Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Dick Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you on a Thursday edition of our show. It will
Speaker 1: be an abbreviated edition because we're gonna make way for
Speaker 1: Darren Hedrick in UK women's basketball coming up at six
Speaker 1: forty five pre game seven pm the Wildcats and Texas
Speaker 1: A and M. The UK men, as you know, take
Speaker 1: on Vanderbilt Saturday at two thirty. You'll hear that game
Speaker 1: right here on six point thirty WLAP as Mark Pope
Speaker 1: and his team try to keep base in a crazy
Speaker 1: Southeastern conference. And what a wild night last night it was.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you got to see it. We
Speaker 1: watched use playing cards as usual on a Wednesday with
Speaker 1: my friends. We had an eye on that Arkansas Georgia game.
Speaker 1: Calliperri wins one. How about that do Thierio hitting the
Speaker 1: winning free throws at the end, And in fact I
Speaker 1: hit one, missed the second Georgia. They only had it
Speaker 1: like one and a half seconds left. They had no
Speaker 1: shot Georgia head of winning that game of trying to
Speaker 1: pull off a missed free throw. So they stood there
Speaker 1: and Thierro grabs the rebound and lays it in, ends
Speaker 1: up being a three point margin, but Florida comes all
Speaker 1: the way back from double digits down and beats South
Speaker 1: Carolina in Columbia, leading only for the last four seconds
Speaker 1: of the game. Texas A and M comes all the
Speaker 1: way back, hits a three pointer at the buzzer to
Speaker 1: beat Ole Miss sixty three to sixty two, and Peter
Speaker 1: Burns of the SECRE posted a great stat online. Georgia,
Speaker 1: South Carolina and Ole Miss led for a total of
Speaker 1: one hundred and fourteen I'm sorry, one hundred and nineteen
Speaker 1: minutes and fourteen seconds out of one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: total against Florida's Texas A and M and Arkansas, and
Speaker 1: all three of them lost. Can you imagine losing like that?
Speaker 1: So just incredible come from behind wins and give Caliperry
Speaker 1: credit without his best player. We talked about it my
Speaker 1: buddies in me prior to the game. You know, do
Speaker 1: they have any shot? I said no against Georgia, not
Speaker 1: with that boogie, but everybody else just sort of do
Speaker 1: they like to say, stepped up and maybe minus boogie
Speaker 1: the other team. Georgia didn't quite know how clearly Arkansas
Speaker 1: would react, but it was a grinder of a game
Speaker 1: obviously with that kind of score. At least Cali Perry's
Speaker 1: got that monkey off his back. And yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: mention Cali Perry why I'm not obsessed with watching him.
Speaker 1: I don't care if he fails to succeeds. But it's
Speaker 1: a story in the SEC. It's one of the art
Speaker 1: rivals for Kentucky. It's the brand new, high profile coach
Speaker 1: rebuilding the program. The way Mark Pope has done not
Speaker 1: quite as big a challenge because he did have I
Speaker 1: think a couple players but similar and really the bigger
Speaker 1: story was how badly they've played. They've they've stunk it
Speaker 1: up up until now. So he finally wins one in
Speaker 1: a weird ways. So Wildcats have to make sure they
Speaker 1: don't have that happened down in Nashville. I don't think
Speaker 1: they will because I like what Mark Pope is doing
Speaker 1: right now and in some corners he is getting mentioned
Speaker 1: or midseason I should say for Coach of the Year honors,
Speaker 1: and he should be mentioned. However you feel about the award,
Speaker 1: his name should be in the mix. In fact, Gary
Speaker 1: Parrish for cbsports dot Com in a show he had
Speaker 1: the other day with the four to three of his colleagues.
Speaker 1: He unveiled his top three candidates number three John Shire
Speaker 1: of Duke, number two, Bruce Pearl of Auburn, and then
Speaker 1: came number one.
Speaker 2: At number one. I've got Mark Pope at Kentucky. And
Speaker 2: again you can argue John, Bruce Pearl other people as well,
Speaker 2: but I just love the story. At Kentucky. He was
Speaker 2: not their first choice to replace John Caliperry, but he's
Speaker 2: been a perfect choice fourteen and four this season. He's
Speaker 2: re engaged a fan base, he's got a legitimate Final
Speaker 2: four contender. Yes, other first year coaches around the country
Speaker 2: doing great work. Pat Kelsey at Louisville, Darren de Freeze
Speaker 2: at West Virginia, but nobody's doing more than Mark Pope
Speaker 2: at Kentucky right now. He would be my National Coach
Speaker 2: of the year.
