Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider. Coming up
Speaker 1: in a few minutes Jeff Picoro the UK Football Radio Network.
Speaker 1: He'll talk about last night's college football Championship game. Full disclosure,
Speaker 1: Jeff's a little bit of an Ohio State fan. He
Speaker 1: grew up a Buckeyes fan because his dad played baseball there.
Speaker 1: But we'll also talk about the football Wildcats and the
Speaker 1: fact that they finally landed what looks to be their starting, new,
Speaker 1: starting offensive left tackle, which might be the final piece
Speaker 1: of the puzzle when it comes to the portal and
Speaker 1: trying to cobble together an offensive line that can get
Speaker 1: things done, which they haven't really had with all due
Speaker 1: respect over the last three years. You can talk all
Speaker 1: you want about Mark Stoop's coaching philosophy, play calling, quarterback,
Speaker 1: play this and that over the last three years, which,
Speaker 1: mind you, included seven wins on back to back seasons.
Speaker 1: But last year, you know, was miserable, and it my opinion,
Speaker 1: it all comes back to the old line. Now, there's
Speaker 1: a lot more to it than that, but it starts
Speaker 1: with the old line. So they appear to have put
Speaker 1: in a lot of work in the portal and the
Speaker 1: nil and they have brought in brand new players at
Speaker 1: least four to five starting positions. It looks like will
Speaker 1: be transferred. So we'll talk with Jeff about that. Our
Speaker 1: number two is going to be all basketball. Jack Gibbons
Speaker 1: from the UK Radio network and Ben Roberts from The
Speaker 1: Hero Leader, the beat writer who covers Kentucky basketball. So
Speaker 1: a lot to get to, but I wanted to start
Speaker 1: with that championship game last night. Ohio State beats Notre
Speaker 1: Dame and we all thought, well, a lot of us did,
Speaker 1: could be a blowout. Eight point nine point favorite Ohio
Speaker 1: State falls behind seven to nothing. If you didn't see
Speaker 1: the game, Notre Dame goes fifteen plays with its opening
Speaker 1: opening possession of the game and burns almost ten minutes
Speaker 1: off the clock, and I mean rams of down Ohio
Speaker 1: State's throat. The touchdown play was a quarterback keeper where
Speaker 1: the guy ran through the line almost untouched. So now
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, we've got a ballgame. And then Ohio
Speaker 1: State takes over into the first quarter, into the second quarter,
Speaker 1: puts up twenty one points in the second quarter unanswered,
Speaker 1: and then comes out and right away it looks like
Speaker 1: it is going to take an even bigger lead. With
Speaker 1: some huge plays, but at one point fumbles the ball
Speaker 1: to Notre Dame, gives up an opportunity to score. Long
Speaker 1: story short Notre Dame, and if you saw the game,
Speaker 1: you saw it falls mind by a couple of touchdowns,
Speaker 1: puts one up late to make it a one score game,
Speaker 1: gets the two point conversion, and now all the not
Speaker 1: easier said it's done. All Notre Dame had to do
Speaker 1: was stop the Buckeyes one more time to give themselves
Speaker 1: at least a chance to score a touchdown. It was
Speaker 1: a long shot, but score a touchdown and get the
Speaker 1: game into overtime would have taken a conversion. But Ohio State,
Speaker 1: on a big third down play, goes deep and completes
Speaker 1: a pass which the Buckeyes have done all year, and
Speaker 1: they put it away. We'll talk to Jeff about all
Speaker 1: of this, but also about Kentucky's movements in the portal.
Speaker 1: But I did want to mention the fact, first of all,
Speaker 1: that the open to the broadcast, which was a video
Speaker 1: essay about two minutes long, very nicely done by ESPN.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm a former documentary producer when I was
Speaker 1: with w KYT, so I love stuff like this. But
Speaker 1: if you missed it. It was this great collection of
Speaker 1: video clips through the years with Ohio State and Notre Dame,
Speaker 1: highlighting the tradition of each respective program. The narrator was common,
Speaker 1: the rapper, the musical artist. And I bring this up
Speaker 1: because this is becoming more and more common, no pun
Speaker 1: intended with the TV networks, and I like it. Where
Speaker 1: you know, ahead of a Texas game, Matthew McConaughey did
Speaker 1: a voice over and then you know there are more
Speaker 1: than one instance like this, so that in mind, and
Speaker 1: if you were listening to our UK network this year,
Speaker 1: you know we did the same thing with what we
Speaker 1: called celebrity monologues and we had former players. Rich Brooks
Speaker 1: did one. John Schlarman's widow Leanne did the voice over
Speaker 1: prior to Kentucky's game with Tennessee, hearkening back to the
Speaker 1: win at Tennessee where John was there with the team
Speaker 1: and inspired the team to the victory. So I just
Speaker 1: love stuff like that, and this was part of the
Speaker 1: voice So I won't play the whole thing for you,
Speaker 1: but this pulled together a bunch of clips from former coaches,
Speaker 1: I mean legendary coaches for both Notre Dame and Ohio State.
Speaker 2: If you take him to caller to move away, do
Speaker 2: you have everything? You got your horse in his place
Speaker 2: to day the name right away, by bye bye bye.
Speaker 2: You fight for everything you believe in each other.
Speaker 1: This program would by.
Speaker 3: The night you see these teams and since the presence
Speaker 3: of the pass, and there.
Speaker 4: The players became us, coaches us and knows the stuff
Speaker 4: of legend.
Speaker 2: No gods.
Speaker 1: Party begins with all these things. The guy yelling we
Speaker 1: fight tonight, that's Ryan Day, the Colonel House State coach who,
Speaker 1: if some Ohowse State fans had their way today the
Speaker 1: day after the championship game, would be fired. Why well,
Speaker 1: because he lost to Michigan. And if you think uk
Speaker 1: U of l brings out the best slash worst in
Speaker 1: basketball fans in the Bluegrass man Ohio State, Michigan is nuts.
Speaker 1: And there are fans who actually said on social media,
Speaker 1: I hope we lose, Notre Dame will make it easier
Speaker 1: to fire this guy. I don't care if we win
Speaker 1: or not. It's nuts. Nick Saban talked about that in
Speaker 1: the pregame show on College Game Day, and I.
Speaker 5: Think it is absolutely ridiculous that Ryan Day has been
Speaker 5: criticized the way he has, having been a coach, having
Speaker 5: coach at Ohio State and lived in the state for
Speaker 5: twelve or fourteen years. I'm telling you, when the fans
Speaker 5: are negative and the media gets negative, it affects so
Speaker 5: many things. You know, you got to give the guy credit.
Speaker 5: He built the roster. He's built the roster for three
Speaker 5: years and it's gotten better. His coaches have made the
Speaker 5: players better, and they made a lot of improvement, and
Speaker 5: they've overcome adversity, especially in the Michigan game. So we
Speaker 5: should be given the guy credit and being positive because
Speaker 5: every time you're negative, it affects recruiting, it affects everything
Speaker 5: that you do. And he's been able to over come
Speaker 5: the naysayers and still get to the National Championship Game
Speaker 5: and win or lose. I think that's that guy deserves respect.
Speaker 1: He does deserve the respect. He's getting it even more today.
Speaker 1: And I got to think that it's a distinct minority
Speaker 1: Ohio State fans who wont him fired at least today.
Speaker 1: But you gotta beat Michigan, man. If you're Ohio State,
Speaker 1: you gotta beat Michigan. I wanted to quickly talk about
Speaker 1: the NFL because something popped up again on social media
Speaker 1: on Up In Adams. It's an online show with a
Speaker 1: woman named Kay Adams. Chris Simms, who has become something
Speaker 1: of you know, he's a media guy now. Former quarterback
Speaker 1: at Texas, committed to Tennessee and then went to Texas,
Speaker 1: had an up and down career, went to the NFL
Speaker 1: mostly a backup, and in fact, he suffered a terrible
Speaker 1: injury where he suffered a ruptured spleen and he later
Speaker 1: said if he had gone another forty five minutes without treatment,
Speaker 1: they didn't know what was wrong with him at first.
Speaker 1: If he had gone another forty five minutes, you would
Speaker 1: have died. Anyhow, did not have a great NFL career,
Speaker 1: but winds up a media guy. That's a pretty good job.
Speaker 1: Son of Phil Simms, the Louisville native, who of course
Speaker 1: starred at Morehead. And I kind of liked what Chris
Speaker 1: Simsons simly because I agree with him on the Mark
Speaker 1: Andrews drop of the two point conversion. Andrews the tight
Speaker 1: end for Baltimore, who could have put the game into
Speaker 1: overtime if he makes the catch, but he would have
Speaker 1: had to make a really good tumbling backwards catch, and
Speaker 1: some of that blame I thought right away should have
Speaker 1: gone to Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 3: But what do I know.
Speaker 1: Well, Chris Sims played the position at college and on
Speaker 1: the pro level, and he knows, and he was not
Speaker 1: afraid in pointing out that he felt like as much
Speaker 1: blame as Andrews deserves and is getting, Lamar deserves to
Speaker 1: share the blame as well, because it wasn't a really
Speaker 1: catchable Well, it was catchable, but he made it a
Speaker 1: lot tougher than it should have been. And he starts
Speaker 1: off talking to Kay Adams showing the video clip the
Speaker 1: fact that Lamar, as you rolled out, waited just a
Speaker 1: split second too long to get rid of the football.
Speaker 2: When he played right here. This is perfect.
Speaker 3: Okay, throw it, throw it, throw it.
Speaker 2: It's too late. Lamar Jackson's making fifty five million dollars
Speaker 2: a year. That fall needs to be on time, and
Speaker 2: it was not accurate. Mark Andrews needs to catch it.
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong, but Lamar Jackson's making fifty five
Speaker 2: million dollars a year. He double clutched it and threw
Speaker 2: it like a dart. And now there's Mark Andrews where
Speaker 2: it's cold. We're going to be getting in the end,
Speaker 2: zone right and sh talk me through this one more time.
Speaker 3: I've not in my head him like, why aren't we
Speaker 3: giving it to Henry? But you're saying or we're blaming Mark.
Speaker 2: What are you saying it's too late? Well, this play
Speaker 2: is open. I understand that Henry concept, but this was
Speaker 2: the perfect play call. So we can't get that at
Speaker 2: top bunkin.
