Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Bluins Sider Dick Gabriel with your
Speaker 1: Thursday edition of our program. No women's basketball tonight, as
Speaker 1: the UK women Kenny Brooks's team doesn't play again until Monday,
Speaker 1: so full so for you tonight. Sean Woods, the unforgettable
Speaker 1: Guard and Gary maher R, West Coast Bureau Chief, West
Speaker 1: End Bureau Chief now will join us. Usually they were
Speaker 1: with us on Wednesdays, but we had all the statewide
Speaker 1: shows last night, so they'll join us tonight, as will
Speaker 1: John Wong, an author, a blogger, a sports writer who
Speaker 1: asked it was a basic question but resulted in a
Speaker 1: really interesting answer from Rachel Lost and you might have
Speaker 1: heard or read about it since UK Softball Media Day
Speaker 1: yesterday afternoon. So we'll talk to John about that. We'll
Speaker 1: hear that comment here in just a minute by Rachel
Speaker 1: the very fine Kentucky softball coach. But first up, Mark Pope,
Speaker 1: his radio show last night is press conference today. The
Speaker 1: theme was first of all, the latest on Lamont Butler.
Speaker 2: I would like to get him back in a position
Speaker 2: where we have the best chance of not having another setback.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping that's where we are with Drew, where now
Speaker 2: he can just grow his way back into the game.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't I don't exactly know what that's
Speaker 2: going to be. We're kind of taking in the data
Speaker 2: every day as it comes and kind of making game
Speaker 2: time decisions every day on what the next step is.
Speaker 2: But he is going to be on the court in
Speaker 2: a non contact situation today and we'll see how that feels.
Speaker 1: Last night on our show, Aaron Gershan of the Cast
Speaker 1: boss that he was hearing that Butler will miss one
Speaker 1: more game and perhaps play on Tuesday. But with this
Speaker 1: shoulder injury, obviously they got to make sure that when
Speaker 1: they bring him back it's for the long haul. If
Speaker 1: you bring him back too soon, you won't have him
Speaker 1: perhaps at one hundred percent come tournament time. You got
Speaker 1: to guard against that. But you got so any tough
Speaker 1: games coming up, including the next one against the South
Speaker 1: Carolina team that's really good on defense, not real good
Speaker 1: on offense. But what is Kentucky's weakness? Of course we
Speaker 1: know this. It is defense right now and that is
Speaker 1: why the Wildcats are struggling. And Pope talked about the
Speaker 1: fact that, yeah, he knows Kentucky fans are hurting as
Speaker 1: much as he is.
Speaker 2: You know, it's super painful to be man. I did
Speaker 2: my radio show last night and I had a couple
Speaker 2: of callers in it. You can just feel the pain
Speaker 2: and their heart, man, and their voice. You just feel
Speaker 2: the pain. But it's the journey that we go on
Speaker 2: together that's incredible, right, And it's not and it doesn't
Speaker 2: always work out, you know, sometimes it just doesn't work out,
Speaker 2: and that's never acceptable. But sometimes it doesn't work out,
Speaker 2: and that's why it is so incredibly intoxicating to be
Speaker 2: a part of it, and it's why it's so fun
Speaker 2: to be in the grind.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more to that answer, and if you
Speaker 1: like to see the entire news conference, go to YouTube
Speaker 1: UK Sports Video.
Speaker 4: It's on there.
Speaker 1: But you know, he talked about basically the fact, and
Speaker 1: he touched on it there that yeah, this this stinks.
Speaker 1: Losing hurts and they'd much rather be rolling along though
Speaker 1: obviously the way they were early in the year, but
Speaker 1: just he just appreciates so much being a part of
Speaker 1: the process, coaching his team, coaching these guys, being back
Speaker 1: with a BBN. It's tough though, and of course a
Speaker 1: lot of the comments as this thing was going up live.
Speaker 1: We're pretty snarky by people that you know, obviously want
Speaker 1: to see wins, but that's sports in general. I mean,
Speaker 1: imagine what it's going to be like during the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl when things aren't exactly going your way or whatever.
Speaker 4: Team is up.
Speaker 1: So uh, like I said, go to YouTube UK Sports
Speaker 1: video and Mark Pope's news conference from today. The entire
Speaker 1: news conference is up there now. Rachel Lawson excuse me,
Speaker 1: spoke yesterday and our man John Wong brought up the
Speaker 1: fact that she hadn't really talked about Oklahoma City. Like
Speaker 1: with baseball, everything's Omaha softball, everything's Oklahoma City. That's the goal.
Speaker 1: Get to the World Series. Got there in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: I got to go with them and do the radio
Speaker 1: is incredible and they've taken runs at the World Series.
Speaker 1: But of late, Kentucky Softball has been kind of a mid,
Speaker 1: middle of the pack SEC, not a real contender. John
Speaker 1: talked about the fact that Oklahoma City wasn't coming up
Speaker 1: much on media day. Does that mean expectations have been lower?
Speaker 1: And Rachel said absolutely not, And in fact, she said
Speaker 1: I expect this team to be better than last year's
Speaker 1: even though there are a ton of new faces because
Speaker 1: she's changing the way that she is coaching. And she
Speaker 1: admitted in her mind over the last few years, three
Speaker 1: or four, she's done a poor job.
Speaker 5: Last couple of years, I think I've done a very
Speaker 5: poor job coaching. A couple of years. I think I've
Speaker 5: done a very poor job coaching. And like past the
Speaker 5: COVID era and the reason I think I've done a
Speaker 5: bad job.
Speaker 1: And right about here she started to choke up and
Speaker 1: get emotional and kind of checked out a little bit
Speaker 1: emotionally for a few moments.
Speaker 3: I know, I suck.
Speaker 1: That was one of her assistants in the back of
Speaker 1: the room, trying to lend a little bit of emotional support,
Speaker 1: lost and finally pulled it together.
Speaker 6: It's really hard.
Speaker 5: To be loyal in today's day and age.
Speaker 7: So in my attempt to stay loyal to the people
Speaker 7: I recruited, I took the team, took a step back.
Speaker 7: I'm no longer going to be that girl, So I
Speaker 7: had to change.
Speaker 5: So with that, s said, I had to figure out
Speaker 5: number one that my loyalty is to the Big Blue Nation.
Speaker 5: My loyalty is to the University of Kentucky, and I
Speaker 5: have to make sure that I set the standards at
Speaker 5: this level, and any player who wants to live up
Speaker 5: to that standard is great. But there were players that
Speaker 5: I was allowing to live under the standard. They were
Speaker 5: being entirely too selfish. And last year you really saw
Speaker 5: it come to head because I tried to make it
Speaker 5: mix and I couldn't. So I had young, really talented
Speaker 5: players who are bigger, stronger, faster, who probably should have
Speaker 5: been in the lineup all the time. And then I
Speaker 5: had the older players that I was trying to be
Speaker 5: loyal to and it just wasn't working. And to be
Speaker 5: honest with you, nobody understands the deeply flex role, so
Speaker 5: the older players just thought I was messing with them
Speaker 5: the entire time, where in softball you have a little
Speaker 5: more flexibility to be a little more creative. In my
Speaker 5: attempt to be creative and to make it all work
Speaker 5: to be loyal at the same time as to try
Speaker 5: to grow the program and keep up with the super teams,
Speaker 5: I did a really bad job.
Speaker 1: Now, I got to tell you, I really like Rachel
Speaker 1: lost In a lot as a person and as a coach.
Speaker 4: I think she's tremendous.
Speaker 1: And I got to tell you, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people have said that that was one of the great
Speaker 1: answers you'll ever hear a coach give. There are coaches
Speaker 1: who will admit to making mistakes, yes, but to go
Speaker 1: into it in such great depth and explain why and
Speaker 1: how she made mistakes. I mean, she and I had
Speaker 1: conversations a couple times after the College World Series. They
Speaker 1: lost a game that they shouldn't have lost because she
Speaker 1: said she stayed with her starting pitcher too long. But
Speaker 1: she had conveniently, in my mind, forgotten the fact that
Speaker 1: one of her infielders booted a play that you make
Speaker 1: ninety nine times out of one hundred. I could have
Speaker 1: made the play. It was routine, and if the young
Speaker 1: lady makes the play, Kentucky wins the game. But Rachel
Speaker 1: didn't see it that way. She believes she had blown
Speaker 1: it by over using her pitcher, her starting pitcher, so
Speaker 1: she's not averse to accepting blame, but the way she
Speaker 1: did it in this instance, and yeah, it took off.
Speaker 1: Now this is my first chance to talk.
Speaker 4: About it tonight.
Speaker 1: It happened yesterday and boy quickly made the rounds on
Speaker 1: social media. But imagine a coach standing in and talking
Speaker 1: about in this day and age being too loyal, and
Speaker 1: in my mind, this doesn't have anything to.
Speaker 4: Do with the nil.
Speaker 1: As she put it, these were highly rated players who
Speaker 1: really weren't performing as well as they should have been
Speaker 1: with other people behind them who were pushing them. And
Speaker 1: think about the times Marktroops has talked about recruiting players
Speaker 1: as good as you can get and then going out
Speaker 1: and trying to replace them, trying to recruit over them.
Speaker 1: That's what great coaches do. They have to do that
Speaker 1: or else they build no depth. Somebody gets hurt, who
Speaker 1: do you turn to? This kid can't play. You've got
Speaker 1: to have somebody ready to go who's pushing them and
Speaker 1: capable of stepping in. And if they take their job,
Speaker 1: they take their job. That's how you get better. And
Speaker 1: I thought that was a remarkable answer by Rachel Lawson.
Speaker 1: So they start play this weekend. We'll talk more about
Speaker 1: it tomorrow night. But up next a former basketball wo
Speaker 1: okay with an incredible night on six thirty WLAP Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Moon Sider. Coming up at the
Speaker 1: bottom of the hour, Sean Woods, the unforgettable guard. We'll
Speaker 1: talk I know about Kentucky defense. He is all about
Speaker 1: that defense. As Sean was a really, really fine defender
Speaker 1: at the point guard's spot, and we all know how
Speaker 1: Kentucky is lacking that right now in general, and with
Speaker 1: Lamont Butler being out. John Wong of Wong's Whinings will
Speaker 1: join us in our number two to talk about the
Speaker 1: SoundBite you heard earlier with Rachel Lawson breaking things down
Speaker 1: on a personal level for those of us at media
Speaker 1: day yesterday. Also our West ENDBUA chief Gary Moorehe and
Speaker 1: Sean are usually with us on Wednesday, but at the
Speaker 1: state wide show last night, so tonight we will get
Speaker 1: caught up with them. Because there is no UK women's basketball.
