: really happy and just grateful beyond belief that we get
Speaker 5: to be on this magical, incredible journey that you only
Speaker 5: get to do at the University of Kentucky.
Speaker 2: It's pretty great.
Speaker 4: Coming up in a couple of minutes, we're gonna hear
Speaker 4: from Trent Noah, who was one of the stars last
Speaker 4: night and this was the Kentucky Kids game. This was
Speaker 4: Travis Perry and Trent Noah just coming up huge for
Speaker 4: the Wildcats at just the absolute right time when Kentucky
Speaker 4: needed big buckets or big plays. Those guys came through
Speaker 4: true freshman and there were guys who have gotten minutes
Speaker 4: in the past and had some moments, but this was
Speaker 4: really the first game where they did it together in
Speaker 4: such spectacular fashion. With so much on the line, Wildcats
Speaker 4: need to keep pace, need to play for bracketing and
Speaker 4: seating in the SEC Tournament. In the NCAA tournament and
Speaker 4: Travis Perry three for four from the field, two for
Speaker 4: three from outside, Trent Noah three for four from beyond
Speaker 4: the ark and a couple of free throws, so he
Speaker 4: knocks down eleven points, Travis gets eight. They combined for
Speaker 4: nineteen points on six of eight shooting five of seven
Speaker 4: from distance. And in case you're wondering, Travis had a turnover,
Speaker 4: Trent Noah had none. So true freshman playing like that
Speaker 4: for the hometown team. We all know the backstory. Perry
Speaker 4: was a late ad for CALIPERI didn't really want him,
Speaker 4: but took him. Noah was going to South Carolina and
Speaker 4: when Caliperia leaves, he decommits and then commits to Mark
Speaker 4: Pope Anita. One of these guys is going to be
Speaker 4: a first round draft pick. Very likely, maybe they would well,
Speaker 4: who knows, but they fit the style of Mark Pope's team.
Speaker 4: And what did they come in handy last night? So
Speaker 4: did Kobe Brea, who has played much better defensively more
Speaker 4: minutes because Jackson Robinson's out four of nine from the field,
Speaker 4: three of six from distance, scored eleven big points at
Speaker 4: a couple of assists, zero turnovers, two steals in thirty
Speaker 4: three minutes and a guy who has improved that defense.
Speaker 4: But after the game, somebody asked him about the dead
Speaker 4: eye shooting of Trent Noah true freshman.
Speaker 6: His preparation, you know, just so the fact that he's
Speaker 6: coming every single day since he's been here, and he's
Speaker 6: putting like the hardest work, you know, like something that
Speaker 6: every single day you know what you're gonna get from him.
Speaker 6: And it's like not just in games, but the practices.
Speaker 6: Man Like, he goes hard all the time. And it's
Speaker 6: like things like that, you know, they go a little
Speaker 6: bit unnoticed, but it sounds like this, this is where
Speaker 6: you get to light.
Speaker 2: On that a little bit.
Speaker 4: And Mark Pope after the game talked about how hard
Speaker 4: Noah and Perry had been working. In fact, he told
Speaker 4: the story about how the night before the game, he's
Speaker 4: in his office and it was after ten o'clock and
Speaker 4: he might have been meeting with Aim at the recruit
Speaker 4: But the bottom line, I think he did say that
Speaker 4: he was well. He didn't mention him by name, he couldn't,
Speaker 4: but he said he looked out the window his office,
Speaker 4: of course overlooks the Joe Crab practice courd and there's
Speaker 4: Travis Perry after ten o'clock at night down there getting
Speaker 4: up shots. But he just said that's just normal for
Speaker 4: that kid, for this group, for him, for Noah, for
Speaker 4: Colin Chandler, the other freshman who played last night played well.
Speaker 4: But you know, people keep asking on social media about
Speaker 4: the substitution patterns, and look, put that out of your
Speaker 4: mind because there isn't a pattern. This isn't the NBA. Well,
Speaker 4: there is definitely a substitution pattern for every team, at
Speaker 4: least early in the game. But what happens with this team,
Speaker 4: especially giving the injuries, is Pope is subbing as needed.
Speaker 4: You know, maybe Trentonah doesn't belong in a certain game
Speaker 4: with certain matchups, maybe he does. Maybe Perry fits better
Speaker 4: here or there. And plus Pope's still learning about these guys,
Speaker 4: and these guys are getting better every week, so they're
Speaker 4: proving the Pope. Hey, I'm ready, I can go play.
Speaker 4: But that's what's really I think difficult about this Kentucky team.
Speaker 4: You take away Jackson Robinson, they still play well. You
Speaker 4: take away Lamont Butler down the stretch, they close out
Speaker 4: the game. They don't win every game. They played poorly
Speaker 4: at Ole Miss but since then, defense much much better
Speaker 4: and that will carry this team late Final fourteen. Probably
Speaker 4: not a team that can do some serious damage in
Speaker 4: the postseason. You better believe it and you sell why.
Speaker 4: Last night, we'll hear from Trent Noah. Next six point
Speaker 4: thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Coming
Speaker 4: up in just a few minutes, we'll hear from Sean Woods,
Speaker 4: the Unforgettable guard. He will break down last night's when
Speaker 4: over the Tennessee Balls. We'll talk a little bit about
Speaker 4: the South Carolina win as well, and look ahead to
Speaker 4: the Wildcats next outing with the Texas Long Orange. But
Speaker 4: I will tell you guarantee Sean like what he saw
Speaker 4: last night, not just because of the windy bike, but
Speaker 4: because the defense was better and Lamont Butler was back.
Speaker 4: And if you were with us last week and really
Speaker 4: all year long, you've heard Sean Wax poetic about Lamont Butler,
Speaker 4: the Kentucky point guard and an outstanding defender, and both
Speaker 4: of those labels matched Sean Woods during his playing days
Speaker 4: as an unforgettable at Kentucky. In our next hour, we're
Speaker 4: gonna hear from some of the members of the seventy
Speaker 4: four to seventy five team. They got together. They were
Speaker 4: honored over the weekend at the South Carolina game and
Speaker 4: then they had a reception both before and after the game.
Speaker 4: But I was invited. It was very kind of Jerry Hale,
Speaker 4: who was a guard on that team and one of
Speaker 4: the super Kittens, to invite me to come to that
Speaker 4: get together. He said, you know, you were one of us,
Speaker 4: and actually it was very touching to me. But I
Speaker 4: was in school at the same time as these guys.
Speaker 4: It was my second year at UK and I was
Speaker 4: writing sports with the Colonel. I covered that team, and
Speaker 4: I've stayed in touch with so many of those guys since.
Speaker 4: And Jerry's great wife, Pat is a tear and now
Speaker 4: is retired teacher at Henry Clay High School. She taught
Speaker 4: my children. So a lot of those guys stuck around
Speaker 4: part of the community. You see him at games. Of course,
Speaker 4: Jack Gibbons on that team and now the color analyst
Speaker 4: for UK Radio. So I just loved that team, and
Speaker 4: really a lot of people did. And they got to
Speaker 4: the final four. They got to the championship game where
Speaker 4: they should have played Louisville for the NSA championship, but
Speaker 4: Louisville blew it against UCLA, had a lead the entire game,
Speaker 4: and John Wooden out foxed his former assistant Denny Crumb,
Speaker 4: and UCLA pulled out the game. And then you know
Speaker 4: the story. He announced his retirement right before the Kentucky
Speaker 4: game and they go on to beat the Wildcast for
Speaker 4: Wooden's last national championship. So coming up, we'll hear comments
Speaker 4: from some of those guys who were after reception, and
Speaker 4: I guarantee you they like what they saw last night.
Speaker 4: Also next hour, our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore
Speaker 4: will talk about the win over Tennessee. After the game.
Speaker 4: He heard comments from Mark Pope. But Trent Noah did
Speaker 4: media after the game. One of the Wildcats. You don't
Speaker 4: get everybody, but he was an obvious choice. And then
Speaker 4: he sat down and talked on camera privately with Jeff Goodman,
Speaker 4: who works for the Field of sixty eight website, among others.
Speaker 4: Jeff's been on our show before. He is a national
Speaker 4: college basketball writer and if you know his backstory, you
Speaker 4: know that he and John Calipari clashed and I had
Speaker 4: Jeff on my show. I think it was three years ago.
Speaker 4: The Kellen Grady team whenever that was preseason, basically right
Speaker 4: before there, just as the season began, and Jeff admitted
Speaker 4: that he and Cali Perry had had some problems, but
Speaker 4: he claimed they had smooth things over. I don't know
Speaker 4: that they were or are or ever will be completely smooth, because,
Speaker 4: as Goodman said, he tried to have me fired. This
Speaker 4: is back when Calipari was at Memphis. I never did
Speaker 4: hear Cali Perry's side. If it never will, not that
Speaker 4: I wouldn't mind it, but let's just leave it at
Speaker 4: Goodman is not a huge CALIBERI fan, but he was
Speaker 4: in Reperena last night and I think his daughter was
Speaker 4: with him, and he did an interview with Trent Noah
Speaker 4: after the game and talk to Trent about what it
Speaker 4: was like for a kid from Harlan County, Kentucky to
Speaker 4: be such a big part of such a big win.
Speaker 3: Tell me what's going through your mind because you've waited
Speaker 3: for this a little bit this year and you bang
Speaker 3: those three threes in the first half. What's going through
Speaker 3: your mind? And how much did you want to smile
Speaker 3: through that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I mean it was awesome. I mean growing up a
Speaker 7: Kentucky kid and Kentucky I mean leaving blue all my
Speaker 7: life getting to watch the Kentucky Tennessee games, and now
Speaker 7: that I'm in it, I mean it is super cool
Speaker 7: and be able to hit a three in front of
Speaker 7: Reperena and it was like the roof blows off. I mean,
Speaker 7: you got to take a second and make sure you
Speaker 7: can still hear after the crowded RUPs. I mean it's
Speaker 7: so special to me. It's really cool.
