Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Diay Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you in a Wednesday edition of our program, the day
Speaker 1: after Kentucky's Senior Day win over the LSU Tigers. Coming
Speaker 1: up a little bit later on, we'll talk to Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: the unforgettable guard, about not just last night's game, but
Speaker 1: when he went through senior ceremonies as well.
Speaker 2: Always special.
Speaker 1: We're also going to hear from Darren Headrick as he
Speaker 1: is heading for the SEC Women's Tournament. He also wore
Speaker 1: Kentucky's baseball.
Speaker 2: Win last night.
Speaker 1: The Cats blew out Eastern Kentucky sixteen to nothing. A
Speaker 1: year ago when Kentucky went to Richmond, the Wildcats had
Speaker 1: to break up a no hitter late in the game
Speaker 1: to come back and win. But it was all Wildcats
Speaker 1: last night, and we hear more from Darren about that,
Speaker 1: get his thoughts on this year's team, as he's been
Speaker 1: able to call some of the games so far.
Speaker 2: As when his.
Speaker 1: Schedule intersects with women's basketball, he sticks with basketball, but
Speaker 1: he has seen the baseball Cats a few times, so
Speaker 1: we'll talk about that as well. And our West End
Speaker 1: BUA chief Gary Moore as always joining us on a Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk, of course about the Wildcats, who got
Speaker 1: their twentieth win last night and Senior Night for six people, Annsley, Almanor,
Speaker 1: Kobe Breath, Lamont Butler, and Drew Carr, Jackson Robinson and
Speaker 1: Amari Williams. Senior Night wins fifty three against just six losses.
Speaker 1: And that thirty one point win last night largest for
Speaker 1: UK on Senior Day since they beat Vanderbilt in twenty three.
Speaker 1: Fifteen and three at home for the Cats, most victories
Speaker 1: for Kentucky in the last three seasons didn't reflect very
Speaker 1: well again on the John Caliperi last couple of years,
Speaker 1: Wildcats hit only fifty point seven percent from the field.
Speaker 1: They had that stretch there in the second half. They
Speaker 1: went kind of cold, you know, but it was just
Speaker 1: something to see, man, the way they kept throwing in shots.
Speaker 1: And as you know, when the Wildcats hit fifty percent
Speaker 1: or better, they are tough to beat. In fact, they
Speaker 1: are thirteen and one and not just hit shots last night,
Speaker 1: but hit three pointers twelve of them, and Kentucky eight
Speaker 1: and oh this year when making at least twelve triples,
Speaker 1: they got enough three pointers they try to get, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty thirty five and they got.
Speaker 2: What they wanted last night.
Speaker 1: LSU. Look, let's face it, it's just not very good.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the Tigers will become good in
Speaker 1: the near future. They've got some talent, they've won some games,
Speaker 1: but not very many, and they just aren't very good
Speaker 1: this year. They have been the team Kentucky fans love
Speaker 1: to hate every now and then, but they're only fourteen
Speaker 1: and sixteen. So, by the way, the Wildcats seventeen times
Speaker 1: this year have made at least ten three pointers. That's
Speaker 1: the most in UK history. How about that? And the
Speaker 1: Cats won the rebounding about of course they wanted against
Speaker 1: Auburn by a substantial margin, but Auburn didn't miss many shots.
Speaker 1: So anyhow, they got to keep that up because they're
Speaker 1: thirteen and four this year when they out rebound the opponent.
Speaker 1: So overall, a great night Otaga away. Let everybody with
Speaker 1: twenty four had eight point or eight rebounds, three assists,
Speaker 1: three steals. Tremendous game. Brandon Garrison had fifteen points, four
Speaker 1: assists and three steals, man Almoner at fifteen points. Colin
Speaker 1: Chandler hit three triples in a career high eleven. He's
Speaker 1: getting good at just the right time. He also had
Speaker 1: four assists on the night. So Travis Perry and Trentoah
Speaker 1: aren't quite haven't been quite as effective as they've been
Speaker 1: in the past. But that's okay. You know, they may
Speaker 1: in the next game get right back to that. But
Speaker 1: Chandler's picked up the slack, there's no question about that.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk more with Sean about that coming up
Speaker 1: in just a few minutes. Looking around in the league
Speaker 1: SEC tournament, as you know, is coming up, and how
Speaker 1: about this. Dan Shulman and Jay Billis will call the tournament.
Speaker 1: They've done the ACC four years. Dave O'Brien and Corey
Speaker 1: Alexander called the a SEC tournament. But now Showman and Billis,
Speaker 1: And I know some of you still don't like Billis.
Speaker 1: Look Showman, in my opinion, and there are a lot
Speaker 1: of great TV playbook play guys out there. I think
Speaker 1: he's the best guy. He's my favorite. Let's put it
Speaker 1: to you that way, because he does not tell you
Speaker 1: everything the screen is showing you. You know, he dribbles left,
Speaker 1: dribbles right, he shoots it, hits the rim, no good.
Speaker 1: You know, TV guys don't need to do that, and
Speaker 1: too many of them feel like if he feels like
Speaker 1: they're getting paid by the word. Shulman does a great
Speaker 1: job mixing the video and his descriptions, and I just
Speaker 1: think Billis does a great job. And I wrote about
Speaker 1: this on the website. You know, why do so many
Speaker 1: people dislike Jay?
Speaker 2: Billis?
Speaker 1: And he was talking to Tony Kornheiser on Corneizer's podcast
Speaker 1: the other day about and Corneizer asked him, do people
Speaker 1: think he's biased as he go overboard trying not to
Speaker 1: be you know? And Billis said, look, you know, it's
Speaker 1: been forty years since I played there, so yeah, I
Speaker 1: love the play, but yeah, he works hard. And some
Speaker 1: Duke fans don't like Billis because they think he tries
Speaker 1: too hard not to be biased toward Duke. So anyhow,
Speaker 1: Showman and Billis, I like him, of course. I always
Speaker 1: split time between Tom and Jack. And coming up in
Speaker 1: our next segment, we're gonna hear some of Jack gibbons
Speaker 1: conversation with the seniors. He interviewed all six seniors after
Speaker 1: the game, three at a time, so we'll hear the
Speaker 1: first half of that at the bottom of this hour.
Speaker 1: Come up after the break and then an hour number two,
Speaker 1: we'll hear the second three that he interviewed. But it
Speaker 1: was really a lot of fun to hear somebody making
Speaker 1: headlines again, Rick Pattino. His team is winning, so he's
Speaker 1: making headlines for that reason.
Speaker 2: But I mean, he's a good story.
Speaker 1: You know, he's back in college basketball in New York winning,
Speaker 1: they win the Big East. But on a WFN show
Speaker 1: yesterday I think it was or the day before, I
Speaker 1: think it was yesterday, he was addressing rumors as usual
Speaker 1: that he would leave for Indiana. Some people thought he
Speaker 1: would leave Iona for Indiana, but he said, New York
Speaker 1: is where I belong. He said, why would I leave
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna go that I would want to leave.
Speaker 1: He said, this is New York City, the greatest.
Speaker 2: City in the world.
Speaker 1: This is a program that is in the top ten.
Speaker 1: And he said, I'm overpaid right now. They should take
Speaker 1: some money away from me. I don't need anything. And
Speaker 1: he said, my agent's going to kill me for saying that,
Speaker 1: because he keeps saying you're not in the top five
Speaker 1: of Biggie's coaches. He's gonna kill me now. But Tina
Speaker 1: reportedly makes three point three million per year from Saint John's.
Speaker 1: That doesn't include any endorsements he might get. And look,
Speaker 1: whatever he might need, he'll get it from Mike Ropoli.
Speaker 1: And you might recognize that name. Mike Ropoli is a
Speaker 1: billionaire alum from Saint John's. He had two different sports
Speaker 1: drinks or or waters or whatever that he sold for
Speaker 1: an incredible amount of money. So now he does a
Speaker 1: lot of other things, but he dabbles in horse racing,
Speaker 1: and at some point he had he had the Derby
Speaker 1: favorite in Derby one fifty fierceness and didn't win it.
Speaker 2: I like the horse.
Speaker 1: He also had the favorite to Night in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three forte but had to scratch. I also like that horse.
Speaker 1: But look, he will be a factor because he can
Speaker 1: buy good horses. So you'll hear his name around the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Derby and the Oaks and all these big races
Speaker 1: for years to come, I would think. But anyhow, look,
Speaker 1: if Patino needs something, Mike Roppoli will get it for
Speaker 1: him or give it to him, and right now together,
Speaker 1: because Roppoli, of course is the nil guy for Saint John's.
Speaker 1: They've got their best record since the eighty five eighty
Speaker 1: six season. Their best team since eighty five when they
Speaker 1: came to the Final four here in lexingon Well Luke
Speaker 1: Carniseca and that Big East title they just won first
Speaker 1: in forty years. They haven't won an NCAA tournament game
Speaker 1: in twenty five years. And Sean and I will talk
Speaker 1: about this again, and we talked about it last week.
Speaker 1: That is a team that is going to be really
Speaker 1: dangerous in postseason. They don't score well, they don't shoot
Speaker 1: well Saint John's, but they guard like crazy. And I
Speaker 1: commend to you Redstorm Rising if you can find it
Speaker 1: on WES the Vice channel. That's the documentary series. They're
Speaker 1: also showing the series on Caliperi documentary series that might
Speaker 1: have just been leading up to the UK game. I
Speaker 1: haven't kept up with it, but I've been watching the
Speaker 1: Saint john series and it's classic Patino. I mean, f
Speaker 1: Bomb's left and right, and he's been pretty frank about
Speaker 1: his team. He's run the camera crew out of his
Speaker 1: locker room a couple times, and he doesn't let him
Speaker 1: in at halftime. But he still wears the wireless mic
Speaker 1: so you can pick up the audio. You can hear
Speaker 1: what he's saying. You just don't have a camera there
Speaker 1: in the locker room. So anyhow, it also reminded me
Speaker 1: of when we did a special a documentary, if you would.
Speaker 1: I was one of one of the ones I put
Speaker 1: together with some help from KYT several years ago, many
Speaker 1: years ago, called a day with Rick Patino, and he
Speaker 1: agreed to let us follow them around. I set in
Speaker 1: on a staff meeting. Fascinating, but he would not wear
Speaker 1: a microphone during the game, and it's certainly it was
Speaker 1: because of the profanity. He didn't want people to hear that.
Speaker 1: But we had microphones near the bench. They picked it
Speaker 1: up anyway, We bleeped it, you know. But he tried
Speaker 1: to tell us he didn't want to wear a mic
Speaker 1: because he thought the players would be self conscious.
Speaker 2: Come on, man.
