Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Bones.
Speaker 2: Sider Dick Abriel with you on a Thursday edition of
Speaker 2: our program, and this will be the last one of
Speaker 2: the week because tomorrow night we are bumped for UK basketball,
Speaker 2: the Wildcats taking on Jackson State. Hear it right here,
Speaker 2: tip off at seven o'clock. Darren Hedrick will have the
Speaker 2: call with Jack Gibbons because of course Tom Leach, along
Speaker 2: with yours truly, Jefpikor our UK Radio Network crew and
Speaker 2: the Wildcats will be on our way to Austin, Texas.
Speaker 2: In fact, by basketball game time. We will be in
Speaker 2: Austin by then, of course covering Kentucky Texas on Saturday.
Speaker 2: But Darren will do a great job I know, as
Speaker 2: the Wildcats look to stay undefeated and should under Mark Pope.
Speaker 2: Jackson State gonna be a little outmanned, especially the way
Speaker 2: Kentucky has been shooting.
Speaker 1: The ball of late.
Speaker 2: We'll talk more basketball a little bit later on in
Speaker 2: the show with Daryl Bird of the Cast Pulse.
Speaker 1: He comes up at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 2: We will also chat with the aforementioned mister Hedrick in
Speaker 2: our number two we'll talk about women's basketball.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: Darren of course is the radio voice of UK women's basketball.
Speaker 2: A little bit later on in our number two, Forrest
Speaker 2: Tucker of WTVQ, who covers all things sports here in
Speaker 2: town for Channel thirty six, and he's a big soccer guy.
Speaker 2: If you're a soccer fan, especially the teams here in town.
Speaker 2: We'll talk to a forest about that. Follow him on
Speaker 2: Twitter and you can see what I'm talking about. But
Speaker 2: about this Kentucky Texas game, you've heard Mark Stoops talk
Speaker 2: about it this week, and you've heard me talk to
Speaker 2: some other guests about it, including a gentleman from a
Speaker 2: radio station down in Austin. You might wonder what the
Speaker 2: pundits are saying about this game. Is it going to
Speaker 2: be much of a game? How can Kentucky make it
Speaker 2: a game? And of course we have seen the Wildcats
Speaker 2: do that this year. That's probably the most frustrating, maybe
Speaker 2: the second most frustrating when you put it all together,
Speaker 2: the factors that have made this such a weird season.
Speaker 2: So many penalties, so many.
Speaker 1: Mistakes, and yet some really good showings.
Speaker 2: By the Wildcats. And I'm not talking about the winner
Speaker 2: Murray State. I'm talking about taking Georgia to the matt
Speaker 2: upsetting Ole miss playing really well down in Knoxville, and
Speaker 2: I know they don't like moral victories.
Speaker 1: Who does?
Speaker 2: But who expected that kind of game where it's a
Speaker 2: one score game in the second half of Kentucky missing
Speaker 2: so many starters going in and then losing its starting
Speaker 2: quarterback and others to injuries in that game. So it's
Speaker 2: just been a really befuddling kind of year. So it's
Speaker 2: interesting to hear what some of the outside voices are saying.
Speaker 2: And recently on SEC Now, the panel discussion was it
Speaker 2: came around to Kentucky Tennessee Alyssa Lang, who's been on
Speaker 2: the show talking to Randall Cobb about this game, and
Speaker 2: Matt Stinchcombe chimes in as well over on what Kentucky
Speaker 2: has to do to try to pull off this upset
Speaker 2: of the Longhorns.
Speaker 3: Randall, this is a Kentucky team that went to Ole
Speaker 3: Miss earlier in the season and put a blemish on
Speaker 3: their resume.
Speaker 4: What could it take for Kentucky to derail Texas this weekend?
Speaker 5: I think you have to go on the defense ball
Speaker 5: and start on the defense side of the ball and
Speaker 5: look to take away what Texas does really well, and
Speaker 5: that's getting the ball out of the quarterbacks hand quick.
Speaker 5: But what they do when they getting the rest on
Speaker 5: is they start to give you double moves and start
Speaker 5: to find ways to take that shot down the field.
Speaker 5: So if they can continue to get pressure like they've
Speaker 5: done all season and not let the quarterback, not left
Speaker 5: Quinn Lays, get comfortable in the pocket, then they'll be
Speaker 5: able to find a way to hold on and have
Speaker 5: opportunity late in this game to find a way to win.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: You know, Kentucky the strength early on in the season,
Speaker 7: especially run defense, they could make a team one dimensional
Speaker 7: and because of that, it would support their pass defense
Speaker 7: and it complimented who they wanted to be offensively, because
Speaker 7: that started to wane and you allow Texas to get
Speaker 7: a ground game established and all of a sudden you're
Speaker 7: facing a multi dimensional attack in a game where you're outmatched.
Speaker 7: I mean, let's speak plainly, Texas right now, coming into
Speaker 7: this game, it's advantage Texas.
Speaker 1: When you look at the roster.
Speaker 7: This advantaged Texas when you look at where this game's
Speaker 7: taking place. When you go on the road, you have
Speaker 7: to find a way to make that team, whoever the
Speaker 7: home team is, you got to make them one dimensional.
Speaker 7: And this league is to take away the run. Kentucky's
Speaker 7: got to find a way to get that back.
Speaker 1: That's been the strength of their team, yep.
Speaker 2: And it has been all year when they've been healthy
Speaker 2: and when they have executed well. There have been some
Speaker 2: games where they were healthy and didn't do a very
Speaker 2: good job. Did they against opposing offenses? Vandy Florida? But
Speaker 2: while they were talking, of course this being television, they
Speaker 2: were showing clips from the most successful games Georgia n
Speaker 2: and Ole miss Really impressive. How the Wildcats got the
Speaker 2: Carson Beck, How the Wildcats got to Jackson Dart. Can
Speaker 2: they do that against whichever quarterback Texas running in there,
Speaker 2: Quinn Eewers or arch Manning. They're gonna have to or
Speaker 2: they're just not going to have much fun against the
Speaker 2: Texas Texas Longhorns down in Austin. The question is for
Speaker 2: a lot of people, will this be a trap game?
Speaker 2: You know, will Texas be caught coming off a tough
Speaker 2: win on the road at Arkansas going into Texas A
Speaker 2: and M. Well, of course, the Starkesian fielded that question
Speaker 2: at a news conference this.
Speaker 4: Week Arkansas, this past weekend, A and M next weekend
Speaker 4: with Kentucky here, how do you guys. As coaches approach
Speaker 4: that whole concept of a trap game, do you do
Speaker 4: anything different with the guys. I just said, this is
Speaker 4: to me, this is the biggest game of the football season.
Speaker 4: This is the most important game of the year, last
Speaker 4: home game of the year. I envisioned us putting our
Speaker 4: best foot forward. I really do. I think our guys
Speaker 4: are gonna come ready to play.
Speaker 2: Which, of course, we'll make it all that much tougher
Speaker 2: on the Wildcats, but you expect that whenever you go
Speaker 2: on the road. And Sarkesian talked about that coming off
Speaker 2: that road win at Arkansas, which something should have been
Speaker 2: an easier win quote unquote for Texas. The Hogs made
Speaker 2: it tough and that's a great rivalry Texas Arkansas. But
Speaker 2: Sarkisian talked about the win and he could have been
Speaker 2: talking about any team in the league when he talked
Speaker 2: about how tough it is to win on the road
Speaker 2: in college football, but especially in the SEC.
Speaker 4: You know, in this conference, in Southeastern Conference, going on
Speaker 4: the road and getting a win is really challenging. And
Speaker 4: we see it across the board, and you know, somebody
Speaker 4: brought to my attention that we're the only undefeated team
Speaker 4: on the road in conference play, and so I think
Speaker 4: it speaks volumes to how difficult it is to go
Speaker 4: on the road and win. I credit our guys for
Speaker 4: playing the way they played. Proud of our guys and
Speaker 4: just probably the way they're working. And you know, as
Speaker 4: I told them today, I think this is the biggest
Speaker 4: game of the season coming up. You know, Kentucky's a
Speaker 4: really good football team. They have played their best football
Speaker 4: against the best teams they've competed against, you know, whether
Speaker 4: it be in Old Men, Georgia, Tennessee. I mean, they've
Speaker 4: played really well. I got a ton of respect for
Speaker 4: coach Stoops and the job he's done. So looking forward
Speaker 4: to the challenge and looking forward to celebrating Senior Day.
Speaker 4: You know, a lot of these guys have done so
Speaker 4: much work for us and have been such catalysts for
Speaker 4: our culture and what we do, and so to celebrate them,
Speaker 4: looking forward to that and looking forward to the opportunity
Speaker 4: to play Kentucky Saturday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, by now it's senior Day. Maybe that
Speaker 2: will be a distraction. We have seen that happen here,
Speaker 2: haven't we football and basketball Senior Day festivities. The veteran
Speaker 2: players are thinking about a lot that is not actually
Speaker 2: playing the game of football. So perhaps perhaps Kentucky can
Speaker 2: get off to a good start, but move the change,
Speaker 2: take care of the football, make something happen.
Speaker 1: You just never know.
Speaker 2: They are, of course, decided underdogs by twenty and a
Speaker 2: half points, and the folks over on cbssports dot Com
Speaker 2: CBS Sports HQ, I should say we're talking about that
Speaker 2: as well. You've got first Chip Patterson talking about whether
Speaker 2: or not Texas can cover, and then Chris Hassel and
Speaker 2: Danny Canell chime in on what they think will happen,
Speaker 2: whether or not the Wildcats can beat the spread of
Speaker 2: twenty and a half, and how they think this game
Speaker 2: is going to play out.
Speaker 8: Texas's defense is the identity quinn ewers, arch manning, arch maning,
Speaker 8: arch manning, all the fancy little dart bikes that they've
Speaker 8: got out of all the skill positions, like that's the
Speaker 8: stuff that makes you your eyes attracted to Texas. But
Speaker 8: there is a real grittiness to the way that this
Speaker 8: team plays, whether it's along the defensive line, whether it's
Speaker 8: Jade Baron they're in the secondary. I just think that
Speaker 8: we've got a situation against Kentucky where I don't think
Speaker 8: Kentucky's gonna be able to muster a lot of points,
Speaker 8: and whether it's starting early or whether it's later, eventually
Speaker 8: quinn Ewers is going to get this thing in with
Speaker 8: the offense. So I like Texas under the key number
Speaker 8: of twenty one.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 8: They could blow them out in the first half, they
Speaker 8: could cover it late, but it's just not a situation
Speaker 8: where I trust Kentucky to go into Austin and score
Speaker 8: all that many points against the Longhorns.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean Texas defense is great and Kentucky's offense is atrocious.
Speaker 1: That to me looks like a.
Speaker 3: Very comfortable win for Texas twenty eight to three, thirty
Speaker 3: four to seven, something along those lines, because I do
Speaker 3: think last week was a little bit of a wake
Speaker 3: up call for Texas, and I think Arkansas was a
Speaker 3: better team and a tougher environment on the road than
Speaker 3: coming back home where you want to take care of
Speaker 3: your business, get some of the starters out, and even
Speaker 3: with backups, I still think Kentucky would struggle to score.
