Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big New Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: Tuesday edition of our program. And maybe we should be
Speaker 1: surprised we have a Tuesday show because this time of
Speaker 1: year it seems like there's so many basketball games on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Well there's plenty tonight anyway. But Kentucky plays tomorrow night
Speaker 1: against Colgate. That's an eight o'clock start, so that means
Speaker 1: our coverage on the network will begin at six thirty,
Speaker 1: local coverage at five thirty. UK women played last night.
Speaker 1: They destroyed Queens, which is not from New York. Queens
Speaker 1: is actually a program that had been Division two moved
Speaker 1: up to D one. It's down in Charlotte and if
Speaker 1: you've seen any of the scores from any team D
Speaker 1: one teams playing Queens these days, it gets ugly, and
Speaker 1: it did last night for the visiting team Kentucky. Rompt
Speaker 1: we'll tell you a little bit more about that in just
Speaker 1: a minute, but that means the UK women are off
Speaker 1: until Saturday. The men again tomorrow night, then Louisville on Saturday,
Speaker 1: and they should beat Colgate. You wonder are they looking ahead?
Speaker 1: I know fans are, but this is a roster with
Speaker 1: a couple of exceptions full of kids who have never
Speaker 1: experienced uku of l All they know is what the
Speaker 1: people around them have said. Hey, you got to be Louisville.
Speaker 1: You know. And these guys do go to class. I'm
Speaker 1: sure they've heard it from people in their classes. Hey,
Speaker 1: you got Louisville coming up. Got to beat them. But
Speaker 1: they don't know the emotions yet. They might by the
Speaker 1: end of the game. But you know, this is not
Speaker 1: in the YOUM Center start to say Freedom Hall. It's
Speaker 1: not the Young Center. It's in Upperena. So this will
Speaker 1: feel like another home game, but there will be an
Speaker 1: additional level I think of not so much stress in Rupperina,
Speaker 1: but shall we say spirit because how much the fans
Speaker 1: want to win this game. But remember this now. You
Speaker 1: know UK fans didn't like Denny Crump because Denny was
Speaker 1: always poking it at the Wildcats in the program and
Speaker 1: Joe Bun till they became friends and started doing that
Speaker 1: radio show together. But remember when Denny Crumb got here
Speaker 1: in the early seventies, took a team right away to
Speaker 1: the final four, and he signed a freshman class that
Speaker 1: was crazy talented, just as Joe b had. You know,
Speaker 1: the super Kittens Kevin Grievy and Jimmy Dan and Jerry
Speaker 1: Hale and Mike Flinn, all those guys. Well, he signed
Speaker 1: a class Crumb did with Junior Bridgeman and Alan Murphy.
Speaker 1: Junior Bridgeman still is my all time favorite UFL player,
Speaker 1: Great great player, great man. But anyhow, Denny said, I
Speaker 1: take my class over those guys any day, so you know,
Speaker 1: And of course he was pushing like the play Kentucky,
Speaker 1: although I remember after a while Kentucky was thumping Louisville regularly,
Speaker 1: and Denny at one point wondered, was this game worth
Speaker 1: playing anymore? It's like, be careful what you wish for.
Speaker 1: But again, these Kentucky players now, they have no feel
Speaker 1: for that. But that's okay. They'll know by game time
Speaker 1: how much it means. And their coach, Mark Pope, lived it,
Speaker 1: loved it, and he'll explain it to them. But until
Speaker 1: you experience it, and sadly some of these guys will
Speaker 1: only get to experience at once, you just don't know.
Speaker 1: But last night on his radio show, talking to Tom
Speaker 1: Leach and somebody called in to talk about the u
Speaker 1: of L game, Mark Pope shared a story. I had
Speaker 1: never heard this. I know what this game meant to
Speaker 1: mister Wildcat, Bill Kyteley and eventually to Rick Patino and
Speaker 1: Toby Smith and really anybody who coached here. And he
Speaker 1: had Eddie said with his comment called him a little brother.
Speaker 1: You know that still resonates with U of L fans
Speaker 1: and some UK fans pull it out at times. But
Speaker 1: last night Pope talked about a moment that he wouldn't
Speaker 1: hear yet, but it was basically the window for Rick
Speaker 1: Patino into this world of UK versus U of L basketball,
Speaker 1: and he shared it with Tom Leech and again, I
Speaker 1: never heard this story. It's terrific.
Speaker 2: Coach Patino has shared this story many times, and he
Speaker 2: shared it with me actually as he was recruiting me,
Speaker 2: just talking about what Kentucky was. But the great Bill Kiteley,
Speaker 2: one of won the best ever.
Speaker 3: Was.
Speaker 2: You know, he welcomed Coach Patino here and was kind
Speaker 2: of one of Coach PE's trusted allies from day one
Speaker 2: when Coach Patino first got here to Kentucky, and I
Speaker 2: don't know what they were, five or six or seven
Speaker 2: games of the season, and they had a routine where
Speaker 2: when coach sent the players out of the locker room
Speaker 2: the last time before the game, Bill kite would walk
Speaker 2: in and make sure the coach had everything he needed
Speaker 2: and then they would walk out on.
Speaker 3: The floor together.
Speaker 2: And so this game five, six, seven, eight, somewhere early
Speaker 2: in the season, and and Coach p sends the team
Speaker 2: out and he's like, there's no Bill Kitely. Where is
Speaker 2: Bill Kiteley? And so coach is walking around the locker,
Speaker 2: He's like, man, we gotta go. He looks out in
Speaker 2: the hall. He finally goes back in the showers, sees
Speaker 2: the great mister Wildcat Bill just.
Speaker 3: Sitting on the floor.
Speaker 2: He's dressed in his suit. He's sitting on the floor,
Speaker 2: tears streaming out his face, with an open bottle of
Speaker 2: Urban in his arms, just feeling the stress and the
Speaker 2: pressure of this Kentucky Louisville game. And that's when Coach
Speaker 2: Patino was like, Okay, this is different, Like this just
Speaker 2: means more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the s SEC doesn't have total DIBs on that
Speaker 1: come and it just does mean more. And by the way,
Speaker 1: Patino and Kylie, he became so close. And I remember
Speaker 1: when Rick got here and there were people looking for
Speaker 1: ways to pick at him. They were saying, yeah, he
Speaker 1: wants to get rid of Bill Kiteley never the case.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you this the first time Rick
Speaker 1: Pattino had to come out to WKYT to shoot his
Speaker 1: TV show. This is before he made us start coming
Speaker 1: to his office to shoot the show. But he came
Speaker 1: out to KYT and got on the wrong road, you
Speaker 1: know the roads a lead out of town. I think
Speaker 1: he got on Paris Pike. Somebody said, yeah, get on
Speaker 1: this road and just keep going instead of Winchester Road.
Speaker 1: He ends up on Paris Pike and got way lost.
Speaker 1: They finally, I'm as late, but we finally got the
Speaker 1: show done. From that point on, Bill Kittee drove him
Speaker 1: to the TV station. And you might recall at one
Speaker 1: point Bettino bought a new pickup truck for Bill Kytee.
Speaker 1: That's probably why. But oh Kitlee just love beating Louisville.
Speaker 1: Hated the notion of losing to Louisville. And I'd never
Speaker 1: heard Tubby Smith do impressions of anybody, but more than
Speaker 1: once I heard Tubby kind of chuckling about Bill Kitely's
Speaker 1: obsession with Louisville, and Tubby would start doing his Bill
Speaker 1: Kittee impression, and he started going, you know you got
Speaker 1: win this one, Tubby, Oh boy, you got one. You
Speaker 1: gotta win this one. You know, I'm doing Tubby doing Kylie.
Speaker 1: And Tubby's wasn't any good, and neither was mine, but
Speaker 1: it was so funny. And Tubby said, like, I need
Speaker 1: more pressure, He said, I got all the fans on me,
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Nation, and now Bill Kyee, I gotta
Speaker 1: win this one more, you know. So I just loved
Speaker 1: that moment last night, and Tubby loved Bill Kye as well.
Speaker 1: I had never talked to Bill about uo. L never
Speaker 1: heard much about it. But here's the thing, and more
Speaker 1: than one person told me, you need to do a
Speaker 1: documentary on Bill Kiteley. And I can tell you I
Speaker 1: and dozens and dozens of people asked Bill Kyee through
Speaker 1: the years for an interview, and I know he probably,
Speaker 1: in fact, I'm certain he did. I didn't do anything
Speaker 1: on him, as you know, the guy who hands out
Speaker 1: the towels and the sneakers. But that's because I wanted
Speaker 1: so much more, you know, I wanted to know so
Speaker 1: much about Bill and his relationship with the coaches. I
Speaker 1: was nosy, you know, the players. He was the father
Speaker 1: confessor to them, how he got them through tough moments
Speaker 1: in their lives, both the players and the coaches, and
Speaker 1: he was not going to share that. You know, he
Speaker 1: made that clear he was never going to talk about
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. So I respected that and I
Speaker 1: quit asking. But man, you could tell how much he
Speaker 1: wanted and just I would look at him every now
Speaker 1: and then during a Louisville game and you could see
Speaker 1: the pressure all over his face. But I was so
Speaker 1: happy Mark Pope shared that story with him about him
Speaker 1: last night. Coming up tonight on the show, we're going
Speaker 1: to hear from Tim Couch a conversation I had with
Speaker 1: him back in the fall. He is in Vegas as
Speaker 1: we speak, getting ready to be inducted formally into the
Speaker 1: College Football Hall of Fame. Was notified earlier this calendar year,
Speaker 1: and then UK honored him on the field pregame back
Speaker 1: in September while the season was young, and I had
Speaker 1: a chance to get him on the show and had
Speaker 1: a nice conversation with Tim. So we'll hear from him
Speaker 1: coming up in hour number two. At the bottom of
Speaker 1: the hour, Jimmy Diykes will join us. Jimmy worked the
Speaker 1: TV game Kentucky Gonzaga, as you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: you listening to radio, I did too. I listened to
Speaker 1: both and it was so great because Jimmy did a
Speaker 1: tremendous job working with John Shamby. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I've ever heard John Shabby. He's a great baseball announcer.
Speaker 1: I believe he's now the regular voice of the Chicago Cubs.
Speaker 1: But he's really talented. I thought he and Jimmy were
Speaker 1: a great team. And of course Tom and Jack did
Speaker 1: an incredible job. And when we get the melt, we
Speaker 1: will share that with you. The stretch call for Kentucky Gonzaga,
Speaker 1: but to hear Gibvens talk about Kentucky dropping into a
Speaker 1: one to three one that was so much fun, and
Speaker 1: hear Jack talk about the comeback. But we'll hear from
Speaker 1: Jimmy at the bottom of the hour. A former UK
Speaker 1: assistant coach now an analyst. Those of you who don't
Speaker 1: like him, I don't get it because he understands UK
Speaker 1: basketball better than any analyst working today for obvious reasons.
