Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Saturday. Gabriel with you on
Speaker 1: a Thursday edition of our show, an abbreviated edition because
Speaker 1: we've got Kentucky baseball coming up yep here on Thursday.
Speaker 1: It's Thursday through Saturday series for all the teams in
Speaker 1: the SEC as they hit into Hoover for SEC tournament play,
Speaker 1: which begins next Tuesday. That's when the Wildcats right now,
Speaker 1: if they played, would play South Carolina at five thirty
Speaker 1: on Tuesday night. It's a single elimination tournament. So if
Speaker 1: you get in there, you get hot, you can do
Speaker 1: some damage, pick up some wins. If not, you go
Speaker 1: home and wait for the NCAA tournament and get some
Speaker 1: rest and wait for selection Sunday. So Darren Hedricks got
Speaker 1: the call tonight as the Cats take on the Commodorees
Speaker 1: down in Nashville six forty five pregame seven o'clock, seven
Speaker 1: oh two, roughly first pitch. You can listen right here
Speaker 1: and of course watch on SEC Plus. And if you're
Speaker 1: not sure to get there, just go to either one
Speaker 1: just go through Ukathletics dot com. But two games tonight
Speaker 1: and tomorrow at seven o'clock and on Saturday three o'clock
Speaker 1: Eastern time, and again we'll have it for you right here.
Speaker 1: Coming up in a couple of minutes, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about the celebration last night Pete Rose Night at
Speaker 1: Great American Ballpark, and it was coincidental to Major League
Speaker 1: Baseball's decision to and basically to Commissioner Rob Manfred to
Speaker 1: remove Pete Rose, Shultz, Joe and anybody who's deceased from
Speaker 1: Baseball's ineligible is, thus making them eligible for voting into
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. So we'll talk about that. Well,
Speaker 1: hear what some of the other Hall of famers have
Speaker 1: to say about it, including the great Marty Brennaman, the
Speaker 1: former longtime voice of the Reds. A little bit later on,
Speaker 1: Rachel Lawson will talk with us about her softball team,
Speaker 1: which opens nca tournament play tomorrow tomorrow afternoon down in Clemson.
Speaker 1: But we do want to look at what's going on
Speaker 1: right now with otega Oway. Of course, he is popping
Speaker 1: up on social media, He is popping up on ESPN,
Speaker 1: as he did when he is given more than one
Speaker 1: interview everywhere he goes. Basically he talks to people. But
Speaker 1: the other night we heard him talk about the fact
Speaker 1: that he's all in, of course, and you know you
Speaker 1: got to say that. Why wouldn't you say that if
Speaker 1: you're testing the NBA waters and you're really anybody. But
Speaker 1: you know, not even Cooper Flag's gonna say, well, I'm
Speaker 1: just you know, checking it out to see what it's
Speaker 1: all about. No, No, you tell your potential future employers.
Speaker 1: I am completely and totally committed to this next step
Speaker 1: in my career. If you want me, if you don't,
Speaker 1: I'll be right over here when you need me. But
Speaker 1: if you want me right now, I'm all in, which
Speaker 1: is essentially and exactly what he said. But the latest
Speaker 1: comment we have from him is his reference to Kentucky,
Speaker 1: and he basically says if things don't work out the
Speaker 1: way he would love them to work out with the
Speaker 1: Combine and with the NBA Draft, he is more than
Speaker 1: happy to go back to lexingon.
Speaker 2: Obviously, my goal is playing the NBA. So you know,
Speaker 2: if I go through this processing, you know I'm getting
Speaker 2: great feedback and you know I can go it away.
Speaker 2: I'll do that one hundred percent. But you know, either
Speaker 2: situation I'm in is a great situation I just got
Speaker 2: to thank God for. And you know, I have a
Speaker 2: good situation back at Kentucky if I do choose to
Speaker 2: go back, So you know, either way, I'm just thankful
Speaker 2: to be here.