Speaker 1: Hard to argue, but there's always an argument. And Wally
Speaker 1: Zerbiak was on the panel and he said, yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 1: The other guys, that's great, but he mentioned Pat Kelsey
Speaker 1: and you have to mention Kelsey in the same breath
Speaker 1: because well, you know what was going on with Louisville
Speaker 1: basketball when Kelsey took over and the job he's done
Speaker 1: is remarkable, and he had to rebuild a roster just
Speaker 1: like Mark Pope did, who had a tougher job. That's
Speaker 1: hard to say. I know I'm biased, but I would
Speaker 1: vote for Pope simply because when you talk about what
Speaker 1: his team has accomplished, I think strength to schedule plays
Speaker 1: in here. So I think some of the wins for
Speaker 1: the Wildcats and how tough the SEC is this year,
Speaker 1: I think that factors in. Now, some of the panel
Speaker 1: members kind of dismissed fact, Well, you know, Duke's got
Speaker 1: these great players, and you know they're not crazy about Pearl.
Speaker 1: But as Parish pointed out, this award should take into
Speaker 1: consideration putting the teams together, recruiting, developing, and then winning
Speaker 1: on the floor. So you can't argue with Duke, you
Speaker 1: can't argue with Auburn with Bruce Pearl, and certainly you
Speaker 1: cannot argue with Kelsey. But I thought it was interesting
Speaker 1: that Gary Parrish at this point says it's Mark Pope
Speaker 1: and we'll see it could change, could change by next week.
Speaker 1: Mark Pope already has a pretty good recruiting class put together,
Speaker 1: as you know, including Malachi Marino and Jasper Johnson. Maybe
Speaker 1: it gets better later tonight. I mean later tonight, which
Speaker 1: is when we're gonna hear apparently about the five star
Speaker 1: recruit Caleb Wilson. Now, a lot of the experts are
Speaker 1: saying this kid's gonna go to North Carolina. But the
Speaker 1: fact that Kentucky's in the mix along with Ohio State
Speaker 1: is good news for Wildcat fans because for the longest time,
Speaker 1: Kentucky wasn't in the picture. But Katen lewis signing or
Speaker 1: committing at least perhaps brought Wilson a little closer to
Speaker 1: Mark Pope and his program two four seven Sports. Travis
Speaker 1: Branham and his Crystal Ball is saying that it will
Speaker 1: be North Carolina. We will not hear about this until
Speaker 1: after tonight's Celtics Lakers game on TNT, So either stay
Speaker 1: up late or check it first thing in the morning.
Speaker 1: Probably North Carolina, but the Cats are in the mix.
Speaker 1: And what Carolina could use him right now? I know
Speaker 1: everybody could use him. Really, he's that good. He said
Speaker 1: he likes Kentucky's style. He said he likes the spacing. Said,
Speaker 1: I'm a guy who can shoot, but I can also
Speaker 1: get to the rim. And he wants to be able
Speaker 1: to show off his entire skill set and says Kentucky's
Speaker 1: a place he could do that, and likes the fact
Speaker 1: that Mark Pope is friendly. Of course, all recruiters are friendly,
Speaker 1: but I think he probably knows that Pope is the
Speaker 1: real deal. And I'm not knocking Hubert Davis or anybody,
Speaker 1: but this is just one of the things that has
Speaker 1: made Caleb Wilson keep Kentucky in his list of final school. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, we'll find out late tonight. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about it tomorrow night right here. Up next, the passing
Speaker 1: of a great Kentucky iconic high school football coach and
Speaker 1: a big anniversary for yours truly as well. A little
Speaker 1: later later from Kenny Brooks on six thirty WLAP Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue and Sider. Coming up at
Speaker 1: six forty five pregame coverage of Kentucky basketball the women
Speaker 1: taking on Texas A and M down in College Station,
Speaker 1: and Darren Hedrick will have a call for you right here.
Speaker 1: Pregame at six forty five, tip off at seven o'clock.
Speaker 1: It's the Wildcats look to stay perfect in Southeastern Conference play.