Speaker 2: You got the biggest salvation to night. And I'm watching
Speaker 2: it and I'm asking.
Speaker 3: People around there, like, well, it's cuz he's a local kid, right,
Speaker 3: I mean could you feel it?
Speaker 2: Could you feel how much? I mean this was crazy tonight?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean it was awesome. I mean we had
Speaker 7: the best fans in the world. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 7: this is the mecca of college basketball. I don't know
Speaker 7: why anybody wouldn't want to play here. I mean it's great.
Speaker 7: I'm so grateful. I'm glad to be able to play
Speaker 7: and where Kentucky across my chests.
Speaker 3: And you weren't supposed to be here for a while, right,
Speaker 3: You're going to South Carolina and then coaching change and you.
Speaker 2: Go with Pope. What was that like?
Speaker 3: And how appreciative are you with how everything kind of went.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I was just just trusting God's plan.
Speaker 7: It was a little tricky situation, but just trying to
Speaker 7: have on waivering faith and just to trust in him
Speaker 7: because his plan is bigger than mine.
Speaker 3: So you hit the three threes, but you can't get
Speaker 3: the n one laying the game.
Speaker 2: What happened there? Yeah, I gotta work on that.
Speaker 7: I think I've been shooting a little to me threes.
Speaker 7: I need to go back to the fundamentals and work
Speaker 7: on my touch off the glass.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: So Kobe's known is maybe the best shooter in the country.
Speaker 2: Where do you?
Speaker 3: Where do you stack up here on the shooter chart?
Speaker 2: Here on the team? Where are you? I don't know.
Speaker 7: I mean maybe if I can start getting some switches
Speaker 7: and drawing the big out to the logo and hitting
Speaker 7: the contested three, we can rethink it. But I mean,
Speaker 7: Kobe's phenomenal. He's literally the best shooter I've ever been around.
Speaker 7: I mean, it's lucky if it hits the rim half
Speaker 7: the time.
Speaker 4: That's Jeff Goodman from the Field of sixty eight website,
Speaker 4: and if you love basketball, you might want to subscribe.
Speaker 4: I've had a couple of the writers on the Big
Speaker 4: Blue Insider and it's a fun read. So Jeff Goodman
Speaker 4: with a video interview as you were last night with
Speaker 4: Trent Noa. Next up of the Cats is a trip
Speaker 4: to Texas tomorrow night. The UK women take on the Longhorns,
Speaker 4: but this is at the coliseum, his historic Memorial Coliseum.
Speaker 4: This will be historic as well. Third ranked Texas eighth
Speaker 4: rank Kentucky, although the Wildcats, unless they upset Texas, likely
Speaker 4: will drop a little bit after blowing that game down
Speaker 4: at Ole Miss Kentucky blew a double digitally and lost
Speaker 4: sixty six fifty seven. Kentucky just fell apart down the stretch.
Speaker 4: So a chance to bounce back for Kenny Brooks and
Speaker 4: his team At the seven o'clock Star Darren Heddrick has
Speaker 4: the call for you at six forty five with pregame.
Speaker 4: It will be on ESPN two. It's on the deuce
Speaker 4: and it's going to be big. And now you're looking
Speaker 4: at the stretch run for the women because as always,
Speaker 4: the SEC tournament pops up earlier for the women than
Speaker 4: it does for the men. Six games left for these
Speaker 4: Wildcats after this, it's Georgia at home. It really gets
Speaker 4: tough now down the stretch. A trip to Missouri always difficult.
Speaker 4: LSU comes to town with Kim Maulke. That's on Sunday
Speaker 4: to twenty third. Then Tennessee comes in the following Thursday,
Speaker 4: and they wrap up to the women with a trip
Speaker 4: to South Carolina on March second, and then it's a
Speaker 4: CEC tournament time. So it is stretch run for Kentucky.
Speaker 4: That's why that lost to Ole miss was damaging. Could
Speaker 4: hurt them, well, it might hurt them depending on what
Speaker 4: happens next in the bracketing, the seating, et cetera. Still
Speaker 4: been a great season for Kenny Brooks and the UK women,
Speaker 4: and it's a big one coming up tomorrow night with
Speaker 4: those Texas Longhorns. We'll have it for you right here.
Speaker 4: Up next, Shawn Woods, the Unforgettable Guard, breaks down Kentucky's
Speaker 4: went over Tennessee on the Big Blue and Siders six
Speaker 4: thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We are joined now by the
Speaker 4: Unforgettable Guard, Shawn Woods. He joins us every Wednesday schedule permitting.
Speaker 4: His jersey hangs in the rafters of Rup and the Coach.
Speaker 4: Last week we talked a lot about point guards and
Speaker 4: since then Canentucky manhandles South Carolina and you know you
Speaker 4: kind of expected to win, but not like that. And
Speaker 4: then last night, of course, the win over Tennessee. Let's
Speaker 4: let's work backwards a little bit. In fact, let me
Speaker 4: fast forward to eight minutes and forty one seconds left
Speaker 4: to go in the game and Lamont Butler takes a
Speaker 4: bad spill. You and I spent a lot of time
Speaker 4: last week talking about point guards. What makes him good,
Speaker 4: what makes it tough when you don't have him. He
Speaker 4: came back the first and you had to love this.
Speaker 4: He steals the ball first play of the game, but
Speaker 4: the next thing you know, he's down, writhing in agony.
Speaker 4: What were your thoughts?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: Just you know, I was looking at Mark Folk like
Speaker 1: not again.
Speaker 8: You know, I've been there as a coach when one
Speaker 8: of your key players get hurt, you don't have him, and.
Speaker 1: You know, and sometimes this team has shown miraculous character
Speaker 1: because every time when la Mott gets hurt, they put
Speaker 1: their head down. But then they just rallied, and you know,
Speaker 1: it never stops them from making shots, it really doesn't.
Speaker 1: They just do so many dynamic things from the offensive end,
Speaker 1: especially in South Carolina. I just think South Carolina was
Speaker 1: just a you know, that's the reason why they hadn't
Speaker 1: won a game in that sec. But you know, last night, shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, we show some resilience. You know you had
Speaker 1: you know, Tyler per I mean Perry and Rust the
Speaker 1: name come in and you know, makes a shot. You know,
Speaker 1: they're still not good on the defensive end. I mean,
Speaker 1: as soon as they made a shot, they came back
Speaker 1: down on the other end and got taken to the rack.
Speaker 1: But you know, at least they they they're contributing in
Speaker 1: some some form of fashion. And never whenever Kentucky is
Speaker 1: scoring the basketball, it helps the morale of their team
Speaker 1: on the defensive end. It's just I watched you know,
Speaker 1: you get excited. Yeah, they hit a shot and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, the next play, their man takes them
Speaker 1: to the basket, either off a cut or you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So they've got to drop you nuts.
Speaker 1: But you know, you got other players that are stepping up,
Speaker 1: and that's that's that's the true sense of a team.
Speaker 1: And you know, last night was a character win. I
Speaker 1: really believe it's a character win. And this team has
Speaker 1: shown great character all year. You know, we knew that
Speaker 1: there was gonna be some games you know lost. You know,
Speaker 1: they weren't run the table and go und see them.
Speaker 1: But they've shown me some resilience after losses, you know,
Speaker 1: and dealing with some adversity with injuries and finding a
Speaker 1: way to win tough SEC games under the circumstances. That's big.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And you know what I've always tried to remind
Speaker 4: myself and other people, and you know this because you
Speaker 4: lived it. SEC teams are not afraid of Kentucky. They're
Speaker 4: not intimidated by Kentucky. They may come in and get
Speaker 4: a little intimidated when Rupperna explodes like it did last night,
Speaker 4: but these are guys who have spent a lot of
Speaker 4: their career preparing to play not just in the SEC,
Speaker 4: but against Kentucky and measure themselves against the big boys.
Speaker 4: You know, non conference games, you may have teams come
Speaker 4: in for the first time. Wow this is Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: You know SEC teams are like, okay, yeah, we played
Speaker 4: you last year and the year before that. We have
Speaker 4: you at our place. You know, we got you at
Speaker 4: your place. Let's go. And that makes it a bigger challenge,
Speaker 4: doesn't it.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what makes conferences much more different than pre conference,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, it's a whole new ball
Speaker 1: game because everybody knows everybody, you know, and anybody can
Speaker 1: get beat on any given night in conference, no matter
Speaker 1: if you're the worst team. You know, lookal was won
Speaker 1: and whatever, and he beat two major fos. You know,
Speaker 1: he comes into Kentucky wins, he wins the other night,
Speaker 1: you know, So you know that's that's the beauty of
Speaker 1: conference basketball. And guess what, Kentucky's in six or seventh
Speaker 1: place in the SEC and they're still ranked fourteenth in
Speaker 1: the country.
Speaker 2: How about that?
Speaker 1: So you know that that that that lets you know
Speaker 1: that you know, those ko every every win in the
Speaker 1: SEC is the quad one win for the most part.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned when you lose, you don't drop, you
Speaker 1: don't drop a.
Speaker 4: Whole You mentioned Arkansas refer to them, uh And we
Speaker 4: talked before about how without Boogie Flann they've kind of
Speaker 4: had to go to a more balanced attack, and honestly,
Speaker 4: it's helped them. And that's one thing, Sean that has
Speaker 4: impressed me about this Kentucky team. As you said, when
Speaker 4: they've needed that resilience, they've made shots. But as an
Speaker 4: opposing coach, you know, how do you prepare? Yeah, you
Speaker 4: know Kobe Bray can shoot it. You know, this guy
Speaker 4: can do this and that. But while they don't have
Speaker 4: any superstars or first round draft picks, they've got balance.
