Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Boon Sider Dick Abriel with you.
Speaker 1: It's a Friday, and it does not end well for
Speaker 1: Kentucky fans as the Wildcats blow an early lead and
Speaker 1: fall in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament four
Speaker 1: to three. West Virginia walks it off on a sacrifice fly.
Speaker 1: Kentucky scoring three runs in the top of the fourth,
Speaker 1: but give up two runs unearned in the bottom of
Speaker 1: the fifth, another run in the sixth, and then it
Speaker 1: remained scoreless until the ninth, when West Virginia leads off
Speaker 1: the inning with a double, runner, moves to third base
Speaker 1: on a pass ball, and then scores on a sackfly.
Speaker 1: Griffin Cameron made a tumbling catch in center field and
Speaker 1: came up throwing, but never had a chance to nail
Speaker 1: the speedy West Virginia runner from third. So the Wildcats
Speaker 1: open tournament play with a four to three loss in
Speaker 1: the Clemson Regional. It's double elimination. They'll play again tomorrow
Speaker 1: against the winner of Clemson and USC Upstate, and got
Speaker 1: to win from here on now. Kentucky has won a
Speaker 1: couple of regional titles under Nick menjeone, having lost a
Speaker 1: game coming out of the bottom bracket, the losers bracket,
Speaker 1: but they won their opener, then they lost the next one.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be much much tougher. As the Cats
Speaker 1: missed opportunities, they gave West Virginia new life with mistakes.
Speaker 1: Kentucky with a couple of errors. West Virginia made mistakes
Speaker 1: as well, and the Wildcats took full advantage. Now, the
Speaker 1: first run scored by Kentucky came in Kentucky fashion, the
Speaker 1: Wildcats dropping down a bunt Cayas Gargett, but it was
Speaker 1: not a great bun. He popped it up. And we
Speaker 1: have seen that all year. Too many times Kentucky called
Speaker 1: upon to bunt, they pop it up. But this time
Speaker 1: the Cats got a little lucky because Gargets pop up
Speaker 1: didn't go very far, and the West Virginia pitcher tried
Speaker 1: to make a diving catch, couldn't come up with a
Speaker 1: ball cleanly. Eventually handled the ball, but by then the
Speaker 1: UK runner had broken for the plate and scored the
Speaker 1: game's first run. Here's the way Darren Hedrick called it.
Speaker 2: He needs to get this ball through the infield. Right
Speaker 2: field is wide open. First pitch, he squares the butt
Speaker 2: and popped it up. Third base side and it drops
Speaker 2: fair and scoring his Swartz to thrown a second not
Speaker 2: in time.
Speaker 1: Off the bat.
Speaker 2: It didn't look like a great butt, but the result
Speaker 2: for Kentucky is terrific and they grabble one nothing lead.
Speaker 1: So that made it one nothing Wildcats and break for Kentucky,
Speaker 1: and that Kentucky got even luckier after that. We're still
Speaker 1: in the top of the fourth inning and the Wildcats
Speaker 1: took advantage of West Virginia mistakes to put up two
Speaker 1: more runs and take a three to nothing lead.
Speaker 2: The old one swung on it bounce left side and
Speaker 2: it's bobbled by the short.
Speaker 3: Stop Hi throw his wild over the first baseman. Herrera
Speaker 3: stores carget process, standing it'll be an error on the
Speaker 3: throw by the shortstop Cresser. But Kentucky grabs two and
Speaker 3: takes a three to nothing lead in the fourth.
Speaker 1: But then the offense went to sleep. And we've seen
Speaker 1: it again happen this year, Kentucky taking an early lead
Speaker 1: in a game, mostly in the SEC games, and then
Speaker 1: not build on it and the Wildcats lose another one
Speaker 1: run game. Eleven of UK's SEC losses came by one
Speaker 1: or two runs. Twelve of UK's SEC loss this of course,
Speaker 1: was an NCAA tournament loss came by a total of
Speaker 1: seventeen runs. It's just been that kind of frustrating season
Speaker 1: for the Wildcats and Kentucky and SEC games led in
Speaker 1: twenty eight to thirty one games. So now if you're
Speaker 1: throwing this one twenty nine of thirty two games. Wildcats
Speaker 1: get the early lead, but then just can't hang on.
Speaker 1: They make too many mistakes in the field and a
Speaker 1: couple of mistakes on the mound, a pass ball by
Speaker 1: Devin Burks, and the Wildcats fall four to three to
Speaker 1: West Virginia. This is not the same Kentucky team, nor
Speaker 1: is it the same West Virginia team. But these two
Speaker 1: programs met two years ago in the NCAA Tournament in
Speaker 1: Lexingon and Kentucky won by a total of ten to nothing.
Speaker 1: So the Cats aren't out of it yet. But now
Speaker 1: Ben Cleaver pitched today. Was good, not great, was good,
Speaker 1: should have won and at times he was great. But
Speaker 1: now he's their best starter. He had been their Sunday starter,
Speaker 1: but he's done. Simon Gregorson came in, ran into trouble,
Speaker 1: gave way to Jacksonoviy the ninth inn and Gregorson gave
Speaker 1: up the double Novie gave up. It was just a
Speaker 1: flare off the fists into center field. But it was
Speaker 1: just one of those in betweeners and there's no way
Speaker 1: Kentucky could have kept that guy from scoring. So anyhow,
Speaker 1: another tough loss for the baseball Wildcats. They'll play tomorrow
Speaker 1: and we'll have to let you know a little bit
Speaker 1: later on about what time they play. Keep an eye
Speaker 1: on the internet if you will. Tonight on the show,
Speaker 1: coming up, we're gonna be from Mark Pope as he
Speaker 1: talks about otego oh way. We got more information about
Speaker 1: the Wildcats and what they've got coming back and what
Speaker 1: they're looking at this coming season. But some interesting comments
Speaker 1: from Pope earlier in the month about otago away. And
Speaker 1: we'll take a look at what Kentucky has coming back,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna look at some interesting comments offered by
Speaker 1: Mark's story at Harold Leader, who is wondering about the
Speaker 1: UK offense coming up this season, So we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that as well. Also coming up at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the hour, Kenny McPeak, the trainer of last year's Kentucky
Speaker 1: Derby winner and Oaks Winter Torpedo Anna Derby Mystic Dan
Speaker 1: my day started at three am. I got up early.
Speaker 1: My partner and I the exec producer of our show,
Speaker 1: Tim Francis, We drove to Churchill Downs today and we
Speaker 1: were going to watch both of those horses work. They galloped.
Speaker 1: We saw Anna gallop in a driving, absolutely driving rain
Speaker 1: with Robbie Albarado up. So afterwards we talked to Kenny
Speaker 1: about those two horses, and we also talked to Robbie Albarado.
Speaker 1: The jockey won more than five thousand races before he
Speaker 1: retired and and now is working for Kenny. He galloped
Speaker 1: torpedo Anna today, So that's coming up at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour. A little bit later on Billy Rutlers
Speaker 1: will join us. We'll talk about Kentucky football and Kentucky
Speaker 1: basketball as well. Billy you hear him on this very
Speaker 1: radio station every morning after the Leads report at nine
Speaker 1: AM on the KSR pre Show, and we'll top off
Speaker 1: the week with Heroes, fools and flakes. That's all ahead
Speaker 1: here on the Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue and Sider. It's been a
Speaker 1: good week for Kentucky basketball fans. Of course, former Wildcats,
Speaker 1: say Gildris Alexander Sga is the MVP of the Western
Speaker 1: Conference Finals. He has led the Thunder into the NBA
Speaker 1: Championship Round, where they will face either the Pacers or
Speaker 1: the Knicks. The Karl Anthony Towns led Nicks now down
Speaker 1: only three to two in their series, but it's going
Speaker 1: back to Indy and right now the Pacers look like
Speaker 1: the team that's going to play Oklahoma City for the
Speaker 1: NBA Championship. Also, of course, for UK fans, it was
Speaker 1: a great week because Otega Olway announced as expected that
Speaker 1: he would return, but he needed to get as much
Speaker 1: information as he could from the NBA and now he
Speaker 1: will tackle his second season as a Kentucky Wildcat. And
Speaker 1: earlier this month, Mark Pope answered a lot of different
Speaker 1: questions about his team, his program as players, and you
Speaker 1: might recall this is what he said about what Otega
Speaker 1: Oway brings to the table as a ballplayer. He was
Speaker 1: talking specifically then about what NBA scouts would see in
Speaker 1: a way what Kentucky fans already see, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of the starting point for a way to improve his game.
Speaker 4: Oh Otega's physicality is elite. His physicality on the offensive end,
Speaker 4: defensive end, and and that shows up in a lot
Speaker 4: of ways. It shows up in in contact, actually hits.
Speaker 4: He shows shows up in his explosiveness, He shows up
Speaker 4: in his first step, shows up in his ability to
Speaker 4: kind of navigate h Garden guys off the ball through
Speaker 4: screens and on the ball through screens by creating space
Speaker 4: with his chest. So he has a in those ways,
Speaker 4: he is you know, he is as good as you're
Speaker 4: gonna find.
Speaker 1: He's really special.
Speaker 4: He's he grew so much last season.
Speaker 1: In case you need a reminder about Otago Away's numbers
Speaker 1: this last year. First of all, I guess when you
Speaker 1: think back at all the injuries and the shifting of
Speaker 1: lineups and things like that that Mark Pope and his
Speaker 1: staff had to endure this past season. Yeah, I guess
Speaker 1: it might not surprise you to know that Otega Oway
Speaker 1: was one of only two Wildcats to start every game.
Speaker 1: Give it a second, who was the other osa Mari Williams.
Speaker 1: Of course, who are the Wildcats who played in every
Speaker 1: game Besides Oway and Williams, Well, there are only a couple.
Speaker 1: Kobe Brea played in every game, Ainsley Almanor played in
Speaker 1: every game. Brandon Garrison missed a game to injury. Andrew
Speaker 1: Carr missed the game to injury. Jackson Robinson only played
Speaker 1: in twenty four games. Lamont Butler missed nine games to injury.