Speaker 1: But it turned out to be a great show. It
Speaker 1: was fun, and I borrowed an idea from the old
Speaker 1: Candid Camera Show, which every once in a while would
Speaker 1: show a piece that it did. It was a Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: traffic cop who would dance in the intersection as he
Speaker 1: directed traffic, and they put it to opera music. So
Speaker 1: I had the idea, let's put a camera on Patino
Speaker 1: for the entire game. We had one guy shooting, just
Speaker 1: Patino and all his antics, and our production manager Tom Bickel,
Speaker 1: sat in an edit bay for hours with tape after
Speaker 1: tape after tape and had two different pieces of opera music,
Speaker 1: one was Italian, one was German, and put it together.
Speaker 2: It was brilliant. It won an Addie.
Speaker 3: Award that year.
Speaker 1: So Patinos wore mikes before, but he always wants to
Speaker 1: be in control. But before the break, could I please
Speaker 1: just take a moment, if you'll indulge me. I have
Speaker 1: said many many times that I will not mix I
Speaker 1: will not talk politics on this show unless for some
Speaker 1: reason it mixes with sports. All right, there are plenty
Speaker 1: of shows out there and podcasts, and you know, plenty
Speaker 1: of media out there on politics, but social media is
Speaker 1: a different animal. I will tweet and retweet about it,
Speaker 1: even under the name Big Blue Insider on my Twitter
Speaker 1: account and of course on my own personal Facebook account,
Speaker 1: and I've gotten that strict of sports stuff. No, not
Speaker 1: gonna do it. I'm an American citizen, I'm entitled to
Speaker 1: my opinion. I promised you I won't mix it in.
Speaker 1: I won't bring it up on this show unless it
Speaker 1: has to do with sports. Like Congress getting involved with something,
Speaker 1: but on my social media account, no, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to adhere to shut up and dribble kind of thinking.
Speaker 1: So just wanted to throw that in. If you don't
Speaker 1: like it, that's fine. I respect you don't follow me,
Speaker 1: that's cool. I won't think any less of you. Well
Speaker 1: maybe a little, but h No, I'm gonna keep speaking
Speaker 1: my mind.
Speaker 2: All right, let's step out.
Speaker 1: When we come back, we'll hear from the UK seniors
Speaker 1: one six point thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider coming up in just a few minutes, unforgettable
Speaker 1: guard Sean Woods. A little bit later on Darren Hedrick,
Speaker 1: just ahead of the UK women's basketball team's trip to
Speaker 1: the SEC Tournament yep, March Madness postseason. It's already on
Speaker 1: top of us. And later on our West End Bureau
Speaker 1: chief Gary Moore has promised, I wanted to share with you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this in segments, the conversation Jack Gibbons
Speaker 1: had with the seniors, and he did this last year
Speaker 1: and I remember, you know, there were so many question
Speaker 1: marks or was it a couple of years ago what
Speaker 1: he had all the seniors on and he said, I
Speaker 1: don't want a decision now, but there could be a
Speaker 1: chance and some of you are coming back and all that,
Speaker 1: and people clapped and they all kin. You know, nobody
Speaker 1: came back. But Jack talked to the six seniors three
Speaker 1: at a time after the blowout win last night over
Speaker 1: LSU on the UK Sports Network. So here's the first batch.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna play the second part because he didn't talk
Speaker 1: to him all at once. He've only got so many microphones.
Speaker 1: I'll play that in the second hour. But this is
Speaker 1: Lamont Butler, Mariy Williams, and Kobe Braya talking to Jack Gibbons,
Speaker 1: and Butler speaks first just about his experience here at Kentucky.
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, I think it was easy though.
Speaker 4: I mean, just having the great people around me, the
Speaker 4: guys to push me every day to go out there
Speaker 4: and you know, be my best and you know, just
Speaker 4: allow me to be a leader as well. You know,
Speaker 4: coming from a different school with also everybody else coming
Speaker 4: from a different school, it was kind of new. And
Speaker 4: you know, from day one I saw everybody's working. I
Speaker 4: think everybody's passion and h you know, we grew together,
Speaker 4: you know, really quick, and you know, it's been beautiful
Speaker 4: what we were able to do, and now we want
Speaker 4: to continue to do more and make it special again.
Speaker 5: One thing that said early on was you guys kind
Speaker 5: of play with a little bit of a chip on
Speaker 5: your shoulder because I think, to a man, you guys
Speaker 5: wanted to prove that you deserve to be here and
Speaker 5: should have been here from day one when you came
Speaker 5: out of high school. Amari, did that figure in with
Speaker 5: you at all when you had to make the decision
Speaker 5: to come here.
Speaker 6: In terms of, like you said, trying to prove yourself.
Speaker 6: I was thinking that just you know, coming from a
Speaker 6: mid major, and I can say the same about I say,
Speaker 6: like a like Ansley Kobe too, just you know, just
Speaker 6: proven out you you can play on this level and
Speaker 6: can go into the challenge.
Speaker 3: Wry I to say that for sure.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And Kobe, you know when you came in with
Speaker 5: a big reputation, you've lipped that out. It's just fun
Speaker 5: to see how you guys have come together. And that's
Speaker 5: hard to do with the backgrounds coming from all over
Speaker 5: the place. But talk to me a little bit about
Speaker 5: how that process has developed over the course of this season.
Speaker 3: That has flown right on behind.
Speaker 7: Is honestly It's honestly crazy how fast time has flew
Speaker 7: by this season. And I think when you think about that,
Speaker 7: you kind of go back to the summer and everything
Speaker 7: that we went through during the summer, whether it was
Speaker 7: all the Bluss Winds series that were putting together in
Speaker 7: the gym, or just all the fun that we had
Speaker 7: together off the court. You know, I think that stuff
Speaker 7: that kind of made our bond a lot stronger. And
Speaker 7: I think that when we step on the floor and
Speaker 7: we play, you can kind of see how much we
Speaker 7: love each other.
Speaker 3: And that's been a big part of our success. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's for sure.
Speaker 5: I want to go back you're talking about over the summer.
Speaker 5: I want to go back because you guys, all three
Speaker 5: of you, actually all six of you, could have gone
Speaker 5: to any number of schools around the country. I mean,
Speaker 5: you were getting recruited. You were it's like coming out
Speaker 5: of high school. What had you heard about Kentucky that
Speaker 5: made you want to make the decision to play here?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I heard that it was just different here,
Speaker 4: just you know, the fan base was just a different level.
Speaker 3: Also just playing you knowing the sec.
Speaker 4: You know, I knew that I was going to be
Speaker 4: a bigger challenge for myself, and you know, I just
Speaker 4: was ready to take that challenge head off.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: We don't see many seven foot point guards, man, I
Speaker 5: mean we just don't. I mean, that's a part of
Speaker 5: the game, folks that get because because of our injuries,
Speaker 5: especially that this one runs and the normal point guard.
Speaker 5: I don't know that we're nearly as good as we
Speaker 5: are with the improvements you've made in your game. Talk
Speaker 5: to me about that. Think in a seven footer running
Speaker 5: the point guard spot.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it came about in the Tennessee game.
Speaker 6: Before the game, I really didn't know that that was
Speaker 6: going to happen, and you know, I took the ball
Speaker 6: of the court a few times and we figured out
Speaker 6: it was. And you know, ever since then, my teammates
Speaker 6: coaches have the confidence of me to just bring the
Speaker 6: boat up every time, and it's held me in many
Speaker 6: other areas too, And I feel like this is the
Speaker 6: reason why my game grew on so much.
Speaker 5: Comes As a guy who is going to be taking
Speaker 5: the next step.
Speaker 3: You always wanted to think what's up next?
Speaker 5: How important is it for you though, to close out
Speaker 5: the rest of this season understanding that the next step
Speaker 5: is going to be there a lot of decisions still
Speaker 5: to be made. Talk to me about the importance of
Speaker 5: the rest of this season. Yeah, I mean, I think.
Speaker 7: For ourselfs and just for the rest of the team,
Speaker 7: where we're all trying to just stay present in the moment.
Speaker 7: You know, we know that we have big plans, big
Speaker 7: goals that we're trying to achieve the next step. Honestly,
Speaker 7: that's the furthest thing from right now. I think we're
Speaker 7: all focused on number nine and that's been the main
Speaker 7: focus since we got here. We're not going to start
Speaker 7: to you know, we put in all the way that
Speaker 7: we can't to be able to get to this at all.
Speaker 5: I like that answer the last question, and either one
Speaker 5: of you or whole of you can deal with us.
Speaker 5: Senior night is always special. I mean it's always special.
Speaker 5: Some of you might have experienced that in other places,
Speaker 5: but you know the emotion that goes with that, having
Speaker 5: your families here to enjoy this night with you, I know,
Speaker 5: it's very special. Talk to me just a little about
Speaker 5: that senior night experience.
Speaker 3: Were you a little bit tight early in this game?
Speaker 3: I was ready to go.
Speaker 4: Yeah, after the senior and night thing, but you know
Speaker 4: it definitely was a special moment for me and my
Speaker 4: family to be here, know in front of you all
Speaker 4: fans and you guys. You know, just like like someone
Speaker 4: said earlier that you guys just just took his hands
Speaker 4: so quick, and know, you guys just showed us a
Speaker 4: lot of love, and you know we played with that
Speaker 4: same love on the court, you know, for each other
Speaker 4: and for you guys. So definitely want to thank everybody
Speaker 4: for coming out and supporting us, and you know this
Speaker 4: has been a great year for us.
Speaker 1: And that's Curtis City UK Sports Network of course, and
Speaker 1: our number two. We're here the other three seniors talking
Speaker 1: about their experiences here at Kentucky Senior Night.
Speaker 2: Always special as you know, it.
Speaker 1: Includes the traditional playing of My Old Kentucky Home. It's
Speaker 1: always a treat. And you know what's been circulating on
Speaker 1: social media was a clip from this day, March the fifth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, when the Wildcats said goodbye, and that
Speaker 1: was one talented Kentucky team that was Rex Chapman's second year,
Speaker 1: Cedric Jenkins, Winston Bennett, Robert Locke. It was also the
Speaker 1: last time Happy Chandler would sing My Old Kentucky Home
Speaker 1: at Rupp Aerina. I'm gonna play the entire thing for
Speaker 1: you at the end of the show. Here's a little
Speaker 1: snippet of it from Chandler. And by the way, for
Speaker 1: those of you who are still maybe uncomfortable or resentful
Speaker 1: of mild Kentucky Home, because the initial song itself included
Speaker 1: a word that is now offensive to attribute everybody but
Speaker 1: to African Americans. And of course that was a song
Speaker 1: was a product of its time. But because of that,
Speaker 1: it's become known as a racist song. And you can
Speaker 1: wonder about that, and I think it's fair. But I
Speaker 1: actually did a little research on this and I was
Speaker 1: amazed to learn. And we should know this as Kentuckians,
Speaker 1: because if you know the song, appreciated it, like it.