Speaker 1: David Siske will join us as well from Catch Illustrated
Speaker 1: part of the Rivals Network. We'll hear from him and
Speaker 1: he'll break down Kentucky and Zaga and talk about what
Speaker 1: he saw. Should Bill Belichick be the next head coach
Speaker 1: in North Carolina, that would be intriguing. That would be
Speaker 1: a lot like should Parcels or what if Parcells had
Speaker 1: come here? I think it would have been. It'd be
Speaker 1: more of a challenge with Belichick, you know, because you
Speaker 1: got to be that ambassador in North Carolina. Not so
Speaker 1: much for football's basketball, but you still have to create
Speaker 1: and work on that link with the fans. I don't
Speaker 1: think Belichick would have any interest in doing that, but
Speaker 1: he built a heck of a program, hire a heck
Speaker 1: of a staff. Imagine recruiting he could do. But now
Speaker 1: another name evidently has entered the picture. Within all the speculation,
Speaker 1: Steve Wilkes, former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and
Speaker 1: former head coach of the Carolina Panthers, wasn't successful, but evidently,
Speaker 1: according to On three Sports, he interviewed for the head
Speaker 1: coaching job, So that just made things more interesting. Coming
Speaker 1: up on Thursday, the volleyball wild Cats will take their
Speaker 1: next step in the NCAA Tournament. They play Missouri, a
Speaker 1: team they've already beaten twice in the SEC. In fact,
Speaker 1: Missouri was the team Kentucky beat to close out the
Speaker 1: regular season and clinch out right another SEC championship. Up next,
Speaker 1: we'll talk volleyball. Bottom of they were Jimmy Dikes here
Speaker 1: on six thirty. A big Bill insider coming up in
Speaker 1: just a few minutes. Jimmy Dyke's ESPN. We'll go back
Speaker 1: over the Kentucky again Zaga game that he worked up
Speaker 1: in Seattle. Mentioned earlier that the UK women with an
Speaker 1: easy win last night eighty seven of forty five over
Speaker 1: Queens out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Twenty points for Georgia Amore,
Speaker 1: nineteen for Amelia Hassett, including one thousand career points. She
Speaker 1: started her career at a junior college in Florida and
Speaker 1: decided to play for the Wildcats, signed on with Kenny Brooks,
Speaker 1: and after the game said she's glad she did.
Speaker 4: Obviously, it was a great feeling hitting out milestone. Obviously,
Speaker 4: props to my teammates for obviously helping me get there
Speaker 4: and stuff. But yeah, this team is obviously we can
Speaker 4: be great. We just have to put the work in. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I feel like it was a great fit, great choice,
Speaker 4: and I just obviously loved the coaching staff and coach Brooks.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so the wildcatch now eight and one after
Speaker 1: they lost to North Carolina, bouncing back, and as I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, next up is Purdue coming up Saturday, and
Speaker 1: it's going to be obviously a much tougher contest, and
Speaker 1: it is on the road. You'll hear it on our
Speaker 1: sister station ninety eight point five FM with Darren Headrick.
Speaker 1: Coming up this Saturday, Thursday, it's Kentucky volleyball Wildcats taking
Speaker 1: on Missouri, trying to beat that team for the third
Speaker 1: time this year and move into the Elite eight. So
Speaker 1: they're into Sweet sixteen. And of course this is a
Speaker 1: Kentucky team that struggled early in the year, played a
Speaker 1: brutally tough schedule a lot of nashally ranked teams, and
Speaker 1: in the early going lost them all. But after the
Speaker 1: win over Minnesota the other night, Brooklyn Delay talked about
Speaker 1: the fact that that rough schedule early, which of course
Speaker 1: morphed into the SEC run that Kentucky made with eleven
Speaker 1: straight wins twelve Now that resulted in an SEC title.
Speaker 1: Those early lumps are paying off now, Yeah, I.
Speaker 5: Think at the beginning of the year we were just
Speaker 5: trying to get our groove put some new pieces in play,
Speaker 5: and I think throughout the season we have done that
Speaker 5: really well, where other teams may have peaked at the
Speaker 5: wrong times. And I think going into this tournament and
Speaker 5: going into the next final stretch, I think we really
Speaker 5: are just still improving and getting better, where other teams
Speaker 5: already know what they're doing, and I feel like we
Speaker 5: have that edge and no one really can tell what
Speaker 5: we're going to bring out because I feel like we
Speaker 5: have so many different plays that others just don't do,
Speaker 5: and I think it's just going to be really scary
Speaker 5: to play us.
Speaker 1: That's Brooklyn Delay, the SEC Player of the Year, are
Speaker 1: All Conference teammate emmcgrom, the Kentucky setter, had similar thoughts
Speaker 1: about getting beat up and knocked around early, but it's
Speaker 1: paying off now.
Speaker 6: The reason that we play the tough non conference schedule
Speaker 6: is to be prepared this time of year, and we
Speaker 6: might have lost those games, but we learned a lot
Speaker 6: from those games. We learned how to battle, we learned
Speaker 6: what it takes, and now we've just seen our growth
Speaker 6: the whole season. We've just been going up and up,
Speaker 6: and I think we're playing really well right now at
Speaker 6: the time that we need to be and we've got
Speaker 6: that edge that we've been talking about. We've got the greatness.
Speaker 6: So I think we're ready and we're just going to
Speaker 6: have to go in and take some chances.
Speaker 1: Emma Groham sitting next to Brooklyn Delay when she made
Speaker 1: that comment, which is kind of fitting because a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, Emma Grome was the SEC Player of
Speaker 1: the Year and coincidentally the one who won it. Last
Speaker 1: year at Georgia, Sophie Fisher transferred there from Kentucky. So
Speaker 1: you got Emma Grome one year, a former Wildcat the next,
Speaker 1: and in Brooklyn Delay this season and Craig Skinner talked
Speaker 1: about Emma, who became the all time assists leader in
Speaker 1: the Rally scoring era by passing current assistant coach Madison
Speaker 1: Lily Groame needed fifty, she got fifty one, so she's
Speaker 1: the record holder now. Just an incredible mark for somebody
Speaker 1: who's been an All American every season in Kentucky. She'll
Speaker 1: be one again this year. Craig Skinner talked about just
Speaker 1: looking at a five to nine kid and decided this
Speaker 1: is the one who's going to get the keys to
Speaker 1: the Cadillac.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I mean they were recruiting, we saw something in em
Speaker 7: and I think that some people didn't see, and you
Speaker 7: saw a passion and love for the game that very
Speaker 7: few people have. But the joy and the passion and
Speaker 7: the work ethic that she has is different because every
Speaker 7: single day, you know she's gonna play hard.
Speaker 3: You know that she's gonna try and get better.
Speaker 7: She's got an edge to her that you know allows
Speaker 7: her to compete under pressure. And you know, I think
Speaker 7: this year you saw a growth in her to see
Speaker 7: the value and everybody on her team. And and so
Speaker 7: when you have that and the player that continually wants
Speaker 7: to be better, it motivates others around you to be better.
Speaker 7: So you know, certainly proud of her growth, and you
Speaker 7: know the best is yet to come.
Speaker 1: And if indeed that is the case, that's good news
Speaker 1: for the Wildcats and their fans because next up to Missouri,
Speaker 1: a tough team, hard to beat, a team, as you know,
Speaker 1: more than a couple of times in one year. But
Speaker 1: that's going to happen at one o'clock. It's going to
Speaker 1: be on ESPN two Thursday afternoon, and the winner most
Speaker 1: likely will get Pittsburgh, which is not just the number
Speaker 1: one seed in the region, but the number one seed
Speaker 1: in the entire tournament. Before we go to break, a
Speaker 1: Happy birthday to my buddy Cameron Mills, part of our
Speaker 1: crew on the UK Radio Network coverage of Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 1: You know him from this shot for the time.
Speaker 8: Sit down, Mills goodly. They've been waiting on it.
Speaker 7: That's his first basket of the tournament, Cameron Mills.
Speaker 1: And of course that's the TV call because we're not
Speaker 1: allowed to use the radio call. Westwood One owns those rights,
Speaker 1: so we have jim Nanton Billy Packer calling that place.
Speaker 1: So Happy birthday to my buddy Cameron Mills, who always
Speaker 1: reminds people it was Scott Paget's three pointer that put
Speaker 1: Kentucky ahead to stay. But that is the shot heard
Speaker 1: round the Bluegrass and you've seen the picture in the
Speaker 1: video dozens of times. Coming up next Jimmy Dike's ESPN analysts.
Speaker 1: He called Kentucky gun Zaga. Next on the Big Boon
Speaker 1: Cider six thirty w l A p Welcome back joining
Speaker 1: us on our celebrity Hoighline is a longtime friend of
Speaker 1: the show and a guy I really enjoy his work.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Dike's color analyst. He worked Kentucky and Gonzaga for ESPN.
Speaker 1: He and John Shambi, Uh Saturday night and Jimmy, I
Speaker 1: know that was a long trip out there for you guys.
Speaker 1: You were rewarded with one heck of a game, weren't you.
Speaker 9: Goy He's one of the one of the great games
Speaker 9: so far this year. And uh, you know, anytime you
Speaker 9: get a chance to do a game between two of
Speaker 9: the great national brands out there, obviously Kentucky, but don
Speaker 9: Zaga is also you know, one of the one of
Speaker 9: the strongest brands in the college game right now, you
Speaker 9: jump on the chance. And did delivered And it didn't.
Speaker 9: It did not look like at halftime it was going
Speaker 9: to deliver it because our producers, I mean the halftime,
Speaker 9: ourdu literally asked me to me, what do you see
Speaker 9: anything changing this game? I said, no, oh, like, I
Speaker 9: didn't see any I saw nothing in the first half.
Speaker 9: That said, Kentucky has an answer for this, but uh man,
Speaker 9: they did, and man, what a what a great game
Speaker 9: to watch. I'm sure from the second half through that overtime.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, before we break it down a little bit,
Speaker 1: just quickly give me I don't know that we've talked
Speaker 1: in a while, and I'm just curious about your reaction,
Speaker 1: and I follow you on Twitter, of course, But when
Speaker 1: Kentucky hired Pope, when all this happened and he had
Speaker 1: to cobble together a team like a jigsaw puzzle, Well,
Speaker 1: what was your reaction? Because I always talk about the
Speaker 1: fact that you know, of all the analysts out there,
Speaker 1: of course you know Kentucky better than anybody because you've
Speaker 1: lived it and you appreciate the tradition and all. But
Speaker 1: what was your what was your response when all this
Speaker 1: happened here in Lexington.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well, you know, because you guys are very aware
Speaker 9: of the names that were thrown around, and a kind
Speaker 9: of out out of left field comes Mark Popees and
Speaker 9: next of you're like, hump, that's an interest seen higher.
Speaker 9: But then as the twenty four hour period went by,
Speaker 9: and I kind of dug into to what he's done
Speaker 9: and started listening to all the things that he understood
Speaker 9: about Kentucky basketball and like big Blue Nation. And within
Speaker 9: twenty four hours, that's think flip man, how they went
Speaker 9: from this is not a great hire to we hired
Speaker 9: the guy that's going to put us back on the
Speaker 9: map and then so far, so good. They they have
Speaker 9: they've been right, and you know he was. He's exactly
Speaker 9: what Kentucky needed right now. The guy that comes in
Speaker 9: and and completely gets the value that Kentucky Jersey, the ure,
Speaker 9: that team's the state, the expectations. He hasn't ran from it.
Speaker 9: He knows the pressure. But there's it's a it's a
Speaker 9: perfect fit, you know, for a for a Kentucky program
Speaker 9: that is desperate to get back to being who Kentucky
Speaker 9: basketball is supposed to be. And so far they have
Speaker 9: this year.
Speaker 1: What do you think of what he runs and how
Speaker 1: his team runs it?