Speaker 6: And what I'm saying is that Mark Andrews in the
Speaker 6: meeting today at Baltimore is going to get a negative
Speaker 6: great for the drop, but also in Lamar Jackson's meeting
Speaker 6: with his quarterback coach in the offensive coordinat to get
Speaker 6: a negative grade for this throat he is it was late,
Speaker 6: he didn't throw it with the same authority he usually
Speaker 6: throws it, and then he.
Speaker 2: Threw it behind him.
Speaker 6: But he made it as hard as it possibly could
Speaker 6: be for a wide open touchdown.
Speaker 2: And again I'm not giving Mark Andrews no free pass here.
Speaker 2: He should have caught that. But I'm also telling you
Speaker 2: Lamar certainly could.
Speaker 6: Have thrown that better and made that a whole lot
Speaker 6: easier on Mark Andrews in that big situation there.
Speaker 1: I know there are a lot of Lamar Jackson fans
Speaker 1: out there, especially at the other end of the interstate,
Speaker 1: and he deserves all the accolades, probably should be the MVP.
Speaker 1: But that double clutch cost him because Andrews kind of
Speaker 1: got tied up in his own feet and again had
Speaker 1: his back to the end zone as he tried to
Speaker 1: pull the ball in, So the boss coming one way,
Speaker 1: his momentums go on the other. Again, a professional who
Speaker 1: should have caught it, but his quarterback didn't help him
Speaker 1: at all. I just kind of liked that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit of an outlier on a lot
Speaker 1: of things, and Chris Simms is a bit of an
Speaker 1: outlier on this, but I don't think he's wrong quite Frankly,
Speaker 1: all right, when we come back, we'll talk Kentucky basketball
Speaker 1: with Mark Pope. We won't talk with himbody talked to
Speaker 1: Tom Leach last night about specifically the fouls that are
Speaker 1: piling up against his team, especially in the conference losses,
Speaker 1: plus learning the SEC and relearning it. Pope played in
Speaker 1: the league, but it's nothing like it was when he
Speaker 1: was here as a player. Bottom of the hour, Jet
Speaker 1: Picor were here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insider. No Kentucky men's basketball this week
Speaker 1: and in the weekdays until Saturday when the Wildcats play
Speaker 1: down at Vanderbilt. And of course I'm guessing the commodoers
Speaker 1: are hoping they can get to the freeze row line
Speaker 1: as much as Georgia did, as much as Alabama did.
Speaker 1: That in mind, Mark Pope told Tom Leach last night
Speaker 1: on the Mark Pope Radio Show that he and his
Speaker 1: assistants are diving into the data, diving into tendencies when
Speaker 1: it comes to fouls. What's happening, Why are they happening?
Speaker 1: What can we get away with? What do we have
Speaker 1: to stop doing to stop sending the opponents to the
Speaker 1: free throw line so much? Twenty five percent of the
Speaker 1: scoring for both Alabama and Georgia coming at the free
Speaker 1: throw line, of Kentucky only getting about eighteen percent. So
Speaker 1: Pope talked about some of the things they're trying to
Speaker 1: study when it comes to free throws.
Speaker 4: Actually, as we did a sweeping review kind of a
Speaker 4: video and analytics on the files, we found some trends
Speaker 4: that are really important. I'm not actually going to talk
Speaker 4: about those public because I'm sure that Vanderbilt is watching
Speaker 4: right now, but but it's given us some real direction,
Speaker 4: and I think there's a good chance that we have
Speaker 4: a chance to make some massive improvements. You talk about
Speaker 4: learning this league and learning the whistle, and that's a
Speaker 4: genuine thing. There are times when I just internally and
Speaker 4: sometimes I external to lose my mind with some of
Speaker 4: the officiating. But the truth is is that usually when
Speaker 4: you go back and watch the film, the officiating might
Speaker 4: not be what you're used to or how you would
Speaker 4: correlate things with the book, but there is some consistency
Speaker 4: to the officiating that the consistency may be surprising to us,
Speaker 4: but it's teaching us a lot, and we're growing out.
Speaker 3: We got to grow really quickly in that era, but
Speaker 3: in that area.
Speaker 4: But if you think about our five conference wins, the
Speaker 4: two games that we've struggled in and the two games
Speaker 4: where we've got really really abused, we've failed to perform
Speaker 4: in the free throw disparity category, and and that's a
Speaker 4: place where we can really grow. And I love finding
Speaker 4: places where we can grow. I actually love growing. I
Speaker 4: love our team growing. And so you know, as we
Speaker 4: kind of cross this the last thirty six hours, like
Speaker 4: I have so much autism and so much excitement about like, man,
Speaker 4: can we actually climb this mountain? Because there's some very
Speaker 4: clear spaces for us to grow into.
Speaker 1: And of course the X factor and will always be
Speaker 1: there is subjectivity of the officials. And I've talked about
Speaker 1: this before, but I asked my brother, who's been a
Speaker 1: high school referee for almost fifty years, I said, why
Speaker 1: do you call a foul in the late going that
Speaker 1: maybe you'll let go early in the game, And he said,
Speaker 1: because we've spent the entire game yelling get your hands
Speaker 1: off him. So officials who used discretion early in the game,
Speaker 1: late in the game of times don't have any choice
Speaker 1: but to call a foul. And I respect that because
Speaker 1: I hate the excuse about, well, we don't want to
Speaker 1: call a foul there because we didn't want to decide
Speaker 1: the game. Well, if a guy goes up for a
Speaker 1: potential game winning shot and gets hacked and you don't
Speaker 1: call it, you're deciding the game. You're taking that opportunity
Speaker 1: away from the team on offense. And as our friend
Speaker 1: Doug Hampton has pointed out, the former official referees look
Speaker 1: at the defender first as opposed to the offensive guy.
Speaker 1: So you know, take that for what it's worth. But
Speaker 1: you've got to remember that some a foul to this guy,
Speaker 1: not be a fan of that guy. And they talk
Speaker 1: about a pregame, this team likes to play this way,
Speaker 1: this team doesn't do that. You know, what are we
Speaker 1: gonna call? What are we going to let go? You know,
Speaker 1: it's not in favor of any team in particular, but
Speaker 1: they do try to use discretion because they don't want
Speaker 1: to be calling a lot of foul trust me on that.
Speaker 1: I've talked to many official and official about that. And
Speaker 1: all of this comes against the backdrop of an SEC
Speaker 1: that's as good as it's ever been. And Pope talked
Speaker 1: about that about how his players are learning to play
Speaker 1: in the SEC, and the rest of the country is
Speaker 1: learning about the SEC, which is learning about itself.
Speaker 4: I think the league is learning also. I think I
Speaker 4: think all of us are learning. You know, the league
Speaker 4: is so dynamic, has changed so much. Not only does
Speaker 4: that have some new coaches and some new teams, but
Speaker 4: it also has seismic shifts. You think about Missouri from
Speaker 4: last year to this year, right, there are some really
Speaker 4: seismic shifts in the league also, And and the league
Speaker 4: is at a competitive level that the SEC has really
Speaker 4: never been at before, and I don't know if any
Speaker 4: league in the country's.
Speaker 7: Ever been here.
Speaker 4: Again, I think nine teams in the top twenty five
Speaker 4: and we're ranked number nine, and we love nine is
Speaker 4: floating around. I see nine everywhere I go, and I
Speaker 4: like when that happens. And so it's a beautiful time
Speaker 4: to be an SEC. There's many times when it's super painful,
Speaker 4: but as long as that pain has turned into us
Speaker 4: growing and preparing and getting better, and it'll be.
Speaker 1: Worth It can be painful, He's right about that, which means,
Speaker 1: of course a loss. But if you learn from that
Speaker 1: loss and get better and put it to good use,
Speaker 1: put the information to good use, then yeah, you're ahead
Speaker 1: of the game. One final note, and I, of course
Speaker 1: I tweaked this every year. People love to complain, at
Speaker 1: least some do about quote SEC referees. Please, folks, there's
Speaker 1: no such thing. There used to be those of you
Speaker 1: of a certain age, and I think even younger people
Speaker 1: are used to hearing it cry and complain about SEC referees.
Speaker 1: Basketball officials come from the same pool, the high division
Speaker 1: IE guys, right, the highest level guys. Now, some work
Speaker 1: more SEC games than others. Some prefer to be in
Speaker 1: the SEC for whatever reason, but the league no longer
Speaker 1: recruits and selects its own officials. It used to, but
Speaker 1: now they come Guys who might call an SEC game
Speaker 1: tonight tomorrow night will be working in the Big twelve
Speaker 1: or the ACC. So do yourself a favor and stop
Speaker 1: complaining about quote SEC referees because it just doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 1: It used to, but that's not the case anymore. They
Speaker 1: all come from the same pool essentially, and trust me,
Speaker 1: you're getting the best of the best. Jeff Picorrel's next
Speaker 1: six point thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider,
Speaker 1: as promised, joining us on our celebrity hotline as a
Speaker 1: guy who usually talks with us on Monday nights on
Speaker 1: the State Wide Show. But once football wound down, we
Speaker 1: excuse Jeff Picorol, Well, we've got to talk to our
Speaker 1: buddy from the UK Sports Network about last night's championship
Speaker 1: game and if you've heard Jeff on before. Full disclosure. Jeff,
Speaker 1: of course grew up or was born and raised in
Speaker 1: different parts of the country, but grew up in Lexingon,
Speaker 1: but grew up an Ohio State fan because his dad
Speaker 1: the late Grey John Piccorol played baseball at Ohio State. So,
Speaker 1: Jeff understandable that they're growing up. You're a Buckeye fan.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much you identify with our football team.
Speaker 1: You guys still have season tickets up there, don't you.
Speaker 3: We do. We've got the four season tickets to Ohio
Speaker 3: State football since I can remember. Kid. But here's the
Speaker 3: other thing. My grandfather's favorite team, obviously being a Catholic guy,
Speaker 3: and you know from this is the Midwest, Notre Dame.
Speaker 3: Notre Dame was his theme man. And I've still got
Speaker 3: a picture of my grandfather and uncles on the field
Speaker 3: at Note back in like nineteen fifty something. It's pretty
Speaker 3: cool picture. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I talked earlier about my parents who were Notre
Speaker 1: Dame fans, you know, of Catholic. My dad converted, but
Speaker 1: they took a trip at some point up and at
Speaker 1: one point they toured the Notre Dame campus and they
Speaker 1: bought like a little bitty letterman sweater for one of us.