Speaker 3: Love it.
Speaker 1: It was written by Stephen Foster. You know Stephen Foster
Speaker 1: story over in Bartstown. Stephen Foster was an abolitionist. Stephen
Speaker 1: Foster was an outright opponent of slavery and activist and
Speaker 1: an activist when it came to slavery. So why did
Speaker 1: he write the song? Well, the song was written in
Speaker 1: his mind through the eyes of a slave, a man
Speaker 1: who had been working a farm in Kentucky and had
Speaker 1: been sold taken away from his family and sent to
Speaker 1: another farm out of state, and he was just thinking
Speaker 1: about the day he could return to his family in
Speaker 1: Kentucky and how much he loved being in Kentucky. Now,
Speaker 1: I didn't love being a slave, obviously, but I just
Speaker 1: thought that was a fascinating piece of history. So I
Speaker 1: had to do a little about face or big about
Speaker 1: face on my old Kentucky home. And there's a little
Speaker 1: bit of happy Chandler singing it. On March fifth, nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight.
Speaker 8: Will see one.
Speaker 9: Talking oh.
Speaker 10: Oh oh, and you've probably seen the clip that Chandler finishes.
Speaker 1: With a deep, deep bow. Crowd went nuts as you
Speaker 1: could hear. Robert Locke, a Californian who was given to
Speaker 1: tears during the song, went over and gave him a
Speaker 1: big hug. The late Van Florence, who at the time
Speaker 1: was the president of the Committee of One O One.
Speaker 1: The guys who wear the blue jackets, had to help
Speaker 1: Governor Chandler out in the Chandler's wheelchair and then they
Speaker 1: left to just a lingering ovation. It was a great
Speaker 1: moment in the history of rupp Arena, all right. Coming
Speaker 1: up next, Shawn Woods, the Unforgettable Guard he went through
Speaker 1: a senior night of his own or back in just
Speaker 1: a minute here on six point thirty Wlap.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to.
Speaker 1: The Big Blue and Cider joining us now to us
Speaker 1: every week is the Unforgettable Guard Coach Sean Woods and
Speaker 1: coach before we talk about the high school schedule you're working.
Speaker 1: The regionals are on top of us. But last night, man,
Speaker 1: a blowout wind. You love to see that on senior night.
Speaker 1: And I know, I don't think your senior night went
Speaker 1: quite the way you had hoped it.
Speaker 3: Would, but.
Speaker 1: It's always special. What was it like for you, you know,
Speaker 1: the days leading up to that and knowing how emotional
Speaker 1: it was going to be, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: What was that like?
Speaker 11: Well, we had a bet that you know, we didn't
Speaker 11: want to cry when they played my old Kentucky hose. Yeah,
Speaker 11: the four of us, and we didn't cry. I'll tell
Speaker 11: you what the other players did. All the teammates of
Speaker 11: more teary eyed and more sentimental than we were. Surprising,
Speaker 11: But you know, it was a great night, you know,
Speaker 11: starting off and my goal that night was to break
Speaker 11: the single game assist record, which was I think eleven
Speaker 11: or something like that. It's not twelve. I can't remember
Speaker 11: twelve thirteen, and I was on my way. I had
Speaker 11: seven assists in the first seven minutes for eight minutes,
Speaker 11: and then I get in an altercation with Jay Wright
Speaker 11: or whatever his name was, and get thrown out the game.
Speaker 12: I had forty seven people to come watch, family members.
Speaker 12: They all go out to get something to eat at
Speaker 12: concession stand and come back and there's no more sean.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 12: So that's what I remember about my senior night. And
Speaker 12: then coach Patino comes in and after we had won
Speaker 12: a tough game against Tennessee, Coach Patino comes in, goes
Speaker 12: wait to spend senior unit in solitude sewn.
Speaker 2: Wow, he knew how to dig it in, didn't he?
Speaker 1: Do You know what the single game assist record is now,
Speaker 1: I'd forgotten about this now ty Ty Washington at seventeen
Speaker 1: against Georgia back in twenty twenty two. People forget how
Speaker 1: good he was when he was healthy and what he
Speaker 1: should have done here. That that guy was crazy talented,
Speaker 1: and then then he got hurt, came back, got hurt again.
Speaker 1: So but not unlike Lamont Butler. But Lamont played against LSU.
Speaker 1: You had to love that watching him take apart Lsu.
Speaker 12: Well, Lamont Butler. I just wanted him to be, you know,
Speaker 12: have to you know, have some success to end towards
Speaker 12: the end of this year, because he deserves it. You know. Unfortunate,
Speaker 12: this shoulder injury, this labor deal is is just a
Speaker 12: hard injury to deal with and the only way it
Speaker 12: gets better is with surgery, and he's fighting tooth and
Speaker 12: nail through it. Just so weak as a basketball team
Speaker 12: and have a chance. And I just give him all
Speaker 12: the kudos because you know, without him, there's no telling
Speaker 12: what this season could have been like just by himself
Speaker 12: being that ultimate point guard on both ends of the court.
Speaker 13: So I just want him to have a.
Speaker 12: Great ending to a heck of a senior year. Only
Speaker 12: one year here at the UK. I wish he had
Speaker 12: more years here because he's definitely the epitome of what
Speaker 12: a winner it is, especially at that spot.
Speaker 1: We just heard the comments he made to Jack Gibbings
Speaker 1: after the game, and you could tell how much he
Speaker 1: loves it here and how much all of them appreciate it.
Speaker 1: It's really great, Sean, and you can relate.
Speaker 2: Obviously you lived it.
Speaker 1: We're all six of them, but beginning with Lamont talked
Speaker 1: about what it meant to them just to get the
Speaker 1: opportunity to play here, just for a year because on
Speaker 1: the outside looking and you grew up with Kentucky basketball
Speaker 1: because of your relatives and election and even though you
Speaker 1: were up in Indiana. We know, you know you've talked
Speaker 1: about this many times, but think about players, and you've
Speaker 1: played against guys across the country who probably look at
Speaker 1: your team your programming thought, Man, what must it be
Speaker 1: like to play for a team that's on the mountaintop,
Speaker 1: And some of them, I'm sure thought I should be there.
Speaker 1: I'm good enough, he no better than I am. But
Speaker 1: that's just the way it was. And these guys were
Speaker 1: so appreciative of wearing.
Speaker 13: That jersey, no doubt about it, especially where they're coming from.
Speaker 12: You know, most of these guys were mid major players
Speaker 12: who come out of high school, had no chance of
Speaker 12: coming to the University of Kentucky. But about the grace
Speaker 12: of God and rule changes and things like that. To
Speaker 12: be honest, under the circumstances of coach Pope putting the
Speaker 12: team together at the last minute, getting the job late,
Speaker 12: so on and so forth, he couldn't have put a
Speaker 12: better group of guys together to really embrace what Kentucky
Speaker 12: basketball is all about. And kudos to him and his
Speaker 12: staff because there wasn't just it wasn't just about trying
Speaker 12: to get the best players, which they were trying to do,
Speaker 12: but in hindsight, they got the best people that he
Speaker 12: could have gotten as young men, especially for a situation
Speaker 12: like this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he had to do it so quickly, you know.
Speaker 1: And you and I've talked before about what it's like
Speaker 1: trying to figure out and recruit.
Speaker 2: You really can't recruit chemistry. Billy Donovan.
Speaker 1: I asked him once about those championship teams of his
Speaker 1: at Florida, and he said, look, we all hope for
Speaker 1: good chemistry, but you can't create it. You can't recruit it.
Speaker 1: It just has to happen, and you just got to
Speaker 1: hope for the best. Mark was able to recruit mature individuals,
Speaker 1: guys who had already grown up a great deal. But
Speaker 1: he had to do it in a hurry. Whereas you
Speaker 1: as a recruiter of high school and JUCO kids, any
Speaker 1: occasional transfer, you got a lot of transfers.
Speaker 2: As you said, you got to.
Speaker 1: Count on other people telling you this kid's a good kid,
Speaker 1: or you might want to stay.
Speaker 3: Away right out about it.
Speaker 12: And even more with transfers because they're older, they're kind
Speaker 12: of setting their ways a little bit. You know that
Speaker 12: they've they've been in programs being coached by other guys,
Speaker 12: and you never know what their coach is like. You know,
Speaker 12: I never tried to go after a guy that scored
Speaker 12: a bunch of points on a losing team, because that's
Speaker 12: who he is. He's a loser, even though he's capable
Speaker 12: of scoring points, but he still has that loser's mentality
Speaker 12: because if he was all that and and the best player,
Speaker 12: he wasn't good at making other people better on this team.
Speaker 12: So you know, that's where Mark did a great job
Speaker 12: of getting guys that epitomized team. I mean Lamont Butler,
Speaker 12: you know, helped at the point guard spot get his
Speaker 12: team to the final four. He's the you know, besides
Speaker 12: the players at Alabama, he's the most experienced and most
Speaker 12: successful point guard in the SEC that you know. So
Speaker 12: and then you get other guys that Jeff are happy
Speaker 12: to be here and would give everything they got to
Speaker 12: play at Kentucky, he got those type guys. He didn't
Speaker 12: get a Prima Donna coming in here, he didn't do
Speaker 12: anything and that's what made it work. Unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 12: injuries and reality set in a little bit before a
Speaker 12: first year deal. He was super competitive. Our cats were,
Speaker 12: you know, a team to be proud of. We just
Speaker 12: didn't have enough or don't have enough to win it
Speaker 12: right now. But I think the print is already set.
Speaker 12: I think the coach is already set, and I think,
Speaker 12: you know, the the shoe print is already embedded into
Speaker 12: the mud. So now these guys, you know, when they
Speaker 12: go out and you know, get a player two, it
Speaker 12: ain't about the name anymore. It's about what fits. And
Speaker 12: now these guys have become household names. We just got
Speaker 12: to get more and get deeper, and you know, we
Speaker 12: got to get used to, you know, as Kentucky fans.
Speaker 12: You know, at first he was the one and done
Speaker 12: with high school kids. Now it's gonna be one and
Speaker 12: done with Collins tredfor maybe two years.
Speaker 1: You might get love, but you're right about that. Shawn Woods,
Speaker 1: my guess, the unforgettable guard. We'll come back and talk
Speaker 1: more basketball with sewn on the other side of the break.