Speaker 1: There five and zero and sixteen and one overall, so
Speaker 1: it's going to be important for the Wildcats to win
Speaker 1: another one on the road. It always is. We'll have
Speaker 1: it for you right here. A couple of personal notes.
Speaker 1: I did not know Philip Haywood, but I certainly knew
Speaker 1: of his work. He of course, is the guy who
Speaker 1: was the Belfrey head football coach for the longest time,
Speaker 1: and sadly he died this week after from injuries he
Speaker 1: suffered in a serious crash Saturday morning. They took him
Speaker 1: to the UK hospital and he passed on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker 1: He is the winningest high school football coach in Kentucky history.
Speaker 1: Brian Milin texted me yesterday that Heywood had died from
Speaker 1: his injuries. But just what a remarkable story. He comes
Speaker 1: to Belfrey in nineteen eighty four and settled in for
Speaker 1: forty one seasons with the Pirates. It took a little while,
Speaker 1: but he got him to their first ever state title
Speaker 1: in Class two A in twenty three. All right after that,
Speaker 1: seven more state titles in four and then what a
Speaker 1: run thirteen, fourteen, twenty fifteen, sixteen, nineteen and twenty one.
Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, USA Today voted to him the best
Speaker 1: high school football coach in America. Just phenomenal and just
Speaker 1: a real tragedy that he's taken. At this point, wrote
Speaker 1: a couple of books, one called Faith, Family and Football.
Speaker 1: The second was called Climb the Mountain, and the people
Speaker 1: who have chimed in about him on social media just remarkable.
Speaker 1: WSAZ and Huntington did a sit down interview with him
Speaker 1: a few years ago, and one of the questions is
Speaker 1: why so long at Belfrey. I mean, forty one years.
Speaker 1: It's a long time to stay in anyone spot, especially
Speaker 1: for a coach. And he talked about how it just
Speaker 1: felt right.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you walk into comunity, which I did in nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty four, and it just kind of fits like a glove,
Speaker 3: and this one fit me, just this character of the people,
Speaker 3: of the blue collar work ethic, attitude, the community itself
Speaker 3: as well as the school and of course the football program.
Speaker 3: And I said, I don't think I'm going to find
Speaker 3: this anywhere else, and that's why I've been here as
Speaker 3: long as I have.
Speaker 1: And as I mentioned, it took a little while to
Speaker 1: become a real powerhouse. But after a while there it
Speaker 1: was just a given that Belfy would be in the
Speaker 1: playoffs and be the favorite to win the state championship.
Speaker 1: So just an incredible job he did. And generally when
Speaker 1: coaches like that are successful and stay in one place
Speaker 1: for quite a while, they begin to emerge as these
Speaker 1: characters with this great wisdom, you know, this great advice.
Speaker 1: And why not because they are successful and when they
Speaker 1: think about what it's take to get there and they
Speaker 1: just reflect on it and they share their thoughts and
Speaker 1: opinions with you, and yeah, hey, it works for them.
Speaker 1: But generally it's fairly simple. And he also talked to
Speaker 1: w Sez a little bit about his philosophy on handle
Speaker 1: how to handle kids and coaching.
Speaker 3: The most important things to me are about players caring
Speaker 3: for each other, doing the right thing, being able to
Speaker 3: put someone above yourself. And we've always had that at Belfry.
Speaker 3: We've always had young men that are very loyal to
Speaker 3: each other, very loyal to the program, and willing to
Speaker 3: put their own personal gains aside for the betterment of
Speaker 3: the team. And when you can do that, you always
Speaker 3: have a chance for success.