Speaker 1: Of course he is, because he's not only putting himself
Speaker 1: out there for potential employers, but they're also telling him,
Speaker 1: as they did with Antonio Reeves, here's what we see,
Speaker 1: and if you do go back to college, here's what
Speaker 1: you need to work on. And boy, Jack Givens had
Speaker 1: a great conversation with Tom Leachs this morning on the
Speaker 1: Leads Report, and basically he said he would love to
Speaker 1: have had the feedback prior to his senior year that
Speaker 1: Antonio Reeves had, because you know, Jack only played a
Speaker 1: couple of couple of three years in the NBA he
Speaker 1: was an undersized shooting forward, when in fact he was
Speaker 1: actually an undersized shooting guard as well. He was only
Speaker 1: six three and a half sixty four. But he's said
Speaker 1: he would have been told you need to work on
Speaker 1: your handle because you're probably going to have to play
Speaker 1: a lot of point guard in the NBA, which never
Speaker 1: occurred to me. I always thought Jack was, you know,
Speaker 1: swimming upstream simply because he wasn't undersized two or three.
Speaker 1: But he would have been a really nice point guard
Speaker 1: at six three and a half sixty four with shooting
Speaker 1: ability like that, But as he admitted on the show today,
Speaker 1: his handle was probably the weakest part of his game.
Speaker 1: He could guard well enough, you had to guard. If
Speaker 1: you played for Joe B. Hall, we all know you
Speaker 1: could score and obviously shoot, and Jack was a good leaper.
Speaker 1: He brought that up as well. People didn't really get
Speaker 1: to see that part of his game because he was
Speaker 1: always shooting from the outside. Jack had really good hops
Speaker 1: as well, was quick, was strong butt. His handle was
Speaker 1: not strong enough to translate to the NBA. So if
Speaker 1: he had been told that after his junior year, between
Speaker 1: his junior and senior years, this is back before you know,
Speaker 1: everybody tried to go after one year, he would have
Speaker 1: been so much better off and it likely would have
Speaker 1: played longer in the NBA, if not in Europe. Jack
Speaker 1: also played overseas a little bit, so I thought that
Speaker 1: was really fascinating. So that's the kind of advice always getting.
Speaker 1: It's what happened with the Antonio Reeves. And if Always
Speaker 1: doesn't come back, well good luck to him. But if
Speaker 1: he does, he's going to be a lot better, and
Speaker 1: Mark Pope talked about him the other day about the
Speaker 1: fact that he's already got such a great skill set.
Speaker 1: O teke.
Speaker 3: His physicality is elite, his physicality on the offensive end,
Speaker 3: defensive end, and that shows up in a lot of ways.
Speaker 3: It shows up in contact, actually hits. It shows up
Speaker 3: in his explosiveness, He shows up in his first step.
Speaker 3: He shows up in his ability to kind of navigate
Speaker 3: garden guys off the ball through screens and on the
Speaker 3: ball through screen by creating space with his chest. So
Speaker 3: he has in those ways, he is you know, he
Speaker 3: is as good as you're going to find.
Speaker 1: He's really special.
Speaker 3: He's he grew so much last season.
Speaker 1: And remember Pope also talked about the leaps that players
Speaker 1: make from year one to year two within his system.
Speaker 1: He alluded to his stop at Utah State and Brigham Young.
Speaker 1: And you know, his system is a little bit different,
Speaker 1: especially a system of offense, and there's not, of course,
Speaker 1: the thinking that has to go on. You saw it
Speaker 1: at the end of last season compared to the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year. Everybody got more comfortable with the offense,
Speaker 1: especially the bigs and their passing. But think about Otega
Speaker 1: Away coming back now after a year in the Mark
Speaker 1: Pope system, and how much better off he's going to
Speaker 1: be if he plays for the Wildcats this coming year.
Speaker 1: So it's fun to think about. It's going to be
Speaker 1: fun to watch. Speaking of recruits, we always Kentucky is
Speaker 1: actually looking at a kid listed as a center. He's
Speaker 1: only six eight two o five but his name is
Speaker 1: Davian Adkins. That according to two four to seven sports,
Speaker 1: this kid has gotten offers from Arizona State, cal Houston,
Speaker 1: Kansas lately Indiana. Uh but and the services he's cool
Speaker 1: on all of them. And I read a report that
Speaker 1: said this guy is interested in hearing from Kentucky if
Speaker 1: he hasn't already. He's from Dallas, Texas, and he actually
Speaker 1: plays at a prep school in oak Cliffe, which is
Speaker 1: southwest of downtown Dallas, and it's where I used to live.