Speaker 9: Well, they have a great belief in their system, which
Speaker 9: is a great starting point. You know, they understand exactly
Speaker 9: how they're supposed to play. If you're gonna shoot thirty
Speaker 9: or more three point shots the game, then you have
Speaker 9: to make ten or eleven the game to make it
Speaker 9: pay off. And they have not shot the ball well
Speaker 9: over the last three games. Now. They they delivered in
Speaker 9: the second half against Gonzaga, but more importantly, that offense
Speaker 9: got things done on the inside. And I talked about
Speaker 9: it during the game. You don't jump shoot your way
Speaker 9: back from sixteen downing. It's the top ten team basically
Speaker 9: on their floor right and Mark started calling play. Then
Speaker 9: he went heavily with Andrew Carr and then when Chris
Speaker 9: went out, it kind of worked out for their benefit
Speaker 9: because Kentucky became bigger on both ends of the floor,
Speaker 9: and now the matchup problem that was really something for
Speaker 9: Gonzaga to have to work to on both ends. And
Speaker 9: you know, Mark does what a great coach does. You've
Speaker 9: got to find a way to change the game. And
Speaker 9: he changed the game with that one three one zone
Speaker 9: that it really just it was a one three one
Speaker 9: to start with, but after the first pass or once
Speaker 9: the ball got blowed the free throw line then went Manda. Man,
Speaker 9: but it's completely through Gonzaga off of their rhythm and
Speaker 9: change the game.
Speaker 1: I felt like in the first half, Jimmy Gonzaga was
Speaker 1: more aggressive, more physical, kind of played Kentucky out of
Speaker 1: his shoes a little bit. Did it seem that.
Speaker 9: Way to you, no doubt, Man, that was the you know,
Speaker 9: that was the blueprint watching the Clemson films. Yeah, from
Speaker 9: Bike from Gonzaga's standpoint was We're just gonna be physical
Speaker 9: these guys and blow up all that dribble hand off
Speaker 9: and make sure We're out on shooters and bumping them
Speaker 9: and it worked. It worked to a sixteen point lead,
Speaker 9: and Gonzagua was doing anything they wanted, especially off that
Speaker 9: ball screen action with nem Hart and the Grahamy k.
Speaker 9: Kentucky had no answer for it. But man, the things
Speaker 9: changed within that first two minutes of this of the
Speaker 9: second half. And because Gonzaga is really good, I mean,
Speaker 9: they're ranked inside the twelve and this week's ap pole.
Speaker 9: I mentioned that during the game, But this week's ap pole,
Speaker 9: your national champion is somewhere within that top twelve. It's
Speaker 9: been that way for twenty straight years. And it's not
Speaker 9: a guarantee but about as close to a guarantee as
Speaker 9: we have in the college game predicting a national champion.
Speaker 9: And thankfully for Kentucky fans and gonzagab both they're both
Speaker 9: inside that top twelve this week in college basketball.
Speaker 1: You talked about it on the air, you mentioned it
Speaker 1: a minute ago. But Mark Pope started calling plays and
Speaker 1: changed the game a little bit. Obviously going to Andrew Carr,
Speaker 1: and he tried to get a little bit done in
Speaker 1: the first half, but I felt like he just kind of,
Speaker 1: as the expression goes boat his neck. He just went
Speaker 1: to work, didn't he in the second half?
Speaker 9: Yeah, and yeah, he had the game. That's kind of
Speaker 9: hard to it's it's kind of hard to defend. He's
Speaker 9: I'm not going to say that it's an awkward game,
Speaker 9: but he's so big, strong, physical, you know, you can
Speaker 9: move him around different spots on the floor. And you're right.
Speaker 9: I think he was the first one early in that
Speaker 9: second half that kind of drew a line and said
Speaker 9: no more. Yeah, and if we go down, we're at
Speaker 9: least going to go down with pride and fight and
Speaker 9: be the aggressor. And it went from him to Jackson
Speaker 9: Robinson and he had to move to the point and
Speaker 9: everything clicked. So, I mean, that was a really I mean,
Speaker 9: it's hard to say like which win really establishes a
Speaker 9: head coach with a program, but that might be the
Speaker 9: one when you look back on his hopefully long career
Speaker 9: as the head coach of Kentucky that it kind of
Speaker 9: solidified we got the right guy.
Speaker 1: I tell you what you mentioned, point guard. I was
Speaker 1: listening to the pregame show and heard Tom Leech talking
Speaker 1: with Mark Pope. When Pope anounced Nola mont Butler, I
Speaker 1: just kind of dropped my shoulder. I said, well, there
Speaker 1: goes that game because I didn't see honestly anyway, Kentucky
Speaker 1: with Numhart are so good. How are you going to
Speaker 1: disrupt Gonzaga add all and then get into your offense
Speaker 1: with that Butler? At what point did you guys find
Speaker 1: out on TV side that Butler wasn't going to play?
Speaker 9: Yeah, we pretty much knew it to shoot around, you know,
Speaker 9: we're yeah, we're privy to obviously a lot of information,
Speaker 9: and they trust us, and we're not going to say
Speaker 9: a word that's not that's We're not into breaking news
Speaker 9: like that. But I was like you at halftime, I
Speaker 9: was like, well, that's that's kind of what we thought.
Speaker 9: We don't have a little Butler the best defensive point
Speaker 9: guard out there and them Hart's doing whatever he wants.
Speaker 9: But it's funny how you kind of fall into things
Speaker 9: sometimes as a coach or a team. When when Kirk
Speaker 9: Crisa went out and he was forced to put Jackson
Speaker 9: Robinson up up top as a primary ball handler, Kentucky
Speaker 9: got really big on both ends of the floor. They
Speaker 9: had matchup problems working to their advantage, and they just
Speaker 9: kind of fell into it. I don't think Mark will
Speaker 9: play a heavy lot of minutes going forward with that lineup,
Speaker 9: but it sure is good to know that, man, if
Speaker 9: we get if we get in that pinch, we have
Speaker 9: a bigger lineup we can play. And it worked really well.
Speaker 1: You know, when Kentucky fans were studying this new roster
Speaker 1: and they were so relieved, frankly, when Jackson Robinson wasn't
Speaker 1: a real shock tested the waters. But I think they
Speaker 1: may have expected and this is for lack of a
Speaker 1: better term, you can help me with this, but I
Speaker 1: think maybe they were looking for a flashier game man,
Speaker 1: maybe from a guy who you know might be NBA ready.
Speaker 1: That's not his style. But I think what we saw
Speaker 1: against a Gonzaga is what I mean. That was him
Speaker 1: at his best, wasn't it.
Speaker 9: Well, the second half was the best he's played in
Speaker 9: the Kentucky jersey. You know, he did not start at BYU.
Speaker 9: He was the sixth Man of the Year and led
Speaker 9: BYU in scoring. He's not just a guaranteed next level
Speaker 9: NBA guy, but he showed signs in that second half
Speaker 9: that he can handle the ball, he can make some
Speaker 9: tough shots. Obviously, Kentucky needs him to continue to shoot
Speaker 9: better from the three point line like the team does overall.
Speaker 9: But I think it's a cool story that once he
Speaker 9: withdrew his name, there was no question where he was going.
Speaker 9: And he told us before the game that Cody Feger,
Speaker 9: this thin coach, and Mark Cope changed his life. And
Speaker 9: you like guys like that that that will just believe
Speaker 9: in the head coach. The head coach has great belief
Speaker 9: in him, and Uh, it was it was a really
Speaker 9: good coming out party for him in the Kentucky jersey
Speaker 9: in that second half.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Dikes have ESPN is my guest. He wore Kentucky
Speaker 1: Gonzaga last Saturday night. More with a coach when we
Speaker 1: come back. You're on six thirty w l a P.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Jimmy Diyke's basketball analysts for ESPN. He
Speaker 1: has written the film Doesn't Lie and hosts the Coach
Speaker 1: Me Up podcast. And of course Jimmy, Uh, just a
Speaker 1: few years ago an assistant coach at Kentucky. Wow. I
Speaker 1: hate to think about how many years we go back there, but.
Speaker 3: A few.
Speaker 1: But Uh, I know and you you you've done some
Speaker 1: coaching since then, but you're enjoying what you're doing.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 1: For ESPN, how far ahead do you have your schedule?
Speaker 1: Do you have Kentucky coming up at all?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 9: Yeah, so I have him. I think my next time
Speaker 9: I have him is in early in conference play when
Speaker 9: Texas A and M comes to RUT And that's about
Speaker 9: as far as my schedule goes out. I think that's
Speaker 9: like it makes the tenth of the fourteenth of January
Speaker 9: somewhere in there we send it. We team tend to
Speaker 9: get about a month out, you know, just based upon
Speaker 9: the matchups and how teams are playing where they want
Speaker 9: us to go. So but I'll certainly be following Kentucky.
Speaker 9: It's you know, it was a great two years of
Speaker 9: my life there and there's nothing like Kentucky basketball and
Speaker 9: Big Blue Nation and the passion that they have. And
Speaker 9: you know, there's a there's a small percentage of Kentucky
Speaker 9: fans that get after all of us on Twitter sometimes,
Speaker 9: but that doesn't represent to the true Kentucky fans are.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 9: They they love their team, but I think they appreciate
Speaker 9: honest analysis on their games. They want to be told
Speaker 9: the truth and I try to do that and call
Speaker 9: the game down the middle. When Kentucky's good I'm the
Speaker 9: first one to say they're good when they think I'm
Speaker 9: the first one to say they stink. And but when
Speaker 9: people ask me when I'm traveling, where's your favorite place
Speaker 9: to go to a basketball game? I say Kentucky just
Speaker 9: because of all the dynamics of rupp Arena and the
Speaker 9: fan base and always sold out, and you know it's
Speaker 9: the big game. When you're doing Kentucky on national TV.
Speaker 1: Well, you made reference to the Kentucky fans in Seattle.
Speaker 1: I mean, I say, Blue gets in and when Kentucky
Speaker 1: was doing well, you know your director was picking up
Speaker 1: shots of the UK fans. I know that didn't surprise
Speaker 1: you at all, did it?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 9: I said, Kentucky can play in Russia and let's go.
Speaker 9: Let's go. Blue chants gonna break out at some point.
Speaker 9: That's just that's who they are.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 9: It was a great atmosphere. I mean, a lot of
Speaker 9: times you watch games, they say, hey, it feels like
Speaker 9: an Elite eight. No, not really, that one did, because
Speaker 9: it wasn't fifty to fifty. But there's a lot of
Speaker 9: Kentucky fans in there. Obviously a huge amount of Gonzaga fans.
Speaker 9: Both were loud at the time that they you know,
Speaker 9: had the momentum going. But you just saw, like I said,
Speaker 9: two teams that are legitimately Final four contenders going at
Speaker 9: it in early December, and it's great to be a
Speaker 9: part of that game.
Speaker 1: Well, getting back to that second half and you you
Speaker 1: touched on this, and you guys talked about it of
Speaker 1: course on the air, and Jack Gibbons was delighted to
Speaker 1: see the one three one because job hall uh snuck
Speaker 1: that in every now and then. Of course with Jay
Speaker 1: Scheidler running the baseline, it was such a great athlete.
Speaker 1: But uh, did you have any idea that that one
Speaker 1: three to one was coming? Did you see it and
Speaker 1: shoot around? Because I have to admit, I don't get
Speaker 1: to go to practice much. I've been to a few,
Speaker 1: but I've not seen them work on that.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't.