Speaker 1: Yep, check your ego at the door. And the best
Speaker 1: teams do that and they take joy in winning for
Speaker 1: each other and seeing their teammates happy when they're only
Speaker 1: interested in their own personal joy and happiness. Then that's
Speaker 1: when you run into problems. So I don't know how
Speaker 1: long it took him, And again I never got a
Speaker 1: chance to Sinamua man, But how long it took him
Speaker 1: to instill that sort of value system at Belfrey, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine it took very long, because again, he got
Speaker 1: there in eighty four, didn't start winning state championships for
Speaker 1: a while, but they became successful and he was much
Speaker 1: beloved in that community. And he will be missed, there's
Speaker 1: no question about that. But just the tragic losses. Philip
Speaker 1: Haywood dies on Wednesday, and that's a big that's a
Speaker 1: big hole in that community. On a happier note, and
Speaker 1: again a personal note coming up, and I wrote about
Speaker 1: this on Facebook today. Coming up, during the South Carolina
Speaker 1: Kentucky men's game next month, the nineteen seventy four to
Speaker 1: seventy five team will be recognized. That's the team that
Speaker 1: went to the Final four, beat Bob Knight's undefeated Indiana
Speaker 1: team and went to the Final four in nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 1: As a student at UK, covered that team for the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Colonel. I was there in Dayton when they pulled
Speaker 1: off that upset of Indiana. Talked to Jack Gibbons about
Speaker 1: it on the air the other day. Amazing, it's been
Speaker 1: fifty years, my gosh since that team comprised of a
Speaker 1: really great senior class of Jimmie and Connor and Kevin
Speaker 1: Greevy and Jerry Hale. Had Jerry on talking about it
Speaker 1: the other night as well, Mike Flynn, Bob guy They
Speaker 1: were the Super Kittens, Bob Guyett. They I think were
Speaker 1: originally a class of seven. Joe Hall went out and
Speaker 1: landed when he was recruiting for Adolf Rupp, and then
Speaker 1: they played their varsity careers under Joe b They were
Speaker 1: his first varsity team. They couldn't play as freshmen, but
Speaker 1: the Super Kittens and again Jerry was talking about this
Speaker 1: the other night could beat the varsity and they had
Speaker 1: freshman games. They played a freshman schedule. They were undefeated.
Speaker 1: They're the best freshman team team in the country and
Speaker 1: so they were expected to win multiple national titles after that. Well,
Speaker 1: they won the SEC as sophomores, but they fell short
Speaker 1: in the NCAA tournament. They lost to Indiana in the
Speaker 1: second round. It was the Mid East Region finals. There
Speaker 1: weren't sixty four teams that year, so they just needed
Speaker 1: to win two games to get to the Final four,
Speaker 1: but they lost to IU down in Nashville. Quinn Buckner
Speaker 1: and Steve Downing both had double doubles for Indiana. Jim
Speaker 1: Andrews had a huge game and what turned out to
Speaker 1: be his finale for Joe B and the Wildcats. Jim
Speaker 1: had twenty three to ten in that game, but the
Speaker 1: Wildcats only got to the free throw line believe it
Speaker 1: or not against that rugged Indiana defense four times. Kentucky
Speaker 1: three of four from the line. That's it. Indiana was
Speaker 1: ten to fourteen. I didn't see the game, don't remember
Speaker 1: much about it except reading about it, but Kentucky was
Speaker 1: down thirteen at the half and came back but ended
Speaker 1: up losing seven. So going into the following year, we're
Speaker 1: all thinking, well, you know, they'll they'll be contenders again.
Speaker 1: But Jim Andrews moves on and Joe B was not
Speaker 1: really able. Jim Andrews is a great player, averaged a
Speaker 1: double double, underrated finally got into the UK Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: but Kentucky didn't have anybody that good to put in
Speaker 1: the middle coming up after jim So Bob Guyett, a
Speaker 1: power forward, ends up playing in the middle for Joe B.
Speaker 1: And Bob was six seven six ' eight, not a
Speaker 1: classic post player back then, and that meant Jimmy dan
Speaker 1: Connor had to play power forward at six foot three
Speaker 1: six foot four. So this was a small UK team
Speaker 1: and it cost the wildcit They were thirteen and thirteen,
Speaker 1: Joe B's second year and everybody wanted to get rid
Speaker 1: of him. So what does he do. He goes out
Speaker 1: and recruit size three guys who were six ' ten
Speaker 1: six ' eleven and Rick Roby, Mike Phillips and a
Speaker 1: guy named Danny Hall who later a transfer, as well
Speaker 1: as two kids from Lection and named Jack Gibbons and
Speaker 1: James Lee. So you add those guys to the seventy
Speaker 1: four to seventy five team and now with Roby in
Speaker 1: the middle and or Phillips in the middle and Bob
Speaker 1: now playing power forward and Jimmy Dann playing the point
Speaker 1: guard spot basically with Mike Flynn alongside. It was a
Speaker 1: really good shooter and a really really good defender. That
Speaker 1: was a fun team and nobody thought though they'd get
Speaker 1: to the Final four, because well, they drew in against Indiana,
Speaker 1: an undefeated team that had beaten Kentucky by twenty four
Speaker 1: points early in the year. But you know by now
Speaker 1: what happened. They pulled off the upset, they go to
Speaker 1: the Final four, they lost to UCLA in the championship game. Well,
Speaker 1: that year, that spring of the seventy four to seventy
Speaker 1: five team is when I stumbled into broadcasting because I
Speaker 1: was at a game working for the Colonel, sitting in
Speaker 1: the end zone at my press table seat where I
Speaker 1: usually sat next to WBKY, which was the campus station,
Speaker 1: and they would broadcast the games, at least I thought
Speaker 1: they were. They had equipment there in an announcer, playboy,
Speaker 1: play guy, and they can't do it now. But back then,
Speaker 1: the contracts stated and Jim Host made this happen, that
Speaker 1: the campus station could broadcast games and help develop young announcers.