Speaker 3: So I'll go ahead and lay them with the long
Speaker 3: horns and take the under, because again I don't know
Speaker 3: how many points Kentucky puts on the board if any.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so all they talk about Kentucky's defense, all the
Speaker 2: Texas defense isn't isn't anything to sneeze at. And it's
Speaker 2: one of the reasons Texas has covered huge spreads this year.
Speaker 2: The long Horns back in August thirty first, they were
Speaker 2: thirty five point favorites over Colorado State. Yeah, they covered
Speaker 2: the fourteenth of September ut San Antonio thirty five and
Speaker 2: a half points. And they cover more specifically in the
Speaker 2: SEC they were twenty one and a half point favorites
Speaker 2: over Florida and still covered that margin. So Texas defense
Speaker 2: makes it happen. Fourth in the country in points per
Speaker 2: game allowed eleven point nine, first in yards per game
Speaker 2: two hundred and forty nine, first and yards per play
Speaker 2: only three point nine, first in passing yards per game
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty six point seven, and with really
Speaker 2: good defensive backs, they lead the nation in passing touchdowns
Speaker 2: surrendered only three. So it's going to be tough on
Speaker 2: the Wildcats to move the football. They've got to figure
Speaker 2: out of way to move the chains and protect whoever's
Speaker 2: in their Brock Vandergriff or Cutter Bowlie up next to
Speaker 2: Eli Manning's great on the Manning Cast, but is he
Speaker 2: a haul? That's next on six thirty WLAP Welcome back
Speaker 2: to the Big Blue and Sider Coming up in just
Speaker 2: a few minutes Darren Hedrick of the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 2: We'll also chat with Darryl Bird of the Cats Pause
Speaker 2: and Forrest Tucker from WTVQ. College basketball has a new
Speaker 2: all time wins leader, and I'm talking about all time,
Speaker 2: all NCAA, all platforms, all genders, meaning Geono Rim, the
Speaker 2: women's coach at Yukon, is now the king of victories.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because.
Speaker 2: Gino I didn't know this, maybe you might have because
Speaker 2: of his last name, but he was actually born in Italy,
Speaker 2: saw his first basketball goal while he was walking to
Speaker 2: kindergarten and was supposed to be just sort of a
Speaker 2: holdover coach until Yukon could find somebody better. And now
Speaker 2: there is nobody better. It's amazing what this guy has done.
Speaker 2: And last night in the Yukon home Arena, up and
Speaker 2: store sixty plus former players in a sellout home crowd
Speaker 2: watching Yukon beat Fairleigh Dickinson eighty five to forty one
Speaker 2: to become the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history. He
Speaker 2: last Friday broke the tie that he held with Tara Vanderveer,
Speaker 2: the legendary coach from Stanford. She retired back in April.
Speaker 2: So now one two hundred and seventeen wins, the most
Speaker 2: in nca history women's men's any division.
Speaker 1: And by the way, this was his.
Speaker 2: Three hundred twenty ninth victory of at least forty points.
Speaker 2: He said, more than twice as many forty point wins
Speaker 2: in his career as total losses. That's how dominant Yukon
Speaker 2: has been under Gino Arima.
Speaker 1: Pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced its list of
Speaker 2: twenty five semi finalists.
Speaker 1: Some interesting names on there. As always.
Speaker 2: I talked about this when he was on the ballot earlier.
Speaker 2: Antonio Gates, a tight end who played basketball at Kent State.
Speaker 2: He was a big, burly but undersized in terms of
Speaker 2: height center at Ken State, and people thought, well, this
Speaker 2: guy to be playing football, and in fact, the NBA
Speaker 2: didn't want him. He goes to the NFL and now
Speaker 2: he's a Hall of Fame candidate. I don't know if
Speaker 2: he gets in on this vote, but I certainly will
Speaker 2: Gates helped Kent State win its way to the Elite eight.
Speaker 2: They were one win from the final four at the
Speaker 2: regional inlection in Here in the early two thousands, but
Speaker 2: didn't quite push through. But that's where he really really
Speaker 2: made a splash. Willie Anderson, a longtime offensive tackle for
Speaker 2: the Cincinnati Bengals, is on the ballot as well.
Speaker 1: Also.
Speaker 2: This is the one that I find really interesting. Eli Manning.
Speaker 2: You know him, of course from his time with the
Speaker 2: Giants and now his commercials and the Manning Cast with
Speaker 2: brother Peyton.
Speaker 1: True Hall of famer.
Speaker 2: But people debate Eli Manning because his team was not
Speaker 2: successful most of the time, and yet he quarterbacked the
Speaker 2: Giants to a hair of Super Bowl titles. Now, some
Speaker 2: people say that alone should put him in the Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame. Others say no, otherwise the Giants didn't do anything.
Speaker 2: But this is why I would vote for Eli Manning.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it be first ballot, I'd have
Speaker 2: to dig into all the other ones. But to me,
Speaker 2: you cannot overlook the fact that Eli Manning engineered twenty
Speaker 2: seven fourth quarter comebacks in his career, thirty seven game
Speaker 2: winning drives, so that would mean a ten additional game
Speaker 2: winning drives when the score was tied, but twenty seven
Speaker 2: times with his team behind in the fourth quarter, he
Speaker 2: leads to a comeback victory. Four postseason fourth quarter comebacks,
Speaker 2: five postseason game winning drives, and sadly, one of those
Speaker 2: came in twenty oh seven at Green Bay is my
Speaker 2: beloved Packers blew it to the Giants and lost twenty
Speaker 2: three to twenty. That was one of the Giant Super
Speaker 2: Bowl winning years. Brett Favre throws an incredibly stupid interception
Speaker 2: and opens the door. And by the way, this was
Speaker 2: in brutally cold Green Bay weather, which I thought would
Speaker 2: give us, my guys, the Packers, the real advantage, but no,
Speaker 2: the Giants handled it.
Speaker 1: Eli handled it.
Speaker 2: And took his team to victory. So it's not just
Speaker 2: for me the Super Bowls. And yeah, the Giants when
Speaker 2: they weren't winning Super Bowls, they stunk with the ELI
Speaker 2: and that of course wasn't all his fault. But I
Speaker 2: do think the comebacks mean he is a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: One of the other names is kicker. Adam Vinettieri, a placekicker,
Speaker 2: and you might wonder how many kickers are in the
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame. But the answers five, one punter, four placekickers,
Speaker 2: and one of the placekickers is Lou the Tow Groza.
Speaker 2: And if that last name means anything to you, it's
Speaker 2: because you know that his brother Alex was the center
Speaker 2: on the UK's.
Speaker 1: Rupps Runts team.
Speaker 2: Lou played at Ohio State, and of course Groza came
Speaker 2: down to play for Adolph Rupp. He has since passed away.
Speaker 2: I was always fond of him. I went to elementary
Speaker 2: school with his son Lex or Alex Junior. And mister
Speaker 2: Grose was a friend of my late father and who
Speaker 2: died when I was young. So anytime I would see
Speaker 2: mister Grose, he would talk to me about my dad.
Speaker 2: But that's why I still call him mister Groza.
Speaker 1: But yeah, Adam and a.
Speaker 2: TIERI on the ballot, and there's a lot of good ones.
Speaker 2: I'd hate to be a voter, but it might be
Speaker 2: kind of fun. I know I would vote Eli Manning in.
Speaker 2: Maybe not on the first ballot, but I'd get him
Speaker 2: in there for sure. I don't know if Chris Sale
Speaker 2: will be a Baseball Hall of Famer, but he is
Speaker 2: a cy Young Award winner. He and Tarik school Ball
Speaker 2: have won the Cy Young Sale now with the Braves
Speaker 2: school ball with the Tigers, and the name Chris Sale
Speaker 2: might not mean much to you, but it means a
Speaker 2: lot to Dan Roselle. He is the Kentucky University Kentucky
Speaker 2: baseball coach. Chris Sale was one of more than a
Speaker 2: dozen and players that Dan Roselle coached it went on
Speaker 2: to become major leaguers signed major league contracts. Roselle coached
Speaker 2: Chris Sayle when the two of them were at Florida
Speaker 2: Gulf Coast, and he's been through his ups and downs.
Speaker 2: He's had some injuries, and this was truly a comeback
Speaker 2: season after Tommy John surgery. He got twenty six or
Speaker 2: thirty first place votes, easily beat out Zach Wheeler of
Speaker 2: Philly and Paul Skeins, the rookie from Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1: I mentioned to you last week.
Speaker 2: I think it was that Tom Brady is facing all
Speaker 2: kinds of broadcast restrictions from the NFL now that he
Speaker 2: is an owner, and now he might face even more
Speaker 2: scrutiny from the league because of a sit down interview
Speaker 2: he did with Patrick Mahomes. That question has come up.
Speaker 2: It's become an issue. According to Sports Business Journal, after
Speaker 2: Brady sat down to do the one on one with Mahomes.
Speaker 2: According to the article, it may have quote ruffled some feathers.
Speaker 2: The NFL's finance Committee is going to explore whether or
Speaker 2: not the interview and any future interviews like it should
Speaker 2: receive more scrutiny given Brady's position, because he's an owner
Speaker 2: and it could be seen as some sort of tampering
Speaker 2: or some sort of building a relationship with a player
Speaker 2: that is not on the team that he owns or
Speaker 2: at least owns a piece up. According to the article,
Speaker 2: they're talking about limiting Brady's interaction with players to live
Speaker 2: or recorded interviews for broadcast only to ensure the content
Speaker 2: of their conversations is known publicly, prohibiting private one on
Speaker 2: one interactions before or after the broadcast component, meaning they
Speaker 2: don't want him to be given access to players where
Speaker 2: he might be able to indirectly or directly make a
Speaker 2: pitch for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Speaker 1: So stay tuned for that one. Lots of drama surrounding
Speaker 1: Tommy b Up.
Speaker 2: Next, Daryl Bird of the Cats pops here in The
Speaker 2: Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome Back to the
Speaker 2: Big Bluon sider joining us now as a longtime friend
Speaker 2: that show and a buddy who has covered this beat
Speaker 2: for a long time. He is Darryl Bird, the editor
Speaker 2: of The Cats Pause general manager, I should say, and
Speaker 2: as he puts, a lifelong fan of the Reds and
Speaker 2: the Oakland Raiders now in Las Vegas. But I want
Speaker 2: to congratulate. Do we talk before it came out? We
Speaker 2: haven't a chance to chat since the yearbook came out
Speaker 2: with the Star Trek cover on it. Explain to people
Speaker 2: what that is, because I I'm like you, I have
Speaker 2: a feeling people are gonna want to grab this one
Speaker 2: and hang on to it.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 10: I think so too. You just I was trying to
Speaker 10: think of a It's always hard on covers because you
Speaker 10: really need just one or two words to sum it up.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 10: And the more I went around talked to me with
Speaker 10: energezzers struck me one day and it's exactly how it was.
Speaker 10: The whole fan base was completely re energized, starting with
Speaker 10: that introductory press conference that just was absurd when you
Speaker 10: think about it looking back on it, and just so
Speaker 10: much new like pumped into it and energized. And when
Speaker 10: you think energize at least I do. I think star Trek.
Speaker 10: Of course, I could not pass up the opportunity to
Speaker 10: go on that scene.