Speaker 4: And now you've got two freshmen coming in off the bench,
Speaker 4: scoring crucial points, making huge buckets. What an advantage, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a It's a great addition and a welcome
Speaker 1: edition because you need somebody on that bench to come
Speaker 1: in and contribute because of the injuries and things that
Speaker 1: you're going through. But sooner or later, you got to
Speaker 1: get better. And this is this is this is sooner,
Speaker 1: this is later. Now, you know, sooner we weren't getting
Speaker 1: that contribution. Later we are, and thank god they're coming.
Speaker 1: Their confidence is rising at the right time. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the two freshmen because you know, you go all year,
Speaker 1: you're practicing against these guys, you get a little taste
Speaker 1: of game experience. You don't play as well, but if
Speaker 1: you're a basketball player and a competitor, you're gonna get better.
Speaker 1: And I just think the two freshmen are getting better.
Speaker 1: I think they realize, Okay, if we get the chance again,
Speaker 1: we're gonna make the best of it. And really their
Speaker 1: thing is everybody's saying, you know, they only play well
Speaker 1: when they make shots. Well that's the truth for the
Speaker 1: most part, because they're not great defenders, but they're contributing.
Speaker 1: And that's all you want from a person coming off
Speaker 1: the bitch, give me something until we get our guy back.
Speaker 1: We just need you to not turn the ball over,
Speaker 1: be serviceable, and do what you do. And your biggest
Speaker 1: attribute to this team is making a shot. Just do
Speaker 1: your job. And both of them did their job. They
Speaker 1: hit wide open shots, they kept them arale going, and
Speaker 1: they had a major part in them beating Tennessee last night.
Speaker 4: We've talked before about how when you got here you
Speaker 4: are a guard who took pride in defense. You actually
Speaker 4: wanted to be good defensively, and that's at least half
Speaker 4: the battle. As you know, you know, you can't be
Speaker 4: a good defender if you don't want to be a
Speaker 4: good defender. But what is the toughest thing for most
Speaker 4: high school kids who really, quite frankly, probably aren't expected
Speaker 4: to play much defense in high school because if there's
Speaker 4: the team's best player, you don't want them in foul trouble.
Speaker 4: So when a kid comes to college and you handled many,
Speaker 4: many true freshmen. What's the great challenge in getting a
Speaker 4: kid to learn how to play defense at this level.
Speaker 1: It's not only learning how to play defense, it's really
Speaker 1: competing on the defensive end when you never had and
Speaker 1: you never had to do because you were the best
Speaker 1: player on your high school team. Your face then want
Speaker 1: you to get a foul, trouble, so on and so
Speaker 1: forth because he needed you on the court. It's that
Speaker 1: it's something that's missing, Like, man, I got to compete
Speaker 1: this hard to play at this level defensively, and my
Speaker 1: coach is demanding me to do that. You know, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a different mindset. I don't care, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't buy the thing. He's not good enough to
Speaker 1: play defense. He's not athletic enough to play defense. That's blowny.
Speaker 1: But defense is hard and grit and determination and competitiveness,
Speaker 1: and whether you are step slow laterally quickness or whatever,
Speaker 1: you got to have some type of pride and a
Speaker 1: guy that's not going right by you and you're just
Speaker 1: giving up. And then when these scores you throw your
Speaker 1: hand up. That drives me nuhing, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It does it you know, and and and and and
Speaker 1: and and and and and I'm not and I'm not
Speaker 1: giving nobody excuse. I hate it. I don't like it
Speaker 1: as a coach that you don't compete on that level.
Speaker 1: You hit a jump shot and you come back down,
Speaker 1: your man just takes you without giving you a move
Speaker 1: straight to the basket. That's that. That's you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, And that you're good enough to get me
Speaker 1: beat as a coach. Yeah, yeah, you make a shot,
Speaker 1: but but you come back down on the other end
Speaker 1: and you get taken. That ain't good enough. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. It's not yep. And you know we
Speaker 1: still got to get better on that end. Yet you
Speaker 1: come in, you make shots, you got a guard on
Speaker 1: the other end. You got to give us something that's right,
Speaker 1: and you're not giving us nothing. The minute you scored,
Speaker 1: they come right back and come right at you. And
Speaker 1: you scored, they scored. Nah, that's that's, that's no excuse
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 4: Well, they couldn't come back, couldn't come back on Arkansas
Speaker 4: because they couldn't string stops. But they were able to
Speaker 4: get enough stops against Tennessee last night justin enough. We'll
Speaker 4: talk about that more on the other side of the
Speaker 4: break with Sewan Woods, the unforgettable guard here on the
Speaker 4: Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 4: with Seawan Woods, who is a Jersey hangs in the
Speaker 4: rafters of roup. We talk with the me each in
Speaker 4: every week, and of course we're talking about the Wildcats
Speaker 4: went over Tennessee, which came a few days after the blowout,
Speaker 4: went over South Carolina, which, as Sean points out, the
Speaker 4: worst team in the league, although it's a team that
Speaker 4: played several teams, had Florida beaten into the last three seconds,
Speaker 4: played Auburn tough, but Kentucky. Everything went well for the
Speaker 4: Wildcatching in South Carolina, but then no Jackson Robinson against Tennessee.
Speaker 4: But everybody else comes through, including two of the three freshmen.
Speaker 4: Can't forget about Colin Chandler. He's a talented freshman as well.
Speaker 4: But we have been talking about defense, and this is
Speaker 4: the time of year when it really gets crucial, as
Speaker 4: you know, Sean, because that's how you make your runs
Speaker 4: in the tournaments by stopping other teams at crucial points.
Speaker 4: Something that has puzzled me about Kentucky, and maybe it's
Speaker 4: just that I don't understand what they're trying to do defensively,
Speaker 4: but I feel like, and this is just to me
Speaker 4: a civilian, there's not enough help side defense. You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. What am I missing here? Why am
Speaker 4: I right?
Speaker 1: Okay, you're exactly. When guys drive, there's no help yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, And those are defensive principles that we got
Speaker 1: to get better at. You know, kids are too good
Speaker 1: now and then they can carry the ball to really
Speaker 1: be great on ball defenders. But you gotta have up
Speaker 1: the line defense. You gotta have help defense on the
Speaker 1: other side, week side defense, and we struggle with that,
Speaker 1: you know. So that's something that we got to work
Speaker 1: harder at and pay more attention to, especially in practice.
Speaker 1: But my thing is Tennessee is contrasting styles. The Tennessee
Speaker 1: style of play Kentucky style of play is always going
Speaker 1: to outscore a Tennessee because Tennessee doesn't shoot the ball
Speaker 1: great at all, right, you know what I mean. So,
Speaker 1: no matter what, Tennessee always going to have a problem
Speaker 1: with a high scoring team unless they turn them over
Speaker 1: a lot, which they didn't do last night. And two,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be Kentucky at home. If you're not
Speaker 1: a good shooting team, I'm just telling you're not not interrupt,
Speaker 1: You're not going to And I I thought that no
Speaker 1: matter how good Tennessee is, they can beat everybody else.
Speaker 1: I just think they can't beat Kentucky because the style
Speaker 1: of play. They don't shoot it good enough to beat Kentucky.
Speaker 1: And you know that's what happened at Tennessee. No matter
Speaker 1: if Butler didn't play or not, we have enough scoring
Speaker 1: still without Butler to outscore Tennessee because of their lack
Speaker 1: of shooting.
Speaker 4: Speaking of shooting, I really felt like first of all,
Speaker 4: and I mentioned Butler stealing the ball at every beginning
Speaker 4: of the game, but I felt like that absolutely it did.
Speaker 1: And then from the start he's like, okay, I watched
Speaker 1: you last game and on from the bench, I know
Speaker 1: how to get you, and he got him the first time.
Speaker 1: And that's techa tone. Oh my god. I couldn't watch
Speaker 1: it because I had to do the Henry Clay Douglas
Speaker 1: game last night. But I came, I rushed home and
Speaker 1: my wife had it waiting for me. I put it
Speaker 1: on and I watched it because I knew they won. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the first play I said oh, I said, I
Speaker 1: see why they want my man. My favorite player in
Speaker 1: the country, the Mott Butler is my favorite player in
Speaker 1: all the basketball. And he posed his will on my
Speaker 1: on one of the better guards in the in the
Speaker 1: in the sec from the jump, and that was it.
Speaker 1: My man was broken.
Speaker 4: And I felt like, especially early in the game.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: You mentioned setting the tone, I thought Kentucky was better defensively,
Speaker 4: more active with their hands deflections that didn't always work out,
Speaker 4: but you guys charted deflection. Rick Patino made that popp
Speaker 4: He still is at Saint John's charting deflections. Uh. I
Speaker 4: felt like Kobe Bread took another step forward defensively.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, Kobe Bred. He's not because
Speaker 1: he's been labeled as a bad defender with some times
Speaker 1: he is, and I just think it's effort more so
Speaker 1: than anything else. But he's crafty. You can tell that
Speaker 1: he's older because he's got old hands. And what I
Speaker 1: mean by old hands is he steals balls when you
Speaker 1: least expected. He's a good stripper, he's a good deflection
Speaker 1: guy on the ball. He's a good guy ripping the
Speaker 1: ball when you're going up or bringing it up. That
Speaker 1: that comes with experience, so the lack of everything else.
Speaker 1: When he that tells you that he can play defense
Speaker 1: when he really wants to. That that's what it tells
Speaker 1: me as a coach. I've seen you play defense. It's
Speaker 1: a matter of want to because you're too valuable to
Speaker 1: our team on the offensive end to not give us
Speaker 1: the effort that we need from you on the defensive end.
Speaker 1: And I thought last night may have been one of
Speaker 1: his best defensive games. And that tells me right then
Speaker 1: and there where it told me a while back, you're capable,
Speaker 1: you just don't do it like you're supposed to.
Speaker 4: You know. Yeah, Kyle Macy told me a long time ago,
Speaker 4: uh not long after he had retired from the league,
Speaker 4: and he played in the league with six or seven years.
Speaker 4: And we know, Kyle not the quickest guy in the world,
Speaker 4: not the fastest guy.