Speaker 1: In fact, they play on Monday. They've got the entire
Speaker 1: it's like an eight day stretch where they're off. It's
Speaker 1: there bye week basically. So that's why we're with you
Speaker 1: tonight with a full show. And again we've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about through the weeks, and I'm sure even if
Speaker 1: you're not an NBA fan, you've heard about former Wild
Speaker 1: Kate Anthony Davis being traded to the Dallas Mavericks. And
Speaker 1: at one point I want to give my buddy Chuck Coopersteen,
Speaker 1: who was the voice Cinemavericks, get him on with us
Speaker 1: because that was a huge trade, not the biggest in history,
Speaker 1: but it was huge. But here comes the second part
Speaker 1: of that story. Now makes a little more sense. The
Speaker 1: Lakers have traded for a guy named Mark Williams. And
Speaker 1: I do like the NBA. I don't follow it a lot.
Speaker 1: I used to when I lived in Dallas, but I
Speaker 1: follow a lot of college basketball. I have to admit
Speaker 1: I didn't remember this guy. He played at Duke, and
Speaker 1: he played on a Duke national championship team. And he's
Speaker 1: a pretty good player, quite frankly, and getting better in
Speaker 1: the NBA, as most big guys do. He's a seven
Speaker 1: footer with a wing span of somebody who is seven
Speaker 1: to seven. And he's no stranger to double doubles. He's
Speaker 1: no stranger to big rebound numbers. In fact, last year
Speaker 1: he averaged nearly ten rebounds a game for the Hornets
Speaker 1: averaged more than twelve and a half points, so they
Speaker 1: almost averaged a double double. And when you think about now,
Speaker 1: if you're a Lakers fan and a lot of you
Speaker 1: out there are, you think about Lebron on one side
Speaker 1: of the court, dnsis on the other side of the court,
Speaker 1: and this guy, Williams in the middle. Well, now it
Speaker 1: makes more sense, doesn't it. So lots going on in
Speaker 1: the NBA. One of the great headlines from last night
Speaker 1: was Shay Gildess Alexander, another former Wildcat, making news. And
Speaker 1: even if you're not an NBA fan, but you just
Speaker 1: keep an eye on sports, you've heard his name all year.
Speaker 1: Fifty points again for Shay. And I say this because
Speaker 1: he scored fifty or more three times this year, all
Speaker 1: coming within the last seven games in the past fifteen days.
Speaker 1: He said, three fifty point games and get this this
Speaker 1: and he did it against Phoenix. They're terrible, and they've
Speaker 1: tried to make moves, but they don't want to lose.
Speaker 1: Devin Booker obviously, Gilgis. Alexander outscored the Suns thirty seven
Speaker 1: to thirty four, beginning at the six thirty six market
Speaker 1: the second quarter until he made his last bucket by
Speaker 1: the way eighteen of twenty nine sometime in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter seventeen of twenty seven off the dribble, ten of
Speaker 1: sixteen on contested attempts. According to ESPN, that seven game
Speaker 1: span is the shortest by a player who recorded the
Speaker 1: first three fifty point games in his career. He'd never
Speaker 1: done it up until now, and only eight others have
Speaker 1: scored fifty three times over seven games in NBA history.
Speaker 1: And you'll know these names, Kareem alb Dul Jabbar, Elgin Baylor,
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Luka Donsich, James Harden, Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard Man and you remember Sga for when he
Speaker 1: was here, rode the bench for a little while, played
Speaker 1: but didn't start, and then Caliperi began to put him
Speaker 1: in the starting lineup and good things happened. Amazing good
Speaker 1: guy too, at least from what I remember. While we're
Speaker 1: on basketball, bad news for U of L. I know
Speaker 1: for some of you that's good news, But if you're
Speaker 1: a U of L fan, chucky Hepburn out last night,
Speaker 1: left the game, then went over Boston College eighty four
Speaker 1: to fifty eight, and Louisvill's got it going not playing
Speaker 1: the schedule. I know that Kentucky is, but based on
Speaker 1: what they've been through the last couple of years, they
Speaker 1: wanted eighty four to fifty. But hepburn left about midway
Speaker 1: through the game and they won ten straight. Now they're
Speaker 1: seventeen and six ten and two in the acc but
Speaker 1: this occurred in the second half, with about fifteen fifteen
Speaker 1: to play, he went up for a layup and according
Speaker 1: to Jody Demling's story, on two four to seven sports
Speaker 1: grabbed his groin area after he landed. Notes contact with
Speaker 1: other players, and of course the U L people are saying,
Speaker 1: we'll know more tomorrow, which is today, so by the
Speaker 1: time you hear this, they may have more information.
Speaker 4: But he is the guy. He's there.
Speaker 1: Lamont Butler makes things go for U of L. So
Speaker 1: you hate to hear that, and played well against Kentucky,
Speaker 1: but I thought Kentucky held him in check fairly.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: You know those guys who were robbing or burglarizing the
Speaker 1: homes of NFL players, including Joe Burrow. Three indictments. They
Speaker 1: arrested two in and around Manhattan's Diamond District. They arrested
Speaker 1: a couple of guys and were charged with conspiracy to
Speaker 1: receive stolen property part of an alleged fencing operation. And
Speaker 1: these were tied to South American theft groups who were
Speaker 1: making all this happen, and the suspects allegedly bought stolen
Speaker 1: property from Brian Leandro Herrera Maldonado, who apparently is accused
Speaker 1: of committing sixteen residential robberies across the US from twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen to twenty twenty. So cops have the Feds for
Speaker 1: the most part, but local as well have done a
Speaker 1: good job on this. They've been chasing these guys for
Speaker 1: five years.
Speaker 4: Of course, the.
Speaker 1: Super Bowl coming up to me, one of the bigger headlines,
Speaker 1: maybe bigger than anything that's come out of New Orleans
Speaker 1: pre Super Bowl is Cooper Cup tweeted that the Rams
Speaker 1: are going to move him, They're going to trade him,
Speaker 1: get rid of him. I mean, this guy is one
Speaker 1: of the best receivers in the NFL. He's been dealing
Speaker 1: with injuries, but he's the best receiver at least he
Speaker 1: has been that the Rams have.
Speaker 4: But it all comes back to contracts.
Speaker 1: And every time there's a story like this, you can
Speaker 1: bet on that Cup schedule to make twenty million bucks,
Speaker 1: five million guaranteed, seven and a half million paid as
Speaker 1: part of a roster bonus. So they'd love to get
Speaker 1: rid of him and have somebody else have to pay that.
Speaker 1: And it's been described he is on the wrong side
Speaker 1: of thirty. That's an NFL analyst saying that with injury
Speaker 1: issues and actually he may not be the best receiver
Speaker 1: on his own team anymore. Who kin Nakua perhaps is
Speaker 1: the best butt man. When the Rams were rolling, it
Speaker 1: seemed like every time they needed a first down, every
Speaker 1: time they needed a big play, it was Cooper Cup.
Speaker 1: So your favorite team may end up getting him, but
Speaker 1: if they do, they're going to have to pay up next.
Speaker 1: Sean Woods get able guard here on six thirty w
Speaker 1: welcome back to the big Leonsider and joining us now
Speaker 1: as he does each and every week, is the unforgettable guard.
Speaker 1: Sean Woods, his jersey hangs and the rafters of rupp
Speaker 1: and he has been keeping an eye on the Wildcats
Speaker 1: like everybody else has. And Coach, it's amazing that the
Speaker 1: hot topic for the last couple of weeks now has
Speaker 1: been defense. That's your wheelhouse, and of course not having
Speaker 1: a defender on the point who's strong with the ball,
Speaker 1: which sounds familiar, that's you has really had quite the
Speaker 1: adverse effect on this team. But I think we're all
Speaker 1: surprised to just how badly it's it's unfolded over the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks.
Speaker 3: Am I right, defensees will defenses is effort. But defense,
Speaker 3: also from a team standpoint, has to be part of
Speaker 3: your culture. And right now, the only knock I have
Speaker 3: against Mark Pope is his culture. From a defensive standpoint,
Speaker 3: there is not because you can even even if if
Speaker 3: defense is your culture and you got a subpar athlete
Speaker 3: who's not as quick latterly or whatever, he still would
Speaker 3: be better and would give you more effort than what
Speaker 3: our guys, some of our guys are giving us on
Speaker 3: the court. But with that being said, you know, it's
Speaker 3: a want to, it's a will, and I don't think
Speaker 3: these guys and that's the most disappointing factor that's glaring
Speaker 3: so much is the effort, like not even trying. Like
Speaker 3: we got guys that are giving Blne angles to the basket.
Speaker 3: No coach teaches that. You know, you got a few
Speaker 3: seconds left to go on the shot clock and you
Speaker 3: open up and give a guy Blane to the basket.
Speaker 3: I mean that's unacceptable. And me as a coach, you know,
Speaker 3: you recruit to you to your strengths and what you
Speaker 3: like in a player, and me you could be a
Speaker 3: prolific scorer, but if you soft and don't like to
Speaker 3: compete on defense, you're good enough to get me beat
Speaker 3: And that's what's happening now. You know, you take you
Speaker 3: take the probably the best defensive point guard off your team,
Speaker 3: who literally you know, if there's an MVP in the
Speaker 3: SEC and the MVP is supposed to be you know
Speaker 3: what you mean to your team and the success that
Speaker 3: you have on your team. Lamar Butler is the MVP
Speaker 3: of the SEC.
Speaker 4: It's yeah, because.
Speaker 3: When he's in the game, Kentucky is the one is
Speaker 3: probably the best team in it or one of the
Speaker 3: top two or three teams in the in the SEC.
Speaker 3: When he's not, they may be the worst team in
Speaker 3: the SEC or at the bottom half of the SEC,
Speaker 3: which they are right now. That's how much he means
Speaker 3: to his team. But unfortunately, and pretty much, I just
Speaker 3: don't like the tone defensively, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't like the tone as a team defensively.