Speaker 2: There have been so many iterations of Star Trek, but
Speaker 2: that is endured. It hasn't it energized?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Yeah, absolutely, that's the original.
Speaker 2: Now they I assumed did you take the cover photo
Speaker 2: because you're really a I've told you this before, you're
Speaker 2: a really good photographer.
Speaker 1: But did you set up and take you that?
Speaker 9: Now?
Speaker 10: That's Chat White took that one.
Speaker 2: Okay, he's great too, he's the UK and Athletics photographer.
Speaker 1: Uh is that?
Speaker 2: Tell me about the background because it looks like the
Speaker 2: I know it's green screen or CGI or whatever you
Speaker 2: want to call it, but it looks like the transporter chamber.
Speaker 10: It is the transporter room. Yeah, run a photo of that,
Speaker 10: and I had to cut out all the individual players
Speaker 10: and yeah, resize them proportionally so they looked like they
Speaker 10: were being being to board the UK starship.
Speaker 1: Ye. I was a bit of a start to do.
Speaker 1: I was a bit of a Star Trek nerd.
Speaker 2: On its second running, it was I guess after it's
Speaker 2: been canceled but became super popular.
Speaker 1: I read a book. One of the first books about
Speaker 1: the making of it and.
Speaker 2: How they came up with the way that they created
Speaker 2: that energizer. Look with the spar that's aluminum dust, they
Speaker 2: were able to sprinkle through a light or something like that.
Speaker 2: So I was so happy to see.
Speaker 10: Yeah, William Shatner's book about it is really good.
Speaker 1: Really, I've had that.
Speaker 10: I read that along. Yet it's really good. I got
Speaker 10: that a long time ago, about just the whole process
Speaker 10: and how season three they had they knew they were done,
Speaker 10: and they cut the budget to nothing, and the prompts
Speaker 10: were horrible and all.
Speaker 6: It's a really good reasons in.
Speaker 1: The original book I read it might have been in
Speaker 1: his as well.
Speaker 2: And we'll get the folks, I promise we'll get the
Speaker 2: basketball in a minute.
Speaker 1: But they wore those those.
Speaker 2: Uniformed shirts made out of volure, and of course you know,
Speaker 2: there were physical scenes and this and that, and whenever
Speaker 2: they would clean them, they would shrink, and so they
Speaker 2: had to wear them as long as they could before
Speaker 2: they were just impossibly tight. And as you said, the budget,
Speaker 2: you know, oh my god, I got to buy more
Speaker 2: of these things. So anyhow, yeah, exactly, So let us
Speaker 2: let us get to the basketball program. And I used
Speaker 2: the SoundBite the other night from one of your questions.
Speaker 2: I've told you you asked good questions, but you asked
Speaker 2: about and I use the racing term bounce what you didn't.
Speaker 2: But you asked Mark Pope if he was afraid of
Speaker 2: a letdown after they went over Duke, and I thought
Speaker 2: his answer and I played his answer was ear least
Speaker 2: part of it.
Speaker 1: You know it was pretty long.
Speaker 2: Yes, was a typical Mark Pope answer. You know that
Speaker 2: there has been a lot of thought and research and
Speaker 2: emotion going into it.
Speaker 1: But explain to everybody.
Speaker 2: In a nutshell what he said if they didn't hear
Speaker 2: it the other night or when you first asked it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 10: I wrote about it yesterday. To me, it's getting to
Speaker 10: be the norm. You asked what you think is a
Speaker 10: simple question, you get a very profound answer. Is much
Speaker 10: more than what you bargeted for. Basically summed up at
Speaker 10: the end, we focus on what we want to happen.
Speaker 10: We don't focus on what we don't want to happen, right,
Speaker 10: which is the only way to look at and he said,
Speaker 10: and then he gets into the neuroscience, of course, is
Speaker 10: to be worried about the letdown. The emotions that come
Speaker 10: along with with you know, the pure body chemistry of
Speaker 10: such a high that you're going to not gonna be
Speaker 10: able to rise back up with that, he said. But
Speaker 10: from that second they won, and Andrew Carton later, you know,
Speaker 10: we celebrate just a little and then it was on
Speaker 10: to the next game. And you know, had that been
Speaker 10: a young team that pulled off that win against they
Speaker 10: would have looked horrible against them, and these guys didn't. Yeah,
Speaker 10: And that was my premise, was what was your anxiety
Speaker 10: level because it's such an old team. I was thinking, okay,
Speaker 10: it was greatly reduced, and he's like, no, we don't.
Speaker 10: We don't even accept that as a possibility here okay, where.
Speaker 2: He says, we don't get nervous, and I was like, man,
Speaker 2: it's no human to be nervous. And you wonder, how
Speaker 2: did they coach that either out of somebody or into somebody,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 10: Yeah, he said, the natural reaction is to be a
Speaker 10: little nervous that it might happen, and they just calculated
Speaker 10: and dismissed it summarily and get on with it, which
Speaker 10: I think you can do with an old team. I
Speaker 10: think it's a completely different question. If this was an
Speaker 10: all freshman like we're used to.
Speaker 1: It also helps to be pretty good, doesn't it.
Speaker 6: Yes, it does.
Speaker 10: That's what That's what it is amazing me because we
Speaker 10: all it's kind of like with the football season and said,
Speaker 10: how good kid, I don't know how good rock Banders is?
Speaker 10: He's never played this group. How good is basketball? I
Speaker 10: don't know. It's twelve guys who've never been around each other.
Speaker 10: How long is it going to take the mesh? How
Speaker 10: good are And you look at all these guys were
Speaker 10: considered good, Yes they weren't. They weren't considered elite by
Speaker 10: any stretch of the imagination at any no matter where
Speaker 10: they came from. And some of the I don't even
Speaker 10: know if they were leading score on their own team.
Speaker 10: But here they are, and just I give all the
Speaker 10: credits to Mark Poe. What are what buttons? He's pushing
Speaker 10: And I talked to some of the players early and
Speaker 10: they're like, I'm still getting used to the fact that
Speaker 10: I'm playing for a coach that doesn't yell at me.
Speaker 10: Everything is positive reinforcement and it's and they're just lapping
Speaker 10: that up like crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got it.
Speaker 2: I think he had one player was a brand who
Speaker 2: came off to be was the sixth man, and you
Speaker 2: had led the team in scoring or something like that,
Speaker 2: but still accepted the role as six man. You know,
Speaker 2: was not the marquee player on that team. That You're right,
Speaker 2: maybe Lamont Butler fit that bill just because San Diego
Speaker 2: State was known for defense and it was their point guard.
Speaker 2: But and hit that big shot in the tournament. But yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a great point. No great, but a lot of good, right.
Speaker 10: Yeah it is. But yet the sun so far as
Speaker 10: it is looking great, and I know it's early, but
Speaker 10: there's so much more, so much room for them to improve. Yeah,
Speaker 10: some of these when I can't wait to see Colin
Speaker 10: Chandler get the rest completely off and start playing up
Speaker 10: to his school potential.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's a great point you bring up,
Speaker 2: because as you look at this team, and I was
Speaker 2: thinking about this the other day, what are they going
Speaker 2: to look like in March? Everybody wants to know that,
Speaker 2: of course, and they're gonna be much better and they're
Speaker 2: gonna win some games. But will we call one player
Speaker 2: in particular great? You know, this guy has become a
Speaker 2: great player. I honestly, with no disrespect intended. I doubt
Speaker 2: that simply because of the makeup of this team, the
Speaker 2: way they play, the way they rotate players.
Speaker 1: There's there's so many of them, you know what I mean.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you're no, You're not gonna It'd be interesting to
Speaker 10: see what postseason awards look like, because nobody's gonna be
Speaker 10: way up there on average per game, right, I mean,
Speaker 10: that's what I thought about the other day, Andrew against Duke.
Speaker 10: Andrew Carr has seventeen, Jackson Robinson has one point right,
Speaker 10: flip it come back a week later, Robinson has twenty,
Speaker 10: Andrew Carr has two. They did a complete reversal and
Speaker 10: didn't miss a beat. And that's to me, if I'm
Speaker 10: scouting them, I'm like, oh my goodness, word, what poison
Speaker 10: do you pick on this group? Yeah, because you don't
Speaker 10: know where it's coming from.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: When I was looking at this roster and reading up
Speaker 2: on them before Pro Day, I got to Andley alman Or.
Speaker 2: I saw his size and his ability with a three pointer,
Speaker 2: and I thought, that is a matchup nightmare.
Speaker 1: And there's more than one on this roster, isn't there?
Speaker 9: Yeah? There are.
Speaker 10: It's it's a very unique group and like yeah, I
Speaker 10: got I got a guy over here that shoots seventy
Speaker 10: eight percent from three point line, but he can't break
Speaker 10: the starting lineup.
Speaker 1: But what a weapon to bring off the bench. That's fantastic,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Is Yeah, we're talking to Darryl Bird. He is a
Speaker 2: general manager of The Cat's Pause. Writer, columnist, photographer. Uh
Speaker 2: were you a photographer before you started shooting pictures.
Speaker 1: For the casts? I've always mentioned meant to ask.
Speaker 6: You that now.
Speaker 10: I started when I started the newspaper in Elizabethtown. I was
Speaker 10: tired as a writer, but quickly, with a smaller staff,
Speaker 10: you end up taking a lot of photos at your
Speaker 10: own event. And just kind of fell in love with it.
Speaker 10: And my desk was literally across the hallway from the
Speaker 10: dark room, and you know, the stowers like can you
Speaker 10: help me with it? And I just started doing that.
Speaker 10: I fell in love with I mean, I'm going back
Speaker 10: way old school, rolling the film on the canister in
Speaker 10: complete darkness, and you know, renting it back and forth
Speaker 10: and then printing your own prints and using your hands
Speaker 10: to dodge and burn the images. And I hope you
Speaker 10: got it right. You don't have to do it over
Speaker 10: And just fell a little that whole side of it
Speaker 10: and just ended up kind of doing both my whole.
Speaker 1: Career dodging and Bernie Man I remember that, and you
Speaker 1: old school photographers nobody's talking about.
Speaker 2: I learned that much when I wrote for the UK paper. Uh,
Speaker 2: I never took that. I wish I had taken the
Speaker 2: course in photography because I enjoyed doing it, but never
Speaker 2: followed up with it. But one of the guys, Stuart
Speaker 2: Bowman or somebody taught me that. But I never learned
Speaker 2: how to do the world.
Speaker 1: You have to obviously, you don't want to expose your
Speaker 1: film to any light.
Speaker 2: So when you're rolling your own film into those little
Speaker 2: canisters that you put in your camera, you have to
Speaker 2: do it in utter darkness just by feel, and.
Speaker 10: I feel and hope that the film does not can't
Speaker 10: touch the It has to roll in a way that
Speaker 10: it doesn't touch or when you're getting ready to develop it. Yeah, amazing,
Speaker 10: meaning roll your own back.
Speaker 2: Then and now with digital technology it's easier, but in
Speaker 2: some ways it's tougher, so you know. Uh, but you
Speaker 2: can take a lot of pictures, a lot of pictures
Speaker 2: without spending more money, you know, because with the old days,
Speaker 2: every time you expose the frame.
Speaker 1: It costs your money.