Speaker 2: In the world.
Speaker 4: But he said, you learn how to play angles. Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's it's you, just it's the smarts. You refer to
Speaker 4: this right at the beginning today as we were talking
Speaker 4: about learning what to do, how to do it, and
Speaker 4: when to do it. And I think these guys, you know,
Speaker 4: they'll never be one of the best defensive teams. In America.
Speaker 4: But they're getting better, right.
Speaker 1: They're playing good enough defense to offset their offense. They
Speaker 1: just got to continue to But what like I'll tell
Speaker 1: you before matchups makes games and contrasting styles and the
Speaker 1: way Tennessee's team is built and the lack of shooting,
Speaker 1: consistent shooting. They will always have problems with this Kentucky
Speaker 1: team this year because they don't score enough from the
Speaker 1: three to be Kentucky. That they just don't. And we
Speaker 1: have enough three point shooters. One guy like Jackson, Okay,
Speaker 1: he was out, but Brea, you know, everybody else joins
Speaker 1: the party. From a shooting standpoint, that's one thing that
Speaker 1: that this Kentucky team does. They shoot the basketball every day.
Speaker 1: That's the most important thing that they do. But in
Speaker 1: order to win a national championship, but get to where
Speaker 1: you're trying to get to in the postseason, you gotta
Speaker 1: tighten that defense up because if you don't, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: three games, you gotta win three games, and and and
Speaker 1: and at the SEC tournament, can you stay hot for
Speaker 1: three games? If you don't, you're not winning. You got
Speaker 1: to win four games in the NC Double A Tournament.
Speaker 1: If you not hot, one of those games you're going
Speaker 1: home to.
Speaker 4: Get to the.
Speaker 1: To get to the final, just to get to the
Speaker 1: final four. So can you stream those type of games
Speaker 1: in a row from a defensive standpoint, not an offensive standpoint,
Speaker 1: because offense is gonna come and go. Do you have
Speaker 1: the dig in you to string along three games in
Speaker 1: the STEC tournament, four games to get to the final
Speaker 1: four in the in the NT double A tournament. That's
Speaker 1: the question that I have right now. And you know what,
Speaker 1: You've shown me that you're capable. Last night. You showed
Speaker 1: me that you're capable. Now can you do it on
Speaker 1: a consistent basis? And That's what I'm asking our cat
Speaker 1: to do. You are good enough Kentucky defensively if you
Speaker 1: just buy in and and and show grit.
Speaker 2: Is it that.
Speaker 1: Important to you if you go ahead? Because other teams
Speaker 1: are coming at you and even though you score points,
Speaker 1: the very next played, they knew where to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'm not ticking on the two freshmen, but as
Speaker 1: I'm a coach, sure and I'm looking at it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: y'all score boom the very next play they can scored
Speaker 1: on us, right, not for three I'm talking about layups? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that gotta stop. You know what I'm saying. You hit
Speaker 1: a jumper, you man, you hit a jump shot. You're
Speaker 1: supposed to be fired up like you ain't getting this.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. That that that helps him
Speaker 1: around defensively. That's where we got to get to, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And Tennessee just doesn't score enough
Speaker 1: from the three to keep up with Kentucky on an
Speaker 1: assistant basis, but the other teams do. If you play there.
Speaker 4: If you put much stock in Ken Palm, Kentucky has
Speaker 4: moved up. There were one hundred and something defensive rating.
Speaker 4: It's already up after last night to eighty second, which
Speaker 4: is good, not great third offensively so, but but generally
Speaker 4: teams that play in the Final four and the Ken
Speaker 4: Palm ratings defensively you're in the top forty at least.
Speaker 4: So Wildcats with a lot of work to do. Big
Speaker 4: game coming up this weekend to Texas, and whatever happens,
Speaker 4: we'll talk about it with the unforgettable guard Sean Woods.
Speaker 4: Tell everybody again where they can hear you doing high
Speaker 4: school games.
Speaker 1: They can go on YouTube and go to Glycodd dot com.
Speaker 1: And we got all the I do all the eleventh regions,
Speaker 1: all the Fed County high school basketball and it's been
Speaker 1: some great ones. Last night Henry Clay upset Douglas. Douglas
Speaker 1: has won twenty something in a row, was twenty three
Speaker 1: and two, and Henry Clay popped them the other night.
Speaker 1: And you know, now you got a big one on
Speaker 1: Friday night with Brian Station and Henry Clay at Brian Station.
Speaker 1: You got Douglas at Stair, which you know, Sair has
Speaker 1: never been a major player at Sad County High School
Speaker 1: basketball and now they are. They are super competitives now
Speaker 1: as far as that's concerned. So you know this this
Speaker 1: district and region here and locally is gonna be a
Speaker 1: barm burner.
Speaker 8: And it's similar to the SEC. There's no easy game
Speaker 8: out the game for excidy and there's some great players,
Speaker 8: you know, and the Jergger nut right now everybody's trying
Speaker 8: to get to is the team to beat is great
Speaker 8: Crossing who has a Kentucky sinee.
Speaker 4: So that's right, uh haikaim Reno. And you got Henry
Speaker 4: Clay Bryant Station Friday.
Speaker 1: I got Hereriy Klay Brass Station and also and uh
Speaker 1: well I may have Sayer and Douglas. But either or
Speaker 1: it's gonna be two dandies.
Speaker 4: Like cod on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Check it out, g l id O D.
Speaker 4: Got it coach. Thanks, talk to you next week, okay,
Speaker 4: Dick Up next hour number two, we'll hear from some
Speaker 4: of the members of the seventy four to seventy five
Speaker 4: team that got together over the past week, and that's
Speaker 4: the team that made it to the Final four in
Speaker 4: San Diego. And of course, our Western Bureau chief Gary
Speaker 4: Moore joined us here on six thirty w LAP. Welcome
Speaker 4: back to the Big Blue Insider. Our number two of
Speaker 4: our program coming up in just a few minutes at
Speaker 4: the bottom of the hour. In fact, our West End
Speaker 4: bureau chief Gary Moore will join us and we'll talk
Speaker 4: about all things Kentucky football, baseball, basketball. But I wanted
Speaker 4: to share with you, as I mentioned earlier, so of
Speaker 4: the conversations I had with members of the seventy four
Speaker 4: to seventy five team honored at the Kentucky went over
Speaker 4: South Carolina. They didn't all make it back. Some sadly
Speaker 4: had passed away. My man Reggie Warford, Mike Phillips, GJ. Smith,
Speaker 4: Kevin Greevy apparently took a fall and hurt himself and
Speaker 4: couldn't make it, but they were kind enough. Actually, Jerry
Speaker 4: Hale did to invite me to the postgame reception they
Speaker 4: had over at Malone's and it was fantastic. So I
Speaker 4: had a chance to sit down and talk to a
Speaker 4: lot of these guys. And I mentioned earlier I was
Speaker 4: in my second year covering sports at UK sophomore. My
Speaker 4: freshman year, I covered rugby and soccer, but I also
Speaker 4: covered freshman basketball. That was the last freshman team they had.
Speaker 4: Patino had a JV team, but my first year at
Speaker 4: Kentucky was the last year that freshman could not play.
Speaker 4: The following years when Gibvens and Lee and Roby and
Speaker 4: Phillips came along and thankfully for Joe Hall, they were
Speaker 4: able to play as true freshmen and they The addition
Speaker 4: of those guys to the super Kittens, who a BYuT
Speaker 4: Enver seniors is why Kentucky made it to the final
Speaker 4: four in the championship game. And you know the story
Speaker 4: blown out by Indiana and Bloomington in December, the head
Speaker 4: slapping incident by Bob Knight. Kentucky turned it around upset
Speaker 4: the Hoosiers in the regional championship game in March in Dayton.
Speaker 4: I was there and made it to the final four,
Speaker 4: where they lost to UCLA in the championship game after
Speaker 4: beating Syracuse. But the super Kittens who came in and
Speaker 4: there were I think eight in that class, including mister
Speaker 4: Basketball from Indiana, Mike Flynn, Ohio, Kevin Greevy Illinois, Bob
Speaker 4: Guyett Kentucky, Jimmy dan Connor, Jerry Hale who was a
Speaker 4: prolific scorer in Indiana, GJ. Smith, a great shooter from
Speaker 4: Laurel County, and a couple other guys. Ernie Whitess who
Speaker 4: never who was hurt that year and transferred to iow
Speaker 4: you never even practiced with a team. He came back
Speaker 4: for the reunion, but they just had a great time
Speaker 4: getting together telling stories. Don Atkins, who went on to
Speaker 4: coach Lafayette to a state championship, KHSA championship and now
Speaker 4: runs the shot clock at the thirty second clock at
Speaker 4: UK games. He was a grad assistant on that team,
Speaker 4: so he had stories to tell as well about Joe
Speaker 4: B and the team. Dick Parsons was there, of course.
Speaker 4: Joe B passed away a couple of years ago. So
Speaker 4: it was a great time, and I had talked to
Speaker 4: most of these guys since then. We hadn't talked to
Speaker 4: him in a while, And I don't know that I
Speaker 4: ever did a sit down interview with Jimmy dan Connor.
Speaker 4: I'd interviewed him before Hit and Run for TV and
Speaker 4: stuff like that, but never for a documentary, never in
Speaker 4: a situation like this. See him at the games all
Speaker 4: the time. Jimmy from Anderson County and he had a
Speaker 4: chance to play for the hometown team and became a
Speaker 4: true hero for the Wildcats. And we talked about his
Speaker 4: fond memories because I mean, and what does this meant
Speaker 4: to you to get together on this particular anniversary.
Speaker 9: Well, it goes back quick, that's the first thing. But
Speaker 9: great to see as many of us to be able
Speaker 9: to get together and some friends and people who were
Speaker 9: involved back way back when it's like having your family
Speaker 9: reunion again.