Speaker 1: By the way, Andrew Carr started twenty nine games. Brandon
Speaker 1: Garrison and missed the one game he never started, so
Speaker 1: he played in thirty five games without a start. Kerk
Speaker 1: Creaes only played in those nine games. Now, as far
Speaker 1: as the guy's coming off the bench are concerned, Travis
Speaker 1: Perry played in the most games he played in thirty one,
Speaker 1: started four. Of course, he's now at O miss. Colin
Speaker 1: Chandler played in thirty games without a start. Trent Noah
Speaker 1: played in twenty four games without a start. So again,
Speaker 1: Oway and Amari Williams the only Wildcats to start every
Speaker 1: game this season. And Oway led in minutes played at
Speaker 1: twenty eight point three per game. Jackson Robinson averaged twenty
Speaker 1: eight point one, so did Kobe Brea average twenty eight
Speaker 1: point one. Lamont Butler only twenty six minutes a game. Remember,
Speaker 1: he had the ongoing injury situation, so they had to
Speaker 1: sit him in some games and he got into some
Speaker 1: foul trouble. Amari Williams sharing the time in the low
Speaker 1: Post averaged twenty two point eight minutes per game. Car
Speaker 1: averaged twenty four. Brandon Garrison averaged a little more than
Speaker 1: seventeen minutes a game, So very similar to the kinds
Speaker 1: of numbers that and again, this team not nearly that good,
Speaker 1: similar to what Rick Patino's national title team in ninety
Speaker 1: six was like because Antoine Walker led that team in
Speaker 1: minutes played somewhere between twenty six and twenty eight minutes
Speaker 1: per game. Really really unusual. Now the guys coming back, now,
Speaker 1: you've got Oh Way, You've got Brandon Garrison, you've got
Speaker 1: Colin Chandler. Those are the guys that it's going to
Speaker 1: be really interesting to see what did Owen Trentoah, what
Speaker 1: do they do in year two? Because Pope was talking
Speaker 1: about this, the fact that because his system is so
Speaker 1: unusual and you could see it this year, it took
Speaker 1: a little while for these guys to figure it out
Speaker 1: and to play without thinking so much. Well, now, Pope said,
Speaker 1: second year guys make huge strides, huge improvements because they've
Speaker 1: already mastered, my word, what he's asking them to do.
Speaker 4: Our guys make a massive jump from year one to
Speaker 4: year two. The guys that kind of are in our deal,
Speaker 4: you know, wherever I've coached, it's so fun. Year two
Speaker 4: is so fun because year one is just this onslot
Speaker 4: of learning decision making. I mean, as a broad brusher,
Speaker 4: just overwhelmed with learning decision making. Learning decision making takes time, right,
Speaker 4: Learning dot to dot takes a little bit of time.
Speaker 4: Learning how to make decisions takes a lot of time.
Speaker 4: And understand why and where and how and the skill
Speaker 4: set actually do it and so and what works and
Speaker 4: what doesn't and what works for you as an individual
Speaker 4: player with your skill set and what doesn't. And so
Speaker 4: the guys coming in second year for me, almost without failed,
Speaker 4: they take massive leaps. And so we expect all these
Speaker 4: returners to be much much better than they were last year,
Speaker 4: which is saying a lot, because they were really good
Speaker 4: last year.
Speaker 1: So now when you figure in always inherent knowledge now
Speaker 1: of Mark Pope's system and how he wants things to
Speaker 1: do and what's expected of him, mix that in with
Speaker 1: what Oway took away from his NBA workouts, it's going
Speaker 1: to be fascinating to see what kind of player he becomes,
Speaker 1: as well as the other guys Garrison and Noah and
Speaker 1: Colin Chandler and Pope talked at Linked about Chandler as well,
Speaker 1: quite how much he expects him to improve this year.
Speaker 1: So it's going to be really fascinating to see what
Speaker 1: these guys are like coming right out of the block.
Speaker 1: Bad news on the basketball front is it looks like
Speaker 1: they're gonna screw it up. They're going to screw up
Speaker 1: the NCAA tournament. Charlie Baker, the president of the NCAAA,
Speaker 1: said one of his top priorities, and he was at
Speaker 1: the Big twelve spring meetings, was talking about expanding March Madness,
Speaker 1: which could come as soon as twenty twenty six. He
Speaker 1: said that would be the goal. To try and do
Speaker 1: it for this next do this for next year. We've
Speaker 1: been talking about seventy two and seventy six. Stop it,
Speaker 1: Stop it now. He said, if you have a tournament
Speaker 1: that's got sixty eight teams in it, we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a bunch of teams, probably among what most people would
Speaker 1: consider being the best sixty eight or seventy teams in
Speaker 1: the country, that aren't going to make the tournament period,
Speaker 1: because you get a whole bunch of people who win
Speaker 1: their conference tournaments who aren't in that group. Sow what
Speaker 1: stop it. Stop screwing with it, because what you're gonna
Speaker 1: do is add more mediocre games. Quit screwing around with
Speaker 1: what has been fantastic. You're just gonna mess it up.
Speaker 1: How can adding more and more teams that don't belong
Speaker 1: there playing mediocre games improve anything except and here's the answer,
Speaker 1: to put money in your pocket for the schools, for
Speaker 1: the conferences, because there's more commercial inventory out there. I
Speaker 1: get that at some point you gotta think about the fans,
Speaker 1: don't you. Well, apparently not, because everybody's looking to get
Speaker 1: by now, but they are going if they're not careful,
Speaker 1: they're going to wreck March Madness. They did it. I
Speaker 1: realize this is different in the high school ranks in Indiana,
Speaker 1: which rivaled Kentucky for the greatest tournament in March, and
Speaker 1: they screwed it up, and they've tried to get back
Speaker 1: to it and they can't. Bad decisions. Here's another one.
Speaker 1: I can't say this is a bad decision, but it's
Speaker 1: going to really be untenable. SEC Commissioner Greg sank Down
Speaker 1: in Florida announced that the conference is moving away from
Speaker 1: the escalating fine system and now they're going to be
Speaker 1: charging each school half a million dollars for each court
Speaker 1: or field storming. He said the motivation was field rushing.
Speaker 1: Is field rushing the first time or the eighteenth time?
Speaker 1: He said, the random nature of it. If you're the
Speaker 1: one getting rushed, it doesn't feel good. He said. It
Speaker 1: might be the first time it's happened, but it might
Speaker 1: be your sixth time in a row. Literally, No, I
Speaker 1: didn't know this, but evidently the conference could wave the fine,
Speaker 1: but only if the opposing team and staff members and
Speaker 1: the officials can get off the field and in their
Speaker 1: locker rooms before the storming happens. That's not gonna happen anywhere.
Speaker 1: And Mike, with basketball, if you've got a lot of
Speaker 1: security people, it's not gonna happen with football because just
Speaker 1: as the clock expires, fans are gonna come over the
Speaker 1: wall and rush the field, and the other team will
Speaker 1: not have a chance to get out of there. I've
Speaker 1: always maintained this is a made for TV situation. Fans
Speaker 1: storm the field and the courts because it looks good
Speaker 1: on TV. And I reach out to my brethren and
Speaker 1: say stop showing it, and that would help. Might not
Speaker 1: stop it, but that would help here's the other thing
Speaker 1: that's gonna stop it. If your school is penalized half
Speaker 1: a million and another half a man and another half
Speaker 1: a man, you're going to force the athletic department to
Speaker 1: raise your ticket prices. And people like to joke about, Oh,
Speaker 1: put buckets at the at the gates and people can donate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going to take a lot more than that to
Speaker 1: absorb this kind of cost. But if you start jacking
Speaker 1: up ticket prices, and if you do that, if you're
Speaker 1: the schools, you should say your tickets are going to
Speaker 1: cost you an additional five dollars per this season because
Speaker 1: of the court storming and the field storming, that would
Speaker 1: go a long way to putting a stop to it.
Speaker 1: You cannot stop it at football stadiums unless you hire
Speaker 1: an army of security people. A lot of places have
Speaker 1: already stopped it when it comes to basketball, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen at Repperena because the configuration of Rupperina and
Speaker 1: they've got enough security people there to short circuit it.
Speaker 1: But hit them in a wallet, hit them in a checkbook.
Speaker 1: That'll bring it to a club up next. Saggy trip
Speaker 1: to Churchill Downs today here on six thirty wlap Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue Insider. I hope you and
Speaker 1: yours made it safely through the weather we had earlier today.
Speaker 1: My business partner and I, Tim Francis basically the execut
Speaker 1: producer of The Big Blue Insider and a guy who
Speaker 1: was quite active with the group that stages the Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops event in the summertime, Coaches for Kids event. We
Speaker 1: took a trip over to Churchill Downs to watch Torpedo
Speaker 1: Anna and Mystic Dan training and also to get the
Speaker 1: trainer Kenny McPeak to sign some items for the Silent Auction,
Speaker 1: and it was obviously a terrible day to do that.
Speaker 1: We knew that rain was in the forecast, just not
Speaker 1: this kind of rain. We drove through a monsoon which well,
Speaker 1: it was still there when we got to Churchill and
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of early morn a Churchill Downs
Speaker 1: covering the Kentucky Derby and Breeders Cup and things like that.
Speaker 1: Never have I encountered rain like this. And then when
Speaker 1: Kenny McPeak showed up, it is born. We actually get
Speaker 1: those barn a few minutes before he did. Well, he
Speaker 1: showed up, and of course he is driven back and
Speaker 1: forth between Lexington and Louisville for decades. Literally, he says,
Speaker 1: I've never seen rain like this coming to the racetrack.
Speaker 1: And I told my partner, I said, I bet they
Speaker 1: don't send these horses out. Well they did. They sent
Speaker 1: them out to gallop. We watched Anna gallop. They didn't
Speaker 1: gallop Dan until later on in the morning. But in
Speaker 1: the driving pouring rain, a lot of trainers had their
Speaker 1: horses out and Thorpina Anna was one of them. And
Speaker 1: of course she's a pro. She's a pros pro. Robbie Albarrato,
Speaker 1: who works now for Kenny McPeak three, he's retired as
Speaker 1: a jockey. He galloped and this morning we're gonna hear
Speaker 1: from Robbie coming up a little bit later on. But
Speaker 1: I had a chance to chat with Kenny after the
Speaker 1: champion Philly galloped. And remember now Torpeda Anda won the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Oaks last year for Kenny McPeak, and the next
Speaker 1: day Mystic Dan won the Kentucky Derby. Such a rarity
Speaker 1: for a trainer to win the Oaks on Friday and
Speaker 1: the Derby on Saturday. But Kenny McPeak, a UK product,
Speaker 1: a Tates Creek High School alum, did that and we
Speaker 1: had a chance to chat about it. I talked to
Speaker 1: him a couple of days after the race. He was
Speaker 1: on the show the Monday after Kentucky Derby. Well we
Speaker 1: caught up this morning between the rain drops. How bad
Speaker 1: was that rain this morning?