Speaker 3: I don't like the fact that you got to score
Speaker 3: one hundred points or ninety some points just to have
Speaker 3: a chance to win a game. That's not championship DNA.
Speaker 3: That's great entertainment basketball, but that's not winning basketball in
Speaker 3: the long run, because if you don't defend, and that's
Speaker 3: the weakest part of your game. It's hard to put
Speaker 3: three four games in a row again because you're not
Speaker 3: going to shoot great three four games in a row.
Speaker 1: I heard Jack Gibbons talking to Tom Leachs this morning
Speaker 1: and he said it as much on the radio broadcast,
Speaker 1: and I think everybody probably knows this, and I think
Speaker 1: it holds true for every sport. You gotta really want
Speaker 1: to play defense. You got to just have that desire,
Speaker 1: because Jack said, you know, you just got to get dirty.
Speaker 1: And maybe from where these guys had been playing before,
Speaker 1: clearly they haven't faced the level of athleticism they're saying
Speaker 1: now in the SEC. But other than LaMotte and Amari Williams,
Speaker 1: who is in a mid major conference, let's let's face it,
Speaker 1: they were really called upon to play defense at this.
Speaker 4: Level, were they?
Speaker 8: Well?
Speaker 3: I think Mary Williams is a competitor but here and
Speaker 3: he's tough. But sometimes, you know, you get mid major
Speaker 3: guys who have mid major mentalities, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3: There's levels to this, not just physically but mentally. And
Speaker 3: the reason why some guys aren't high major players is
Speaker 3: because they don't have high major IQs. Sometimes and I'm
Speaker 3: not knocking Wins because he's a warrior and a beast,
Speaker 3: but you know, you got to have high major instincts, yeah,
Speaker 3: at times, and I think that's where we You know,
Speaker 3: when you get a bunch of mind mays, you're getting
Speaker 3: a bunch of men major guys, you're not there's a
Speaker 3: reason why they didn't get recruited high major and now
Speaker 3: you because they were pretty good at the men major level.
Speaker 3: Now you ask them to come up and be a
Speaker 3: complete high major guy. That's unrealistic. And if you don't
Speaker 3: have a lot of other guys or more high major
Speaker 3: guys around you, you get kind of exposed a little bit.
Speaker 3: And that's what's happening right now. You know, Lamont Butler
Speaker 3: is probably the most experienced point guard in the country
Speaker 3: because he's the only point guard in the country that's
Speaker 3: back that was at the Turn Florida that techn me
Speaker 3: into the Firm four last year. So he steps he
Speaker 3: steps above pretty much everybody on this team. That's why
Speaker 3: he sticks out like a sore thumb on our team
Speaker 3: because he's grind it enough to get to the mountaintop.
Speaker 3: Nobody else on his team has been to a Final four,
Speaker 3: not even close. So his warrior mentality is he's been
Speaker 3: there before. He knows what it takes. Nobody on our
Speaker 3: team has been to that level, not even close to
Speaker 3: that level. So that's why he's so important to not
Speaker 3: only Kentucky, but that's why he's probably the toughest and
Speaker 3: most relentless point guard in the SEC to me. And
Speaker 3: that's why he's so important, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: So but from here on out, if me, if that's me,
Speaker 3: and this is what's keeping me from being good, I've
Speaker 3: never let this happen again. I got to get to
Speaker 3: Lamar Buters. Some times you gotta have three point guards
Speaker 3: on the team, and if they're not, they can maybe
Speaker 3: shoot the basketball do some things, but if they can't
Speaker 3: defend at this level, they're only gonna be good enough
Speaker 3: to get you beat. And that's what's happening right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and their backups hurt as well. I mean, it
Speaker 1: couldn't have it couldn't have turned more poorly for the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, Now you know you've got Kentucky coming out
Speaker 1: kind of flat or not kind of flat. They were
Speaker 1: definitely flat down there at all, miss And I know
Speaker 1: Pope has tried to zone did you play much zone
Speaker 1: at all? I can't imagine. Well, maybe you did as
Speaker 1: a head coach.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't. I did not. I switched one through five,
Speaker 3: which people are doing now to Kentucky. I did that.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. I never ever got caught,
Speaker 3: you know, because I had to coach against Rick Bird,
Speaker 3: who's one of the most dynamic coaches in America at
Speaker 3: that time at Belmont, and it took me a year
Speaker 3: or so to get used to coaching against that type
Speaker 3: of action. So I worked for Ronnie Errow who taught
Speaker 3: me about switching, and I didn't like it at first,
Speaker 3: but man, I loved it once I became a head coach.
Speaker 4: You explained the benefit of that, Sean.
Speaker 3: Well, from when you're switching, okay, you're always everywhere that
Speaker 3: ball goes, somebody's gonna be there on the ball. Okay,
Speaker 3: when you're switching, especially with ball screen actions, people say, okay,
Speaker 3: we don't want to get our point guard get caught
Speaker 3: on a big Well, the game has changed so much
Speaker 3: because everybody's trying to shoot threes. They run places to
Speaker 3: get three off. So if I'm switching up, you're not
Speaker 3: getting that three. Now I'm gonna take you. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: make you take tough twos. But I'm never out of position.
Speaker 3: I'm never ever getting caught those screens on down screens,
Speaker 3: floor screens. I'm switching everything, staggers. I'm just just tattling up.
Speaker 3: Boom boom, just just just you know, it's almost like
Speaker 3: tag team. He comes off that screen. I got him,
Speaker 3: then the next person got him. You know, so nobody's
Speaker 3: ever opened. And that's what's giving Kentucky problems. That's what
Speaker 3: gave me. That's why Arkansas beat Kentucky. They switched everything. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, that's what happened the other night. All you
Speaker 3: got to do is switch against that stuff. And now
Speaker 3: they're having a hard time. They can't get thirty threes
Speaker 3: off anymore.
Speaker 1: You guys give that much. When Patino was here, did.
Speaker 3: You no, we didn't switch at all? No, no, no,
Speaker 3: very seldom did we switch unless it was four or five.
Speaker 3: But we didn't switch once. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 3: we didn't. I had this, you know, the old Bob
Speaker 3: n ideal. You know a lot of people won't switching
Speaker 3: back then. You know, it's tough it up and get
Speaker 3: through the screen. Now kids are so soft. They don't
Speaker 3: want to you know. And look, here's the deal. That's
Speaker 3: what's hurting them Butler right now because he's trying to
Speaker 3: get over those screens guarding that ball and he keeps
Speaker 3: jamming that shoulder. Why make it? Why make it tough.
Speaker 3: I'd rather make it easy for my team to be
Speaker 3: successful and then let my pride in it says you
Speaker 3: want to get through that screen, You get to that screen. No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3: Just simplify the game because it's it's positionless basketball now.
Speaker 3: Guys are so long in athletic A big pretty much
Speaker 3: is decent enough to guard to guard. Yeah, yeah, So
Speaker 3: it's making the biggest calling the guard out there. Everybody's
Speaker 3: up in the gaps and you make him go side
Speaker 3: to side. You just don't give b line drives.
Speaker 1: Got to watch for that, Sean Woods, is my guess.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and talk more with the unforgettable guard
Speaker 1: here in a moment on the Big Bloon Sider six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP.
Speaker 4: Welcome back. We're talking with Sean Woods.
Speaker 1: As we do each and every week as Jersey hangs
Speaker 1: in the rafters of rupp as one of the unforgettables
Speaker 1: and of course we're talking about Kentucky defense or lack
Speaker 1: of saying, because well that was so evident against a
Speaker 1: miss which you know, Sean, they had kids throwing in
Speaker 1: three pointers, guys who ordinarily don't make three pointers at
Speaker 1: that kind of rate. But the defense was soft or
Speaker 1: times non existent. They're wide open and practically every kill
Speaker 1: and every college roster can hit an open three.
Speaker 3: Right exactly, you know against our defense that you know
Speaker 3: people are on darts, you know, they're just there's no pressure,
Speaker 3: there's you know what I'm saying, so it you know.
Speaker 3: And and then now everybody in the in the country
Speaker 3: who they're playing, specially SEC, that's the their mo. So
Speaker 3: what they're gonna do, they're gonna put their head down
Speaker 3: and just drives. So these dudes a soft defensively. They
Speaker 3: don't want to guard one o one, take that extra dribble,
Speaker 3: they'll give up. And then they're so worried about you
Speaker 3: driving them, so they are soft in their cover, especially
Speaker 3: guarding the all that they're giving you enough space without
Speaker 3: resistance to shoot threes.
Speaker 1: And now you've got South Carolina coming in, which is hungry,
Speaker 1: is all outdoors who's hungry, and.
Speaker 3: They watched they're watching film too.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's right, and they.
Speaker 3: Know that Lamon Butler's not out there to give them problems.
Speaker 3: Shoot me a fifty five. I think I can get
Speaker 3: buy a couple of them dudes right about.
Speaker 2: The way they go.
Speaker 1: They got nothing to lose. And we've seen teams play
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 3: Well you got defensively, when you've got guys that are
Speaker 3: great on ball defenders, there's got to be a connection.
Speaker 3: You know, you got to go back to the Tubby Smithson,
Speaker 3: the coach Patinos about fe line basketball. You know, like
Speaker 3: you know, up the gaps, you're not not giving gaps.
Speaker 3: Our defense is not even connected. So you're on the
Speaker 3: island by yourself like like we're almost playing like it's
Speaker 3: it's a legal defense out there. No, there's no help
Speaker 3: side ever, you know, there's no ever, not ever. When
Speaker 3: you when a guy drives to the basket from the wing,
Speaker 3: he gets buyas man, there's no help side. It's supposed to.
Speaker 4: Be a guy in the midline.
Speaker 3: We don't have that. That means we're not working on it.
Speaker 3: We gotta work on defense. This has got to be evident.
Speaker 3: I know we want to be a prolific offensive team.