Speaker 4: I've talked to several of the players about this. But
Speaker 4: you guys had so many ups and downs as freshman
Speaker 4: and the conference champs. You struggle for a year, then
Speaker 4: the final four, but you did it together for four
Speaker 4: years and so many kids now are going to miss
Speaker 4: out on that in college basketball, aren't they?
Speaker 9: Well, they really do. And we went through the highs
Speaker 9: and lows from like, as you say, our freshman year.
Speaker 9: I remember the headlines and Lexon Harold after we went
Speaker 9: thirteen thirteen's when does football start?
Speaker 1: And uh?
Speaker 9: And then to be able to come back our senior
Speaker 9: year and enjoy it like we did and uh. But
Speaker 9: the valleys and the.
Speaker 4: Mountains and you could appreciate the highs of.
Speaker 9: Absolutely and and to be able to be around your
Speaker 9: people that you did all that with.
Speaker 2: Makes it great.
Speaker 4: You played with Jim Andrews Jim's last year and he
Speaker 4: likes to tell the story about it. Coach Hall's the
Speaker 4: last days he he had a conversation with the coach
Speaker 4: about you all winning that conference championship when Joe was
Speaker 4: really under the gun, and Joe said he thought that
Speaker 4: may have saved his career as a coach a Kentucky
Speaker 4: Looking back on that, I mean, you were just a kid,
Speaker 4: but still that was that was a big time, wasn't it.
Speaker 9: Well, how would you like to have the greatest basketball
Speaker 9: coach in the history of college basketball? With maybe Coach Wood?
Speaker 9: And it's an exception sit behind you ever game, so
Speaker 9: had his own TV show, had in his own TV show,
Speaker 9: and it good for Joe Hall, and you know, he persevered,
Speaker 9: and I think we're all it didn't kill us, so
Speaker 9: we all got came out stronger.
Speaker 4: How much fun was it after that thirteen and thirteen
Speaker 4: year when you were one of the power guys on
Speaker 4: that front line of what's six or four? But suddenly
Speaker 4: you got Rick and Mike and Jack and James and
Speaker 4: now you're one of the best teams in the country.
Speaker 4: What was it like that that dramatic turnaround.
Speaker 9: Well, I spent most I sophomore year. I was kidding
Speaker 9: Kevin Greevy. He wasn't the greatest defensive player, so I
Speaker 9: always had to guard their scorer on the opposite end,
Speaker 9: and you know, I'm guarding guys six eleven, six ' nine,
Speaker 9: And it was very nice to get back out into
Speaker 9: the guard position and not had to do that.
Speaker 4: Joe b though, I know, appreciated your toughness. Did you
Speaker 4: guys bond over that?
Speaker 9: We did? We fought a lot and but it I
Speaker 9: think Joe appreciate the fact that not only me but
Speaker 9: my teammates. The ball went on floor, we went after it.
Speaker 4: One of your best games, but that North Carolina game,
Speaker 4: your senior you kind of caught fire and things weren't
Speaker 4: going so well early in the game. What are your
Speaker 4: your memories on.
Speaker 9: That Well, I told the story, and maybe I'm not
Speaker 9: told it to you, but it was two days after
Speaker 9: we got humiliated at Indiana and the famous slap and
Speaker 9: all that, and so we were down by fifteen and
Speaker 9: Joe was not happy and he benched all the starters
Speaker 9: and maybe this is what happens when you've been there
Speaker 9: and your heart headed. I got in his face and said,
Speaker 9: what are you doing. You got to put us back in,
Speaker 9: and one or two things were going to happen.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 9: And I was expecting a fistfight, because you didn't talk
Speaker 9: to coaches like.
Speaker 4: That at that time.
Speaker 9: And he got this look on his face and you know,
Speaker 9: so we'll get back in. I think he said get
Speaker 9: out on my sight. But thankfully we did and we
Speaker 9: were able to come back, and I think that was
Speaker 9: kind of a turning point. And we hadn't declared the
Speaker 9: captain for the season, and I came in and Bill Kighley,
Speaker 9: I said, what's the star on my pants?
Speaker 2: Next game?
Speaker 9: He said, were you a new captain?
Speaker 4: I remember that story as well. Everybody knows the story
Speaker 4: now about the turnaround. I was there in Dayton when
Speaker 4: you guys beat Indiana and I think the Catspaus wrote
Speaker 4: about a Daryl Bird about Joe's message to you guys
Speaker 4: prior to the game about what to do after we win.
Speaker 4: What do you remember? But did you think he was
Speaker 4: crazy or what were your thoughts going back then?
Speaker 9: And he approached Mike Flanner me and he said, I
Speaker 9: want you to shoot the ball every time you get it,
Speaker 9: which was not something that he told us, but he
Speaker 9: early offense. Yeah, and I was five for twelve at
Speaker 9: halftime and normally would have not said very well with Joe,
Speaker 9: and he said keep shooting it, but he saw something
Speaker 9: that we had to loosen it up a little bit.
Speaker 9: But the greatest memory of I think you've watched a
Speaker 9: lot of games, but I think I hope that it
Speaker 9: would rank in the history of Kentucky victories. But to
Speaker 9: see the look on the guys who didn't grow up
Speaker 9: in Kentucky when we hit the state line and ever
Speaker 9: overpast had people and you know, I get teary eyed
Speaker 9: thinking about.
Speaker 4: People asked me, obviously been around for a while, what's
Speaker 4: your favorite. That is still my favorite game. And I
Speaker 4: was a student when I covered that game, but just
Speaker 4: the enormity of it and driving back behind the buses
Speaker 4: when you guys did Kevin says that, yeah, you hated
Speaker 4: to lose in San Diego, but that was sort of
Speaker 4: your national champions It was, was it?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yes?
Speaker 9: And I got to know coach Wooten on a couple
Speaker 9: of occasions. What a fine gentleman. And but I told him,
Speaker 9: and I believe that if we played him ten times
Speaker 9: on a neutral court, I think we would have beat
Speaker 9: him eight times. And he disagreed, he didn't agree, but.
Speaker 4: It it.
Speaker 9: I mean, he did the ultimate coaching mood to announcer's
Speaker 9: retirement hours.
Speaker 2: Before the Teppa.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, how much fun was it to get together
Speaker 4: with the guys and watch the Wildcats win?
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 9: It was great and it's always great to be back
Speaker 9: in family mode. And what separates UK from any place
Speaker 9: I've seen is whether it's fifty years or whether it's
Speaker 9: five years, the people are still appreciate it.
Speaker 4: I's had a chance to talk with Marion Haskins, who
Speaker 4: was a reserve on that team and has always been
Speaker 4: one of my faves. Well, Mary, How much fun has
Speaker 4: this weekend been for you guys, because this kind of
Speaker 4: anniversary doesn't roll around very often, does it.
Speaker 2: No, it does not.
Speaker 10: I was really surprised when somebody said fifty years about fainted,
Speaker 10: and I said, I still only feel forty five.
Speaker 2: How can it be fifty.
Speaker 4: You guys experienced so much the ups and downs when
Speaker 4: you were at Kentucky, and kids don't get to experience
Speaker 4: it now they're not there. How long enough, Arley?
Speaker 2: For four years exactly?
Speaker 10: I think that we were able to come in, spend
Speaker 10: the four years, enjoy the four years, and be able
Speaker 10: to understand the program better what Kentucky basketball really means.
Speaker 2: It's just state of Kentucky.
Speaker 4: What did it mean to you as a Kentucky kid
Speaker 4: to come in and you know, I'm sure you wanted
Speaker 4: to play more minutes, but you were really a part
Speaker 4: of something special.
Speaker 2: It's tradition.
Speaker 10: I know that we was able to continue the tradition
Speaker 10: that was already had been going on here, but do
Speaker 10: we started a newer tradition that we saw that was
Speaker 10: needed for the state of Kentucky and Kentucky basketball, particularly
Speaker 10: with the minority players starting to come into the program.
Speaker 10: It was an asset for the home, the state of Kentucky,
Speaker 10: for Buffalo, for the university, and it created opportunities for
Speaker 10: US minorti players.
Speaker 4: Well, the last time you and I sat together in
Speaker 4: a situation like this, we were putting together the documentary
Speaker 4: on Reggie and his son is here at the reunion
Speaker 4: with Ruth Reggie's warm up jacket on. That's got to
Speaker 4: bring back some memories.
Speaker 2: Yeah, bring back some memories.
Speaker 10: Well, I looked at that jersey over there, and actually
Speaker 10: I gave mine to my to my grandson. Yeah, my grandson,
Speaker 10: So did Dell share I have. I have four grandsons
Speaker 10: and they'll share that jacket.
Speaker 4: But yeah, that was a difficult time. And Leonard Hamilton
Speaker 4: just now announces he's retiring. And of course he was
Speaker 4: a guy who talked Reggie the day he interviewed for
Speaker 4: the job into not transferring. So just the way things
Speaker 4: turned out is just really strange.
Speaker 2: Is It's really strange?
Speaker 10: You know, Coach ham You know he played a very
Speaker 10: important part of our seventy five team. He was pretty
Speaker 10: new coming into it to Kentucky's I think it might
Speaker 10: be in his second year, first year, I can remember,
Speaker 10: but he was a defense specialist and some of us
Speaker 10: played good defense, some of us didn't. I think you
Speaker 10: heard about the accolation day about Kevin today.
Speaker 2: But anyway, it was great.
Speaker 10: But yuh, Leonard is a great guy, great coach. We're
Speaker 10: going to see him play this year down in Louisville
Speaker 10: now when they played Little this year, a lot of
Speaker 10: us guys are getting together for the game, and he
Speaker 10: meant a lot to us, and he bought a lot
Speaker 10: of different things to the table for us, and so
Speaker 10: it was a fantastic actual.
Speaker 4: I know you guys you missed Joe B. And I've
Speaker 4: been around you guys in the past when you got together,
Speaker 4: and he always talked about how he would hear new
Speaker 4: stories every time you got together. But then you guys
Speaker 4: heard stories from him, didn't you.