Speaker 5: Yes, all the year, all the years that I've been
Speaker 5: training at Churchill, I've never seen rain like that coming
Speaker 5: in or while I was there.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty.
Speaker 5: That's sunny in the background there. But yeah, it kind
Speaker 5: of puts a dam on our day general.
Speaker 1: It's okay, I go say, how does it affect your work?
Speaker 5: Well, everywhere you get frozen race tracks, you get sloppy racetracks,
Speaker 5: you get different different setups. But and sometimes it's too
Speaker 5: hot too. You try to get done early. So it's
Speaker 5: as typical. We have to just what.
Speaker 1: Has life been like for you? I mean, you haven't
Speaker 1: been a low profile, but since you won the Oaks
Speaker 1: and Derby back to back.
Speaker 5: Well, I've signed a lot of things I've got I
Speaker 5: think the membabilia people have actually learned how to forge
Speaker 5: my signature, which is interesting, but but that's you know,
Speaker 5: that's an honor to do all that, and you know
Speaker 5: a lot of people want to have selfies and things
Speaker 5: like that. So yeah, it's been kind of unique. It's
Speaker 5: a long way from you know, Tates Creek HW School
Speaker 5: or growing up in Lexington.
Speaker 1: I hear you on with Tony Kornheiser and you're lobbying,
Speaker 1: lobbying to do the five Good Minutes on PTI. But
Speaker 1: just the fact that you've you've got a little more
Speaker 1: notoriety now, which is great for the sport, isn't it.
Speaker 1: And I know you're not looking to promote yourself as
Speaker 1: much as you are the sport.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, me a long time when I had
Speaker 5: that good horse to Hana run years ago, my mother
Speaker 5: would say, speaking full sentences, make sure you take your
Speaker 5: sunglasses off, and you do interviews all that. She always
Speaker 5: critiqued all that. So I've you know, learned to be
Speaker 5: relatively well spoken. So they then you all tend to
Speaker 5: gravitate to me, which is fine. I don't know if
Speaker 5: that's well, it's obviously it's always good. But I think
Speaker 5: this sport needs more openness, more information out there, and
Speaker 5: the more people understand it, I think the more they
Speaker 5: can appreciate what we do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting because you know, kind of growing up
Speaker 1: professionally covering races, ran into so many trainers. You just
Speaker 1: didn't trust the media, which I can I can get
Speaker 1: if they're not used to that. But I mean, you guys,
Speaker 1: you're independent contractors and you're promoting the game right well.
Speaker 5: I think anytime, like for example, you're you're you're helping
Speaker 5: talk about the sport right now and and and anytime
Speaker 5: people can learn about it, I think it's just better.
Speaker 5: I mean, I've always been open, and you and I've
Speaker 5: known each other a long time and I'm not going
Speaker 5: to change that. Whether I won the Derby or the
Speaker 5: Oaks or not, this conversation wouldn't be any different. But
Speaker 5: it's it's real, you know, an honor for somebody to
Speaker 5: seek out your opinion or certainly care about what you're
Speaker 5: up to. And and I think horse racing really does
Speaker 5: need to be much more open, and I wish more
Speaker 5: guys did.
Speaker 1: That helps to have a superstar like Anna, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: She was galloping today in the weather and Robbie the
Speaker 1: first thing he said when he got off is she's
Speaker 1: the smartest horse he's ever been on. That's got to
Speaker 1: be a huge plus as a trainer, I would think.
Speaker 5: Well, I've said to my whole time. It's for a
Speaker 5: long time, Sonny, get over here, come here. I've said
Speaker 5: to my team for a long time. You know, we
Speaker 5: were always one good horse away from from uh really
Speaker 5: getting the lights shine shining on us a little bit more.
Speaker 5: And and it really is all about stock. I mean,
Speaker 5: I've got some great clientele, and you know, we work
Speaker 5: those sales really hard. And if you could come up
Speaker 5: with a horse like Mystic dang or Anna and actually,
Speaker 5: you know, Mystic Dan's probably my proudest moment. I don't
Speaker 5: know if you know all the backstory on that, and
Speaker 5: I don't know people out there do. But so I
Speaker 5: bought his mother. Actually the ownership wasn't going to keep
Speaker 5: her as a mayor, and I convinced him to and
Speaker 5: then I did the mating and then we fold her
Speaker 5: at Magdalena and Lexington and he's subsequently born. We raised him, Yeah,
Speaker 5: we raised him at Magdalena, We broke him to saddle.
Speaker 5: We obviously raced him and win the derby. And then
Speaker 5: I mean all that that most people are happy to
Speaker 5: have their fingerprints on just one stage. We had her
Speaker 5: fingerprints on every stage. That's probably my proudest moment is
Speaker 5: as a as a horseman. I mean, there are people
Speaker 5: that are very proud to have fold a mayor or
Speaker 5: made it a mayor and raised a Derby winner, And
Speaker 5: I mean, look, I probably should have quit on Sunday
Speaker 5: after that weekend. Anyway, it's all good you doing. He's
Speaker 5: doing great, He's in tomorrow, and he's a horse that
Speaker 5: I think we made some mistakes with him coming out
Speaker 5: out of his Derby win. We maybe shouldn't run in
Speaker 5: the Belmont in hindsight, his two races late in the year,
Speaker 5: late three year old, early four were in hindsight, I
Speaker 5: wish I could kind of have a do over there.
Speaker 5: But then we backed up and we regrouped, and his
Speaker 5: last race was superb, and so we'd like to think
Speaker 5: we're getting back in the winter circle tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We won't have a triple Crown winner this year, obviously.
Speaker 1: And I know you've been interviewed about Bill Mott's decision,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to second guess of Bill Mott. I
Speaker 1: know where are you on the calendar and in tradition
Speaker 1: and should things change in thoroughbred racing, Well.
Speaker 5: I think this should change it, and I think it
Speaker 5: should be the first Saturday in May the first Saturday
Speaker 5: in June, the first Saturday in July. You know, there
Speaker 5: will be people who would argue with that. But every
Speaker 5: support changes, you know, I can remember, you know, the
Speaker 5: NBA Finals are over much earlier than June.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: Now now March Madness goes into April. You know, they've
Speaker 5: gone from I don't how many games fourteen games now
Speaker 5: they play eighteen. You know, So those things do change,
Speaker 5: and I don't think it's a big deal, but I
Speaker 5: think pattern wise, for trainers to come back in two
Speaker 5: weeks three weeks, it's not the best thing for the horse.
Speaker 5: In hindsight, I wouldn't have run Mystic Dan in the Preakness.
Speaker 5: I would have skipped it and maybe just gone straight
Speaker 5: to the Belmont. That's would have been similar to Bill,
Speaker 5: and I respect Bill for his decision.
Speaker 1: Why did you run? I mean you did? Do you
Speaker 1: feel like that was part of the racing lore?
Speaker 5: Well, he was doing good and he ran well, he
Speaker 5: ran second, He didn't he didn't embarrass us at all.
Speaker 5: But after that race, you know, look he was over
Speaker 5: the top, and of course we didn't know that until
Speaker 5: he ran really flat in the Belmont. But it's not
Speaker 5: the first time that's happened to any horse. I guess
Speaker 5: that makes the Triple Crown that much more difficult. But
Speaker 5: you know, look in this day and age, I think
Speaker 5: I think it'd be better for the horse, and we're
Speaker 5: all worried about the health and welfare of the horses
Speaker 5: and to just that. But you've got to get into
Speaker 5: these like Pimlico to agree and Valmont to agree and
Speaker 5: how does that happen? And that's somebody with a higher
Speaker 5: pace scale than me.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll let you go with this. People may or
Speaker 1: may not know. You're a huge UK fan keeping an
Speaker 1: eye on Mark Pope's stable. I mean, he's got some
Speaker 1: some pretty nice stock over there.
Speaker 5: Yes, So so Pat Kelsey comes around. We've got a
Speaker 5: horse named after coach, Yeah, Louisville coach and my wife's
Speaker 5: a U of L graduate and so that's a little
Speaker 5: bone of contention around our family at home. But I
Speaker 5: threw L's down with Kelsey here derby week and Pope
Speaker 5: called me the next day and actually reached out to
Speaker 5: somebody get me his phone number. So he reached out
Speaker 5: to me. So we've gotten to know each other a
Speaker 5: little bit. Actually facetiming over another deal about a week
Speaker 5: ago and we were chatting and Gino's formal affairs got
Speaker 5: some some suits, took some formal suits for the basketball
Speaker 5: team over there, and I reached out to Mark and
Speaker 5: let him know that. But yeah, I'm gonna My goal
Speaker 5: is and how you know this is to do the
Speaker 5: widet mid court.
Speaker 1: Gotta happen.
Speaker 5: I wanted to do it this year's U of L game.
Speaker 5: I gotta wait next year. I suppose Pope says I
Speaker 5: need to win another Derby.
Speaker 1: Man, that'd be all right.
Speaker 5: I'm here working, right't I right?
Speaker 1: Thanks, Kenny, You're welcome. Kenny's a great trainer. He's got
Speaker 1: more than two thousand career wins. He's won virtually every
Speaker 1: stakes race you can win in America, breeders Cup races,
Speaker 1: He's won the Bellmont, He's won the Preakness and the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Derby, and has his own racing app called horse
Speaker 1: Racing Now, and through that app you can listen to
Speaker 1: his podcast. And on that podcast, he picked this year's
Speaker 1: Kentucky Derby winner and he believes that horse will win
Speaker 1: the Bellmont. He's picking Sovereignty. He's picking Sovereignty to win
Speaker 1: the third leg of Racing's Triple Crown, the Triple Crown
Speaker 1: winner this year, of course, But yeah, he knows his
Speaker 1: stuff and in fact I got to know him fairly
Speaker 1: well in nineteen ninety five when he trained a horse
Speaker 1: called the Hanul Run. He picked the horse out of
Speaker 1: a sale for six thousand dollars, purchased the horse for
Speaker 1: the Monroe's Roy and Joyce Monroe and trained him up
Speaker 1: to the Kentucky Derby. And you might recall us if
Speaker 1: you're a racing fan. He trained at Keenland all week long.
Speaker 1: Didn't bring him over to Churchill Downs and people were
Speaker 1: throwing their hands up and scratching it. You can't do that.
