Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick Abriel with
Speaker 1: you Tuesday edition of our program. Of course, we'll talk
Speaker 1: Kentucky football tonight as the Wildcats prepare for well, actually
Speaker 1: for media Day. I'm sure they're putting quips together for
Speaker 1: us on Friday, then Fan Day on Saturday. And a
Speaker 1: new Kroger poster has been released. It is a Kentucky
Speaker 1: player wearing number twenty four, which has for so long
Speaker 1: been Chris Rodriguez, but right now twenty four is Jaden Smith,
Speaker 1: who is a freshman from Charlotte North Carolina listed as
Speaker 1: an athlete. So it's really just a representative of representation
Speaker 1: of a Kentucky football player, but it's pretty cool. So
Speaker 1: if you want your poster, you can get one of Kroger,
Speaker 1: or you can go to fanday or both. So that
Speaker 1: comes up this weekend. Man, the talking season is rolling.
Speaker 1: We'll also talk a lot of basketball tonight because we've
Speaker 1: got more comments from the new Wildcats on the men's roster,
Speaker 1: and we'll have some comments from the new players on
Speaker 1: the women's roster. We had a chance to talk to
Speaker 1: some of the UK women earlier today. Kenny Brooks has
Speaker 1: been on the show. We've talked to a lot of
Speaker 1: men's basketball as well, but for the first time we'll
Speaker 1: hear from the women tonight. Also coming up Maggie Davis
Speaker 1: of BBN Tonight in LAX eighteen, as well as Tom Leach,
Speaker 1: the radio voice of the Wildcats, who hosted yesterday's Wildcat
Speaker 1: kickoff luncheon and is already well schooled. He's been studying
Speaker 1: hard this Kentucky roster, and I always like to get
Speaker 1: Tom's perspective on things because he looks at predictive situations
Speaker 1: like he's handicapping a horse race, and he's pretty good
Speaker 1: at that. So I want to hear what Tom has
Speaker 1: to say about the upcoming schedule as well as the roster,
Speaker 1: because he indicated yesterday that he has already been doing
Speaker 1: some deep dives on UK personnel. So that's coming up
Speaker 1: a little bit later on. But we've got to talk
Speaker 1: about what the state's been talking about for the last
Speaker 1: six tent two hours or more, and that's last night's
Speaker 1: TVT matchup of La Familia and the vill won by
Speaker 1: of course, Kentucky. And I gotta tell you I watched
Speaker 1: the second half. I will admit to you that I
Speaker 1: was drawn in to the Olympic coverage of men's gymnastics,
Speaker 1: of all things, and finally flipped over at halftime to
Speaker 1: watch the second half. And it was a good first
Speaker 1: half from all indication, and I saw the highlights, but man,
Speaker 1: the second half was wild. Of course, the Wildcats win
Speaker 1: it thanks to the Elam rule. That's the rule set
Speaker 1: up created by a college professor actually, and what happens
Speaker 1: is that at the four minute mark they stopped the
Speaker 1: game and they agree upon a score that the teams
Speaker 1: will try to reach. They will race to that final score.
Speaker 1: And last night it was seventy and the Wildcats already
Speaker 1: had sixty four points. The Cardinals needed seventeen, so they
Speaker 1: needed to outscore Kentucky seventeen to six. Basically, they had
Speaker 1: to get to seventy before Kentucky got there, of course,
Speaker 1: so really they had to score them seventeen to four.
Speaker 1: And it didn't happen for a while there. You wondered
Speaker 1: if anybody was going to score. Both teams came up
Speaker 1: empty time after time after time, and I think the
Speaker 1: Fox Sports people said that Kentucky as soon as that
Speaker 1: score was indicated, Kentucky went nine possessions empty. Nine They
Speaker 1: missed free throws, they missed layups, they missed jumpers, and
Speaker 1: u of L did too, although u of L did
Speaker 1: score at least one or two buckets one I think.
Speaker 1: But what we saw, and if you were watching or
Speaker 1: if you were there, what we saw retired basketball players
Speaker 1: because they played hard, and both of these teams it
Speaker 1: pretty much cruised through their first two games and they
Speaker 1: didn't really have to extend themselves as much as they
Speaker 1: did last night. I really felt like the defense was
Speaker 1: pretty tough for a game like that. Now, these guys,
Speaker 1: just about every one of them played professionally. They've either
Speaker 1: played in the NBA or overseas and are still playing,
Speaker 1: so they're in pretty good shape. You know, they've been
Speaker 1: off for a little while, but they've also been playing
Speaker 1: defense on the professional level, which meant last night it
Speaker 1: was physical. There was one play down the stretch where
Speaker 1: Andrew Harrison basically bumped in he had the ball, he
Speaker 1: was trying to back in and defended. The defender falls
Speaker 1: and trips Harrison, who's then called for traveling. So it
Speaker 1: should have either been an offensive foul by Harrison, a
Speaker 1: foul and the defender for tripping Harrison, who went to
Speaker 1: the floor, but instaid they called a travel and Andrew
Speaker 1: got up and I thought he was gonna say something,
Speaker 1: but there were some really goofy calls, but they let
Speaker 1: him play. That's called letting him play. So anyhow, first half,
Speaker 1: Kentucky team runs out to a double digit lead. Louisville
Speaker 1: goes on a run late and cuts it to a
Speaker 1: three point game at the half, although the key down
Speaker 1: the stretch. In the first half, Willie cally Sneine hit
Speaker 1: three three pointers. Willy cally Stein, but remember Biggs. In
Speaker 1: the pro games, whether it's overseas or in the NBA,
Speaker 1: they shoot threes. And calle Stein after the game said
Speaker 1: he was hitting threes and shoot around. And he went
Speaker 1: over to Tyler Smith and he said, or Tyler Eulis
Speaker 1: rather and said, hey, this might be one of those Knights.
Speaker 1: And Ulis the coach, said let it rip. So he
Speaker 1: did and hit three three pointers. Third quarter Nate Cestina
Speaker 1: five triples on his way to a game I twenty
Speaker 1: two points. Kentucky outscored the Louisville guys what was it,
Speaker 1: twenty four to six and got the lead and then
Speaker 1: basically fought Louisville off. The Ville came back and back
Speaker 1: and back as Kentucky, I thought shots let kind of
Speaker 1: went down to drain a little bit too much one
Speaker 1: on one stuff, because at first they were driving and dishing,
Speaker 1: but then down the stretch it looked like they were
Speaker 1: just trying to get it over with. But once they
Speaker 1: set that score and tired players were missing shots, it
Speaker 1: was just a matter of can you get to the
Speaker 1: finish line. Willie Carley Stein scored on an old fashioned
Speaker 1: three point play, took it to the Rackstrong hit his
Speaker 1: free throw, and then it just like the previous game,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a close score, but James Young ended things
Speaker 1: for Kentucky with a three pointer. Well, last night it
Speaker 1: was Andrew Harrison, not Aaron Harrison. You know, and Aaron was,
Speaker 1: of course, was the author of those huge three pointers
Speaker 1: in the NCA Tournament, including one against Louisville in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: But last night it was Andrew draining a three that
Speaker 1: ended things. Here's the way. John Fanta of Fox Sports
Speaker 1: called it. This is a TV call, but you get
Speaker 1: the idea. Eric Bledsoe had the basketball look, he was
Speaker 1: looking four three, then he took it to the rack
Speaker 1: and then he fanned it out to Harrison and here's
Speaker 1: what it sounded like, what.
Speaker 2: So attacks catch you shooting to Harris.
Speaker 3: State it still.
Speaker 1: And then all the silliness began. Nate Cistina immediately went
Speaker 1: to L's down a lot of the players dead nagles
Speaker 1: right there in the middle of the floor, and one
Speaker 1: of the Louisville players spit on him and kind of
Speaker 1: went at him like he was gonna try to get
Speaker 1: physical with him. And if you don't believe me, check
Speaker 1: out I think it was Channel eighteen at the best
Speaker 1: video of it, you can see the guy was it
Speaker 1: was on Aku came up and spit on Nate Cestina
Speaker 1: and then it wasn't a brawl. It was described as
Speaker 1: a brawl. I didn't see any punchers thrown, and I've
Speaker 1: looked at video from four or five different TV stations,
Speaker 1: and of course TV stayed with it. That That's what
Speaker 1: surprised me the most is Fox Sports stayed with it.
Speaker 1: They didn't cut away from it, which they usually do.
Speaker 1: But I think they were having to kill time because
Speaker 1: even after the dust up was over, they stayed on
Speaker 1: the air. So I don't know if they were films
Speaker 1: at the top of the hour or whatever, but it
Speaker 1: was stupid, It was silly, and it looked like it
Speaker 1: was over, and then it started up again. And thankfully
Speaker 1: there were a lot of Louisville Metro Police there, not
Speaker 1: the guys in the yellow windbreakers who were hired to
Speaker 1: make sure people get to their seats properly and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. No, they were bona fide Louisville Metro Police officers,
Speaker 1: some of them pretty good size. They did a good
Speaker 1: and sort of the coaches did a good job of
Speaker 1: breaking things up. It is silly, you know. And I
Speaker 1: don't know how you feel about El's Down. I'm not
Speaker 1: a huge fan of El's down all the time if
Speaker 1: you're a Kentucky fan, because all that does is signified it.
Speaker 1: You don't think your program is viable unless you recognize
Speaker 1: your arch rival them, ignore them. Why give them credence
Speaker 1: and credibility. But if you've just beaten them on their
Speaker 1: floor and that's their favorite gesture, El's well, El's down,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: I'm the same way with it with the long horns,
Speaker 1: the horns down, up and down. Uh. You know, unless
Speaker 1: you're in the middle of a game, taunting the other guys,
Speaker 1: if you're on their home field, or court, or if
Speaker 1: they've been flashing them at you, you can flash them
Speaker 1: right back. So that's what Cistina was doing and other players,
Speaker 1: as I said, and this guy decides he's going to
Speaker 1: try to put a stop to it by spitting the
Speaker 1: power of spit with Nate Cistina. So it was silly,
Speaker 1: it was stupid, but it's just another chapter in the
Speaker 1: history of this rivalry. Here's what Cistina said to w
Speaker 1: l k Y TV over in Louisville right after the game.
Speaker 1: A lot of crowd noise, but you can tell what
Speaker 1: he's saying.
Speaker 5: Guys that care about this live don't care about this stage,
Speaker 5: not always.
Speaker 1: Somebody made a good point on Twitter or x that
Speaker 1: that just might be the last time a Louisville based
Speaker 1: basketball team, you have l based plays at Freedom Hall
Speaker 1: and it's a loss. I don't think that's accurate, simply
Speaker 1: because I think this tournament's here to stay, at least
Speaker 1: for the time being, and I think Louisville's going to
Speaker 1: have a representative every year, as will UK and I
Speaker 1: think Louisville's TBT entry will keep playing in Freedom Hall.
Speaker 1: So I don't think it was the last time. Might
Speaker 1: be the last time they play a team with a
Speaker 1: UK based roster, but I think you'll still see some
Speaker 1: games in TBT at Freedom Hall. So it was fun.
Speaker 1: And now the Wildcat team goes. I'll keep calling them that.