Speaker 1: And now he was further south in oak Cliffe than
Speaker 1: I was. I was up near the Trinity River basin
Speaker 1: and closer to the river basin and the interstate. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this guy from my old stopping grounds. Not that I could,
Speaker 1: you know, give him a call and say, hey, come
Speaker 1: on up to LEXI. But I just always think it's
Speaker 1: interesting and by the way, that place was not a
Speaker 1: cool place to live when I was there. It has
Speaker 1: since been gentrified. And I went down to visit a
Speaker 1: friend last year and he took me through my old
Speaker 1: neighborhood and it is tremendous. It's a great place, one
Speaker 1: of more popular places now to live in Dallas. So
Speaker 1: maybe the Wildcats get a young man who is going
Speaker 1: to prep school right now, not far from where I
Speaker 1: lived back in the eighties when I was in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1: By the way, speaking of the combine, Ben Roberts of
Speaker 1: The Harrow Leader is there. He was on the show
Speaker 1: a few days ago talking about going up to cover
Speaker 1: the combine. So he's got some good coverage at Kentucky
Speaker 1: dot com if you want to check that out. Up next,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about Pete Rose, and we'll hear
Speaker 1: from some of the Hall of famers, including Marty Brenneman,
Speaker 1: who have opinions now that Rose is off Baseball's ineligibility
Speaker 1: list and is eligible for voting into the Baseball Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. That's coming up, followed by UK softball coach
Speaker 1: Rachel Lawson, who team opens tournament play tomorrow afternoon. Then
Speaker 1: it's UK Baseball with Darren Hedrick, the Cats and the
Speaker 1: Commodorees on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Moonsider coming up at six forty five pregame coverage
Speaker 1: of Kentucky Vanderbilt Baseball with Darren Hedrick. The two teams
Speaker 1: will toss it up at seven o'clock games tonight and
Speaker 1: tomorrow night. Then on Saturday afternoon wraps up the regular season.
Speaker 1: That it's on to Hoover for the SEC Tournament. So
Speaker 1: Darren has the action here on six thirty WLAP. As
Speaker 1: you probably know, last night was the celebration of Pete
Speaker 1: Rose in Cincinnati, and this was basically a coincidence. It
Speaker 1: had been planned for quite some time, of course, but
Speaker 1: it comes just today after Major League Baseball announced that
Speaker 1: Rose and others were removed posthumously from Major League Baseball's
Speaker 1: permanent ineligibility list. This is what has kept Rose and
Speaker 1: guys like Shoeless Joe Jackson out of the Baseball Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. It's not that the writers or the Eras
Speaker 1: Committee people said no, we're not going to take them.
Speaker 1: It's that you've got to be eligible to be voted
Speaker 1: into the Hall. You cannot be on the ineligibility list
Speaker 1: for Major League Baseball. So now that these guys are gone,
Speaker 1: Rob Manfred the commissioner has changed the way they do
Speaker 1: business now, and if you are dead and gone, you
Speaker 1: are no longer on the ineligible list, the reasoning being
Speaker 1: something like, well, if you're not alive, you're not going
Speaker 1: to be around to tarnish the game. I'm paraphrasing. All right,
Speaker 1: that's all well and good. But as I said before,
Speaker 1: I have softened my stands on Pete Rose simply because
Speaker 1: Rose finally fest up. For the longest time, I said, no,
Speaker 1: he didn't belong in because he broke Baseball's number one rule.
Speaker 1: And yes, I know that Baseball now accepts advertising dollars.