Speaker 1: Well he did it and Awadors ran second in the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Derby in nineteen ninety five. That was as close
Speaker 1: as Kenny got until he won it with Mystic Dan
Speaker 1: this past year, and Donald Run, by the way, went
Speaker 1: on to be a successful stallion up in Canada. So
Speaker 1: despite the whether, we had a good time talking to
Speaker 1: Kenny and coming up next with you from Robbie Alvarado
Speaker 1: and by the way, we enjoyed being around Sonny the
Speaker 1: big Yellow Lab was excited about something this morning and
Speaker 1: let us know about it. I want to come on
Speaker 1: six thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Moons sight here.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned earlier, we were at Churchill Downs this
Speaker 1: morning in the monsoon to watch Torpedo and a gallup.
Speaker 1: We were gonna watch Mystic Dan, but they kind of
Speaker 1: held off on him for a little while because of
Speaker 1: all that rain. But I had a chance to talk
Speaker 1: to Robbie Albarado. He is one of the winningest jockeys
Speaker 1: of all time. Of course, he retired back in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, about a year after he little more than
Speaker 1: a year after he won the Preak Mistakes on Swiss
Speaker 1: Skydiver for Kenny McPeak. So he works for Kenny now,
Speaker 1: and he's a guy who has known so much success
Speaker 1: at Churchill Downs. In fact, he is third all time
Speaker 1: as a jockey at Churchill Downs in victory, behind only
Speaker 1: Pat Day and Calvin Burrell. He's won more than five
Speaker 1: thousand races. But now, as we said, working for Kenny
Speaker 1: galloping horses in the morning, thinking that it is still
Speaker 1: about becoming an agent. But we talked to him right
Speaker 1: after he got off Torpedo Anna, because before and after
Speaker 1: he galloped that horse, he told us she is the
Speaker 1: smartest horse he has ever ridden, Robbie, this rain is
Speaker 1: something else. What is it like when you're out there
Speaker 1: galloping in weather like this?
Speaker 7: It's a little fun, man, But it's always nice to
Speaker 7: be on a battle horse, a really talented horse, which
Speaker 7: I was on this morning. I was on the infamous
Speaker 7: torpedo Anna. She's special. She's the smartest horse I've ever
Speaker 7: been on. I've ridden thirty thousand race thirty four thousand
Speaker 7: races and maybe another fifty thousand more in the mornings,
Speaker 7: and she's bout for all the smartest horse I've been on.
Speaker 1: What is the smart horse to do? How do you know?
Speaker 1: She's smart?
Speaker 7: But like the conditions is normally on a fast track,
Speaker 7: she will try to get rank and run off and
Speaker 7: try to she can't, but she tried to run off
Speaker 7: get really strong, and today she got out there. It
Speaker 7: was raining really hard in the track condition, I guess,
Speaker 7: and she felt it, and she was very calm and easy,
Speaker 7: whichy'all wanted that this morning from her.
Speaker 1: You've ridden great horses. I mean a lot of the
Speaker 1: great ones are pretty smart. They're not all that smart, though.
Speaker 7: Are they?
Speaker 5: They?
Speaker 7: You know, they're not all smart. Some of them are are.
Speaker 7: You get a lot of coachs that get honoring and
Speaker 7: stubborn some time, and then some bunch of phillies have
Speaker 7: got there, you know, some more sensitive and you can't
Speaker 7: do much much on them. But uh, the smart as
Speaker 7: they're different, they're they're the good ones. They're different. They
Speaker 7: breed different there, they move different, they act different. They
Speaker 7: sleep all day long in the stall, and you got's
Speaker 7: a good telltale sign.
Speaker 1: Of a really good horseman. Why. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know why.
Speaker 7: I guess sleeps to their advantage. They train hard. They
Speaker 7: train hard, so they they sleep well. I don't know
Speaker 7: what it is curling horses, right, curling course of the year,
Speaker 7: so lay down all the time? Mindshaft another horse of
Speaker 7: the year, so lay down all the time?
Speaker 1: Swis skydiver?
Speaker 7: I mean I can name read all some gulls I've
Speaker 7: been on that they slate, they sleep all day long.
Speaker 1: Well, we've seen Thorpedia and a wind. She's she's the
Speaker 1: greatest female out there right now. How does being smart
Speaker 1: do you think help her when she's actually racing?
Speaker 7: Well, I feel like and uh, she can overcome quite
Speaker 7: a bit of in a race, and she adjust to
Speaker 7: if you have to call anaudible. She's there for you
Speaker 7: if you need to give her back a little more,
Speaker 7: get her forward a little more. She's pretty manageable in
Speaker 7: a race. The more in time she gets ranged. But
Speaker 7: in the race time she's managed. But looks like Brian says,
Speaker 7: she'd just about doing anything with her. And they execute
Speaker 7: off other horse's mistakes. It's like the humans. They see
Speaker 7: what happens. They're like athletes, ball players, right, they see,
Speaker 7: they see a play about to happen. They adjust.
Speaker 1: Then it's a great feeling to be on them. Kind though,
Speaker 1: what she like around the barn, because not all great
Speaker 1: horses are great citizens.
Speaker 7: Well, right now she's walking around. She's got a bath
Speaker 7: this morning. She gets pampered pretty good around here. Obviously,
Speaker 7: she's walking around the barn now. And when they put
Speaker 7: her install, she'll probably be a little hate and she'll
Speaker 7: lay down, take a nap. She'll get back out for
Speaker 7: a while, leaning against the right side of the stall
Speaker 7: or a but to the to the gate, and she
Speaker 7: don't be bothered. I mean, she don't want to be bothered,
Speaker 7: so she does that, and she wants to be bothered.
Speaker 7: She'll be facing the gate here this morning, with.
Speaker 1: All this weather. We're hearing about all the scratches for
Speaker 1: the race car today, which is not unusual. But a
Speaker 1: lot of you guys were out there galloping horses in
Speaker 1: weather like this. I mean, that's all part of it, though,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 7: I rode for thirty one years and I'm from Louisiana.
Speaker 7: We're called mudbugs from Louisiana, and I hate it right
Speaker 7: in the mud. I just absolutely hated it. I mean,
Speaker 7: I didn't like nothing about it. It's hard to focus,
Speaker 7: especially when it's raining hard like it was.
Speaker 6: It's morning.
Speaker 7: It's hard to focus, it's hard to get up. You know,
Speaker 7: some horses don't like it, some horses love it.
Speaker 1: You gotta call it. Make changes you got.
Speaker 7: There's so much involved in the mud and I want
Speaker 7: to other things. You If you come from way back
Speaker 7: in their mud race, I mean you get drenched with
Speaker 7: water and mud, and so you're about ten pounds heavier
Speaker 7: than the horse that up front. So that's when people
Speaker 7: handicap if they take that in consideration. Come from behind
Speaker 7: horse and his muddy. By the time they get to
Speaker 7: the stretch, you can have ten pounds more mud and
Speaker 7: water drenched posts of the guy that's in front clean.
Speaker 1: And some horses would just stop. They hate that.
Speaker 7: You can tell, you can tell right away. Yeah, you
Speaker 7: can tell in the post ray when you're warming them up.
Speaker 7: You feel them, you can feel they're you know, if
Speaker 7: they're not like they're normally or uncharacteristic themselves, and so
Speaker 7: you can tell right away the ones that do. Like, Man,
Speaker 7: you know what a lot goes to their breedings. Man
Speaker 7: that the breedings of the mud runners are like if
Speaker 7: you ride a curling in the mud, you can almost
Speaker 7: go to the window because they're gonna be right there one, two, three.
Speaker 1: But you want to be on the one clean horse
Speaker 1: because that means you're out in front. Derby coverage this year,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've got a chance to watch
Speaker 1: much of it. It's gonna be an off track. Everybody
Speaker 1: knew and Jerry Bailey talked a lot about the multiple
Speaker 1: goggles you guys would wear. Tell me about learning how
Speaker 1: to do that and how many. I mean when you
Speaker 1: have five or six goggles and you got to peel
Speaker 1: them off one other time?
Speaker 7: I want one time I wore seven pairs of goggles
Speaker 7: in the Kentucky Derby. I mean, you don't peel, you
Speaker 7: pull them down. I mean you got to clear. Seven
Speaker 7: pairs of goggles gets clear, crystal clear, the top one
Speaker 7: gets mundy. You just pull it straight down, hangs around
Speaker 7: your neck. We pull them off the track before the
Speaker 7: goggles right an expensive too, so you so you pull
Speaker 7: them down and then you clear. And every time you
Speaker 7: get muddy, pull them down. You try to get behind
Speaker 7: the horsemuck. A bad part is when you get half
Speaker 7: a three smile ago and you're out of goggles. That's
Speaker 7: the bad part. What do you do want a doubt
Speaker 7: you will out?
Speaker 1: Well, I'll let you go with this. Anna is gonna be,
Speaker 1: you know, forever known as one of the greats.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: But just tell me about what it's like to get
Speaker 1: on a nice day, just to get on her uh
Speaker 1: as often as you do. I mean, is it still
Speaker 1: a thrill for you?
Speaker 7: Absolutely? Man, We have a good communication, me and her.
Speaker 7: I could tell every move she makes. I know how
Speaker 7: she's feeling. I know how she's felt every time. I
Speaker 7: can tell you when she s ad a tip top shape,
Speaker 7: when she feels the best. But out here telling me
Speaker 7: what I heard talking to him and telling me I
Speaker 7: could feel her. She does little things that makes her like, well,
Speaker 7: she's got her ears for it, her HER's for it.
Speaker 1: Bouncing Ford, She's doing well, she's doing professional.
Speaker 7: She's professional.
Speaker 1: Robby Albarado who galloped Torpedo Anna this morning. Robbie admits
Speaker 1: to he is something of a UK fan, but he
Speaker 1: is a big, big LSU fan, as you can tell
Speaker 1: from the accent. He is a Cajun. And I had
Speaker 1: a windbreaker on this morning, but not a rain jacket,
Speaker 1: and he told me he had an LSU rain jacket
Speaker 1: out in the car and I said, no, no, that's fine.
Speaker 1: I'm good where I am. But yeah, still lives in
Speaker 1: Lexington and as I said, gallups horses for Kenny McPeak.