Speaker 9: I did not see it and shoot around in the
Speaker 9: four or five practices i've actual practices I've seen in
Speaker 9: the Kentucky this year, I haven't seen it. But you
Speaker 9: got to do something to change the game. And at
Speaker 9: times it was at times to confuse Gunzaga. In times,
Speaker 9: Kentucky was confused a little bit running it like who's
Speaker 9: gonna be where and they let the guy wide open
Speaker 9: in the corner on one miss assignment. But that's okay,
Speaker 9: that's the beauty of the game. And for your guys
Speaker 9: to believe in something when you at halftime say okay,
Speaker 9: this is what we're gonna do defensively, and they go
Speaker 9: out and execute up believing it. And that's that's all
Speaker 9: you can ask if you're a fan of Kentucky basketball,
Speaker 9: is how much do they believe in their head coach?
Speaker 9: And I got to think to a man that they
Speaker 9: think that Mark Pope is the greatest coach right now
Speaker 9: in college ball. And that's exactly what you want, right Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's interesting people. I think I've talked
Speaker 1: to some folks who it seemed like they had this
Speaker 1: impression of Marcus this neophy, you know, this this kind
Speaker 1: of a newbie head coach. He's new to the UK job,
Speaker 1: of course, but he has a solid resume. I mean,
Speaker 1: what he did at Utah Valley State, what he did
Speaker 1: at bring him young, both programs overachieved. And so it's
Speaker 1: not like in terms of just his basketball acumen, it's
Speaker 1: not like he came in here all wide eyed, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
Speaker 9: No, doubt. I mean, I just I'm just reflecting back
Speaker 9: in the first half that comes back what was going away.
Speaker 9: He didn't look any different than the first half, and
Speaker 9: he did the second half when it was going his way.
Speaker 9: He just has a calmness and a belief and a
Speaker 9: confidence about who he is and how he coached and
Speaker 9: how he sees the game. And you know, he took
Speaker 9: his BYU team into ball Gallon Fieldhouse last year Kansas
Speaker 9: in the one Great Canas wasn't a great Kansas team,
Speaker 9: but not very many people go in there and get
Speaker 9: a win. No, he would never phase at Gonzaga and
Speaker 9: he will not be phased this year. And you know,
Speaker 9: Kentucky's coming off of a two game road swing that's
Speaker 9: going to be exactly what they're gonna face in the
Speaker 9: SEC high high level games. Competitive, physical, loud crowd. And
Speaker 9: this week was the best. This past week is the
Speaker 9: best thing Kentucky could do for himself. Go play at
Speaker 9: Clemson and basically at Gonzaga, and now you know, going
Speaker 9: into SEC play, Hey, we've been down this road before.
Speaker 9: We know how to handle it well.
Speaker 1: And I think you mentioned that during the first half
Speaker 1: what happened at Clemson. You know with that atmosphere down
Speaker 1: there here, Kentucky's coming to town. You've been a part
Speaker 1: of that as a member of the coaching staff. It's
Speaker 1: like the circus arrives and Clemson just hauled off and
Speaker 1: punched him in the mouth. And and that paid off,
Speaker 1: didn't it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, no doubt. And yet you've got to be knocked
Speaker 9: around a little bit to understand how to play through
Speaker 9: it right. Because Gonzaga had the same game plan. They're
Speaker 9: not as physical as Clemson. They tried to be, but
Speaker 9: they're not. And I think that's a big part of
Speaker 9: why Kentucky said, you know, we've seen this before. We
Speaker 9: can handle this unless they got rolling. Many they got rolling.
Speaker 9: They they played a great second half and Jackson Robinson
Speaker 9: had a ton of confidence when Mark puts the ball
Speaker 9: in his hands and everybody's kind of fed off of it.
Speaker 9: So now they got I don't think I think they're off.
Speaker 9: All we can tell to play Louisville on Saturday, and
Speaker 9: I don't have to say anything about that game. It
Speaker 9: doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: Louisville is not.
Speaker 9: Louisville is not what they're going to be under Pat Kelsey.
Speaker 9: I think he's going to be a great fit for
Speaker 9: that program. I was with him in Atlantis during Thanksgiving week.
Speaker 9: Kentucky will be heavily favored. But man, you take nothing
Speaker 9: for granted in that game. And Mark Cope, he understands
Speaker 9: that game better than anybody else out there. So Kentucky
Speaker 9: should be fine in terms of are we read.
Speaker 1: They've actually got Colgate on Wednesday night? But come on, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know they can work some things out there.
Speaker 1: With all due respect. A couple of minutes left with
Speaker 1: Jimmy Didyke's of ESPN worked at Kentucky again Zaga game.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been talking about Mark Pope, the head coach,
Speaker 1: and he has talked about the fact that he changed
Speaker 1: his tone as a coach. He went from being you know,
Speaker 1: the kind of war you down kind of guy. There's
Speaker 1: no way he's going to be another Rick Patino, but
Speaker 1: he went to the more of the uplifting, positive style.
Speaker 1: And Jack Gibbons in the postgame interview talked to one
Speaker 1: of the players about the fact that Jack and they
Speaker 1: sat opposite from you guys, they were on the on
Speaker 1: the bench side. He could hear Mark even when they
Speaker 1: were down, Pope keep yelling we're okay. We're okay. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you if you could hear any of that.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of rare, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 9: It is, But I mean that's who Mark is at
Speaker 9: his core. He sits to this positive energy, stable, competent
Speaker 9: guy and who he is and as a dad, as
Speaker 9: a husband, as a coach, and I think he realized
Speaker 9: about ten years ago that trying to be maybe something
Speaker 9: that he's not wasn't working, and then his players were
Speaker 9: playing out of fear and trying to please him and
Speaker 9: not for the right reasons. And now he's, uh, you know,
Speaker 9: he's changed. He's he will still get on him some
Speaker 9: I've seen him do that, but he does it with
Speaker 9: that tenderness and a tone that that you have to
Speaker 9: have in that balance between toughness and tenderness. So, uh man,
Speaker 9: it's it's all good right now with that put your
Speaker 9: basketball program and uh miss Barnhardt knocked it out of
Speaker 9: the park with his hires.
Speaker 1: Are there gonna be some tough times?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 1: That SEC coming up Tennessee is awfully good. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've seen them yet, but uh, I mean
Speaker 1: this this league has gotten so competitive. Jimmy and the money.
Speaker 1: Now they're spending up facilities, coaches, staffs, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: It's finally what the SEC thought it was for quite
Speaker 1: a while. But now, uh, it's a grind, especially with
Speaker 1: Texas and Oklahoma joining.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I was, I was the lone soldier there for
Speaker 9: a while.
Speaker 3: Last year.
Speaker 9: I kept saying the SEC is the best conference in
Speaker 9: college basketball. I got a lot of pushbacks and I but,
Speaker 9: but but I stood firm because I knew what I
Speaker 9: saw and I knew what was coming. And it is
Speaker 9: clearly this year, through the first week of December, the
Speaker 9: most dominant league in college basketball, and maybe historically one
Speaker 9: of the most dominant league. Now they have to finish
Speaker 9: out non conference like they've done. But when Joelnarredi who's
Speaker 9: pretty good at his job, project twelve teams the SEC
Speaker 9: for the NCAA Tournament, that that would that would be
Speaker 9: a history, that would be a historical.
Speaker 3: Year for this league.
Speaker 9: So if you're Kentucky, you know you're going to get
Speaker 9: knocked around some and SEC play. That's that's that's just
Speaker 9: part of it. Yeah, I don't know, Dick, if the
Speaker 9: SC champ SEC champion is going to have four or
Speaker 9: five six classes. I don't know, but it's not to speak.
Speaker 9: It's not going to be a tour of lost champion.
Speaker 9: This year the league two good, yeah.
Speaker 1: Because I mean Alabama and Auburn are out there. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be fun. I remember one year Kentucky ander Joe
Speaker 1: b had five won the conference with five losses, but
Speaker 1: the depth wasn't there the way it is now. So
Speaker 1: tell everybody where they can see you on Saturday.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm next. My next team is at the former
Speaker 9: number one team, Kansas. They lost two in a row,
Speaker 9: which has announced your life seriously, like you're number one
Speaker 9: and then you go lose two in a row. But
Speaker 9: still Paul Gallon is one of the great great places
Speaker 9: do college basketball. And they take on inc State, who
Speaker 9: got hot last year made it to the Final Four,
Speaker 9: and then actually stayed the next day and do the
Speaker 9: women's game Kansas versus Penn State. So yeah, two games
Speaker 9: in two days and then come home. I think after that,
Speaker 9: because it's finals week for a lot of teams, I'm
Speaker 9: off again until the next Saturday with Wake Forest at Clemson.
Speaker 9: I go right back to Clemson, who I think is
Speaker 9: really really good. That's not a damaging loss to Kentucky's
Speaker 9: resume a Clemson, they could end up being in the
Speaker 9: top two or three in the ACC. So good team,
Speaker 9: I know.
Speaker 1: Well, enjoy the rest. We'll be watching for you. I
Speaker 1: enjoy your Christmas holiday as well. Jimmy Dikes. Follow him
Speaker 1: on Twitter at coach Jimmy Dikes or listen to him
Speaker 1: as well on the Coach podcast. Coach always a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time, looking forward to seeing you.
Speaker 9: S Yeah, Merry Christmas to you, and I think we
Speaker 9: make to thank for ham me on.
Speaker 1: I'll say it again. Of all the college basketball analysts
Speaker 1: working today, Jimmy Dikes has the most insight into the
Speaker 1: UK basketball. Some of you out there don't like him.
Speaker 1: I don't know why, because he knows and respects his program.
Speaker 1: I believe more than any other analyst out there, because
Speaker 1: he worked here and lived here for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: So all right, every number two is coming up with
Speaker 1: my conversation with Tim Koutch from a little while back.
Speaker 1: He's going into the College Football Hall of Fame tonight,
Speaker 1: and David Sist from Cat's Illustrated part of the Rivals Network.
Speaker 1: We'll get his thoughts on UK again, Zaga and what's
Speaker 1: ahead for the Wildcats. That's next on the Big Blue
Speaker 1: Sider six thirty WLA. Welcome back to the Big One Cider. Tonight,
Speaker 1: Tim Couch, Kentucky's own, will be inducted into the College
Speaker 1: Football Hall of Fame out in Las Vegas. The announcement
Speaker 1: came back in January, and then Tim was recognized at
Speaker 1: a UK football game back in the fall. That's when
Speaker 1: I talked to the UK Hall of Famer about to
Speaker 1: go into the College Football Hall of Fame. Here's part
Speaker 1: of my conversation with Tim Couch.
Speaker 10: I'm super excited, Dick. I mean, you know, it's a
Speaker 10: tremendous honor, very humbled by, you know, being recognized in
Speaker 10: this year's twenty twenty four Hall of Fame class, going
Speaker 10: in with a great group of guys, and you know,
Speaker 10: just very thankful for my time at Kentucky and for
Speaker 10: the coaches and teammates that I had an opportunity to
Speaker 10: play with, and you know, just just a great thanks
Speaker 10: felling the place for me, you know, with coach Mommy
Speaker 10: coming in and putting in the air raid offense, and
Speaker 10: you know, very it suited my skill set perfectly and
Speaker 10: was able to have a great run by my time
Speaker 10: at Kentucky.
Speaker 3: So I'm very, very thankful and grateful for it.
Speaker 1: You were talking last night briefly on the show with
Speaker 1: Mark Stoops and Tom Leech, and I could tell what
Speaker 1: you really wanted to say is you would love to
Speaker 1: take all your teammates in there with you, wouldn't you?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely?