Speaker 1: Six thirty Wlap welcome back. One more question for Shawn Woods,
Speaker 1: our unforgettable guard. We talked to him on Wednesdays about
Speaker 1: this Kentucky team before I ask you about high school ball,
Speaker 1: because Shawn is part of the Glacott coverage of high
Speaker 1: school ball. In it's a tournament time, you know, do
Speaker 1: you throw out the Auburn game is just a bad
Speaker 1: horse race. I mean they were in it until that
Speaker 1: flurry of turnovers. I thought they got rattled a little bit.
Speaker 1: I thought they were intimidated, intimidated a little bit. I
Speaker 1: think they can use that experience in a good way.
Speaker 1: How do you approach that?
Speaker 12: The only thing we did good in that game was
Speaker 12: we made it tough for Broum. But other than that,
Speaker 12: you know, reality is reality, and that team is just more, way,
Speaker 12: more talented than we are right now today, you know
Speaker 12: what I mean, That's just it is what it is.
Speaker 12: You know, was it a disappointing loss, Yeah, But that
Speaker 12: team right now the other day was that much better
Speaker 12: better than us. I mean, let's just you know, with
Speaker 12: everything from top to bottom players, you know, you can
Speaker 12: have all the coaching in the world, but if you
Speaker 12: ain't got those Jim and Joe's, you know, it's it's
Speaker 12: hard and They just are so talented and that's the
Speaker 12: reason why they're the number one team in America. They
Speaker 12: lost last night, but I think they were on a
Speaker 12: little high and really a little hangover knowing that they
Speaker 12: clinched the number one spot in the SEC, and not
Speaker 12: only that. I don't think it's going to bother them
Speaker 12: by being the number one overall seed in the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Well, let me shift you over the high school ball.
Speaker 1: You are a busy, busy man with the Glackcott broadcast.
Speaker 1: The eleventh Region tournament is already underway right now. It's
Speaker 1: Great Crossing coming up against Brian station le see in
Speaker 1: Catholic against Frederick Douglas. Man. Those are going to be great,
Speaker 1: great ballgame, Sean. Do you see a state champion? I
Speaker 1: guess they are potentially state champs. But do you see
Speaker 1: perhaps the boys state champion in that group?
Speaker 11: Potentially?
Speaker 12: You know, on paper you would say great Crossing because
Speaker 12: they got you know, Moreno and the other kid that's
Speaker 12: going to Moorhead.
Speaker 13: But you know St.
Speaker 12: NX is really good.
Speaker 11: You know St.
Speaker 1: Nax is really really good, and.
Speaker 12: Thus far, you know, they've beaten everybody that they need
Speaker 12: to beat in the state. The thing about the eleventh
Speaker 12: region is it was the toughest region in the state
Speaker 12: of Kentucky. It was the most competitive region in the state.
Speaker 12: And you know, Douglas wasn't darling of it. But coming
Speaker 12: down the stretch, they beat Brian's Station three times in
Speaker 12: a row, and Brian Station finally beat him when it
Speaker 12: counted in the district championship. But on paper, talent wise,
Speaker 12: Douglas is the better team, but that night Brian Station
Speaker 12: got him. On any given night, that can happen. You know,
Speaker 12: Brian Station, the game you know so far is going
Speaker 12: to be Brian's Station and Great Crossing coming up this weekend,
Speaker 12: simply because of contrasting styles. Brand Station. You know, it's
Speaker 12: a great pressing team. They put pressure on you for
Speaker 12: the whole game. They cause KOs chaos, and they can
Speaker 12: give Great Crossing problems. If they can keep Marino off
Speaker 12: the glass. If they can, you know, keep Marino off
Speaker 12: the glass and not let him dominate the game and
Speaker 12: make him have to come out and speed them up,
Speaker 12: Brand Station has a good chance of upsetting them. And
Speaker 12: if not, Dougas is the same, but a little more
Speaker 12: talented and bigger they have a shot, but right now
Speaker 12: the team to beat in the eleventh region is Great Crosses.
Speaker 1: Okay, by the way, Saint X if you like to
Speaker 1: follow the entire state place Friday night in the boys
Speaker 1: seventh region semis against Ballard, which could be a good one,
Speaker 1: my beloved Trinity Shamrocks. Or in the other bracket we
Speaker 1: played DuPont Manual. And then the championship game is on
Speaker 1: March tenth, and it's all at Valley High School, which
Speaker 1: is way out at the other end of Jefferson County,
Speaker 1: way far away from Trinity and accent, especially Balor. But anyhow,
Speaker 1: we'll keep an eye on that one. Did you have
Speaker 1: a chance to see Moreno last year, because I'm wondering
Speaker 1: I did in the sweet sixteen. I'm wondering how much
Speaker 1: he's improved in your mind.
Speaker 12: I did see him last year, and I've seen him
Speaker 12: this year. Sure, I don't see that much. I didn't
Speaker 12: see that much improvement. I thought he was. I was
Speaker 12: very impressed with him last year. Just with a guy
Speaker 12: that with that side, that can still maneuver and get
Speaker 12: things done against smaller people. Some bigs, you know, a
Speaker 12: really good big, you know prospect as far as college
Speaker 12: basketball is concerned, but sometimes they have a hard time
Speaker 12: with little guys that are guarding them, and they got
Speaker 12: to guard the little guy in high school. Well Moreno
Speaker 12: was skilled enough, got enough ball hand ability to where
Speaker 12: he can make moves in traffic against midgets. So that's
Speaker 12: that's what that that is what impressed me with him
Speaker 12: thus far. You know what what can urns me is
Speaker 12: playing for Mark Pope is can he shoot the basketball
Speaker 12: with range? You know, he's supposed to be a skilled guy,
Speaker 12: and I would like for his motor to get to
Speaker 12: get going a little bit more. But from a dominating standpoint,
Speaker 12: you know that that's the question. Because if you're a
Speaker 12: McDonald All American you're coming to Kentucky, you must you've
Speaker 12: got to be in your area the most dominant player around.
Speaker 12: And you know, I've seen him dominate some and then
Speaker 12: I have it. But you know, the potential is definitely there,
Speaker 12: uh for sure, and you can't turn down to McDonald America,
Speaker 12: especially in your back door. So hoping and wishing and
Speaker 12: that he, you know, can come here and really have
Speaker 12: a great career, uh being a Kentucky kid. But there's
Speaker 12: a lot of people gonna be looking at him because
Speaker 12: he does have that McDonald all Americans bulls on his back,
Speaker 12: and he's not coming in here to be a role player.
Speaker 11: You got to come in here and be a.
Speaker 12: Stud, especially with all these guys to leave it. So yeah,
Speaker 12: he's going to be counted on real early.
Speaker 1: That's well put. You can't come here and be a
Speaker 1: role player. In that role, he's at every game sitting
Speaker 1: in the end zone when he can. And you know,
Speaker 1: my question is can he come here and be the
Speaker 1: passing big man they need in this Mark Pope offense
Speaker 1: because clearly Amari Williams, I don't expect Marino to bring
Speaker 1: a ball up the floor, you know, but that high
Speaker 1: post passing and Brandon Garrison had a career high and
Speaker 1: assist last night. Of course everything went right, but that's
Speaker 1: that's a key, it looks like to me, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know more about it than I do. To the
Speaker 1: Pope offense, just everybody cutting for the back door.
Speaker 3: Well, I have.
Speaker 12: Seen him at times get the ball off the glass,
Speaker 12: get a rebound and push it himself and make play.
Speaker 13: So he is capable of.
Speaker 12: Doing that, you know. Now with the level you know enhances,
Speaker 12: he's at a higher level a lot more is going
Speaker 12: to be expected of him from a work ethic standpoint,
Speaker 12: and let's see when he gets into fire. But potentially
Speaker 12: I think he's he has the goods. It's unfortunate that,
Speaker 12: you know, because this transport portal and as many guys
Speaker 12: as Kentucky have leaving, you know, he's he's got to
Speaker 12: be counted on real, real fast, unfortunately, and uh, you know,
Speaker 12: his growth is going to have to be considered.
Speaker 11: Real real quick.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever saw his brother play
Speaker 1: over at Eku. Oh yeah, his brother, Man, he had
Speaker 1: a motor, didn't he.
Speaker 12: His brother was a really good high school player under
Speaker 12: sized post, but injuries kind of hurt him a little bit.
Speaker 12: And he wasn't a shooter in high school and because
Speaker 12: of the injuries, he couldn't move like he used to.
Speaker 12: And he became one of the best shooters in Eastern
Speaker 12: Kentucky basketballers.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right, and he was an absolute all star. So, uh,
Speaker 1: he's get What that tells you is that Michael's getting
Speaker 1: good advice, or of Malachi is getting good advice from Michael.
Speaker 1: And if they're hanging out in the backyard playing, you
Speaker 1: know they are He's gonna help him there as well. Coach,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and be sure you look for
Speaker 1: Shawn Woods on the Glackcod coverage. Well, are you working
Speaker 1: with Keith Elkins this week again?
Speaker 11: Yep, Keith Elkins and I together Friday night.
Speaker 1: All right, brother, we'll be watching. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Follow Shawn on Twitter at Shawn Woods one one two zero,
Speaker 1: Shawn Woods eleven twenty. I be sure you drop in
Speaker 1: the eleven twenty because I forgot a couple times and
Speaker 1: somebody else named Shawn Woods would reach out and say
Speaker 1: wrong guy.
Speaker 13: Uh.
Speaker 1: But also again, watch for his coverage on YouTube. We'll
Speaker 1: just go to Glackcod dot com and I think they're
Speaker 1: on YouTube later. But he and Keith dulcans working the
Speaker 1: eleventh region, and as he said, it is the most
Speaker 1: contentious region right now down to the semifinals in boys
Speaker 1: high school basketball. They got girls games too.
Speaker 2: They got it all, all right. I Number two coming.
Speaker 1: Up next with Darren Hedrick and Gary Moore here on
Speaker 1: six point thirty WLA.
Speaker 10: Puntattattention then anything to.
Speaker 14: Do.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Big Bone.
Speaker 1: Sader I renumber two of our program joining us now
Speaker 1: on the Celebrity hotline is a guy who now is
Speaker 1: hip deep in March madness. It is upon us because
Speaker 1: conference tournaments are here. Darren Headrick is as we speak,
Speaker 1: heading for Greenville, South Carolina. But Darren, how excited are
Speaker 1: you with this Kentucky team which has shown it can
Speaker 1: play with anybody. They showed that at South Carolina, and
Speaker 1: they've gotten now all star players thanks to the list
Speaker 1: that came out the other day from the SEC. They
Speaker 1: got a shot, don't they?