Speaker 1: They of course our love fora Meilia. They play in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia in the Final four on Friday night against the
Speaker 1: team comprised primarily of Ohio State alumni and it's a
Speaker 1: pretty good team, Carmen's Crew, I think it's called. So
Speaker 1: that'll be fun. And Tyler eulis three and zero as
Speaker 1: a head coach and it was interesting joining him on
Speaker 1: the bench last night. Rajon Rondo stepped in who apparently
Speaker 1: wants to be a coach as well. Tomorrow night, Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: the Unforgettable guard to schedule to join us, and he
Speaker 1: was right there. You saw him, you heard him as
Speaker 1: Tyler Elis. The coaches were both miked up. Rhese Gaines,
Speaker 1: who was one of my favorite UFL players to watch.
Speaker 1: I thought he was a terrific player. He and Tyler
Speaker 1: Elis both miked up. They kept it clean, it was live.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they had a delay in place if they
Speaker 1: needed it, but it was really interesting hearing them in
Speaker 1: their huddles, but at one point Shawn Woods stepped in
Speaker 1: when Kentucky was looking for a shot at needed. So
Speaker 1: we'll talk up to Sean about that tomorrow night. I
Speaker 1: mentioned the Olympics in the gymnastics. We'll talk about that
Speaker 1: in the next break. But there have been a lot
Speaker 1: of things happening in the summer game so far. We
Speaker 1: talked about some of it yesterday and some more of
Speaker 1: it popped up last night. We'll talk about that in
Speaker 1: our next segment as well as the gymnastics. Someone Bios
Speaker 1: and Company hard at work coming up at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour, Tom Leach, the Voice of the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: Hour number two, Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight here on
Speaker 1: the Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back coming up,
Speaker 1: Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight. Tom Leach will be with us.
Speaker 1: At the bottom of the hour and our second hour,
Speaker 1: we'll hear from some of the UK men's basketball players,
Speaker 1: the new guys, of course, they're all new guys for
Speaker 1: the most part. And then we're also gonna hear from
Speaker 1: some of the UK women, including a returning player, but
Speaker 1: only a couple came back to play for Kenny Brooks,
Speaker 1: So lots of basketball talk in the second half hour,
Speaker 1: but before that we'll talk a lot of football. But
Speaker 1: right now we got to talk about gymnastics. Earlier today,
Speaker 1: the US did it. The women won the gold after
Speaker 1: winning silver last Olympics in Tokyo. Remember Simone Biles dropped
Speaker 1: out after a single vault, but she was back in
Speaker 1: full force today and really put on a great show.
Speaker 1: So did Jordan Chiles, who did a tremendous job on
Speaker 1: the floor routine and that basically locked it up for
Speaker 1: the US. Simone Biles was kind of the cherry on top,
Speaker 1: but the Americans won it by a full five points
Speaker 1: head of second place Italy. Hey, how about that? Italy
Speaker 1: wins the silver medal, first time for a women's team
Speaker 1: medal in the Summer Games for Italy, I think it
Speaker 1: was in like ninety eight years. Brazil took the bronze medal,
Speaker 1: and all is right now with women's gymnastics and Simone Biles,
Speaker 1: who of course is married to a Green Bay packer,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. But Sunny Lee, who of course
Speaker 1: competed for Auburn jade Carey, and I mentioned Jordan Chiles
Speaker 1: did it and got it done, a huge crowd cheering
Speaker 1: them on, and Bio now oft the part of the
Speaker 1: team that won it in twenty sixteen in Rio, but
Speaker 1: things kind of fell apart for her in Tokyo back
Speaker 1: winning the gold today. I mentioned earlier that I watched
Speaker 1: the men's gymnastics last night and I covered gymnastics. I've
Speaker 1: actually done some matches, some meets for a SEC network,
Speaker 1: did him when I was working at WKYT as well
Speaker 1: a couple of times. But of course UK doesn't have
Speaker 1: men's gymnastics, most schools don't. But it's phenomenal the power
Speaker 1: and strength that well the women, yes, but the men
Speaker 1: as well, on the rings and on the pommel horse.
Speaker 1: It's pretty incredible. But the big story last night was
Speaker 1: that there was one guy who did one event and
Speaker 1: that was the pommel horse, Stephen Nedorasic, and he is
Speaker 1: now part of a zillion memes because while his teammates
Speaker 1: were out there doing multiple routines, this guy was a specialist.
Speaker 1: Is a specialists. That's all he did. Twenty five years old.
Speaker 1: He calls himself a nerd. He wears a black frame,
Speaker 1: non prescription glasses, so that kind of you know, makes
Speaker 1: him look even more like a nerd and doesn't wear
Speaker 1: them when he's competing. But he just sat and waited
Speaker 1: and waited and waited through his teammates' appearances, and it
Speaker 1: cheered him on a little bit, but he was just
Speaker 1: locked into his zone. And at one point NBC showed
Speaker 1: him sort of pantomiming his own routine, getting himself ready
Speaker 1: for the pommel horse, and so all that pressure was
Speaker 1: on him when he got up and jumped on that
Speaker 1: poma horse for the biggest moment of his life for
Speaker 1: his routine, and he killed it, crushed it. Scored fourteen
Speaker 1: point eighty sixty six. If you get up over fourteen,
Speaker 1: that's pretty amazing. Now, they didn't win the gold, No,
Speaker 1: the US team won the bronz but it was the
Speaker 1: first time since twenty eight that the USA had won
Speaker 1: a medal in men's team gymnastics, and so the pommel
Speaker 1: horse guy got it done. China one, which China, oh
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Japan won. China came in second. China had
Speaker 1: some issues with personnel and one of their key competitors
Speaker 1: fell off the high bar a couple of times, and
Speaker 1: Japan jumped in there and took the gold medal, but
Speaker 1: Team USA. Thanks to the pommel horse Guy, the nerd,
Speaker 1: self professed nerd, came up with the bronze medal and
Speaker 1: celebrated as though they had won the goal. They got
Speaker 1: by Great Britain by a couple of points and the
Speaker 1: Americans were actually in seventh place prior to the pommel
Speaker 1: horse Guy's routine, but he flipped those standings and flat
Speaker 1: out got it done. It's not a shock he had
Speaker 1: won the US Almhorse Championship this year, but the Penn
Speaker 1: State graduate had to get it done on the biggest stage,
Speaker 1: and he did got a chance to watch some of
Speaker 1: the women's volleyball. Unfortunately, Team USA loses to China. The
Speaker 1: US team is the defending gold medal champ and of course,
Speaker 1: one of the members of that team, Avery Skinner, who
Speaker 1: up Kentucky win the national championship a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: then transferred to Baylor. But she played really well and
Speaker 1: in fact, she was one of the reasons, one of
Speaker 1: the biggest reasons that the Americans, who had fallen behind
Speaker 1: two games to none, came back and make it made
Speaker 1: it a five set match. They won the next two
Speaker 1: and they were going for what they call the reverse sweep,
Speaker 1: but they fell behind. They played a fifteen in the
Speaker 1: fifth match, just like in college, and just could not
Speaker 1: hold off the Chinese. It is pool play, though, so
Speaker 1: the Americans are still alive. They played the second match
Speaker 1: of their preliminary round tomorrow against Serbia. Then they meet
Speaker 1: France on Sunday in the pool play finale. Top two
Speaker 1: teams in each of the three pools and the top
Speaker 1: two third place teams advanced to the knockout rounds, so
Speaker 1: Team USA still good haul in the gold. A couple
Speaker 1: of other stories coming out of the Olympics that I've
Speaker 1: kind of enjoyed. One of them, Ryan Murphy, who is
Speaker 1: a swimmer, won a bronze medal and when he came
Speaker 1: out of the pool on Monday, he checked in with
Speaker 1: his wife after the one hundred meter backstroke Monday night,
Speaker 1: he looks up into the stands after the race and
Speaker 1: there she is Bridgid holding up a sign they're expecting,
Speaker 1: and the site says, Ryan, it's a girl. How about that.
Speaker 1: That's one of the coolest gender reveals ever, And he said,
Speaker 1: that's the first time I'd heard the gender. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you'd paid attention to much of this at all.
Speaker 1: But there was a great question about the Sane River,
Speaker 1: and of course that's where the all the boats came
Speaker 1: through with all the athletes. The triathlon postponed the water
Speaker 1: is too filthy levels of E coli here the mayor
Speaker 1: had swum in the river just to show how clean
Speaker 1: it was. No, the Men's Olympic Triathlon postponed two contaminated
Speaker 1: for safe swimming. Welcome to Paris. Tom Leach is next
Speaker 1: year on The Big Blue Sider six thirty WAP. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue Insider. And as we mentioned yesterday,
Speaker 1: Tom Leach hosted the annual Kickoff luncheon over at Kroger Field,
Speaker 1: a full house, a lot of Kentucky football fans. Tom
Speaker 1: on our Celebrity Hotline and Tom I mentioned earlier in
Speaker 1: the show that based on everything I heard you say
Speaker 1: on your show, but yesterday talking to the head coach
Speaker 1: and the coordinators, you're already deep into your study of
Speaker 1: this year's team, aren't you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's that time of year or so it's
Speaker 2: eager to get out to practice and start you know watching, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, to see who's making a move, because you know,
Speaker 2: I think it's unlike basketball where you know, I have
Speaker 2: you know, lineup boards I do, or you know the
Speaker 2: stats and whatever that will one year to the next,
Speaker 2: and in some cases a lot of times with football
Speaker 2: this year you can just you know, change Ian Walker
Speaker 2: from a sophomore to a junior, maybe you know, change
Speaker 2: the weight on somebody. But uh, you know, basketball is
Speaker 2: a different story where it's almost no names to carry
Speaker 2: over on the chart. But yeah, Football's got a lot
Speaker 2: of depth, which just makes me think that there's good
Speaker 2: reason to be optimistic because they have I think several
Speaker 2: guys that will hear their name called in the draft
Speaker 2: and that usually uh matches up to really good seasons,
Speaker 2: and they should have the depth to withstand a few
Speaker 2: injuries along the way.
Speaker 1: Before I get into that, I'm curious. I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever asked you about this. I've talked to Jeff
Speaker 1: Acor about it, but I will freely admit when I
Speaker 1: go to practice, I'm I'm rarely certain of what I'm seeing,
Speaker 1: and by that I mean the technique of lineman assignments blown.