Speaker 1: This is after winning five thousand, two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: two races. Never did win a Kentucky Derby, but twice
Speaker 1: won the Preakness and won three different Breeders Cup races
Speaker 1: during his career, and of course was the regular jockey
Speaker 1: for Curlin. It was third in the Kentucky Derby, but
Speaker 1: then went on to win the Preakness that year in
Speaker 1: twenty seven and the Breeders' Cup Classic Board Curland later
Speaker 1: that year, and those two followed up the following year
Speaker 1: to win the Dubai World Cup. I remember two is
Speaker 1: up next year on six point thirty packing Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now is a
Speaker 1: familiar voice. You hear him every morning on this very
Speaker 1: radio station, Billy Rutledge, who also joins us during the
Speaker 1: seasons basketball and football. But Billy and a dude every
Speaker 1: day at nine am. He and Shannon the Dude following
Speaker 1: the lead's report. We even't had a chance to really
Speaker 1: chat with Billy on the air since the season ended,
Speaker 1: so we thought we would find out what's up. And
Speaker 1: of course, you know you hear him giving his opinions
Speaker 1: and his outlooks on his own show. But mister Rutledge,
Speaker 1: first of all, we need to talk about the fact
Speaker 1: that an assistant coach whom you kind of questioned a
Speaker 1: little bit, has just received a new contract from UK,
Speaker 1: Eric Wolford, the Kentucky offensive line coach, and you've got
Speaker 1: issues with this guy, don't you.
Speaker 8: Well, Dick, I always enjoy being on the Big Blue Insider,
Speaker 8: so thank you for having me on again. I missed
Speaker 8: our statewide shows after the Mark Pope or Stoop Show
Speaker 8: and looking forward to wing those returns. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 8: we always get into some great conversation, and some of
Speaker 8: the conversation we've gotten into in the past year or
Speaker 8: so is obviously the Kentucky offensive line, and that's got
Speaker 8: to return to form if Kentucky wants to start winning
Speaker 8: winning ten win seasons again. And that might be a
Speaker 8: pipe dream when we go to nine conference games, but
Speaker 8: for now, you know, it's I guess it is still
Speaker 8: a possibility. But you know, I didn't love the contract
Speaker 8: extension of Eric Wolford, to say the least. But you know,
Speaker 8: I like to remain optimistic. I'm not out on this
Speaker 8: Kentucky football team yet, So let me try to give
Speaker 8: you the positive. Let me try to give you the
Speaker 8: spin here, because I don't see any offensive line play
Speaker 8: with Eric Wolford as the offensive line coach that justifies
Speaker 8: a raise in the offseason. But what we do know
Speaker 8: about Eric is that he is a great recruiter, and
Speaker 8: he's somebody that's brought in a lot of position players
Speaker 8: outside of the offensive line in a year's past. So, Dick,
Speaker 8: in the new world of name, image and lightness and
Speaker 8: the transfer portal, if your goal is not to develop talent,
Speaker 8: then I think This is a fine move, but Eric
Speaker 8: has shown that he plays only the starters. He didn't
Speaker 8: have a great rotation of the backups that hurt Kentucky
Speaker 8: in the past. He's also somebody that left at the
Speaker 8: drop of a hat when he was still in the
Speaker 8: rental car for Kentucky football. You know, there's just been
Speaker 8: some warning signs for to me, that does not justify
Speaker 8: an offseason race. Now, the thing about Soups over the
Speaker 8: past few years, he hired his brother, He's hired his
Speaker 8: college roommate. Maybe you could liken that to Cal and
Speaker 8: how he maybe he got complacent in the final years
Speaker 8: at Kentucky basketball. But I want to hold out hope,
Speaker 8: Dick that Eric is the guy. He is a great
Speaker 8: recruiter that was able to bring in the offensive linemen
Speaker 8: that are going to do a great job this year.
Speaker 1: I want to have that hope.
Speaker 8: But I have not seen anything on the field that
Speaker 8: would justify that. So I'm gonna the Jerry still out
Speaker 8: for me. I'd love to criticize it even more, but
Speaker 8: I'd like I still believe Soups can get this on
Speaker 8: the right track. It's just a matter of who he
Speaker 8: does it with.
Speaker 1: I think that's fair, But I will say, in pushing
Speaker 1: back a little bit that yeah, in the immediate passed.
Speaker 1: You know, the Kentucky old line just really over the
Speaker 1: last three years hasn't really done much of anything that
Speaker 1: you can hang any any kind of hat on. But
Speaker 1: when Wolford got here, I felt like that the talent
Speaker 1: level had dropped off. Now, you know, you could make
Speaker 1: the argument that that that he did not do anything
Speaker 1: to help develop it by by simply in his first
Speaker 1: year here playing the starters, but you know how much
Speaker 1: was on the roster in terms of talent. The one
Speaker 1: thing that John Schlarman did while he was here, and
Speaker 1: he was a good recruiter and and really helped develop
Speaker 1: that line. And you know, we go back to the
Speaker 1: best Kentucky offensive lines when I think you'll recall, because
Speaker 1: we talked about this on the show, they would sub
Speaker 1: out everybody but Drake Jackson the starting center for an
Speaker 1: entire series, no matter what was going on, even even
Speaker 1: when the Wildcats would get into the red zone, they
Speaker 1: would leave those back up old lineman in there, and
Speaker 1: of course they would build depth. But as those guys
Speaker 1: moved on, I felt like, for whatever reason, Kentucky just
Speaker 1: didn't move to rebuild the roster. They either made mistakes
Speaker 1: or missed out on recruits. So when Wolford got here,
Speaker 1: and I know it sounds like a bit of an excuse,
Speaker 1: the cupboard wasn't bare, but it wasn't as fully stocked
Speaker 1: as when John Schlarman was here. So uh yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: still I'm still like you, I'm kind of holding out hope.
Speaker 1: And now the picture is really different given all these
Speaker 1: transfers who have come in. I mean, you talk about
Speaker 1: totally rebuilding that offensive line room. It seems like they've
Speaker 1: got what they need right now, does it not?
Speaker 8: It does, And that's why I'm optimistic because in this
Speaker 8: new era, maybe you don't need to rotate as many guys.
Speaker 8: It's not about keeping guys in health and developing that talent.
Speaker 8: It's about getting the best five or six guys and
Speaker 8: then you know, and then running with it and then
Speaker 8: getting another five or six year. So that's that's why
Speaker 8: I still like to think that he has a huge
Speaker 8: part of the reason why they can find some success. Again,
Speaker 8: I mean, if you want to stay in the same ballpark,
Speaker 8: Vince Marrow is integral to what Kentucky does. But the
Speaker 8: tight ends have been done anything in a decade, right,
Speaker 8: So I mean I think you can you can categorize
Speaker 8: it that way. But also at the same time, they
Speaker 8: do much more for the program than just those positions.
Speaker 8: But the lasting image I have of the offensive line
Speaker 8: last year, Dick is Gerald Mincy at the concession stand.
Speaker 8: I mean, Brock Vandergriff eventually quit football because he got
Speaker 8: injured so much from this offensive line, and fair or not,
Speaker 8: I mean, that's the reality. And so the number one
Speaker 8: thing that's going to help this Kentucky team get back
Speaker 8: to seven, eight, nine, nine game winning winning seasons is
Speaker 8: that offensive line. And will it ever be the big
Speaker 8: Blue wall again? You know that's going to be tough
Speaker 8: to recreate. John Schlarman was one of one, right, But
Speaker 8: you know, can they find success by adapting to how
Speaker 8: the college football landscapes that today, like the transfer portal.
Speaker 8: Maybe Eric Wilford is a better recruiter than he is
Speaker 8: a position coach, and maybe that's what Kentucky needs right now.
Speaker 8: But just pr department optics of it all just could
Speaker 8: not be worse. I think.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw this on the wire,
Speaker 1: but I was talking about it the other day the
Speaker 1: research that Yahoo Sports did into the transfer situation for
Speaker 1: college football, the position that had the lowest level of
Speaker 1: transfer it was offensive line thirty two percent of the
Speaker 1: kids from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two. I think
Speaker 1: it was for three only thirty two percent, where old
Speaker 1: Lignement's sixty nine percent, which was predictable was quarterbacks, which
Speaker 1: kind of surprised me a little bit, Billy, because you know,
Speaker 1: and D linemen, we're almost we're just a little bit more,
Speaker 1: a little bit higher than old lineman. But it would
Speaker 1: seem to me that those are the more valued commodities,
Speaker 1: you know, quarterbacks aside, that's always going to be the
Speaker 1: highest number of transfers. But I was really surprised by
Speaker 1: that loan number. Does that surprise you.
Speaker 4: A little bit?
Speaker 8: You know? I hear you rattle off those positions, and
Speaker 8: I think of the most three important positions in the
Speaker 8: NFL quarterback, left tackle, and Eddrescher right, And that's where
Speaker 8: you're going to see the people make the most money
Speaker 8: in college football because those are the valuable positions. But
Speaker 8: it seems like offensive line, if you've got a good one,
Speaker 8: you need to hold on to them, you know, and
Speaker 8: when it comes to the quarterback, there's only one slot
Speaker 8: really available, and so I can understand if you're if
Speaker 8: you're not the guy, you're going to look elsewhere. Offensive line,
Speaker 8: you've got to have five and maybe even six or
Speaker 8: seven you just keep up with that depth in rotation.
Speaker 8: So I mean that means the numbers are going to
Speaker 8: dwindle even more so when there's a good guy out there.
Speaker 8: So you know, it does surprise me a little bit.
Speaker 8: But at the same time, those big, you know, big
Speaker 8: guys up front are going to be those valuable commodities
Speaker 8: that people are going to emphasize and probably spend more
Speaker 8: of their budget on. And when you compete in the SEC, Dick,
Speaker 8: you have to have the offensive lineman. So you've got
Speaker 8: to go to one of these two schools of whether
Speaker 8: you know, recruit your guys from high school and develop them,
Speaker 8: or to go to the transfer portal. So we have
Speaker 8: it feels like the entire state of New Mexico transferred
Speaker 8: in to be on the offensive line. And then the
Speaker 8: guy from Western Kentucky as well, Jagger Burton, is hopefully
Speaker 8: somebody that has improved from last year. So look, I
Speaker 8: mean there's a lot of Debbie downers on the Kentucky
Speaker 8: football team coming up, just with how tough the schedule is.
Speaker 8: I mean, if you look at Power four teams, I
Speaker 8: think Kentucky has the fifth fifth worst odds, are the
Speaker 8: fifth lowest win total when it comes to four and
Speaker 8: a half. Is just the people are down right now.