Speaker 1: They're in business with gambling outfits. That to me doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Players should not be allowed to gamble, at least on
Speaker 1: the sport that they're involved with. You should be able
Speaker 1: to go to a game and not have to wonder, Hey,
Speaker 1: is the guy who just booted that ball? Is he
Speaker 1: got a bet on the game? Is that why my
Speaker 1: team's losing? You know? Is my guy missing jump shots
Speaker 1: because he's trying to keep the score close under the spread. No,
Speaker 1: that's fundamental that should not be even an issue. But
Speaker 1: a lot of people say, well, he's Pete Rose. He
Speaker 1: was the hits king, So what my buddy Doug Flynn
Speaker 1: played eleven years in the major leagues. No, he didn't
Speaker 1: have four thousand hits. Why should a rule that applies
Speaker 1: to him not apply to a guy who has more
Speaker 1: hits than he does? You know? And to say Pete
Speaker 1: Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame, he's there. There
Speaker 1: are thirty one different mentions artifacts, you know, equipment exhibits
Speaker 1: references to Pete Rose, thirty one in the Baseball Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame in Cooperstown. And no, he has not yet
Speaker 1: been enshrined the way other athletes have. And if you
Speaker 1: want to talk about the steroids and all, that's a
Speaker 1: different subject. But once Rose, I think really saw that man.
Speaker 1: It's getting late and he was helped took a bad turn.
Speaker 1: Obviously died last September at the age eighty three. But
Speaker 1: as a listener pointed out to me and sent me
Speaker 1: a copy of the letter that Rose reportedly, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know this for a fact, but if somebody
Speaker 1: sent me the letter that Rose sent to the commissioner,
Speaker 1: basically owning up to everything, and that's what has kept
Speaker 1: a lot of former players from getting behind Pete, including
Speaker 1: his own teammates like Doug who told me that he
Speaker 1: and Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench and other Reds were
Speaker 1: opposed to Pete being inducted simply because he lied to
Speaker 1: his teammates, never owned up, and never apologized. Well, he
Speaker 1: finally did. Okay, So now once he did, I say
Speaker 1: they should put him a while he's alive. Well, he's
Speaker 1: probably going to go in and now posthumously. But the
Speaker 1: Athletic contacted a dozen Hall of famers spanning several eras
Speaker 1: to see what they think about the new guy on
Speaker 1: the waiting list. I'm going to run through him very quickly,
Speaker 1: but it's a pretty good cross section. Reggie Jackson said
Speaker 1: there's no doubt he should get in. Jim Palmer class
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety, said that he talked to Pete about
Speaker 1: it and said, if you really love the game as
Speaker 1: much as you say you do, and you have a
Speaker 1: chance to be reinstated, if you apologize it and miss
Speaker 1: you made a mistake, you love the game as much
Speaker 1: as you say you do, why not get on your
Speaker 1: hands and knees and grovel essentially, and Palmer said, why
Speaker 1: didn't you do that? And he said Pete really didn't
Speaker 1: have an answer. It's like that throughout a lot of
Speaker 1: these comments. Mike Schmid, it was his teammate won a
Speaker 1: World Series with him in Philly, said there was no
Speaker 1: remorse there. He didn't show any atonement for his admission
Speaker 1: to betting on baseball, so he said he's kind of
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty on it. Jim Lalan said, I don't
Speaker 1: know the answer. The great manager, He said, as far
Speaker 1: as a player goes, of course, Pete Rose is a
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, But he said I'd have to think
Speaker 1: long and hard about voting for him. Jim Cott, a
Speaker 1: great pitcher primarily for the Twins, but also played with
Speaker 1: Rose in Philly and was the Reds pitching coach under
Speaker 1: Pete Rose, said that yeah, he was a great player.
Speaker 1: His baseball a Q was off the charts. But he said,
Speaker 1: you know, he didn't hear the atonement either. He also said,
Speaker 1: do you vote for him now? As an eras committee candidate,
Speaker 1: you can only take three? What about Tommy John? What
Speaker 1: about Dale Murphy? Yeah, that's tough, he said. He asked Pete,
Speaker 1: did you ever bet on baseball? Long ago? Pete said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been to the horse track and I
Speaker 1: bet on football. But he said he never would admit
Speaker 1: to betting on baseball to him, and he finally did.