Speaker 1: And I still have a beanie, a Notre Dame beanie
Speaker 1: that sits in my office right now. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just fun how that stuff accruised. So Anyway, we've talked
Speaker 1: before about how Notre Dame and Ohio State were woefully
Speaker 1: under seated, and we'll talk about that structure in a minute.
Speaker 1: But it was a good game, I thought. Once that
Speaker 1: streak of touchdowns began for Ohio State, I don't know
Speaker 1: if it would look like that the TCU debacle from Georgia.
Speaker 1: But it was a good game, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I really thought that Notre Dame, well, both their
Speaker 3: defenses are really good too, and Notre Dame comes right
Speaker 3: out and on the first drive, Riley Leonard carries them
Speaker 3: i think eight times as the quarterback, and Ohio State
Speaker 3: really didn't have an answer because you know, he's the
Speaker 3: plus one, so you know when they're blocking, now everybody
Speaker 3: gets ahead on somebody. And then Ohio State the biggest
Speaker 3: unity is then they used the spy and they were
Speaker 3: using a linebacker somebody to kind of just stay in
Speaker 3: front of letter and that kind of took away a
Speaker 3: little bit of that run game. But yeah, but I
Speaker 3: thought it was a great plan by them. But and
Speaker 3: you saw the defenses. Both of them played great. But
Speaker 3: it's just the Ohio State receivers. I've never seen a
Speaker 3: package like that before. I mean, you know, you look
Speaker 3: at the you know, you look at some great teams
Speaker 3: in the past that had one guy that really stood out,
Speaker 3: but really with them, you have three or four guys. Yes,
Speaker 3: it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Wows. The coach of the Ohio State.
Speaker 3: Receivers that would be Ryan Hartline, who I really I
Speaker 3: really think, I really say, yeah, his brother of course
Speaker 3: played quarterback here at the University of Kentucky. But you know,
Speaker 3: I really think that he's passed up some opportunities to
Speaker 3: move on to the pros, to the NFL. I should say,
Speaker 3: he's making a ton of money there in Ohio State.
Speaker 3: He's really good at what he does. And you know
Speaker 3: that's the other thing when you look at these coaching staffs.
Speaker 3: Are both teams al Golden for instance, that's Notre Dames
Speaker 3: defensive coordinator. I think now that it's over, you're going
Speaker 3: to hear today that he's going to be named the
Speaker 3: Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator. Really, oh yeah, So, I mean
Speaker 3: both of these coaching staff so you know, it's chock
Speaker 3: full of guys who have been you know, been there,
Speaker 3: done that, and the head coaches. You know, you look
Speaker 3: at the offensive coordinator for Ohio State. Gee who is he?
Speaker 3: A guy by name of Chip Kelly, you know, and
Speaker 3: he decided to step away from e c LA had
Speaker 3: the head coach, yes, yes, to go back with Ryan
Speaker 3: Day who was his who played for him back when
Speaker 3: they read I think it was New Hampshire. I think
Speaker 3: it was where less. But both of these staffs were really,
Speaker 3: really good. You saw the adjustments throughout the game. But
Speaker 3: at some point, you know, we you make fun of
Speaker 3: the thing. It's not it's not the xes and o's,
Speaker 3: it's to Jimmy and Joe's and and at some point
Speaker 3: that talent that Ohio State had on the outside, you
Speaker 3: just you know, you're you're every time he goes back
Speaker 3: to pass, you're on your edge of your seat thinking
Speaker 3: something great is going to happen. And the kid, the
Speaker 3: freshman is unbelievable. I mean, you know, the Tay's eighteen
Speaker 3: years old. He's out there just making play after play
Speaker 3: for Ohio State. It's crazy.
Speaker 1: It's like a veteran out there.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And is it an interesting Jeff? That and Notre Dame
Speaker 1: fights back makes it a game. Missed a field goal
Speaker 1: which was crucial, but had one last shot, needed a
Speaker 1: defensive stand, and Ohio State kills them with a big play,
Speaker 1: a passing play when one of those receivers gets behind
Speaker 1: a corner. And that was the game. And it reminded me, Jeff,
Speaker 1: And you know you've covered in a baseball you've heard
Speaker 1: this a million times where best but you can say
Speaker 1: it in any sports. The game will find you, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you can't hide.
Speaker 1: You can't hide a bad defender in right field, you know,
Speaker 1: because the next thing you know, you've got a looping line,
Speaker 1: drive down the right field line with a guy on
Speaker 1: first space. U. Same thing in football. The game will
Speaker 1: find you good or bad. And it found Ohio State's
Speaker 1: quarterback hooking up with one of those great wide receivers
Speaker 1: and game over. Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The one thing that Notre Dame does a lot
Speaker 3: is they play a lot of man and then at
Speaker 3: the end they're selling out because it looks like Ohio
Speaker 3: State's just going to try to run out the clock.
Speaker 3: And the first two plays is I'm watching, I'm like,
Speaker 3: what are they doing? They have great running backs and
Speaker 3: they're running the quarterback on a little simple uh, you know,
Speaker 3: just a quarterback run. And then what happened they go
Speaker 3: zero coverage, so they they did have high safety I
Speaker 3: should say a single high safety with their man across
Speaker 3: the board right, so they're going to try to you know,
Speaker 3: to try to get a stop and Ohio State gets
Speaker 3: a one on one on the ast side. He just
Speaker 3: throws that little steam or you know, fade uh and
Speaker 3: just put it right on the money too. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think a very underrated quarterback because I think he's
Speaker 3: a lot better than people give him credit for. He
Speaker 3: was really good at Kansas State, and he's the one
Speaker 3: that they chose. You know, they wanted an upper classman,
Speaker 3: they wont a guy that was a little bit older,
Speaker 3: and I just thought he did a really nice job
Speaker 3: of running the game and really he didn't rate making
Speaker 3: a mistake. You know, Ibuka is the one who fumbled.
Speaker 3: If he doesn't fumble, Ohio State's you know what, fifteen
Speaker 3: yard line going in for another touchdown when he fumbled
Speaker 3: and Notre Dame got it. But you know, that's that's
Speaker 3: the game, and that's Notre Dame is going to do that.
Speaker 3: They're going to play man and they're gonna they have
Speaker 3: they trust their defensive backs and you know that. And
Speaker 3: that was just a great pass. But I thought it
Speaker 3: was a much better game. I thought it was going
Speaker 3: to be a lower scoring contest, but you know, it
Speaker 3: was fun to watch, and I didn't I like the game.
Speaker 3: But Ohio State, I think, you know, we go through
Speaker 3: that here at the University of Kentucky, especially in basketball,
Speaker 3: Ryan Day lost. They lost by one point at Oregon,
Speaker 3: you know, is what second game of the year. And
Speaker 3: then the only other game they lose is to Michigan,
Speaker 3: and they want to run him out. He's won seventy
Speaker 3: games and lost like ten and they want to run
Speaker 3: him out of town because he's lost to Michigan, what
Speaker 3: three years in a row. It's crazy. And then he
Speaker 3: wins the National Championship and you and.
Speaker 1: Your family being Ohio State fans, you know the culture
Speaker 1: up there. But part of that, the extreme edge of
Speaker 1: that culture, is there are Ohio State fans, Jeff and
Speaker 1: you know this this morning, who still want to get
Speaker 1: rid of him because they want to punish him for
Speaker 1: losing to Michigan. Again.
Speaker 3: It's crazy, You're right, it is, uh, it is, well,
Speaker 3: you know that's we You and I thought and say,
Speaker 3: it's fandom, But what fan means, you know, fanatic and
Speaker 3: they sure are in Ohio before I get.
Speaker 1: The break and we start talking about Kentucky football. Uh,
Speaker 1: this to me though, is exhibit A when it comes
Speaker 1: to a great football program, culture to tradition, plus enough
Speaker 1: money to go out and buy through nil means and
Speaker 1: the portal whatever you need.
Speaker 3: Uh you know.
Speaker 1: And so I think that, yeah, there's parody in college football,
Speaker 1: but when you're smart like Ohio State and you make
Speaker 1: the right moves and you're a football power, it is
Speaker 1: going to more firmly entrench you at the top, is
Speaker 1: it not.
Speaker 3: Yes, And I think the biggest thing they did they
Speaker 3: really didn't go out and spend a ton of money
Speaker 3: on bringing players in. They spend a lot of money
Speaker 3: on keeping their players there. Most of those players, yes,
Speaker 3: especially on the defensive side. I think was like six
Speaker 3: six guys on that defense who had a chance to
Speaker 3: leave last year, I mean, to go to the NFL,
Speaker 3: and they decided to stay because Ohio State poning up money.
Speaker 3: And again we talked about this last night with a
Speaker 3: couple of my buddies. I mean, Carson Beck is a
Speaker 3: great example. He's not going to make four million dollars
Speaker 3: next year in the NFL. He's making four million dollars
Speaker 3: next year to be Miami's quarterback. And you're going to
Speaker 3: see this and you're seeing teams in it, and it's affecting,
Speaker 3: which I think is great. You get basketball. Look at
Speaker 3: that Kentucky team, there's a and again, I guess you
Speaker 3: can't really use Kentucky because he had to bring a
Speaker 3: bunch of people in. But they're older, right, And you're
Speaker 3: seeing this now, you're seeing guys play that fourth year.
Speaker 3: You're seeing guys play that fifth year that never happened before.
Speaker 3: Derrek Ramsay said, he said, man if I was playing now,
Speaker 3: I would try to get that fifth year. I try
Speaker 3: to get a medical. I try to get a sixth
Speaker 3: year because the money, the money's correct. Me. Beck is
Speaker 3: a perfect he's a good quarterback. I don't think he's
Speaker 3: a he's Chase a Daniels type. You know that you
Speaker 3: see going on to the NFL. He's not going to
Speaker 3: make that kind of money in the NFL, So why
Speaker 3: not get that extra four million dollars? And you know,
Speaker 3: and chase your dream that way.
Speaker 1: Which tells you just how bad the deal that the
Speaker 1: NFL Players Association cut with the league all those years ago.
Speaker 1: You know, in some of these contracts you read about
Speaker 1: up front, they seem like, you know, incredibly great numbers.