Speaker 13: Yes, I think they do. I'm really excited to see
Speaker 13: what this team can do in the tournament. And obviously
Speaker 13: it's all going to start Friday with either Arkansas, Georgia
Speaker 13: or more likely Oklahoma, depending on how things shake out.
Speaker 13: And you know, Kentucky beat Oklahoma on their home floor.
Speaker 13: It's hard to ask Georgia amore to repeat forty three
Speaker 13: point performance. But I still I like the matchup for Kentucky.
Speaker 13: And then you look forward to that more than likely
Speaker 13: you'll see South Carolina, and then it's going to be
Speaker 13: more than likely Texas, and it's coach Brooks says, you
Speaker 13: wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy. But I think
Speaker 13: this team is built, you know, for runs like this
Speaker 13: and I know after playing South Carolina is so tough
Speaker 13: in Columbia, I personally would love to see that match
Speaker 13: up again just to see if Kentucky could figure out
Speaker 13: a way to make that one point game into a victory. So,
Speaker 13: you know, it's going to be a fun tournament down there.
Speaker 13: I think it's going to be with so many teams
Speaker 13: dick on that same elite level, LSU, Kentucky, Texas, South Carolina.
Speaker 13: I think it's going to be a really fun tournament
Speaker 13: this weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, we all know the LSU game
Speaker 1: got away from him. They played so well against South Carolina.
Speaker 2: It got away from him.
Speaker 1: Was there anything that happened in both of those games
Speaker 1: in the second half that they need to avoid? Was
Speaker 1: there was there anything that that was a coincidence or
Speaker 1: was it the same sort of problems?
Speaker 13: So I think it's just avoiding that little bit of
Speaker 13: a lull against South Carolina. Kentucky had in a one
Speaker 13: point game with five minutes to go and then turned
Speaker 13: it over seven times down the stretch. And South Carolina
Speaker 13: is a team that you turn it over and their
Speaker 13: transition game is going to make you pay for it.
Speaker 13: Against LSU, it was a combination of a few things,
Speaker 13: but there was a bit of a lull there where
Speaker 13: they had some turnovers and weren't able to score it.
Speaker 13: And I do think Kentucky learned from that LSU game
Speaker 13: and that third quarter in the second half, the disastrous
Speaker 13: third quarter with some shots didn't fall, and they learned
Speaker 13: from that. I thought against Tennessee, they finished the game
Speaker 13: when they had a chance coming out of halftime, put
Speaker 13: their foot on the gas and just pulled away. You know,
Speaker 13: South Carolina is a different animal because their first wave
Speaker 13: and their second wave, there's no fall off there. And
Speaker 13: Kentucky was still in that ball game with five minutes
Speaker 13: to go. So I think it's just learning to clean
Speaker 13: some things up and finished plays. And Kentucky he's right
Speaker 13: there there. It's they're right there with some of the
Speaker 13: best teams in the country right now.
Speaker 9: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was sitting next to you.
Speaker 1: I mentioned this on the show the follow right after
Speaker 1: the Tennessee game, but you turn to me during a
Speaker 1: commercial break at halftime, you said, now, you know, can
Speaker 1: they play well in the third quarter? Basically, you know,
Speaker 1: they got to come out and pay well in the
Speaker 1: third against Tennessee, and they did that. So yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: they'll learn, they've got pride, they're smart, which brings me
Speaker 1: to my next question. I love hearing you talk to
Speaker 1: Kenny Brooks. I learned so much about basketball, about his team,
Speaker 1: about him, both postgame and on the Monday Night show.
Speaker 1: You've watched them all year, Darren. What is it about
Speaker 1: him that that you think chiefly that that has made
Speaker 1: him so successful?
Speaker 13: I think it's just being genuine. He's very open and honest.
Speaker 13: I do think that he'll have excuse me, he'll have
Speaker 13: intimate commonversations with you about basketball and give you his
Speaker 13: honest thoughts, and he'll kind of let you in on
Speaker 13: his thinking process. And I love the way he can
Speaker 13: relate things to people he's talking to, like myself or
Speaker 13: even the players. I still go back to the pregame
Speaker 13: chat against Tennessee when I asked him what made Tennessee's
Speaker 13: press different from other teams that have tried to press him,
Speaker 13: and he says, well, they're just like the flies at
Speaker 13: a picnic. They want you to know they're there. You
Speaker 13: can swat them away, but then they come back and
Speaker 13: they're just kind of there, and then all of a
Speaker 13: sudden they land on your food and you're trying to
Speaker 13: keep them off your food. He wasn't calling Tennessee players flies,
Speaker 13: but it was a similar deal there with the annoyance
Speaker 13: and just having to deal with the problem. But it's
Speaker 13: just the way he can describe things and relate to
Speaker 13: players and the family atmosphere. But overall, Dick, I think
Speaker 13: he's just genuine with how he treats people, how he
Speaker 13: deals with people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he was about that Tennessee press, uh, because
Speaker 1: sitting in their court side, you realize it. You know,
Speaker 1: if they turn you over, that's great, But what they're
Speaker 1: trying to do is make you hurry up, make you
Speaker 1: think a little bit more, make you use up more
Speaker 1: of the shot clock, because let's face it, if a
Speaker 1: team's laying back in half court, you know, whoever's bringing
Speaker 1: the ball up the floor gets a little bit of
Speaker 1: a breed, like two or three seconds respite, and then
Speaker 1: they got to attack. Man, you got to attack as
Speaker 1: soon as you put the ball in bounds. But yeah, again,
Speaker 1: they learned their let They were so darren, so well
Speaker 1: prepared for the Tennessee game.
Speaker 2: It was so impressive.
Speaker 13: Yes, Yeah, I was amazed at how well they bounced
Speaker 13: back and learned from that LSU game and attacking Tennessee
Speaker 13: and the way they attacked that bress you kept taking man,
Speaker 13: can they keep up this page? Is Tennessee's depth is
Speaker 13: gonna wear them down? No, somehow Kentucky turned all that
Speaker 13: into their advantage all day long and Georgia A. Moore
Speaker 13: and Dejah Lawrence they were finding the open bigs. But
Speaker 13: again that goes back to I think something that separates
Speaker 13: Kentucky from the rest of the field and puts them
Speaker 13: on the cusp of being a leaf. They've got bigs
Speaker 13: Dick that are mobile. They can run the floor, they
Speaker 13: can bring the ball up. Clara Strack, Seanna Key, Amelia
Speaker 13: Hasset are all matchup nightmares for anybody that plays Kentucky
Speaker 13: this year.
Speaker 1: And Amelia's kind of been out of position this year,
Speaker 1: but because of the injuries to the two kids, it
Speaker 1: might have been starters.
Speaker 13: But she's played well, Yes, she really has. She's been
Speaker 13: a difference maker for this team. And you know, I
Speaker 13: think Coach Brooks even said on his radio show Monday Night,
Speaker 13: he'd like to see Amelia hunts her shot a little
Speaker 13: more right now, but she's still producing so big on
Speaker 13: the on the boards, averaging over eight rebounds a game,
Speaker 13: and she is a threat from three point range, and
Speaker 13: so bigs are having to close out on her that way,
Speaker 13: her guards are getting distracted by her, and so she
Speaker 13: just presents a multitude of problems. And as she continues
Speaker 13: to get better going into next season two, Kentucky's just
Speaker 13: going to be I think, a team that a lot
Speaker 13: of folks are going to want to watch.
Speaker 1: We're talking to Darren Hedrick, radio voice of the UK
Speaker 1: women's basketball program and also UK baseball, and as schedule
Speaker 1: has permitted, you have been able to check out, including
Speaker 1: last night's game Baseball Cats.
Speaker 2: That was around.
Speaker 1: Everything went well. The wind helped Kentucky was squaring everything up.
Speaker 1: But every game obviously hasn't quite been like that. But
Speaker 1: from what you've seen, and you've gone to scrimmages practices,
Speaker 1: what do you think of his team so far? What
Speaker 1: do you know about this team so far?
Speaker 13: I think this team is still improving, Dick. I don't
Speaker 13: think we've seen the best version of the baseball Cats,
Speaker 13: But having said that, as they're continuing to get better,
Speaker 13: I've been so impressed with how this team is handling
Speaker 13: business when they're going up against teams that they are
Speaker 13: better than. They're taking care of business, and they're winning
Speaker 13: games a dominant fashion, and I think that's building the
Speaker 13: confidence in the group as they continue to gel together
Speaker 13: and figure out the coaches are figuring out the way
Speaker 13: they want the lineup to be tooled. I have noticed
Speaker 13: that the coach, Benjiones seems to be dialing in on
Speaker 13: the lineup that he wants consistently as we approach SEC play.
Speaker 13: I think you're seeing the pitching staff start to come
Speaker 13: together into the roles that we expect him to be
Speaker 13: in going forward. But I've just really been impressed with
Speaker 13: the way they've handled business. They have four run rule
Speaker 13: games already, they've produced three shutouts, They've won what is
Speaker 13: it now, nine games in a row, entering a potential
Speaker 13: matchup with Eastern Kentucky this afternoon weather committing. So you know,
Speaker 13: it's just a team right now that's continuing to come together,
Speaker 13: and I think once they hit their stride, this is
Speaker 13: going to be another team to watch out for.
Speaker 1: People obviously will try to compare it to last year's team,
Speaker 1: which really isn't fair. But the way they played, just said,
Speaker 1: Benji o On and staff are and they recruited this team,
Speaker 1: most high school kids in through the portal. I think
Speaker 1: with that image in mind of how they won last year,
Speaker 1: and that is a lot of different guys who played
Speaker 1: different ways offensively, who pitched differently, different armslots chaos on
Speaker 1: the base paths, a surprising amount of power.
Speaker 2: And Nick pointed this out of media day.
Speaker 1: You were there when he said, and I thought he
Speaker 1: caught people by surprise. In conference games alone last year,
Speaker 1: Kentucky was fourth in the league at home runs. So
Speaker 1: those of us who initially were calling a small ball
Speaker 1: we had to back that down and say, no, that
Speaker 1: the they win every which way, and I believe this
Speaker 1: team is doing that.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, you look back
Speaker 13: at the win against Tostra on Sunday. It was eight walks,
Speaker 13: eight hit batters, and eight stolen bases, which tied a
Speaker 13: program record going back to two thousand and seven. And
Speaker 13: so they found different ways to score against Posture using
Speaker 13: what they like to call the tickets, which the three bases.
Speaker 13: But then against Eku, it was the power they hit.
Speaker 13: I think it was three doubles, they had a triple,
Speaker 13: they hit three home runs. This team has already hit
Speaker 13: three Grand Slams, and Dick, I'm thinking back to last season.