Speaker 3: Score a lot of points. Well, look where it's getting
Speaker 3: this right now. And every time that my butler goes
Speaker 3: out the game, when he was in the game, that's
Speaker 3: when teams really got their runs. He can't play forty
Speaker 3: minutes his body, you're not going to let them. So
Speaker 3: you got to have something else. You got to have
Speaker 3: team defense. You got to have team defensive principles. And
Speaker 3: right now I don't see team defensive principles. I just
Speaker 3: see a bunch of guys that are quick latterly who
Speaker 3: really doesn't have defensive DNA inside them, because evidently it's
Speaker 3: not what they're doing every single day, and it's not
Speaker 3: demanded now, it's evident it's come to fruition as far
Speaker 3: as a weakness. Now everybody's talking about it. Well, if
Speaker 3: you just start doing this day one in June, especially
Speaker 3: when camp starts in October whatever, it's too late to
Speaker 3: do it now. You mentioned you know now you want
Speaker 3: to wait to Jackson Robinson his last year, and you're
Speaker 3: gonna say, Jackson Robinson, you got to play defense, man,
Speaker 3: you got to sit down and guard. Well, Jackson Robinson's
Speaker 3: looking at you like, well, yeah, I've never had to
Speaker 3: do this before, and we were you know, you know
Speaker 3: in the guy from Dayton, he won't play defense at all,
Speaker 3: and that's the reason why he's one of the most
Speaker 3: prolific scores in college basketball. But you can't play more
Speaker 3: than twenty minutes because of how he defends.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Bob Knight a minute ago, and then coincidentally enough,
Speaker 1: the seventy five team is having its reunion, the team
Speaker 1: that went to the final four. And I've said Indiana
Speaker 1: in that regional final, and one of the key elements
Speaker 1: and they love telling this story and I've heard it.
Speaker 1: You've probably heard it one hundred times, is that Joe
Speaker 1: Hall used to be infuriated by the fact that he
Speaker 1: said Bob Knight's offense was predicated on illegal moving screens
Speaker 1: that the officials just wouldn't call. There either buffaloed by
Speaker 1: Bob Knight or they happen so often they just didn't
Speaker 1: call them all.
Speaker 4: And Joe b going.
Speaker 1: Into that regional final told the first thing they worked
Speaker 1: on in practice is driving right through them. So the
Speaker 1: first time they throw up one of those screens, I
Speaker 1: want you to go right through it.
Speaker 4: They might call a foul, and sure enough, Bob Guyett.
Speaker 1: Knock some guy over a few seconds into the game
Speaker 1: and got called for a foul. But once they started
Speaker 1: beating up on those moving screens, that stuff stopped and
Speaker 1: Kentucky turned things around it and pulled the upset. That's
Speaker 1: That's an amazing mindset, isn't It says a lot about
Speaker 1: Joe B, doesn't it.
Speaker 3: Well, Joe B had a tough mindset, and because he
Speaker 3: had a tough mindset, that's what his players hid. You
Speaker 3: only you're going to have the same mindset as your coach. Yeah,
Speaker 3: if your coach is a bulldog, then you're going to
Speaker 3: be a bulldog because that's what he's driving every single day.
Speaker 3: You know, if you're not a bulldog and your team's
Speaker 3: not gonna be a bulldog basketball team, it's part. It's
Speaker 3: whatever your culture is. You go to Connecticut, he's a bulldog.
Speaker 3: His tough. His teams are tough defensively. You go to Houston,
Speaker 3: his teams are tough defensively. I'm telling you right now,
Speaker 3: the most impressive team in college basketball is the Saint
Speaker 3: John Redman. You're talking about some dogs, huh yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And and Mark Polpe knows how coach Patino gets down now,
Speaker 3: and that's that's where you know it's okay to be nice.
Speaker 3: I get that. And and Mark's he's a great coach.
Speaker 3: It's workie a little bit. But at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, to be at to get to Mount Rushmore,
Speaker 3: you gotta make your team uncomfortable in some type of
Speaker 3: way on a regular basis. So when those episodes occur,
Speaker 3: you got that fight through. You've been through it because
Speaker 3: this is what you do every day in practice. When
Speaker 3: we get it hit in the mouth here lately we're
Speaker 3: getting when we get beat, we get beat bad.
Speaker 4: Ye, you gotta get you gotta punch back.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what the last night on his show,
Speaker 1: he talked about some furniture being destroyed perhaps at a halftime,
Speaker 1: and he had cut on his hand when he came
Speaker 1: out for the second half. So, uh, maybe maybe there
Speaker 1: is some of that fire uh in the locker room
Speaker 1: that his team needs to see.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know what I'm saying, don't wait to
Speaker 3: don't wait till the house catches on fire to put
Speaker 3: water on it. You know That's what I'm saying. Now
Speaker 3: he knows I think now, Okay, he was trying to
Speaker 3: please everyone. He's trying to come in with a different outlook.
Speaker 3: You know, everybody saying the game has changed. You can't
Speaker 3: coach these kids like he used to. Bah blah blah
Speaker 3: blah blah. Rick Partino has not changed. What he has done.
Speaker 3: What you have to do is you have to communicate
Speaker 3: with these kids more often off the court, so and
Speaker 3: and and establish more of a trust instead of just
Speaker 3: meeting them on the court. And in practice. You know,
Speaker 3: you see him in passing. You know, you may have
Speaker 3: a meeting or two, but you got to really get
Speaker 3: to know these kids and make them understand you and
Speaker 3: what you're trying to get across. So when it does
Speaker 3: get heated, it's not as extravagant as it would be
Speaker 3: if they don't trust. If they're trusting you and they
Speaker 3: know what's at state, then you can get them as
Speaker 3: much as you possibly can, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I mean, see, in all fairness, somebody listed the
Speaker 1: defensive ratings for Pope's teams at his prior schools, and
Speaker 1: they weren't. They weren't terribly great at Utah Valley, of course,
Speaker 1: but at Brigham Young at one point he had the
Speaker 1: number I think thirty rank defensive team with guys who
Speaker 1: are not going to.
Speaker 4: Go on for the most part to the NBA.
Speaker 1: So whatever they were doing there was was working fairly well.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking if he gets an upgrade in talent
Speaker 1: at Kentucky and does what he was doing at Brigham Young,
Speaker 1: then those teams are to be top ten, top fifteen.
Speaker 4: Defensely, I don't know what he did at bringing me on.
Speaker 1: Clearly he wasn't stuck in a situation like he is
Speaker 1: now though, minus his best defender.
Speaker 3: Well, that's true, and we we're talking all this, you know,
Speaker 3: breaking things down at the end of the day. I
Speaker 3: always say, you can have all the x's and o's,
Speaker 3: but it takes jim and Joe's to make it work.
Speaker 3: And right now, unfortunately I'm not knocking those players, but
Speaker 3: we're not. Our jim and Joe's aren't compared to the
Speaker 3: other Jim and Joe's in the SEC right now, especially
Speaker 3: at the guard position.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Bob Butler is that important to our program's
Speaker 3: Let's just face it. I don't know Kirk Kurry.
Speaker 8: He I don't.
Speaker 3: I played against him, I coached against him when he's
Speaker 3: at the zoner. I don't know from a defensive standpoint,
Speaker 3: if he would be I don't think he's just a
Speaker 3: mob butler. Matter of fact, I know he's mat Butler.
Speaker 3: On the defensive end. Okay, we might say, okay, well
Speaker 3: we got two of our point guards are out. I
Speaker 3: don't know if Kurk Kurr is that type of guy
Speaker 3: that that can withstand the SEC, especially on the defensive end.
Speaker 3: I don't. He didn't show me that he was that
Speaker 3: great on the defensive end. I'm keeping guys in front.
Speaker 3: He was. He was a rawiye guy. He would have
Speaker 3: competed better than what we got right now. Yeah, that's
Speaker 3: where he comes in to play. But as far as
Speaker 3: dominating a game like Maman Butler, no, that's that's not
Speaker 3: what he's known for. You know, he was a good
Speaker 3: piece and a good backup, much better than what we
Speaker 3: got now. But as far as him being the guy
Speaker 3: right now, no, no, no, no, no, that's not that's
Speaker 3: not he.
Speaker 4: Was a good twelve to fifteen minutes guy because.
Speaker 3: You can't Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. Not knocking him, but
Speaker 3: I'm just saying, you know, the moth Butler is is
Speaker 3: unique mot Butler really because this SEC is grindy and
Speaker 3: some of the toughest point guards physically, mentally and talent wise.
Speaker 3: Are some of the best point guards in America. That's
Speaker 3: why this league is so tough because we got great
Speaker 3: point guards in this league. We got tough point guards
Speaker 3: in this league.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 3: And you know we not DJ Wagner last year. But
Speaker 3: DJ Wagner has shown right now now the Boogie plans
Speaker 3: out that he can shoot. He dominated us. Yeah, he's
Speaker 3: much from the defensive end, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And and they're tough enough to get downhill. They really
Speaker 3: put pressure on you because these guards in the SEC
Speaker 3: are strong. Now, we don't have an SEC point guard
Speaker 3: on our team right now outside of Lamon Butler. Right now,
Speaker 3: we don't.
Speaker 1: And he is the unforgettable guard. He talked to him
Speaker 1: each and every week.
Speaker 4: Coach. We'll talk to you next week. Thank you. Okay,
Speaker 4: up next hour number two. John Wong of Nolan Media.
Speaker 1: Group and West n chief Gearymore that they hit him
Speaker 1: six thirty.
Speaker 4: W lap.
Speaker 9: Man sat, welcome back to the Big Blue Sider.
Speaker 1: Join us now as a longtime friend of the show,
Speaker 1: John Wong. He is a freelance writer and author. Wong's
Speaker 1: Whinings is his blog. He's written the co written several books.
Speaker 1: We will shamelessly plug them a little bit later and
Speaker 1: we'll talk a Kentucky basketball But John, you cast some
Speaker 1: ripples in the media world yesterday. You'll ask the occasional
Speaker 1: provocative question basically coming from the fans standpoint, But you
Speaker 1: had Rachel lost and pausing and getting a little emotional,
Speaker 1: and I played the soundback earlier in the show the
Speaker 1: UK softball coach. But I'm sure you didn't expect that
Speaker 1: kind of response you asked her about lowering expectations.