Speaker 2: Joe B has all the stories.
Speaker 10: He had all the stories, and we have a lot
Speaker 10: of story that we couldn't tell. Well, job By was
Speaker 10: alive and we can tell him now, But jo was
Speaker 10: job But it was great. He was a great coach.
Speaker 10: You know, at the time you're a young man. You
Speaker 10: just learned to grow understand what he was all about
Speaker 10: as you get to be older.
Speaker 4: So he was good when you look back on that
Speaker 4: period of Kentucky basketball and now compared to where it is,
Speaker 4: knowing what it all means to the BBN, tell me
Speaker 4: about your appreciation for Joe taking over, for rupp amping
Speaker 4: up the recruitment of black players, dealing with that kind
Speaker 4: of pressure. It was unlike anywhere in the country. I
Speaker 4: got to think much greater appreciation now than back then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was much greater appreciation.
Speaker 10: But if you look at the times and the adjustments
Speaker 10: that these coaches have to do, it's probably not much
Speaker 10: more different. If you look at it, you know they're
Speaker 10: adjusting to this nil stakes. The stakes are higher, the
Speaker 10: programs are higher. You know, the states are different, but
Speaker 10: they are still very difficult for these coaches. They're very
Speaker 10: difficult and there's no way I want to be a coach.
Speaker 4: Tomorrow night, in my conversation with Mike Flynn, who had
Speaker 4: a great NCAA tournament for the Wildcats in seventy five,
Speaker 4: to come on six point thirty WLAP, Welcome back to
Speaker 4: the Big Blue Insider. Thanks again to the guys from
Speaker 4: the seventy five team for including me, and again tomorrow
Speaker 4: night we'll talk with Mike Flynn, who was on the
Speaker 4: cover of Sports Illustrated after the Wildcats upset Indiana, and
Speaker 4: the headline was, and I've got this. I bought that
Speaker 4: cover said the Wildcats crashed the Final four. And as
Speaker 4: Jimmy and Mike both told me, you know, Joe b
Speaker 4: talked about early offense against Indiana, don't wait for those
Speaker 4: big guys to get down the floor. You guys just
Speaker 4: keep shooting. And they did, and they both had tremendous games.
Speaker 4: And Mike, of course was an Indiana native, one of
Speaker 4: several you talk about Mike Flynn from that team, Jerry
Speaker 4: Hale from Indiana, Kyle Macy was from Indiana, Jim Master
Speaker 4: from Indiana, and Moore who came south to play for Kentucky.
Speaker 4: You rarely, if ever saw anybody from Lexingon going north
Speaker 4: to play for IU. They might have played for Purdue
Speaker 4: if memory, but I know Michael Scarce did. But I
Speaker 4: don't remember anybody from Lexingon of any consequence going north
Speaker 4: to play for Bob Knight or any other coach at Indiana.
Speaker 4: It may have happened in basketball, football, maybe baseball, but
Speaker 4: not in basketball. A quick segment here, because we did
Speaker 4: go a little bit longer with Jimmy Dan and Marion
Speaker 4: Haskins coming up next as our West End Bureau Chief
Speaker 4: Gary Moore. Tomorrow night, we will have a shorter show
Speaker 4: because of the UK women's basketball, the Wildcats taking on
Speaker 4: Texas in Historic Memorial Coliseum, and on Friday were from
Speaker 4: Jack Gibbons going into the men's game with the Texas
Speaker 4: Long Orange down in Austin. And we'll talk to Jack
Speaker 4: as well about the seventy four to seventy five team reunion.
Speaker 4: He was such a vital part of that season. More
Speaker 4: to coom here on six thirty Wlap Welcome back to
Speaker 4: the Big Moon side of joining us now as it
Speaker 4: is Wednesday and the schedule is fairly normal, we have
Speaker 4: Wednesdays to ourselves. That means our West MBRCHI Gary Moore
Speaker 4: is with us and surviving this weird weather over at
Speaker 4: the other end of sixty four or at the west
Speaker 4: end of sixty four. What you got going on there, sir?
Speaker 11: Two guys in a six pack, you and me six
Speaker 11: things to talk about?
Speaker 2: Boy?
Speaker 11: How great was it Reparena last night? On Man I
Speaker 11: loved every second of that except for the bad calls,
Speaker 11: but we won't get into that.
Speaker 4: Winning the game, you know, Dick I don't know.
Speaker 11: Maybe it's growing up in Kentucky from cradle through college,
Speaker 11: and maybe it's that fugly kumquat color that they wear,
Speaker 11: that awful He'll Billy song that incidentally has never been
Speaker 11: played at a men's final four. Imagine they signed promoting
Speaker 11: that last night.
Speaker 4: I don't know if people knew that.
Speaker 11: You know, it's all of that and more that makes
Speaker 11: beating no, sweeping that school down I seventy five in
Speaker 11: Knoxville such an absolute joy. I just can't see that enough.
Speaker 11: So just don't make us play him again in the tournament,
Speaker 11: all right, it's even kind of work around that. But
Speaker 11: number fifteen Cats five and one versus the Bowls in
Speaker 11: the last three seasons, why, I'll tell you why, cat guts.
Speaker 11: Next guys up, next stud up. You're talking about a
Speaker 11: team that has been wounded for a lot of the season,
Speaker 11: but then the next guy's up, like, well, you got
Speaker 11: the Mountain Mamba last night.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Trenton Noah doing his thing. The other guys.
Speaker 11: It was a great team, team effort. And now UK
Speaker 11: gets to travel twenty one and thirty eight miles around
Speaker 11: trip to Austin to take on the Longhorns. Got blown
Speaker 11: out last night, and it'll be Saturday night, eight o'clock
Speaker 11: ESPN CAT. I love this stat. Cats have won five
Speaker 11: games already against AP top ten teams. That's the most
Speaker 11: in thirteen years since that twenty eleven twelve season. And
Speaker 11: I believe you and every Cats fan recall how that
Speaker 11: season ended up. It worked out well UK over KU
Speaker 11: championship game.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And it's just interesting too with this team that
Speaker 4: the losses have come against teams that Kentucky should have beaten.
Speaker 4: I think that's that's a sign, of course, of a
Speaker 4: team still learning and trying to find its way, not
Speaker 4: just in the Mark Pope's system, but a team, like
Speaker 4: you said, that has had to show guts more than
Speaker 4: once because guys have left with injuries, guys have been
Speaker 4: left out of lineups, and guys who uh, well, like
Speaker 4: last night when Butler went to the floor injured, I thought,
Speaker 4: here we go. You know, how's this one gonna end?
Speaker 4: And Kentucky goes on a tear and wins it. That's gutty, That's.
Speaker 11: What Jay BILLI said. Now Mark mark it down here
Speaker 11: at eighth at the eight something when when he goes up, Yeah,
Speaker 11: thank you, we did.
Speaker 4: Mark it, I said the same thing.
Speaker 2: Beautiful.
Speaker 11: Uh And by the way, U of l playing tonight.
Speaker 11: On the other end here, they're gonna be at North
Speaker 11: Carolina State. That will be I believe seven o'clock ESPN.
Speaker 4: You talk about injuries with a team.
Speaker 11: There you go again. Yeah, guys stepping up, got a
Speaker 11: guy knocked it, had some teeth knocked out. The other night.
Speaker 4: He's gonna play man. Did you read about that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: How badly he was injured and waned again in a
Speaker 4: the next morning while he was while he was being.
Speaker 11: Do you want to go back in the game because
Speaker 11: not five?
Speaker 4: Well, while they're trying to fix his mouth, he's texting
Speaker 4: his strength thach, can I get a lift in tomorrow?
Speaker 2: That's great?
Speaker 11: Our second swig in the six Pac. Speaking of frequent
Speaker 11: flyer miles, last night, UCLA traveled twoenty twenty one miles
Speaker 11: one way to lose in Illinois eighty three seventy eight
Speaker 11: and the Big Ten. Now they're going to be playing
Speaker 11: Indiana on Fox on Friday night, but they could have
Speaker 11: stayed and played Northwestern. They're coming back in two weeks
Speaker 11: to play Purdue and Northwestern. Yes, how screwed up is
Speaker 11: I tell you how screwed.
Speaker 2: Up this is.
Speaker 11: On Saturday, Utah, the Big Twelve traveled across country nineteen
Speaker 11: hundred eleven miles for a Big Twelve loss at West Virginia.
Speaker 11: They stopped off on the way back to lose at
Speaker 11: Cincinnati last night. Now, you commented on a tweet over
Speaker 11: the weekend by a terrific writer who we like a lot,
Speaker 11: Dane O'Neill, who said, quote, I do love the irony
Speaker 11: of Fox and other networks on the insane travel that
Speaker 11: teams endure for conference games. When it the networks is
Speaker 11: very hunger to create super conferences and content that created
Speaker 11: the insane travels. So Dick, I propose this every single
Speaker 11: time somebody on one of the networks just happens to
Speaker 11: mention during a game how tough travel is now for schools,
Speaker 11: and it's entirely because of the TV nets, Then said
Speaker 11: network of that announcer has to donate one hundred grand
Speaker 11: to every school in the conference that they're televising at
Speaker 11: that moment. That sound fair to you.
Speaker 4: Sounds good to me, although they would just move quickly
Speaker 4: to shut people up. But yeah, I did retweet Dana's comments,
Speaker 4: and it's a shame you can't spell her word hunger
Speaker 4: with a dollar sign. But what drives me Nutscar and
Speaker 4: you and I have talked now for several years about
Speaker 4: stuff like this. I hate it when problems like this
Speaker 4: pop up. And my first response is didn't we see
Speaker 4: this coming? I mean the moment they talked about those
Speaker 4: teams even looking at switching conferences, especially a conference this
Speaker 4: far east, is it was the travel. And you know
Speaker 4: Mick Cronin as you well know because you covered him
Speaker 4: out there and you're wearing a UCLA jersey right now
Speaker 4: just for fun. He can be a chore, there's no
Speaker 4: question about that. But he wasn't wrong right when he
Speaker 4: complained bitterly about the travel and the fact that the
Speaker 4: team's going west to east have it far worse than
Speaker 4: the team's going east to west. It's not easily fixable,
Speaker 4: but you know what, everybody involved in this formula has
Speaker 4: a college degree. Figure it out. You've got to do
Speaker 4: a better job.