Speaker 10: You know, you know this is you know, we played
Speaker 10: the ultimate team sport, and you know, so to get
Speaker 10: an individual recognition is you know, just something that I'm
Speaker 10: kind of kind of uncomfortable with, to be honest, because
Speaker 10: there were so many people that helped me get there,
Speaker 10: and you know, I wish I could take all those
Speaker 10: guys with me, and I certainly, you know, when I'm
Speaker 10: on that stage, I'll be thinking about my teammates and
Speaker 10: and very appreciative of you know, having them, you know,
Speaker 10: to play with in my time at Kentucky, and you know,
Speaker 10: hopefully they feel part of this as well.
Speaker 1: You know, what was part of how Mummy's genius with
Speaker 1: the passing game, and obviously he had the right man
Speaker 1: pulling the trigger, but you also had the right guys
Speaker 1: catching the footballs and Craig Yeast and Anthony White and
Speaker 1: Michelson and all these guys. You guys made it look
Speaker 1: so easy on offense. Why is that with the air
Speaker 1: Raid when it's run right, you can't have a bunch
Speaker 1: of rum dumbs out there. But when when you've got
Speaker 1: the right people running it, why does it look so simple?
Speaker 10: You know, I think the offense in itself is very simple.
Speaker 10: You know, the concepts are simple. It's it's not a
Speaker 10: very complicated system to learn. It doesn't take very long
Speaker 10: to install. But like you said, Nick, it's you know,
Speaker 10: you can have the greatest, you know, scheme in the world,
Speaker 10: but if you don't have a quarterback who's who's accurate
Speaker 10: with the football, make quick decisions. You know, can can
Speaker 10: get your process information quickly. And then you have receivers
Speaker 10: who were great with run after the catch, you know,
Speaker 10: because a lot of the air Raid is the short
Speaker 10: intermediate passing game. So you're relying on those guys to
Speaker 10: break tackles, the quarterback to be accurate, to put the
Speaker 10: ball in a spot where receivers can catch and run.
Speaker 10: And you know, so we had all those guys, like
Speaker 10: you said, we had Craig East, who was you know,
Speaker 10: one of the best receivers in the history of the
Speaker 10: sec you know, Lance Michelson, Quinn mccoor, James Whalen, Jimmy Robinson,
Speaker 10: you know, so many guys, Kevin Coleman. You know, obviously
Speaker 10: Anthony White was unbelievable out of the backfield. It's uh,
Speaker 10: we we just had a perfect, perfect set of guys
Speaker 10: for to run that scheme.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 10: It was just a match making heaven with with coach
Speaker 10: Mommy coming in and the guys we had there on campus.
Speaker 1: Okay, I've got you on the phone, so I got
Speaker 1: to ask you is because I have Anthony White on
Speaker 1: He's on every Sunday morning. But I always bring up
Speaker 1: the fact that his nickname was aunt b and you
Speaker 1: hung that on him. Why did you call him?
Speaker 10: Uh, you know, I can't remember exactly. It seems it
Speaker 10: seems like somebody in practice said that, you know, we
Speaker 10: called him aunt and then somebody said aunt be Ballad
Speaker 10: or something, because you know, they couldn't stop him. You know,
Speaker 10: he was uh he was, you know, running for one
Speaker 10: hundred catching for one hundred some games, and he was
Speaker 10: just he was just a you know, all around kind
Speaker 10: of guy. So we just started calling him aunt bee
Speaker 10: her short, and it just kind of stuck but what
Speaker 10: what what a commnual football player?
Speaker 3: He will.
Speaker 1: Oh, now that helps me because I had the mental
Speaker 1: image of ant B from Andy Griffith. Now it's a
Speaker 1: short for Anthony. Okay, that helps me so much. But
Speaker 1: I also bring up the fact tim and you may
Speaker 1: embarrass him a little. I don't think it does that.
Speaker 1: When he left UK he was a top five all
Speaker 1: time combo back, wasn't he. I mean he was a
Speaker 1: perfect guy for that offense.
Speaker 3: He really was.
Speaker 10: I mean, if you're going to run that type of system,
Speaker 10: you know you need a running back. You know, Anthony
Speaker 10: had wide receiver skills. You know, he could have been
Speaker 10: a wide receiver, but he also had great running back
Speaker 10: skills as well. And he could and he could block.
Speaker 10: You know, he could pick up flitzes. You know, he
Speaker 10: was unbelievable catching the ball out of the backfield. You know,
Speaker 10: third and third and medium, third and short. When we
Speaker 10: were in a passing game and I saw man coverage,
Speaker 10: you know, it was either you know, Craig one on
Speaker 10: one on the outside. If Craig didn't win, I was
Speaker 10: coming underneath to to Anthony because I knew he was
Speaker 10: going to be matched up with a linebacker. Or potentially
Speaker 10: a safety maybe, and he was going to win that
Speaker 10: match up every time. You know, with the option routes
Speaker 10: and the angle routes we were running, uh, some of
Speaker 10: those things. He was just literally a perfect fit for
Speaker 10: this game.
Speaker 1: Yep. And you mentioned Craig and his speed, and of
Speaker 1: course he not only caught passes but return kicks in
Speaker 1: the NFL. But people, somebody said this to me the
Speaker 1: other day, you know, Tim Kasch didn't throw deep Berry
Speaker 1: off and I said, yeah, because they dropped two safeties
Speaker 1: back because they knew Yeast could.
Speaker 8: Kill it back there.
Speaker 1: But Craig could still, as you said, catch and run.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was just the greatest.
Speaker 3: He was. He was, you know, in my opinion.
Speaker 10: I know there's been a lot of great players at Kentucky,
Speaker 10: and no disrespect to any of those other guys, but
Speaker 10: obviously I'm biased to Craig. I think he's the best
Speaker 10: receiver ever played at Kentucky. You know, he was just
Speaker 10: the guy was incredible, man. And you know, like you said, teams,
Speaker 10: that was how they tried to defend us with keeping
Speaker 10: two safeties back because they couldn't leave one on one
Speaker 10: on the outside with Craig and when they did, that's
Speaker 10: when we took our deep shots. And but you know,
Speaker 10: as much as we were throwing the ball as kind
Speaker 10: of a ball controlled passing attack, So a lot of
Speaker 10: those screens and things, we considered those runs, to be
Speaker 10: honest with, you know, those were just tall sweeps us
Speaker 10: get on the outside, you know, get the ball in
Speaker 10: Craig EA's hand in space, or you know, throw a
Speaker 10: screen to Anthony or something like that. Those were extension
Speaker 10: of the run game for us. And if teams wanted
Speaker 10: to sit back and play cover two, cover four, and
Speaker 10: we just had to kind of you know, take our
Speaker 10: you know, you picking choes underneath and just take what
Speaker 10: the defense is given us.
Speaker 1: You're one of three quarterbacks going in with the class
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four. It also includes Alex Smith, who
Speaker 1: helped you talk to the top of the polls, and
Speaker 1: Urban Meyer, and I was really pleased to see as well,
Speaker 1: the kid from Appalachian State going in. Gosh, Harmani Edwards. Right,
Speaker 1: when you get together with guys like that, do they
Speaker 1: ask do you guys talk about the systems you're in.
Speaker 1: Do they ask you what it was like to run
Speaker 1: the air raid?
Speaker 10: Yeah, we always talk about you know, schemes that we
Speaker 10: were involved in, players we played with, you know, things
Speaker 10: like that, and you.
Speaker 3: Know, it's it's a great class.
Speaker 10: Like you said, we've got Randy Moss going in, Larry Fitzgerald,
Speaker 10: Warwick Dunn, Julius Peppers who just went into the NFL
Speaker 10: Hall of Fame as well, So it's a very strong
Speaker 10: class loop. You know, it's just you know, list goes
Speaker 10: on and on, and you know, we just just you know,
Speaker 10: we got to take a look at that list. It's
Speaker 10: very humbling to go in with those guys. And you know,
Speaker 10: I think Paul sent me some information on the Hall,
Speaker 10: and I think they said there's been something like five
Speaker 10: point five million people play college football and there's a
Speaker 10: little over a thousand guys that have been selected to
Speaker 10: the Hall of Fame. So obviously a very selective group
Speaker 10: of guys. And you know, completely honored to be going in.
Speaker 1: Talking to Tim Kuch of course, UK Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: quarterback and now the College Football Hall of Fame going
Speaker 1: to be honored at the game on Saturday. But yeah,
Speaker 1: what a class. And I love seeing Danny Woodhead. It
Speaker 1: was a running back at Chaddin State, you know, a
Speaker 1: small college player, but man, what a great player. And
Speaker 1: then it kind of makes me feel a little bit
Speaker 1: old because I grew up watching the Nebraska Oklahoma series
Speaker 1: and Dewey Selman part of the Salmon family going in
Speaker 1: he played at Oklahoma back in the early seventies. The
Speaker 1: game has changed so much, though, Tim, through the years,
Speaker 1: and now it's much more about offense, isn't it.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's changed, you know, so much. You know, I think,
Speaker 10: you know, when I was coming into the SEC, the
Speaker 10: SEC was really, you know, very much a running conference.
Speaker 10: You know, it was known for having great running backs.
Speaker 10: Really the only team at that time that was kind
Speaker 10: of throwing the ball quite a bit was Coach Spurrier
Speaker 10: down down in Florida. And then you know, Coach Mummy
Speaker 10: and Leach came in and just completely you know, kind
Speaker 10: of revolutionized the game.
Speaker 3: And you know, you know, I was doing.
Speaker 10: Broadcasting for several years after I was done playing, and
Speaker 10: it was it was always amazing to me to go
Speaker 10: to all these campuses and meet with these coaches that
Speaker 10: had different spots, and how all of them, you know,
Speaker 10: would come to me and say, hey, we we came
Speaker 10: to Kentucky in ninety seven or ninety eight and saw
Speaker 10: what you guys are doing, and we're still running a
Speaker 10: version of that even today, you know, twenty years later.
Speaker 10: So you know, it was pretty cool to be on
Speaker 10: the ground floor that thing, the air raid, and to
Speaker 10: make it popular and to see that it's still very
Speaker 10: prevalent across the country today.
Speaker 1: You didn't get to spend as much time, I know,
Speaker 1: as you like with Mike Leach because he just went
Speaker 1: on to great and greater things in college football, helped
Speaker 1: Oklahoma win the national Thailand and then made a name
Speaker 1: for himself. But what was it like, Tim? I mean,
Speaker 1: he was such a free spirit and a unique kind
Speaker 1: of guy, wasn't he.
Speaker 10: Yeah, he was, you know, the most unique coach I think.
Speaker 3: I ever played for. And he was Mike was one of.
Speaker 10: Those guys that you know, you go in his office
Speaker 10: and talk to him, and you know, he would talk
Speaker 10: to you about anything except football. You know, he wanted
Speaker 10: to talk about pirates and and you know, wars and
Speaker 10: every in history and all this kind of stuff. And
Speaker 10: he was just a very different, very different guy. But
Speaker 10: he was also extremely intelligent. He was ahead of his
Speaker 10: time as far as the passing game goes, and he
Speaker 10: had a very clear vision for what he wanted an
Speaker 10: offense to look like and how he wanted to install it.
Speaker 10: And he was very precise. You know, he coached our
Speaker 10: wide receivers and was the offensive coordinator when I was there,
Speaker 10: and what he was all those wide receivers every single
Speaker 10: day about you know, just doing the little things right
Speaker 10: where you know, if you're split is supposed to be,
Speaker 10: you know, inside the numbers, and that's where you better
Speaker 10: line up. If you're supposed to run at twelve yards,
Speaker 10: I don't want you at thirteen, don't want.