Speaker 1: But unless there's a signing bonus, you know you've really
Speaker 1: got a hustle to earn your money. Jeff Pica, second check,
Speaker 1: that's right, exactly right, Jeff piicarerol the UK networkers. My
Speaker 1: guess we'll come back and talk about those Wildcats in
Speaker 1: a minute. Here on a big blue sider six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. We're talking with Jeff Piicaorreyl Color, analyst on
Speaker 1: the UK Football Network and also sports director WTVQ. Part
Speaker 1: of your daily coverage, of course, is keeping an eye
Speaker 1: on the football Wildcats with regard to players coming and
Speaker 1: going and Kentucky. Jeff, this week finally lands the guy
Speaker 1: who figures to be their starting left tackle on offense.
Speaker 1: So now you've got maybe one player coming back who
Speaker 1: will start, but for the most part, probably four new
Speaker 1: faces along that offensive front. Now it's January, so you've
Speaker 1: got plenty of time to get to know each other.
Speaker 1: But those guys learning to blend and work together, that's
Speaker 1: going to be so vital obviously in the spring and beyond.
Speaker 3: It's a huge, huge kit you know, I put out
Speaker 3: on social media that this is a game changer for Kentucky.
Speaker 3: You know, you got some really good players. You've got
Speaker 3: players who were first and second team in their conference
Speaker 3: in the offensive line coming in and I know the
Speaker 3: MAC is at the SEC, but you're getting Look, look
Speaker 3: what happened to the last guy, the left tackle they
Speaker 3: brought in from the MAC did a pretty good job
Speaker 3: sitting there, and then you go out and fill holes.
Speaker 3: And that's exactly what they did. A lot of people
Speaker 3: and most of the experts, thought he was going to
Speaker 3: go to Vanderbilt. His coach Jerry Till's there, His quarterback
Speaker 3: Pavia went there, a couple of different players from New
Speaker 3: Mexico State went to Vanderbilt. Most thought he was going
Speaker 3: to follow, and Kentucky got him. I just think it
Speaker 3: was an out standing moved they've they've retooled. I think
Speaker 3: people a month ago, a month and a half ago
Speaker 3: or saying run stoops out of town, getting out of here.
Speaker 3: This team's gonna stink. There's no way there's good. They're
Speaker 3: gonna win four games. Look, the schedule is not easy,
Speaker 3: we all know that. But you know what, to be
Speaker 3: the best, you got to be the best, and they're
Speaker 3: paying a hell of the schedule this year. But they've
Speaker 3: got now they're they're playing, you know, on an even
Speaker 3: on an even playing field. They've they've done a great job.
Speaker 3: They I mean, you look at what they lost in
Speaker 3: the receiver room and everybody's is, oh, my goodness, we
Speaker 3: don't have any receivers. We have and I say we
Speaker 3: the University of Kentucky brought in what is it, fourteen
Speaker 3: touchdown catches. I think it's one hundred and thirty two
Speaker 3: receptions and like sixteen hundred yards. That's a lot more
Speaker 3: than what they had last year. What they brought in,
Speaker 3: you got one of the better third down running backs
Speaker 3: to John Carter style running back that you got from Nebraska.
Speaker 3: Inside the ten yard line, you give you the ball,
Speaker 3: he finds the end zone of Rodriguez Benny Smell type.
Speaker 3: That's what you have along with what you've kept at
Speaker 3: running back. Right again, the only question mark to me
Speaker 3: is camp Kalzada produced like he did it in Carnet word.
Speaker 3: If he can, then you know, it's a great boon
Speaker 3: this year. But again, that's the quarterback they wanted they
Speaker 3: think in their offense is what they need and we
Speaker 3: shall see. But I think they did a fantastic job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and he's a guy unlike Rock Vandergriff, who, actually,
Speaker 1: as I say about you, has been hitting him out
Speaker 1: in a college football game. You know, Vandergriff was a
Speaker 1: backup his whole career. Will never know how good he
Speaker 1: might have been with a decent offensive line. But this
Speaker 1: guy has been in, as you like to say, the
Speaker 1: heat of battle. And yeah, and it may remind you
Speaker 1: that incarnate word is where Grant Smith came from. Kentucky's
Speaker 1: fine shortstop for the last couple of years. So there
Speaker 1: are athletes everywhere. But it's going to be interesting to
Speaker 1: me to see what it's up with Cutter Bowley, because
Speaker 1: this sure looked like he was going to be next up.
Speaker 1: I know you've got reservations about him because of his inexperience,
Speaker 1: but at least they've got a capable backup. If that
Speaker 1: is the case.
Speaker 3: Exactly, Well, that's exactly what I was going to say. Look,
Speaker 3: they're not giving cows out of the job. They told him, look,
Speaker 3: you are now one and one a with you and
Speaker 3: Cutter Bowley, and made the best man win. That's how
Speaker 3: you have to do it. I think they went to
Speaker 3: Cutter and they said, Cutter, here's what we're doing. I mean,
Speaker 3: you cannot go into the season with Cutter Bowley and
Speaker 3: two freshmen who have never put on a Kentucky uniform
Speaker 3: before as your quarterback. You just couldn't do it. They
Speaker 3: had to go get somebody. And so if you're gonna
Speaker 3: go get somebody, you're going to get somebody that can
Speaker 3: compete for the job, not just somebody you know that's
Speaker 3: just gonna stand on the sideline and hold a clipboard.
Speaker 3: And that's what they did, and again can't follow them
Speaker 3: for that. They went out and got who they thought
Speaker 3: will work in their system. And again you look at
Speaker 3: the team like old Miss. Old Miss just goes out
Speaker 3: and gets the best players they can find. And they
Speaker 3: got a lot of money. They've done great in doing that.
Speaker 3: And he's done a great job with the portal. Kentucky
Speaker 3: uses the portal to fill specific holes. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 3: it's they've done a decent job. I mean I think
Speaker 3: that they've probably the last two quarter acts they brought
Speaker 3: in here, I would give them a C grade on those. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and maybe this is the A grade. You know, the
Speaker 3: kids played in the sec before. He's got a lot
Speaker 3: of taking a lot of snaps under center. But you
Speaker 3: can't win big time football unless you have a quarterback.
Speaker 3: I mean, Jaydeen Daniels completely turned the wash and again
Speaker 3: I know it's professional football, right what Jade Daniels did.
Speaker 3: That as one of the most shocking games I've ever
Speaker 3: seen in the playoffs, as deep as this was, as
Speaker 3: what he did single handedly to beat the number one
Speaker 3: team in the in the NFC, the Ed destroy Lions.
Speaker 1: At Detroit amazing and it's not like he surprised him
Speaker 1: even doing it all year, you know, you know, oh
Speaker 1: this kid can run. Really, I mean it was I
Speaker 1: was stunned and h that to me was the biggest
Speaker 1: surprise of the weekend. So just a couple of minutes
Speaker 1: left with Jeff Corl the UK Sports Network, Mark Stoups
Speaker 1: has an offensive coordinator in place here here in January,
Speaker 1: so now he can work and you know he had
Speaker 1: made your input were the guys they've brought in. So
Speaker 1: you know, should should fans get their hopes up when
Speaker 1: it comes to the offense taking a big step forward
Speaker 1: this coming year?
Speaker 3: I think that it has to. I mean, this team
Speaker 3: has to be better offensively than it was a year ago.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a simple, simple mask tells you that
Speaker 3: because they just they couldn't score last year, they really
Speaker 3: were hampered. They didn't the big play was it in
Speaker 3: their lineup. You look at even with barry On and
Speaker 3: Dane that they now they get count plays and I'm
Speaker 3: talking fifteen to twenty artists, but they didn't get the big,
Speaker 3: the big, giant plays that they've gotten the year before.
Speaker 3: And that's what they got to find. In the offense.
Speaker 3: They've got some size at receiver. Now you've got some
Speaker 3: you've got thunder and lightning it running back, and you've
Speaker 3: got a nice offensive line. Again last year, the quarterback
Speaker 3: didn't have a lot of times. And then when you
Speaker 3: look at the other side, the one thing they had
Speaker 3: to do on the defense was find some people on
Speaker 3: the edge. And they went out and they got themselves
Speaker 3: some really good edge guys, a couple that have played,
Speaker 3: couple that haven't played a lot, but they got side. Wait,
Speaker 3: everybody they got was to forty to fifty to sixty
Speaker 3: on the outside. You've got a couple of three hundred
Speaker 3: pounders in the middle. You got yourself a linebacker. So
Speaker 3: they filled some really big holes that they needed on
Speaker 3: the defensive side, and they're too deep at every position.
Speaker 3: And to me, that's the biggest key in this league
Speaker 3: because it's just it's murderers row week after week.
Speaker 1: Final question for you, Oh, before I should have asked you,
Speaker 1: did you vote for the Sports Figure of the Year?
Speaker 3: Who did you take?
Speaker 1: No, I'm before I asked you on air question? Did
Speaker 1: you vote?
Speaker 3: I did?
Speaker 1: Okay, good, right, let me answer this? All right? Final
Speaker 1: question for jeffer Corel.
Speaker 3: I think it's easy. You know who I took.
Speaker 1: To hang on, let me let me set it up.
Speaker 1: Final question for Jeff per Corel. I was talking to
Speaker 1: Steve Moss the other day about Kentucky Sports Figure of
Speaker 1: the Year, conducted by Mark Story of the Herald Leader.
Speaker 1: Talked to Tom Leach about it as well, you voted.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I know who you voted for, the
Speaker 1: same guy that we all three of us voted. Whoincidentally
Speaker 1: voted for?
Speaker 3: Right, Well, I think it was what happened in May
Speaker 3: of this past year was something that was pretty pretty cool,
Speaker 3: when Kenny mcpete becoming just what I think it's the
Speaker 3: fourth or fifth trainer in the history of horse racing
Speaker 3: to win the Oaks and the Derby in the same year.
Speaker 3: And that's that's pretty outstanding coming from a kid that
Speaker 3: went to State Creek High School.
Speaker 1: Yep. And you guys are pretty tight.
Speaker 3: Yeah. We grew up together ninety since we were six
Speaker 3: years old, and we were in each other's weddings.
Speaker 1: And yeah, all I'll tell you what I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, but we agreed, Steve and I did about
Speaker 1: the fact that it was as tough this year as
Speaker 1: it's ever been. Don't you think to vote.