Speaker 8: I believe right, Yeah, Dick, you know, it's one of
Speaker 8: these things that you don't go into it intentionally trying
Speaker 8: to evoke any sort of emotional response like that, but
Speaker 8: especially with Rachel, she does tend to get emotional on
Speaker 8: many occasions, and you feel like it could happen. So
Speaker 8: whenever I asked the question, You're absolutely right. It is
Speaker 8: strictly from a fan standpoint, And I was just wondering
Speaker 8: every year Rachel talks about Oklahoma City and World Series,
Speaker 8: and for some reason this year she didn't mention it,
Speaker 8: and a lot of the scuttle butt early on this
Speaker 8: season has been about maybe this could be a rebuilding
Speaker 8: type year, just so many unknowns you don't know about
Speaker 8: the pitching staff. I just wanted to know if the
Speaker 8: fans should kind of set the bar a little bit lower.
Speaker 8: No sense pulling our airs out if there's no chance
Speaker 8: of making it to Oklahoma City. And not only did
Speaker 8: she come right out and refute me and say, no,
Speaker 8: you should not set the bar any lower. In fact,
Speaker 8: we're probably going to be better this year than a
Speaker 8: lot of people think. But then she went into the
Speaker 8: reason why she thought the team would be better, and
Speaker 8: that's when all that emotion came out. When you have
Speaker 8: all that vulnerability, when you have all that transparency, and
Speaker 8: in my mind, that's what makes for a really, really
Speaker 8: good an answer from a coach. She actually said something
Speaker 8: that people not only believe but also wanted to hear.
Speaker 8: It was very very refreshing from my standpoint.
Speaker 4: Well, her emotion aside. What did you think of her
Speaker 4: readily available admission that she did a poor job and
Speaker 4: why she did that poor job essentially misplaced loyalty.
Speaker 8: I think that's true for a lot of sports nowadays,
Speaker 8: and it goes back even before the NIL era, but
Speaker 8: I think it's even more of a factor right now,
Speaker 8: where you have all these coaches, and just take Kentucky
Speaker 8: basketball last year with John Calipari, or even football with
Speaker 8: Mark Stoops, where you had these high falutin five stars
Speaker 8: or transfer portal heroes that have been recruited into the
Speaker 8: system and the coach feels some sort of loyalty to them.
Speaker 8: That was part of Calipari's recruiting pit. Try come into Kentucky.
Speaker 8: I'm going to take you to the NBA. And we
Speaker 8: saw on so many occasions, especially last year, where he
Speaker 8: ended up playing those guys the Dewan Wagner's, the John
Speaker 8: d J. Wagner and Justin Edwards over guys like Reed
Speaker 8: Shephard and Rob Dillingham. It was very, very readily appearent
Speaker 8: that those loyalties were divided and conflicted. And I think
Speaker 8: Rachel just came out and said what we had all
Speaker 8: all kind of thought anyway, But to have her admitted
Speaker 8: in such a form, I mean, this is the UK
Speaker 8: Softball media day. She knows that this is going to
Speaker 8: go out there. Oh yeah, And that was I think
Speaker 8: what was the most surprising to me. I loved it.
Speaker 8: I thought it was a great answer and from some
Speaker 8: of the responses that I've seen on social media. There
Speaker 8: are a lot of coaches who are really rallying to
Speaker 8: to her defense.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, not that she needs defending, but yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and a lot of fans as well who think there are,
Speaker 1: as you said, a lot of instances where coaches have
Speaker 1: stayed with people just too long or you know, it
Speaker 1: jumped to my mind was Billy Gillespie and nothing against
Speaker 1: the kid, but Mark Corey in the starting lineup EV
Speaker 1: game after a game and wouldn't even talk about to us,
Speaker 1: you know why that was the situation. So, yeah, it was.
Speaker 4: It was interesting.
Speaker 8: You do wonder, though, how much equity she had built up.
Speaker 8: I mean, here's somebody who's been with the program eighteen
Speaker 8: years and has been to the College World Series. You
Speaker 8: do wonder how if somebody was just coming on board,
Speaker 8: if you're a young coach trying to get established, I
Speaker 8: think you'd be a lot more reticent in being able
Speaker 8: to admit something.
Speaker 4: Like no that no question.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And one of the first things Nick Bnji owned did
Speaker 1: he went first this year generally see the way around.
Speaker 1: But as you know, Nick said down he's a big
Speaker 1: fan of Rachel Lawson and vice versa, and Nick listed
Speaker 1: her accomplishments and basically saying, how many do you know
Speaker 1: how many times her team's been to the postseason and
Speaker 1: it was I believe seventeen. And how many Super Regionals
Speaker 1: they've been to, you know, and I think it was
Speaker 1: seven or eight something like that, you know, and they've
Speaker 1: been able to break through the one time to the
Speaker 1: World Series. They came close a couple of other times.
Speaker 1: But yeah, she it's amazing the job she's done. Well,
Speaker 1: let us shift over to the other sport that's getting
Speaker 1: most of the headlines on campus right now. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about women's basketball in a minute, because you cover that
Speaker 1: as well. But if I had told you at the
Speaker 1: you know, let's say back in late November, John Kentucky's
Speaker 1: gonna have a bunch of quad one wins, but by
Speaker 1: the time they get to the teeth of the SEC schedule,
Speaker 1: they don't have their best two point guards. Would you
Speaker 1: have expect did a record any better than this?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: To me, I think expectations began to rise, maybe too quickly.
Speaker 4: What do you think?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think those wins against Duke and Gonzaga and
Speaker 8: even just recently Tennessee on the road that kind of
Speaker 8: set a little bit of a false expectation. You might
Speaker 8: even want to call it fool's gold. So if it
Speaker 8: is fool's gold, then Kentucky and Mark Pope has really
Speaker 8: overachieved this year. If you said what would be their
Speaker 8: record at the beginning of the year, back when Mark
Speaker 8: Pope was first hired, I would have probably predicted about this,
Speaker 8: maybe even a little bit worse. But all these surprising
Speaker 8: wins that they've had have really ratcheted expectation into the stratosphere.
Speaker 8: And I think for that reason, they're almost the victim
Speaker 8: of their own success right now. But I don't like
Speaker 8: the way they're trending. You know, they've lost for the
Speaker 8: last five That's one of the reasons why I love
Speaker 8: coming on and talking with you. Did This is great
Speaker 8: therapy for me, and I was pretty down, But just
Speaker 8: a couple of minutes with the legend dig Gabriel has
Speaker 8: kind of gotten my spirits back up again. I'm not
Speaker 8: giving up on them, But really, the narrative of this
Speaker 8: team has to be the injuries. You lose your two
Speaker 8: point guards. What teams out there after losing their two
Speaker 8: point guards would be able to form any semblance of
Speaker 8: a cohesive team. Nobody and this team is able to
Speaker 8: do it, then, of course, the other narrative is defense.
Speaker 8: They've got to learn how to play some defense. The
Speaker 8: effort the other night against Old Miss was very, very
Speaker 8: discouraging and disappointing in that first half. I don't think
Speaker 8: i've seen and you know me, I've been following Kentucky
Speaker 8: basketball for a long time. I'm not sure I've seen
Speaker 8: a worst defensive effort out of the gate from a
Speaker 8: team like that.
Speaker 1: And they just didn't seem interested. Did They would shock.
Speaker 8: Me, no, Ole Miss, but they could pretty much do
Speaker 8: anything they want, whether it was three point line from
Speaker 8: beyond the arc or driving it inside. They just seemed
Speaker 8: like Kentucky was a step slow. And they're not the
Speaker 8: most athletic and talented a team, but they should not
Speaker 8: be lacking anything effort wise. That was a little bit
Speaker 8: concerning to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, and again any night at the SEC.
Speaker 4: But you knew this.
Speaker 1: The other thing you knew about Old Miss going in
Speaker 1: they needed it when they were as hungry as a
Speaker 1: team in the SEC could be. And you know what
Speaker 1: it's like and these kids had, you know, talked about
Speaker 1: learning what it's like to be Kentucky and go on
Speaker 1: the road, So they should have been surprised by that.
Speaker 8: Now we've heard it all before. Everybody, Everybody's super Bowl,
Speaker 8: and that's the way it is. How fun it is
Speaker 8: it this year Dick be watching SEC basketball every night.
Speaker 8: There's a great day. Last night I was watching Arkansas
Speaker 8: and Texas, and look, Arkansas now at three and six,
Speaker 8: they're only a game behind Kentucky in the standings and
Speaker 8: the SEC standings, and of course they've got the head
Speaker 8: the head tiebreaker. Now, who would have ever thought that
Speaker 8: after the starts of both those teams.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I listened to a lot of that game on
Speaker 1: the radio, Arkansas in Texas, and you know, they just
Speaker 1: went out and did again did the Texas what they
Speaker 1: did to Kentucky. And you know we talk about Kentucky
Speaker 1: losing two point guards. You're absolutely right about that, not
Speaker 1: an excuse where they played defensively. But I find it
Speaker 1: fascinating that Arkansas lost a kid who was maybe the
Speaker 1: best freshman in the league in Boogie Flann, because you
Speaker 1: know he was supposed to come here. But then that
Speaker 1: forces Caliperry to figure out another way. And now it's
Speaker 1: a better way to kind of balance things out and
Speaker 1: make things difficult. So I think that's a great lesson.
Speaker 8: Isn't it. Isn't it amazing how sometimes less can be more?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 8: And ironically, I think this kind of circles back to
Speaker 8: what Rachel Lawson was talking about. Maybe this loyalty to
Speaker 8: somebody like a book Flann was to the detriment of
Speaker 8: the loyalty to the program itself. It's addition by subtraction,
Speaker 8: and I think a lot of sports are feeling that
Speaker 8: right now. It really is the cohesiveness of the unit.
Speaker 8: It's still a team game. The last time that.
Speaker 1: I saw, yeah, yeah, Arkansas beats Texas seventy eight to seventy.
Speaker 4: Missouri blew a lead, looked like Tennessee was going to lose.
Speaker 8: I was watching. I was watching that game, and Missouri
Speaker 8: is going to be tough, and Kentucky has to go
Speaker 8: to both Missouri and the Texas. They got another Oklahoma team.
Speaker 8: When you start counting victories, you're you're starting to wonder.
Speaker 8: You figure this this weekend? All right? The fan base
Speaker 8: right now, I would say, is that deaf Con two.