Speaker 8: So I mean it's it's tough, but you know, I
Speaker 8: think the you know, with the Eric Woodford contract extension
Speaker 8: and a second year of Bush Hampton, there's never been
Speaker 8: more pre for Mark Soops to get to that six
Speaker 8: one month.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. We're talking with Billy Rutledge.
Speaker 1: Hear him every morning Billy and a Dude following Tom Leech,
Speaker 1: She and Shannon the Dude on the KSR pre Show.
Speaker 1: We haven't had a chance to chat with Billy since
Speaker 1: the season ended. The basketball season. That is because he
Speaker 1: and Aaron Gershawan join us on the State Wide Show
Speaker 1: each and every week. We'll come back and talk basketball
Speaker 1: in just a minute with Billy on the other side
Speaker 1: of the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Billy Rutlids. You hear him every morning
Speaker 1: following the Leads Report on the KSR pre show, he
Speaker 1: and Shannon the Dude. I like to call him Billy
Speaker 1: and the Dude. I think that that name just kind
Speaker 1: of rolls off the tongue. Billy. I can't I can't
Speaker 1: get any traction on it, but unofficially that's what I
Speaker 1: call your show.
Speaker 8: I tried to get a changed and Shannon for some
Speaker 8: reason had an issue with my name being first. It's
Speaker 8: just alphabetical, like there's nothing to it. But so I'm
Speaker 8: still working on that.
Speaker 1: I just think it's more poetic. I really do so, anyway,
Speaker 1: but I can see that with Shannon no quote. Let
Speaker 1: us talk about basketball, and of course, the last time
Speaker 1: we chatted was following Kentucky's season ending loss and now
Speaker 1: a win with otego Away coming back. I know you're
Speaker 1: not shocked by that, so I'll put it to you
Speaker 1: in this way, too early time to evaluate things. What
Speaker 1: does that do for the Wildcats? Where do you think
Speaker 1: it leaves Kentucky and Mark Pope when we look ahead
Speaker 1: to the upcoming season.
Speaker 8: Well, you know, in the summertime, Dicky, we do a
Speaker 8: lot of lists and we do you know great And
Speaker 8: so when people were asking me what I thought of
Speaker 8: Mark pope first season at Kentucky. I gave him an
Speaker 8: E an upgrade from a minus after he made the
Speaker 8: Sweet sixteen after beating Illinois. You know, he was able
Speaker 8: to put together a roster in a matter of a month,
Speaker 8: implement his offense, bring back a love and joy to
Speaker 8: the fan base that hadn't seen in a while. I
Speaker 8: gave him a solid A. And when somebody asked just
Speaker 8: this week what I would give the grade for Mark
Speaker 8: Pope for this off season, and I said A again, Dick,
Speaker 8: I mean, just to get some of these guys like
Speaker 8: Mo Diabat from Alabama and Denzel Aberdeen from Florida. I mean,
Speaker 8: this is a national champion, sixth Man of the Year
Speaker 8: that's going to be in a starting role with Florida
Speaker 8: and he ends up going to Kentucky and is already
Speaker 8: talking about winning number nine. You know, to get the
Speaker 8: wealth of talent and the depth of talent that Mark
Speaker 8: Pope did when you finally gave him a full recruiting
Speaker 8: cycle to get to work and he's not driving a
Speaker 8: six shift in South America. I mean, he really filled
Speaker 8: out this roster. And I hated to see Travis Perry go,
Speaker 8: but you're continuing the Kentucky tradition with guys like Malachai
Speaker 8: Moreno and also Trent Noah who's expected to gain eighteen pounds.
Speaker 6: Bet.
Speaker 8: I hope he's going to Chipotle working on that. But look,
Speaker 8: how can you not be extremely optimistic about what you've seen?
Speaker 8: And something that maybe gets lost at times is how
Speaker 8: much Mark Pope talks about the jump that his players
Speaker 8: take from year one to year two in his system.
Speaker 8: That's what I'm only excited to see guys like Colin
Speaker 8: Chandler and Brandon Garrison and what they can do, Dick.
Speaker 8: I mean, they could become guys that well, Brandon Garrison
Speaker 8: is going to have to be that guy early on
Speaker 8: as they wait for jad and Quaintance to come back
Speaker 8: from injury. Finally, Jaden Quainton as people look at him
Speaker 8: as a top ten pick in one of the NBA
Speaker 8: drafts coming up. So I mean, if he can fill
Speaker 8: out to his potential, and these guys that who are
Speaker 8: staying in the system for a second year can become,
Speaker 8: you know, playmakers. I mean, Colin Chandler was playing important
Speaker 8: minutes late into the year last year, so and now
Speaker 8: you bring back maybe the preseason SEC Player of the
Speaker 8: Year in otakea Oway. If he's not that, I think
Speaker 8: he's close as he was somebody that was an All
Speaker 8: American and on SEC Award list last year. That guy
Speaker 8: surprised me so much, and really I think still has
Speaker 8: some room to grow.
Speaker 5: Dick.
Speaker 8: I mean his shot didn't look great at times. I
Speaker 8: mean he scored double digits in every game but two,
Speaker 8: So I guess he's got two games and that he
Speaker 8: could do better in at least. But look, that guy was,
Speaker 8: you know, to a degree, that heart and soul of
Speaker 8: the team last year. You saw them at their best
Speaker 8: when he was hitting game winners versus Oklahoma, or he
Speaker 8: was able to put twenty on the board. But this
Speaker 8: roster is gonna be different. Look, they're not going to
Speaker 8: have the shooting prowess that they did maybe last year.
Speaker 8: It's not Kobe Brayer on this roster, but they're deep
Speaker 8: and if you looked at the weaknesses of the roster
Speaker 8: last year, I think they got noticeably better in all categories,
Speaker 8: whether it be athleticism, whether it be defense. Mark Pope
Speaker 8: after one year in the SEC and by the way,
Speaker 8: may have been one of the greatest seasons ever in
Speaker 8: the SEC conference for basketball. That's not the best. I
Speaker 8: think he now realizes what he needs on his roster,
Speaker 8: and then you throw in a Croatian dick. I mean
Speaker 8: it's a big d all over again.
Speaker 4: Like this is.
Speaker 8: You know, this could turn into a really special season,
Speaker 8: and I think this is exactly what all VbN wanted.
Speaker 1: I know we're a little bit biased here, but when
Speaker 1: you look at and you're right, we spend the summer
Speaker 1: just categorizing and listing, and you know we've talked about
Speaker 1: him many times. The internet is a bottomless pit and
Speaker 1: we have to fill it. But everybody, and this all
Speaker 1: started way back, almost before you were born. With USA today,
Speaker 1: that was one of their real specialties, was lists and
Speaker 1: pie charts and all this stuff. But I've not yet
Speaker 1: seen a breakdown, And if it's out there, I'd love
Speaker 1: to have someone direct me to it. People like the
Speaker 1: list who had the best transfer portal class, who had
Speaker 1: the best recruiting class. I want to see overall roster
Speaker 1: when it comes to building an off season roster, who
Speaker 1: has done as well or better than Pope and company
Speaker 1: when it comes to portal transfer, transfer, portal returning roster
Speaker 1: and incoming freshmen. Because you know you've got Patino up
Speaker 1: in New York strictly doing portal work. You got other
Speaker 1: places that are strictly doing not entirely recruiting, but kind
Speaker 1: of lightly going after the portal. But I just think
Speaker 1: Kentucky with whole has done the best job of blending
Speaker 1: all of it, you know what I mean?
Speaker 8: Yeah, And you know we'll have to see, you know,
Speaker 8: how it's managed, because he's somebody that plays guys maybe
Speaker 8: a little bit less minutes than what you would expect,
Speaker 8: and so how would he manage egos and personalities? Like
Speaker 8: everybody's coming into this with an understanding that you play
Speaker 8: for your time, you know, nobody's promised starting time. And
Speaker 8: I think that's a welcome change to the program in
Speaker 8: recent years. But Dick, you know, I think Mark Pope
Speaker 8: struck a chord with some of the fan base recently
Speaker 8: when he said, we do want to be the team
Speaker 8: that spends the most money in nil you know, we
Speaker 8: want to be the team that's known as doing it
Speaker 8: the best when it comes to college basketball because we
Speaker 8: are Kentucky. In Kentucky is the pinnacle of the sport.
Speaker 8: And so Cal has always had that mindset too. You know,
Speaker 8: I always thought he was great at saying, you know,
Speaker 8: we can't hide you here, and I think even Hope
Speaker 8: said something to that regard, is that you don't come
Speaker 8: here to hide, right. But at the same time, you
Speaker 8: know it had shifted into maybe an NBA factory where
Speaker 8: you know, one and done. Freshmen come in and you
Speaker 8: try to cobble it together to go on a run
Speaker 8: in the NCAA tournament, and sometimes that kind of comes
Speaker 8: and bites you at the end. Now it just feels
Speaker 8: a little different. The philosophy feels different. You know, you've
Speaker 8: got guys staying for a second year, You've blended the
Speaker 8: transfer portal with freshmen and then returning guys. Like you said,
Speaker 8: it's just a much different ecosystem. But you talk to
Speaker 8: anybody around the program, they're nothing but excited as well, right,
Speaker 8: I mean even us in the media having to work
Speaker 8: with the media relations teams and the sids. I mean
Speaker 8: it seems like their quality of living got a little
Speaker 8: better too with the change. So I think, you know,
Speaker 8: it's Pope checked all the boxes. It's it's and it's
Speaker 8: a hard job to do that for especially year one,
Speaker 8: and uh, you know, I'm just really excited to see
Speaker 8: who's starting because with all the guys, you know, you
Speaker 8: got to think those practices are going to be really competitive,
Speaker 8: and you know who is going to be on the bench,
Speaker 8: who's going to be that starting five, who will play
Speaker 8: the most minute? You know, it's the great thing about
Speaker 8: the state. We'll talk about it for six months, right
Speaker 8: and leading up to it.
Speaker 1: I agree, it's sometimes it seems like a long summer,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it seems like football is right on top
Speaker 1: of us. We have a few minutes left with Billy Rutledge.