Speaker 1: I always can tell who's throwing the ball well, who's
Speaker 1: catching or not catching the ball well, you know, and
Speaker 1: if a coach is chewing somebody out or whatever. You
Speaker 1: see a big play, you know that's going on. Maybe
Speaker 1: somebody is getting more reps than the other. But when
Speaker 1: you go to practice, what do you look for? What
Speaker 1: do you watch? Do you talk to any of the
Speaker 1: coaches ahead of time to find out what may be up?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well for a guy like Jeff who played, yeah,
Speaker 2: he's gonna think understand it that some of the technique
Speaker 2: things probably at a level more than you or I
Speaker 2: or most of us would. But so what I'm looking for, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll talk to coaching a lot of them during breaks
Speaker 2: in practice or something, or ask about you know, uh,
Speaker 2: somebody you know he you know, moving up to the
Speaker 2: depth chart whatever, or you know about about the matchup
Speaker 2: that week or some something where you I'm looking and
Speaker 2: then what otherwise I'm looking for, you know, because I'm
Speaker 2: going to fill out my depth chart, So I want
Speaker 2: to know you know, who's uh, you know, maybe in
Speaker 2: line to play more that week maybe than they have
Speaker 2: been or less. Those kinds of things you know, pick
Speaker 2: up maybe you know, talking to one of the guys
Speaker 2: or one of the coaches, just some nugget of information
Speaker 2: that you can use to enhance the broadcast or to
Speaker 2: set you know, Jeff or you up for something to
Speaker 2: talk about during the game. So yeah, a lot of
Speaker 2: a lot of what I get out of it comes
Speaker 2: from some of those conversations. And then just you know,
Speaker 2: helping out to fill out a death chart, and then
Speaker 2: you know if somebody's you know, just starting to notice
Speaker 2: somebody making plays. I remember a couple of examples Betty
Speaker 2: Snell's first year. The first scrimmage I watched, They'll have
Speaker 2: two scrimmages in August on Saturday, the Fan Days. This
Speaker 2: this Saturday, but then the next two scrimmages are the
Speaker 2: ones that I always like to watch because it gives
Speaker 2: you an idea of how the depth charts really stacked.
Speaker 2: No matter what, I get relieved. And Bennie Uhst like
Speaker 2: that first scrimmage. Uh he gets in, you know, he's
Speaker 2: running with the threes, and he gets in late and
Speaker 2: he's just running over and through people and you're thinking, wow,
Speaker 2: that's impressive. But again it's threes against three. So let's
Speaker 2: see if he moves up next week and can still
Speaker 2: do this. Well he did, and so you knew you
Speaker 2: knew there was something there. And then another example, always
Speaker 2: remember Steven Johnson, who we didn't think, you know, in
Speaker 2: August of his year was his first year, was going
Speaker 2: to even figure in the mix because Drew Barker was
Speaker 2: the quarterback and then he gets hurt and Stephen becomes
Speaker 2: the guy. But in watching, you know, I'd watch Stephen
Speaker 2: in the spring and it was very impressed, and then
Speaker 2: in the fall, I'm watching him in late summer. I
Speaker 2: guess it is technically that the training camp and practices
Speaker 2: and scrimmages and I'm thinking, wow, he throws a really
Speaker 2: nice neat ball. He's really you know, come on from
Speaker 2: what I saw in the spring, and well, you know
Speaker 2: he he can do that. You know he can you know,
Speaker 2: maybe he can help him a little bit. And turned
Speaker 2: out he had to help him a lot and he did, so,
Speaker 2: you know, you pick up on some of those things
Speaker 2: of somebody. The other thing that's important for me to
Speaker 2: watch is pregame warm up for the opponent, because you'll
Speaker 2: sometimes pick up somebody that you can tell is higher
Speaker 2: up on the depth chart than they're listed on paper.
Speaker 2: I remember one game there was somebody they played that
Speaker 2: ran the option, that didn't run the option.
Speaker 1: Miami, Ohio is that who it.
Speaker 2: Was, and I waked it warm ups and I'm seeing
Speaker 2: this and I'm like, okay, I've added a couple of
Speaker 2: names to the spawning board. There's like, I don't know
Speaker 2: if there you know, these are just a few option plays,
Speaker 2: but this is a guy running a quarterback that I
Speaker 2: don't have, so you know, you have to pick up
Speaker 2: those kinds of things.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure was Miami, and I remember, and it's
Speaker 1: funny because you know, I'm sensitive to the media types.
Speaker 1: You criticized the need for sideline reporters, and generally they're
Speaker 1: talking about TV sideline port and they don't understand what
Speaker 1: goes on behind the scenes. But anyhow, I remember that
Speaker 1: specific halftime a comment I got from Stoops because you know,
Speaker 1: we all, the three of us, you and Jeff and
Speaker 1: I talked about the fact that what you had just described,
Speaker 1: they're running this option attack that never came up in
Speaker 1: any pregame discussions with the Stoops in the media. So
Speaker 1: I asked Stoops about it. He said, we watched them
Speaker 1: warming up and recognized that offense from something in c
Speaker 1: State did while we were at Florida State and so
Speaker 1: Kentucky their coaching staff made a lot of changes on
Speaker 1: the fly. And you'll recall shut that down right now.
Speaker 1: That was one of the worst non conference teams I've
Speaker 1: ever seen come in. But they tried to slip that
Speaker 1: pass Kentucky's coaches and it didn't work. But got a
Speaker 1: good memory.
Speaker 2: On that, and that's why mat Rourke got slipped by
Speaker 2: the Tennessee coach because they didn't show anything. And you
Speaker 2: know that, and that was back in twenty eleven. And
Speaker 2: they always have contended that the Kentucky break in the
Speaker 2: streak in that win was in part a testament to
Speaker 2: the Tennessee game coming after Thanksgiving and schedule changing and
Speaker 2: there were no students on campus and it was a
Speaker 2: less social media and so nothing got out until rumor
Speaker 2: or two on Friday night that nobody believed and you know,
Speaker 2: the Tennessee coaches and they were in the booth right
Speaker 2: next to us, and now you know it's all blocked
Speaker 2: off where you can't you can't see in there, but
Speaker 2: that at that time it was and we're seeing, you know,
Speaker 2: papers flying everywhere and they're panic because they don't know
Speaker 2: what the heck's going on. That Kentucky goes down and
Speaker 2: it's kind of what I would call stole a field
Speaker 2: goal there Tennessee's confusion and in a ten to seven
Speaker 2: win that was massive.
Speaker 1: As games go and have gone. That was a really
Speaker 1: not a very good football game, but still one of
Speaker 1: the greatest wins in UK history. Speaking of guys, I
Speaker 1: watched in practice as well, and you may as well.
Speaker 1: When they are in the same areas. Oftentimes they go
Speaker 1: off to the stadium by themselves. I watched the kickers.
Speaker 1: I watch the punters. Yeah, and sometimes you can pick
Speaker 1: up on that as well.
Speaker 2: But I will tell you this, the range of like
Speaker 2: a field goal. Yeah, see either because or Steve Ortmeyer
Speaker 2: was I always say, a savant when they came to
Speaker 2: special team and I forget which direction it was. I
Speaker 2: think it was kicking toward the field house, right. He
Speaker 2: knew you could get about two extra yards one way
Speaker 2: or the other, and I think it was toward the field.
Speaker 2: That's but somebody do with the wind patterns that were consistent,
Speaker 2: and he knew and you could get you know, you
Speaker 2: could make it. I forgot could make it from fifty
Speaker 2: kick in one direction, he could go to fifty two
Speaker 2: the other way.
Speaker 1: What did he tell you about rugby style? Punters and
Speaker 1: they kicking across the field.
Speaker 2: Yeah. When Mac Steffie was doing that, when he would
Speaker 2: go to his right and kick it back across his
Speaker 2: body to his left, Yeah, and it would hit and
Speaker 2: run down the sideline. He said, they will always do that.
Speaker 2: It will never go out of bound. I didn't and
Speaker 2: I don't know how he knew that, but it would
Speaker 2: hit and run down the sidelines a few more yards experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to tell you the reason that I
Speaker 1: stopped making predictions. I mean, I always talk about what
Speaker 1: I think might happen, or you know, I could see
Speaker 1: X amount of wins. But as we talk about watching preseason,
Speaker 1: I think back to how Mummies last year. And I'm
Speaker 1: not banging on Mummy, but I remember. I believe that
Speaker 1: was when Marlon McCree predicted ten wins. And I went
Speaker 1: to a lot of preseason practices and man, they look great,
Speaker 1: but all they were doing was running past Kelly day
Speaker 1: after day, you know, the air raid against air and
Speaker 1: they look perfect. And I'm like, man, this team is
Speaker 1: they may not get to ten, but they went eight
Speaker 1: or nine and they won two. So I stopped making predictions.
Speaker 1: I just say, you know, the uniforms fit and they
Speaker 1: line up straight when it comes to how they look, so, you.
Speaker 2: Know, but you can pick up you can pick up
Speaker 2: some things. I always tell people who ask me about
Speaker 2: you practice this, this, this, But understand they have learned
Speaker 2: that I know nothing until I see them against somebody
Speaker 2: that is outside competition. Baball as long.
Speaker 1: And if you go to practice and they're not carrying
Speaker 1: somebody off the field and taking them into the training room,
Speaker 1: you're good, right, I mean, there's lot of it.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, it's uh, you know, I've both
Speaker 2: covered a lot of thurbred racing. It's like there are
Speaker 2: courses you can tell they you know, there's something special
Speaker 2: in the workouts, but not always. Yeah, they are better
Speaker 2: in the morning than they are in the afternoon, that's
Speaker 2: very true.
Speaker 1: Look them in the eye, yeah, and sometimes vice versa.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna come back and talk more football
Speaker 1: with Tom Lee. It's a little basketball we'll throw in
Speaker 1: as well with the Voice of the Wildcats here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with Tom Lee.
Speaker 1: It's the Voice of the Wildcats. He'll be behind the
Speaker 1: mic of course when the football catch, kick things off
Speaker 1: and you mentioned depth. You talked with Stoops and Brad
Speaker 1: White and bush ham Dan yesterday about depth at the
Speaker 1: kickoff lunch, and it's it's clear that you can see
Speaker 1: it on defense offense. It's it's depth with a qualifier. Right,
Speaker 1: They've got numbers, but they don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: proven quality depth. But they got a lot of candidates,
Speaker 1: don't they. On offense, they did start, you know, a
Speaker 1: good quarterback.
Speaker 2: They've got Brod Vandergrift from Georgia and he'll be the starter.
Speaker 2: But Wimsats played a lot at Rutgers. You know, bo
Speaker 2: Allen came up through this system here and you got
Speaker 2: a freshman in Cutter Bowley obviously wouldn't want to ideally
Speaker 2: go to a true freshman, but you know, very talented
Speaker 2: they and you think, you know, in a worst case scenario,
Speaker 2: they think they could you know, win some games even
Speaker 2: in that situation. So that's you know, it's depth offensive line.
Speaker 2: It looks like, you know, there were times and last
Speaker 2: season or two where he didn't know if they you know,
Speaker 2: if they could actually field five guys they truly trusted,
Speaker 2: And now I think there's the ability to have you know,
Speaker 2: seven or eight guys that they could rotake in a
Speaker 2: little bit, have a little depth. Somebody gets hurt, you know, receivers,
Speaker 2: tight ends. There's tons of depth there running back. There's
Speaker 2: no you know, Ray Davis that separated himself from the crowd,
Speaker 2: but then there wasn't last year until Ray Davis did it.
Speaker 2: So at least you know bodies there. I think, you
Speaker 2: know they was listening to coach bull Wear on the
Speaker 2: Sunday Morning Show last weekend and I think he feels
Speaker 2: good about three guys there and he's looking for somebody
Speaker 2: to claim the fourth spot. Not that that spot will
Speaker 2: get a lot of action at the start, but you know,
Speaker 2: we've seniors where they've got down to their fifth or
Speaker 2: sixth running back at points during a season, so he's
Speaker 2: still looking for a little more depth there. Otherwise, I
Speaker 2: think they have the depth that they would like at
Speaker 2: every position on offense, it's just a matter of you know,
Speaker 2: who starts, who do you lean on the most? Who
Speaker 2: come who can you count on? And sometimes you have,
Speaker 2: you know, depth of quality, and sometimes you just have
Speaker 2: depth and uh, you know you've got to have you know,
Speaker 2: the backups have got to be good enough to be
Speaker 2: starters to really push the front five I always remember.