Speaker 1: John Smoltz, the great pitcher, said he would vote for
Speaker 1: him if he were on the committee. He said there's
Speaker 1: people in the Hall of Fame that had felonies. He
Speaker 1: said the Hall of Fame has gotten away from the
Speaker 1: Code of Conduct, the character clause. But he said he
Speaker 1: would vote him in. Bill Mazeroski, the former Pittsburgh pirate,
Speaker 1: he's said out right away. I'd make him wait a
Speaker 1: little longer. Pat Gillick, an executive, longtime executive, primarily with Toronto,
Speaker 1: said the guy served his debt to society by going
Speaker 1: to jail for a while, which is true. He said,
Speaker 1: though character means a lot, I'd have to question that.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a tough subject. Andre Dawson, now
Speaker 1: standing outfielder, played with Rose in Montreal back in the eighties.
Speaker 1: He said, I think it's long overdue, and he said
Speaker 1: baseball sports in general has gambling written all over it.
Speaker 1: He said, this is long overdue. Tony LaRussa, the Great manager,
Speaker 1: said the stats are undeniable, but he said he spoke
Speaker 1: to Stan Musual when he got to Saint Louis in
Speaker 1: Red Shandy's and Bob Gibson and Lou Brock. He said
Speaker 1: they were very upset at Pete for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 1: He made the mistake, wasn't honest about it, and they
Speaker 1: never really felt like he was contrite or ashamed by
Speaker 1: it or had a big regret until he wasn't put
Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame. And finally, Tony Perez, of
Speaker 1: course was his teammate on the Great Big Red Machine
Speaker 1: teams and also played with him in Philly, said he
Speaker 1: paid the price for a long long time. I know
Speaker 1: he was hurt. Said he maybe didn't look like it,
Speaker 1: but I know he was made a mistake and paid
Speaker 1: for it. He said he can always play with me.
Speaker 1: When I meet him again, I would love to play
Speaker 1: with him. Marty Brenneman, of course, was at the ceremony
Speaker 1: last night at Great American Ballpark, which by the way,
Speaker 1: was jam pack sold out, and naturally, Marty, the Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer and the longtime voice of the Cincinnati Reds,
Speaker 1: had something to say about that topic.
Speaker 4: Very opinionated guy. I'm not a fan of rob Man.
Speaker 4: For him, I'm not a fan of the transparency that
Speaker 4: they've kept him on the sideline all these years and
Speaker 4: he dies, and damn it, five months later they elected
Speaker 4: to make him eligible again. I've got a real problem
Speaker 4: with that, and it's a problem that I'll never get over.
Speaker 4: And I just think it's unfortunate that he could not
Speaker 4: be around if, in fact, he gets into the Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame. There's no guarantee of that, but if he does,
Speaker 4: it's going to be criminal that he will not be
Speaker 4: around to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: I agree with Marty on that. As I said, I
Speaker 1: turned around on Pete once I heard about the letter
Speaker 1: he sent. But the fact that they do this after
Speaker 1: they're gone, and again it shows Joe Jackson, I touched
Speaker 1: on this yesterday, never should have been blackballed. He was
Speaker 1: duped into putting his mark. He couldn't read or writ
Speaker 1: he was illiterate, and they put a piece of paper
Speaker 1: in front of him saying if you sign issue, can
Speaker 1: go home, or something lame like that. But what it
Speaker 1: was was a confession that he helped the Black Sox
Speaker 1: fix the nineteen nineteen World Series, coincidentally giving the series
Speaker 1: to the Cincinnati Reds. And he all along had denied
Speaker 1: that he had anything to do with gamblers or game fixing,
Speaker 1: and the stats back that up. He had a tremendous
Speaker 1: World series statistically made hits, made plays. What was thrown
Speaker 1: in with the other players, and if you've seen the movie,
Speaker 1: it's tremendous. Eight men out, and this is a guy
Speaker 1: who was one of the greatest players in the history
Speaker 1: of the game and should never have been on that list.