Speaker 13: I don't think the team that made Omaha ever hit
Speaker 13: a Grand Slam. If they did, they might have had one.
Speaker 13: There's not one that jumps to mind, so I apologize
Speaker 13: if I'm wrong on that. But this team's already hit
Speaker 13: three of them, and Cole Hayes provides a big bat.
Speaker 13: I love the power from the freshman Tyler Bell. The
Speaker 13: home run he hit last night against the Eku out
Speaker 13: to right field in the teeth of that thirty five
Speaker 13: to forty five mile an hour wind gust was a
Speaker 13: man sized home run. It was a shot that that speed,
Speaker 13: the swing, the timing was all there on it. That
Speaker 13: young man's just a phenomenal talent. And you know, you
Speaker 13: and I could continue to go through the list. Obviously,
Speaker 13: Dylan Coon's is going to provide some pop there at
Speaker 13: first base. This is a team that, just like I said,
Speaker 13: continues to come together and they're flashing a lot of
Speaker 13: the exciting ways of winning games that we've come to
Speaker 13: expect from baseball real quick. I just want to mention
Speaker 13: Luke Lawrence. I think if you wanted to look at
Speaker 13: the definition of a Kentucky baseball player Luke Lawrence, and
Speaker 13: we talked to coach benji On about it yesterday. He's
Speaker 13: a guy that checks a lot of the boxes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, catch Darren's call Friday two thirty in the SEC tournament.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, save travels.
Speaker 13: Yeah, no problem, DG. Thanks for having me bud up.
Speaker 1: Next, more of Jack Gibbons' conversation with a UK Seniors
Speaker 1: following last night's Senior Night victory over LSU and after that,
Speaker 1: Western Bureau Chief Gary Moore all ahead on six thirty
Speaker 1: back coming up in a few minutes, Western Buer Chief
Speaker 1: Gary Moore. But as promised, part two of Jack Gibbons'
Speaker 1: conversation with the sixth Seniors. Now he's talking to Jackson Robinson,
Speaker 1: Andrew carr And and Lee Almanor.
Speaker 5: I just want them to give you some love because
Speaker 5: of the way you guys have laid.
Speaker 3: Us on the line.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, it's been it's been pretty interesting because
Speaker 5: and I talked to Alvin Brooks about this. I said, Alvin,
Speaker 5: what have you guys done to help these guys to
Speaker 5: get these guys to blend.
Speaker 3: Together the way they have? What did you all do?
Speaker 5: And Alvin quite Frankly said, Man, I don't know. We
Speaker 5: just got some good guys, and I think that's been
Speaker 5: evident from day one.
Speaker 15: Jacks, Yeah, I think it starts to Coach Pope and
Speaker 15: just the people that he wants to bring into this
Speaker 15: program and represent the University of Kentucky. I think all
Speaker 15: these guys, all my teammates, my coaches, have made it
Speaker 15: really easy for these beautiful.
Speaker 3: Fans to really fall in love with this team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and Andrew, you have been in a lot of ways,
Speaker 5: especially to the younger guys, you have been a guy
Speaker 5: that they have looked up to. They come to you
Speaker 5: a lot with questions. I'd see you put your arm
Speaker 5: around them, actually all of you guys. But I think
Speaker 5: that's one of the things, Andrew that has been special
Speaker 5: for this team. It's it's not about individuals, it's all
Speaker 5: about team and that makes.
Speaker 3: A big difference. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 14: You know, I think for for all of us, it
Speaker 14: started in the summer. You know, off the court is
Speaker 14: the most was one of the most important things for us,
Speaker 14: trying to just get to know each other the best
Speaker 14: we can. And I think the cool part for me
Speaker 14: was just being able to to try and learn as
Speaker 14: much as I can about everybody, you know, on the
Speaker 14: deepest level as possible, just try and you know, be
Speaker 14: able to connect with everybody differently. You know, everybody's got
Speaker 14: their own interests and so you know, it's definitely important
Speaker 14: for me to try and get to know everybody on
Speaker 14: a on a super deep level. That helps you, you know,
Speaker 14: on the court and how how that brings everybody together.
Speaker 14: And so from the start we were able to do
Speaker 14: that just going out to eat and and you know,
Speaker 14: this is the the most fun I've had on a team.
Speaker 9: Man.
Speaker 3: I really love these guests, good and and Annesley.
Speaker 5: As I'd look at all the guys over the course
Speaker 5: of the season, I think you have had to grow
Speaker 5: your game as much as anybody on the team because
Speaker 5: everybody trying to play you for because they know how
Speaker 5: well you shoot the basketball. You've had to start creating
Speaker 5: off the dribble. And it's been fun to see how
Speaker 5: you have had to adjust your game to fit into
Speaker 5: new roles to help this team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely fun.
Speaker 16: You know, Like I said when I came here the first,
Speaker 16: like first day, I just want to come here and
Speaker 16: be able to help the team anyway possible. You know,
Speaker 16: and with Jackson going out like like that, so I just,
Speaker 16: you know, had to step into an extended roles, I think,
Speaker 16: a bigger role that I was previously you know, used
Speaker 16: to earlier in the season. So, like you said, just
Speaker 16: playing with the drible creator for myself and doing a
Speaker 16: little things like that, it makes a difference.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I like the growth of this team. We've
Speaker 3: had injuries. I don't have to go into that. Two
Speaker 3: of the two of the casts sitting here have.
Speaker 5: Had to struggle through a jacks You of course, Man,
Speaker 5: I just hated that you're not going to be with
Speaker 5: these I mean, you've accomplished so many great things, but Ben,
Speaker 5: you never can kind of prepare for the injury bug,
Speaker 5: and you've had to make adjustments through that.
Speaker 3: Issue as well.
Speaker 15: Yeah, I mean it's been huge these guys. Credit to
Speaker 15: these guys for just stepping up. Like Asley said, a
Speaker 15: lot of us have to figure out ways six in
Speaker 15: our roles and come better and find just little things
Speaker 15: that could you know, be the difference.
Speaker 3: In winning and losing ball games. So it's a huge
Speaker 3: credit to them.
Speaker 15: Like you said, you never know what could happen with injuries.
Speaker 15: So I'm just really proud of the guys for continue
Speaker 15: to rally, fight and come out with way as well.
Speaker 5: One thing I will say, though, because I watch you
Speaker 5: a lot.
Speaker 3: I watched the.
Speaker 5: Bench because when you were playing, I said you were
Speaker 5: the main guy, and even sitting over there, you were
Speaker 5: one of the main guys, and you stay engaged the
Speaker 5: whole time.
Speaker 3: I just love basketball, That's all it is.
Speaker 15: Whether I'm playing or sitting on the bench watching, I
Speaker 15: just love to, you know, just watching and analyze the game.
Speaker 15: So just being able to be on this floor, on
Speaker 15: this court and watch my.
Speaker 3: Brothers go hope, it's it's super special to me. Andrew.
Speaker 5: You've had to deal with some injuries as well. You've
Speaker 5: worked through those, you are getting back. You're probably about
Speaker 5: ninety percent. I would say, you can correct me if
Speaker 5: you if I'm wrong about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you about ninety percent.
Speaker 5: I saw you take it in there one time tonight
Speaker 5: and you wanted to do that, man, and you just
Speaker 5: barely missed that dump. But but you have worked hard
Speaker 5: to get yourself back ready to contribute the rest of
Speaker 5: the way.
Speaker 3: Also, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 14: You know, I think like Andy is talking about being
Speaker 14: able to step up. You know, everybody on this team
Speaker 14: is prepared to do that because everybody comes ready to
Speaker 14: go every single day. You know. I think that's one
Speaker 14: of the best things about the see we you know,
Speaker 14: we you know a lot of times if we have
Speaker 14: stuff for a tough loss or something like that, we've
Speaker 14: been able to really try and figure out how to
Speaker 14: get better and people try and step up and continue
Speaker 14: to get better throughout the season. And so I'm super
Speaker 14: excited to be able to go into Missouri on Saturday
Speaker 14: and then into the postseason.
Speaker 3: I'm super excited.
Speaker 5: And that leads me to the next question answering, because
Speaker 5: there is still a whole lot of work left to do.
Speaker 5: And I know what this this team has been working
Speaker 5: on what you guys want to contribute and to accomplish.
Speaker 3: The rest of the way.
Speaker 5: We're celebrating tonight, but it's gonna be short lived, man,
Speaker 5: because tomorrow you got to get right back to work.
Speaker 16: Yes, that's how it is, and how this league is,
Speaker 16: you know, having a quick turnarounds. That's why you come
Speaker 16: and play in such a tough league because you know
Speaker 16: every night it's gonna be a battle. It's like tonight
Speaker 16: was it's that's gonna be another battle. And once that
Speaker 16: tournament starts. Everybody hear your play, so you never know,
Speaker 16: you know, everybody's seasons on the line. So he's just
Speaker 16: going out there and playing extra hard and people will
Speaker 16: start hitting more shots than they usually make. So we're
Speaker 16: just having a team being willing to get better every
Speaker 16: single day like we are. You know, wins lost his practices,
Speaker 16: no practices. We're trying to get better an any way
Speaker 16: we can every single day so that when marshmad Is
Speaker 16: actually starts, he's when we starts riding our best.
Speaker 1: Up next, West m Buera chief Gary Moore on six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Big Blue Cider.
Speaker 1: It is Wednesday, and we are not reampted by basketball.
Speaker 2: So West n Buera achieved.
Speaker 1: Gary Moore is on the line with us on our
Speaker 1: celebrity highline.
Speaker 17: Ah, there you go, two guys in a six pack,
Speaker 17: you and me. Let's get into it. Six things to
Speaker 17: talk about. And you know, with all the men's and
Speaker 17: women's college basketball teams here in the Commonwealth gearing up
Speaker 17: for their respective conference tournaments, which I still hate, I
Speaker 17: just will never I will never.
Speaker 2: Cotton up to conference tournaments.
Speaker 17: Hey, one last chance, Roy, you crummy teams wake the
Speaker 17: f up, screw up some better teams get into the
Speaker 17: dance you ready. Of course, you got boys and girls
Speaker 17: high school teams and regionals this week, so it's only
Speaker 17: fitting that we lead off.
Speaker 2: With baseball today.
Speaker 17: Is this the best start ever to a young baseball
Speaker 17: season for four of the major college programs in Kentucky?
Speaker 2: I give you this evidence.