Speaker 10: If thirty six rolls per thirty six images per roll film,
Speaker 10: that's right. And now you'll see people shoot five six
Speaker 10: hundred of these games on digital and you know thirty
Speaker 10: six and shoot three rows of film and get back
Speaker 10: have it developed the next day and find out your
Speaker 10: exposure was wrong, which you know digital it's like you
Speaker 10: take it, you look at it and you're like, okay,
Speaker 10: just here. Yeah, it's amazing how much.
Speaker 2: Different I see you guys on the sideline, and most
Speaker 2: guys add it as they go.
Speaker 1: They'll take picture from the football play and look at it.
Speaker 2: Nope, don't like it, delete it right now so they
Speaker 2: don't have to do it later. Sonny, we got a
Speaker 2: little guy a little bit off off track with Daryl Bird,
Speaker 2: but I do want to talk some football when we
Speaker 2: come back here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're
Speaker 2: talking with Daryl Bird, the GM of the Catch Paws,
Speaker 2: who takes pictures and rights and reports.
Speaker 1: And does everything for the cast bolls.
Speaker 2: He and Aaron Gershawan and a kind of a skeleton
Speaker 2: staff anymore with the Cats Balls.
Speaker 1: But they put out a great basketball yearbook just in time.
Speaker 1: For Christmas.
Speaker 2: But I want to talk to you, of course about
Speaker 2: Mark Soups in his football program. This has been kind
Speaker 2: of a throwback season when it comes to wins and
Speaker 2: loss has been in a different way, isn't it. It's
Speaker 2: not that Kentucky doesn't have enough talent. When Stoops got here,
Speaker 2: the cupboard was almost bear. With all due respect, he's
Speaker 2: got some talent on this team, but between injuries, mystifying penalties,
Speaker 2: it has not been a satisfying season to say the least,
Speaker 2: has it.
Speaker 10: No, it's been very, very frustrating, and out of the
Speaker 10: fans are really frustrated, and I think, you know, we're
Speaker 10: gonna be honest here.
Speaker 6: That's a pretty good segment.
Speaker 10: Was hoping he might retire and just kind of ride
Speaker 10: off into the sunset after thirty years, but he's made
Speaker 10: it clear he has no intention of doing that. Those
Speaker 10: same people who would like that kind of like seehim
Speaker 10: right away are well he is. He has earned the
Speaker 10: chance to fix this with what he has done. I
Speaker 10: always go back to UK has four Keen win seasons
Speaker 10: and thee hundred plus years of football.
Speaker 1: And he has two of the four exactly.
Speaker 10: So shut up. He knows what he's doing. If he
Speaker 10: wants to try to fix that, you owe him that.
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 10: But it's been a weird year.
Speaker 1: Oh it has. And that least to my next question.
Speaker 2: I don't about you, but I kind of feel bad
Speaker 2: for him because it's written all over his face and
Speaker 2: he's not He's backed off on talking much about the
Speaker 2: portal and nil because there was some backlash nationally.
Speaker 1: I think when he complained about it.
Speaker 2: But oh, he said, Darryl, I promise you whatever he
Speaker 2: coach in America was thinking that instead of coaching now,
Speaker 2: my spare time goes to raising money.
Speaker 10: I had that one on one with him for our football, right.
Speaker 10: He was so open and I'm like, are you kind
Speaker 10: of thinking? Are you sure you want? And he's like,
Speaker 10: and I said, thank you for saying this. That He
Speaker 10: was the first one that Mayor if you remember, came
Speaker 10: out one day to Prescott and said, well, these are
Speaker 10: free agents.
Speaker 9: Oh my god, we let's come.
Speaker 10: And then this year it was I'm working to meet
Speaker 10: payroll and I'm like, what do you mean payroll?
Speaker 9: Payroll?
Speaker 10: If I don't play, If I don't raise enough money
Speaker 10: to pay these guys, they either won't play the game,
Speaker 10: or they'll leave. Ye, and you better believe that pressure
Speaker 10: is real and it's in his fairness. I did a
Speaker 10: thing with Texas Radio this morning and I said, well,
Speaker 10: they were asking me kind of the same thing, and
Speaker 10: it's like, well, here's the deal in Io at Texas.
Speaker 10: It's going to football. They're like, yeah, here you get half. Maybe, yeah,
Speaker 10: maybe it's a best you can hope for is a
Speaker 10: fifty to fifty split. And it's a much smaller state
Speaker 10: with much smaller resources in that regard. So yeah, of
Speaker 10: course it's a challenge. Better believe it is.
Speaker 9: Yeah job.
Speaker 10: And I'm like they brought the a n M job
Speaker 10: And I said, well, any fan with logical sense here
Speaker 10: in Kentucky said, yeah, you better talk to an M
Speaker 10: if the call you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, be Look and you know I work down there.
Speaker 2: There's a bottomless pit of money down there, so that
Speaker 2: that would never be an issue. Plus, as you point out,
Speaker 2: football is king. So a few minutes left with Daryl Bird,
Speaker 2: what about this game with Texas? Uh, I expected, with
Speaker 2: all those injuries going into Knoxville, an ugly blowout because
Speaker 2: we've covered some of those games down.
Speaker 1: There, haven't we?
Speaker 2: Yes, But now and their question marks about Texas, about
Speaker 2: strength to schedule, and then when Georgia did going in
Speaker 2: not the Kentucky's Georgia, but Kentucky played with Georgia. So
Speaker 2: I think there are some Longhorn fans who are wondering
Speaker 2: about the Wildcats.
Speaker 10: I had. That was the exact reaction from the guys
Speaker 10: on the Texas podcast. I said, you're going to get
Speaker 10: a game. They're like, oh, yeah, we know we're going
Speaker 10: to get a game. There's no question because they're like,
Speaker 10: what's the deal? How do you beat Ole miss and
Speaker 10: nearly beat Georgia and play Tennessee as hard as you
Speaker 10: did and then lose your some of the games you've lost. Yeah,
Speaker 10: and it's I don't know, I said, I think it's
Speaker 10: the soup's mentality in that locker room. They are going
Speaker 10: to play tough. They may not win. They probably won't win.
Speaker 10: They need a very on brown kickoff or turn touchdown,
Speaker 10: and they need they need to go for it on
Speaker 10: fourth and eight from the thirty, not take the field goal.
Speaker 10: I mean, if I'm gonna lose, I'm gonna lose seventy
Speaker 10: to nothing, I'm gonna keep going for touch heead, what
Speaker 10: do you have to lose at this stage, I'm with you,
Speaker 10: I'm with a you know, they're anticipating, they're going to
Speaker 10: know they were in a fight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm looking forward to just being done. I've been
Speaker 2: in Austin when I work down there back in the eighties,
Speaker 2: but not for a game.
Speaker 1: Uh you know.
Speaker 2: So I'm told it's going to be a full house.
Speaker 2: And one of the weird things I was on a
Speaker 2: radio show down in Austin and I had the guests
Speaker 2: on my show. The host on my show, I said,
Speaker 2: what can we expect? And one of the things he
Speaker 2: said there I was, they don't tailgate down here. They
Speaker 2: have a different kind of setup, you know, with a
Speaker 2: long I guess this road that surrounds the stadium that's
Speaker 2: dotted with different places you can.
Speaker 1: Go to eat and drink of that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But my reaction was they will learn to tailgate once
Speaker 1: they see the rest of the sec Yes, they will.
Speaker 10: Yeah, not everybody accuracy. What they're going to think is
Speaker 10: to me. And they were talking about UK and I said, well,
Speaker 10: here's the deal.
Speaker 1: UK.
Speaker 10: At the beginning of the year, I would k's living.
Speaker 10: I guess you're eleving by the end of the year.
Speaker 10: After going through the SEC now their beat to death. Yeah,
Speaker 10: and I'm wondering if Texas is like, wow, this is
Speaker 10: this is a much more physical league than what we're
Speaker 10: used to do.
Speaker 2: You run the gauntlet, there's no questions about you do.
Speaker 2: Darryl Bird is the general manager of the Cats Paws.
Speaker 2: You need to pick up the Cats Paws basketball yearbook.
Speaker 2: It features, among other things, Mark Pope how he got
Speaker 2: to Kentucky. I love there have been so many takes
Speaker 2: on this and I love reading everybody's takes, profiles and
Speaker 2: all the players and SEC preview, the opponents, talk of recruiting.
Speaker 2: State colleges are covered, Boys and girls, high school, the
Speaker 2: UK women, and you write about it. You have a
Speaker 2: feature about the fiftieth anniversary in the UK's nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: five season basketball, which was a great one and I
Speaker 2: was in school for that.
Speaker 1: It was a lot of fun. I love that team.
Speaker 10: Yeah, that team was great and that story is its
Speaker 10: tremendous and I was able to I talked to Joe
Speaker 10: Hall before he to talk to Kevin Greevy and Mike
Speaker 10: Playing all those guys their memories of that whole season,
Speaker 10: and it's really cool stuff. It's amazing. Like this team,
Speaker 10: we can get good stuff, but talk to him ten
Speaker 10: fifteen years from now and you'll get so many great
Speaker 10: stories that they won't tell you. Now.
Speaker 1: You're right about that.
Speaker 2: And what I always loved when teams got together with
Speaker 2: Joe b years later, he always said, I'm hearing things,
Speaker 2: stories about things.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I didn't know we're going on when I was.
Speaker 2: Coaching exactly, but every now and then he would tell
Speaker 2: them stories that they didn't know.
Speaker 1: You know, that was going on with the coaching staff.
Speaker 2: But that's seventy five basketball season followed a super weird
Speaker 2: seventy five football season, you know, with with the investigation
Speaker 2: of Sunny Collins and or then included Sunny Collins unfairly,
Speaker 2: and you know Kentucky kept snatching defeat from the jaws
Speaker 2: of victory all year and points shaving rumors which were bogus.
Speaker 2: Uh so, yeah, we needed that basketball season, didn't we.
Speaker 10: Yeah it was. And then to go up early and
Speaker 10: have Indiana beat your brains in, and you know the
Speaker 10: old head slapped at Joe Bobby Knights come back and
Speaker 10: beat undefeated Indiana to get to the final fours. Almost perfect, people,
Speaker 10: John Wyn decided he's going to retire.
Speaker 2: There are people to this day and I'm sure they
Speaker 2: ask you. They asked me, what's your favorite game or
Speaker 2: moment or this or that? And my favorite basketball game
Speaker 2: is still all things considered, that game where they came
Speaker 2: back and beat Indiana in the regional. And I know
Speaker 2: they didn't have Scott Green or Scott May or whatever
Speaker 2: his name was, Scott May, but still everybody expected Indiana
Speaker 2: to roll over him again and that didn't have happened.
Speaker 1: So that's why that's nat.
Speaker 10: So everybody talks about you know, Joe b in the
Speaker 10: seventy eight he finally got out them under Adolph's shadow.
Speaker 10: To me, seventy five, that's when he got That was
Speaker 10: his signature coming out party. Look what he did with
Speaker 10: he took down mighty Indiana what two years three years
Speaker 10: after Adolph.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great point, and took down Bobby Knight with him.
Speaker 10: So yes he did.
Speaker 2: Darryl, thank you so much. And again you need to
Speaker 2: pick up the Catspaws Yearbook. Follow Darryl on Twitter at
Speaker 2: Darryl Bird. But they can get the the yearbook wherever
Speaker 2: they get sports magazines.