Speaker 1: And for some reason, no one in baseball had been
Speaker 1: strong enough or honest enough to admit what had happened
Speaker 1: with Shoeless Joe and put him in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: So anyhow, Rose, Shoeless Joe, they're all going in. But now,
Speaker 1: of course Jackson's been gone forever. But we lose Pete
Speaker 1: back in the fall. So Reds fans are happy and
Speaker 1: yet very disappointed. And if he does go in, it's
Speaker 1: not going to happen right away. It's going to take
Speaker 1: a couple of years for all of this cyclically to
Speaker 1: work out with the Aras Committee. So always throw that in.
Speaker 1: Let you know what was said about Pete up in
Speaker 1: Cincinnati last night and throughout some of the Hall of
Speaker 1: famers who are still wondering about Pete Rose and whether
Speaker 1: he belongs in the Hall of Fame. Up next, we're
Speaker 1: going to talk Kentucky softball with Rachel lost in her
Speaker 1: team opens NCAA tournament played tomorrow afternoon down in Clemson.
Speaker 1: That's next. Then it's Kentucky Baseball on six thirty WLAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us down
Speaker 1: our celebrity hotline as Kentucky softball coach Rachel lost In
Speaker 1: prepping your team for yet another appearance in the NCAA tournament. Coach,
Speaker 1: is it's still a thrill when you hear your name called, oh.
Speaker 5: Every time, you know, even though the program has a
Speaker 5: tradition of being in the tournament, but it's different people
Speaker 5: every time. So you're just thrilled for them, love the
Speaker 5: experience and exciting every time we get this opportunity.
Speaker 1: And you've got a lot of newbies this year. You
Speaker 1: lost some great experience from last season, So thrills for
Speaker 1: a lot of new people.
Speaker 5: Right, Oh, no question. You know the majority of the
Speaker 5: team turning over was that part of it last year,
Speaker 5: So really excited for them. It's their first experience in
Speaker 5: the NCAA tournament and you know, looking forward to a
Speaker 5: deep front.
Speaker 1: Got off to the great start, but this is the
Speaker 1: toughest conference in the world. Every team made the NCAA Tournament.
Speaker 1: Were you What was your reaction when you not only
Speaker 1: made the feel but right, so you're a two seed.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was a little surprised. You know, not every
Speaker 5: team made it. Missouri did not make it, ok, but
Speaker 5: every team who had the five hundred records you made it. Yeah,
Speaker 5: really toughly. But anyway, yeah, I was a little surprised
Speaker 5: on the two seed. Yes, we finished finished, not is
Speaker 5: exactly how we want to do, but we started strong.
Speaker 5: So the body of our work was certainly good. But
Speaker 5: to be honest with you, in the tournament, the difference
Speaker 5: between the two three and the two seed and the
Speaker 5: three seed is so marginal. So I was a little surprised.
Speaker 5: But either way, I think it was played out the
Speaker 5: way it's going to.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of thing that sets a new foundation,
Speaker 1: doesn't it. Now. I mean, you've already got a strong foundation,
Speaker 1: but this group, no matter what happens down the nca tournament,
Speaker 1: they'll take this experience and build on it, won't they?
Speaker 5: Yeah, no question. You know, we are by far one
Speaker 5: of the youngest and teams in the whole field, especially
Speaker 5: out of the power conferences, and so they don't really
Speaker 5: know what they were getting into when they started SEC
Speaker 5: play this year. So just the experience of running through
Speaker 5: the SEC now what it takes to make the tournament
Speaker 5: and how to finish strong. I think that's really going
Speaker 5: to help us in the future.
Speaker 1: You got a tough, tough one toward the end of
Speaker 1: the year, you're swept at Texas, rank number three in
Speaker 1: the country, and then Georgia knocks you out of the
Speaker 1: SEC tournament. What did debt do to your confidence now
Speaker 1: going into the NCAAs well.
Speaker 5: Like you said, the entire SEC conference is that way.
Speaker 5: So the fact that you know you're in finals, you're
Speaker 5: doing that, and I think people go into games not
Speaker 5: understanding what's in front of us.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 5: I think from a confidence standpoint, we're a very resilient team.