Speaker 11: It was like hit and run with the administrators. The
Speaker 11: administrators who are making these that's right things for years
Speaker 11: down the road are going to be gone. In fact,
Speaker 11: one more, he is at UCLA who has engineered this
Speaker 11: with us season third swig and the six packs. So
Speaker 11: forget about all this snow and ice we're talking about
Speaker 11: that just passed through again. Forget about your heating bills.
Speaker 11: Forget about what that fat gopher in Pennsylvania predicted a
Speaker 11: week ago with all those creepy guys and top hats.
Speaker 3: It.
Speaker 11: Here's the surest sign, springs around the corner and headed
Speaker 11: to your face.
Speaker 4: Dick.
Speaker 11: Pitchers and catchers are reporting they're back.
Speaker 4: They're already to hear.
Speaker 11: In fact, Cubs pitchers and catchers showed up in Arizona
Speaker 11: on Super Bowl Sunday because they have an earlier start
Speaker 11: date because they're going to be facing the Dodgers in
Speaker 11: that Tokyo MLB season opener on March the eighteenth. They
Speaker 11: also play the nineteenth as well, so the Dodgers batteries
Speaker 11: reported yesterday. Team we Like Cards pitchers and catchers reported
Speaker 11: in their Great Fruit League home of Jupiter, Florida today,
Speaker 11: all hurlers and catchers will be in camps by tomorrow,
Speaker 11: the first full squad workouts no later the next Tuesday.
Speaker 11: In the first spring training games coming up, Dick a
Speaker 11: week from tomorrow, February twenty through the Cactus League Dodgers Cubs,
Speaker 11: and then a day later in Florida for Tampa Bay
Speaker 11: and the Yankees. How ready are you I ask for baseball?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, And you know, people who love baseball, especially
Speaker 4: in Major League Baseball, those are the sick words pitchers
Speaker 4: and catchers report.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: And somebody tweeted, almost like clockwork today, a clip from
Speaker 4: the movie Major League of Jake Taylor played by Tom Berenger,
Speaker 4: the weak need catcher, getting out of the cab at
Speaker 4: the spring training site, not knowing what lay ahead, and
Speaker 4: just say today somebody tweeted that last scene or the
Speaker 4: scene from the last game where he called his shot
Speaker 4: the home run and then lays down the say of
Speaker 4: the suicide squeeze and on those terrible knees runs the
Speaker 4: first base and sprawls out across. I mean, just a
Speaker 4: great baseball movie. But just the scene from him getting
Speaker 4: out of the cab and that whole extended scene where
Speaker 4: all the guys were reporting, that just sets the tone,
Speaker 4: doesn't it.
Speaker 11: It does our first swig. Also this week, Talking Baseball
Speaker 11: UK and Louisville officially begin their twenty twenty five seasons
Speaker 11: for baseball lovers on Valentine's Daymber twenty, UK twenty in
Speaker 11: the Baseball America rankings. I have my Baseball America, the
Speaker 11: latest copy here with me with all these preseason fun
Speaker 11: things to read about Cats. Nashville Cats this weekend the
Speaker 11: first of three in Music City with lipscumb Friday at
Speaker 11: four o'clock. Then we got unranked Louisville jumping into the
Speaker 11: fire against a bunch of ranked teams, just kind of
Speaker 11: like the basketball team this year, unranked Louisville in Arlington,
Speaker 11: Texas not far more used to live Globe Live Field
Speaker 11: down there home with the Rangers. College baseball showdown up
Speaker 11: first Friday for the Cards number fourteen Texas. They get
Speaker 11: number thirteen Oklahoma State Saturday, and then they wrap up
Speaker 11: the weekend Sunday morning, eleven thirty with number twenty two Arizona.
Speaker 11: And just like in basketball, SEC is pretty tough in baseball,
Speaker 11: UK is one of ten SEC teams in the top
Speaker 11: twenty five for Baseball America. So I ask you, how
Speaker 11: do you think the twenty twenty five Cats compare on
Speaker 11: paper to last year's World Series teams? Got a lot
Speaker 11: of new faces there this year, and also what happens
Speaker 11: Dick if U of l doesn't make the postseason again
Speaker 11: this year.
Speaker 4: Wow, that was a shocker because we know what kind
Speaker 4: of job Dan McDonald's done over there. If anybody knows
Speaker 4: how to dig out, it's him. But your first question,
Speaker 4: it's hard to say, obviously, with thirty seven new faces,
Speaker 4: we don't know, no, but they seem to have the
Speaker 4: pieces in place, including an excellent shortstop. I mean Ryan
Speaker 4: Ritter for two years, Grant Smith for two years, and
Speaker 4: now Tyler Bell who was a second round draft pick
Speaker 4: and chose to go to college. He was the highest
Speaker 4: drafted player who chose college, and he chose Kentucky. So
Speaker 4: everybody now who is a Wildcat, of course, wants to
Speaker 4: be a part of a team, a program that can
Speaker 4: return to Omaha. And what came through last year and
Speaker 4: really the last two years, teams have won regionals and
Speaker 4: last year won a piece of the SEC. They talked
Speaker 4: about how much they worked and how hard they worked
Speaker 4: in the fall and how they knew after fallball that
Speaker 4: they were going to be good. And that's what the
Speaker 4: differences between one of the many between college and pro is.
Speaker 4: As we said, the pros are reporting right now. With
Speaker 4: the colleges, they were all working, including Louisville back in
Speaker 4: the fall. So you know, they've got a pretty good
Speaker 4: idea of what they have. Now they got to put
Speaker 4: it together. And to your point about Louisville reminds me
Speaker 4: of when Nick min Jump first got here in seventeen
Speaker 4: and he scheduled a top ten team North Carolina right
Speaker 4: off the bat so he could see what he had,
Speaker 4: and he realized he had a really good group, and
Speaker 4: he spent the first half of the season convincing them, hey,
Speaker 4: you're good enough, let's get this done, and they did.
Speaker 11: Fitzwig and six Packs seventy fourth NBA All Star Game
Speaker 11: this Sunday night, San Francisco, eight o'clock on TNT, rivaling
Speaker 11: the NFL Pro Bowl for irrelevance. This series NBA All
Speaker 11: Star Game is actually split up into a mini tournament
Speaker 11: with four teams three games. First team to hit or
Speaker 11: surpass forty points wins in each game. Game one as
Speaker 11: Kenny Young Stars against Charles Barkley Chuck's Global Stars. Then
Speaker 11: you have Game two with Shacks Ogs versus Candace Parkers
Speaker 11: Rising Stars, Game one winner versus Game two winner. Obviously
Speaker 11: for some championship dough one hundred and twenty five grand
Speaker 11: for the winning players each, fifty grand for the second
Speaker 11: place winning players, and you get third and fourth place
Speaker 11: players with twenty five grand each, and after California taxes,
Speaker 11: it'll be but they'll get about twelve bucks to take
Speaker 11: home with them. Two questions for you, is that enough
Speaker 11: of a financial tweak for players to actually play? And
Speaker 11: the other question is that enough of a tweak for
Speaker 11: a usually lame game for you to actually watch?
Speaker 4: No? In a word, no, I don't watch the NBA
Speaker 4: All Star Game anyway. We've talked before about how baseball
Speaker 4: is the only really true all Star game worth watching
Speaker 4: because they play defense. I appreciate the All Star games
Speaker 4: because anytime people say, well, the NBA they never played
Speaker 4: defense to the playoffs, that's not true. And you can
Speaker 4: always point to the All Star Game that's NBA ball
Speaker 4: without defense. But I credit them for recognizing the fact
Speaker 4: that number one, it's not going to be a competitive
Speaker 4: game because you know you're not gonna play d and
Speaker 4: back in the day when they did, it's because they
Speaker 4: needed the money. They didn't make generational wealth in the NBA.
Speaker 4: So any additional page, it's like the World Series in baseball.
Speaker 4: There were guys who made more by winning the World
Speaker 4: Series than they did their entire year's salary, so that's
Speaker 4: going away. What I do like is the fact that
Speaker 4: they're exggituating the skills competitions, and that's what people want
Speaker 4: to see. They want to see the three point shooting,
Speaker 4: the dunk contests. Even though the days of Doctor J
Speaker 4: and Michael are well behind you, you'll still see an
Speaker 4: occasional great performance from a dunker. But it's a fun weekend.
Speaker 4: I give them that, and they celebrate their game, so
Speaker 4: you know, due respect to them, but I won't.