Speaker 2: So there's many times the name is guy Morris line.
Speaker 2: I heard him use one time, how my problem is
Speaker 2: I only got five and they know it. Yes, they
Speaker 2: have to know you've got seven or eight. And if
Speaker 2: if that's the case, then it's going to elevate everybody's
Speaker 2: for They know when.
Speaker 1: They're being pushed. There's no question about that. I thought
Speaker 1: one of the most interesting comments you got from Bush
Speaker 1: Hampden he just kind of threw it in when you
Speaker 1: asked him about running backs and he mentioned Gavin Wimsen,
Speaker 1: a backup quarterback. Yeah, as part of the running attack
Speaker 1: when he was talking about the running backs room. Not
Speaker 1: that he's going to move him to running back, but
Speaker 1: evidently they're trying to figure him into that running attack.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a noteworthy Back in the spring,
Speaker 2: I think I was doing some interviews for Keelan and
Speaker 2: you were filling in for me and they'd got just
Speaker 2: gotten whimset and I got a call from someone in
Speaker 2: UK that coach Hamdon would like to come on and
Speaker 2: talk about why they did this. It's no I think
Speaker 2: they wanted people to know it wasn't any you know,
Speaker 2: lack of confidence in Brock Vandergrift, and he explained that,
Speaker 2: you know, just different ways they could, you know, utilize Gabbin.
Speaker 2: And so that's kind of intriguing to see what is
Speaker 2: in his mind when we get to see it put
Speaker 2: out onto the field. What do he things he might do?
Speaker 1: I agree, maybe he's a secret sauce who knows a
Speaker 1: few minutes Leip with Tom leads a voice of the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're gonna be able to get
Speaker 1: to basketball. I love talking football with Tom, but I
Speaker 1: have said this to you on and off the air,
Speaker 1: and I stand by it. I think the schedule is
Speaker 1: tough as always, it's an SEC schedule, but I think
Speaker 1: in terms of the calendar, Tom when the games fall
Speaker 1: is this is the toughest I've ever seen when it
Speaker 1: comes to Kentucky football because of the early conference games
Speaker 1: that are so vital.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It is, But I kind of liked that. I didn't
Speaker 2: really like where you kind of have all of the
Speaker 2: non conference games except Louisville loaded up at the front.
Speaker 2: It's almost looked almost like it was a preseason schedule
Speaker 2: because then you get into the league and it's just,
Speaker 2: you know, week after week of that gonblet where you
Speaker 2: space him out a little bit, and you know it's
Speaker 2: you know, we've seen games where you can't just you know,
Speaker 2: show up, uh and win. But you you know, expect
Speaker 2: to be able to not have to have your a
Speaker 2: game or not to you know, to be able to
Speaker 2: get through it. Giving a guy a week off to
Speaker 2: recover from an injury and you can still get through
Speaker 2: and get the win. You I like those games spaced
Speaker 2: in there a little bit more. There's two open dates,
Speaker 2: so you know it's always going to be hard. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's going to be a year now and then I
Speaker 2: think in this expanded sec where you'll get you know,
Speaker 2: you get lucky either. You know, you'll get a couple
Speaker 2: of the teams that you get in the rotation are
Speaker 2: in a down cycle, right, something like that happens, but
Speaker 2: you know you can't really project that. But more often
Speaker 2: than not, you've got to make peace with the fact
Speaker 2: that it's going to be difficult, and you know you've
Speaker 2: got uh, you know, games that you'll be you look
Speaker 2: at it now, you'll be favored in. You got games
Speaker 2: where you'll be a significant underdog like Georgia and you
Speaker 2: know at Texas but then there's probably about half the
Speaker 2: schedule of games that you know, you could see Kentucky
Speaker 2: winning or losing depending on how well they play.
Speaker 1: And exactly it's.
Speaker 2: Kind of you know, if he sees bet as close
Speaker 2: as college gets to the NFL, and that's kind of
Speaker 2: the way it is in the NFL. The games are
Speaker 2: going to be close most weeks, sided in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 2: and you've got to win, you know, your share of
Speaker 2: them to now to get into the playoffs. And so
Speaker 2: probably with twelve teams, probably takes ten wins, I would
Speaker 2: think to get into the playoff, but as they expanded
Speaker 2: to sixteen, you probably get in with nine. And so
Speaker 2: you know there have been Kentucky teams and Mark Stoop's
Speaker 2: time here that would have been in contention to do that.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, and with those games that are going to
Speaker 1: get into the fourth quarter, that's where that depth is
Speaker 1: going to come in. I'll let you go with this.
Speaker 1: One of the major topic yesterday was temple. One of
Speaker 1: the topics Stoops talked about it really they all did,
Speaker 1: because it affects both the offense and the defense. Obviously,
Speaker 1: So I guess Jeff and I especially Jeff, we've got
Speaker 1: to learn how to keep our comments kind of tight
Speaker 1: between plays, Tom because there won't be nearly as much
Speaker 1: time from snap to snap will there?
Speaker 2: No, there won't, and teams like, I mean, they're not
Speaker 2: gonna go as fast as Tennessee. But I'm not a
Speaker 2: fan of Tennessee systems selfishly, because you know, I'm blogging
Speaker 2: each play in a shorthand fashion, but still it takes
Speaker 2: the second or two to write it down, and you.
Speaker 7: Know you have to.
Speaker 2: I can't. You know, I can type without looking at
Speaker 2: the keys, but I can't write as well without looking
Speaker 2: at the paper. So I need to glance down occasionally.
Speaker 2: So hopefully they'll give me enough time to do that.
Speaker 1: But it's going to be exciting, I think, especially because
Speaker 1: Stoops after spring said it was night and day based
Speaker 1: on the pace of play last year.
Speaker 2: Right it was, And I was looking. They were dead
Speaker 2: last in the number of plays run, but they were
Speaker 2: fortieth in yards per play, So you know, if you're
Speaker 2: pretty productive, and I think they can be better than that,
Speaker 2: then you know it's imperative to get to run more
Speaker 2: plays you're having. You know, it's not like they were
Speaker 2: lasting yards per play as well, so they and they've
Speaker 2: got a lot of playmakers that you know, everybody wants to,
Speaker 2: you know, touch the ball, and they have to be
Speaker 2: able to improve that. And I think, you know, just
Speaker 2: the speed at which they operate just has to be
Speaker 2: better so they can get more plays off and some
Speaker 2: of that, the defense will be better, so they'll probably
Speaker 2: get more three and outs. That'll help too. But I
Speaker 2: just as Stoop said, he didn't want to see the
Speaker 2: play clocks down the one or two seconds snap anymore.
Speaker 1: No, And last year, of course, the defense scored on
Speaker 1: more than one occasion. Special team scored on more than
Speaker 1: one occasion, So that'll keep you from running offensive plays
Speaker 1: and you're still scoring. So we'll find out it's going
Speaker 1: to happen soon. Tom Leechs will have the call right
Speaker 1: here on WLAP. Thank you, buddy, we'll see you soon.
Speaker 3: Sounds good.
Speaker 1: Our number two with Maggie Davis and the Basketball Wildcasts
Speaker 1: both men and women. That's next here on the Big
Speaker 1: Moon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider. Joining us now from BBN tonight. Someone we
Speaker 1: haven't spoken to. I don't know if we've talked with
Speaker 1: you all summer, Miss Maggie Davis because I've been on
Speaker 1: vacation and out of town and you've been getting ready
Speaker 1: to get hitched. So how are things, Hey.
Speaker 6: Things are good. Thinks they're crazy. You know, this is
Speaker 6: a busy time of the year for sports reporters who
Speaker 6: are trying to get everything done in their personal life
Speaker 6: in that little window between the end of you know,
Speaker 6: this year baseball season really and the start of football season,
Speaker 6: and with everything that happened around the back basketball program
Speaker 6: really extending that season, and then we went straight into Derby,
Speaker 6: we went straight into College World Series coverage. It's been
Speaker 6: a lot of fun covering the TBT tournament the last
Speaker 6: couple of weeks. Now, it's been a decently busy summer
Speaker 6: and just trying to get caught up to speed with
Speaker 6: everyone who's new on both basketball teams, the men's and
Speaker 6: the women's all the press conferences and interviews and meetings
Speaker 6: and all that sort of stuff. So considering it's the
Speaker 6: middle of summer, honestly, Dick, we've been pretty busy over
Speaker 6: at the BBA tonight offices, but we are on a
Speaker 6: short little hiatus this week and next week because of
Speaker 6: the Olympics. We're on the NBC station in Lexington Laxa team.
Speaker 6: So because of that no show, so things have sort
Speaker 6: of slowed down just a little bit, at least for
Speaker 6: this week.
Speaker 1: And be honest, you plan the wedding around the hiatus,
Speaker 1: didn't you, which is smart.
Speaker 6: I technically did not, but in hindsight I am so
Speaker 6: glad it worked out that way.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, Noah could blame you if you did, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I was just talking. We just we've got some interviews
Speaker 1: coming up with a couple of the new men and
Speaker 1: women's players. But yeah, you and I talked back in
Speaker 1: the spring about what it's like me spending half my
Speaker 1: career or most of my career in local television trying
Speaker 1: to fill those summer shows. But it's been a real
Speaker 1: boon this year, as like you said, college baseball extended
Speaker 1: and every now and then they make players available. It's
Speaker 1: kind of fun.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it really has been. Like you said, there's been
Speaker 6: a lot more to cover this year than what we
Speaker 6: typically are kind of reaching for in the summer. Is obviously,
Speaker 6: like all of the new introduction to everybody on the
Speaker 6: new teams. We were excited to talk with both Kenny
Speaker 6: Brooks and Martope, all their new assistants, all their new players.
Speaker 6: So that's been a lot of fun. And then the
Speaker 6: Olympics too. Obviously, like I just said, we don't have
Speaker 6: a show this week or next week because of the Olympics,
Speaker 6: but leading up the trials we did some stories with
Speaker 6: UK athletes or a UK connected athletes, and obviously say
Speaker 6: in between trials and when the games actually got started.
Speaker 6: So I just had a chance to sit down with
Speaker 6: my Thi Russell not too long ago. We just aired
Speaker 6: that last week. Really cool obviously to have so many
Speaker 6: Kentucky related athletes on the international stage like this, and
Speaker 6: so many honestly that are in really good position to medal.
Speaker 6: I mean Lee Kiefer already did defencer, the UK medical
Speaker 6: school student and her husband is competing as well. That's
Speaker 6: always a cool story. I know we've always talked about
Speaker 6: and I think this track session of the Olympics are
Speaker 6: going to be very very UK dominated. Some excited for
Speaker 6: us to get go in here soon too.
Speaker 1: I think I did the very first interview with Lee
Speaker 1: Keefer when she was in high school and I was thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, here's a kid who's got Olympic aspirations and
Speaker 1: just might make it. And now she's a toast of
Speaker 1: the town in Paris, isn't she she is?