Speaker 5: So I think it's just told us, hey, we really
Speaker 5: need to, you know, get it together, focus really really,
Speaker 5: you know, get the get together as a team, practice hard,
Speaker 5: do what we need to do so that we can,
Speaker 5: you know, turn things around and have a good postseason.
Speaker 1: You take your team to Boston for a couple of games,
Speaker 1: the Boston Tournament, you won that, you won the tournament
Speaker 1: over in Bowling Green. So you've gone on the road
Speaker 1: as a group and make good things happen. How much
Speaker 1: is that going to help you? Do you think in
Speaker 1: the NCAA's Oh, it's going to be great.
Speaker 5: You know, we have great team camaraderie. The chemistry is awesome, awesome.
Speaker 5: You know, our team really knows how to keep it together.
Speaker 5: So when you're going to the postseason, you know, there's
Speaker 5: a lot of days in a row that you're with
Speaker 5: the team all day, every day, So it's important you
Speaker 5: have that chemistry. And I think just going on those trips,
Speaker 5: really getting along with each other, really saying what everybody's
Speaker 5: character is about is going to be huge.
Speaker 1: What do you know about your opponent? Northwestern and your
Speaker 1: obviously everye regional stuff, but Clemson's pretty good too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're of all the regions probably in the nation.
Speaker 5: They've really made us one of the toughest ones. You know, Northwestern,
Speaker 5: we we haven't played them this year yet, but we
Speaker 5: played them frequently. And it seems that the NCAA really
Speaker 5: loves to put the Wildcats against each other, so we're
Speaker 5: familiar from a postseason standpoint. They're very speisty, they're you know,
Speaker 5: they're fast. They really do a great job creating offensively,
Speaker 5: and then you know, they have one of the best
Speaker 5: pitching coaches in the country on the other side. He
Speaker 5: does a good job keeping the hitters off ball. And
Speaker 5: so we're gonna have to play really well, you know,
Speaker 5: play well to make sure we're in it. And of course
Speaker 5: Clemson just had one of the best years. You know,
Speaker 5: they got a couple of transfers in they have you know,
Speaker 5: they have senior pitchers who really know what it's all about,
Speaker 5: and they've done a good job of keeping it together
Speaker 5: and then finished strong in the acc.
Speaker 1: Speaking of finishing strong, Hallie Mitchell, one of your seniors
Speaker 1: named All conferences, your second team and league play alone,
Speaker 1: batted three sixty four. She's one of those rare kids,
Speaker 1: rach Jel who hit better in league play than she
Speaker 1: did all around. Tell me about her season.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, her character is off the charts. You know,
Speaker 5: she's had a career year in every sort of statistic.
Speaker 5: You know, she's somebody who's really stayed the course, she's
Speaker 5: paid her dues. You don't really see that in today's
Speaker 5: day and age anymore. She didn't jump ship and try
Speaker 5: to do something. She really, you know, committed herself to
Speaker 5: the weight room, committed herself to her swing, did everything
Speaker 5: she needed to do, and is really put together a
Speaker 5: banner year. You know, she is just a testimony to
Speaker 5: what can happen if you say the course.
Speaker 1: Had that big game against Ole Miss where she hit
Speaker 1: two home runs, including the walk off. I remember hearing
Speaker 1: and seeing that that was That was a heck of
Speaker 1: a moment, wasn't it.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, no question. You know, if it wasn't for
Speaker 5: Hollie's play this year in sec I don't know that
Speaker 5: we would be eligible for the postseason. So just yeah,
Speaker 5: she has just been tremendous, did an awesome job putting
Speaker 5: the team on her back and just going for it.
Speaker 1: You don't like to make excuses, but you have lost
Speaker 1: significant games and player time to injury, haven't you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think the biggest thing was when we lost Mackenzie Bob.