Speaker 1: Am I right?
Speaker 10: Kroger specifically shop Yeah, now not Kroger this year, but
Speaker 10: shop Catspaws dot com.
Speaker 6: The easiest way Okay, very good, all right, the easiest.
Speaker 10: Way we can get it right to you.
Speaker 1: Thanks appreciate it, Darryl, have a good one.
Speaker 2: Take care up next Tour number two including Darren headrinc
Speaker 2: of the UK radio Now we're well talk football, baseball
Speaker 2: and basketball all here on the Big One.
Speaker 1: Siders six thirty would be.
Speaker 2: Name Welcome back to the Big Lewinsider joining us now
Speaker 2: in our celebrity hotline is a guy whose voice is
Speaker 2: well known to UK fans. He is the radio voice
Speaker 2: of UK women's basketball baseball. You hear him on BBN
Speaker 2: Radio each week as Darren Heddrick, who is oftentimes here
Speaker 2: in the garage with the Chain gang, Doug Flynn and
Speaker 2: Keith Madison flying solo.
Speaker 1: Today I needed to catch up with Darren on a
Speaker 1: number of topics.
Speaker 2: And first of all, Darren, we were talking before I
Speaker 2: went on the air about the fact that Chris Sale
Speaker 2: wins the cy Young Award and boy Dan Roselle has.
Speaker 1: Coached a lot of talented pitchers.
Speaker 2: He has quite a resume and this might be the
Speaker 2: plumb right here, here's a guy who helped get to
Speaker 2: the majors when they were both at Florida Gulf Coast
Speaker 2: and now a comeback for Sale to cy Young Award.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it really is. And I was just sitting there
Speaker 9: naming off all the different guys that co Trozell has
Speaker 9: helped put into the major leagues and you and I
Speaker 9: could spend a while on that, but yeah, really awesome
Speaker 9: story when you think about where Sale was at what
Speaker 9: I would have called the peak of his career and
Speaker 9: then to go through the injuries and how many years
Speaker 9: has it been two or three since we've seen him
Speaker 9: pitch with any kind of consistency just making starts, let
Speaker 9: alone having a season like he did this year. So
Speaker 9: it really is an awesome bounce back story. And I
Speaker 9: know Dan is really close to Chris Sale, and that's yeah,
Speaker 9: it's just a really neat story. And I'm sure with
Speaker 9: the talent that he has coached, we're going to see
Speaker 9: a few more guys maybe get to the major leagues
Speaker 9: and have success toys under his tutelage.
Speaker 2: Well, and since he's been a Kentucky and number of
Speaker 2: pitchers assigned pro contracts and of course what was the
Speaker 2: two seasons back, the staffs at the single season school
Speaker 2: record at UK for strikeouts, and Tyler Gilfoyle comes in
Speaker 2: and under Roselle becomes an All American out of the bullpen.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he's getting it done.
Speaker 9: Yeah, no question about it. And you think about Sean
Speaker 9: Harney of course coming in here. The story behind how
Speaker 9: Sean and Dan and the Kentucky program met up is
Speaker 9: still one for me that I always enjoyed telling about
Speaker 9: the emails going back and forth. And so you think
Speaker 9: about guil Foyle and Harney, Mason Moore, his development in
Speaker 9: the three years at Kentucky, I'm anxious to see how
Speaker 9: he does now at the next level. So you're right,
Speaker 9: and hey, Trey Booser goes from the College of Charleston
Speaker 9: to being the anchor in a week in rotation the
Speaker 9: Friday Night eighth and now he's in pro ball. So
Speaker 9: just so many feathers in the cap of Dan Roselle
Speaker 9: and a big reason why Kentucky's had to turn around
Speaker 9: they've had in the last three years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm anxious to see what he does with
Speaker 2: the not entirely new staff, but a lot of new
Speaker 2: faces coming up this baseball season. So let me shift
Speaker 2: over to women's basketball. The job Kenny Brooks has been doing.
Speaker 2: He's got everybody excited. He've got a little bit of
Speaker 2: a time off. Now, you guys will be going down
Speaker 2: to the Music City Classic in Thanksgiving week Arizona State
Speaker 2: in Illinois.
Speaker 1: Interesting, they grind out and went over Louisville. Then the
Speaker 1: women have to.
Speaker 2: Work pretty hard to beat Perdue Fort Wayne, which is
Speaker 2: not a bad ball club. But this Music City Classic's
Speaker 2: going to be a real challenge.
Speaker 1: Isn't it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it is. Illinois is a top twenty team, they're undefeated.
Speaker 9: That's probably next to Louisville. Illinois will be the best
Speaker 9: team that they've played to this point. Arizona State is
Speaker 9: three and two and like the Wildcats, Sun Devils are
Speaker 9: off until they play that Music City Classic game next Tuesday.
Speaker 9: So a couple of Power five teams. Obviously they're going
Speaker 9: to have some athleticism, they're going to have size. I
Speaker 9: think Arizona State's even got a six to seven center,
Speaker 9: So that's going to challenge Clara Strack and Clara Silva.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 9: So yeah, you're talking about two Power five teams and
Speaker 9: it's I was joking with Cammy Moore Williams are sports
Speaker 9: information director. I said, I'm still getting used to calling
Speaker 9: Arizona State a big twelve teams because I was wanting
Speaker 9: to look up at twelve records. But obviously that is
Speaker 9: a moot point now. But certainly a couple of tough
Speaker 9: challenges away Kentucky next weekend and the Music City.
Speaker 2: Speaking of challenges that comeback, and it was a real comeback.
Speaker 2: I mean, prdue foro Wyn was up nine a couple
Speaker 2: of times, and I heard you talking on the radio
Speaker 2: about the fact that if if Kentucky could just get
Speaker 2: the lead, but you know, they would flirt with it
Speaker 2: and then fall back, flirt, wouldn't fall back. They finally
Speaker 2: got it and proved you to be prescient.
Speaker 1: They were able to ease away.
Speaker 2: But I kept in watching and listening to you, kept
Speaker 2: seeing straight line drives. You know, they took the Wildcats
Speaker 2: to the rack. Is that a blueprint do you think
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 1: For this team?
Speaker 9: I think that's something this coaching staff has been working
Speaker 9: on with this group. And I've heard Coach Brooks talk
Speaker 9: over and over about communication. Communicate, communicate, communicate, and so
Speaker 9: they're still learning each other. He's still learning how to
Speaker 9: best you know, use this or deploy his defense and
Speaker 9: his style the way he wants to play. And yeah,
Speaker 9: I do think more athletic guard oriented teams. Smaller teams
Speaker 9: could give this group trouble just because of their size.
Speaker 9: You know, if you're able to drive around them, you
Speaker 9: can get opportunities. The problem is trying to drive around them.
Speaker 9: And you know, I think part of the reason why
Speaker 9: they blocked almost sixty shots in five games is because
Speaker 9: they're a little bit late, but they're able to use
Speaker 9: their links to alter shots or block shot you know.
Speaker 9: And after the game, coach Brooks said, hey, we could
Speaker 9: have gone zone and clogged the lanes, but he said,
Speaker 9: I kept him in man and told him to figure
Speaker 9: it out. That's what he needs to do right now
Speaker 9: because when you get to SEC play that, you know,
Speaker 9: you're not going to have nights where his zone bails
Speaker 9: you out. Because the SEC teams can shoot threes too,
Speaker 9: and of course that the I almost call them IP,
Speaker 9: but they're not that anymore perdue fort Wayne. Obviously, they
Speaker 9: can shoot lights out from three as we saw in
Speaker 9: that game. So you know, I was sort of excited
Speaker 9: to hear he said, hey, we got to figure it out.
Speaker 9: I told him to figure it out, and this team did.
Speaker 9: They found a way to slow down the Masdons enough
Speaker 9: to catch him and pass them.
Speaker 2: Is this the team that used to be Indiana University,
Speaker 2: Purdue University Indianapolis or so, No, they're Fort Wayne. What's
Speaker 2: the I U p U I is a different school,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 9: So I always called him U p U I.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Transylvania.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so that school no longer exists as I U
Speaker 9: p U I. Interesting enough, Indiana elected the university elected
Speaker 9: to separate from the school at Fort Wayne. So now
Speaker 9: that's just Purdue Fort Wayne. Purdue has apparently, from what
Speaker 9: I read, elected to separate. So now it's just Indiana
Speaker 9: University Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: Ok.
Speaker 9: So I U p U I and I PFW are
Speaker 9: no longer y thing is Dick and the game notes
Speaker 9: for the Master Dons it says, do not refer to
Speaker 9: us as IPSW. That school no longer exists. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 9: I mean direct to the point.
Speaker 1: It's right there on the campus.
Speaker 2: But no, that school doesn't exist. So this is the
Speaker 2: poohy part. But now instead of Indianapolis, it's Fort Wayne.
Speaker 2: One other question for you, if it's in a game noes.
Speaker 2: Forgive me mastadons? How did that happen?
Speaker 9: You know what they have that in the game. I'm
Speaker 9: sure I was going to share that on the radio,
Speaker 9: and now I've kind of forgotten some of the key
Speaker 9: details to it. But essentially, there's land near the school
Speaker 9: where they discovered mastadon bo.
Speaker 1: That's what I figured.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, yeah, a friend of mine the other night
Speaker 2: I said, what is a mastadona? So just think of
Speaker 2: a like a pre dinosaur elephant.
Speaker 1: That's basically what it is.
Speaker 9: So well, you mentioned that I was staying on the
Speaker 9: radio Kentucky could just catch them and take the lead,
Speaker 9: and I think I said something to the effect of, man,
Speaker 9: if they could just catch the Masterdons, let one thing
Speaker 9: to catch a mask todon, but what do you do
Speaker 9: with it?
Speaker 2: That is a fair point. We're talking to Darren Hedrick.
Speaker 2: He is the radio voice of the UK women's basketball.
Speaker 2: He also, when he's available, is our scoreboard anchor on
Speaker 2: the UK football broadcast. We'll come back and talk some
Speaker 2: college football here in just a minute on the Big
Speaker 2: Bloom Siders six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: We're talking with Darren Hedrick, is the radio voice the
Speaker 2: UK women's basketball and baseball and is our scoreboard anchor
Speaker 2: on the UK Football Network.
Speaker 1: And uh, we're all heading down.
Speaker 2: Well, those of us are working the games and remote
Speaker 2: to Austin, Texas. Have you ever worked anything in Austin?
Speaker 9: Austin is the one Texas town I've not been to.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 9: Been to Houston, been to Dallas, Yeah, and I've been
Speaker 9: to College Station, but I've not made it.
Speaker 1: To a How about Lubbock? Been out there?
Speaker 9: No, I haven't done that, that's all. Yeah, yeah, all right.
Speaker 2: Well you'll appreciate I actually went out there with baseball
Speaker 2: fell in for Neil before you got here, and it
Speaker 2: was not a good Kentucky team and Tech swept the
Speaker 2: Wildcats and I think the score on Sunday was nineteen
Speaker 2: to three, So you can appreciate what I went through there.
Speaker 2: I went out through all my game notes like three times.