Speaker 3: You at eleven.
Speaker 10: And you need to be precise. And you know that's
Speaker 10: what made our offense so successful. We were all so
Speaker 10: dialed in and locked into the to the little detail
Speaker 10: which which made everything work.
Speaker 1: It was also shocking when he left us way too
Speaker 1: soon that that it'll be a punch and a gut
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you know, I really hated to see that. And
Speaker 10: you know, Mike and I have we kept in touch
Speaker 10: over the years and would and would talk and you know,
Speaker 10: I just talked to him a few months before that
Speaker 10: and was completely shocked by the news and saddened by it.
Speaker 10: And you know, I really wish it. You know that
Speaker 10: he was around. I know he would be uh, you know,
Speaker 10: in Las Vegas in December celebrating with me going into
Speaker 10: the Hall of Fame, and uh, you know, really really
Speaker 10: just take that for his family, and he was such
Speaker 10: a great guy and surely he's very missed when we
Speaker 10: come back.
Speaker 1: More from my conversation back in the fall with Tim Couch.
Speaker 1: He'll be inducted tonight into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Say what us here on the Big Bloom and Siders
Speaker 1: six thirty w LA. We'll be back to the Big
Speaker 1: Bloom Sider tonight. Tim Couch inducted into the College Football
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. The ceremony at in Las Vegas. Wouldn't
Speaker 1: we all love to be there? At least I would?
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: Back in the fall, Tim was recognized before a UK
Speaker 1: football game. I had a chance to chat with him
Speaker 1: here on the Big Blue Insider. When you set foot
Speaker 1: you come back quite often, when you set foot on
Speaker 1: that field, inside that stadium. How does that make you feel?
Speaker 10: You know, I think the very the first thing I
Speaker 10: feel is a sense of pride, you know what we
Speaker 10: were able to accomplish, and and just how fun that
Speaker 10: the game was when we were there, and you know
Speaker 10: how how into it the fans were. And you know,
Speaker 10: because Kentucky football was kind of in a rough point
Speaker 10: there when I first got to UK and and they
Speaker 10: weren't winning many games. They were running the option. It
Speaker 10: was wasn't a very exciting style of football. And then
Speaker 10: we came in and you know, we were going spread offense,
Speaker 10: four or five wide receivers and throwing the ball all
Speaker 10: over the field, and uh, you know, it's just just
Speaker 10: you know, a great time to be playing at Kentucky
Speaker 10: and and you know that coaching staff we had, you know,
Speaker 10: you talk about coach Mummy and Leash and Hatcher and
Speaker 10: Sonny Dyke and Tony Franklin and and all those guys.
Speaker 10: We had so many creative minds on the offensive side
Speaker 10: of the ball. And you know, like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 10: we had a great fit of players to run that
Speaker 10: system as well. So, yeah, just to set the pride
Speaker 10: when I'll walk into the stadium about what we were
Speaker 10: able to accomplish while while I was playing there.
Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned Mummy and it was You're right.
Speaker 1: He was such an interesting individual as well. You could
Speaker 1: see why he and Leech were so tight. But it
Speaker 1: was interesting to me Tim when things went went south
Speaker 1: for how here and of course the fans were all
Speaker 1: over him. And then when Kentucky was looking for a
Speaker 1: new coach a dozen years ago, people were lobbying like
Speaker 1: crazy for how Mummy disciples somebody to be the next
Speaker 1: Tow Mummy. So you know, as long as you win,
Speaker 1: that's what it's all about. But that people want to
Speaker 1: be entertained too, don't they.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I think so, And you know, it's just a
Speaker 10: you know, I think people see, you know, how teams
Speaker 10: have been very successful with that system across the country
Speaker 10: and other places, and and you know, it was a
Speaker 10: fun style.
Speaker 3: Of football to watch.
Speaker 10: I think it was very popular obviously with our fan
Speaker 10: base here a Kentucky and people didn't want to see
Speaker 10: that come back, you know.
Speaker 3: And Coach Jukes did bring it back for a little bit.
Speaker 10: He brought Neil Brown back here for a couple of years,
Speaker 10: and of the Neils went on to do great things.
Speaker 3: He was a head coach at at West Virginia.
Speaker 10: And uh so it's you know, it's uh it was
Speaker 10: a great, great, great offense to play in and it's
Speaker 10: very popular, like I said, with the fans and obviously
Speaker 10: with cornerbacks and receivers love it, and you know, it's
Speaker 10: just it's just a lot of fun to play in
Speaker 10: that type of system.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to ask you, being a father, do
Speaker 1: you have to queue up video to show your son
Speaker 1: what you do? Because I remember Jamal Mashburn when he
Speaker 1: wanted to the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, he said
Speaker 1: his kids didn't really believe that he was a great
Speaker 1: player at the NBA. He had to show them video.
Speaker 1: Do you have to do that?
Speaker 10: I've done it before. Yeah, yeah, when they when they
Speaker 10: were smaller, I had to do that. And uh, you know,
Speaker 10: they used to love to watch those videos when they
Speaker 10: when they were little. And you know, now I've got
Speaker 10: a I've got a freshman in college and a freshman
Speaker 10: in high school. My oldest son is he signed a
Speaker 10: scholarship to play for Holy Cross up in Boston, so he's, uh,
Speaker 10: he's playing defensive end up there. And then my youngest
Speaker 10: son is a freshman it's uh let Christian Academy. So
Speaker 10: you know, they're they're both good athletes and good students
Speaker 10: and you know, certainly very proud of them defensive ends.
Speaker 1: So you got to You've got to talk to him
Speaker 1: about what it's like to go attack a quarterback.
Speaker 10: I told him, you know, he was playing quarterback up
Speaker 10: until like eighth grade when he switched over to the
Speaker 10: defensive end. And I was like, I can't tell you
Speaker 10: anything about playing defensive end other than I don't like
Speaker 10: those guys. That's all I know about it.
Speaker 1: He's going to relish the licks he puts on quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: You mentioned broadcasting and you stepped away from that, and
Speaker 1: you and your brother now very successful businessman. And a
Speaker 1: tip of the cap to your brother. I always love
Speaker 1: what he did at ek I keep reminding people that
Speaker 1: Greg Couch was the last QB to lead EKU to
Speaker 1: an undefeated OVC record and an OVC title, so and
Speaker 1: always will be now that they're out of the league.
Speaker 1: But anyhow, you were on your way to a pretty
Speaker 1: good broadcasting career when you stepped away. Now, Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: a guy you know, a little bit has started and
Speaker 1: it kind of got lukewarm reviews. But for crying out loud,
Speaker 1: he's a rookie. But if you could give him some advice,
Speaker 1: you giving Tom Brady advice on broadcasting, what would it be?
Speaker 10: You know, I think the biggest thing that I had
Speaker 10: to learn is you know, you do have to prepare
Speaker 10: like you're playing, you know, I mean, it is so
Speaker 10: much prep work as far as you know, watching film,
Speaker 10: understanding schemes and systems and game plans, and talking to
Speaker 10: coaches and players throughout the week to get a feel
Speaker 10: from what they're going to try to do that week,
Speaker 10: so you can go on TV and explain that. And
Speaker 10: you know, for me, you know, I don't want to
Speaker 10: say dumb it down, that's not the right word, but
Speaker 10: I wanted to talk like I was talking to like
Speaker 10: maybe like my mother at home, Yes, who knows who
Speaker 10: watches football, but she doesn't understand like the you know,
Speaker 10: really inside of x's and O. So you can get
Speaker 10: on there and you know, obviously Tom could talk about
Speaker 10: you know, the game as in depth as anyone who's
Speaker 10: ever played it. But you know, you have to make
Speaker 10: it simple for the people watching on TV so they
Speaker 10: you know, you can say, oh, it's cover two, but
Speaker 10: you know, no one, no one really now what cover
Speaker 10: two is unless you you know, you've studied the game,
Speaker 10: played the game, so so you make it, you know,
Speaker 10: you make it simple for the fans watching at home
Speaker 10: so they can follow along with you and understand what
Speaker 10: you're talking about. But you know, Tom, you know he's
Speaker 10: going to be great in whatever he does. You know,
Speaker 10: it's it's very difficult to walk in that booth and
Speaker 10: and call a game that if you've never done it before.
Speaker 10: He's just going to get better and better with with
Speaker 10: with refs in each game he does.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they keep comparing comparing him to Greg Olsen, who
Speaker 1: was not great when he started.
Speaker 3: None of us was not that I know.
Speaker 1: No, Yeah, before I let you go, I got to
Speaker 1: ask you. I'm sure your heart went out to the
Speaker 1: what your Wildcats and a rock Vandergriff. He had a
Speaker 1: rough day at the office against South Carolina. But that's
Speaker 1: life in SEC, isn't it.
Speaker 10: Yeah, that's the way it goes, you know. I mean this, Uh,
Speaker 10: in this league, anyone can embarrass you quickly if you're
Speaker 10: not on not on top of your game. And obviously
Speaker 10: we didn't play well. You know, I'm not going to
Speaker 10: make any excuses. We didn't play well up front. Uh
Speaker 10: quarterback didn't really have many opportunities to play well. And uh,
Speaker 10: you know we just in South Carolina played great. Give
Speaker 10: him credit. That's a good defense they got after us
Speaker 10: and know, things can go go go south on you
Speaker 10: pretty quickly in this league if you're not playing well,
Speaker 10: and you know, I think we'll bounce back. I think
Speaker 10: we've got a very talented football team. I love our
Speaker 10: coaching staff. Obviously, you know, coach Stepson is the winning
Speaker 10: his coach we've ever had here, So I have all
Speaker 10: the faith in the world that he's going to get this,
Speaker 10: get these guys to rally rallied up, and get them
Speaker 10: going back in the right direction. And obviously we've got
Speaker 10: a tough one this week with Georgia. But you know,
Speaker 10: it doesn't get any it doesn't get easier, you know,
Speaker 10: I think I saw we played five of the top
Speaker 10: seven teams in the country coming up over the next
Speaker 10: several weeks. So those schedules just brutal. But you know,
Speaker 10: we've got the guys that can go turn it around,
Speaker 10: and you know, I'm still confident in those guys.
Speaker 1: People knocking the offense, of course, that's what fans do,
Speaker 1: but it's too soon that I have no idea what
Speaker 1: to make of this offense yet. And I'm sure you
Speaker 1: know more about this stuff than I do, but it's
Speaker 1: it's going to be tough after this week, isn't it.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you know you said it didn't get any easier,
Speaker 10: you know, with with Georgia and that defense coming into town.
Speaker 10: So you know it is it is kind of hard
Speaker 10: to see what what we have yet offensively, you know,
Speaker 10: because you know we got to you know, a little
Speaker 10: over half a game in week one with the weather
Speaker 10: and then you know didn't play well at all, you know,
Speaker 10: only thirty yards passing or so in Week two. So
Speaker 10: you know, these guys, you know, just have to get
Speaker 10: it gone, get it to you know, get everyone on
Speaker 10: the same page and executing a game plan, and you know,
Speaker 10: and it takes everyone. You know, it takes the you know,
Speaker 10: the offensive line given protection and brought making quick decisions, receivers,
Speaker 10: you know, getting that out of breaks, catching football is
Speaker 10: getting separation from the defenders, and you know, it takes
Speaker 10: all eleven guys on that side of the ball to
Speaker 10: make it, make it work and make it look good.