Speaker 8: You lose this Saturday to South Carolina, It's going to
Speaker 8: be all out panic deaf Con one. But you figure
Speaker 8: you ought to be able to take South Carolina, you
Speaker 8: ought to be able to take Vanderbilt at home. You
Speaker 8: should be able to take LSU. So I think the
Speaker 8: victories are are there. I don't think we need to
Speaker 8: sweat yet about making the tournament right, but with this team,
Speaker 8: you just never ever know. I'm not putting any victory
Speaker 8: in the books just yet.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: Now it's about brackets and seating, and you've got to
Speaker 1: have an eye on that.
Speaker 4: There's no question. We're talking to John Wong, freelance writer.
Speaker 1: Will come back and talk a little bit more with
Speaker 1: John on the other side of the break here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with author and
Speaker 1: sportswriter John Wong. Wong's Whinings. This is blog writes for
Speaker 1: Nolan Media Group, has a number of books out there
Speaker 1: that he has written and co written, and his daughter
Speaker 1: has written a books. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Speaker 1: But spring football is coming up, John, and I have
Speaker 1: talked to more people who it's fairly evident this is
Speaker 1: such a crucial could be a pivotal season for Mark Stoops,
Speaker 1: which I believe the spring practice coming up will be
Speaker 1: just as Pivot want it. I mean, they've got so
Speaker 1: many new faces. They're building a new offensive line on
Speaker 1: the fly, another quarterback competition. You know, you might have
Speaker 1: thought they had an incumbent, but no, you know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot that has to be settled.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 8: The more things change, the more things stay the same.
Speaker 8: And I hate saying this because I really love Mark Steukes.
Speaker 8: He's been a neighbor of mine for many, many years
Speaker 8: and I just love him as a person. But sometimes
Speaker 8: things just get stay or I don't care when you do.
Speaker 8: And the bar may be set so high for him
Speaker 8: this year that there's almost no way to succeed. You say, Okay,
Speaker 8: let's set the bar as low as we can. Let's
Speaker 8: at least make a bowl that's not unrealistic, Right, Let's
Speaker 8: get back to six and six. You go six and six.
Speaker 8: Who's going to be real, real happy with that? Probably nobody, right,
Speaker 8: because once again he's a victim of his previous past success.
Speaker 8: Twelve years in the SEC that's a long time. Yeah,
Speaker 8: I've said it before. It's like that bag of potato chips.
Speaker 8: No matter how good it is, no matter what brand
Speaker 8: it is, it'll tend to get stale if it's been
Speaker 8: open a while I think this is the case with
Speaker 8: Mark Steus, I'm not saying they need to get some
Speaker 8: fresh blood in there. I'm just saying it's almost impossible
Speaker 8: for him to please this ravenous creature that he's created
Speaker 8: over the years now where people are expecting more than
Speaker 8: just a trick to a bowl game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, there's no question. And we've talked before
Speaker 1: about how you and I go back didn't know each
Speaker 1: other in college, but we were there at the same time,
Speaker 1: and they were one for a couple of years when
Speaker 1: Kursey was there. But we know what happened after that,
Speaker 1: and we go back to when people said, boy, seven
Speaker 1: wins a year and they put up a statute to whoever.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he moved the bar, didn't he, And it's
Speaker 1: his I don't know, miss for or whatever that Now
Speaker 1: the sec is as strong as it's ever been. But
Speaker 1: the expectations now seven wins. They turned in back to
Speaker 1: back seven wins season, John, and everybody was disappointed, you know,
Speaker 1: and rightfully so, because they did not accomplish what they
Speaker 1: should have accomplished. So you're right, he's kind of a
Speaker 1: victim of his own success, isn't he?
Speaker 8: You talking about that has brought back just a boatload
Speaker 8: of memories of how bad Kentucky football really has been
Speaker 8: over the course of time. And this is why I
Speaker 8: refer it to you as a legend. Dick, you are
Speaker 8: longevity means something and Stoke's twelve years long time in
Speaker 8: the SEC Dick Gabriel, however many years that you've been
Speaker 8: doing this, but you realize the history. And that's a big,
Speaker 8: big part of how the mindset of our fan base
Speaker 8: is right now. Guys like you, I would put on
Speaker 8: like the Mount rushow a media that are still.
Speaker 4: Out rockhead, that's for sure.
Speaker 8: No, No, you've been doing this for for a long time.
Speaker 3: You.
Speaker 8: I'll put Cutler on there, I'll put Dave Baker, Larry Vall.
Speaker 8: You guys know the history and I'm almost there with
Speaker 8: you in terms of age and experience as a fan,
Speaker 8: but as a media member, I'm still a babe in
Speaker 8: the wood. So I am learning, but it's it's hard
Speaker 8: to channel the expectations. I almost almost want to take
Speaker 8: my fan hat off and and and put my media
Speaker 8: had on and look at it objectively. But no, in
Speaker 8: terms of this year, I can't see I can't see
Speaker 8: anybody really be satisfied with the final result.
Speaker 1: Well, John, before I let you go, how is the
Speaker 1: novel going? As I said, John has written a number
Speaker 1: of books and co written books with guys like Kyle
Speaker 1: Macy and Derek Ramsey, but prior to Christmas, he really
Speaker 1: he's a basketball themed murder mystery.
Speaker 4: Has it been the way you hoped?
Speaker 8: It has? Locally a lot of people who have read
Speaker 8: it have really said they really enjoy it. And this
Speaker 8: this is the time to read it, right in the
Speaker 8: middle of basketball season, because there are the plot has
Speaker 8: so many things that people will uh, it'll it'll kind
Speaker 8: of touch a nerve with them. I write with a
Speaker 8: little bit of a whimsical style. I write with a
Speaker 8: little bit of an edge, but it's it's a murder
Speaker 8: mystery overall. It's called name, Image and Murder. And I
Speaker 8: take a lot of all that's good, bad, and indifferent
Speaker 8: about this new landscape of college basketball, and I kind
Speaker 8: of twirl it into this murder mystery, basketball action thriller
Speaker 8: that has a lot of Kentucky references. If you're a
Speaker 8: Kentucky fan, you'll love it. If you're a basketball fan,
Speaker 8: I think you'll also really really enjoy it. I need
Speaker 8: your help though, Dick and kind of ratchet and into
Speaker 8: the national level.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 8: I sent Paul Finebaum a copy of this thing. I
Speaker 8: didn't hear anything from him. So maybe when these big
Speaker 8: weeks come in, I'll have some complimentary copies and then
Speaker 8: we'll really be able to get the word out on
Speaker 8: that name image of Murder Amazon, go on Amazon, Barnesandnoble
Speaker 8: dot com. How's that for the shameless plug?
Speaker 4: Great, that's very well done.
Speaker 1: And I got thirty seconds left and plug your daughter's book.
Speaker 8: Yeah, she's doing she's a real author, she's got some
Speaker 8: real publishing companies behind her. It's called shadow Work Journal.
Speaker 8: It's one of these things. It's a self reflection book.
Speaker 8: If you enjoyed that Rachel Lost and clip, then this
Speaker 8: is something for you and it allows you a lot
Speaker 8: of introspection about yourself. I think I've learned a lot
Speaker 8: about myself just by reading the thing.
Speaker 4: Sounds good.
Speaker 1: John Wong Wong's whinings k Y h U A n
Speaker 1: G on Twitter. John, thanks so much, and we'll see
Speaker 1: you at the next game anytime.
Speaker 8: Look forward to it. Let's get this thing turned around.
Speaker 8: No deaf Con one this weekend.
Speaker 1: West n Bureau Chief Gary Moore up next here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big bullon Cider.
Speaker 1: Joining us today. It is Thursday, but we were bumped
Speaker 1: yesterday by the state wide show, so let us welcome
Speaker 1: in our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore.
Speaker 4: Hey back from California.
Speaker 1: We missed you last week, but just in time for
Speaker 1: the super Bowl and.
Speaker 4: More and more.
Speaker 6: It's right, you know, And I did watch the game
Speaker 6: on Saturday night from out there.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry. Were the boos.
Speaker 6: Really that loud in there to you?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're actually at the end some booze toward
Speaker 1: Kentucky players, but not as much as the ones hurled
Speaker 1: at Caliperry.
Speaker 4: What the hell? What is with that?
Speaker 1: I mean, oh, I used this isn't a talking point
Speaker 1: for today. I used to be dead set of posed,
Speaker 1: but now these guys are pros man, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I get that part of it.
Speaker 6: But I mean, look, Caliparia left on his own. You
Speaker 6: should be applauding that if you were that pissed off
Speaker 6: Adam to begin with, and it didn't cost you a.
Speaker 4: Buyout, so why not clap for that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Well, the America our March.
Speaker 6: He ruined our march, all right, first sip two guys
Speaker 6: in a six pack, our first swig.
Speaker 4: Here.
Speaker 6: Two Big Bowl games this Sunday, but not at the
Speaker 6: same time, so you can watch both of them. As
Speaker 6: you mentioned, there's that super sized one that's six thirty
Speaker 6: our time between two NFL teams. I neither like nor
Speaker 6: care about. Then, before all of that hypapalooza, it's the
Speaker 6: twenty first Puppy Bowl about two o'clock. And not just
Speaker 6: on Animal Planet Dikets. Pups are going to be on, well,
Speaker 6: they're gonna be simulcast on a bunch of plays TBS,
Speaker 6: A Discovery Channel, True TV Max and Discovery plus the
Speaker 6: biggest Puppy Bowl ever. One hundred and forty two rescued
Speaker 6: dogs from eighty shelters in forty states, including two as
Speaker 6: we mentioned before right here from the Kentucky Humane Society,
Speaker 6: Colonel the Beagle on Team Rough and Julee Up the
Speaker 6: first ever Saint Bernard in Bold history on Team Fluff,
Speaker 6: going for the Lombardi Trophy. In fact, I'm wearing my team,
Speaker 6: my colonel, I'm part of that. Locally, you see this
Speaker 6: convinced in camera, where's our buddy, Vince?
Speaker 4: He's not working. Get a shot of that.
Speaker 6: Kyhumane dot Org has got more about it if you
Speaker 6: want to go into these shirts, they're really very cool.
Speaker 4: Look.
Speaker 6: Super Bowl pregame coverage blabs on and on and on
Speaker 6: and on for hours. So for the love of dog,
Speaker 6: watch the Puppy Bowl instead before it all on Sunday.
Speaker 6: And remember, don't shop for your new best friend. Adopt shelter.
Speaker 6: Dogs are the best, aren't they.