Speaker 1: Tom Hammond did it for that station, Keith Elkins did
Speaker 1: it for that station, several people, Paul Rodgers now the
Speaker 1: voice of the u OFL Radio network. And one night
Speaker 1: I look up and they're not broadcasting. It's just the
Speaker 1: station manager, Don Wheeler, sitting there by himself, and I said,
Speaker 1: not doing the game tonight? He said, no, I lost
Speaker 1: my announcer and I was just looking straight ahead watching
Speaker 1: the game, and I just kind of muttered, you know,
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to try something like that or words
Speaker 1: to that effect, and he's like, call me. So I did,
Speaker 1: and I auditioned a week or two later, and wouldn't
Speaker 1: you know, I got the job. He said, all right,
Speaker 1: next year, you'll be our guy, one of them at least,
Speaker 1: and I, along with the guy who turned out to
Speaker 1: be a close friend named Mike Connley, He and I
Speaker 1: broadcast every home game for the next three years, football
Speaker 1: and basketball, and Don was so happy with us that
Speaker 1: he looked for other opportunities for us, and we actually
Speaker 1: broadcast I think three or four high school football games.
Speaker 1: When UK was on the road, we would do a
Speaker 1: high school game that week. And in fact, at one point,
Speaker 1: I think it was Lafayette played a game at oak Ridge, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: and we went and did the game, did a game
Speaker 1: in Danville, I think in Somerset. Our senior year is
Speaker 1: when Kentucky went to the Final Four again when they
Speaker 1: beat Duke behind Jack Gibbons. And because the games were
Speaker 1: relatively close to lexing in Knoxville, Dayton and Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: We did the games. I broadcast the final four in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy. Nobody listened, of course, they were all listening
Speaker 1: to k Wood. They had a very modest audience, but hey,
Speaker 1: you talk about great experience. And that's how I ended
Speaker 1: up in broadcasting and non newspapers. It was coming out
Speaker 1: of school. I thought I'd be a newspaper guy and
Speaker 1: had some offers, but also had an offer to be
Speaker 1: the sports director WVLK across Town. Took that job, wound
Speaker 1: up on the UK network and here we are. I'm
Speaker 1: the longest tenured member of the UK Radio network. But
Speaker 1: that all happened fifty years ago, stumbling into a broadcasting
Speaker 1: career which has led me right here to my garage
Speaker 1: and the Big Blue Insider. We'll talk about UK women's
Speaker 1: basketball next on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blue the Cider final segment of our program,
Speaker 1: as we're gonna make way for Darren Hedrick in his
Speaker 1: pregame coverage of Kentucky women's basketball. The Wildcats tonight are
Speaker 1: in College Station Texas to take on Texas A and M.
Speaker 1: You'd think the Wildcats would be favored in this game,
Speaker 1: because Kentucky is, you know, still undefeated in conference play
Speaker 1: at five and oh, just a half game back of
Speaker 1: mighty South Carolina, which is six and o. LSU likewise
Speaker 1: is five and oh A and M middle of the
Speaker 1: pack nine and eight right now two and three in
Speaker 1: SEC play. But the Aggies are coming off a win.
Speaker 1: They beat a Georgia team that is not great. Kentucky
Speaker 1: destroyed Georgia the other night, but A and M beat
Speaker 1: Georgia last time out. Prior to that, back to back
Speaker 1: losses the tenth ranked Oklahoma and an absolute butt kicking
Speaker 1: by South Carolina the game Cocks winning ninety to forty nine.