Speaker 1: You hear him every morning on the show with Shannon
Speaker 1: the Dude on the KSR pre show after the Tom
Speaker 1: Lee Show, i should say, after the Leitch Report, and
Speaker 1: you hear him on our show on Monday nights following
Speaker 1: the Coaches shows, either the Stoop Show or the Mark
Speaker 1: Pope Radio Show. In our state wide edition. One thing
Speaker 1: you brought up, Calip Perry. One thing I think people
Speaker 1: need to take a good hard look at when now
Speaker 1: with some perspective, given the joy that you reference from
Speaker 1: the Mark Pope debut season was just how I don't
Speaker 1: know what the word I'm looking for is, but the
Speaker 1: second half of the Caliperi era versus the first half
Speaker 1: I mean, it was nothing but highlights those first six years,
Speaker 1: final four appearances, national championship, but then it, you know,
Speaker 1: it became so brittle in the second half, when an
Speaker 1: injury here and there, a missed free throw here and there,
Speaker 1: and everything it seemed was going wrong. I still say,
Speaker 1: if the twenty fifteen team had finished things up the
Speaker 1: way people had hoped, Caliperiu might still be here. If
Speaker 1: North Carolina doesn't hit the shot that sends the Tarios
Speaker 1: to the Final four instead of bam at a buyo
Speaker 1: on to Aaron Fox in that bunch, he might still
Speaker 1: be here. If they close out against Auburn when they
Speaker 1: blew it in the second half, he might still be here.
Speaker 1: So you know, it can really be, you know, thin
Speaker 1: ice when you're trying to get things done. But that
Speaker 1: also underscores the pressure, now, doesn't it? On Mark Pope?
Speaker 1: There wasn't as much pressure this past season that there
Speaker 1: is going to be this year and in the years
Speaker 1: to come. Is that fair?
Speaker 8: It is? And we live in a what have what
Speaker 8: have you done for me lately? But I also think
Speaker 8: Mark is a completely different person than Cow And when
Speaker 8: the gravitas and the swagginess of Cow was at its best.
Speaker 8: It was awesome. But then you know, winning cures all Dick,
Speaker 8: and when the winning wasn't there, he was, you know,
Speaker 8: he was. He's a great ambassador for the state. But
Speaker 8: when he's on his coaches show talking down to the
Speaker 8: fan base, or he's calling out media members or you know,
Speaker 8: like he's you know, I think deliberately felt like he
Speaker 8: was flighted at some point. I don't know if it
Speaker 8: was the Wisconsin game that broke him, Dick, but he
Speaker 8: just I think he was a completely different person personality wise.
Speaker 8: And it goes back to what I was saying with
Speaker 8: Soups a little bit. You know, you hire a Bruiser
Speaker 8: Flint and a chin Coleman and a Brad Calipari, and
Speaker 8: this is this is fine when you're winning, but these
Speaker 8: are your boys, and so when you start to lose,
Speaker 8: I think people look at it as like why not,
Speaker 8: why not you know, retain a guy like Robic, you know,
Speaker 8: why not get a why did Welch only say for
Speaker 8: one year?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 8: Like it's you know, I felt like he was starting
Speaker 8: to lose parts of himself, whether it be Dwayne Peevie
Speaker 8: or the assistants that did so much for him Kenny Payne,
Speaker 8: who was that kind of good cop of Cow's bad cop.
Speaker 8: You know, you know, you're only as good as the
Speaker 8: people that you surround yourself to a degree, and I
Speaker 8: felt like he was surrounding himself with not the right people.
Speaker 8: But you know, you could be right, you know. I mean,
Speaker 8: we could be four or five years into the Mark
Speaker 8: Pope experience and he hasn't gotten past the Sweet sixteen,
Speaker 8: and you know, the fan base it'd probably be sooner
Speaker 8: than that. Bick, It's probably be three or four years.
Speaker 8: But you know, how he's been able to connect to
Speaker 8: the fans is similar to Calan ways, but also I
Speaker 8: think a little different, and you know, being the captain
Speaker 8: with Patino and Rick being welcome backed in the way
Speaker 8: that he was. It just I think that, you know,
Speaker 8: hopefully it never gets to that point. But you know,
Speaker 8: cal said no lies when this is about a ten
Speaker 8: year job, I mean, and I think that was probably
Speaker 8: one of the main factors of why Cow left. Even
Speaker 8: though you had some bad losses with Saint Peter's in Oakland.
Speaker 8: Could he have still been the coach of this team
Speaker 8: if he had won those games?
Speaker 3: Maybe?
Speaker 8: Yeah, But does that change that this is still the
Speaker 8: time for when he needed to walk away. I don't
Speaker 8: think so. I mean, it really seems like that's about
Speaker 8: the timeframe of when you got to give this job
Speaker 8: up and to somebody else. I say that, and Mark
Speaker 8: Pope could win four national titles and coach here for
Speaker 8: twenty five years. But you know, that's that's the that's
Speaker 8: the that's the hope. But it just that I think
Speaker 8: we all needed this change and the reset, and change
Speaker 8: can be good and and now these guys can can
Speaker 8: push forward. And I guess my really only regret is
Speaker 8: that Travis Perry isn't on the roster anymore. I hated
Speaker 8: to see that he's going to come in and score
Speaker 8: twenty two.
Speaker 1: Against and Cali Perry showed he can still get it done,
Speaker 1: you know. I Mean, Arkansas w on a nice run
Speaker 1: but lost a game it shouldn't have lost in the
Speaker 1: nca tournament. So there's always going to be that that
Speaker 1: question mark. And now the wild card here when you
Speaker 1: look at the SEC is Boogie Flann leaving Arkansas for
Speaker 1: Florida because he probably wasn't going to get to squeeze
Speaker 1: the air out of the ball at Arkansas the way
Speaker 1: he will at Florida. You know, Arkansas showed that once
Speaker 1: he came back, he was better as a complimentary player.
Speaker 1: The team was better when Boogie was a complimentary player.
Speaker 1: But Kentucky's still going to have to deal with him
Speaker 1: at least twice a year. Billy Rutledge co hosts with
Speaker 1: Shannon the do the KSR pre show after the Leachs
Speaker 1: Report on this very radio station. Good talking to you, Sarah.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you again.
Speaker 8: Sooner any time.
Speaker 5: Jack.
Speaker 1: Thank you more to come here on The Big boon
Speaker 1: Sider including Heroes, Fools and Flakes on six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Boonsider. Thanks again to Billy
Speaker 1: Ruttledge for joining us. Good to check in with Billy
Speaker 1: now and then and to follow up on the conversation
Speaker 1: about Kentucky basketball. Interesting column from Mark's story and the
Speaker 1: herold Leader. You can find it on one a Kentucky
Speaker 1: dot com if you're a subscriber, or just pick it
Speaker 1: up on the news rack if you will a hard copy.
Speaker 1: But he brings an interesting question. You know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about this roster, this Kentucky roster. But as he points
Speaker 1: out and in the headline at states or asked a
Speaker 1: question should Kentucky fans have a counterintuitive worry about Mark
Speaker 1: Pope's upcoming basketball team? And what it's based on is,
Speaker 1: of course the offensive ability of Oh, take a Oway
Speaker 1: coming back, no question about that. But where else is
Speaker 1: the offense going to come from? Because only Oway and
Speaker 1: transfer point guard Jalen Lowe have average double figures at
Speaker 1: this level of college hoops. Of course low average nearly
Speaker 1: seventeen a game for Pittsburgh. I'll take away average sixteen
Speaker 1: a game for the Wildcats. So question Mark is posing
Speaker 1: is where's the offense going to come from? There's a
Speaker 1: lot of athletic ability on this team, and you've got
Speaker 1: the Mark Pope's system in place, and we talked earlier
Speaker 1: and we heard from Pope talking about guys who go
Speaker 1: from year one to year two. But it's a legit question,
Speaker 1: and it's one it's kind of fun to think about it.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to be a problem. Will
Speaker 1: this Kentucky team score the way it did last year?
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe not. Should be better defensively, should be better athletically,
Speaker 1: but will it put up points? As Mark pointed out,
Speaker 1: UK finished tenth in adjusted offensive efficiency last year? Seventh
Speaker 1: in the nation and scoring at eighty four points per
Speaker 1: game eighty four point four. Remember early in the year
Speaker 1: when Kentucky was leading the nation twentieth and assists at
Speaker 1: seventeen per game, twenty first and fast breakpoints. Will we
Speaker 1: see that this coming year's legit question. That's something to
Speaker 1: think about and something to ponder as the season draws near.
Speaker 1: Where will the points come from? Now? The Cat's pause.
Speaker 1: Whoever handles their website or their social media has pointed
Speaker 1: out that now that the old way is returning, Kentucky
Speaker 1: will return only twenty percent of it starts, thirty percent
Speaker 1: of its minutes, thirty percent almost thirty one of its points,
Speaker 1: nearly thirty percent of its rebounds, twenty six percent of
Speaker 1: its assists, forty four percent of it steals, thirty percent
Speaker 1: of its blocks, and twenty percent of its made three.
Speaker 1: Some of those numbers are good. Some of those numbers
Speaker 1: can give you pause. But it's just going to be
Speaker 1: up to new people to make things happen. So again,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's anything to fret about, but I
Speaker 1: do think it's interesting and I'm curious as to where
Speaker 1: this is, this new found offense will come from. Otaga
Speaker 1: Oway is that rare Kentucky player to average sixteen points
Speaker 1: or more and come back for another year since nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two. The Twitter account Rare Rookies hashtag BBN pointed
Speaker 1: this out. Otago Oway joins Oscar Sheebwey, Patrick Patterson, Keith Bogans,
Speaker 1: Tayshawn Prince, Tony Delk, and Jamal Mashburn as the only
Speaker 1: players dating back to nineteen ninety two who have returned
Speaker 1: after averaging at least sixteen points per game. That is
Speaker 1: an interesting, interesting number. I also like the site that
Speaker 1: pointed out how crazy it is when you look at
Speaker 1: the NBA. This was on a site or a Twitter
Speaker 1: account called Hoops the UK Guards And if you follow
Speaker 1: the NBA at all, if you just glance at it,
Speaker 1: you can't miss it. I mean, you start with Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: He is a true NBA superstar. He is becoming and
Speaker 1: if he's not already one of the greatest players in
Speaker 1: the history of the Phoenix Suns. Jamal Murray in Denver,
Speaker 1: He's already got a ringd Aaron Fox Is in San Antonio,
Speaker 1: He's gonna get one. Playing with Wemby. I gotta think
Speaker 1: Malik Monk in Sacramento, got off the kind of a
Speaker 1: false start in Charlotte Lands in Sacramento, played with Fox
Speaker 1: for a while and this past season averaged seventeen a game,
Speaker 1: nearly four rebounds, five and a half assists, and hit
Speaker 1: forty four percent of his shots. Alik Monk solid now
Speaker 1: in the NBA. Ty Ty Washington's on a two way
Speaker 1: with Phoenix Tyrese Maxi approaching superstar status in Philly. They
Speaker 1: need to win more for him to get there, but
Speaker 1: I think he will a Tyler hero Hughes in Miami.