Speaker 3: Sidney, how do you not have Sydney mcgloughlin and you're
Speaker 3: in the top, which she did in the Livings. How
Speaker 3: do you not have Nick Ninjiones who brought this baseball
Speaker 3: team out of nowhere all the way to Omah the
Speaker 3: first time in the history of Kentucky. I mean, it
Speaker 3: was just it was player player coach after coach. You're like,
Speaker 3: good lord, uh yeah, I mean you almost Mark almost
Speaker 3: has to redo it. Go Okay, we're gonna do a
Speaker 3: football one, we're gonna do a basketball one, we're gonna
Speaker 3: do a baseball and then we're gonna do all other sports.
Speaker 3: And still, you know, you look at the girl from Lexington,
Speaker 3: who's won two gold medals in ten teams. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: how do you not put her in there?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 3: I mean crazy?
Speaker 1: Yep, Well you know you can. You can list only
Speaker 1: ten and you one. It's an amazing I just go back,
Speaker 1: I save him. I go back and look at who
Speaker 1: I left off. I'm like, I only got room for ten.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be fun when this is unveilable. All right,
Speaker 1: So unofficially that's four votes for Kenny McPeak from Steve Moss, Me,
Speaker 1: Jefpicor and Tom Leach show anyhow, Jeff Brow, thank you
Speaker 1: so much, and spring football is coming up fast?
Speaker 3: Yeah well yeah zero outside so I can't give.
Speaker 1: Your follow him on Twitter or ex Jeff Picicoro, p
Speaker 1: I E C O r O. Hour Number two comes
Speaker 1: up next here on The Big Going Sider six thirty
Speaker 1: n Welcome back to the Big Moe Sight of joining
Speaker 1: us now is a longtime friend and colleague mister Jack
Speaker 1: Gibbons from the UK Radio Network, who will be on
Speaker 1: him and the Wildcats play down at Vandy. We're going
Speaker 1: to talk about that weird gym down there, Jack, but
Speaker 1: let's talk first about what has happened most recently a good,
Speaker 1: grinded out win over Texas A and M. And it
Speaker 1: looked like Kentucky just might grind out another win over
Speaker 1: Alabama and then things kind of went south toward the end.
Speaker 1: But what have you noticed about the way the Wildcats
Speaker 1: are playing now in the SECU is Mark Pope talked
Speaker 1: about that last night about learning the league and the
Speaker 1: league is learning about itself because it sod aarn't good.
Speaker 1: But do you see the improvement you were hoping you
Speaker 1: would see in this team?
Speaker 8: Yeah, And that's the thing you want over the course
Speaker 8: of the season. You just want to see improvement, and
Speaker 8: I think you definitely are seeing that with this team.
Speaker 8: I mean, yeah, you mentioned these last two games and
Speaker 8: they were just kind of figure out how to play
Speaker 8: games for this team. I mean, you win one, lose one,
Speaker 8: but the one you lost to our Alabama.
Speaker 3: It's a really really good basketball team around and a
Speaker 3: lot of talent probably from top to bottom overall better
Speaker 3: athletes than we have on this team.
Speaker 8: And I think you saw that in the last two
Speaker 8: minutes when they came up with loose balls by using
Speaker 8: quickness and ability athletic ability. You saw that in that game.
Speaker 8: But as far as learning and getting better. Absolutely, this
Speaker 8: team is showing improvement every time out.
Speaker 1: You know what impressed me about Alabama and A and
Speaker 1: M and then by extension Kentucky is that when both
Speaker 1: teams were in trouble they were trying to weather the storms,
Speaker 1: Kentucky was throwing at them the runs and the crowd
Speaker 1: and all that reparata. Crowds have been great. They kept
Speaker 1: running their stuff what you basketball guys like to say
Speaker 1: they were They kept running their stuff, and they ran
Speaker 1: it well, really efficiently. You didn't see people panic and
Speaker 1: break off and just try to do incredible things on
Speaker 1: their own.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know, and it worked obviously. Uh you know,
Speaker 1: A and M came up short, but Kentucky ran its
Speaker 1: stuff and as you said, Alabama down the stretch did
Speaker 1: what what it was taught to do, what it was
Speaker 1: coached to do. That's why I felt like Jack, those
Speaker 1: games kind of reminded me of of in SA tournament
Speaker 1: type games.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 8: Yeah, experience is an amazing thing.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 8: And you know you talk about not breaking away from
Speaker 8: what you want to run, not breaking away. You've been
Speaker 8: through those situations so often and regardless of how good
Speaker 8: you are individually, you've learned that if we play as
Speaker 8: a team, it usually works out a whole lot better.
Speaker 8: You don't have guys who.
Speaker 3: Are five star if you will, coming out of high
Speaker 3: school in the lineup, and that five star thinks, Man,
Speaker 3: I did it all my career so far, so why can't.
Speaker 7: I do it again?
Speaker 3: Just take over the game, do what I want to
Speaker 3: do that and.
Speaker 8: Get a bucket. But we've found out over the years
Speaker 8: that that's not always the best way to play. And
Speaker 8: this team understands that.
Speaker 1: I'm sure your ears burn all the time because I'm
Speaker 1: always quoting you for a number of reasons. But my
Speaker 1: favorite so far this this is you, and you and
Speaker 1: I have talked about this is early in the season,
Speaker 1: you talked about how nice it was to see veteran
Speaker 1: players out on the floor if something was going wrong
Speaker 1: for Kentucky, figuring things out on their own because of
Speaker 1: all the years and years of experience that they have.
Speaker 1: You can't, in all fairness, you can't expect that of
Speaker 1: true freshmen who would end up looking at the bench
Speaker 1: and hoping their coach, you know, direct traffic and as
Speaker 1: a play clock ran down. But it also refers or
Speaker 1: goes back to the fact that these guys, these Kentucky
Speaker 1: players are still learning each other and obviously learning the
Speaker 1: tendencies of the league. And when we talk about these
Speaker 1: SEC games, you're talking about teams with more experience than
Speaker 1: and older players than some of the non conference games.
Speaker 1: And so they've got to figure out a lot of
Speaker 1: different elements of these games on their own, on the fly.
Speaker 1: And it's been kind of fun to watch, hasn't it.
Speaker 3: It really has.
Speaker 8: I mean, you know, for guys this age, you don't
Speaker 8: need to hear it come from your coach every time,
Speaker 8: down right, And as smart as Mark Pope is, he
Speaker 8: can't come with He comes with some stuff or ways
Speaker 8: of putting things that may not have heard before playing
Speaker 8: with Mark. But you can't tell these guys a whole
Speaker 8: lot that they haven't already come across Man, that they
Speaker 8: haven't already had to deal with. So while this time
Speaker 8: of the year and later on in the year you
Speaker 8: are tired of hearing the coach on every play normally
Speaker 8: is the situation with a veteran team, Mark chooses his
Speaker 8: opportunities to make his point, and actually that makes the
Speaker 8: point he tries to make even speak even louder because
Speaker 8: he doesn't say something every time, and he does give
Speaker 8: the players a freedom to try to work through things,
Speaker 8: and he will ask the player, what do you think
Speaker 8: we need to do in this situation you're running it?
Speaker 8: What do you think will help you or how you
Speaker 8: can deal with it? So all of that kind of
Speaker 8: stuff is what we're seeing from Mark, different them what
Speaker 8: we've seen, but it has worked very well well.
Speaker 1: It's a different kind of team than what we've seen,
Speaker 1: so that's to be expected. Talking to Jack Gibbons of
Speaker 1: the UK Radio Network and I kind of teased it
Speaker 1: before the last time you're on with me about just
Speaker 1: the joy in your voice watching these guys go bombs
Speaker 1: away from the three point line taking what you know
Speaker 1: they got to think are good shots. But you know,
Speaker 1: you like to see shooters shoot. And talk to me
Speaker 1: a little bit about Jackson Robinson and what you've seen
Speaker 1: in him of late, and you know he famously and
Speaker 1: Mark Pope talked about it as well, kind of a
Speaker 1: little bit of a change in attitude. He quit worrying
Speaker 1: so much about his future and about what's on his
Speaker 1: shoulders and just go out and as they say, play free.
Speaker 1: And now the ball's barely slowing down in his hands
Speaker 1: before he's got it up heading for the rim.
Speaker 8: And I know you love that, Yes I do, Gabe,
Speaker 8: And speaking to your first point, I mean, I'm just
Speaker 8: glad the network, you know, the folks that Jay and
Speaker 8: I at the UK allow me to be a fan first, because.
Speaker 3: Because that's what I am. Man, I'm a fan of
Speaker 3: Kentucky basketball. And I'm really really pleased that they allow
Speaker 3: me to. And Tom is so good to work with
Speaker 3: that he lets me, he lets me do my thing,
Speaker 3: so so that makes it a whole lot better for me. Now,
Speaker 3: as far as Jackson Robinson is concern, I love the
Speaker 3: change that he's made. I think, you know, because you
Speaker 3: talk body language a lot, you talk, you talk.
Speaker 8: About I think he.
Speaker 3: Understands better that it's not all about him, and he
Speaker 3: understands when he gets down and as the leader of
Speaker 3: this team, when he gets down and when his body
Speaker 3: language gets down and he's disengeeded, it affects the whole team.
Speaker 3: So he.
Speaker 8: Seems to have a better grasp of that, and he's
Speaker 8: living up to that even better. But I'll say this,
Speaker 8: and I say it adoringly, I say it in a
Speaker 8: good way. I still wanted more from him in the
Speaker 8: Alabama game. You saw Mark Sears, who is their leader.
Speaker 8: You saw him step up and work his way. Didn't
Speaker 8: you know he wasn't as dominant early, but you saw
Speaker 8: him step up and work his way into being the
Speaker 8: man on that Alabama team. And a lot of guys
Speaker 8: played well. I get it, but they and Mark understand
Speaker 8: that the team goes as he goes. And when he
Speaker 8: picked it up, Alabama got a lot better. I Jackson
Speaker 8: Robinson for stretches might have been small stretches. He started
Speaker 8: out great, and then I couldn't find him, and then
Speaker 8: he made a couple of shots, and then all of a.