Speaker 1: A and M did beat Ole Miss, which is a
Speaker 1: decent team, but prior to that lost to Tennessee ninety
Speaker 1: one seventy eight. So A and M's had its ups
Speaker 1: and downs. Wildcats would just add one loss to North Carolina.
Speaker 1: So you'd think Kenny Brooks's team would be favored to
Speaker 1: win this one tonight. I believe they are, but you
Speaker 1: never know what happens on the road. Still, what a
Speaker 1: job he has done. Good hire by Mitch Barnard did
Speaker 1: his homework. Kenny Brooks had a really strong reputation in
Speaker 1: the ACC and was kind of fighting an uphill battle
Speaker 1: a little bit at Virginia Tech, although as you probably know,
Speaker 1: he did take Virginia Tech to the Final four. That's
Speaker 1: the one thing that UK women's basketball hasn't been able
Speaker 1: to do is break through to the final four. Matthew
Speaker 1: Mitchell had a couple of really good teams that had
Speaker 1: really good shots at it, but then fell victim to
Speaker 1: the seating and the bracketing in the NCAA tournament twice
Speaker 1: running into a Connecticut team that will go on to
Speaker 1: win the national championships. So the Wildcats get to the
Speaker 1: Elite eight, but haven't been able to break through. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they'll do it this year or not.
Speaker 1: But Kenny Brooks knows how to get the job done,
Speaker 1: knows what it takes, and he has done a terrific
Speaker 1: job putting this team together. And he talked earlier this
Speaker 1: week about the fact that when you break down what's
Speaker 1: happening with UK women's basketball, it's more than just the
Speaker 1: wins and the losses.
Speaker 4: A lot of times people want to just, you know,
Speaker 4: equate your success with wins and losses. But for us,
Speaker 4: we're really enjoying the journey, and you know, watching these
Speaker 4: young kids come together in such a short time, it's
Speaker 4: been one of the joys of my career, you know,
Speaker 4: because we put this group together, and we did it
Speaker 4: by design, and we want to make sure we get
Speaker 4: good basketball players. We want to get good people who
Speaker 4: are willing to go out and sacrifice a little bitter
Speaker 4: themselves for the betterment of the team. And they've done so,
Speaker 4: and I've been very pleased with them the way that
Speaker 4: they've been performing. And obviously, you know, the record is
Speaker 4: good sixteen and one, five and zero in the conference.
Speaker 4: But we're just taking it day by day, and when
Speaker 4: we take that approach, I think good things really happen.
Speaker 1: Tonight's game is on the ESPN or out of the
Speaker 1: SEC Network, which is part of the ESPN family, but
Speaker 1: we urge you to listen to Darren Headrick, and there
Speaker 1: is a way to if you can, depending on how
Speaker 1: you get your TV to sync your TV with. You
Speaker 1: can listen on your phone the iHeartMedia app, which is
Speaker 1: what I do when I listen to Darren and watch
Speaker 1: the games. Nothing against the SEC Network, in fact, I
Speaker 1: do some work for them, as you know, but I
Speaker 1: like to listen to what Darren has to say. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I split it up one half TV, one half radio.
Speaker 1: But my point is if you've seen this team play
Speaker 1: on TV or in person, and we urge you to
Speaker 1: do that. If you haven't yet made it to the renovated,
Speaker 1: all new and improved, it's brand new, the historic Memorial Coliseum.
Speaker 1: It's phenomenal. The job they did more than just a facelift.
Speaker 1: They basically rebuilt the inside of it. They may change
Speaker 1: so much of what made it great, especially on the outside.
Speaker 1: Of course, she couldn't change a whole lot there, but
Speaker 1: just the renovations they did for both women's basketball, volleyball, gymnastics,
Speaker 1: it's tremendous. But if you've seen the team play, it's
Speaker 1: interesting to me how efficient the Wildcats are. And again
Speaker 1: that's a nod to Kenny Brooks, but he'll tell you
Speaker 1: that's a nod to the way the players have embraced
Speaker 1: what they're doing. They're still learning from him and from
Speaker 1: each other. But the fact that he's got Georgia Amore
Speaker 1: the point guard is just She is one of the
Speaker 1: best in the country. She's one of the best UK's
Speaker 1: ever had. I said before, I'm not ready to put
Speaker 1: her ahead of Patty Joe Hedges, but she's up there
Speaker 1: with PJ. She's up there with Stacey Reid, just watching
Speaker 1: her play direct traffic. And this group, when they have
Speaker 1: the ball on offense, constant in motion, everybody knows what
Speaker 1: they're supposed to do. The ball doesn't sag or lag,
Speaker 1: and it's just interesting watching them work through their offense
Speaker 1: and get the best shot they possibly can. And Brooks
Speaker 1: admitted it's pretty evident. Really, the chemistry is a huge
Speaker 1: key for this team.