Speaker 1: Apparently he's grown up to the point where pat Riley
Speaker 1: wants to keep him around. That was touch and go
Speaker 1: for a little while there. And of course, Shay gilgis
Speaker 1: Alexander your current reigning NBA MVP and the MVP of
Speaker 1: the Western Conference finals. UK guards in the league and
Speaker 1: you can say, if you care, thank you, John Caliperi
Speaker 1: something else on Twitter today or ex if you will
Speaker 1: from Kat's Classics, whoever runs it posted a photo of
Speaker 1: Mark Pope and his teammates from the ninety five to
Speaker 1: ninety six team, including a young Rick Patino. Scott paget
Speaker 1: Is in uniform. Athough he did not play for that team.
Speaker 1: Jeff Shepard and Twin Walker and Walter McCarty. It is
Speaker 1: them celebrating a win in in Italy. Back in August
Speaker 1: of ninety five. They went four and one versus some
Speaker 1: professional teams, averaging one hundred and sixteen points and won
Speaker 1: their games by a margin. This is a college team
Speaker 1: now beating pros by an average of twenty seven points
Speaker 1: per game. The reason it caught my eye, well, it
Speaker 1: was different, but I flashed on a moment that was
Speaker 1: not pleasant for me. I really wanted to make that trip.
Speaker 1: When I heard they were going, I went to my
Speaker 1: bosses at WKYT and I said, we need to cover
Speaker 1: this team. They're going to win the national title. They're
Speaker 1: going to Italy. I can produce a series. I can
Speaker 1: produce a documentary. Whatever money we spend, we can make
Speaker 1: it back selling the advertising for this project. And they
Speaker 1: approved it. So now we had to get the ok
Speaker 1: from Patino in UK. So I very gently approached the
Speaker 1: UK and I got the approval. I was going to Italy,
Speaker 1: and I don't I think I was taking a videographer
Speaker 1: with me. These days they would just send one person.
Speaker 1: But I mean it was all set. Then the next
Speaker 1: thing you know, I heard it was canceled. Why because
Speaker 1: the station in Louisville had the same idea. But and
Speaker 1: to sell Patino on it, it was basically, look, you
Speaker 1: won't even know we're there. We're just gonna shoot the video.
Speaker 1: We may do the occasional interview. Blah blah blah. Now
Speaker 1: the station in Louisville screwed it up. They presented a
Speaker 1: list of demands. They presented their plan. Here's what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do. Here's what you're gonna do for us, Here's
Speaker 1: what we need from you. Here's how we're going to
Speaker 1: impose upon you while you're over there playing basketball, trying
Speaker 1: to learn your team, trying to see the sites and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Patino took one look at it and
Speaker 1: said nope, and out the window it went. And with
Speaker 1: their request to accompany the team, out the window went.
Speaker 1: Yours truly in my videographer, Oh man, was I upset?
Speaker 1: It was all good. We were going it was gonna happen.
Speaker 1: But no, this high faluting station, I won't say which
Speaker 1: over in Louisville. I think the people who were responsible
Speaker 1: are gone by now, screwed it up for the rest
Speaker 1: of us, meaning me and my shooter. No other station
Speaker 1: was going to go from Lexington just us. I mentioned
Speaker 1: the NBA second ago, uh as many of you know
Speaker 1: who listened to the show, and we appreciate that. I
Speaker 1: really love Inside the NBA, the TNT show, which is
Speaker 1: sadly going away because they're losing the NBA contract. TNT
Speaker 1: is losing it to ESPN, and there's all kind of
Speaker 1: conjecture and speculation about what's going to happen to show.
Speaker 1: Shaquille o' neil, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson. It's
Speaker 1: probably the greatest studio show in the history of television.
Speaker 1: Well Shack had a message last night for anybody who
Speaker 1: might be wondering.
Speaker 6: There's all saying when something passes away as something that's reborn. Yes,
Speaker 6: it is the ending of the Inside the nd T
Speaker 6: and Team, but it's the new beginning for us. I'm
Speaker 6: glad we're still together on whatever network we go to
Speaker 6: and whatever network we're coming to, we bring it the pain.
Speaker 6: Just letting you know right now, Okay, I know everybody
Speaker 6: said or they ain't gonna be the show. The show
Speaker 6: is still here, baby. You can never kill the four
Speaker 6: horsemen were coming and were coming to take spots, were
Speaker 6: coming to kick ass, and we come to take names
Speaker 6: doing it our way. Hey, okay, you got it. You
Speaker 6: know all this time, that's about that show. Were coming
Speaker 6: with a whole brand new show, and we don't care
Speaker 6: who went our way, coming to kick ass and ten names.
Speaker 6: I could play with this. That's why I wanted to
Speaker 6: play with him. Can I be Rickclaire? Yes, we got
Speaker 6: in that lasstake the last thing man changes, but the
Speaker 6: boys are here that we did them. Boys, we don't
Speaker 6: ever forget it. We don't lost.
Speaker 9: We lost, we.
Speaker 6: Coming. We come it stump to tears.
Speaker 8: I couldn't.
Speaker 6: I couldn't have said it any better myself.
Speaker 1: That was great, and so was Charles Barkley when they
Speaker 1: flashed a photo on the screen of their broadcast position
Speaker 1: in Madison Square Garden last night, way up there, and
Speaker 1: somebody had put together a shot photoshopped of their broadcast
Speaker 1: spot with the Ninja turtles around because they had said
Speaker 1: they were in the ventilation system, and Barkley had a
Speaker 1: great take on it.
Speaker 6: In the cloud, up in the cloud, I could touch
Speaker 6: guy right now.
Speaker 2: That's all the chance I'll ever gonna get to see him.
Speaker 6: I'm going to hell, damn, but I'm gonna see a
Speaker 6: lot of y'all laughing. Hey Shack, good to see you again.
Speaker 6: You go have on some gasolines, rolls.
Speaker 1: Or up in the clouds. I can touch God. Love
Speaker 1: it well. Come back with heroes, fools and flakes in
Speaker 1: just a minute here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Blue Insider, final segment of our program.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Billy Rutledge, to Kenny McPeak, to Robbie Albarado.
Speaker 1: We start today. Our hero is a youngster from Alan, Texas.
Speaker 1: His name is Baison Zachai. I think it's how he
Speaker 1: pronounce his name. He is the champion speller. He has
Speaker 1: won the scripts National Spelling Bee age thirteen. He was
Speaker 1: the runner up last year and was the favorite going
Speaker 1: in this year because last year he never misspelled a
Speaker 1: word in the conventional spelling rounds. He only lost in
Speaker 1: a lightning round tiebreaker that he didn't really prepare for,
Speaker 1: so he was ready to win this year, but.
Speaker 6: Blew it.
Speaker 1: The b was down to three spellers and the first
Speaker 1: two missed their words back to back, so this kid
Speaker 1: was two words away from victory and the first was Jamalina,
Speaker 1: but instead of asking, you know, can you give me
Speaker 1: a definition language of origin to make sure, he jumped
Speaker 1: right in and started to misspell it and he goes kam.
Speaker 1: Then he stops himself and says, realized that he had
Speaker 1: misspelled it, and he says, just ring the bell to
Speaker 1: the judge. So now the final three went at it again,
Speaker 1: and he finally prevailed by spelling a claire systemon. I
Speaker 1: have no idea E C L A I R C
Speaker 1: I S S E M E N T. Had to
Speaker 1: look it up, no idea what it means. It has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with chocolate a Claire's. It's a noun
Speaker 1: French origin, which means claire vocation or explanation. And clearly
Speaker 1: this kid knew it, and he finally prevailed after almost
Speaker 1: blowing it. But he is your one hundredth anniversary Scripts
Speaker 1: National Spelling Bee champions, so congrats to him. Our fool
Speaker 1: tonight is any of the cowards who issued death threats
Speaker 1: the Houston astros pitcher Lance mccullors Junior. He said to
Speaker 1: higher security after receiving online threats aimed at his family.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they happened. I don't care why
Speaker 1: they happened, but this is so cowardly. And he's not
Speaker 1: the only Major leaguer who has received death threats this year.
Speaker 1: And I always believe these things go back to gambling.
Speaker 1: But he got some death threats, and actually the situation
Speaker 1: became public back when May the tenth, he had a
Speaker 1: rough outing against the Reds and quote unquote fans started
Speaker 1: threatening him online. He had to explain to his five
Speaker 1: year old daughter what it means to be threatened. Liam
Speaker 1: Hendrix of the Red Sox, a reliever, he got death threats.
Speaker 1: Another Red Sox player, outfielder Jared Durant, also got death
Speaker 1: threats and got some really nasty comments sent to him
Speaker 1: because he's been public about his battles with depression and
Speaker 1: he had a comment about his suicide attempt that was
Speaker 1: hurled at him. It came out in a documentary on
Speaker 1: Netflix called The Clubhouse. People are being so ugly out
Speaker 1: there and I hate it. Our flake tonight, it's the
Speaker 1: SEC and the Big Ten. They are talking about head
Speaker 1: to head competition on a regular basis when it comes
Speaker 1: to football. But the games could possibly be a play
Speaker 1: in style format that could decide up to eight bids
Speaker 1: for the college football playoff, So this this scheduling stuff
Speaker 1: is just running them up. Quite frankly, there's so many
Speaker 1: people weighing in about how the college football playoffs should
Speaker 1: be structured, and now two of the biggest conferences, the
Speaker 1: Big Ten and the SEC, are trying to make it
Speaker 1: their own personal play thing. And unless the rest of
Speaker 1: college football rises up, it just well may happen sooner
Speaker 1: rather than later, that's going to do it. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening, Have a great weekend. That said, good
Speaker 1: night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 5: Unless sir official, let me ask you something, six of
Speaker 5: you miss a play like that.
Speaker 4: When the ball jumped out of there.
Speaker 2: Soon as we make Camptown number.
Speaker 6: Tack what you were talking about you if you on
Speaker 6: the field.
Speaker 9: Now watch set such station the tact anything doing can
Speaker 9: anything back seat, anything can let the fact tolack them
Speaker 9: from typing donning the