Speaker 3: Sudden, I can't find him again. He can't afford to
Speaker 3: go through stretches with the competition we're played to where
Speaker 3: you can't find him on the floor. You don't know
Speaker 3: he's in the game. And I kept saying to Tom,
Speaker 3: they need a basket from Jackson Robinson, not just for
Speaker 3: Jackson Robinson, but for the whole team. So he's getting
Speaker 3: better and he's learning the sec. But I think the
Speaker 3: final stretch is that thought process that we don't win
Speaker 3: this game if I'm not the man and he's getting close. Man,
Speaker 3: he's almost there. Early in the season, he went a
Speaker 3: long stretch where it seemed like he didn't want a
Speaker 3: part of that, he didn't want that responsibility. But he's
Speaker 3: very close to going over the edge. And when that happened,
Speaker 3: this team is going to be really, really good.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe it happens the beginning of it, or at
Speaker 1: least the next step in Nashville this weekend. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about that. On the other side of the break here
Speaker 1: on the Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Jack Gibbons, Kentucky All American. Tom Leach
Speaker 1: is running mate on UK basketball broadcast. He'll be courtside
Speaker 1: at Vandy when the Wildcats take on the Commodores. Although
Speaker 1: courtside down there, Jack is kind of weird. You know,
Speaker 1: you're either looking up. I don't think back in the
Speaker 1: day Kwood and Ralph were up at the in the ceiling,
Speaker 1: but I think you guys are courtside. But what's it
Speaker 1: like as a player one time in a year to
Speaker 1: play in that as Ralph used to call it, gymnasium.
Speaker 8: It's obviously different game, it's a different setup. But I
Speaker 8: kind of like playing there really because you're on a
Speaker 8: stage and all eyes in the building are on you.
Speaker 8: It's a whole different setting. But the thing I liked
Speaker 8: about playing there was because it is set up the
Speaker 8: way it is, it somehow made the basket stand out better.
Speaker 8: I don't know if it's the lights, the way it
Speaker 8: hits you on that that setting or not. But I
Speaker 8: used to shoot well, I used to like to play there.
Speaker 8: It was differenth It took some adjusting, but it was
Speaker 8: a good place. And of course Vandy used to always
Speaker 8: and still do, they get fired up when Kentucky comes
Speaker 8: to town, so that makes it even more special.
Speaker 3: Plan.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, Well your last game there as a senior,
Speaker 1: you go eight for twelve in a win.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, you know, so I shot the ball fairly
Speaker 8: well there. We generally speaking, played well at Nashville. But
Speaker 8: it's gonna be a big game for the Cat, no
Speaker 8: question about that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. It's a not a tough road trip in
Speaker 1: terms of miles and all. But you can drive to Nashville,
Speaker 1: as we all know, in about three hours. But you
Speaker 1: still go the night before for whatever reason, and you travel,
Speaker 1: of course with the team, and you've talked before about
Speaker 1: getting to know these guys, and I got to know
Speaker 1: them a little bit covering the pro day broadcast with you.
Speaker 1: But I think Mark Popenestaff did a really great job
Speaker 1: of cobbling together a team, not just filling their knees athletically,
Speaker 1: but just pulling kids together who've meshed really well. You
Speaker 1: Like I said, well they're good kids. Well yeah, But
Speaker 1: I can tell from your postgame interviews you're really enjoying
Speaker 1: these guys, aren't you.
Speaker 3: I really am.
Speaker 8: And they're all good interviews. Not that I haven't had
Speaker 8: other good interviews since I've been doing this, because they're
Speaker 8: all good interviews. They're all excited about being able to
Speaker 8: being asked not able, but being asked to come out
Speaker 8: and be on the postgame show. They look forward to it.
Speaker 8: I hear things and I get to know them in
Speaker 8: a way that not everybody gets to know them. So
Speaker 8: I know what some guys Lamont Butler, for instance, I
Speaker 8: can ask him a more pointed question where he won't
Speaker 8: shy away from telling me like it is giving me
Speaker 8: a good answer, And then I know there's some guys
Speaker 8: who are great interviews that you want to put them
Speaker 8: in a position where they are relaxed and that they
Speaker 8: know that hey, I'm not going to put you on
Speaker 8: the spot, man. I just want to talk basketball, and
Speaker 8: you know that's what makes a good interview, and so
Speaker 8: it is a fun, fun part of my job, and
Speaker 8: I think the players enjoy it also.
Speaker 1: I would hope they know of your not that you're
Speaker 1: going to lord it over them, but know your background.
Speaker 1: Know you played not what you did, and you and
Speaker 1: your teammates hung a banner, which they want to do.
Speaker 1: And if they die, I guarantee you Mark Pope has
Speaker 1: let them know a few minutes left with Jack Gibbons.
Speaker 1: You talked earlier about how much fun you're having as
Speaker 1: a fan and a broadcaster, And of course I've tracked
Speaker 1: your career not in a creepy way, but you just
Speaker 1: keep popping up on TV. You know, when you were
Speaker 1: doing SEC games, you were doing Metro Conference, the old
Speaker 1: Metro Conference games, NCA tournament games for CBS, then the
Speaker 1: Orlando Magic, but you kind of had to play it
Speaker 1: more down the middle in those games. I don't know
Speaker 1: about the Magic. I never got to see you do
Speaker 1: games for them. Were you were you as much a
Speaker 1: fan then as you are now? Did you have to
Speaker 1: play that one a little straighter?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 8: I had to play that. I had to play that
Speaker 8: one a little straighter.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 8: One thing I didn't want to be, and I don't
Speaker 8: think I am now. I didn't want to be a homie.
Speaker 3: Call the games.
Speaker 8: And my team at that time, the Orlando Magic, at
Speaker 8: this time the Kentucky Wildcats. I didn't want it to
Speaker 8: be like every time something went wrong it was the
Speaker 8: other team's fault, it was the referees fault. I don't
Speaker 8: want to be that kind of announcer. And and then
Speaker 8: in that setting where you know, obviously I was a fan.
Speaker 8: I mean, I work with them fifteen sixteen seasons. I
Speaker 8: was a fan, but I didn't want to come across
Speaker 8: as a homie. I don't mind that so much at
Speaker 8: Kentucky because of my history with the school and I
Speaker 8: know the fans, so it's a totally different setting. I
Speaker 8: still don't want to be a homie. And I try
Speaker 8: to point out when Kentucky's struggling, yeah, or when they're
Speaker 8: not playing quite as well, but when they are playing well,
Speaker 8: I really.
Speaker 7: Really enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Well, you're honest. That's the thing. You're honest, and that's
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, being a homer is one thing, but
Speaker 1: just telling telling the story through the prism of the
Speaker 1: home team is different, which is what I try to do.
Speaker 1: But I didn't play there, at least not yet. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I didn't win any rings there, which you did.
Speaker 1: But it's just it's fun for me to listen and
Speaker 1: I can sync up my TV with the radio and
Speaker 1: listen to you in time. Nothing against the TV guys,
Speaker 1: but I do learn from you, and that's always been
Speaker 1: my benchmark for any analysts. Are you teaching me anything
Speaker 1: about basketball? Could just be the smallest thing, and you've
Speaker 1: done that in such a great way with these guys
Speaker 1: because you're learning these guys just the way they're learning
Speaker 1: the Kentucky game.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and you know you you mentioned with the players
Speaker 8: then and whether or not they respect me and some
Speaker 8: of the things that I've been blessed to have accomplished.
Speaker 8: But the thing that I like more more than anything,
Speaker 8: I mean, most of all, I like the fact that
Speaker 8: they have somehow learned what plan at Kentucky means not
Speaker 8: you know, as the as the university is, as the
Speaker 8: basketball program.
Speaker 7: They have learned that.
Speaker 8: I don't care quite as much if they know anything
Speaker 8: about me.
Speaker 7: They do, but.
Speaker 8: I like that they know they somehow, and I don't
Speaker 8: know how, but they well, I do know Mark has
Speaker 8: done a great job of conveying that to the guys.
Speaker 8: But I like that they love and respect the opportunities
Speaker 8: that are presented to them by playing for the University
Speaker 8: of Kentucky. That's the thing that I like when I
Speaker 8: interview these guys. When I talk to these guys, they
Speaker 8: speak highly of this opportunity and of the university and
Speaker 8: of the fans. And that is the thing I like
Speaker 8: most about what these guys do.
Speaker 1: Jack Gibbons follow him on Twitter at Goose Gibvens, and
Speaker 1: of course listen to him as he and Tom call
Speaker 1: the action. Kentucky and Vandy coming up this Saturday. Thank you, brother,
Speaker 1: and we will talk to you down the road. Have
Speaker 1: a great and safe trip.
Speaker 8: As always, Thanksgate for having me on.
Speaker 1: It's a two thirty start at Vandy down in Memorial Gymnasiums,
Speaker 1: so that means our coverage begins here on six thirty
Speaker 1: WLAP at noon, Network coverage at one o'clock and then
Speaker 1: tip off at two thirty with Tom and Jack. Ben
Speaker 1: Roberts next on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider joining us down our celebrity Hi Line,
Speaker 1: long time friend of the show, and uh a tremendous
Speaker 1: writer reporter Ben Roberts who covers the basketball Wildcats among
Speaker 1: other things, for The Herold Leader. And uh, you covered
Speaker 1: a game that I don't know, Ben, if it was
Speaker 1: NCAA tournament quality had a little bit of a feel
Speaker 1: to it. Maybe I was projecting UK Alabama a little
Speaker 1: bit because these teams will make the tournament. But it
Speaker 1: was played at a high level, wasn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was, I mean, uh, you know, it wasn't.
Speaker 7: As a as a fan of basketball in general, I
Speaker 7: was hoping for something a little closer to the Florida game,
Speaker 7: and it was, I guess close to that. But but
Speaker 7: the you know, the officiating, not that it was bad,
Speaker 7: but there was a lot of it. There were a
Speaker 7: lot of fouls and a lot of free throws that
Speaker 7: kind of disrupted the flow of the game. And whenever
Speaker 7: you get two teams out there like that with too
Speaker 7: such great offense, as you you, uh, it's just a viewer,
Speaker 7: you hope that they just let them let them go
Speaker 7: loose and and uh and and run back and forth
Speaker 7: and that you know, for that stretch in the first half,
Speaker 7: Kentucky went up seven to two, and then Alabama went
Speaker 7: on a huge run and then Kentucky kind of went
Speaker 7: on their own run. I mean that was that was
Speaker 7: just some fun, fun basketball, for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Pope pointed out booths in the media room
Speaker 1: and then again on the radio with Tom that Nelson,
Speaker 1: you know, bombs in a couple of threes right off
Speaker 1: the bat, which was not his game. Yeah, so they
Speaker 1: had to be on a Kentucky bench thinking, ohmi, because well,
Speaker 1: that tournament came rushing back to me. Nelson was such
Speaker 1: a key last year helping Alabama get to the Final four.