Speaker 1: I agree, we have two right here in our house,
Speaker 1: and uh, they need us and we need them.
Speaker 6: It's a matter of who rescues who. And plus they
Speaker 6: know dogs know when you're they just know. I'll convinced
Speaker 6: that they know ye that you're rescuing them. Second swig
Speaker 6: in the six packs. So, as you mentioned, I was
Speaker 6: out in La last week. I was overseeing this Luca
Speaker 6: trade for a UK great a d thumbs up by me.
Speaker 4: Don't you love Dick?
Speaker 6: How the NBA just kind of pretty much dominated and
Speaker 6: still does the sports headlines this week instead of the
Speaker 6: Eagles and Chiefs for most.
Speaker 4: Of the week.
Speaker 6: It's kind of like payback for scheduling the NFL games
Speaker 6: on Christmas Day that the NBA used to own for TV.
Speaker 6: I'm not the biggest NBA fan in the world, but
Speaker 6: I love all of this, and you know, you can
Speaker 6: tell how young or how inexperienced some of these sports.
Speaker 6: The ackers are saying, this is the biggest trade in
Speaker 6: NBA history, and I was here to cover it for you.
Speaker 6: First of all, it wasn't. And second of all, it's
Speaker 6: not even the biggest trade in Lakers history.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 6: That would be a nineteen seventy five Kareem to the
Speaker 6: thirty and fifty two Lakers with a guy named Walt
Speaker 6: Wesley for Lowvell's junior bridgeman, Dave Myers, Elmore Smith, Brian Winners,
Speaker 6: two draft picks and some cash. How that turnout? And
Speaker 6: of course you could also say the Lakers getting Anthony
Speaker 6: Davis from New Orleans was a bigger deal because.
Speaker 4: He got them a ring, right, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 6: And of course there's probably those two trades involving Wilt
Speaker 6: Chamberlain to Philly from San Francisco and then from Philly
Speaker 6: to the Lakers. Those would be high up on that list,
Speaker 6: no pun intended. And if you really want to dig
Speaker 6: into it, maybe the best trade ever in the history
Speaker 6: of all basketball was when Red Houurback traded for the
Speaker 6: rights to Bill Russell. That's right, involving a guy named
Speaker 6: Cliff Haagen.
Speaker 4: Isn't exactly.
Speaker 1: And that trade did bring Saint Louis it's only championship
Speaker 1: NBA title because the Hawks won.
Speaker 4: It nineteen fifty eight behind Cliff hay.
Speaker 1: Now, Russell was hurt that year, but the city of
Speaker 1: Saint Louis still very proud of that title as well
Speaker 1: it should be. But you know, it's all about recency bias.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest trade in the history of social media.
Speaker 1: What he got it was a stunner. Yeah, and now
Speaker 1: they follow it up last night. I talked about it
Speaker 1: earlier with the Lakers part of their madness. They make
Speaker 1: another trade and among the people leaving Dalton Connect who
Speaker 1: is having a big rookie year, but he goes to
Speaker 1: Charlotte for Mark Williams. Well, I don't even remember being
Speaker 1: at Duke like this guy could turn out to be
Speaker 1: the key figure in his trade.
Speaker 6: Connect supposedly had a bad well he had, he did
Speaker 6: have a bad shooting drought, but then he's picked up
Speaker 6: on that as rookies will. But they didn't like his defense,
Speaker 6: so he was expendable. I still think he's a good player,
Speaker 6: all right. Third, swig, let's talk about that other Professional
Speaker 6: Basketball Association college the SEC Tournament Dick thirty four days
Speaker 6: away starting March twelfth in nash Vegas. Of course, all
Speaker 6: sixteen teams will play at least one game, and you
Speaker 6: know it's going to be the usual upsets, maybe more
Speaker 6: this year because word has it that as many as
Speaker 6: thirteen SEC teams could make the field in March. Now,
Speaker 6: you may be too young to remember this, but I
Speaker 6: can recall when the SEC was a football conference. Okay,
Speaker 6: that was with seven People say that you might be
Speaker 6: too young to know this. Given the schedule, with nine
Speaker 6: games left, four with ranked teams and thirty four, there
Speaker 6: are days to go, I ask you that, Gabriel, is
Speaker 6: that enough time for UK to A get healthy and
Speaker 6: B fix the hemorrhaging, especially on defense.
Speaker 4: Well A leaeds to be.
Speaker 1: If they don't get healthy, and that is to say
Speaker 1: Lamont Butler, then I don't see their defense getting much better.
Speaker 1: It will get better even without Lamont, because they'll work
Speaker 1: on it for obvious reasons. But if you don't have
Speaker 1: somebody who is capable of pressuring the basketball as soon
Speaker 1: as it crosses mid court, then everybody else on your team.
Speaker 1: Is it a disadvantage? And I'm not pointing fingers at
Speaker 1: anybody that just says.
Speaker 4: How good Lamont Butler is maybe.
Speaker 1: The best in the country, and his defense begets better
Speaker 1: defense for everybody. So minus that, they are going to
Speaker 1: have to really knuckle down on what they work on
Speaker 1: in practice, you know, preparing or the rest of the games.
Speaker 1: Because right now, Gary, as you know, you're playing for seeding,
Speaker 1: you're playing for bracket space, and you've got to take
Speaker 1: care of yourself, take the worry out of the hands
Speaker 1: of the committee and force them to give you a
Speaker 1: high seed.
Speaker 4: Only way to do that is to win. Amen to
Speaker 4: that fourth swig in the six pack.
Speaker 6: And coincidentally, my four reasons why I couldn't care less
Speaker 6: about yet another Super Bowl this coming Sunday, I mentioned
Speaker 6: it before. I don't like the Eagles or the Chiefs.
Speaker 6: Eagles have the most obnoxious fans in football, and I'm
Speaker 6: tired of guys and stripes helping Kansas City. I'm fine
Speaker 6: with Taylor Swift, She's cool, but I'm enough already. Second reason,
Speaker 6: I'm so tired of suffering through the pronounced team of
Speaker 6: Kevin Burkhart and Tom, I'm still learning on the job, Brady.
Speaker 6: The last few games that they've done, including the NFC Championship,
Speaker 6: reminded me how far behind they are to Joe and
Speaker 6: Troy that they lost to ESP and even the New
Speaker 6: Yorker magazine It Hardly Ever, comments on Sports piled On
Speaker 6: a couple of weeks ago, saying, quote, Brady's not so
Speaker 6: great at his new gig, and he settles for a
Speaker 6: stock phrases.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we know.
Speaker 6: Third's the third reason for that. As you know, I
Speaker 6: hate commercials with the passion. That's why I love the
Speaker 6: Red Zone especially.
Speaker 4: Most of these are.
Speaker 6: Overproduced, underwhelming commercials and spots that they overpaid for always
Speaker 6: and they always show you that the golden age of
Speaker 6: mad Men advertising age is long gone, never coming back.
Speaker 6: And the fourth reason for that the halftime show of
Speaker 6: rapper Kendrick Lamar, which brings us to our fifth swig.
Speaker 6: And by the way, you're gonna need SIPs from a
Speaker 6: fifth if you watch this entire halftime show because Kendrick
Speaker 6: Lamar and singer, songwriter and occasional rapper Sizza will be
Speaker 6: the halftime entertainment of the Super Bowl for anyone over forty
Speaker 6: and not really into rap. Be advised that Lamar has
Speaker 6: a song that won two Grammys, well at least two
Speaker 6: in the biggest categories, the Song of the Year and
Speaker 6: Record of the Year, not like Us, which is if
Speaker 6: you don't know a profane disc of rap rival Drake,
Speaker 6: which you might say, who gives a crap about a
Speaker 6: feud between two rappers, especially when the piece sounds like
Speaker 6: silly gibberish with and I'm like to check my notes here.
Speaker 6: According to my count, it has seventeen in words, six
Speaker 6: F bombs, six b female references, and one S word,
Speaker 6: which I don't think anybody is reporting on this. It's
Speaker 6: just sort of like the Emperor's new Lyrics. There is
Speaker 6: a clean version of this out there, but it was
Speaker 6: digitally made. They just edit out the words in shop
Speaker 6: with the computer. So I'm gonna definitely tune in Dick
Speaker 6: to see how in the world fox A is gonna
Speaker 6: maybe muzzle this guy and be see if he edits himself.
Speaker 4: Who knows.
Speaker 6: If it gets to be so bad, Apple Music won't
Speaker 6: be producing these anymore, and we'll get up with people
Speaker 6: back here at halftime with Al Hurt from the first
Speaker 6: Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: You know, I was in up with people. Glenn close
Speaker 4: Way really back in the day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, halftime, I'll due respect, I'll be walking the dog.
Speaker 1: That's not for me, and I get that, But to
Speaker 1: go in reverse order. The commercials have taken on a
Speaker 1: life of their own. Some of them are brilliant. My
Speaker 1: favorite is still Terry Tait Office Linebacker. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's amazing to me the money they spend. But with
Speaker 1: a friend of mine, and you've met him who works
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, I always remind myself a lot of people
Speaker 1: got jobs because of these commercials.
Speaker 4: They got paid a lot of money. But are we
Speaker 4: paying for it in the store.
Speaker 1: The answer is yes, yes, we're gonna pay higher prices
Speaker 1: so they can spend money on their production value. Some
Speaker 1: of them are great, most of them are not. The
Speaker 1: Clydesdell's will always went out, you know, and now they're
Speaker 1: releasing them prematurely. You know, you get this the sneak preview.
Speaker 1: You know, what's the fun in that? Agree on the announcers.
Speaker 1: I really like Burkhart Brady's man. You know, he's not great.
Speaker 1: Is he worth the money?
Speaker 4: Who knows? That's up for the bean counters to say.
Speaker 1: But I always tell you the way I judge a
Speaker 1: color analyst in any sport. Can you teach me something
Speaker 1: about the game that I don't know? I haven't heard
Speaker 1: that much from Brady and a lot of it is
Speaker 1: just the obvious stuff. But it's his first year, you
Speaker 1: know who. Like we talked before, who of us would
Speaker 1: put up stuff from our first year and say, there
Speaker 1: it is, that's the good stuff. The one storyline I
Speaker 1: like in this game, two of them. I want to
Speaker 1: see Saquon I have a big game, but we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about him a little later. Darien Knard, the
Speaker 1: former Wildcat, won two rings with the Royal, over the
Speaker 1: Royals with the Chiefs, and then signed with the Eagles,
Speaker 1: so he can join Ken Norton Junior as a guy
Speaker 1: with rings from three straight Super Bowls. If the Eagles win,
Speaker 1: how about that?