Speaker 10: So you know, hopefully they can bounce back a little
Speaker 10: this week and get a little momentum and build on that.
Speaker 1: That's my conversation with Tim Katsch back in the fall,
Speaker 1: and he was recognized prior to a UK football game
Speaker 1: that was back in September when things were still looking
Speaker 1: looking better for the Wildcats. But life is good to Tim.
Speaker 1: He's got his healthy family and he's going into the
Speaker 1: College Football Hall of Fame tonight. It is out in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, and it's going to be somewhere on ESPN
Speaker 1: if you want to check it out. Coming up next,
Speaker 1: David Sisk if Cats Illustrated, he'll break down Kentucky and Gonzaga.
Speaker 1: That's all I had here on the Big bon sid
Speaker 1: sat joining us now as a guy we love talking
Speaker 1: basketball with David Sisk of Cats Illustrated, and he was
Speaker 1: on you might hurt him a little bit with Tom
Speaker 1: Leach yesterday morning talking about Kentucky Gonzaga coach. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you joining us.
Speaker 10: Yeah, one or two.
Speaker 1: I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into that game. David.
Speaker 1: Of course, basketball recruiting writer for both Kentucky and North Carolina.
Speaker 1: We'll get the recruiting a little bit later, but uh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to pick up where you kind of left
Speaker 1: off with Tom. Let's go to the first half of
Speaker 1: that game and tell me. And you posted a bit
Speaker 1: on Twitter what was going wrong for the Wildcasts beyond
Speaker 1: just not making shots, but there were defensive breakdowns and
Speaker 1: problems like that.
Speaker 8: Defensively, Gonzaga is one of those teams and there's a
Speaker 8: lot like them. They're very talented and when you let
Speaker 8: them get happy, that snowball turned into an avalanche, and
Speaker 8: it did the first half, and a lot of it
Speaker 8: came and they made some shots. Let's start out with that. Yeah,
Speaker 8: And it was funny because the way Kentucky looked in
Speaker 8: the first half was the way Gonzaga looked at the second,
Speaker 8: and you know, and then Kentucky made shots that they
Speaker 8: didn't make in the first they made in the second,
Speaker 8: so you know, the script was flipped there. You know,
Speaker 8: they missed an easy shot. I think Kentucky had a
Speaker 8: little bit to do with that. But in the first half,
Speaker 8: I just felt like number one day go so much
Speaker 8: with nim Hard and he is predominantly getting to his
Speaker 8: right hand and they allowed him to do that, and
Speaker 8: then I thought the help side was really bad and
Speaker 8: he saw those clips. I'm just you know, at one
Speaker 8: point Gonzaga was three for twenty four from three, so
Speaker 8: I can't figure out when he turns the corner how
Speaker 8: he can have a straight line drive down you know,
Speaker 8: one side of the lane and you're looking at the back.
Speaker 8: Guys can help and they're stretched out seven eight feet
Speaker 8: outside of the lane on really non shooters, So you've
Speaker 8: got to be able to provide more help. You talk
Speaker 8: about North Carolina. North Carolina is really bad defensively, and
Speaker 8: that's what I've seen from them this year. And that's
Speaker 8: one big thing I've seen backtag guys just letting the
Speaker 8: driver go to the rim and not stepping in. It's
Speaker 8: like they stayed glued to the shooter. And Kentucky's not
Speaker 8: a bad defensive team, and you know, if everything I've
Speaker 8: seen this year, you know, that was their total outlier.
Speaker 8: Because I've said, Kentucky, I feel like they're tough. I
Speaker 8: feel like they're competitive. You know, they're willing defenders, and
Speaker 8: I think that stuff travels. So that was by far
Speaker 8: the first or the worst defensive half that I've seen
Speaker 8: this year. But they made adjustments and then showed that
Speaker 8: toughness in the second half. You know, they give up
Speaker 8: fifty points in the first half, tweety nine second.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up toughness because I'm watching
Speaker 1: that first half and I'm thinking, man, Gonzaga, as any
Speaker 1: school obviously would do any team. They studied the heck
Speaker 1: out of that Clemson video, and not as physically strong
Speaker 1: as Clemson, but just in terms of the way then
Speaker 1: Zaga went after Kentucky, I mean, tried to go right
Speaker 1: through them. And it worked for the first twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: didn't it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it did. On offensive end, it did. Like I said,
Speaker 8: so much of that was around them hard. And then
Speaker 8: you know, Graham I k looked like, you know, the
Speaker 8: second coming of a kim Olajuwon or somebody you know
Speaker 8: in the first half. But in the second half you
Speaker 8: could see he missed some shots around a rem Uh
Speaker 8: you know, they jumped into the zone into one thirty one,
Speaker 8: and uh, you know, he really got tentative in the
Speaker 8: mid That was naughty strength, that mid post jumper, and
Speaker 8: you could see he's like, well, I wanted I've got
Speaker 8: the shot, I don't want to shoot it. I better
Speaker 8: shoot it. So and then, like we said, just miss
Speaker 8: some shots. He's a mechanical a little bit on his
Speaker 8: turnaround jumpers. It's got smooth. And the one thing Kentucky
Speaker 8: was able to do was hit the boards. That was
Speaker 8: another big thing. First half rebounding, and that was one thing.
Speaker 8: You're able to get out and run when and I
Speaker 8: know this from my coaching experience in high school particularly,
Speaker 8: the best running teams you'll ever have is when your
Speaker 8: guards know that you've got a guy inside that's gonna
Speaker 8: grab every rebound. They don't have to stay they can
Speaker 8: get out to the races, but if you're not sure,
Speaker 8: you have to stay in and help. Well, the second
Speaker 8: and a half, Kentucky just started keeping boards alive. And
Speaker 8: there was a lot of times they may not grab
Speaker 8: a clean rebound. They're just the ball comes off the
Speaker 8: rim and they're just tipping it, tipping it, keeping it alive.
Speaker 8: And then after about three tips that to get the boards.
Speaker 8: But that was huge. There weren't a whole lot and
Speaker 8: just Okay, I'm gonna go up, knock these guys out away,
Speaker 8: grab the rebound. I put him back. It was just
Speaker 8: keeping balls alive. And I know even at the end
Speaker 8: of the game when Carr had the foul shot and
Speaker 8: there was four seconds left, and I said, you know,
Speaker 8: if he misses this, Kentucky's ability to keep the ball
Speaker 8: alive right here might take two seconds off the clock.
Speaker 8: You know, where they can't get the ball up before
Speaker 8: now it didn't, but you know, they battled for that
Speaker 8: board even if one guy didn't, so you know, that
Speaker 8: was a huge issue. Then you get to the second
Speaker 8: half and we may go into that, but you know,
Speaker 8: Pope's adjustments and I feel like we're really spun on.
Speaker 8: And then the team played like we can talk about
Speaker 8: those adjustments if you want to, but they played a
Speaker 8: lot more fiscally.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, first of all in the second half of
Speaker 1: the biggest adjustment was just Kentucky's approach, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: psychologically or whatever. They just played harder, didn't They.
Speaker 8: They did, And yeah, I think there was confidence. I think,
Speaker 8: you know, defensively and offensively both. And I kind of
Speaker 8: felt like there was a clip there and I'm not
Speaker 8: putting up yet, I'm going to, but there was a
Speaker 8: clip like six minutes in to the second half, and
Speaker 8: there was a possession where Gonzaga kept grabbing the offensive
Speaker 8: board and they missed three three pointers in one possession.
Speaker 8: And that was the point that I was thinking, because
Speaker 8: Kentucky was starting to get it going off instantly a
Speaker 8: little bit, and I'm like, you know, Kentucky can win
Speaker 8: this game as far as face as that sounds, because
Speaker 8: Gonzaga has totally lost faith in the ability to make
Speaker 8: a shot and Kentucky was scoring easier than Gonzaga was scoring,
Speaker 8: and that's always the thing to look for. But you know,
Speaker 8: in the second half, like you said, they played harder,
Speaker 8: they defended better, they went to.
Speaker 3: The boards more.
Speaker 8: But I think they played with more confidence. But you
Speaker 8: know they've done that. I got down the dude who
Speaker 8: came back. They were down pretty good Glimpson and came back.
Speaker 8: So you know, this is a team that does that.
Speaker 8: They don't. They've got a lot of experience or older
Speaker 8: they don't. They're not gonna roll over, so you know,
Speaker 8: and that that's something in the past maybe a team's done,
Speaker 8: but this Kentucky team won't do that now. The things
Speaker 8: that I noticed in the second and a half was
Speaker 8: they denied nim Hard getting to his right hand and
Speaker 8: that was huge. They made him go left, They asked
Speaker 8: him he never bought the ball down a mentally, always
Speaker 8: brought it upside. For whatever reason, it seemed like it
Speaker 8: was more and it makes sense he brings the ball
Speaker 8: down to the left side. That way he can go
Speaker 8: to his right hand and get to the middle and
Speaker 8: uh Kentucky iceed him and they just faced him up.
Speaker 8: They faced the sideline and they made him go left.
Speaker 8: And when they went into the one three one zone,
Speaker 8: not only did it make uh gunzag a tentative, but
Speaker 8: one three why not the two three? Well, he can
Speaker 8: go wherever he wants to the two three. But when
Speaker 8: you have the one three one, you have that one
Speaker 8: defender up on top play in the middle. Guess what,
Speaker 8: he can't drive to his right hand in the middle.
Speaker 8: You know, it keeps him pinned to his side. So
Speaker 8: I thought that just not only running aid zone, but
Speaker 8: these zone that they ran to one three one was
Speaker 8: very strategic. And then down toward the end of the game,
Speaker 8: I felt like, you know, watching it live, I said, well,
Speaker 8: Kentucky has going under all these screens, the non shooters,
Speaker 8: and but it was actually later in the game when
Speaker 8: they did. When you watch when I watched the replay,
Speaker 8: it always looks different than it does live once you
Speaker 8: start slowing it down and running the plays back and
Speaker 8: forth and all that. But you know, late in the game,
Speaker 8: you could say they were going under every screen late,
Speaker 8: so they're gonna say, hey, we're just gonna make you
Speaker 8: bees from outside, So I thought there was some really
Speaker 8: good adjustments there.
Speaker 1: How surprised, David, were you to see that? One three one?
Speaker 1: I didn't see that coming.
Speaker 8: Well, it was funny because you know, you were talking
Speaker 8: about going over on Tom's show, and I told he
Speaker 8: said that. Coach Pope said afterwards that you know, he
Speaker 8: had really kind of nervous about going to the zone,
Speaker 8: but he didn't have a choice. It was out of desperation.
Speaker 8: That makes sense. So you know they're having trouble guarding them,
Speaker 8: so it makes total sense. A lot of times it
Speaker 8: could be a deal. I've done it in high school
Speaker 8: where you're like, we're not even practiceing zone, but this
Speaker 8: other team is red hot. We just got to do
Speaker 8: something to get out out of the rhythm. You know,
Speaker 8: we might try to press, we might try to go
Speaker 8: to a zone, just nothing else, just just just to
Speaker 8: slow down to obvious rhythm that they have. And I
Speaker 8: think that was a big key there. But he said
Speaker 8: that he had kind of threatened to do it, but
Speaker 8: the zone had looked so bad in practice that he didn't.
Speaker 8: But the reason that looked bad practice, you're running against
Speaker 8: all these shooters, you know, you're trying to run zone
Speaker 8: on Kobe Brandt, so you know what's going to happen.