Speaker 1: So there was a lot happening on Saturday.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And I mean people forget, probably, but I talked
Speaker 7: to Grant Helton the NBA Combine a couple of years
Speaker 7: ago when he was when he was kind of the
Speaker 7: hot mid major recruit, and he was he was kind
Speaker 7: of built as what Delton connect turned out to be
Speaker 7: a Tennessee When when Alabama got him, people might forget,
Speaker 7: but that was like that was the huge deal in
Speaker 7: the transfer portal at the time, especially with know who
Speaker 7: they already had on that squad and we didn't you know,
Speaker 7: he just whereas Connect just kind of came to Tennessee.
Speaker 7: It just absolutely took off from the beginning. Nelson. You know,
Speaker 7: he showed flashes here and there if you watched Bama
Speaker 7: last season, but never really looks super comfortable. And then
Speaker 7: you're right, I mean once the postseason came, that's when
Speaker 7: it felt like he really took off. And obviously he
Speaker 7: had one of the stipe that game Saturday in a row.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's talk a little bit about how that
Speaker 1: broke down. And of course the first thing you go
Speaker 1: to is free throw shooting. And the Cats put the
Speaker 1: tide on the line way too much, as we know,
Speaker 1: and according to the Ken Palm numbers and the losses
Speaker 1: Kentucky has suffered in the league, twenty five percent of
Speaker 1: the opponent's points coming at the line. I thought it
Speaker 1: was really fascinating last night on his show when Pope
Speaker 1: talked about how and you know, with him, when it
Speaker 1: comes to stats and data as they like to call it,
Speaker 1: they will do the deepest of dives and they're trying
Speaker 1: to figure out why this is happening and how to
Speaker 1: avoid it. Uh, you know, I don't know if if
Speaker 1: they can, but if they can figure out any way
Speaker 1: to reduce that. That's gonna move them up, isn't it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you think so. And I mean he's right that
Speaker 7: if you look back at their earlier games, you know
Speaker 7: that the Duke game is won, even even the Clemson game,
Speaker 7: really the Godzaga game Louisville, they didn't. They didn't foul
Speaker 7: at a high rate some of those bigger games they
Speaker 7: won earlier in the season. And then against the against
Speaker 7: the mid major opponents they played, there were a couple
Speaker 7: where they just they hardly found at all. But yeah,
Speaker 7: and in these these last three losses, that's been a huge,
Speaker 7: huge problem. I mean, it was it was bad Saturday
Speaker 7: Georgia was was probably the worst of the season. But yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean, and you talk to the guys after. I mean,
Speaker 7: you know, Popes, we know how he's talked about the officials.
Speaker 7: He's not gonna say anything that's gonna get him a
Speaker 7: fine or anything like that. But he talked to the
Speaker 7: guys after and they were pretty frustrated because they felt
Speaker 7: like they were playing good defense and it felt like
Speaker 7: they were playing kind of the style they'd been playing
Speaker 7: for most of the season. And then when they got
Speaker 7: here in the SEC play some some different stuff starts
Speaker 7: to get called. But at the same time, like you know,
Speaker 7: you're not that they weren't going. It's really good coaches
Speaker 7: at the beginning. But but every every coach that you
Speaker 7: see in league play is it's going to be pretty
Speaker 7: close to a masterclass on on preparation and going at you.
Speaker 7: And you know, these guys, especially those who have been
Speaker 7: in the league, know how to attack UH teams that
Speaker 7: to get to the line. And I think you're going
Speaker 7: to see more of that. So you know, Nato, it's
Speaker 7: called Saturday a little bit of a chess match, and
Speaker 7: I think that's going to be the same deal for
Speaker 7: the rest of the season. I mean and and and
Speaker 7: Pope and his staff and then those players are going
Speaker 7: to have to try to figure out, Okay, how do
Speaker 7: we defend as he says, uh guard legal, defend legal,
Speaker 7: and and and make sure you don't even put them
Speaker 7: in a in a in a in a situation where
Speaker 7: they can call a foul. Just don't just take it
Speaker 7: out of the question completely.
Speaker 1: I thought Amar Williams did a better job Saturday of
Speaker 1: avoiding fouls. He still had some, but it was interesting
Speaker 1: going in where Polpe talked about what Amari is figuring
Speaker 1: out now, and I'm paraphrasing what he can get away
Speaker 1: with things he couldn't do a Drexel because he was
Speaker 1: the biggest, baddest guy on the floor, and according to Poulpe,
Speaker 1: he would be called four fouls more frequently, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: than than maybe some other people. But now in the league,
Speaker 1: at least in the paint, you can be more physical,
Speaker 1: and he's learning how to do that. You know what
Speaker 1: you can do and what you can't do, and I
Speaker 1: think that's going to be vital.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 7: I mean, as Amari is a smart player, and he's
Speaker 7: obviously an emotional player, and he really gets into the
Speaker 7: flow of the game. So you don't want to get
Speaker 7: you know, too crazy down there. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 7: it's it's a it's a fine line, but it's one
Speaker 7: that that he's clearly learning. And you know, it's one
Speaker 7: of those deals of anybody who's watched STC basketball. I know,
Speaker 7: a dryves Kentucky fans nuts win and when the bigger
Speaker 7: players on the other team do stuff like that and
Speaker 7: get away with the book Kentucky centers and also gond
Speaker 7: of Way with us right and uh and and Ami Yeah,
Speaker 7: I think it's making strides there. And he's so skilled
Speaker 7: in so many areas of the game, and he has
Speaker 7: that link too defensively that he can if he can
Speaker 7: just learn to use his body a little more in
Speaker 7: the way that the games in the SEC are going
Speaker 7: to be officiated and added to that link in that
Speaker 7: lateral movement, you know, it's obviously gonna going to pay
Speaker 7: dividends for him.
Speaker 1: I was talking to Doug Hampton, who is, as you know,
Speaker 1: the timeout coordinator at Kentucky Games and John is a
Speaker 1: is a former D one referee, UH and his sons
Speaker 1: are both D one referees. And I asked him about
Speaker 1: contact here, contact there. And here's a difference, you reminded
Speaker 1: me out on the court, like say, in the backcourt,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to restrict the move, I'm guarding you
Speaker 1: and I've got my hands on you and you're trying
Speaker 1: to go left and I'm trying to stop you with
Speaker 1: my hand, that's a foul restriction of man. Contact in
Speaker 1: the paint is entirely different.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And and you know they're gonna let one go, but
Speaker 1: they're not gonna let the other go. And I'm okay
Speaker 1: with that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Yeah, as long as they're consistent, I don't think it's
Speaker 7: a problem. And Pope said even last night with Tom
Speaker 7: on the on his weekly radio show, that when they've
Speaker 7: done this deep dive, is he said, into the officiating
Speaker 7: and trying to figure out how how calls are being
Speaker 7: made and how they can you know, deal with that
Speaker 7: moving forward. I mean maybe this was being nice and
Speaker 7: again not wanting to get a fine, but he said
Speaker 7: they found a lot of consistency, that they found what
Speaker 7: and he wouldn't say exactly what. He didn't want to
Speaker 7: give he said, he said he's sure Vanderbilt was watching
Speaker 7: and didn't want to give him any tips on what
Speaker 7: they would be doing. But he said when he looked
Speaker 7: at all that he found a lot of consistency, and
Speaker 7: then those could be teaching moments where they could maybe
Speaker 7: get everybody on the same page and on the right
Speaker 7: page moving forward. And yeah, I mean, as long as
Speaker 7: it's consistent, that's all you want. I mean, if you
Speaker 7: know what's going to be called and what's not going
Speaker 7: to be called, then you just go play basketball and
Speaker 7: you take it from there.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Ben Roberts. He is the beat writer
Speaker 1: for The Hair Leader covers the basketball Cats, and I
Speaker 1: think that what we've learned is that throughout the season
Speaker 1: is that the SEC is as good as advertised in general.
Speaker 1: But several of the teams that had everybody so excited
Speaker 1: with their one lost records pre conference, now, well some
Speaker 1: of that are a lot of that was scheduling, but
Speaker 1: we knew they beat each other up anyway, right, Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I think even going in people wondered,
Speaker 7: Like in Oklahoma, for instance, people wondered, you know, kind
Speaker 7: of how legit that was, just because of the scheduling aspect.
Speaker 7: I mean, Missouri obviously beat Kansas, but I think that's
Speaker 7: been a big surprise for people, especially that when at
Speaker 7: Florida was who that was. That was a really good
Speaker 7: one on there in May. But yeah, I mean up
Speaker 7: and down the line. You know, Texas was ranked in
Speaker 7: the preseason. They're struggling. Arkansas obviously is the one that
Speaker 7: stands out, but I think people had a lot of
Speaker 7: questions about them even in the preseason, especially people around
Speaker 7: here who had seen who had seen rosters put together
Speaker 7: like that and then maybe maybe not tanned out.
Speaker 3: All that great.
Speaker 7: But yeah, it's it's you know we're only well, we're
Speaker 7: not even a third of the way through the conference.
Speaker 7: Yet there's already been so many great games and so
Speaker 7: many surprises, and you know, I can't wait to see
Speaker 7: what's what comes next.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Ben Roberts. We'll come back and talk
Speaker 1: more basketball with a Hero Leader beat writer in just
Speaker 1: a minute here on the big MoveOn Sider six point
Speaker 1: thirty w LA. Welcome back. We're talking with Ben Roberts.
Speaker 1: He covers the basketball Cats among other things for the
Speaker 1: Herald Leader, and we talked about the SEC prior to
Speaker 1: the break. I don't want to get into how fans
Speaker 1: are perceiving John Caliperry. We could talk about that all
Speaker 1: day long and all night long, either UK fans or
Speaker 1: Arkansas fans. But just the fact that they're winless in
Speaker 1: the conference, Ben, you got to be amazed by that
Speaker 1: as m I because they've got talent, but I don't
Speaker 1: know what's going wrong, but it was that to me
Speaker 1: is the biggest surprise in the league.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean, you know, that roster going in, which
Speaker 7: which would have been very close to what Kentucky's roster
Speaker 7: would have been this season had he stayed. You know,
Speaker 7: there's a lot of really good individual pieces. But and
Speaker 7: this was a problem toward the end of his his
Speaker 7: tenure here obviously, with those pieces didn't always fit together.