Speaker 5: It wasn't you know, we shouldn't We should be a
Speaker 5: lot bigger than losing one player, But there were so
Speaker 5: many different pieces you know, we that kind of fell
Speaker 5: at the same time. You know, she was the top
Speaker 5: of the order person. She was the one player that
Speaker 5: we had that had a ton of experience. Well there's
Speaker 5: two her and Sarah Hindigoz. You know, they had a
Speaker 5: ton of experience, postseason experience, left handed hitter, was a
Speaker 5: great infielder on the left side, and so, you know,
Speaker 5: a lot of dominoes kind of fell and we've been
Speaker 5: trying to put it together. So but you know, no,
Speaker 5: our program's got to be bigger than one injury. So
Speaker 5: you know, we just need to solidify things really, you know,
Speaker 5: get it together, and then you know, get working for
Speaker 5: a much bigger future.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean she was your leading hitter. So, like
Speaker 1: you say, those dominos can fall, but you have taken
Speaker 1: a team to the College World Series, you know what
Speaker 1: it takes to get through the postseason like that. What
Speaker 1: do you think is the key now for your team?
Speaker 1: Because really you can play like you have nothing.
Speaker 5: To lose, right, Yeah, And I think once you get
Speaker 5: into the postseason, most teams really don't have anything to lose, right. Really,
Speaker 5: the only one that does is Olaholma. You know, other
Speaker 5: than that, everybody, you know everybody has the freedom to
Speaker 5: go after it. Yeah, you know, the two things are
Speaker 5: always going to sound so cliche, but you know, you've
Speaker 5: got to have a solid performance in the circle and
Speaker 5: you have to play great defense, you know, because all
Speaker 5: the teams in the postseason can hit, you know, that's
Speaker 5: why they're here, and they can create. So it's just
Speaker 5: essential that you know, we tighten up our defense and
Speaker 5: we play free and fun and fly around and then
Speaker 5: of course, you know it comes down to the timely hit.
Speaker 5: So those are those are the two things you always
Speaker 5: focus on.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I feel good about you know, we've had a week
Speaker 5: a city week of really just being able to focus
Speaker 5: on us. I feel great about that. The spirits and
Speaker 5: the attitude are high, and just really looking forward to
Speaker 5: get down to the clubsons.
Speaker 1: Well, you won at one point only what twelve out
Speaker 1: of thirteen middle of the year, so maybe you can
Speaker 1: find that form again, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, oh absolutely, you know, it's just you know, it's
Speaker 5: just important that we stay focused on the right So.
Speaker 1: Coach, thank you so much, best of luck, safe travels, all.
Speaker 5: Right, thank you appreciate it, and.
Speaker 1: Again the Wildcats taking on Northwestern tomorrow at two o'clock
Speaker 1: winner gets the winner of Clemson or USC Upstate. On
Speaker 1: the other side of that bracket, UCF, Michigan, Eastern Illinois,
Speaker 1: and Texas, which is the eighth seed. Again, Clemson is
Speaker 1: the eleven seed, so not impossible for the Wildcats to
Speaker 1: get to the World Series. But it's been a rough season. Still,
Speaker 1: Kentucky has made it to the NCAA's and opens up
Speaker 1: tomorrow at two o'clock down in Clemson. You can see
Speaker 1: it on ESPN Plus. That's going to do it for now.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make way for Kentucky baseball Wildcats taking
Speaker 1: on Vanderbilt, a team that got off to a little
Speaker 1: bit of a slow start this year but has picked
Speaker 1: up momentum. Is a top ten team right now. Wildcats
Speaker 1: with all kinds of momentum, as you know, after sweeping
Speaker 1: a good Oklahoma team and then beating Northern Kentucky in
Speaker 1: its final midweek game of the season tonight tomorrow, seven
Speaker 1: o'clock pm Eastern time. Aaron's got the call for your
Speaker 1: pregame coming up next Saturday's game at three o'clock SEC
Speaker 1: Plus telecast tonight and tomorrow and SEC Network on Saturday.
Speaker 1: That's it. Good night, from the garage in.
Speaker 6: Lexington, tapping.
Speaker 7: Dothing. Can they think anything? Then, don't take that.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 7: TA that is done into Donato acos