Speaker 2: So but no, I'm looking forward to this and it's
Speaker 2: just going to be really cool to see Kentucky playing
Speaker 2: in Austin, Texas in that stadium against that burn Orange
Speaker 2: and it's a conference game.
Speaker 1: You were just talking.
Speaker 2: About, you know, making the switch from Arizona State, Well,
Speaker 2: how about Texas now in the SEC.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know what, I'm excited that we have Oklahoma
Speaker 9: and Texas in this league, even though they are historically
Speaker 9: what was it, I was trying to think Big eight
Speaker 9: is what Oklahoma was the in Tech originally?
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, yeah, in Tech, Texas was Southwest.
Speaker 9: Yeah, the swe what I was trying to think of
Speaker 9: the Southwest? You're right, thanks, But no, those two programs historically, yeah,
Speaker 9: they've not been SEC teams, but I've always felt like
Speaker 9: they were SEC caliber programs, and so it's exciting to
Speaker 9: have them. It's also exciting to go to a couple
Speaker 9: of new cities, see new traditions and new venues. So
Speaker 9: excited about it. And I think I've read was it
Speaker 9: John Hale that mentioned this will be the furthest web
Speaker 9: that Kentucky has ever played a football game, and I
Speaker 9: found that fascinating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in modern times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they played once down there in nineteen fifty one.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I lost seven to six. So yeah, Texas leads the series.
Speaker 2: Kentucky played a course in the Cotton Bowl back in
Speaker 2: the day, but Dallas is not as far west as Austin,
Speaker 2: so John is absolutely correct.
Speaker 1: Some of the scores and teams.
Speaker 2: You'll be keeping an eye on and I know you
Speaker 2: it's fun hearing you trying to throw a net over
Speaker 2: everybody as you as you're following so many different games,
Speaker 2: but chief among them is Indiana at Ohio State number five,
Speaker 2: at number two, and it's so intriguing because Indiana's got
Speaker 2: this storybook season going. However, Indiana has yet to play
Speaker 2: any of the teams in the top tier of the
Speaker 2: Big Ten, which of course has what eighteen teams now whatever.
Speaker 2: They have beaten Michigan State and Michigan back to back.
Speaker 2: They destroyed Nebraska, some of the big name schools, you know,
Speaker 2: but this is going to be clearly a huge test
Speaker 2: and it's on the road for the Hoosiers. Wouldn't that
Speaker 2: be fun if they pulled this off?
Speaker 9: Oh, if they pulled this off, the world's going to
Speaker 9: turn upside down, especially if you live in Columbus, Ohio.
Speaker 9: So you know, Indiana is going to be a real
Speaker 9: test case because right now the way this committee is
Speaker 9: kind of putting things together, and I've heard other people
Speaker 9: nationally and more regionally express this concern. You know, if
Speaker 9: Indiana loses this game in a blowout, and I know
Speaker 9: everybody's got a different definition of a blowout. But say
Speaker 9: it's forty two to fourteen and eleven and one Indiana
Speaker 9: still makes the playoffs. What SEC team will ever schedule
Speaker 9: them out a conference game that's not a mid major
Speaker 9: FCS on it again, I was just gonna say to me,
Speaker 9: that's the concern, because that's what I look forward to
Speaker 9: a lot every year, besides the SEC matchups themselves. Is
Speaker 9: Georgia playing Clemson? Is LSU playing USC? Tennessee gonna play Nebraska?
Speaker 9: Whatever it is? Yeah, I was about to say, uku
Speaker 9: of l and so you know, you have to be
Speaker 9: careful about taking away the incentive to play these games.
Speaker 9: And also what about the conference championships. You can't punish
Speaker 9: teams for playing those because nobody's going to want to
Speaker 9: be in it. Lank Kiffon's already said that publicly.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of Lane Kiffin, his team seems to be
Speaker 2: playing it's best football right now. But I think the
Speaker 2: SEC game that will draw the most attention. Why I
Speaker 2: shouldn't say, but in fact, Ole miss plays at Florida,
Speaker 2: will miss up to night. But Florida Darren they got
Speaker 2: the healthy quarterback again, although he's their backup guy.
Speaker 1: But we saw how explosive he can be against Kentucky.
Speaker 1: So now the.
Speaker 2: Gators in the swamp playing their best football at ole
Speaker 2: Miss coming in.
Speaker 9: Yeah, this amazing intriguing game because Old Miss can crash
Speaker 9: the party if they went out and Florida is a
Speaker 9: team that can play spoiler with a healthy DJ Lagway.
Speaker 9: And I think the thing to watch in that game
Speaker 9: this weekend is Lagway is one of the most accurate passers,
Speaker 9: if not the best passer in college football, completing catches
Speaker 9: of twenty or more yards. So big Chuck plays but
Speaker 9: everything else, he's still kind of a freshman at doing
Speaker 9: so can Old Miss limit is Chuck plays down field.
Speaker 9: If they can do that, I think Ole Miss wins
Speaker 9: that game comfortably. But if Lagway connects on a few
Speaker 9: of those, yeah, Ole Miss might find themselves in a
Speaker 9: little bit of trouble. So that's a really intriguing game
Speaker 9: this week Again, it's.
Speaker 2: All about can Florida control the pace of the game
Speaker 2: the way Kentucky did against Ole Miss and Oxford. Two
Speaker 2: of the games that you'll glance at, I know and
Speaker 2: keep everybody up to speed on. Georgia plays UMass, Tennessee
Speaker 2: plays UTEP, Both of the SEC teams at home. They
Speaker 2: should up, they should put up video game numbers. But
Speaker 2: I am intrigued by Army at Notre Dame. Now, Notre
Speaker 2: Dame's pretty good. They're kind of flying a little bit
Speaker 2: under the radar. I mean, everybody knows they're out there,
Speaker 2: but no one's you know, jumping up and down about
Speaker 2: Notre Dame as they have in the past. But and
Speaker 2: even though they're ranked number six in the country. But
Speaker 2: of course they played an independent. But Army again is
Speaker 2: one of those teams that has confounded everybody this year.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Army just keeps winning and they're doing so They're no,
Speaker 9: I don't think they're a football independent anymore. They found
Speaker 9: the home in a conference and so they're they're just
Speaker 9: continuing to win. They've got Notre Dame this weekend, and
Speaker 9: that's a big one for the Irish and people who
Speaker 9: are not fans of Notre Dame because right now that's
Speaker 9: the team that they've got well in the playoffs and
Speaker 9: I've heard numerous times, well they've Boston Northern Illinois. Yeah,
Speaker 9: but they've won every game on their schedule since Yeah, so,
Speaker 9: and they've done so pretty convincingly. But yeah, this is
Speaker 9: going to be a fun game this weekend.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 9: Notre Dame played an undefeated Navy team earlier this year
Speaker 9: and completely dismantled Navy and took them out of the conversation.
Speaker 9: So let's see what the the Black and Knights have
Speaker 9: for the Irish this weekend.
Speaker 2: Later in the evening, Alabama at Oklahoma, not you, not
Speaker 2: your daddy, your granddad's Oklahoma could be interesting, but Alabama's
Speaker 2: playing its best right now.
Speaker 1: And I had one another.
Speaker 2: Oh, also, Vanderbilt at LSU. Neither team is ranked, but man,
Speaker 2: you know this is going to be fascinating, isn't it.
Speaker 9: Yeah? I just think this could be a trap game
Speaker 9: for Vanderbilt looking ahead to the big Tennessee game next
Speaker 9: weekend in Nashville. I like LSU in this one.
Speaker 2: Boy, isn't it interesting that to use the term trap
Speaker 2: game in Vanderbilt in the same sentence.
Speaker 1: I think that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: I was talking to one of my guests earlier this
Speaker 2: week on the show about the fact that USC and
Speaker 2: UCLA play at ten thirty pm Eastern on NBC, and
Speaker 2: you know what, the nation shrugs. That used to be
Speaker 2: one of the great matchups, you know, with the storied
Speaker 2: names on both schools and the uniforms and the you know,
Speaker 2: playing out there in Los Angeles and the coliseum, and
Speaker 2: now neither team is really relevant right now.
Speaker 1: I hope that changes someday.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it is one of the best uniform matchups in
Speaker 9: college football, and I love when they get to both
Speaker 9: teams get to wear their home uniforms in the matchup.
Speaker 9: You're right, it's not the rivalry it used to be.
Speaker 9: UCLA has really struggled, especially in modern college football. I
Speaker 9: don't know if it's recruiting or resources or what, but
Speaker 9: they've just not been able to sustain it like USC
Speaker 9: has and gosh, I don't know if this moved to
Speaker 9: the Big Ten is going to help that or not.
Speaker 9: But you're right, that is still for those of us
Speaker 9: that have followed college football for years, going back decades,
Speaker 9: that is one of the premier rivalries in terms of
Speaker 9: its pageantry and color. And think about the stadiums too.
Speaker 9: They played in the Rose Bowl and the Collism. It
Speaker 9: doesn't get much better than that.
Speaker 2: Before I let you go, we're talking with Darren Hedrick
Speaker 2: of the UK Network. Part of your very busy schedule,
Speaker 2: you'll feel Bill be filling in for Tom Leach Friday
Speaker 2: night because we'll be traveling to Austin and you're going
Speaker 2: to call the Jackson stake in Tucky men's game, so
Speaker 2: I know you're doing your homework on that one. But
Speaker 2: this is a fun team as well, This Mark Pope
Speaker 2: ball Club.
Speaker 1: Isn't it?
Speaker 9: Yeah, it really is. I have enjoyed watching this group
Speaker 9: and the way they Everybody likes to talk about their offense,
Speaker 9: and for good reason. They've scored three hundred points in
Speaker 9: three home games. That's phenomenal, pretty good. But yeah, their
Speaker 9: defense is pretty good too, and we saw that against Dukes,
Speaker 9: so you know there's still a work in progress, as
Speaker 9: he likes to say, you know, they're still wanting to
Speaker 9: do better on the boards. They want to get to
Speaker 9: thirty five three pointers a game and hold opponents under
Speaker 9: thirty nine percent, and they can do that or come
Speaker 9: close to those numbers. I like them most nights.
Speaker 2: Sounds good to me, and you'll sound good Friday night
Speaker 2: as the Wildcats take on Jackson State. You'll hear Darren
Speaker 2: Hedrick call the action with Jack Gibbons, and I know
Speaker 2: you listen, and I don't know about you. I love
Speaker 2: how tickle Jack gets by the shooters.
Speaker 1: You know, yes, he loves it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I just enjoy how much fun he has calling
Speaker 9: those games beside Tom and you know, and then you've
Speaker 9: got Cameron Mills. How he gets fired up on the
Speaker 9: pre game. Oh yeah, I just I enjoy listening to
Speaker 9: those broadcasts.
Speaker 2: They're very well done, Darren, Thank you so much, and
Speaker 2: we'll be listening Friday night.
Speaker 9: Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: DG.
Speaker 2: Back in a minute here on the Big Blue Sider
Speaker 2: six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Sider.