Speaker 7: And I think this even before the season started, I
Speaker 7: thought this was the best example of that. I mean,
Speaker 7: you put you put a guy like a Due on
Speaker 7: some other teams, and obviously he's having a terrific season. Yeah,
Speaker 7: he's he's a he could also be a great complimentary
Speaker 7: piece on a on a Final four team, And you
Speaker 7: could say that about a whole lot of people on
Speaker 7: that roster. But you piece them all together and it
Speaker 7: just doesn't fit. And and a lot of that is
Speaker 7: outside shooting that they struggled with consistency and otherwise. But yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean, I I guess I'm more I'm a little
Speaker 7: more surprised, like Nellie Davis hasn't taken off, but he's
Speaker 7: making a huge jump in competition from where he was
Speaker 7: to to the SEC and and the and the type
Speaker 7: of schedule Arkansas is going to be playing. A do
Speaker 7: I'm a little surprised he hasn't he hasn't done a
Speaker 7: little bit better. So I guess I'm more surprised by
Speaker 7: some of the individual pieces that haven't performed. Uh but
Speaker 7: and yeah, I mean, oh, win five is surprising. But
Speaker 7: I in my my preseason list at Arkansas a lot
Speaker 7: farther down the list than I think they were ranked
Speaker 7: in the in the SEC preseason order to finish, just
Speaker 7: because I didn't. I didn't really fill this roster. And
Speaker 7: I thought cal a lot of the mistakes he made here,
Speaker 7: both in personnel and structure and everything else, he basically
Speaker 7: just picked up shopping and took him down to Fayetteville
Speaker 7: and did the exact same thing with I think, not
Speaker 7: necessarily lesser players, but but you know, a group that
Speaker 7: doesn't make as much sense together some of some of
Speaker 7: his previous ones.
Speaker 1: No, and I'll move on from Arkansas at moment. But
Speaker 1: we discussed on the State Wide Show last night Aaron
Speaker 1: Gershawan and Billy Rutledge, and I the response that Cali
Speaker 1: Perry is going to get and you know there's going
Speaker 1: to be booze. But I find it interesting that there
Speaker 1: are fans who can't wait to boo him, and yet
Speaker 1: they wanted him gone, you know, so you might think
Speaker 1: that they might cheer him thanks for leaving. We got
Speaker 1: the guy we want, But that ain't the way it works,
Speaker 1: is it.
Speaker 7: No, No, it's it's not the way it works. And yeah,
Speaker 7: I'll be interested to see what the fanters wants is.
Speaker 7: You know, I also think it's different depending on the situation.
Speaker 7: So you know, we're looking back in October. If you
Speaker 7: say that John Caliperry is what six and one or
Speaker 7: something coming into Upperna and Pope and Kentucky struggling, and
Speaker 7: then I think he gets a whole I think he
Speaker 7: gets booed out of the building.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 7: Now you might get the people to put him and
Speaker 7: sorry for him, especially if Kentucky wins at Vandy, and
Speaker 7: you know, especially if they win in Tennessee next week.
Speaker 7: If Kentucky comes in here, you know, still ranked in
Speaker 7: the top ten, and Arkansas is you know, on pace
Speaker 7: to not even make the tournament. Uh, maybe maybe he
Speaker 7: gets uh you know, some some courtesy cheers or some
Speaker 7: courtesy silent.
Speaker 1: I like that courtesy cheers and courtesy silence. Auburn is
Speaker 1: the real deal. We know that, and and is still
Speaker 1: thriving with that the big guy in the middle.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: So that's the team. And you know I ran into
Speaker 1: Dick Wise up in New York. He might have talked
Speaker 1: to him as well. Kentucky played in Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 1: He thinks if he picked right now, he'd picked Auburn
Speaker 1: to win the national title. Speaks well for the SEC
Speaker 1: is going to make it tough on the Wildcats. But
Speaker 1: do you share that kind of enthusiasm.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, obviously Duke has the upside, and I
Speaker 7: don't think we're gonna get a great sense for them
Speaker 7: just because the ACC is so relatively weak this season.
Speaker 7: I mean Alabama. You know, there's any number of teams
Speaker 7: in the SEC that you could say would be in
Speaker 7: that discussion, but yeah, Auburn, and I talked to I
Speaker 7: talked to a D one coach a few weeks ago
Speaker 7: who had seen them in person and said that he
Speaker 7: thought it was it was the best team heats seen
Speaker 7: in ten years, Like not just just best period, best
Speaker 7: team Heat seen in ten years, which is really saying something,
Speaker 7: just saying that, you know, it's that typical Bruce Pearl
Speaker 7: team with the intensity they play with and the discipline
Speaker 7: they play with, but just the pieces are are even
Speaker 7: so much better than he usually has. That he usually
Speaker 7: has a couple of guys who could do some stuff right,
Speaker 7: some specific things, and now he's got four or five, uh,
Speaker 7: and then they're just so deep. Yeah, and even when
Speaker 7: Jedi Broom is sidelined and and this is all obviously
Speaker 7: with assuming that he comes back and it's somewhat close
Speaker 7: one hundred percent healthy, because yeah, they've they've won without him.
Speaker 7: But he is such a I mean he was he
Speaker 7: was a national player of your Throat Runner before this injury,
Speaker 7: so that speaks to how big a deal he is.
Speaker 7: But but Chad Baker, Massari and Denver Jones and Cheney Johnson,
Speaker 7: Todd pt Ford, Miles, Kelly, Dila Cardla, I mean, just
Speaker 7: go down the list. They've got so many really really
Speaker 7: good players that that know their roles, that that that
Speaker 7: play perfectly in Bruce Pearl's system. So yeah, they're they're
Speaker 7: going to be an absolute handful for everybody, even in
Speaker 7: this tough league.
Speaker 1: Pope and as players have both talked about league play
Speaker 1: and learning to play within the SEC, but I think
Speaker 1: it was Andrew Carr who brought up the fact that
Speaker 1: not only are they learning to play the league, they're
Speaker 1: learning what it's like to play with that Kentucky brand
Speaker 1: across their chest, you know, and they are now one
Speaker 1: of the biggest targets in America and clearly the biggest
Speaker 1: target in the Southeastern Conference. And you don't learn that overnight,
Speaker 1: do you.
Speaker 7: No, you don't. I mean even when you're Kentucky and
Speaker 7: you're what are they the number five? I think as
Speaker 7: far as the AP rankings in the SEC the number
Speaker 7: number nine nationally. But in the SEC. So even when
Speaker 7: you let's say, let's say they're the fifth best team
Speaker 7: in the SEC, just for conversation's sake, Uh, there's still
Speaker 7: the number one team on everybody's radar when they come
Speaker 7: into their gym. And that especially goes for the fans.
Speaker 7: Maybe it doesn't go for the players, maybe the maybe
Speaker 7: the opposing players are trying to you know, kind of
Speaker 7: keep that even keel, But Uh, for the fans, there's
Speaker 7: no doubt about it. When they walk into Memorial Gym
Speaker 7: or Thompson Bowling or go down to Ole mess here
Speaker 7: in a couple of weeks. Uh, that's the game that
Speaker 7: that you know, the students make sure that they get
Speaker 7: the ticket for Yuh that the season ticket holders that
Speaker 7: might you know get we we've seen that obviously you've
Speaker 7: tuned into a Mississippi, Uh, you know, Auburn game. Uh
Speaker 7: in January, you're gonna see some empty seats, but you
Speaker 7: don't see if the seats when Kentucky is the visiting team.
Speaker 7: And that's always going to be true, and that's true
Speaker 7: this season. And yeah, I mean this is you know,
Speaker 7: we've said it all year, but I think it's still
Speaker 7: worth reiterating that none of these guys have ever been
Speaker 7: through that with Kentucky on your jersey, and that's a
Speaker 7: big difference than playing for BYU or Wake Forest or
Speaker 7: some of these other schools and going into these places.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. Just a minute or two left.
Speaker 1: Final question, you mentioned Thompson bowling. What Tennessee I think
Speaker 1: has been one of the real surprises when it comes
Speaker 1: to a couple of losses. You just got to scratch
Speaker 1: your head over right.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean, obviously not a surprise that they lost
Speaker 7: the Florida game, but the way that happens currently not expected,
Speaker 7: especially with the way they've been playing such and continue
Speaker 7: to play really really good defense. I mean, it only
Speaker 7: gave up seventy three, but they got absolutely run out
Speaker 7: of the gym, and then you know, the Vanderbilt game.
Speaker 7: I just think that's life in the SEC this season.
Speaker 7: I mean, Byington has done a great job. He's playing,
Speaker 7: he's got a he's got a fun style, fun offense.
Speaker 7: I think that seventy six points he put on them
Speaker 7: was the the highest the Tennessee has given up all season.
Speaker 7: Uh so obviously that speaks to their defense. I think
Speaker 7: they're they're number three in the efficiency ratings coming into
Speaker 7: the week. But you know, I think that's always not always,
Speaker 7: But that's gonna be the problem with Tennessee as long
Speaker 7: as they play the style is that if a team
Speaker 7: does get hot, if a good offense gets a little hot,
Speaker 7: and find some teams and I mean, they can beat you.
Speaker 7: And that goes for any anybody. So you know, Kentucky's
Speaker 7: got a chance against them. You know, Alabama, Auburn, all
Speaker 7: these all these great offenses and and the SEC are
Speaker 7: going to have a chance against them, and you know,
Speaker 7: come tournament time. But I think the same thing could
Speaker 7: be true. And that's kind of what we've seen in
Speaker 7: recent years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's just night in, night out. I guess
Speaker 1: we shouldn't be surprised by anything. But whatever happens, Ben
Speaker 1: Roberts will cover it for The Herald Leader and tell
Speaker 1: everybody how to follow you on Twitter, It's Ben Roberts.
Speaker 7: HL and yeah, everything on Kentucky dot com and new
Speaker 7: free newsletter out there now, which we do about once
Speaker 7: or twice or three times a week. So all of
Speaker 7: our stories are in there, plus some other kind of
Speaker 7: tidbits from that don't make stories, but I find interesting
Speaker 7: at least and kind of behind the scenes stuff. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: just subscribe to all that if you can.
Speaker 1: Sounds good to me. Thank you, brother, see at the ballgame.
Speaker 7: All right, thanks lot, And that'll do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guest Ben, to Jack Gibbons and Jeff
Speaker 1: Coral that's yet. Good night from the garage and Lexidon.
Speaker 3: What has that got to do with it?
Speaker 9: Back off, man, I'm a scientist, set
Speaker 3: U