Speaker 17: Coming into number twenty three UK ten and one three
Speaker 17: with Wafford at Proud Park this weekend, they should win
Speaker 17: all three of those. Louisville nine and two three with
Speaker 17: Illinois Chicago over here at Patterson and they'll win all
Speaker 17: three of those. I think Murray State was seven and oh,
Speaker 17: one of only eight D one undefeated teams coming into
Speaker 17: today's game with Old Miss down there and WKU, my
Speaker 17: alma mater eleven and one after their best start since
Speaker 17: nineteen twenty eight. They got UNC Asheville and Bowling Green
Speaker 17: for three this weekend. Of course, we had the World
Speaker 17: Series clinching battery of Bueller and Smith from Lexington and Louisville.
Speaker 17: So Dick I asked you, was the Commonwealth a bona
Speaker 17: fide baseball state? Now?
Speaker 1: I mean he's been in baseball state for a while.
Speaker 1: Both the youth leagues, and you know, you've had teams
Speaker 1: that have come out of election and in Louisville do
Speaker 1: incredibly well in the national tournaments. Louisville under Dan McDonald
Speaker 1: took a little dip last year, but it's been to
Speaker 1: the College World Series. Kentucky has now EKU for a while.
Speaker 1: There went to a few NCA tournaments. Colonel's struggling right now,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you're toppers. And then you're from Murray, so
Speaker 1: you're racers as well. And they're all beating teams that
Speaker 1: they probably should beat. But they're taking care of business.
Speaker 1: They're doing it well, and that's the important thing.
Speaker 17: We've had some Little League World Series winners.
Speaker 2: Yeah these parts now Ripken World Series.
Speaker 17: Yeah yeah, second squig in the six pack. And while
Speaker 17: Major League Baseball Spring training rolls on in Florida and Arizona.
Speaker 17: It's a front page story in yesterday's Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 17: You may have seen it, explain this new media deal
Speaker 17: the Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is thinking about implementing. Manford
Speaker 17: wants all thirty teams to seed control of their local
Speaker 17: rights to the league office, so then MLB can sell
Speaker 17: them as one big unified streaming package. Since everything is
Speaker 17: blown up with ESPN, well, good.
Speaker 2: Luck with that.
Speaker 17: It's probably a doa idea for the Dodgers, who, as
Speaker 17: you may remember, signed a twenty five year, eight point
Speaker 17: three five billion dollar deal time Warner Cable in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 17: It's also probably da for the Yankees, Cubs, and Red
Speaker 17: Sox have also got lucrative local deals. I mean, why
Speaker 17: would you give up all of that to help other
Speaker 17: teams even more when you've already got revenue sharing? Dick,
Speaker 17: You've forgotten more about TV and TV rights than I
Speaker 17: will ever know. Do you think there's any idea anyway
Speaker 17: this is gonna happen?
Speaker 1: No, No, for the reason you just gave and you know,
Speaker 1: throwing our Cardinals. They've got a pretty good TV deal
Speaker 1: as well in a Midwestern market like Saint Louis. But
Speaker 1: what they're trying to do this is ironic to me, Gary,
Speaker 1: because they're trying to go backwards, go back to when
Speaker 1: we were little children, and think about the way college
Speaker 1: football was presented on television, the game of the week,
Speaker 1: sometimes why yeah yeah, sometimes two games a week, and
Speaker 1: then in the early eighties, after lawsuits, schools and conferences
Speaker 1: had their own rights, and we're able to go out
Speaker 1: Georgia and Oklahoma. Uh, and I'll sued and won and said, hey, great,
Speaker 1: now we can put our team our rights up for bid.
Speaker 2: And we're gonna make a ton of money.
Speaker 1: And they both had to pull their rights off the
Speaker 1: table because they didn't get the bids they wanted. So
Speaker 1: there is strength in negotiating as one. But the teams
Speaker 1: you just mentioned have already won the contest. They got
Speaker 1: out and so the affiliates landed their bids and cut
Speaker 1: their deals and all that stuff. And the bean counters
Speaker 1: have crunched the numbers and have made it work. And
Speaker 1: now to ask everybody to go backwards. I think there
Speaker 1: does need to be some revenue sharing just to keep
Speaker 1: things a little more equitable. But he's trying to make
Speaker 1: everything equal and.
Speaker 2: That ain't gonna work.
Speaker 1: Socialism, right, I'll take it one of my social Security
Speaker 1: check rolls around.
Speaker 2: But hey, I paid for that, exactly, no kidding.
Speaker 17: A third swig in a six packs speaking man for
Speaker 17: the commissioners rethinking about a reviewing a request for hit
Speaker 17: King Pete Rose to be permanently removed from MLB's ineligible lists,
Speaker 17: So make him eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Have too bad.
Speaker 17: Pete died last September. It won't be here to bask
Speaker 17: in some of the hope for this. Of course, this
Speaker 17: was after Donald Trump said he plans to pardon Rose,
Speaker 17: and Pete even said this was probably gonna happen, and
Speaker 17: to sit down interview and Dayton, Ohio with sportscaster John
Speaker 17: con To ten days before he died last year, Pete said, quote,
Speaker 17: I've come to the conclusion I hope I'm wrong that
Speaker 17: I'll make the Hall of Fame. After I died, Pete
Speaker 17: went on to say, what good is it going to
Speaker 17: do me or my fans?
Speaker 2: So they put me in the Hall.
Speaker 17: Of Fame a couple of years after I pass away.
Speaker 2: What's the point? What's the point? Because they'll make money
Speaker 2: over it.
Speaker 17: Unquote feels like kind of a cheap, sort of a
Speaker 17: populus crumb to throw to some people that might be
Speaker 17: kind of unhappy with some things that are going on
Speaker 17: with the administration. But also Pete had multiple chances to
Speaker 17: fall on the sword and repent, and he didn't. Obviously
Speaker 17: a Hall of Fame player, that's not in question, but
Speaker 17: he was his own worst enemy. After he got off
Speaker 17: the playing field. And if he gets pardon, if they
Speaker 17: let him back in, why not shoeless Joe Jackson.
Speaker 2: While you're at it.
Speaker 1: I fully agree on Jackson. Look, you and I have
Speaker 1: talked about this for years. I have always held out
Speaker 1: I'm one of I guess I'm an outlier, and.
Speaker 2: I think you were too.
Speaker 1: He doesn't belong because for exactly what you said, he
Speaker 1: failed to take responsibility, full responsibility for the longest time.
Speaker 1: And what got me the most, and my friend Doug
Speaker 1: Flinn said said this to me. He never apologized to
Speaker 1: his teammates for lying to them. But somebody sent me
Speaker 1: a copy of a letter that Rose sent to the
Speaker 1: commissioner less than a year after he died, and this
Speaker 1: was not publicized. But he absolutely fell on the sword
Speaker 1: the way you and I wanted to see. And I
Speaker 1: had to go back and say, okay, now I am in.
Speaker 1: But this Gary happened within months of you and me
Speaker 1: speaking today. So actually he did fall on his sword,
Speaker 1: but way too late, sadly for him for baseball guys
Speaker 1: like you and me. And by the way, Trump just
Speaker 1: needs to stay out of it. That's got nothing to
Speaker 1: do with him. We'll have no effect on any of this.
Speaker 1: This is a baseball deal. He can pardon him all
Speaker 1: he wants, but.
Speaker 2: It won't matter.
Speaker 1: But yeah, take now. I think they should take him
Speaker 1: off the list. I wish he had written that letter
Speaker 1: twenty years ago.
Speaker 17: Mardinal sin number one, you do not break Yeah baseball, yep.
Speaker 1: And I don't care about all these bettings serve well,
Speaker 1: people are betting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: People have bet on sports for hundreds of years baseball
Speaker 1: and rule number one has always been in place as well.
Speaker 17: It should be a f fourth swigging six pack. So
Speaker 17: I was looking over the ap pole here of the
Speaker 17: college basketball.
Speaker 2: My eyes deceiving me.
Speaker 17: Is that Louisville at fourteen and UK at nineteen?
Speaker 2: What the well?
Speaker 17: It's fun while it lasts for Cards. Fans over here
Speaker 17: probably got the footing. They're footing back with the program
Speaker 17: after being in MIA for so long. They got crummy
Speaker 17: Cal Berkeley tonight at the Young Center, nine o'clock. It's
Speaker 17: also on the ACC Network. Did you happen to see
Speaker 17: Chucky Hepbert go off on Pitt as we predicted here
Speaker 17: last week we pointed out Chucky was left off the
Speaker 17: Bob Coosey Award ballot for the nation's top point guard.
Speaker 17: Inexcusable on every level. Chucky had a career high thirty seven,
Speaker 17: including an absolutely electric six straight threes on six straight possessions.
Speaker 17: The roof was about to come off of the place
Speaker 17: the other day, so they should win tonight. Meanwhile, it's
Speaker 17: seen on TV the Cats blew out LSU and what
Speaker 17: has to pass? I guess for Senior Night even though
Speaker 17: the guy's leaving just got here last Fauls.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know about you.
Speaker 17: This went by way too fast. I've so enjoyed watching
Speaker 17: these guys play, and I want to see them go
Speaker 17: far into the tournament. They got number fifteen Missou Saturday
Speaker 17: high noon. It's so great and wonderful to have Missouri
Speaker 17: in the SEC, isn't it?
Speaker 2: Said?
Speaker 17: No one east of the Mississippi except maybe Greg Sanki.
Speaker 17: Who exactly is their rival?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 17: Used to be Kansas and Illinois? Maybe Arkansas? Well, Arkansas
Speaker 17: ought to be in the Big twelve. Still, Okay, I'll
Speaker 17: sit down, Go Cats.
Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We had comments from all the seniors on the show
Speaker 1: earlier as they talked to Jack Gibbons on the postgame show.
Speaker 1: What impressed me, Gary, and you're right, it's coming gone
Speaker 1: too quickly. But the level of their understanding and appreciation
Speaker 1: for being a Kentucky player and for senior night was
Speaker 1: so impressive. And like you said, these guys have been
Speaker 1: here less than a calendar year, but it didn't match,
Speaker 1: but it rivaled, you know, the feelings of some of
Speaker 1: the guys who came through who played here for three,
Speaker 1: four and even five years.
Speaker 2: That was so impressive to me.
Speaker 1: To me, but as I talked to Sean Woods earlier tonight,
Speaker 1: these guys had been on the outside looking in. They
Speaker 1: appreciate as guys who knew what it was like to
Speaker 1: play college ball but had to wonder what must it
Speaker 1: be like to play at Kentucky. All of a sudden, Hey,
Speaker 1: would you like to join us here?
Speaker 2: Sure? You know so they loved it.
Speaker 17: There's nothing like a packed, loud, rub arena American college.
Speaker 17: There is nothing like it. I don't care where you go,
Speaker 17: there's nothing like it. All the banners up there in
Speaker 17: the BBN, it's great speaking of that at Fitzwig. Kind
Speaker 17: of feeling for Matt McMahon last night fromer Murray State
Speaker 17: coach who just got blown out really bad of course.