Speaker 8: But you know I made the quote to Tom. I said, well,
Speaker 8: it's funny. I said, John Caller Perry threat the coach
Speaker 8: out for twelve years and never did it. Mark Pope
Speaker 8: runs it apparently the first time he needs it, so
Speaker 8: it was a great move.
Speaker 1: David Sis is a recruiting analyst. You see his work
Speaker 1: and CAT Illustrated and we love talking basketball with David
Speaker 1: more after the break here on The Big Bloom Siders
Speaker 1: six thirty. Welcome back to talking with coach David Sis,
Speaker 1: basketball recruiting writer for UK and North Carolina for the
Speaker 1: Rivals Network. You see his work on CAT Illustrated. You
Speaker 1: touched on something there prior to the break. He talked
Speaker 1: about a team that really believed in its coach, you know,
Speaker 1: in that second half, and obviously that's important, David, But
Speaker 1: why bring that up, because it's funny you brought that up.
Speaker 1: Jack Gibbons on the postgame show, he kept talking about
Speaker 1: the fact that he just thought, among other things, the
Speaker 1: reason Kentucky was able to come back was they just
Speaker 1: kept believing they could. And you can't do anything nless
Speaker 1: you believe in it. It was pretty obvious. But it's
Speaker 1: easy to say for you and me. But when you're
Speaker 1: in hostile territory a couple of thousand miles from home,
Speaker 1: they're almost the entire inter screaming against and you're down sixteen.
Speaker 1: That's easier said than done, isn't it?
Speaker 8: It is? And I believe, like I said, they believe
Speaker 8: in the system. I think they believe in each other.
Speaker 8: And now things happen during the year and coach Pope's
Speaker 8: a pretty positive guy. But you'll see a lot of
Speaker 8: times coaches get into it with players in the alien
Speaker 8: eight and now a losing streak will kind of change
Speaker 8: some players' minds that they may not have confidence. But
Speaker 8: here's the thing. He's come in and had early success.
Speaker 8: It's been a fun style for them to play. And
Speaker 8: you know, I think he goes in at the half
Speaker 8: and I could see him being pretty positive with him
Speaker 8: and saying, hey, you know this is we're not out
Speaker 8: of it. This is what we got to do, and
Speaker 8: I feel good about this. These are the adjustment That's
Speaker 8: one thing players want to know. They want to come
Speaker 8: in and say, Okay, what's the adjustments that we're going
Speaker 8: to do. If the coach just sit there and say
Speaker 8: we're going to do the same old thing, it doesn't
Speaker 8: have any answers, then they would come begin to doubt him.
Speaker 8: But then you see, and you know, Kentucky got back
Speaker 8: into it early in the second half, so as they
Speaker 8: trimmed that thing down and they could see the effects
Speaker 8: of what the defensive adjustments were. You know, if you're
Speaker 8: from you know, I play in days. If I'm playing
Speaker 8: against the guy and I'm defending him, I can tell
Speaker 8: all of a sudden, you know, players sense fear, and
Speaker 8: players sensed doubt in the opponent. So as soon as
Speaker 8: they begin to see that, you know, it's kind of
Speaker 8: like shark circling and bloody waters. So so yeah, I
Speaker 8: just think the whole I think they could see what
Speaker 8: he was doing was working, His approach was working. I
Speaker 8: think they enjoyed playing for and I think they enjoyed
Speaker 8: playing will meet each other and and I think you
Speaker 8: know it was obvious Saturday, How in.
Speaker 1: The world, in your opinion, did Kentucky manage this comeback
Speaker 1: without Lamont Butler from the start, and then they lose
Speaker 1: kerk Kriesa to an injury. But starting with Butler, you know,
Speaker 1: because you were talking about how good in them hard
Speaker 1: can be, and yet they were able to make defensive
Speaker 1: adjustments to help minimize him as best they could in
Speaker 1: the second half. But as soon as I heard David
Speaker 1: no lamant, Butler though, well there goes their chance and
Speaker 1: all win. So that bed even more impressive.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I'm not gonna sit here and begin like I know everything.
Speaker 8: I'm gonna be honest with you. You know, we had
Speaker 8: to do predictions. I cat illustrated, and I wasn't sure
Speaker 8: if he was going to play or not. And I'll
Speaker 8: picked on zag up about seven, right, But I think too,
Speaker 8: you have to learn what you've got. And you know,
Speaker 8: let's take, for example, take the college football playoffs, and
Speaker 8: you know, even the playoffs last week, you know, we
Speaker 8: are in playoff games, conference championship games. Rather, I mean
Speaker 8: you kind of go in and you watch these teams
Speaker 8: and you really don't know what this and you's got,
Speaker 8: and you know, you go into the tournament play here
Speaker 8: and people are wondering, well, we really don't know who
Speaker 8: Indiana is and all these teams that have really not
Speaker 8: played people, and you don't know. But I think this
Speaker 8: is a valuable week for coach Pope, because I guarantee
Speaker 8: you right now he's got a better idea of what
Speaker 8: he's got than you do a week ago, and you
Speaker 8: have to play these games to do that. So I
Speaker 8: think that's very, very important. So you know, I think
Speaker 8: he learns in this situation what he's got. Like you said,
Speaker 8: I wouldn't have given him really a chance. Well I
Speaker 8: shouldn't say a chance, but I thought, you know that
Speaker 8: they were you know, it was an uphill battle yet
Speaker 8: about labat Butler, that's a better way to put it.
Speaker 8: But you know, then Chrisa goes down. But then you've
Speaker 8: got Jackson Robinson and you know they'd already cut into
Speaker 8: the lead some but a couple of things happened. You've
Speaker 8: got Jackson Robinson the ball in his hands more, and
Speaker 8: he got really hot in the second half. I think
Speaker 8: maybe he had fourteen point or so second half of
Speaker 8: this one shot and you know, he really got hot
Speaker 8: from the mid range. So he's able to have the
Speaker 8: ball in his hands and come off that ball screen
Speaker 8: and pull up. But I felt too like as soon
Speaker 8: as he came in, Gonzaga kept trying to trap in
Speaker 8: a half court and he did a good job getting
Speaker 8: the ball out of there. And I thought one of
Speaker 8: the big factors of the game was when they got
Speaker 8: the ball out of the double team. They had four
Speaker 8: on three and Kentucky was able to make them pay.
Speaker 8: Almost every time they got the ball out, they were
Speaker 8: able to score. So I think maybe, you know, Gonzaga
Speaker 8: might have got a little over confident with that. Robinson
Speaker 8: turned out to be a good point guard. And I'm
Speaker 8: going to say this, I just think that, you know,
Speaker 8: Chris that brings you some things. He's energetic, he's a
Speaker 8: good pass for man, he's that discipline. Defensively, I mean
Speaker 8: he's bouncing around all over the place and reaching and
Speaker 8: and you know, he's always trying to come up at
Speaker 8: still and he's running himself out at the bad angles
Speaker 8: on screens. And Robinson was just a little bit more
Speaker 8: solid and like you know, obviously he had a hotter hand,
Speaker 8: you know, Offensively, I think he's a better defender, and uh,
Speaker 8: you know, Robinson was the guy that they needed. I
Speaker 8: don't know if Chris stays in at the point guard,
Speaker 8: to be honest with me, if they win the game.
Speaker 8: I just thought Robinson was the right guy at the
Speaker 8: right time. And it's just you know, a happenstance that
Speaker 8: they found him. Now you want christ in the lineup,
Speaker 8: and you hated Hurt. I'm not knocking him at all,
Speaker 8: but I mean, I think Jackson Robinson was the guy
Speaker 8: that they needed for that game.
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, we got to talk about
Speaker 1: Andrew Carr. He was literally the biggest difference I thought
Speaker 1: in the second half.
Speaker 8: He is and I like him, and you know, you
Speaker 8: you'll hear. I'm on a couple of DM friends and
Speaker 8: if there's a couple of dozen on it, the guys
Speaker 8: on each one and they're die hard. So you know
Speaker 8: how that goes. You love a player in one minute,
Speaker 8: you hate him the next one. And but you know
Speaker 8: when you're a fan. But I love I love car
Speaker 8: I love the way he plays. And I was told
Speaker 8: by guys around Lake Forest, you know, when he left,
Speaker 8: he said, look, you're going to see a guy that
Speaker 8: looks like him. It's about six or eleven, and everybody
Speaker 8: thinks it's a stretch. He's skilled, but he's not a stretch.
Speaker 8: He's a rugged guy. He's rugging down around the post.
Speaker 8: He likes to create contact and finish around the bucket,
Speaker 8: you know, and that's what you've seen. And Pope's done
Speaker 8: a really good job utilizing him. And I felt like
Speaker 8: Saturday night he got him into spots. I really thought
Speaker 8: he ran a good game plan to get him to
Speaker 8: his spots. It wasn't like, Okay, here's the we're going
Speaker 8: to give you the ball. You go one on five
Speaker 8: and create something. It wasn't that they cross screened him
Speaker 8: into the post. They back screened him into the post.
Speaker 8: People think they look at Pope and they think, well,
Speaker 8: he runs a lot of five out stuff. You've got
Speaker 8: five guys behind the three point line checking up threees
Speaker 8: and that's not the case at all. I mean, he's
Speaker 8: playing two pigs on the flour. You know, well Williams
Speaker 8: and Pope and then Garrison comes in, so you've got
Speaker 8: two guys almost all the time on the four. Six
Speaker 8: eleven are better. But they do a really good job,
Speaker 8: like I said, running some look to get that ball
Speaker 8: inside and then playing through the post. And you know,
Speaker 8: the announced team on ESPN realize that they gave Gonzaga
Speaker 8: a heavy dose of that and cars. You know, he's
Speaker 8: he's physical down there, and he finishes. He's a better
Speaker 8: finisher than the Mary Williams. Mary Williams misses a lot
Speaker 8: of shots around the real but you know Car's guy,
Speaker 8: you can go too down in there. He can get
Speaker 8: your points.
Speaker 1: He is coaching David Sisk. That's how to find him
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Basketball recruiting writer for Kentucky and North Carolina,
Speaker 1: part of the Rivals Network. Coach. It's a pleasure. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your time, and I'll be watching
Speaker 1: for you on social media.
Speaker 8: All right, thank you, my friend.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for now. Reminder, Tomorrow night
Speaker 1: is Kentucky basketball. Kind of an odd Wednesday evening game
Speaker 1: and kind of an odd start time at eight o'clock,
Speaker 1: so that means local coverage begins at five thirty. Network
Speaker 1: covers at six thirty, and then Tom Leach and Jack
Speaker 1: Ebmans had the action coming up as the Wildcats take
Speaker 1: on Colgate. And then, as you well know, coming up Saturday,
Speaker 1: it's those Louisville Cardinals. That's a five point fifteen chip
Speaker 1: off in rupp Arena. The women are off until Saturday
Speaker 1: they play up at Purdue. That's a five o'clock start.
Speaker 1: Darren Hedrick will have that one for you as well.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Jimmy Dikes. Thanks to David Sisk. That's a
Speaker 1: good night from the garage and Lexington number two.
Speaker 11: Chicken sal sand all the butter, the letters, the mayonnaise.
Speaker 5: And a cup of coffee.
Speaker 11: Anything else. Yeah, Now, all you have to do is
Speaker 11: hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a
Speaker 11: check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you have broken
Speaker 11: any rules.
Speaker 3: You want me to hole the chicken, huh?
Speaker 11: I want you to hold it between your knees.