Speaker 4: We have great kids, and they're all willing to be
Speaker 4: led and then also to lead in their own way,
Speaker 4: and they all do it. It's a collective unit doing it,
Speaker 4: is not just one person.
Speaker 1: He's right about that. It doesn't have as much bench
Speaker 1: as he liked because two of his better players are
Speaker 1: out for the entire season injured, but he is getting
Speaker 1: good minutes through I think about seven players, and you're
Speaker 1: going to need that down the stretch in the SEC.
Speaker 1: I know you're probably wondering what happens when the schedule
Speaker 1: gets tougher, and that's fair. You don't look past this game,
Speaker 1: but I will tell you that after this one, the
Speaker 1: Wildcats take on Arkansas, which is not one of the
Speaker 1: better teams in the league. Then it's Oklahoma on Sunday,
Speaker 1: February second out in Norman, and of late that's a
Speaker 1: top ten team. After that, it's at Ole Miss and
Speaker 1: it's Texas here on February thirteenth at the Coliseum, and
Speaker 1: then Georgia with me in Texas by the way, eighteen
Speaker 1: and two. So that's going to be a tough one.
Speaker 1: But if you want to skip ahead, and I don't
Speaker 1: blame you, LSU comes up. You talk about a murderers
Speaker 1: road to end the regular season. LSU on February twenty
Speaker 1: third in lexingon tennessee in Lexnon the following Thursday, and
Speaker 1: then the following Sunday in Columbia. As it just so happens,
Speaker 1: South Carolina the defending national champion. And wouldn't that be
Speaker 1: cool if that game decided maybe a share at least
Speaker 1: of the SEC championship in Kenny Brooks's first year. And
Speaker 1: if he heard me saying that, he would probably well,
Speaker 1: he didn't know me well enough, but he'd want to
Speaker 1: slap me in the head to be looking ahead that far.
Speaker 1: But dah, you and I can do that, right, But
Speaker 1: that's what's interesting about this season. Did we even think
Speaker 1: we'd be talking about UK women's basketball in the same
Speaker 1: breath as winning an SEC championship. I know I didn't.
Speaker 1: I believed it was a good hire in Kenny Brooks.
Speaker 1: I didn't know much at all about the players he
Speaker 1: was bringing in. I did know, just from what I
Speaker 1: read when the word came that Georgia Amore would be,
Speaker 1: to say the very least, a difference maker, and boy
Speaker 1: is she. Lord knows where this team would be without her.
Speaker 1: They would have a good quality point guard, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: but one who was on the exact same wavelength. And
Speaker 1: he talks about it with Darren on the Coach Show
Speaker 1: every week. He keeps saying, Georgia and I speak the
Speaker 1: same language. We finish each other's sentences. Can you get
Speaker 1: much better than that when it comes to a coach's
Speaker 1: relationship with his point guard. I don't think so. And
Speaker 1: just watch this team and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: And again, I know it's cold right now, but when
Speaker 1: you can make a trip if you haven't to the Coliseum,
Speaker 1: trust me, you'll be glad you did. It's a great
Speaker 1: brand of basketball and this team is playing extraordinarily well,
Speaker 1: and up next they're gonna need to play well too.
Speaker 1: Went on the road, they take on Texas A and M.
Speaker 1: In just a moment or two, Darren Hedrick with pregame
Speaker 1: coverage of the Cats and the Aggies. They tip it
Speaker 1: off at seven o'clock and we'll be back tomorrow night
Speaker 1: to talk about what happened and look ahead to the weekend.
Speaker 1: That'll do it for now, Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for Kentucky, Texas A and M, and Darren
Speaker 1: Hedrick next here on the number one spot for sports
Speaker 1: six point thirty WLAP