Speaker 2: Joining us down our celebrity hotline is a familiar face
Speaker 2: if you watch TV here in lexingon WTVQ, sportscaster Forrest
Speaker 2: Tucker joining us. A guy who covers well, because you're
Speaker 2: a local TV sports guy for us, you got to
Speaker 2: be an expert on everything, don't you.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, that is the trick of the trade.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so UK baseball and football, Eastern Kentucky, Georgetown. You're
Speaker 2: also you cover a lot of the soccer, the Lexing
Speaker 2: and Sporting Club soccer. I want to ask you about
Speaker 2: that in a moment, but you coasted a story the
Speaker 2: other night about the three point shooting prowess of this
Speaker 2: Kentucky team and just how crazy it's been so far.
Speaker 1: I don't know if people expected this, do you.
Speaker 6: I think maybe it could have. Maybe you couldn't have
Speaker 6: because we know Mark gol was to shoot thirty five
Speaker 6: threes a game, making them a different story. But I
Speaker 6: think it definitely shows that they're on their way to that,
Speaker 6: and I think that's an encouraging sign. You know, it
Speaker 6: just seems like it's a no brainer that they would
Speaker 6: be doing this.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 6: They have guys that were committed and they were lethal
Speaker 6: shooters that they got out of the portal. So I'm
Speaker 6: happy that they're, you know, along this way. And I
Speaker 6: was wondering what storyline I was going to write about
Speaker 6: and talk about after the game they played versus Lipscomb
Speaker 6: and and lo and behold, they're the first Kentucky team
Speaker 6: ever to make ten or more threes in their first
Speaker 6: four games.
Speaker 9: You know.
Speaker 6: So that's pretty crazy, and it's just funny because Mark
Speaker 6: said himself, how do we not.
Speaker 9: Do that.
Speaker 6: On the title and how have they not done that
Speaker 6: in any other season? Because there are a lot of
Speaker 6: a lot of great tiers come through this town. But
Speaker 6: I think that's the sign that he's building something special
Speaker 6: and that's a cliche to stay. But we're gonna hopefully
Speaker 6: learn a little more about this team when we talk
Speaker 6: to Mark today, and then just as as you know,
Speaker 6: the non conference schedule goes on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's funny because Rick Bettino. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you were too young when he went on his
Speaker 2: first run, but you know this about Patino a guy
Speaker 2: who appreciates the three pointer, and when he took Providence
Speaker 2: to the final four, his philosophy had become you either
Speaker 2: take it to the rack or shoot a three, nothing
Speaker 2: in between. And you're sort of seeing that with Kentucky,
Speaker 2: although there are some mid range jumpers, but that's a
Speaker 2: little bit of Atino rubbing off on him as well
Speaker 2: as the analytics.
Speaker 6: Right, Yeah, he's a huge analytics guy. You know. We
Speaker 6: were hearing him speak about Catapult, which is the GPS
Speaker 6: tracking for players last week I think it was or
Speaker 6: two weeks ago, and he's just like a professor. Maybe
Speaker 6: he can say he over explains things a bit, but
Speaker 6: I would rather do that than not give us anything
Speaker 6: at all. It's fun to listen to because he reminds
Speaker 6: me of me. I can ramble for a long time
Speaker 6: if you give me the task to do it and
Speaker 6: it's not coach speak, but you know, it's like he's
Speaker 6: teaching a class. It's like he's a college professor. So
Speaker 6: it's like to see a similarity between academia and college
Speaker 6: sports when there are too many of these days left.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and he'll he'll answer your question.
Speaker 2: I mean the previous management that coach liked to control
Speaker 2: the narrative. He had a message he wanted to get across.
Speaker 2: And you know, he didn't invent that style of press conference,
Speaker 2: but he mastered it.
Speaker 1: You know. But now you ask a question to the
Speaker 1: new guy, maybe he'll start doing that Forrest.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I like, hell, he'll answer a
Speaker 2: direct question with a direct answer.
Speaker 6: You always got some fumor involved too, which is really nice,
Speaker 6: and I think we all appreciate that because if you
Speaker 6: can sit there and worry about your deadline after a game,
Speaker 6: you can worry about what you're gonna neat for a
Speaker 6: lunch after the press conference, but if he can keep
Speaker 6: you in the here and now, which I think is
Speaker 6: really nice, then I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're talking with Forrest Tucker. He is a sports
Speaker 2: reporter anchor for w t VQ here in Lexington, and
Speaker 2: we've been talking a lot about basketball, well we got
Speaker 2: to talk football.
Speaker 1: We see each other.
Speaker 2: At the Mark Stoops News conferences occasionally, and this season
Speaker 2: it seems for us it's really wearing on Stoops. You know,
Speaker 2: nobody likes to lose, obviously, but and he briefly mentioned
Speaker 2: but said, I don't want to sound like I'm whining
Speaker 2: or crying about the portal and nil, but you can
Speaker 2: tell he's just not enjoying it.
Speaker 1: Is he.
Speaker 8: Now?
Speaker 6: It's it's difficult for him. It's difficult to watch him
Speaker 6: week atter a week. I feel like that, you know,
Speaker 6: I thought that our colleague at Nolan Media, John Long's
Speaker 6: question to him about you know, are you thinking of leaving?
Speaker 6: You know, will you step down on your own accord,
Speaker 6: which he answered with you know, zero percent chance that's happening,
Speaker 6: was that was probably timed right. And I don't know
Speaker 6: if anyone else could have asked that, but John and
Speaker 6: I appreciate him for that, so, you know, and I
Speaker 6: don't think he's going anywhere, but it just it seems
Speaker 6: like it's just been the issue year after year that
Speaker 6: I've taken and I've only been doing this two years.
Speaker 6: But his team has just no discipline, and I wonder
Speaker 6: why that is because we talked to players one on
Speaker 6: one and groups and they're really they're all really great,
Speaker 6: But there's something that I think the leadership that he
Speaker 6: needs to get out of the portal needs to be
Speaker 6: something where, you know, they can get some guys to
Speaker 6: step up, you know. But we've also had two guys
Speaker 6: at quarterback in the past three years who are really
Speaker 6: quiet leaders, Debinarium Brox are quiet guys, and it doesn't
Speaker 6: seem like their demeanor changes. I think you need a
Speaker 6: quarterback that's like a ball of lightning. I think you
Speaker 6: need someone who's the bulk of lightning. JJ Weaver is
Speaker 6: also a quiet guy, you know. And but yeah, I
Speaker 6: know Jaj can get hype and everything, but I think
Speaker 6: he needs some shots in the arm with with his
Speaker 6: next portal and and everything. But he sounds like Nick
Speaker 6: stave in a year ago, doesn't he?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he really does.
Speaker 2: Although yeah, and to be more specific, John asked him,
Speaker 2: are you going to retire? And I had heard that
Speaker 2: rumor some some of the coaches out there believe that
Speaker 2: that Stuops was hitting you know, he's he's he's made
Speaker 2: a lot of money he's earned the right, as John said,
Speaker 2: just enjoy life, you know, maybe not go to another school,
Speaker 2: but just hang it up and be happy and not
Speaker 2: that SUPs is saying, no, I want to stick around
Speaker 2: and not be happy. But he still loves the coaching
Speaker 2: part of the game, doesn't he.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you can tell he likes every you know, he
Speaker 6: he cozies up to it every you know, game day
Speaker 6: and everything. I think that he's not going to tell
Speaker 6: you he's excited to go to Austin, Texas and play
Speaker 6: a football game, you know, for the first time and
Speaker 6: however you know long it's been. But I mean, I
Speaker 6: appreciate him. I would hope he sticks around, but I
Speaker 6: think it's you know, next season is like this season.
Speaker 6: You know, it's forty four million, as seems, you know.
Speaker 6: I don't know if it's a lot more inciting at
Speaker 6: that point to pay him to that to have and leave.
Speaker 6: But I don't think they can even really do that.
Speaker 6: Though he's given a lot of this program. That's the
Speaker 6: debate online on media is you know, how much is
Speaker 6: really given? Is he worthy of that? And I think
Speaker 6: that's just depending on who you ask.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think it's it's really premature to talk
Speaker 2: about Kentucky separating from him because of what he's done here.
Speaker 2: And a lot of this for us is young people
Speaker 2: like you. You're on the on the early stages of
Speaker 2: what I'm sure he'll be.
Speaker 1: A fine career.
Speaker 2: But those of us who go back to the days
Speaker 2: where Kentucky had almost no hope of winning any games
Speaker 2: other than non conference and maybe Vandy, but maybe not
Speaker 2: because Vandy, even though people always think, you know, uk
Speaker 2: SHA two or Vandy every season, it's fifty to fifty
Speaker 2: about whether they should should be Vandy, and the statistics.
Speaker 1: Show that out.
Speaker 2: So I go back to that when when it was dreary,
Speaker 2: it was drudge work covering Kentucky football and trying to
Speaker 2: and you know how it is trying to interview somebody about, well,
Speaker 2: how did you lose this one?
Speaker 1: Or do you really think you can win this week?
Speaker 2: Now the Big Blue Nation had gotten to the point
Speaker 2: where fans believe they they might win, not should win,
Speaker 2: but might win every game. That's a lot more fun.
Speaker 2: And when you take that away from a fan base, it's.
Speaker 1: Not pretty, is it.
Speaker 6: No, it definitely isn't. I think you just have to
Speaker 6: see what what gives what's going to give you some
Speaker 6: hope and what's going to give you some promise about
Speaker 6: things that seem to have liked how Cutter Bowli is played.
Speaker 6: Sure all of the week past where we talked about
Speaker 6: a quarterback competition, it really wasn't a competition. You know,
Speaker 6: back has always given them the best chance to win
Speaker 6: football games. So you know, I don't know, I think
Speaker 6: that it's it's just difficult this SEC league. This year,
Speaker 6: tollg Schobal really turned on a sense that didn't help
Speaker 6: at all. But I think, you just I can't make
Speaker 6: any predictions anymore, So what's going to happen? But I
Speaker 6: agree you can't. You no one's gonna run him out
Speaker 6: of town. And look, it's not like the basketball team
Speaker 6: where they were, you know, they were blue blood before
Speaker 6: COLN came. Yeah, you know everything, it's it is what
Speaker 6: it is. But you know, I think they have to
Speaker 6: really show that they can try and take it to Texas.
Speaker 6: I just I can get concerned because again in the
Speaker 6: mentality they seem to get up for these big games
Speaker 6: away and that seems to be kind of what the
Speaker 6: line of questioning will be at sometimes, Like you know,
Speaker 6: you guys have played on misterally, Well, you played George
Speaker 6: really well, you know, and and and you know, I
Speaker 6: think nine penalties on Saturday right that game to the
Speaker 6: four play. I mean, you know, there's there's got to
Speaker 6: be a respect for yourself here to not have a
Speaker 6: standard drop and rise based on who you play. But
Speaker 6: that's outside looking in well.
Speaker 2: And mistakes against Vandy that that cost them, So that's
Speaker 2: got to be so frustrating. And yeah, I think you
Speaker 2: talked about on field leadership.
Speaker 1: They're looking for.
Speaker 2: That, and the portal just complicate things that. Will Levis
Speaker 2: came through the portal, immediately won the respect of his
Speaker 2: teammates and became a real leader. As you mentioned, Learry
Speaker 2: was a quiet guy. Vandergriff his first and only season
Speaker 2: so far as a starter. But it's difficult to be
Speaker 2: a leader at quarterback if.
Speaker 1: You're not excelling.