Speaker 4: I hope they do.
Speaker 6: Actually, if I watch any of it, if I have
Speaker 6: a pick on either one of those teams, our sixth
Speaker 6: and final swig and estimated, speaking of all of this,
Speaker 6: one point thirty nine billion expected to be wagered legally
Speaker 6: on Sunday Super Bowl, not counting the squares and offices
Speaker 6: and houses.
Speaker 4: Points spreads are boring, so go for the prop.
Speaker 6: Bets folks such as, what are the odds of Kelsey
Speaker 6: proposing to Taylor Swift on the field and will she
Speaker 6: say yes? What color will the gatorade be that's dumped
Speaker 6: on the winning coach? So far purple is leading the
Speaker 6: pack in the net? What will Kendrick Lamar's first and
Speaker 6: last songs be during the halftime?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 6: I haven't seen a prop bet for if an nword
Speaker 6: or an F bomb makes it past the sensors, that
Speaker 6: may still but the week is still young, right, The
Speaker 6: odds of Dick Gabriel sitting between Taylor Swift and Caitlin
Speaker 6: Clark have now been updated at infinity to one. You're saying,
Speaker 6: so you're saying there's a chance, that's right if you
Speaker 6: have a gambling problem, one eight hundred gambler like the Kenny.
Speaker 4: Right there you go.
Speaker 1: Prop bets have been around forever. It's just we hear
Speaker 1: more about it now that betting is legal relatively speaking.
Speaker 1: But prop bets have led and will lead even more
Speaker 1: to issues with athletes placing bets, either directly or indirectly. Yep,
Speaker 1: that they shouldn't be placing And who didn't see that coming?
Speaker 1: I know the NCAA is trying to work through this because,
Speaker 1: well for a number of reasons, but it's just to
Speaker 1: Fixing a game is one thing. But a player who
Speaker 1: knows that there are prop bets out there as to
Speaker 1: whether or not he gets twenty, well he has a
Speaker 1: lot to say about that. So I think they're fun,
Speaker 1: but I think everybody involved has got to get a
Speaker 1: handle on them, or something really terrible is going to happen,
Speaker 1: both in pro and college sports. Does that make sense, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's been happening to already.
Speaker 8: NBA.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've seen that in the last month. We had
Speaker 1: a player take himself out of a game. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: And who didn't see that? That's what I always say,
Speaker 1: Who didn't see that coming? That's what makes you That's
Speaker 1: what drives you nuts. So we're talking to Gary, speaking
Speaker 1: of driving us nuts, we're talking to Gary Moore.
Speaker 4: He's our Western bureau chiefs. And we'll come back.
Speaker 1: And talk more with Gary on the other side of
Speaker 1: the break here on six point thirty WLAP, Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We are chatting with our West End bureau chief, Gary
Speaker 1: moorees at the other end of a sixty four.
Speaker 4: He used to be on the West coast, but now
Speaker 4: is in the LA the Louisville area.
Speaker 1: We've gone through two guys in a six back time
Speaker 1: for a couple of hot reads, and uh, let's go
Speaker 1: back to the Super Bowl. Gary, it's always a hot ticket.
Speaker 1: Did you ever cover a Super Bowl?
Speaker 4: Did not?
Speaker 1: Did not either, And I always kind of wanted to,
Speaker 1: just to see what it feels like to be in
Speaker 1: that crush. But I don't know about buying a ticket
Speaker 1: because they're crazy expensive.
Speaker 4: However, now comes.
Speaker 1: The word that Super Bowl secondary ticket prices. They're high,
Speaker 1: but much less then last year's game. Average price at
Speaker 1: tick pick as of Tuesday sixty five hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: two dollars, which is pretty high. But last year same
Speaker 1: site Chiefs Niners average price was nine one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty six dollars.
Speaker 6: Because you got all those tech guys with billions of
Speaker 6: dollars out in San Francisco, apparently, apparently.
Speaker 1: You also had a pretty hefty cost back on the
Speaker 1: COVID year, but they were only twenty five thousand fans,
Speaker 1: that's why they paid seven thousand plus.
Speaker 4: But do you think that's the reason.
Speaker 1: Because you don't have as many tech guys you trying
Speaker 1: to jump in and buy ticket.
Speaker 4: It could well be that.
Speaker 6: And the fact that we just saw these two teams
Speaker 6: put two years ago, three years ago, whatever it was.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and to repeat.
Speaker 6: And those ticket prices you just mentioned that are going
Speaker 6: for it now are way down from where they started,
Speaker 6: like I guess, two three weeks ago, whatever it was. Yeah,
Speaker 6: they've really been discounted a lot. And what do you think.
Speaker 6: I think there's gonna be some empty seats. There may
Speaker 6: be some ball spots in the Superdome. If you're waiting
Speaker 6: to go, you might get a bargain.
Speaker 1: On a Saturday, some say the best thing to do
Speaker 1: is wait until game time if you're not too picky
Speaker 1: about where you sit, and that might be.
Speaker 4: The thing to do.
Speaker 6: That happens with concerts, that's that's the same deal with
Speaker 6: concerts too. By the way, a lot of people wait
Speaker 6: for the day of the show, especially when they're setting
Speaker 6: things up, and say, oh, we got some more tickets here,
Speaker 6: we'll just discount those and throw them out. They have
Speaker 6: shows good. I know you can't plan if you're coming
Speaker 6: in from out of town, it's hard to do that.
Speaker 6: But if you're local, wait till the day of the game.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Sequon Barkley in our second hot read, he
Speaker 1: probably will become the most productive or will complete the
Speaker 1: most productive season in NFL history for a running back.
Speaker 1: Between sixteen regular season games and three playoff games, Barkley's
Speaker 1: rushed for twenty four hundred and forty seven yards, second
Speaker 1: most as we know in NFL history. The overall record
Speaker 1: Terrell Davis of the Broncos ran for twenty four to
Speaker 1: seventy six in the regular season and postseason.
Speaker 4: So Barkley needs.
Speaker 1: Thirty yards to break his record, and his lowest output
Speaker 1: of the year has been forty seven yards, so you
Speaker 1: gotta like his chances. He's even closer to breaking the
Speaker 1: record for yards from scrimmage that also is held by Davis.
Speaker 1: He needs just three yards there. You know, we're talking
Speaker 1: about catching the ball, and Davis did all this back
Speaker 1: in ninety eight when the Broncos won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: But I'll put it to you, I just think these
Speaker 1: records since they're now playing so many regular season games
Speaker 1: and more playoff games. I went back and looked up
Speaker 1: Jim Brown's record nineteen sixty four. He rushed for more
Speaker 1: than a thousand yards in every game base for that season.
Speaker 1: More than one hundred yards in each game, and the
Speaker 1: Browns made the playoffs one game and they won the
Speaker 1: NFL Championship. Right, so he had he played a total
Speaker 1: of thirteen I think it's time for an asterisk in
Speaker 1: the NFL record book, don't you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Eric Dickerson thinks that too, I believe, Yeah, he's not
Speaker 6: happy about the record being approached at all. Yeah, in
Speaker 6: the regular season, Yeah, I think you could. I think definitely,
Speaker 6: because there there's enough of a discrepancy now with that.
Speaker 6: I don't think baseball wants to be part of that
Speaker 6: kind of a conversation anymore. No, No, we go back
Speaker 6: with the home run record and all that. But I
Speaker 6: think at football there's some validity to that. And Jim
Speaker 6: think about it.
Speaker 1: Eighteen games they want to play, all right, They used
Speaker 1: to play twelve. Yeah, so I mean now you're playing
Speaker 1: half again as many games, and everybody gets excited about
Speaker 1: always a thousand yard rusher, so you know, one hundred
Speaker 1: yards a game that's still big.
Speaker 4: Especially with the rules the way.
Speaker 6: They are now, They're not going to have eighteen games.
Speaker 6: I don't think in our lifetile, I don't think we're
Speaker 6: going to see eighteen games they just seems to be
Speaker 6: too much pushback on it, and that's brutal. Seventeen's already
Speaker 6: tough enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, But you know, if it means more
Speaker 1: money in the players pockets, you could see them agreeing
Speaker 1: to it, couldn't you, and doing away with preseason games
Speaker 1: and playing more of those scrimmages.
Speaker 4: That allow you to set your ball club.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you'll see more of those padded helmets too,
Speaker 6: because that's you know, that's really starting to take a
Speaker 6: lot of present. They've seeing a lot of things, especially
Speaker 6: when you read about Conrad Dobler. You know, he's the
Speaker 6: latest one that had some problems in that that category.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I think you're you're onto something with that,
Speaker 6: just to kind of say, hey, look, just so you know,
Speaker 6: he did this with this many games and now we've
Speaker 6: got this many games.
Speaker 4: Well. He is Gary Moore and you can find him
Speaker 4: on Twitter at.
Speaker 6: At nine to five five Gary, same fabulous joint you're found.
Speaker 1: At at Big Boo Insider one. Enjoy the super Bowl
Speaker 1: and the can and the puppy.
Speaker 4: Boll and that'll do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Gary, Thanks to Sean Woods and to John Wong.
Speaker 4: Tomorrow night, we're gonna have kind of a special edition.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the events of the day going into
Speaker 1: the weekend for the basketball Cats, but we're also going
Speaker 1: to talk uh extended a conversation with Jeremy Jarmon. I
Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to talk much football with Jeremy,
Speaker 1: so we'll do that in Hour number two tomorrow, and
Speaker 1: I'll probably take up the entire hour talking about Kentucky football,
Speaker 1: looking ahead of the spring and to a pivotal season
Speaker 1: with Mark.
Speaker 4: Stoops and the football Wildcats. So it'll be with us
Speaker 4: tomorrow night. But for now, that's it. Good night from
Speaker 4: the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 2: Is there someone else up now we can talk to
Speaker 2: No now, go away, or I shall talk to you
Speaker 2: a second time.
Speaker 5: Bang Bang, Belie