Speaker 6: I mean back to back gold medal. She certainly deserved it,
Speaker 6: and her husband put up a really sweet message on
Speaker 6: social media and part of what he said congratulating her
Speaker 6: obviously for that gold medal, her accomplishment, all the hard
Speaker 6: work paying off, is that she was able to do
Speaker 6: it in back to back Olympics. Yeah, and do it
Speaker 6: under completely different circumstances, completely different in Byron right, you
Speaker 6: think back to those twenty twenty one technically Olympics and
Speaker 6: all of the COVID restrictions and how restricted it was.
Speaker 6: There were no fans, you were separated from your family.
Speaker 6: They were still very much in isolation mode. And the
Speaker 6: difference in those Olympics and these Olympics and being able
Speaker 6: to perform to that level regardless upwork of kids as
Speaker 6: around her, I think is really impressive and very neat
Speaker 6: of her husband to be the one to help point
Speaker 6: that out. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I had Delani Green, Kentucky's track and field coach,
Speaker 1: on the show and just he is, of course bursting
Speaker 1: with pride and even in some of these athletes he
Speaker 1: didn't even coach, but we talked about the recruiting residue
Speaker 1: that that the Olympics will bring, because you know, everybody
Speaker 1: knows everybody in that in that atmosphere in track and field,
Speaker 1: and they know that Sidney McLoughlin came from Kentucky and
Speaker 1: Side Russell and you know you've got kids representing other
Speaker 1: countries who are competing from UK. So that's been a
Speaker 1: huge boost for Green in his program.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, And I love you say he was bursting with
Speaker 6: pride because that knowing Lonnie Green just a little bit,
Speaker 6: having done several interviews with him over the years and
Speaker 6: talking with him here and there at different UK events,
Speaker 6: bursting with pride is almost an understatement. I mean, he
Speaker 6: is like the proudest papa to ever exist, you know,
Speaker 6: like he calls him his babies. He talks about you know,
Speaker 6: they're the whole peanut, butter ended jelly, there's a whole sandwich.
Speaker 6: You know, Like he's just the way he talks and
Speaker 6: the way he represents that program and truly just puts
Speaker 6: those athletes on such a pedestal. And obviously they're the
Speaker 6: ones going out there running their race and putting in
Speaker 6: that hard work. But I think it's a real testament
Speaker 6: that not only the coach he is, but the man
Speaker 6: he is and the kind of program that he's run
Speaker 6: that so many of those professional runners are still training
Speaker 6: in Lexington with him, despite their ability to go truly
Speaker 6: anywhere in the world and train wherever and with whomever
Speaker 6: they'd like, and so many of them have stayed in
Speaker 6: Lexington to continue working with him even after graduation. Massih
Speaker 6: Russell is a great example of that. She took a
Speaker 6: COVID year. She spent five seasons I could talk to
Speaker 6: you with the track and field team and still didn't
Speaker 6: have enough. So she's still stayed for this past year,
Speaker 6: past nine months or so since she graduated last year
Speaker 6: and continued her professional career in Lexington with coach Creed.
Speaker 6: So very cool. I think obviously they're representing UK either way,
Speaker 6: but they have so many still really truly lived here
Speaker 6: and wear that blue and white and practiced at that facility.
Speaker 6: I think is even more special.
Speaker 1: And you know what else I really respect about Lonnie
Speaker 1: Green is that he gave great credit to Edrick Floria,
Speaker 1: who's now the head coach at Texas, but was a
Speaker 1: great hire by Mitch Barnard and really recruited and developed
Speaker 1: a lot of the athletes, some of these athletes who
Speaker 1: are representing the US and UK over in Paris, So
Speaker 1: I thought that was a classy move, I wondered, Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of coaches, what was your reaction. We are surprised
Speaker 1: when Mark Stufe was this frank with Darryl Bird of
Speaker 1: the Cats pause, and there's been some fallout over the
Speaker 1: comments he's made. He said similar things down and SEC
Speaker 1: media days in Dallas about how his job, the paradigm
Speaker 1: has shifted and now he has split his time between
Speaker 1: coaching and being a fundraiser and he's not happy about it.
Speaker 1: What was your reaction when you read some really frank
Speaker 1: remarks from the UK football coach.
Speaker 6: Well, frankly, I was not shocked. I mean, I think
Speaker 6: it was pretty consistent with what we've heard not only
Speaker 6: from Mars Stups, but from so many coaches across the
Speaker 6: entire country. I mean, the SEC is what we're the
Speaker 6: most locked into, obviously, so we hear it from so
Speaker 6: many SEC coaches. But it's really a nationwide and a
Speaker 6: sport wide issue that so many head coaches, especially high
Speaker 6: profile coaches, have talked about over the past couple of years.
Speaker 6: And you don't have to be a head coach to
Speaker 6: realize that the job they are doing now is a
Speaker 6: completely different job than the one they signed up for
Speaker 6: even two or three years ago. Now, think about how
Speaker 6: much it's changed. In March, Stups is the longest tenured
Speaker 6: coach in the SEC, his twelve seasons at the hell,
Speaker 6: think of how much that has changed. We think about
Speaker 6: just the past two years or so with the COVID years,
Speaker 6: and then that bleeds into the transfer portal era, the
Speaker 6: that bleeds into nil and now it's all these collectives
Speaker 6: and it's you know, what started as true in IL
Speaker 6: is a little bit more of the paper play situation.
Speaker 6: And so every step along the way, your job is
Speaker 6: not only changing, I think it's getting harder and it's
Speaker 6: getting more complicated. There are so many rules. You still
Speaker 6: have to follow the rules, but you also have to
Speaker 6: do what it takes to win. There's so much pressure,
Speaker 6: there's so much stress, and yet it's very easy to say, well,
Speaker 6: they're getting paid nine million dollars. I think they can
Speaker 6: handle it. I absolutely understand that sentiment one hundred percent.
Speaker 6: I agree with that. But it is a completely different
Speaker 6: job than the one they had even a couple of
Speaker 6: years ago. So I do think it's also fair for
Speaker 6: coaches to feel some of that frustration. And you know,
Speaker 6: Mark Stoops. You know, I've talked with Mark Stoops over
Speaker 6: the years. The fans who have read every interview or
Speaker 6: most of his interviews over the years knows he's the
Speaker 6: head coach who speaks his mind. He's honest, He's he
Speaker 6: coach speaks us sometimes. But that's pretty rare, honestly, and
Speaker 6: quite frankly, that's typically about an injury or right before
Speaker 6: a big game or something like that. I mean this
Speaker 6: in an offseason. He has never been a coach to
Speaker 6: hold back his true feelings and I really truly respect
Speaker 6: that about him, and I think the fan base that's too,
Speaker 6: so I had no problem with him, you know, bringing
Speaker 6: up once again is frustrations with it. He's far from
Speaker 6: the only coach who have done that. You know, I
Speaker 6: think it's struck a nerve with the fan base because of,
Speaker 6: you know, the timing of the situation. Maybe right, this
Speaker 6: is the time of year to build some excitement around
Speaker 6: the season, but you never know how the timing of
Speaker 6: those things shaped out. And like you said, he said
Speaker 6: very similar things at SEC Media Day. Is not too
Speaker 6: long before that you know, so it's going to keep happening.
Speaker 6: But I thought it was It was kind of funny.
Speaker 6: We were at the like we Can kick Off luncheon
Speaker 6: over at Kroger Field yesterday and I'm sure you heard
Speaker 6: him say that he kind of made a little joke
Speaker 6: to the fans and attendance there about Yeah, you might
Speaker 6: have read some things that I've said, and yeah, you know,
Speaker 6: sometimes I get a little frustrated, but he loves this job.
Speaker 6: He loves what he's doing, he loves those players, he
Speaker 6: loved his staff this year, and there is certainly an
Speaker 6: excitement about him in this season that I don't think
Speaker 6: necessarily came across in the interview, like you said with
Speaker 6: Daryl Bird, just because it was so focused on that
Speaker 6: nil fundraising piece of it versus when you hear him talker,
Speaker 6: you have a little bit longer of a conversation about
Speaker 6: the situation. Yes, he can bring up those frustrations, but
Speaker 6: it can also bleed into well, I think we have
Speaker 6: the deepest wide receiver room we passed, which he said,
Speaker 6: I think Coach Wilford being back is going to help
Speaker 6: us be physical again, which he said. So there's a
Speaker 6: lot that goes into the sort of lead up into
Speaker 6: the season, and I think in the next couple of
Speaker 6: weeks we're going to look back at this article of
Speaker 6: saying that this is just a little blimp on the radar.
Speaker 6: We know how soupskills about the fundraising, and yeah, that's
Speaker 6: a tough gig, right now, let's talk about football instead.
Speaker 1: One of the things I like about the fact that
Speaker 1: when he does coach speak us, he tells us or
Speaker 1: he recognizes the fact that it's coach speak and he
Speaker 1: fixes up to it. Maggie Davis Obvian Tonight, as my guest,
Speaker 1: we'll come back and talk more Kentucky football on the
Speaker 1: other side of the break here on six point thirty
Speaker 1: WLAP Welcome back, We're talking with Maggie Davis, anchor, reporter, editor,
Speaker 1: chief cook and bottle washer BBN. Although Jesse does a
Speaker 1: tremendous job, doesn't he absolutely.
Speaker 6: Jesse Rice is our executive producer. We have a great
Speaker 6: crew the people you see on camera, but we have
Speaker 6: a great crew behind us. He said, Well, Nick Latheroff
Speaker 6: is our lead photographer and editor and he is fabulous
Speaker 6: as well. He is an Emmy winning photographer. So we
Speaker 6: have a great crew. We're very lucky to have a
Speaker 6: seven person sports department, one of the biggest ones in
Speaker 6: local TV I can find anywhere. So we're super super
Speaker 6: super lucky and we work together super well, which is great.
Speaker 1: Well, there are very few stations in America that do
Speaker 1: a nightly sports show locally. Well, actually, yours is networked
Speaker 1: as you do, so you need that many people, no
Speaker 1: matter what consultants say. Let us get back to Kentucky
Speaker 1: football and talk about what they talked about at the luncheon.
Speaker 1: Tom Leach was on the show earlier and one of
Speaker 1: the keys I think was the two things I took
Speaker 1: away Maggie depth which Stoops talked a lot about Dallas
Speaker 1: and everything, But to me, what I think is going
Speaker 1: to be fascinating is the tempo. Of course, there was
Speaker 1: no spring game per se. We didn't get really a
Speaker 1: sneak preview of that. But Stoops does not want to
Speaker 1: see that play clock counting down? Does he?