Speaker 17: You know, hey, listen, that's what you signed up for.
Speaker 2: Matt you know.
Speaker 17: He left Murray State about three years ago after they
Speaker 17: had that great season. They went, uh, see what did
Speaker 17: I have down here for them? Thirty one and three
Speaker 17: in twenty twenty two, top twenty ranking, left for the
Speaker 17: Big Bayou Bengal Bucks and they, I guess the word
Speaker 17: is down there. They'ren give them at least another year.
Speaker 17: They're gonna get some more funding for nil stuff, trying
Speaker 17: and build a roster and everything. That's kind of a pattern, though,
Speaker 17: when you leave Murray or even Western beware because the
Speaker 17: same thing happened to Steve Prom, current Murray State coach.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 17: You may remember Steve's got the Racers and s Saint
Speaker 17: Lewis for the Arch Madness the Mo Valley Tournament to
Speaker 17: play Evansville tomorrow night. Prom returned to Murray after he
Speaker 17: left the Racers in twenty fifteen for Iowa State. Remember
Speaker 17: that had a couple of good years but ended up
Speaker 17: going ninety seven, ninety five and six seas, including that
Speaker 17: awful two and twenty two in twenty twenty one, went
Speaker 17: oh for eighteen in the Big Twelve. Racers are currently
Speaker 17: fifteen and sixteen. I think the seat isn't that hot yet,
Speaker 17: but I know some people in Calloway County. You're getting
Speaker 17: kind of restless. And don't forget Steve Lutz at Western
Speaker 17: last year for a cup of coffee one year twenty
Speaker 17: two and twelve took him to the tournament. Where is
Speaker 17: he now? Fourteen and fifteen? Oklahoma State grass isn't always greener.
Speaker 2: But the money is, isn't it? It is? But it
Speaker 2: takes a while.
Speaker 1: Generally, when you move, you're going to a program in
Speaker 1: trouble and it takes a while to dig out. But
Speaker 1: unfortunately for McMahon, it's at LSU where the patience runs thin.
Speaker 1: Our man Darren Horn got all the way to South Carolina.
Speaker 1: Things didn't work out, but had a good win last
Speaker 1: night for Northern Kentucky in the Horizon Tournament.
Speaker 17: Matt's gonna have to find another job, Morant, Oh yeah, everybody, Yeah,
Speaker 17: that's what's gonna happen. Well, I was an accident finding jobs, right,
Speaker 17: that's right, the great story behind that. But that's what's
Speaker 17: gonna take her. A couple of guys that could add
Speaker 17: up to one of those guys.
Speaker 2: Our sixth and final swig.
Speaker 17: People wiring about the Dodgers this offseason, spending all that
Speaker 17: dough and all these big names. But guess what, They're
Speaker 17: not even the biggest payroll to start this season. They're
Speaker 17: not even second third year in a row. The Mets
Speaker 17: open your MLB season with the most bloated payroll three
Speaker 17: hundred and thirty three point three million. There's a lot
Speaker 17: of threes in there for me. Yankees are second with
Speaker 17: three hundred ten million, then the Dodgers come in third
Speaker 17: with Pultree two hundred and seventy million. It's gonna be fun, though,
Speaker 17: to see how Sodo sort of revives the Mets, how
Speaker 17: LA does with its array of stars, and how the Yankees.
Speaker 17: The Yankees perform no longer wasting time Dick shaving this
Speaker 17: week New Yorker magazine article talking about how they lifted
Speaker 17: the beard band and everything, and reminded readers that when
Speaker 17: Randy Johnson Johnny Damon came to the Bronx had to
Speaker 17: lose the beards. Johnson's era rose by more than a run,
Speaker 17: Damon's average dropped twenty five points. Garrett Call, you may remember,
Speaker 17: had a beard, but a nine year three hundred and
Speaker 17: twenty four million contract persuaded him to shave. He's been
Speaker 17: okay so far, except for that pesky fifth inning last
Speaker 17: October that I recall in Game five of the World Series.
Speaker 1: As one of the baseball writers pointed out, when Damon
Speaker 1: got to New York, he looked like Jesus Christ. I
Speaker 1: can't wait till the first Yankee gets an endorsement. May
Speaker 1: already have it, or a beard trimmer or something like that,
Speaker 1: just to throw it in the late grey George Steinbrenner's face.
Speaker 1: Gary Moore is our Western bureau chief. We'll come back
Speaker 1: with some hot reads in just a minute. Aaron six
Speaker 1: thirty wlap, Welcome back. We're talking with our West End
Speaker 1: bureau chief, Gary Moore. We have heard two guys in
Speaker 1: a six pack. Why don't we throw a couple of
Speaker 1: hot reads at Gary. You were talking earlier about TV
Speaker 1: deals and Major League Baseball and the loss of the
Speaker 1: ESPN contract, which came as a bit of a shock.
Speaker 1: But direct to consumer streaming is taken over Eddie in
Speaker 1: the hallways of ESPN, which has led, among other things,
Speaker 1: to the cancelation of a very popular daily show Monday
Speaker 1: through Friday. And that's around the Horn. But Tony Reale,
Speaker 1: who used to be, you know, an assistant producer of
Speaker 1: Around or of PTI, part of the interruption with Corneiser
Speaker 1: and Wilbond, and then that led to his own show.
Speaker 2: He is highly respected, much beloved.
Speaker 1: He's really good, yes by viewers and by the journalists
Speaker 1: he has on.
Speaker 2: It's a very entertaining show.
Speaker 1: But that was a victim of this new look ESPN,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be missed, even if they go
Speaker 1: to an hour on PTI, which I don't think is
Speaker 1: a good idea. I'm going to miss Around the Horn,
Speaker 1: I know you will.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 17: Our Louisville buddy, Bill Plashki has always on been on
Speaker 17: there for several times, and you know, I found out
Speaker 17: about a guy that I'd read several times before. But
Speaker 17: he's he's a lot of fun to watch and listen to.
Speaker 17: He makes a lot of great points. Frank islaes I
Speaker 17: Sola who covered the Knicks forever and it is really
Speaker 17: a good guest when he and when he fills in
Speaker 17: on PTI as well, but he always makes some really
Speaker 17: good points. There's a bunch of other writers that come
Speaker 17: in there. Woody Paige of course from Delia has got
Speaker 17: you know, a great history. Bob Ryan, who goes way
Speaker 17: way back with Boston and everything. I'm going to miss
Speaker 17: a lot of those guys.
Speaker 1: Woody Page, folks, is the guy with the message on
Speaker 1: the dry erase board over his shoulder after every commercial break,
Speaker 1: not just every show, but every commercial break. Mina comes
Speaker 1: now has her own podcast or show or whatever. She's terrific.
Speaker 1: And she said that show gave her the confidence to
Speaker 1: do what she's doing now. So yeah, that's a shame.
Speaker 1: Our second hot read for Gary. It was kind of
Speaker 1: obvious during the Super Bowl the way Fox presented video
Speaker 1: video presentation of jim Johnson's career. He didn't make the
Speaker 1: announcement then, but they've made it since Jimmy Johnson retiring
Speaker 1: from Fox Sports thirty one years and it's understandable. But
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen the breakout that Fox has won the
Speaker 1: ratings battle for the pregame shows every year since nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety four, deservedly. So yeah, now the question is who
Speaker 1: replaces them? But the other question I have is do
Speaker 1: they need somebody to replace them?
Speaker 2: Because there's so many people.
Speaker 1: But when you think about it, the role that he played,
Speaker 1: he was like the dad he was the serious guy, yeh,
Speaker 1: who knew his football and had Super Bowl trophies in
Speaker 1: his closet. You know, Gronk is a bit of a clown.
Speaker 1: I mean he's good, but he's comic relief. Terry Bradshaw,
Speaker 1: you know, he's kind.
Speaker 2: Of comic relief. Now.
Speaker 1: I think there's a spot for a guy like Jimmy
Speaker 1: Johnson with more credibility, you know, with more you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, he was the dad.
Speaker 2: I agree. When I was at.
Speaker 1: Gravitas, that's the word I'm looking at.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there, Grabitas.
Speaker 17: I worked for Arrow ninety three in l A for
Speaker 17: a while and one of our regular listeners was David Hill.
Speaker 17: I think you know that name, who was Brupert Murdoch's
Speaker 17: right arm who came in and started the whole NFL
Speaker 17: and that show and everything. I went down there a
Speaker 17: couple of times and he said, come on down on
Speaker 17: a Sunday and you know, sit around with us and
Speaker 17: watch the show with the guys and coming to the
Speaker 17: room afterwards.
Speaker 2: And yeah, never told me that that's cool.
Speaker 17: I never never came up.
Speaker 2: I guess it was.
Speaker 17: It was great to talk with And that's when Collinsworth
Speaker 17: was there on the show. And originally and they were
Speaker 17: super guys and you can see why they do so well.
Speaker 17: They're genuinely great guys. They haven't got so much credibility.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Johnson called those guys who, even the guys behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, his best friends. And he said he has
Speaker 1: enjoyed this part of his career more than coaching Super
Speaker 1: Bowl teams. That tells you everything you need to know
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl winner exactly. Yeah, it tells you and
Speaker 1: it backs up exactly what you just said. He is
Speaker 1: Gary Moore, He is what us every week. He is
Speaker 1: our West End bureau chief.
Speaker 17: Find him at nine five to five Gary on X
Speaker 17: where you're at.
Speaker 2: Big Blue Insider one.
Speaker 1: Thank you sir, have a good weekend, ye buddy, you too.
Speaker 1: And now I's promised the rendition of My Old Kentucky
Speaker 1: Home from a late great Happy Chandler, which he performed
Speaker 1: on Senior Night in nineteen eighty eight. That's a good
Speaker 1: night from the garage in Lexington, Shine.
Speaker 8: Shine Bride in my Old Kentucky Home. Tis summer, the
Speaker 8: pee pull Arcade, the car top tribe, and the meadows
Speaker 8: in the blue, while the birds make me usic. Oh
Speaker 8: the day the four flow on the left to cabin floor.
Speaker 8: All Mary, all happy and bride.
Speaker 10: By and by hard.
Speaker 8: Time comes on? Nowh can at the door than the
Speaker 8: O Kentucky home. Good hap.
Speaker 10: We no more? Oh we.
Speaker 8: We will say one song.
Speaker 10: Ah my b.
Speaker 9: Chucky oh oh oh and Chalky Oh, why.
Speaker 10: Set such shot? Take that staying donning satanas and then
Speaker 10: to back them from type don