Speaker 2: And the old line has not allowed him to really
Speaker 2: do I think what they brought him here to do,
Speaker 2: and that's set up and throw from the pocket. He's
Speaker 2: always on the run, he's always running for his life.
Speaker 2: I don't mean to lay at all on the old line,
Speaker 2: but his Stupids's best teams had terrific goal lines. And
Speaker 2: just about every team in America, you could say that
Speaker 2: that to me is where the rebuild has to begin.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think we had a lot of optimism because
Speaker 6: this team had a lot of changes they made full
Speaker 6: till wise at so many position groups with coaching, and
Speaker 6: it just doesn't stand out the way we've wanted to.
Speaker 6: I think bush Hand and his hands are kind of
Speaker 6: tied because of the certain position groups that may be underperforming,
Speaker 6: you know. So he's kind of like, well, I'm trying
Speaker 6: to do what I'm trying to do, but you know,
Speaker 6: if the position coaches don't get their act together, we
Speaker 6: can't really do it. You know, Eric bol had a trackler,
Speaker 6: you're in the SEC for a long time, and the
Speaker 6: fact that his group has not really done well, it's
Speaker 6: pretty disappointing to me. I think that is kind of
Speaker 6: the disappointment of the season so far as far as
Speaker 6: the coaching higher thing, you know, and I just think
Speaker 6: it's it's tough, you know, So we'll have to see
Speaker 6: how they do. I think that Louisville's the game they'll
Speaker 6: definitely win. I just I just think the Bowl game
Speaker 6: chances come to two end this weekend, and if they don't.
Speaker 6: I mean, we're all going to eat and crow on Monday.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've enjoyed covering Bowl games, and you know, there
Speaker 2: was a point there Forrest where I never thought I'd
Speaker 2: get to cover another one. But they've been coming regularly
Speaker 2: under stoops.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's going to be tough on Saturday.
Speaker 2: We'll come back and talk more with Forest Tucker of
Speaker 2: WTVQ in just a minute, Hair on the Big bullon
Speaker 2: Siders six thirty WLAP, Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Forrest Tucker.
Speaker 2: He is a WTVQ reporter anchor and you see his
Speaker 2: work on Channel thirty six covering all sports. I mentioned
Speaker 2: earlier you are a soccer fan based on what I've
Speaker 2: seen on the air and also what you post on
Speaker 2: Twitter or ex if you will. Have you always been
Speaker 2: a soccer.
Speaker 6: Guy one ten percent. Yeah, for for as long as
Speaker 6: I can remember. I think that's that's always been the
Speaker 6: number one for me.
Speaker 8: Really excited.
Speaker 6: I wish the team and the three teams they have
Speaker 6: in this town doing better at at this moment, but
Speaker 6: they're in a pivotal time right now, Dick. This is
Speaker 6: probably the biggest offseason for this men's team in their history.
Speaker 6: Which has only been two years in change of existence.
Speaker 6: That's the funny thing about this country of soccers. England's
Speaker 6: been doing it for one hundred years. We've been doing
Speaker 6: it for about ten pret pretty consistently and religiously and seriously.
Speaker 6: That's that's not that's not the you know, stone cold
Speaker 6: facts number, but that's that's just kind of how I
Speaker 6: feel about it. Yeah, seems like it exactly.
Speaker 2: Why are you such a soccer guy?
Speaker 6: I mean, it was the first sport I really played
Speaker 6: and hung it up when I was young, and then
Speaker 6: picked it back up when I was older because I
Speaker 6: wanted to just be involved in a team sport. And
Speaker 6: so that's kind of just taken me to the point
Speaker 6: where now I I I now look fanaticate about it.
Speaker 6: I don't know why I came back to it. I
Speaker 6: think only for the reason I've played it before and
Speaker 6: I needed to just be active and you know, as
Speaker 6: a kid, I get into get into sports again going
Speaker 6: into high school and so for there it just kind
Speaker 6: of took off. It was it was something that I
Speaker 6: loved and I don't I don't really know, you know,
Speaker 6: where if there was a moment the obsession started or
Speaker 6: something or the fandom started to really like feel like
Speaker 6: it was picking up or something like that. But it's
Speaker 6: just always captivated me. It's always, you know, it been
Speaker 6: something that's fun. I mean, I think the best thing
Speaker 6: is like if I'm watching game on TV, I don't
Speaker 6: really want to like stay watching it for a while.
Speaker 6: I'm instantly motivated to go outside and start kind of
Speaker 6: how I feel. I think that's something that I love
Speaker 6: is just you know, there's there's something that I've found
Speaker 6: with just you know, having you know, you don't only
Speaker 6: need yourself to play it because you know, once I
Speaker 6: got good at juggling the ball, that was a huge
Speaker 6: moment for me because I could just go out and
Speaker 6: do that and that that would be a great time
Speaker 6: to you know feel like I feel like I could
Speaker 6: clear my head and have fun. And so that was
Speaker 6: That's a big gift for me, is the fact that
Speaker 6: it's very independent and you know, you play it with
Speaker 6: everyone here in Lexington pick up groups that I've been
Speaker 6: a part of here in other places, and it is
Speaker 6: it is really just it is really just pure joy
Speaker 6: and it's just it's just a nice way to disconnect
Speaker 6: and everything, and so I enjoy those moments too. I'm
Speaker 6: with people and I'm having fun that way. So I
Speaker 6: think that's great because when you're really to think of it,
Speaker 6: you're not thinking about anything else. I was playing down
Speaker 6: at one of the fields at the UK with a
Speaker 6: group and it was like pouring rain at eight o'clock
Speaker 6: at night last week and we were having you know,
Speaker 6: we were having a fun time. So you know, it's
Speaker 6: just it's just something that you know, I've I've gotten
Speaker 6: better with over time, playing kind of late bloomer, and
Speaker 6: I don't really see myself trying to hang it up
Speaker 6: anytime soon. I think the biggest thing I can do
Speaker 6: it as long as I can. I see a lot
Speaker 6: of older guys out there playing, and I want to
Speaker 6: be like that when I'm older. That'll be a really
Speaker 6: good thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hanging up, man, that's old man talk, you know what.
Speaker 2: You don't want to be talking like that.
Speaker 1: So, uh no, that's far.
Speaker 6: That's far in the future.
Speaker 2: A few minutes up with Forrest Tucker w TVQ, and
Speaker 2: we talked about Kentucky football basketball from soccer before I
Speaker 2: let you go. Uh, women's basketball is fun again, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Covering that team?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 6: The Locisal game was a great game. But that was
Speaker 6: very fun to cover, and I I could sense that
Speaker 6: this probably was an overtime game. That was probably an
Speaker 6: overtime game when they were starting to tie the game
Speaker 6: up at certain points, multiple moments in that fourth quarter,
Speaker 6: maybe third quarter a bit, And it was definitely a
Speaker 6: thrill because you know that team sometimes and I begin
Speaker 6: scrue fort Wayne as well. You know, can can look
Speaker 6: like they just don't have the blueprint all the way
Speaker 6: you know, just initiated and all the way activated, but
Speaker 6: they can turn on and then it seems like they
Speaker 6: have a play for each other desperation mode that they
Speaker 6: could activate and they can turn on, which which is
Speaker 6: really cool, just because Kenny seems to really get on
Speaker 6: his players in a healthy way. He'll he'll definitely nag
Speaker 6: them and definitely chew them out. But you know, there's
Speaker 6: a lot of trust in Georgia Aymore that I think
Speaker 6: is really cool and doesn't exist a lot of other places,
Speaker 6: Like I don't even know Kaitlyn Clark had that ability
Speaker 6: to be the second coach of the team in a
Speaker 6: way out there in Iowa last season. Georgia Amore. You know,
Speaker 6: basically you know can go to Kenny and say hey,
Speaker 6: I think we need to do this, and Kenny will say, yeah, okay,
Speaker 6: that's your that sounds good. Let's let's let's make it happen.
Speaker 6: So her leadership is crazy, it's crazy good and everything.
Speaker 6: And I think this team is going to be on
Speaker 6: the rise, you know. I think they're gonna have some
Speaker 6: tough losses when they have to check themselves though, because
Speaker 6: for me, it seems like, you know, they're gonna have
Speaker 6: to learn a couple big, you know, big lessons at
Speaker 6: some point because it seems like they just need to
Speaker 6: start hot and say it that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought it was interesting how they had to
Speaker 2: come back against Purdue Fort Wayne.
Speaker 1: Speaking of coming back.
Speaker 2: And you know, and I'm not channeling John Caliperry here,
Speaker 2: but that was good for them, wasn't it.
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I think so. I think you talked about Mark Pope
Speaker 6: not thinking about a letdown game. I don't think Kenny
Speaker 6: Brooks did that type of coach either. But it just
Speaker 6: shows that really there's just a great top to bottom
Speaker 6: baalent with the people that are playing. You know, I
Speaker 6: think Kenny Brooks would rather put a unit together that
Speaker 6: are put a schedule together rather that is going to
Speaker 6: have to be tested every game because they need that.
Speaker 6: He didn't play a free season. He never has, right,
Speaker 6: so he's looking to make this non conference schedule can
Speaker 6: mold them. But both basketball teams being undefeated is great
Speaker 6: no matter how long it lasts. You know, it's we're
Speaker 6: just gonna have to see. It's gonna be a big
Speaker 6: store when one of them loses. God forbid, you know,
Speaker 6: even though that's gonna come at some point, but it's
Speaker 6: gonna be a big The sc season will be a
Speaker 6: big test for them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 6: I think that it's always interesting to see how a
Speaker 6: team will stack up and change when they get to
Speaker 6: that point and what they're gonna have to adjust because
Speaker 6: they're SEC teams that are gonna have so much tape
Speaker 6: on them. You could imagine there's going to be a
Speaker 6: surprise somewhere somebody, somebody does something that you didn't think
Speaker 6: they were gonna do against you, and then you have
Speaker 6: to adjust and say, okay, well now that's on film.
Speaker 6: We have to make sure we're more robust in this
Speaker 6: area or that area.
Speaker 1: Forest Tucker is a reporter anchor for WTVQ and you
Speaker 1: can follow him on x or Twitter at Forrest Tucker
Speaker 1: TV and of course follow him on Channel thirty six.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Sarah. We will see you at the ballgame.
Speaker 6: You got it. Thank you, Dick.
Speaker 1: That's gonna do it.
Speaker 2: Thanks to my guest tonight, Forest Tucker, Darryl Byrd and
Speaker 2: Darren Hedrick, and of course we will not be with
Speaker 2: you Tomorrow night preempted for Kentucky basketball as a Wow
Speaker 2: Cat's take on Jackson State, and as we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: Darren Hedrick will have the call as Tom Leach and
Speaker 2: Jeff Mcorrol and I will be traveling along with our
Speaker 2: engineer and our producer to Austin, Texas for Kentucky football.
Speaker 1: So Tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: Seven o'clock tip UK Jackson State, and then on Saturday
Speaker 2: it's the Cats and the Texas Longhorns. We'll have it
Speaker 2: for you from Austin. That should be fun, should be interesting,
Speaker 2: and I promise I will keep an eye out for
Speaker 2: Longhorns fan Matthew McConaughey, Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 6: All right, alright, alright, Nata