Speaker 6: No, he doesn't. And the part that I found the
Speaker 6: most interesting when he talked about this at the luncheon
Speaker 6: earlier this week is he said, these were conversations we
Speaker 6: had when Liam Cohen was still coming back to be
Speaker 6: the offensive coordinator. That was a decision that he had
Speaker 6: made as the head coach before he knew that this
Speaker 6: offense would be reworked yet again. So that is really
Speaker 6: my biggest takeaway is that that was truly a Mark
Speaker 6: Stoops decision. He said it before. I think he's got
Speaker 6: to keep saying it leading into the season. He was
Speaker 6: tired of seeing that play clock you down the one, two, three,
Speaker 6: four seconds. He's like, you know, we're not snapping the
Speaker 6: ball one second end of the play clock every single
Speaker 6: time either. It's going to be a balance, right, that's
Speaker 6: the name of the game. But he was tired of
Speaker 6: getting down to the end every single time. The fact
Speaker 6: that that had been a point of conversation before the
Speaker 6: change to Bush Hampden, I think says a lot about
Speaker 6: how important this is to soups End, the kind of
Speaker 6: offense he wants to be run this year. And then
Speaker 6: he went out and made sure he got an offensive
Speaker 6: coordinator who's going to work well with that. And I
Speaker 6: think Bush Hampton is going to be a good part
Speaker 6: of that too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, And I think it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1: It's going to be fun for the players. The old
Speaker 1: line are going to have to be in great shape though,
Speaker 1: aren't they.
Speaker 6: Hey, yeah, absolutely especially But you know what, I'm so
Speaker 6: interested in hearing this year US talk more about and
Speaker 6: we've talked a little bit about it of course throughout
Speaker 6: the off season, and it's just going to continue being
Speaker 6: brought up. Are these new helmet communication technologies, because I
Speaker 6: think that could absolutely affect how the whole operation works
Speaker 6: and how quickly it can work. And so, yes, offensive
Speaker 6: line has to be in shape, but it's going to
Speaker 6: change the way the quarterback communicates with those guys and
Speaker 6: how quickly they can sort of relay that information. I
Speaker 6: love when Bush Hampden talked about it yesterday saying, you know,
Speaker 6: every fourth day we're going to practice what we do
Speaker 6: when that helmet community goes out, because you can't fully
Speaker 6: rely on it, especially once you start going on the road.
Speaker 6: In the SEC kind of made a joke like, you know,
Speaker 6: once you go down to Tennessee, you go down the
Speaker 6: ole myss, somehow something crazy happened that the Wi Fi
Speaker 6: goes down, you lose connection, you know, whatever, whatever happens.
Speaker 6: Sometimes stuff like that happened. So I think that they're
Speaker 6: being proactive in terms of, yes, we have to learn
Speaker 6: to make this technology work for us and this no
Speaker 6: huddle offense and the tempo that we want to see,
Speaker 6: and hopefully this helmet technology can help them do that.
Speaker 6: But you can't rely on it so much that when
Speaker 6: it goes out when you are down in Knoxville or
Speaker 6: you are down and app you know, wherever you end up,
Speaker 6: you have to be able to still make it work
Speaker 6: the old fashioned way too.
Speaker 1: A couple of minutes left with Maggie Davis or BBN tonight.
Speaker 1: Another thing I thought was fascinating Maggie that came out
Speaker 1: of Stoops's comments was when he said that when it
Speaker 1: came to terminology, there have been so many changes on
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the building year to year to
Speaker 1: year to year, but he made the decision to go
Speaker 1: ahead and allow bush Hamden to install his offense with
Speaker 1: his terminology instead of insisting that they keep what they had,
Speaker 1: because Stupe said there was enough time for the players
Speaker 1: to learn it. I think that's something that's lost on
Speaker 1: people who aren't in that room in that building. How
Speaker 1: difficult that can be on players. But because they've got
Speaker 1: some extra days to practice, that's a crucial part of
Speaker 1: the communications that I think should be pretty clean, you.
Speaker 6: Know, absolutely. I thought that I was really interested in
Speaker 6: that part of the conversation yesterday too, because I just,
Speaker 6: you know, you just never know how that's going to go.
Speaker 6: It's not always something that even gets asked about or
Speaker 6: even something that gets brought up. So I thought it
Speaker 6: was interesting that Suit's clarified, like, yep, we're using Bush's terms,
Speaker 6: his terminology. These are his plays. We want him to
Speaker 6: be the most comfortable so that he can get out
Speaker 6: what he needs to get out as quickly as possible.
Speaker 6: And then it's on the players to make sure they
Speaker 6: are understanding that and the staff to work with them
Speaker 6: to make sure, like you said, taken advantage of some
Speaker 6: extra practice time this season. Obviously, the first football game
Speaker 6: is a little earlier than we're used to have looking
Speaker 6: forward to in August pickoff, but that does mean practice
Speaker 6: is starting a little bit earlier, and the summer workout
Speaker 6: rules have relaxed a little bit more so these guys
Speaker 6: have had more time together this summer as a team
Speaker 6: and even a little bit more time with their coaches
Speaker 6: as well. So hopefully we'll hear more about that in
Speaker 6: ball camp. But hopefully that's all been smooth sailing so far.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'll let you go with this. With this
Speaker 1: new offense, the new tempo, other than the quarterback, do
Speaker 1: you see a breakout star. Do you think it'll be
Speaker 1: the kind of thing where Barrion Brown or a Dane
Speaker 1: Key kind of blows up with this new offense.
Speaker 6: I think it has to be a big year for
Speaker 6: the wide receivers, and I think we know the two
Speaker 6: that it has to be a big year for. You
Speaker 6: just said it. Dame Key and barry On Brown absolutely
Speaker 6: have to have big junior seasons. Not just for the team.
Speaker 6: Obviously that's the main goal, that's the whole goal, But
Speaker 6: those two guys are also guys who have wanted to
Speaker 6: get drafted after three years since probably beginning of time, right,
Speaker 6: and so for them, I know there has to be
Speaker 6: a lot writing on their performance this season. So just
Speaker 6: being able to relapse in that, to let it motivate you,
Speaker 6: but to not let it weigh on you, I think
Speaker 6: is going to be so important for those two young
Speaker 6: men especially, And honestly, I'm really excited to see how
Speaker 6: this offensive line comes together. That is not a position
Speaker 6: that has had a lot of consistency over the last
Speaker 6: couple of years bar of course Elec Cox in the
Speaker 6: middle for like the fifteenth season. Wherever, whoever he ends
Speaker 6: up this season, I think that is going to be
Speaker 6: a huge piece to have him back. And Marcus Cock
Speaker 6: as well as is certainly a leader in the room.
Speaker 6: But just seeing the dynamic switching now that Eric Wilford
Speaker 6: is back in charge of that position. Group's obviously talking
Speaker 6: about the physicality, the toughness, the sort of GrITT that
Speaker 6: Eric Wilford demands out of his players is certainly one thing.
Speaker 6: But just in terms of the rotation of guys, how
Speaker 6: many reps are getting, how they're lining up across that line,
Speaker 6: who ends up in the center, who's playing guard, where
Speaker 6: all those ships fall, what happens with Chator Burton this year,
Speaker 6: or does he take that next step? You know, I
Speaker 6: have a lot of questions about the offensive line, and
Speaker 6: so I'm excited to see how the Big Blue Wall
Speaker 6: stakes out too.
Speaker 8: Oh.
Speaker 1: I agree with that, because if they don't get it done,
Speaker 1: it ain't gonna get done. Maggie Davis watch her on
Speaker 1: BBN Tonight on LAX eighteen, Follow BBN Tonight on x
Speaker 1: or Twitter at BBN Tonight. Simple enough, thank you and
Speaker 1: best of luck to you and you're intended this coming weekend.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Thank you so much. We are so excited.
Speaker 6: So I'll be off air for a little bit, but
Speaker 6: I don't worry. I'm coming back.
Speaker 1: Up next We'll hear from Basketball Cats men and women
Speaker 1: on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Yes,
Speaker 1: it is football preseason, the talking season, but we're all
Speaker 1: getting to know the Basketball Wildcats still because well you
Speaker 1: and I we have watched this roster come together, still
Speaker 1: learning the backgrounds, and we don't yet know exactly how
Speaker 1: this team's going to play. We have a pretty good idea,
Speaker 1: but they are making the players available to us so far,
Speaker 1: three at a time. And we had a chance to
Speaker 1: talk recently with Travis Perry, and of course we talked
Speaker 1: with him after his team Lion County won the state
Speaker 1: championship and now he's a Wildcat and talked about that experience.
Speaker 1: He had agreed to play for Caliperi, but really Jack
Speaker 1: and played for Mark Pope.
Speaker 5: It's it's honestly, it's way better than you can even
Speaker 5: dream like. You get to be here every day in
Speaker 5: the best the best place for basketball in the world,
Speaker 5: like it's incredible, the best fans in the world. You
Speaker 5: get to go out, you get to go to practice
Speaker 5: every day knowing that in a couple of months you'll
Speaker 5: be competing in front of them, Like it's just it's
Speaker 5: just so fun. And then you have, especially the mix
Speaker 5: of guys we have here this year. It's it's great
Speaker 5: guys that really want everybody to come together and be
Speaker 5: a good unit.
Speaker 8: So it's just just so much fun to be able
Speaker 8: to compete and wear the Kentucky every day.
Speaker 9: Have you gotten used to that being across your two.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, I don't. I don't think you can really
Speaker 8: get used to it.
Speaker 5: But it's Coach Pope does a great job of instilling
Speaker 5: it us what it like. You got to get to
Speaker 5: a point to where it really means something to you,
Speaker 5: like not just wearing it, just to wear it just
Speaker 5: like you're wearing it because it means something to you.
Speaker 8: And that's something.
Speaker 5: That that I think will be really big for us obviously.
Speaker 5: I mean, I know what it means to want to
Speaker 5: work every day to become a Kentucky basketball player, So
Speaker 5: that's something that you don't really take for granted.
Speaker 8: And I think we have a good grasp of that
Speaker 8: as a team. How did he do that?
Speaker 1: How does Coach Pope do that?
Speaker 5: Through a lot of things, just his teachings obviously the
Speaker 5: words that he uses like to kind of instill that
Speaker 5: in us, show up for your guys every day, but
Speaker 5: also his actions, like he's in here six am every day,
Speaker 5: like if your coach is being near the gym like
Speaker 5: that kind of motivates you a little bit. He's here
Speaker 5: late at night, he's always there to help. Just being
Speaker 5: a guy that represents what Kentucky basketball is really about.
Speaker 5: Is kind of how he teaches you that, because if
Speaker 5: your leader is doing that, you really got to learn
Speaker 5: to do yourself.
Speaker 9: Do you never a routine yet, like you're here in
Speaker 9: the gym at six in the morning or anything like that.
Speaker 5: It's kind of hard to get a routine right now
Speaker 5: during the summer because we have our schedule changes a
Speaker 5: lot day by day. But obviously finding time to get
Speaker 5: shots whenever you can.
Speaker 8: Like it's so easy.
Speaker 5: I mean, living right there, like it's twenty five twenty
Speaker 5: seven steps and you're in your room twenty seven steps
Speaker 5: you can go get shots up, Like it's it's incredible
Speaker 5: the access that you have and it's impossible not to
Speaker 5: become a better shooter here, I think. Uh so, it's
Speaker 5: just that's something that I love about it. Like if
Speaker 5: I get bored, send in my room, Like, let's go
Speaker 5: get some shots up. Shoot a couple couple hundred shots.
Speaker 5: You can go back if you get bored in an
Speaker 5: hour or so, you can come back and do it again.
Speaker 8: So it's just super fun for a guy like me.