Speaker 11: Watch sixth and final swig one last look at Sundays.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 11: Three peaked no Three time NFL champions since your Green
Speaker 11: Bay Packers sixty five, sixty six, sixty seven seasons. I
Speaker 11: didn't tune in the game, Dick until almost like three
Speaker 11: minutes to go in the first half. Over I had
Speaker 11: had a movie to watch. I was over about that time,
Speaker 11: and well, you see, and we've talked about this before
Speaker 11: even happened. This is like one of the Super Bowls,
Speaker 11: like back in college days when it was always the
Speaker 11: Steelers in them, or the Cowboys or Miami teams. I
Speaker 11: don't care about so I didn't have any kind of
Speaker 11: invested interest in that, and echo what you said about
Speaker 11: the halftime show last week. It was not for us guys. Oh,
Speaker 11: choreography was okay, but look, we're not the demographic for this,
Speaker 11: and I for one don't need, I have no need
Speaker 11: to pay attention to any kind of Rap stars feud
Speaker 11: that's kind of garnished with what sounded like to me
Speaker 11: Scott Gibberish. So a much better halftime show, by the way,
Speaker 11: for all people was during Puppy Bowl twenty one when
Speaker 11: they brought out the kittens for Marty Cloth theme with
Speaker 11: DJ Scratch And you know, I appreciate all DJs no
Speaker 11: matter what color their fur is. Did I will always
Speaker 11: say that Puppy Ball itself was beyond entertaining Team Fluff
Speaker 11: over Team rough sixty eight to sixty six, all kinds
Speaker 11: of offense in that speaking of no defense, it's my kind
Speaker 11: of middle paw. The Puppy Ball is always my kind
Speaker 11: of middle paw to that upp of the upp of
Speaker 11: the Kennel Club stuff that's going on or that just
Speaker 11: happened this week, by the way, watch Best in Show, oh,
Speaker 11: instead watching the Kennel Club Show. Okay, because it's such
Speaker 11: a great movie. It's what Christopher Guest and the gang
Speaker 11: do such a that may be the best one they've
Speaker 11: ever done. That in Spinal Tapper the two of the
Speaker 11: greatest things he ever did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we're gonna talk about that here in a minute.
Speaker 4: But uh, yeah, I enjoyed the Super Bowl because I
Speaker 4: kind of wanted to see what Saquon Barkley would do
Speaker 4: after the Giants splitting get away and now you've got
Speaker 4: a ring my Packers. Yes still and actually Packers did
Speaker 4: it twice. They did it once back in the thirties
Speaker 4: I think or forties, Okay, and then they did it
Speaker 4: again three straight. But yeah, it's it's uh, it's it's not.
Speaker 4: You shouldn't be disappointed by the game because it was
Speaker 4: really interesting the way it unfolded, with the way Philly
Speaker 4: just jumped out and blew out Kansas City early, which
Speaker 4: meant a minimal amount of a take of a cutaways
Speaker 4: to uh Taylor Swift. Travis Kelsey had a terrible game.
Speaker 4: He looks like a guy who should be ready to retire.
Speaker 4: One of the biggest plays in the game came, of course,
Speaker 4: when Mahomes threw a pick when he was hit as
Speaker 4: he threw. Well, one of the guys who hit him
Speaker 4: Kelsey whifted on his block right outside edge.
Speaker 2: Good point.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so he needs he needs to h to step down.
Speaker 4: By the way, you may know this already. I think
Speaker 4: we may have talked about it last week, but it's
Speaker 4: been tweeted more than once. Now. Ken Norton Junior not
Speaker 4: the only player to win three straight rings. Darien Cannard,
Speaker 4: the former Wildcat back up old lineman for the Eagles,
Speaker 4: won two with the Chiefs, then signed with Philly and
Speaker 4: now he's got a third ring and I think he's
Speaker 4: played in three regular season games per Speaking speaking.
Speaker 11: Of winners, the Clydesdale's top ad in USA today again.
Speaker 4: Yeah it was great. There were some good ones, but
Speaker 4: that was the heart Wrencher. There's no question, all right.
Speaker 4: When we come back, some hot reads for our west
Speaker 4: End bureau chief, Gary Moore here on the Big Blue
Speaker 4: and Siders six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 4: Blue and Sider. Dick Gabriel with you joined by Gary Moore.
Speaker 4: He is our west End bureau chief. We've heard two
Speaker 4: guys in a six pack. Time now for some hot
Speaker 4: reads for Gary. You mentioned and I think I just
Speaker 4: planted this seed earlier when I was preparing you for
Speaker 4: today's show. The Best in Show winner at the Westminster
Speaker 4: Kennel Club Doug Show. If you don't follow it, there
Speaker 4: are winners for each category, each breed, of course, and
Speaker 4: then the overall best in Show. I don't know how
Speaker 4: you judge it, but yeah, watch the movie Best in
Speaker 4: Show you get a little bit of an idea. But
Speaker 4: there are documentaries about the Westminster Kennel Club show, and
Speaker 4: there are there are dog shows all over the country.
Speaker 4: This just happens to be the best known. But the
Speaker 4: winner this year gary a giant Schnauzer named Monty, which
Speaker 4: I always find fascinating when it's a dog like that
Speaker 4: that wins it.
Speaker 11: I knew there were Snauzers, but I never heard of
Speaker 11: a giant.
Speaker 4: I hadn't either.
Speaker 11: And it's not that much bigger. It's not like it's
Speaker 11: like a Great Dane size. You know, you stand it
Speaker 11: up and it's as tall as you are.
Speaker 4: But but there's there's another runner up. Third time. This
Speaker 4: is this is he's becoming the buffalo Bills of the
Speaker 4: dog show. A whippet known as Bourbon. What a great name,
Speaker 4: and of course the names are all five miles long
Speaker 4: for breeding purposes, and I feed pure bed. You have
Speaker 4: to do the same thing. But they always have basically
Speaker 4: a nickname or a short name. Another finalist to be
Speaker 4: Sean Freeze called Neil An e Al, a sky terrier
Speaker 4: named Archer and it ships you called Comet who had
Speaker 4: been a finalist before. A German shepherd named Mercedes who
Speaker 4: came in second last year to be the English springer
Speaker 4: spaniel named Freddy. So Uh, they judge on how closely
Speaker 4: they matched the breed. You get a trophy, ribbons, bragging rights. Uh,
Speaker 4: but there is no cash prize Gary, just the bragging rights.
Speaker 4: But if you really want to know more about it,
Speaker 4: about dog shows in general, read a book called dog Land.
Speaker 4: It's funny and tremendously entertaining.
Speaker 11: We said Springer sprain. My dad had some of those,
Speaker 11: and some spaniels for hunting dogs. Yeah, you want to
Speaker 11: see how well they do. Let some squirrels loose in
Speaker 11: there and see how they do it. I want to
Speaker 11: see that, and I see I would watch that.
Speaker 4: I would watch that. That's a great that's that's a
Speaker 4: great idea. Turn them loose and see and judge them
Speaker 4: on the merits of how they chase the squirrels. Our
Speaker 4: second hot read. Indiana coach Woodson is announced under pressure
Speaker 4: he will step down. He's just not done a great
Speaker 4: job at IU. Looked like he was on his way,
Speaker 4: but it all fell apart. But last night Indiana upset
Speaker 4: in Sparteland Michigan State. Yeah, which was a team that
Speaker 4: a lot of people thought was becoming one of Izo's best,
Speaker 4: and it denied Izzo the chance to the bragging rights
Speaker 4: that he has moved ahead of Bob Knight. Three hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty three conference wins, one more, he becomes the
Speaker 4: all time winner leader in the Big Ten. Tom Is
Speaker 4: was a class act. And I don't just say that
Speaker 4: because he's been on this very radio show, but it's
Speaker 4: it's interesting that it shows you don't have to coach
Speaker 4: the lay Knight did to be successful. But do you
Speaker 4: think that and you get the Indiana coverage over there
Speaker 4: in Louisville because the pressure was off the Hoosiers that
Speaker 4: they were able to relax and play their best against Sparty.
Speaker 11: Well you know that because you know the wife here is,
Speaker 11: as you know, is an IU grad. So watch a
Speaker 11: lot of Indiana stuff and they probably should have won
Speaker 11: at Purdue. They probably should have won at home against
Speaker 11: Dusty May, former IU manager in Michigan. Now, and they
Speaker 11: were due to win one of these games and they
Speaker 11: hit their free throws late, which has been kind of
Speaker 11: a problem for them. And in fact, when they lost
Speaker 11: to Maryland, had they hit free throws at the end,
Speaker 11: they probably would have won that game that Maryland ended
Speaker 11: up winning on the court at IU. If they can't
Speaker 11: get motivated now to do some things for Mike and again, yeah,
Speaker 11: I don't think Woodson has done a very good job.
Speaker 11: He just seems to be very tired, and he wants
Speaker 11: to do certain things. I don't think he's embraced the
Speaker 11: current style of what college teams are doing. But now
Speaker 11: this is on the players. You want to go out there.
Speaker 11: You've got the talent. How bad do you want it?
Speaker 11: And they showed it last night, So maybe we'll see
Speaker 11: some kind of a sudden renaissance and get him into
Speaker 11: the tournament. He really wants them to go to the
Speaker 11: tournament and go out on a winning note.
Speaker 2: Why not.
Speaker 4: Yeah, to your point was since said I can't let
Speaker 4: him quit and they had just ended a five game
Speaker 4: losing skin. He so we just got to keep working,
Speaker 4: keep pushing each other and see where it leads us.
Speaker 4: We've still got a lot of season left, that is
Speaker 4: the case. And you've just pulled off an eleven and
Speaker 4: a half point upset your dogs by eleven and a half.
Speaker 4: And if that doesn't launch you, what else can? He
Speaker 4: is our West End Bureau chief, Gary Moorey joined us
Speaker 4: each and every week, and you can follow him as
Speaker 4: you well should on X the Twitter at.
Speaker 11: As if I know where I'm going at nine to
Speaker 11: five to five Gary, same joint you're at.
Speaker 4: At Big Blue Insider one. Thank you, Sarah. I'm enjoying
Speaker 4: your sweatshirt.
Speaker 11: Glad I have a little sartorial elegance here on our
Speaker 11: zoom call.
Speaker 2: Have a good week.
Speaker 4: Got to do it thanks to Gary, thanks to Sean Woods,
Speaker 4: thanks to the guys from the seventy four to seventy
Speaker 4: five team. That's a good night for the garage and
Speaker 4: lexing do that's.
Speaker 12: A joke, son, a flying waiver. You're built too low.
Speaker 12: A fast ones go over your head. You got a
Speaker 12: hole in your glove. I keep pitching him and you
Speaker 12: keep missing them. You gotta keep your eye on the ball, then.
Speaker 13: Stating the back station.
Speaker 1: To the.
Speaker 13: Thing it don't don