Speaker 9: Do you have a set number a day or so
Speaker 9: many a shot today?
Speaker 5: The coaches really want us to get three hundred to day.
Speaker 5: That's kind of set shot, Uh breakfast. Yeah, I've been
Speaker 5: getting getting bored trying to get I like to get
Speaker 5: between five hundred and one thousand a day, just depending
Speaker 5: on I'm trying to get it up. Just during the summer,
Speaker 5: we're a little bit more free, have some more time,
Speaker 5: So get bored a lot instead of watching some YouTube
Speaker 5: or something, can come over here and get three hundred
Speaker 5: shots and that's a better use of your time.
Speaker 8: So trying to get in that habit.
Speaker 9: And the technology here tracks everything for you.
Speaker 8: Tact everything.
Speaker 5: It's it's incredible, Like you don't have to track the
Speaker 5: shots in your head. It doesn't have to you don't
Speaker 5: have to worry about the gun messing up. The technology
Speaker 5: tracks it perfectly, so it's really fun.
Speaker 1: How do you break down how you said how many shots?
Speaker 3: But how do you break down, well, I want to shoot.
Speaker 9: This many free throws, this many three corners, et cetera.
Speaker 3: How do you break that down yourself?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it kind of kind of changes a little bit.
Speaker 5: I would say it's it's just off a feel. Some days,
Speaker 5: if you're you're shooting the three really well, you might
Speaker 5: want to get a few more of those. You might
Speaker 5: want to get less of those. Uh, definitely want to
Speaker 5: make sure you get free throws in when you're tired.
Speaker 5: But it's just kind of a mixture. Like if you
Speaker 5: if you have a practice and you got a lot
Speaker 5: of a certain type of shot and you're not feeling
Speaker 5: great about it, I say you miss missed a couple
Speaker 5: of them, might go in and get fifty extra.
Speaker 8: Those just just kind of feel. I feel like at this.
Speaker 5: Level of basketball, we all have a good, good feel
Speaker 5: of what we need to work on. The coaches do
Speaker 5: a good job of kind of guiding this towards that.
Speaker 5: The managers they watch every single practice, watch every single rep.
Speaker 5: You get so they're they're not gonna be easy on you,
Speaker 5: Like if you miss five corner threes and practice, are
Speaker 5: gonna call you out and be like, hey, let's get
Speaker 5: get in the corner. Le's get some shots up today.
Speaker 5: So so yeah, it's just just kind of a just
Speaker 5: go will let you feel that day.
Speaker 9: So just tinker with your shots at all of this level.
Speaker 8: I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say tinker with a form.
Speaker 5: No, they kind of kind of know that we can
Speaker 5: shoot the ball, especially just just we've been doing it
Speaker 5: so long. There are little things obviously, like holding the shot,
Speaker 5: getting your feet that stuff like that, like like basic mechanics.
Speaker 5: They might tinker with a little bit, but now they
Speaker 5: they do a good job of coaching but not changing.
Speaker 9: I would say a lot of incoming freshmen struggle with
Speaker 9: having to get the shot off a lot quicker, Yeah,
Speaker 9: than they had in high school. It seems like you've
Speaker 9: always had a pretty quick release.
Speaker 5: Pretty quick, but yeah, definitely trying to trying to get
Speaker 5: it a little bit quicker. And they definitely help with
Speaker 5: like drills and stuff with that. The managers have some
Speaker 5: great drills as well to help me with that. But
Speaker 5: it's kind of the motto is keep the shot the same,
Speaker 5: but just make it quicker.
Speaker 8: So is it different not going home with the coach
Speaker 8: every night? A little bit?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it might be a little bit different, you know,
Speaker 5: whether it's it's a good practice, bad practice, whatever it is.
Speaker 5: This time you're going home by yourself, You're going into
Speaker 5: your room. Uh so, yeah, you don't have to have
Speaker 5: to worry about it carrying over. But then also you
Speaker 5: kind of kind of miss it a little bit. You know,
Speaker 5: you wonder what he would be, what he would be
Speaker 5: saying after that day. But no, it's fun, it's it's
Speaker 5: a good change. You know, it's fun to play for
Speaker 5: your dad as long as you can. But then it's
Speaker 5: also good when you get to this level to kind
Speaker 5: of kind of work under a guy that that doesn't
Speaker 5: have to worry about going home with you and kind
Speaker 5: of kind of taking a little bit easier.
Speaker 9: There is there anything you've been doing where you hear
Speaker 9: your dad's voice immediately?
Speaker 8: Uh, there's there's a few.
Speaker 5: I mean a lot of just the stuff that Coach
Speaker 5: Pope talks about in the confidence side of it. He
Speaker 5: was always big on that, not just with me, but
Speaker 5: with everybody on our team, Like he he trusted you
Speaker 5: to take a shot if you're in the game, he
Speaker 5: knows that you can make any shot that's that's out there. Uh,
Speaker 5: So that's a big part of it, the confidence side,
Speaker 5: and also just playing fast, like we we love to
Speaker 5: play fast. Coach Pope was talking about taking thirty five
Speaker 5: threes a game, like that's something that sounds sounds awesome
Speaker 5: and sounds like like I'm sure my dad would love
Speaker 5: to do that at the high school level. So that's
Speaker 5: one of the things I think really relates well.
Speaker 3: Sir.
Speaker 1: This is a team unlike most others in America, with
Speaker 1: a brand new roster, brand new coach, all the outside pressures.
Speaker 1: How vital is it to build the chemistry you guys
Speaker 1: are working on now on and off the court.
Speaker 8: It's extremely vital. I mean, it's it's no secret.
Speaker 5: That that our our our goal is to to hang
Speaker 5: number nine, and uh that's not done without having a
Speaker 5: good team chemistry, having a great bond. I think that
Speaker 5: bond comes from wanting other guys to do better than yourself.
Speaker 5: Like if you're if you're just wanting yourself to do
Speaker 5: good all the time, the team's not gonna do good.
Speaker 5: If you want other guys to succeed over you. That
Speaker 5: that really goes a long way. So I think we
Speaker 5: have a good understanding of that, and also the coaches
Speaker 5: do a good job and still in the little things,
Speaker 5: like we have so many little things that we hit
Speaker 5: on every day that really lead to championships, and that's
Speaker 5: that's something that's huge for us as well, just being
Speaker 5: good teammates, being good guys, learning from each other, competing
Speaker 5: for each other.
Speaker 8: And just want to win above all else.
Speaker 5: I think we'll work out a lot of things for us,
Speaker 5: and chemistry goes a long way in that.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 1: Seems like a perfect situation for a guy like Perry.
Speaker 1: He's really good at shooting the ball. Same with kerk
Speaker 1: Krisa who started his career at Arizona, then ended up
Speaker 1: in West Virginia and now at Kentucky. He is from Estonia,
Speaker 1: entered the portal and landed in Kentucky.
Speaker 7: Once Pope called it was a no brainer. I had
Speaker 7: a school kind of made up where I wanted to go,
Speaker 7: but then when coach got hired here, I kind of
Speaker 7: had to held it back because I was kind of
Speaker 7: hoping for for that call and and played for coach
Speaker 7: pope and obviously this special university.
Speaker 3: There's no no place like that.
Speaker 1: Uh So yeah, what was your perception of Kentucky before
Speaker 1: you got here?
Speaker 3: Sorry? What does the mean perception?
Speaker 1: I mean, what did you think of Kentucky? What did
Speaker 1: you know about it? Why did you want to come here?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 7: Basketball school, big time basketball school, rich history of basketball.
Speaker 3: Uh, you know coach cal coach Patino like this.
Speaker 7: You know these names are a big time and uh
Speaker 7: and what they've done here, and you know more coaches
Speaker 7: that have been here.
Speaker 3: It's it's a special place.
Speaker 7: And and the fan base obviously, I mean, I mean,
Speaker 7: you don't even realize, you know, how how much people
Speaker 7: care here about basketball. Me and the guys were walking
Speaker 7: walking downtown the other day and we had cops coming
Speaker 7: up to us. We're like cops like like.
Speaker 3: You know this.
Speaker 7: It's just it just shows how much like people know
Speaker 7: about basketball, how much they care about basketball.
Speaker 3: So it's like it's it's super special. It's very special.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a basketball guy like you, that's got to mean
Speaker 1: a heck of a lot. No.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And obviously there's you know a lot of on
Speaker 7: our shoulders. You know, we want to we want to
Speaker 7: win for the community. We want to win for the state,
Speaker 7: we want to win for our teammates, for the coaches,
Speaker 7: for everybody. So so a lot of it is going
Speaker 7: to be on our shoulders. But but everybody's excited for it.
Speaker 7: Every everybody's off for the challenge.
Speaker 1: Really, this is a team unlike most in America, where
Speaker 1: the rosters brand new. You guys are new to each other.
Speaker 1: You're trying to learn each other and be teammates.
Speaker 7: What's that been like, Ah, yeah, I mean it's challenging,
Speaker 7: but that's why we have the summer where you know,
Speaker 7: I think it would be it would be you know,
Speaker 7: because if we didn't have the summer, it would be
Speaker 7: super hard. But I think we've done tremendous job. The
Speaker 7: coaches have done tremendous jobs just trying to glue us
Speaker 7: into one one fist. And but the end of the day,
Speaker 7: we play for each other, Like I said, we play
Speaker 7: for the state, all that stuff. So so if the
Speaker 7: common goal is the same for everybody, it should be
Speaker 7: pretty pretty easygoing. If you are guys who you know,
Speaker 7: kind of start thinking about themselves more, think that they're
Speaker 7: better than the team, then then.
Speaker 3: You might have some problems.
Speaker 7: But so far, honestly, I mean this is I'm really
Speaker 7: really freaking pumped to be here.
Speaker 1: Other than on the court, What are the coaches, if anything,
Speaker 1: what have they done off the court to help you
Speaker 1: guys bond?
Speaker 7: I mean they've given us but in the like some guidelines,
Speaker 7: not guidelines, but like some activities whatever. But in the
Speaker 7: in the end of the day, like we got an
Speaker 7: old group and everybody knows that, you know, you you
Speaker 7: win most of the games off the court, you really do.
Speaker 7: Just the fact how guys like each other, how you know,
Speaker 7: you know somebody's you know, problems in life, how you know,
Speaker 7: how you know when to support somebody. So this stuff
Speaker 7: is super super important and it goes into winning a
Speaker 7: lot a lot.
Speaker 10: What's been the dynamic with Lamont? Obviously you guys play
Speaker 10: similar position, but I think kind of different players. How
Speaker 10: do you feel like you'll maybe compliment each other.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, first of all, Month's been pushing me
Speaker 7: in practice a lot. I'm very thankful for him. I
Speaker 7: think I've never gotten that type of you know, defensive
Speaker 7: mindset in practice every day. I mean he's he's picking
Speaker 7: me up nine for full. I mean we screamed him
Speaker 7: like Month chill like it's it's fifth of July, you know,
Speaker 7: like we got time and the July is like months
Speaker 7: like na na, So it's it's good. He's been really
Speaker 7: pushing me. But yeah, month is you know, month is
Speaker 7: our you know, PG one. Month's gonna set the tone
Speaker 7: for us for the for the whole season. Months gonna
Speaker 7: gonna be the guy for us who who who needs
Speaker 7: to show up every day? And he's done it. I mean,
Speaker 7: he's taking care of his body. He's showing ourself to
Speaker 7: be a leader. Month's been very special for the group.
Speaker 10: Called him the PG one. Do you think you too?
Speaker 10: How much do you think you two will play together?
Speaker 10: And what might that look like?
Speaker 7: Honestly, I haven't really thought about coaching job yet, so
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 3: You might have to ask coach po.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm still trying to hoop right now.
Speaker 3: So I me Mont the whole guy.
Speaker 7: Everybody is gonna do what we need to do in
Speaker 7: order to win basketball games and listen to coaches.
Speaker 9: So yeah, is there any question you're the best trash
Speaker 9: talker team?
Speaker 1: Ah?
Speaker 7: I don't know if you can. Can you call it best?
Speaker 7: I mean it's just some guys do it. Some guys don't.
Speaker 3: It's I don't. I just think it makes it a
Speaker 3: little bit fun.
Speaker 7: You know, Like I said, college basketball is super super special,
Speaker 7: and you know, coming from overseas, we don't, we don't
Speaker 7: have college sports like that. It's you know, you go
Speaker 7: to college to get a degree, you don't go to
Speaker 7: play sports.
Speaker 3: So it's just for me, it's just so special.
Speaker 7: How you know, everybody takes so seriously their alumni. You know,
Speaker 7: like you're walking on the street and you know, if
Speaker 7: you have a Kentucky year or whatever and you walking
Speaker 7: in a different city, they just go go cats. You know,
Speaker 7: it means so much to people what school they went to,
Speaker 7: what you know, what university they represented. So it's just
Speaker 7: super special. And I'm not trying to take it for granted.
Speaker 3: Have you always done that?
Speaker 10: Have you always liked to talk during games even before
Speaker 10: you came to the US.
Speaker 7: I mean it's you know, as this six to you know, guard,
Speaker 7: you gotta have some.
Speaker 3: You gotta have some. You know you got I was
Speaker 3: looking this shit.
Speaker 7: You gotta have you know, you can't be like because
Speaker 7: it's just it's so competitive. There's always young guys coming up,
Speaker 7: and if you're being soft, you get pushed away. Then
Speaker 7: you're out of this business real quick.
Speaker 10: What happened with the Luca thing that kind of went viral?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 10: Do you remember the circumstances of that.
Speaker 3: That was so long time.
Speaker 7: Oh no, I mean it's he's a great player, he's
Speaker 7: he's an awesome teammate. I mean it was I wouldn't
Speaker 7: make it any any big scenario. It was just part
Speaker 7: of the game, bar of the heat of the moment.
Speaker 3: Nothing much.
Speaker 1: Kids, you go to school here from Louisville, seventy miles away,
Speaker 1: get homesick, you're pretty far from home. Do you lean
Speaker 1: in your teammates more because of that? What's that like
Speaker 1: for you being so far from home and going through this.
Speaker 7: I mean, that's why I have a second family here.
Speaker 7: You know, that's one hundred percent if you you know,
Speaker 7: it's just it means so much when you have guys
Speaker 7: who care and obviously the staff. Uh, you know, I
Speaker 7: had I had a little a little tough moments earlier
Speaker 7: in June. I found out something about my I have
Speaker 7: somebody sick in my family.
Speaker 3: But it was you know, it's been hard.
Speaker 7: But like then you talk to the guys, you go
Speaker 7: hug with your coach, it just it just means so
Speaker 7: much that everybody's here for me and and it's special
Speaker 7: to have this kind of a bond that quick. Uh
Speaker 7: you know you got you got. I got good guys
Speaker 7: on my team, I really do.
Speaker 1: That's kerk Krisa, who likely will share the point guard
Speaker 1: spot of Lamont Butler and likely we'll be putting up
Speaker 1: a lot of three pointers. Up next, we hear from
Speaker 1: some of the women's basketball players from UK here on
Speaker 1: the Big Moon Side or six thirty w l a
Speaker 1: p Welcome back, final segment of our program. And yes,
Speaker 1: we've been talking to the new guys on the men's roster.
Speaker 1: But today kind of a mini media day for women's
Speaker 1: bad basketball because with the new rules, practices have been
Speaker 1: happening here in the summertime, so availabilities made to the media,
Speaker 1: and basically every player on the roster was there. I
Speaker 1: talked to most of them, including Cassidy Rowland of two
Speaker 1: Wildcats who returned from last year's team, five to five
Speaker 1: junior guard from Virgie, Kentucky. Well, Cassidy, you've been around
Speaker 1: the block here at Kentucky. What's it like to be
Speaker 1: the old head here? First time you've ever been called that,
Speaker 1: I'll bet yeah.
Speaker 11: Yeah, you know, me and Sonaia are the only two
Speaker 11: that were here last year. So but you know, we
Speaker 11: obviously we love Kentucky. We love getting to wear that
Speaker 11: name across our chest. So yeah, I'm super excited to
Speaker 11: be able to play here.
Speaker 1: How weird was that whenever a coaching staff leaves and
Speaker 1: there's turnover, but there's such roster churn as well.
Speaker 12: What was it like for you too? You know, it's scary,
Speaker 12: It was stressful.
Speaker 11: There was just so much unknown and it all happened
Speaker 11: so quick, so it was stressful, but there wasn't a
Speaker 11: doubt in my mind this is where I wanted to be,
Speaker 11: and I was super excited when they brought in coach
Speaker 11: Brooks and his staff and just all the girls that
Speaker 11: they brought in.
Speaker 12: It's truly been a blessing. I feel ask for better.
Speaker 3: Did you know.
Speaker 1: Anything about coach Brooks before you got here?
Speaker 11: I knew we played against him my freshman year in
Speaker 11: the Bahamas, and so I heard of him then, But
Speaker 11: it wasn't until they announced him as coach that I
Speaker 11: really started seeing stuff he'd done in the past, you know,
Speaker 11: Final four appearances, all all the accomplishments, So that definitely
Speaker 11: excited me.
Speaker 1: You all flirted with success through the years. You have
Speaker 1: the tournament win, you pulled off some wins, just not enough.
Speaker 1: You feel like this team, this programs is on the
Speaker 1: verge of getting back to where it was when when
Speaker 1: you were growing up.
Speaker 12: Yes, I do. I do.
Speaker 11: You can just see it on Coach Brooks. Brooks's face
Speaker 11: like he is just so excited to bring this program
Speaker 11: to where it once was, and I'm super excited to
Speaker 11: be a part of that.
Speaker 1: You've lived the se see you know what it takes
Speaker 1: in this league. This is the biggest Kentucky team maybe. Ever,
Speaker 1: how do you feel like it's it's set to compete?
Speaker 11: Yeah, you know, SEC is the best conference to be in,
Speaker 11: but it's also the toughest conference being you're going to
Speaker 11: play against the best competition, and I feel like Coach
Speaker 11: Brooks brought in the right people to be able to
Speaker 11: compete in the SEC.
Speaker 12: So I'm excited.
Speaker 1: Having played in the college see in before now knowing
Speaker 1: what's ahead. Of course, you all played in rough last year,
Speaker 1: But how exciting is that knowing what's up with the
Speaker 1: new facility.
Speaker 12: Oh yeah, I'm super excited.
Speaker 11: I was one of the only ones that got the
Speaker 11: opportunity to play a memorial before it was renovated. So
Speaker 11: it's just it's like a different feeling for me to
Speaker 11: see how it was before and be able to play
Speaker 11: and like it is now with air conditioning, which that's
Speaker 11: going to be nice.
Speaker 12: It's just super exciting.
Speaker 1: Just about everybody mentioned that air can well, you know,
Speaker 1: they never needed it in the coliseum until the volleyball
Speaker 1: team came along and started opening play in August and
Speaker 1: women's basketball started to crank up earlier and earlier. I
Speaker 1: also talk with an incoming freshman, Lexi Blue from Orlando.
Speaker 1: How about that in Lexington Lexi playing for the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Nation Blue. I asked her about Javis Blue, the
Speaker 1: former Kentucky wide receiver, said there was no relation, but
Speaker 1: still the name's pretty cool if it tias you though
Speaker 1: about your last name coming.
Speaker 4: I've been also the Lexi and Lexington that perfect, so
Speaker 4: it is perfect.
Speaker 1: I can't lie, well, why was this a perfect fit
Speaker 1: for you?
Speaker 4: I think for me, just the people and also you know,
Speaker 4: I committed here before I was able to actually come,
Speaker 4: so really just focusing on the people was the big
Speaker 4: thing for me. So it's been a lot of fun
Speaker 4: just to be here and see everything. Obviously, the facilities
Speaker 4: are amazing. There's a lot of new things coming, and
Speaker 4: there's also a lot of buzz here around women's basketball,
Speaker 4: so it's really exciting.
Speaker 1: You committed sight unseen.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 12: Coach Brooks. That's that's the answer.
Speaker 1: What about him?
Speaker 4: I think he's just a really great coach and also
Speaker 4: a really great person. I think throughout my recruiting process,
Speaker 4: he was just always someone that stood out to me
Speaker 4: and someone that I knew how I wanted to play for.
Speaker 4: So when he said Kentucky, I said, you know what,
Speaker 4: let's do it.
Speaker 1: How do you know he's a great coach? What kind
Speaker 1: of research did you do?
Speaker 12: I did a lot of research.
Speaker 4: I also visited obviously at Virginia Tech, so I got
Speaker 4: to see him coach at some games, so kind of
Speaker 4: seeing that, listening to the players as well that have
Speaker 4: played under him as well. So really just relying on
Speaker 4: a lot of people. And I haven't heard a bad thing.
Speaker 4: So and I'm enjoying it so far right now.
Speaker 1: So you can't come the hard work. You're enjoying it,
Speaker 1: I am, I am.
Speaker 4: I think hard work is about of the process and
Speaker 4: if you don't love it, then you know that kind
Speaker 4: of sucks.
Speaker 8: You shouldn't be here.
Speaker 4: So I'm really just enjoying that process for sure.
Speaker 1: What is going to be your role on this team?
Speaker 4: I think for me, just whatever the team needs right now,
Speaker 4: that's that's my role. I'm an all around player. I
Speaker 4: can shoot the basketball at a high level, so of
Speaker 4: course bringing those things, but my main focus is what
Speaker 4: does the team need and how can I do it.
Speaker 1: You're a Florida girl, right, But that's acc and sec
Speaker 1: down there. So what do you know about this league?
Speaker 12: I mean, it's tough.
Speaker 4: I'm sure everyone knows that, especially with you know, the
Speaker 4: expansion as well. So really just knowing that it is
Speaker 4: going to be a hard journey, but also it's going
Speaker 4: to be one that's hopefully worth it.
Speaker 1: And I'll do it for now thanks to Maggie Davis
Speaker 1: and Tom Leachs. That's it. Good night from the garage
Speaker 1: and Lexinger.
Speaker 6: It's like I picked the wrong week. Quit smoking.
Speaker 3: It's like I picked the wrong week.
Speaker 6: Quick drink, It's like I picked the wrong week. Quin
Speaker 6: On Fetamans picked the wrong week.
Speaker 4: Questions Blue s